On this day last year my foot first pressed the soil of South America; and when I take a retrospect of all that has passed; review the trials which I have had to sustain; and reflect what numbers have perished around me, I feel highly sensible how much I have cause of thankfulness, in being still blessed with health and strength, to perform the various duties of my appointment.

With much anxiety I look to St. Domingo, and it would be a peculiar satisfaction to me, could I know that my comrades upon that station have arrived as happily at the end of the first year as myself: but, from reports of the dreadful fatality in that quarter, I tremble for the fate of my friends; and, being now upon the eve of joining them, the idea that they may have fallen among the many victims of that inhospitable region, weighs upon my heart in accumulated heaviness.

The date of my letter also reminds me, that at this time, last year, the wet season was setting in upon the coast of Guiana. This year, we had a considerable fall of rain, about the beginning of the present month, from which many imagined it to be commencing; but the showers proved to be only those of a lunar period, and the weather has since been dry and pleasant.

The rainy season usually begins somewhat earlier in these colonies, than in the islands: in the dry months, also, this coast is more frequently refreshed with showers. These mostly occur about the periods of spring-tides, and are not wholly suspended even in the arid month of March: so that instead of suffering from long-continued drought, no part of the year can be considered as a dry season, otherwise than comparatively with those months which are almost incessantly wet.

With only the same proportion of rain, the coast of Guiana, from the flatness of the country, and the nature of the soil, will appear to be less dry, than the islands, where the land is more hilly and irregular, and so disposed as to favor either the percolation, or the passing off of the water. Here we have one wide and level surface of clay, and the water that falls lies upon the roads, and the fields, until the thirsty atmosphere drinks it all up again; hence the wet, from every shower, continues to be visible long after it has reached the ground, or it remains to be increased by new torrents.

From this circumstance, strangers arriving here from Europe, or the islands, particularly if they should expect a total absence of showers during the dry months, might be led to imagine that, in these colonies, there is only one continued wet season throughout the year.

Of late I have been honored with visits from several of the medical gentlemen of the colony, with a view of ascertaining the effect of the remedies used in the military hospitals, and particularly of mercury, in the yellow fever.

Among them was Dr. E. from whose conversation and remarks I derived peculiar gratification. He is a man of talents and observation, and has profited of an extensive experience. In speaking of the yellow fever, he said that the medical men, who reside in the interior of the islands and settlements of the West Indies, have scarcely a better opportunity of knowing the real character of that disease, than those “who practise medicine in the country villages of England.” He considers those only to be well acquainted with this dreadful malady, who have the opportunity of seeing it among Europeans, or Americans newly arrived within the tropics. It had been his lot to witness it but too frequently, from being employed among the sailors of the trading vessels upon the river; and it appeared that he had observed with accuracy, and made himself well acquainted with the nature of the disease.

The doctor’s experience had taught him to place very little reliance upon bark, mercury, or any of the remedies commonly employed; but he thought that he had witnessed the most decided benefit from the Indian method of using hot and cold bathing; and he stated, that, where the hot bath could not be conveniently provided, he had found equal advantage from ordering the head and neck to lie washed with hot water, and immediately afterwards dashing three or four buckets of cold water upon the patient. “The very sudden relief obtained from this remedy,” added the doctor, “is often equally astonishing and effectual.”

I have lately taken a ride to make some visits at Mahaica, and at various estates upon the coast; and, in the course of my excursion, I waited upon Mr. Mackenzie, one of my fellow-travellers upon our late expedition up the river; at whose residence I had the high gratification of exploring a rich garden of herbs, plants, flowers, and fruits.

It may surprise you to know that in a country where vegetation is so rapid, and so much under control, as upon this prolific coast, a well-cultivated garden should be so extremely rare, as to appear quite a novelty: but it too commonly happens that those who court the smiles of fortune, by planting the tropical fields, attend only to the cultivation of sugar, coffee, and cotton, which are often seen growing up to the very doorway, or almost creeping in at the windows of the dwelling, not the smallest spot being reserved for garden, pleasure-ground, or orchard. But the intelligent and accomplished proprietor of Lusignan has a mind superior to the little penuriousness which, neglecting the agreeable and ornamental, devotes only to the lucrative, and sacrifices the common comforts of life to the sole purpose of amassing a few additional dollars. Here the cotton is kept at a proper distance from the house, and the immediate environs are laid out in gardens, or enriched with fruits, shrubs, and other useful, or decorative trees. Around the dwelling luxuriate, in a generous soil, the fruitful bread-tree, the cucumber-tree, the cocoa-nut, the stately mountain-cabbage, the grenadillo, the water-lemon, grapes of different species, mangos, figs, cherries, almonds, star-apples, pines, and a multitude of other fruits; together with a great variety of the more rare, and beautiful plants and flowers of these regions.

All the advantages of an European garden it was here proved may be equalled, or far exceeded in this bountiful soil, which so rapidly, and abundantly returns the labour bestowed upon it. A long walk, finely shaded with grenadillos, the fruit of which hung in profusion over our heads, had been planted only a few months before. The young shoots of figtrees, whose parent branches are cut away every year, were quite loaded with fruit, and the grapes hung, in heavy clusters, from single stems; all the other parts of the vines being pruned away. Indeed, so prolific are the plants, and so luxuriant their growth, that to ensure an abundant produce it seems only necessary to commit seeds and shoots to the earth, and to cut out, from time to time, the greater part of the wood of the trees.

Amidst the flowers I observed many that were of far more pleasant odour than those I had commonly met with in this country, and which had led me to believe that nature had very sparingly scattered her perfumes, among the plants of this coast: if, therefore, I had not chanced to see the garden I am speaking of, I might have left the colonies, impressed with an idea that the flowers of Guiana were wholly devoid of that delicious fragrance, for which those of Europe are so highly esteemed.