Sketch of the Mosquito Shore: Including the Territory of Poyais, Descriptive of the Country; with Some Information as to Its Productions, the Best Mode of Culture, & C. ...

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W. Blackwood, 1822 - Miskito Indians - 355 pages

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Page 252 - I proceed to discriminate their relative proportions and value, it may be proper to observe, that the business of sugar planting is a sort of adventure in which the man that engages must engage deeply. — There is no medium, and very seldom the possibility of retreat. A British country gentleman, who is content to jog on without risk on the...
Page 203 - The emerald, the ruby, the topaz, sparkle in its plumage, which is never soiled by the dust of the ground. It inhabits the air; it flutters from flower to flower; it breathes their freshness; it feeds on their nectar, and resides in climates where they blow in perpetual succession.
Page 91 - The fig-tree ; not that kind for fruit renown'd, But such as at this day, to Indians known, In Malabar or Decan spreads her arms Branching so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between...
Page 55 - ... and by that glorious planet Venus, which appears here like a little moon, and glitters with fo refulgent a beam as to cafl a (hade from trees, buildings, and other objects, making full amends for the fhort flay and abrupt departure of the crepufculum or twilight fij.
Page 258 - THAT beautiful vegetable wool, or substance called cotton, is the spontaneous production of three parts of the earth. It is found growing naturally in all the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America; and may justly be comprehended among the most valuable gifts of a bountiful Creator, superintending and providing for the necessities of man.
Page 54 - ... to harmonize the mind, and produce the most calm and delightful sensations. The moon too in these climates displays far greater radiance than in Europe : the smallest print is legible by her light ; and in the moon's absence her function is not ill supplied by the brightness of the...
Page 53 - The climate of this part of the American continent is greatly superior to that of most other parts of the same vast portion of the globe, either in higher or lower degrees of latitude. It is equally superior to the climate of the West India islands generally, for persons whose health and constitutions have become impaired from the effects of the latter very frequently acquire a sudden restoration of both after an arrival in Honduras.
Page 105 - ... being fallen, the trees are suffered to remain on the ground till they become rotten, and perish. In the course of twelve months after the first season, abundance of young pimento plants will be found growing vigorously in all parts of the land, being, without doubt, produced from ripe berries scattered there by the birds, while the fallen trees, &c., afford them both shelter and shade.
Page 246 - ... cistern, the sides of which are sloped and lined with terras, or boards. Over this cistern there is a frame of massy joist-work without boarding. On the joists of this frame, empty hogsheads, without headings, are ranged. In the bottoms of these hogsheads eight or ten holes are bored, through each of which...
Page 248 - Latin. flour. It is the lees or feculencies of former distillations ; and some few planters preserve it for use, from one crop to another; but this is a bad practice. Some fermented liquor, therefore, composed of sweets and water alone, ought to be distilled in the first instance, that fresh dunder may be obtained. It is a dissolvent menstruum, and certainly occasions the sweets with which it is combined, whether mellasses or scummings, to yield a far greater proportion of spirit than can be obtained...

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