Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/65

Rh however, of the tree called here Vigniatico, Laurus indicus, Linn., bids fair to be the thing, it being of a fine grain and brown like mahogany, from which it is difficult to distinguish it, as is well shown at Dr. Heberden's house, where, in a book-case, vigniatico and mahogany were placed close by each other, and were only to be known asunder by the first being of not quite so dark a colour as the other.

As much of the island as we saw showed evident signs of a volcano having some time or other possibly produced the whole, for we saw no one piece of stone which did not clearly show signs of having been burnt, some very much, specially the sand, which was absolutely cinders. Indeed, we did not see much of the country, but we were told that the whole resembled the specimen we saw of it.

When first approached from seaward the land has a very beautiful appearance, the sides of the hills being entirely covered with vineyards almost as high as the eye can distinguish. This gives a constant appearance of verdure, although at this time nothing but the vines remain green, the grass and herbs being entirely burnt up, except near the rills by which the vines are watered and under the shade of the vines themselves. But even there very few species of plants were in perfection, the greater part being burnt up.

The people here in general seem to be as idle, or rather uninformed, a set, as I ever yet saw; all their instruments, even those with which their wine, the only article of trade in the island, is made, are perfectly simple and unimproved. In making wine the grapes are put into a square wooden vessel, of dimensions depending upon the size of the vineyard to which it belongs, into which the servants get (having taken off their stockings and jackets), and with their feet and elbows squeeze out as much of the juice as they can; the stalks, etc., are then collected, tied together with a rope, and put under a square piece of wood which is pressed down by a lever, to the other end of which is fastened a stone that may be raised up at pleasure by a