Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/421

] beauties of the shrub, known by the name of abroma augusta. The hedysarum umbellatum made a distinguished figure, amidst several new species of the same genus. The nutmeg-trees invited to this spot pigeons, of the species columba alba, Linn. The crops of those which we killed were full of nutmegs.

The excessive perspiration, occasioned by the heat of the climate, often induce cutaneous diseases. The bodies of five of our hosts were covered with dry tetters, the scales of which falling off; were immediately succeeded by fresh ones, and appeared the more conspicuous, on account of the colour being a contrast to the copper tint of their skins. This malady frequently invades every part of the body. We also saw some children, who were affected by another cutaneous disorder, from which they did not appear to suffer any pain: almost the whole of their bodies were covered with large warts, not much more than an inch distant from each other.

I seldom visited a cottage at Amboyna, in which I did not find instruments of music; and I met with one here, which I never saw any where else. It was a sort of hautboy, the lower extremity of which terminated in two diverging branches pierced with holes in the same order in each, and thus forming two flutes, both sounding the