In the afternoon I went on ſhore, accompanied by the gardener and two others of our ſhip's company, in order to make an excurſion into the country towards N.E. We were filled with admiration at the ſight of theſe ancient foreſts, in which the ſound of the axe had never been heard. The eye was aſtoniſhed in contemplating the prodigious ſize of theſe trees, amongſt which there were ſome myrtles more than 25 fathoms in height, whoſe tufted ſummits were crowned with an ever verdant foliage: others, looſened by age from their roots, were ſupported by the neighbouring trees, whilſt, as they gradually decayed, they were incorporated piece after piece with the parent-earth. The moſt luxuriant vigour of vegetation is here contraſted with its final diſſolution, and preſents to the mind a ſtriking picture of the operations of nature, who, left to herſelf, never deſtroys but that ſhe may again create.
The trees in this foreſt did not grow ſo cloſe together as to prevent us from penetrating into it. We walked for a long time over ground, where the water, impeded in its courſe, has formed itſelf into marſhes, the borders of which we examined. Deeper within the foreſt, we found ſmall rivulets that contained very good water. Almoſt every where the ſoil conſiſted of a very fine mould, produced by the decay of vegetables, over a bed
of
