We were to breakfast at the gardens, but as the weather is now hot, we resolved first to walk round them. They are laid out in convenient squares, the alleys being planted on either side with a very quick-growing nut tree, brought from Bencoolen originally, now naturalised here. The nut is as good as the filbert, and larger than the walnut, and yields abundance of oil; the leaf is about the size, and not unlike the shape, of that of the sycamore. The timber also is useful. The quick growth of this tree is unexampled among timber trees, and its height and beauty distinguish it from all others. The hedges between the compartments are of a shrub which I should have taken for myrtle, but that the leaves though firm are not fragrant. This garden was destined by the King for the cultivation of the oriental spices and fruits, and above all, of the tea plant, which he obtained, together with several families accustomed to its culture, from China. Nothing can be more thriving than the whole of the plants. The cinnamon, camphor, nutmeg, and clove, grow as well as in their native soil. The bread-fruit produces its fruit in perfection, and such of the oriental fruits as have been brought here ripen as well as in India. I particularly remarked the jumbo malacca, from India, and the longona (_Euphoria Longona_), a dark kind of lechee from China. I was disappointed to find no collection of the indigenous plants. However, so much has been done as to give reasonable hopes of farther improvement, when the political state of the country shall be quiet enough to permit attention to these things. The stream that waters the garden flows through a lovely valley, where the royal powder-mills are situated; but being fearful of too much exertion for Langford we put off visiting them to another day, and returned to the garden gate to breakfast. His Majesty John VI. built a small house there, with three or four rooms, to accommodate the royal party, when they visited the gardens. Our breakfast was prepared in the veranda of that house, from whence we had a charming view of the lake, with the mountains and woods,--the ocean, with three little islands that lie off the lake; and in the fore-ground a small chapel[79] and village, at the extremity of a little smooth green plain. [Note 79: Dedicated to St. John Baptist. I am not sure whether this or N.S. da Cabeça is the mother church; the same clergyman officiates in both.]