It may be that if those Shrubs were destroyed, the Matter might be mended, which yet is not to be hop'd for, but by bringing the People to some kind of Industry, and that will not be easie; they are so wholly given to Laziness, and so intirely bred up in it, that there must be the greatest Change imaginable, before they become any whit tolerable; a Man may see their Temper by this, that though their Tillage be very easie, and the Earth yields many Hundreds for One, yet so little is the use they make of it, that One scarce Year brings them to danger of Starving, and though there be People enough, and every Man has Power of choosing what he will, that is not already Till'd by some other, yet not the Tenth Part, as we have said, is employed: So that a Man would wonder what came in the French Man's Head to fancy them Industrious; but subtile they are, and diligent to Cheat any Man that is not cautious enough to avoid it. So that the Fault of the Wood is (by the Laziness of the People) without any Remedy. But there may be something in the Earth it self; the Water which they have here in Pits (Rain-Water for the most part, but yet strain'd through the Earth) has a kind of Taste mixt of Sweet and Subacid, if I understand what I say, I am told 'tis of Vitriol, whether that be mischievous, you know better than I do. But I take this for certain, since I have had it from good Hands, that at _Widdah_, which is one of the most unhealthy Places in _Guiney_, but 'tis not upon the Gold-coast, he that opens the Ground, though it be but to dig a Grave, runs the Hazard of his Life: So mischievous are the Steams from thence arising. It's possible there may be some such Steams here, only not so violent; though in _England_ I think, a Gravel or a Sand (which here are always uppermost for as much as I have seen) are esteem'd very wholesom Soils; under them is a kind of whitish Marle almost like Fullers-Earth. For the Air, except what I have said before, I do not know what Fault it has; 'tis extream hot, 'tis also subtile and piercing, and I believe enters a Man's Body easier than that in _England_. It has been clearer than that uses to be one day with another, even this last Year, which has been the wettest and most cloudy which has happen'd a long time; I think to give you an Account of the Weather in it as soon as I have time to transcribe. For the Age of the Inhabitants, 'tis very uncertain, because none of them keep an Account of it; there are some of them very Grey, but if the Country be to them unhealthy, Grey Hairs may come early: I think there be many more Funerals here than at _Oxford_, though that be a much larger Place, especially in the Rain-times, which to us are always healthful.