The fort or castle of St. Phillips is also situated on the summit of this little hill, not more than a hundred yards from the shore of the Lake, is in form of a square, with salient angles: it faces to the four Cardinal Points; has four pieces of ordnance on each side, about twelve pounders, and one from each angle to cover the ditch, which is dry, and palisadoed, but no out-work: they have swivels mounted on the Marlons; not being invited to see it, cannot be very particular in my description of it: It is garrisoned by a company of foot, and some few militia of the town, but so very undisciplined, and ill cloathed, they have scarce the appearance of Falstaff’s company of soldiers. From hence a traveller must furnish himself with every necessary for a journey of three days, having a wilderness, as they call it, a wood of about thirty-four Spanish leagues to the first Indian town, call’d Chumhubut: it is also best to take your own liquor with you for the whole journey, as there is not any to be had in this country except Aquadent, which is very bad, scarce, and dear. As to the acquiring my necessaries, provisions, mules, indians, &c. I had no trouble with that, the commandant with whom I lived, during my residence in this town of three days, took all that on himself, for which I had no other trouble but to pay him. Being equipped with every necessary, as mules, indians, interpreters, and hammocks of that country, to be carried in case of wearying, or to sleep in the night, you enter the wood, whose path in general is from fifteen to twenty feet wide; often interrupted by the fall of large trees; through which, however, a path is generally burnt by the first traveller, to admit a horse to pass, and is in general as well screen’d from the sun (by the meeting branches over head) as the Mall in St. James’s Park. Here you see at every four or five leagues distance, a shed like what our common smith’s, or farriers use to shoe their horses in, and is what the natives call a Rings house: Being built by order of the governor, for the convenience of travelling; as there is not, as in Europe, houses of entertainment, or lodging, they answer the purpose very well in this climate, where you have your own provisions, and sleeping convenience with you; as they shelter from the sun and rain, and are always built near the water, either a Lagoon or branch of one, or what may be left from the rains. The woods consist chiefly of mahogany, cedar gopal, (of which they make a kind of gum elemy) the small and wild cotton, palmeta, and cocoa nuts, and many aloes, not much incommoded with under brush: it is the swampy ground that abounds with the logwood, which the Spaniards call Palo Tinto. In travelling thro’ the swamps it is very troublesome, the mules being knee deep, in the dry season, in a stiff blueish mud, often times nearly sticking fast, and the boughs of the logwood trees so low, as to oblige you to lay flat on