The furniture of these dwellings is not very costly, seldom amounting to more than a chest to contain their light and simple articles of clothing; a mat to repose upon, raised a little from the floor; a jar to contain water, and calabashes of various sizes; two or three wooden mortars to pound corn and rice, and a basket or sieve to prepare it when done. The villages formed of these huts are generally built in a circle, surrounded by a clay wall, scattered over the country in the midst of beautiful groves clear of brushwood, and have a most picturesque and beautiful effect to a stranger's eye. The fields are always verdant, and nature puts forth her beauties with inexhaustible profusion; perpetual spring and autumn succeeding each other. The Company's factory here, is most pleasantly situated in the midst of gardens, which amply supply it, and the fort, (called Fort William,) consisting of four batteries, mounting seventeen guns. In these gardens is an abundant supply of beans, potatoes, every other edible root known in Europe, and a great variety of delicious fruits peculiar to the climate. Amongst the most beautiful and useful vegetable riches of Africa, may be reckoned the plantain and banana trees. The latter bears a fruit six or seven inches in length, covered with a yellow skin, very tender when ripe. The pulp of it is as soft as a marmalade, and of a most pleasant taste. It grows on a stalk about six yards high, the leaves being nearly two yards long, and a foot wide. One stalk only bears a single cluster of the fruit, which sometimes consists of forty or fifty bananas; and when the cluster is gathered, the stalk is cut off, or it would bear no more fruit. The plantain is not unlike the banana, but somewhat longer, although the flavour greatly resembles it. The leaves, and every part of the tree, are converted into a variety of useful articles. There are also guavas, a fruit very like our peach, except that the external coat is rougher; and it has small kernels like the apple, instead of a stone. Cocoas, oranges, lemons, citrons, and limes, abound, and, as you may readily suppose, are in great request amongst us, as well as beautiful additions to the luxuriant vegetable riches of the country." In a subsequent letter he again writes: "I was much pleased this morning to see the natives extracting what we call the wine from the palm tree, which is beautifully straight and lofty, growing sometimes to a prodigious height.