The climate of this country is good; the air, excepting on the eastern shore, and near the morasses, being pure and wholesome. The soil in most parts is exceeding fertile, abundantly producing corn, vegetables and fruits. They have a three-fold crop of maize in the year, and the vines produce grapes twice in the same period. The pastures are excellent, and the country furnishes all kinds of provisions; but for want of cultivation and settlements, the greater part of it is in a state of nature. It has many good and serviceable small rivers, and is well watered. It has several mountains in its extent, in which are gold and silver mines, and the face of the country is agreeably diversified into valleys, plains and eminences, overspread in most parts with thick forests. Honey, wool, cotton, wax, mahogany and logwood, with other dyeing drugs, are its chief products; the latter forming an immense part of its exports, and from which its chief importance is derived. The felling of the mahogany trees is performed twice in the year, in Autumn and at Christmas. This is done by slaves, who have one man called a finder, or huntsman, whose business it is to seek for the mahogany trees in the thick woods, and to point them out to the gang. This he does by penetrating the forest, and climbing the tallest trees to discover his object; the mahogany trees generally grow separately, and are much dispersed, so that the labour of procuring this valuable wood is very great; the finder soon discovers them by the deep colour of their leaves, and he selects the place where they are most numerous to call his comrades to work at. The mahogany tree is cut at the height of ten or twelve feet from the earth; and for this purpose they erect a stage for the feller to stand conveniently on. The trunk is used for tables, and other articles of furniture, which require large planks of this wood; but the branches are reckoned the best parts of the tree, as the grain in them is closer, and the streaks more beautifully varied. The trunks and branches are dragged by the negroes to the nearest river, and there made into rafts, for the purpose of being floated into the sea to the settlements. The growth of the mahogany tree is very rapid, but not so much so as that of the logwood, which comes to a state fit for use in five years. The slaves who are employed in cutting the logwood and mahogany have been brought either from the United States, or the West India Islands by their owners, and are not in such a degrading state of subjection as their brethren of the last-mentioned places. Logwood trees are cut in logs of about three feet in length, and sent to Europe in that form, where they afterward undergo many operations, and are principally used by dyers for the finest black and for purple colours.