Neither will I take upon me to affirm, that murders are frequently committed here; but the churches afford an asylum to the criminal: and as our cockswain was one day looking at two men, who appeared to be talking together in a friendly manner, one of them suddenly drew a knife, and stabbed the other; who not instantly falling, the murderer withdrew the weapon, and stabbed him a second time. He then ran away, and was pursued by some negroes who were also witnesses of the fact; but whether he escaped or was taken I never heard. The country, at a small distance round the town, which is all that any of us saw, is beautiful in the highest degree; the wildest spots being varied with a greater luxuriance of flowers, both as to number and beauty, than the best gardens in England. Upon the trees and bushes sat an almost endless variety of birds, especially small ones, many of them covered with the most elegant plumage; among which were the humming-bird. Of insects, too, there was a great variety, and some of them very beautiful; but they were much more nimble than those of Europe, especially the butterflies, most of which flew near the tops of the trees, and were, therefore, very difficult to be caught, except when the sea breeze blew fresh, which kept them nearer to the ground. The banks of the sea, and of the small brooks which water this part of the country, are almost covered with the small crabs called _Cancer vocans_; some of these had one of the claws called by naturalists the hand, very large; others had them both remarkably small, and of equal size, a difference which is said to distinguish the sexes, that with the large claw being the male. There is the appearance of but little cultivation; the greater part of the land is wholly uncultivated, and very little care and labour seem to have been bestowed upon the rest; there are, indeed, little patches or gardens, in which many kinds of European garden stuff are produced, particularly cabbages, peas, beans, kidney beans, turnips, and white radishes, but all much inferior to our own: water-melons and pine-apples are also produced in these spots, and they are the only fruits that we saw cultivated, though the country produces musk, melons, oranges, limes, lemons, sweet lemons, citrons, plantains, bananas, mangos, mamane apples, acajou or cashou apples and nuts; jamboira of two kinds, one of which bears a small black fruit; cocoa-nuts, mangos, palm-nuts of two kinds, one long, the other round; and palm-berries; all which were in season while we were there.