are hewed down, and sent to foreign countries, to be made into
furniture of various sorts. Cedar wood is also used to scent clothes
and papers, on account of its sweet perfume. The Cubans are fond of
bull-fighting, and of cock-fighting, I am sorry to say. Balls and
parties are also a favourite and more innocent amusement.

In Jamaica, the principal exercise of industry is in growing sugar,
indigo, coffee, and ginger. These are cultivated in what are called
plantations, which are attended to by negroes, who used to be slaves,
and used to be lashed on to work unnaturally hard with whips; but they
are now free in all the British colonies, as I hope they will be every
where, long before any of my little friends, who read this book, may
die. For not only were men and women kept in a state of slavery, but
all their dear innocent little children, both little boys and little
girls were treated as slaves.

The bread-fruit tree is one of the most useful productions of the
country, it not only supplies food, but other necessaries. Of the
inner bark is formed a kind of cloth; the wood, which is soft, smooth,
and of a yellowish colour, serves for the building of boats and
houses; the leaves are used for wrapping up food; some parts of the
flowers are good tinder; and the juice, when boiled with cocoa-nut
oil, is employed for making bird-lime, and as a cement for mending
earthenware vessels. So you may guess how useful it is to the people
of Jamaica, and yet it is not a native of the West Indies, but was
first brought there by English people, within the last seventy or
eighty years.

Hayti is now a much more flourishing island than it was; the Emperor,
Faustin Soulouque, does every thing in his power to render it a