Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/103

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ropean markets. The soil is every where so rich, that it requires all the labour of the farmer to check the too luxuriant vegetation, and keep the ground free from brush-wood and shrubs; a few months' neglect covers the soil with a tangled under-wood, bound together and rendered impenetrable by creeping vines. Twelve different kinds of oranges are cultivated here, and all other tropical fruits grow almost spontaneously; the soil has also been found friendly to the spices of the East, and pepper is already cultivated with some success; in short,

Whatever blooms in torrid tracks appeal,
Whose bright succesion decks. the varied year,
These here disporting own the kindred soil,
Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil.

The horses of Brasil are small, and incapable of much labour; in the interior

they