The PREFACE.
America, where he should arrive, employ'd Dr. Barwick, who was his Physician, to look out for one who could take care of Him and his Family in case of Sickness; Dr. Barwick spake to me in this matter, enquiring if any Physician of my Acquaintance would undertake it. This seem'd to me to be such an Opportunity as I my self wanted, to view the Places and Things I design'd, and at the same time to prosecute the Practice of Physic; wherefore I desir'd he would give me time to think of it, and after due consideration I resolv'd to go, provided some Preliminaries and Conditions were agreed to, which were all granted.
I intended so soon as on board to have made several Experiments and Observations in the Voyage, but was prevented by a very long and tedious Sea-Sickness, unless in some particulars, of which I have given an Account in the ensuing Voyage. His Grace the Duke of Albemarl's Commission and Instructions requiring he should muster all the Forces of the English-Caribe-Islands, in his way to Jamaica, made him stop some days at most of them, which gave me an opportunity of spending some time in looking after the Curiosities of those Places, which are taken Notice of in the Voyage thither. I have left out most of whatever is related by any Author I had perused, unless what they mention of the Uses of Plants, or such particulars wherein I thought, they were mistaken.
Upon my Arrival in Jamaica, I took what pains I could at leisure-Hours from the Business of my Profession, to search the several Places I could think afforded Natural Productions, and immediately described them in a Journal, measuring their several Parts by my Thumb, which, with a little allowance, I reckoned an Inch. I thought it needless to be more exact, because the Leaves of Vegetables of the same sorts, Wings of Birds, &c, do vary more from one another, than that does from the exact measure of an Inch; as to Colours, 'tis certain they are very hard to describe: There are so many Varieties of them, that they require new Names to express them. I observed in describing of them, that the Leaves of most, if not all, Plants are Greenest on their uppermost sides, or that exposed to the Sun-Beams; and Lighter and more Whitish underneath. This is not only so in Jamaica, but in all places where I have been; when the Leaves or Tops of Plants have not been exposed to the Light and Sun, they are not only whiter, but tenderer, and often digestible by our Stomachs. This appears by the Tops of the Palm [in Jamaica and the West-Indies]call'd
