Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 1 (Stockdale).djvu/127

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Jan.]
OF LA PEROUSE.
117

The falco ſerpentarius of Linnæus I ſaw very tame in a houſe belonging to the Governor.

The menagery ſituated, at the extremity of this garden, contained but a very ſmall number of uncommon animals, the chief of which were the oſtrich, the zebra, the porcupine, the jackall, and ſeveral birds; amongſt others, the bald-headed curlieu of Buffon, (tentalus calvus, Linn.)

The gales were leſs violent in the evening, and gave us hopes of fine weather.

A veſſel employed in the ſlave-trade lay at anchor in the road. It had lately arrived from Mozambique, and its cargo of four hundred negroes were, for the preſent, on ſhore. It was a moſt melancholy ſpectacle, to behold theſe miſerable wretches, the greater part of whom were already afflicted with the ſcurvy, after a very ſhort paſſage, crowded into three narrow rooms, from whence they were ſhortly to be carried on board, doomed to waſte their lives in ſupporting the luxury of ſome wealthy American. The ſhip had been trading with countries where dogs are in great requeſt; and theſe dealers in human lives did not ſcruple to avow that they often purchaſed two or three blacks for one handſome dog.

On the 22d, I ſpent the day in examining the Lion's Mountain. The ſoil of this mountain, which derives its name from the appearance which

it