I met with this sort of cotton afterwards at Timor (where
it was ripe in November) and nowhere else in all my travels; but I found
two other sorts of silk-cotton at Brazil, which I shall there describe.
The right cotton-shrub grows here also, but not on the sandbank. I saw
some bushes of it near the shore; but the most of it is planted in the
middle of the isle, where the inhabitants live, cotton-cloth being their
chief manufacture; but neither is there any great store of this cotton.
There also are some trees within the island, but none to be seen near the
seaside; nothing but a few bushes scattering up and down against the
sides of the adjacent hills; for as I said before the land is pretty high
from the sea. The soil is for the most part either a sort of sand, or
loose crumbling stone, without any fresh-water ponds or streams to
moisten it, but only showers in the wet season which run off as fast as
they fall, except a small spring in the middle of the isle, from which
proceeds a little stream of water that runs through a valley between the
hills. There the inhabitants live in three small towns, having a church
and padre in each town: and these towns, as I was informed, are 6 or 7
miles from the road.
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