i36
The flaves
are employ-
ed firft to
get their
fubfiftence.
Rich pro-
ductions are
afterwards
expeâed
from them.
HISTORY OF SETTLEMENTS AND TRADE
the climate, where they wrere affifted by a moift and
clammy earth, which is proper for them ; and becaufe
they required no trouble. The labour of the flaves
is employed in the cultivation of more ufeful pro-
dudions.
The principal labours of thefe unhappy men are
direded towards thofe objeds that are indifpenfable
to the prefervation of their wretched exiftence. Be-
fore their arrival in the iflands, potatoes and yams
grew without labour in the midft of the forefts. The
potato is a fpecies of convolvulus, which grows up
gradually ; the leaves of which are alternate, angu-
lar, and cordiform ; and its flower refembles in figure,
and in the number of its parts, that of the ordinary
convolvulus. The ftem of the yam is climbing, her-
baceous, furnifhed with oppofite or alternate leaves,
cut in the fhape of a heart, and which fhoot forth
from their axillae clutters of male flowers on one ftem,
and female ones upon another, each provided with
one calix that hath fix divifions. The male flowers
have fix itamina. The piftil of the female flowers is
furmounted with three ftyles. It adheres to the ca-
lix, and becomes, along with it, a clofe capfula, with
three cells filled with two feeds. Thefe plants, which
are fufficiently multiplied by nature alone for the
fubfiftence of a fmall number of favages, muft have
been cultivated, when it became neceffary to feed a
more confiderable population. This was accordingly
refolved upon, and other plants were joined to them,
drawn from the country itfelf of the new confumers.
Africa hath furnifhed the iflands with a fhrub,
which grows to the height of four feet, lives four
years, and is ufeful throughout its whole duration.
Its leaves are compofed of three fmaller elongated
leaves, united on one common petal. Its flowers,
which are yellowifh, and irregular, as thofe of legu-
minous plants, are difpofed in clutters at the extre-
mity of the branches. It bears pods, which contain
a number of a kind of pea, which is very wholefome
and very nourifhing.   This fhrub is called the Angola