The carriages were ranged several rows
deep, and surrounded by young beaux on foot and horseback; any one
might have been excused for imagining himself in an European city.
As for myself, it gave me more pleasure to visit a plantation, or
some other place of the kind, than to stop and look on what I had so
often witnessed in Europe. {120b}
I frequently used to visit the plantations of nutmegs and cloves,
and refresh myself with their balsamic fragrance. The nutmeg-tree
is about the size of a fine apricot-bush, and is covered from top to
bottom with thick foliage; the branches grow very low down the stem,
and the leaves shine as if they were varnished. The fruit is
exactly similar to an apricot covered with yellowish-brown spots.
When ripe it bursts, exposing to view a round kernel about the size
of a nut, enclosed in a kind of net-work of a fine deep red: this
network is known as mace. It is carefully separated from the nutmeg
itself, and dried in the shade. While undergoing this process, it
is frequently sprinkled with sea-water, to prevent its original tint
turning black instead of yellow.
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