The seat of volcanoes has, without exception, been found to be the highest part of the countries in which they are found. Ætna and Vesuvius have no land higher than themselves, in their neighbourhood; Hecla is the highest hill in Iceland: volcanoes are frequent in the highest part of the Andes in South America; and the pike of Teneriffe is known to be the covering of subterraneous fire: these are still burning, but there are innumerable other mountains which bear evident marks of fire that is now extinct, and has been so from the time of our earliest traditions: among these is Saint Helena, where the inequalities of the ground, in its external surface, are manifestly the effect of the sinking of the earth, for the opposite ridges, though separated always by deep, and sometimes by broad valleys, are exactly similar both in appearance and direction; and that the sinking of the earth in these parts, was caused by subterraneous fire, is equally manifest from the stones; for some of them, especially those in the bottom of the valleys, are burnt almost to a cinder: in some there are small bubbles, like those that are seen in glass which has been urged almost to fusion, and some, though at first sight they do not appear to have been exposed to the action of great heat, will be found, upon a closer inspection, to contain small pieces of extraneous bodies, particularly mundick, which have yielded to the power of fire, though it was not sufficient to alter the appearance of the stone which contained them.
It appeared, as we approached it on the windward side, like a rude heap of rocks, bounded by precipices of amazing height, and consisting of a kind of half friable stone, which shows not the least sign of vegetation; nor is it more promising upon a nearer view: in sailing along the shore, we came so near the huge cliffs, that they seemed to overhang the ship, and the tremendous effect of their giving way, made us almost fear the event: at length we opened a valley, called Chappel Valley, which resembles a large trench; and in this valley we discovered the town. The bottom of it is slightly covered with herbage, but the sides are as naked as the cliffs that are next the sea. Such is the first appearance of the island in its present cultivated state, and the first hills must be passed before the valleys look green, or the country displays any other marks of fertility.
The town stands just by the sea-side, and the far greater part of the houses are ill built; the church, which originally was a mean structure, is in ruins, and the market-house is nearly in the same condition.
The white inhabitants are all English, who, as they are not permitted by the East India Company, to whom the island belongs, to carry on any trade or commerce on their own account, subsist wholly by supplying such ships as touch at the place with refreshments, which, however, they do not provide in proportion to the fertility of the soil, and the temperament of the climate, which would enable them, by cultivation, to produce all the fruits and vegetables both of Europe and India. This island, indeed, small as it is, enjoys the different advantages of different climates, for the cabbage-trees which grow upon the highest ridges, can by no art be cultivated upon the ridges next below, where the red-wood and gum-wood both flourish, which will not grow upon the ridges above, and neither of the three are to be found in the valleys, which, in general, are covered with European plants, and the more common ones of India. Here are a few horses, but they are kept only for the saddle, so that all labour is performed by slaves; nor are they furnished with any of the various machines which art has invented to facilitate their task. The ground is not every where too steep for a cart, and where it is, the wheel-barrow might be used with great advantage, yet there is no wheel-barrow in the whole island; every thing is conveyed from place to place by the slaves, and they are not furnished even with the simple convenience of a porter’s knot, but carry their burden upon their heads. They are indeed very numerous, and are brought to almost every part of the world, but they appeared to be a miserable race, worn out partly by excessive labour, and partly by ill usage, of which they frequently complained; and I am sorry to say, that instances of wanton cruelty are much more frequent among my countrymen here, than among the Dutch, who are, and perhaps not without reason, generally reproached with want of humanity at Batavia and the Cape.
Among the native products of this island, which are not numerous, must be reckoned ebony, though the trees are now nearly extinct, and are not remembered to have been plenty: pieces of the wood are frequently found in the valleys, of a fine black colour, and a hardness almost equal to iron: these pieces, however, are always so short and crooked, that no use can be made of them. Whether the tree is the same with that which produces ebony upon the isle of Bourbon, or the islands adjacent, is not known, as the French have not yet published any account of it.
There are but few insects in this place, but there is a species of snail found upon the tops of the highest ridges, which probably has been there since the original creation of their kind, at the beginning of the world. It is indeed very difficult to conceive how any thing which was not deposited here at its creation, or brought hither by the diligence of man, could find its way to a place so severed from the rest of the world, by seas of immense extent, except the hypothesis that has been mentioned on another occasion be adopted, and this rock be supposed to have been left behind, when a large tract of country, of which it was part, subsided by some convulsion of nature, and was swallowed up in the ocean.
At one o’clock in the afternoon of the 4th of May, we weighed and stood out of the road, in company with the Portland man-of-war, and twelve sail of Indiamen.
We continued to sail in company with the fleet, till the 10th in the morning, when, perceiving that we sailed much heavier than any other ship, and thinking it for that reason probable that the Portland would get home before us, I made the signal to speak with her, upon which Captain Elliot himself came on board, and I delivered to him a letter to the Admiralty, with a box, containing the common log-books of the ship, and the journals of some of the officers. We continued in company, however, till the 23d in the morning, and then there was not one of the ships in sight. About one o’clock in the afternoon died our first lieutenant Mr. Hicks, and in the evening we committed his body to the sea, with the usual ceremonies. The disease of which he died, was a consumption, and as he was not free from it when we sailed from England, it may truly be said that he was dying during the whole voyage, though his decline was very gradual till we came to Batavia: the next day I gave Mr. Charles Clerk an order to act as lieutenant in his room, a young man who was extremely well qualified for that station.
Our rigging and sails were now become so bad, that something was giving way every day. We continued our course, however, in safety till the 10th of June, when land, which proved to be the Lizard, was discovered by Nicholas Young, the same boy that first saw New Zealand; on the 11th, we run up the channel; at six in the morning of the 12th we passed Beachy Head; at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an anchor in the Downs, and went ashore at Deal.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.