The trees, of which the woods in the northern part of the island are composed, are mostly aromatic, and of many different sorts. There are none of them of a size to yield any considerable timber, except those we called myrtle-trees, which are the largest on the island, and supplied us with all the timber we used; yet even these would not work to a greater length than forty feet. The top of the myrtle is circular, and as uniform and regular as if clipped round by art. It bears an excrescence like moss on its bark, having the taste and smell of garlic, and was used instead of it by our people. We found here the pimento, and the cabbage-tree, but in no great quantity. Besides these, there were a great number of plants of various kinds, which we were not botanists enough to describe or attend to. We found here, however, almost all the vegetables that are usually esteemed peculiarly adapted to the cure of those scorbutic disorders which are contracted by salt diet and long voyages, as we had great quantities of water-cresses and purslain, with excellent wild sorrel, and a vast profusion of turnips and Sicilian radishes, which two last, having a strong resemblance to each other, were confounded by our people under the general name of turnips. We usually preferred the tops of the turnips to the roots, which we generally found stringy, though some of them were free from that exception, and remarkably good. These vegetables, with the fish and flesh we got here, to be more particularly described hereafter, were not only exceedingly grateful to our palates after the long course of salt diet to which we had been confined, but were likewise of the most salutary consequence in recovering and envigorating our sick, and of no mean service to us who were well, by destroying the lurking seeds of the scurvy, from which none of us, perhaps, were totally exempted, and in refreshing and restoring us to our wonted strength and activity. To the vegetables already mentioned, of which we made perpetual use, I must add that we found many acres of ground covered with oats and clover. There were some few cabbage-trees, as before observed, but these grew generally on precipices and in dangerous situations, and as it was necessary to cut down a large tree to procure a single cabbage, we were rarely able to indulge in this dainty.
The excellence of the climate, and the looseness of the soil, renders this island extremely proper for all kinds of cultivation: for, if the ground be any where accidentally turned up, it becomes immediately overgrown with turnips and Sicilian radishes. Our commodore, therefore, having with him garden-seeds of all kinds, and stones of different kinds of fruits, sowed here lettuces, carrots, and other garden-plants, and set in the woods great numbers of plumb, apricot, and peach-stones, for the better accommodation of our countrymen who might hereafter touch at this island. These last have since thriven most remarkably, as has been since learnt by Mr Anson. For some Spanish gentlemen having been taken on their passage from Lima to Spain, and brought to England, having procured leave to wait upon him, to thank him for his generosity and humanity to his prisoners, some of whom were their relations, and foiling into discourse about his transactions in the South Seas, asked if he had not planted a great number of fruit-stones on the island of Juan Fernandez, as their late navigators had discovered there a great many peach and apricot trees, which, being fruits not observed there before, they supposed to have been produced from kernels set by him.
This may suffice in general as to the soil and vegetable productions of Juan Fernandez; but the face of the country, at least of its northern part, is so extremely singular as to require a particular consideration. I have already noticed the wild and inhospitable appearance of it to us at first sight, and the gradual improvement of its uncouth landscape as we drew nearer, till we were at last captivated by the numerous beauties we discovered on landing. During our residence, we found the interior to fall no ways short of the sanguine prepossessions we at first entertained. For the woods, which covered most of even the steepest hills, were free from all bushes and underwood, affording an easy passage through every part of them; and the irregularities of the hills and precipices, in the northern part of the island, traced out, by their various combinations, a great number of romantic vallies, most of which were pervaded by streams of the purest water, which tumbled in beautiful cascades from rock to rock, as the bottoms of the vallies happened to be broken into sudden descents by the course of the neighbouring hills. Some particular spots occurred in these vallies where the shade and fragrance of the contiguous woods, the loftiness of the overhanging rocks, and the transparency and frequent cascades of the streams, presented scenes of such elegance and dignity, as would with difficulty be rivalled in any other part of the globe. Here, perhaps, the simple productions of unassisted nature may be said to excel all the fictitious descriptions of the most fertile imagination.
The piece of ground which the commodore chose in which to pitch his tent, was a small lawn on a gentle ascent, about half a mile from the sea. In front of the tent was a large avenue, opening through the woods to the shore, and sloping with a gentle descent to the water, having a prospect of the bay and the ships at anchor. This lawn was screened behind by a wood of tall myrtle trees, sweeping round in a crescent form, like a theatre, the slope on which the wood grew rising more rapidly than the open lawn, yet not so much but that the hills and precipices of the interior towered considerably above the tops of the trees, and added greatly to the beauty and grandeur of the view. There were also two streams of water, pure as the finest crystal, which ran to the right and left of the tent within the distance of an hundred yards, and which, shaded by trees skirting either side of the lawn, completed the symmetry of the whole.
It only now remains that we should mention the animals and provisions which we met with at this island. Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbers of goats, and their accounts are not to be questioned, as this place was the usual resort of the buccaneers and privateers who used formerly to frequent these seas. There are two instances, one of a musquito Indian, and the other of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotsman, who were left here by their respective ships, and lived alone upon the island for some years, and were consequently no strangers to its productions. Selkirk, who was here the last, after a stay of between four and five years, was taken off by the Duke and Duchess privateers, of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the journal of their voyage. His manner of life, during his solitude, was very remarkable in most particulars; but he relates one circumstance, which was so strongly verified by our own experience, that it seems worthy of being mentioned. He tells us, as he often caught more goats than he had occasion for, that he sometimes marked their ears, and let them go. This was about thirty-two years before our arrival, yet it happened that the first goat killed by our people after they landed, had its ears slit; whence we concluded that it had doubtless been formerly caught by Selkirk. This was indeed an animal of a most venerable aspect, dignified with a most majestic beard, and bearing many other marks of great age. During our residence, we met with others marked in the same manner, all the males being distinguished by exuberant beards, with every other characteristic of extreme age.
The great number of goats, which former writers describe as having been found on this island, were very much diminished before our arrival. For the Spaniards, aware of the advantages derived by the buccaneers and pirates from the goats-flesh they here procured, have endeavoured to extirpate the breed, on purpose to deprive their enemies of this resource. For this purpose, they put on shore great numbers of large dogs, which have greatly increased, and have destroyed all the goats in the accessible pans of the country; so that there were only, when we were there, a few among the crags and precipices, where the dogs cannot follow them. These remaining goats are divided into separate flocks, of twenty or thirty each, which inhabit distinct fastnesses, and never mingle with each other, so that we found it exceedingly difficult to kill them; yet we were so desirous of their flesh, which we all agreed resembled venison, that we came, I believe, to the knowledge of all their haunts and flocks; and, by comparing their numbers, it was conceived that they scarcely exceeded two hundred on the whole island. I once witnessed a remarkable contest between a flock of goats and a number of dogs. Going in our boat into the East bay, we perceived some dogs running very eagerly upon the foot, and willing to see what game they were in pursuit of, we rested some time on our oars to observe them, when at last they took to a hill, on the ridge of which we saw a flock of goats drawn up for their reception. There was a very narrow path leading to the ridge, skirted on each side by precipices; and here the master he-goat of the flock posted himself fronting the enemy, the rest of the goats being all behind him, on more open ground. As the ridge was inaccessible by any other path, except where this champion stood, though the dogs ran up the hill with great alacrity, yet, when they came within twenty yards, not daring to encounter him, as he would infallibly have driven them down the precipice, they gave over the chase, and lay down at that distance, panting at a great rate.
These dogs, which are masters of all the accessible parts of the island, are of various kinds, some of them very large, and have multiplied to a prodigious degree. They sometimes came down to our habitations under night, and stole our provisions; and once or twice they set upon single persons, but, assistance being at hand, they were driven away, without doing any mischief. As it is now rare for any goats to fall in their way, we conceived that they lived principally on young seals; and some of our people, having the curiosity to kill dogs sometimes, and dress them, seemed to agree that they had a fishy taste.
Goats-flesh being scarce, as we were rarely able to kill above one in a day, and our people growing tired of fish, which abounded at this place, they at last condescended to eat seals, which they came by degrees to relish, calling it lamb. As the seal, of which numbers haunt this island, has been often mentioned by former writers, it seems unnecessary to say any thing particular respecting that animal in this place. There is, however, another amphibious animal to be met with here, called the sea-lion, having some resemblance to a seal, but much larger, which I conceive may merit a particular description. This too we eat, under the denomination of beef. When arrived at full size, the sea-lion is between twelve and twenty feet in length, and from eight to fifteen feet in circumference. They are extremely fat, so that, below the skin, which is an inch thick, there is at least a foot deep of fat, before coming to the lean or bones, and we experienced more than once, that the fat of some of the largest afforded us a butt of oil. They are also very full of blood; for, if deeply wounded in a dozen places, there will instantly gush out as many fountains of blood, spouting to a considerable distance. To try what quantity of blood one of them might contain, we shot one first, and then cut its throat, measuring the blood which flowed, and found that we got at least two hogsheads, besides a considerable quantity remaining in the vessels of the animal.
Their skins are covered with short hair of a light dun colour; but their tails and fins, which serve them for feet on shore, are almost black. These fore-feet, or fins, are divided at the ends like fingers, the web which joins them not reaching to the extremities, and each of these fingers is furnished with a nail. They have a distant resemblance to an overgrown seal; though in some particulars there are manifest differences between these two animals, besides the vast disproportion in size. The males especially are remarkably dissimilar, having a large snout, or trunk, hanging down five or six inches beyond the extremity of the upper jaw, which renders the countenances of the male and female easily distinguishable from each other. One of the largest of these males, who was master of a large flock of females, and drove off all the other males, got from our sailors the name of the bashaw, from that circumstance. These animals divide their time between the sea and the land, continuing at sea all summer, and coming on shore at the setting in of winter, during all which season they reside on the land. In this interval they engender and bring forth their young, having generally two at a birth, which are suckled by the dams, the young at first being as large as a full-grown seal.