A V O Y S 72 A G E R O U N D T H E WORLD.
spK d’Albuqjierque on-hi» Voyage to India in 1503, and then-
received the name it now bears; but was already at that
time in the fame defolate condition as at prefent *. We
fent feveral parties on fliore^ who palled the night on the
watch for turtles,, which came to lay their eggs- on the-
fandy Ihores. The drearinefs of this ifland furpaffed all
the horrors of Eafter Illand and Tierra- del Euego, even without
the afliflance of fnow. It was a ruinous heap of rocks,,
many of which, as far as we could difcern from the fliipj
feemed to be totally changed by the fire of a: volcano.
Nearly in the centre of the ifland riles a broad white mountain
of great height, on which we difcerned fome verdure
by the help of our glafles, from whence it has obtained the
name of Green Mountain.
Monday ay. We landed early in the morning among fome rocks, the
furf being always immenfely high on the great beachwhich*
confifls of minute fliell-fand, chiefly of a, fnowy white, very-
deep, dry, and intolerable to the eyes, when the fun Chines.
We afcended among heaps of black cavernous Hone, which
perfectly refembles the moll: common lavas of Vefuvius and-
Iceland, and of which the broken pieces looked as if they
India per huas e outras Armas, reals e Evangelical ; the author o f which appears to
have been a Jefuit.
* See the Voyage o f Giovanni da Empoli on board o f one c f Albuquerque’s
fhipsj Ramufio Raccolt.a di Viaggi, vol. I .,p . 143, edition o f 1563.
had
A VOYAGE ROUND T HE WORLD. j -7 3
had been accumulated by art. The lava currents- cooling mIy5.'
very fuddenly, may eafily be imagined to produce fuch an
effedt. Having afcended about twelve or fifteen yards perpendicular,
we found ourfelves on a great level plain, of
fix or eight miles in circuit, in the different corners of
which, we obferved a large hill of an exa& conical lhape,
and of a reddilh colour, Handing perfectly infulated. Part
of the plain between thefe conic hills, was covered with
great numbers of fmaller hillocks, confifting of the fame
wild and ragged lava, as that near the fea, and ringing like
glafs when two pieces are knocked together. The ground
between the heaps of lava, was covered with a black earth
on which we walked very firmly ; but where thefe heaps
did not appear, the whole was a red earth, which was fo
loofe, and in fuch. dry minute panicles, that the wind raifed
clouds of duft upon it. The conic hills confided of a very
different fort of lava, which was red, foft,' and crumbling:
into earth. One of thefe hills Hands direiftly in front of:
the bay, and has a wooden crofs on its fummit, from
whence the bay is faid to take its name. Its fides are very
Heep, but a path near three quarters of a mile long, winds-
round it to the fummit. After examining this remarkable-
country a little longer, we concluded with a great degree of
probability on our fide, that the 'plain on which we
flood, was once the crater or feat of a volcano, by the accumulation
of whofe cinders and pumice-flones, the
conia