May: conic hills had been gradually formed; that the currents
of lava which we now faw divided into many heaps, had
perhaps been gradually buried in frcffi cinders and allies,
and the waters coming down from the interior mountain
in the rainy 'feafon, had fmoothened every thing in their
way, and filled up by degrees the cavity of the crater.
The rocky black lava was the refidence of numberlefs men
of war birds and bobbies, which fat on their eggs, and
fuffered us to come clofe to them. The men of war birds
in general, have a prodigious pendulous Ikin, of a bright
red, which they can dillend to the fize of a man’s hand,
and which refembles the pelican’s pouch, being perhaps
intended for the fame purpofe by nature. On all this
-rocky ground, we did not meet with more than ten
ffirivelled plants, which were only of two forts; one a
fpecies of fpurge, the other a bind weed (euphorbia origmoides,
& convolvulus pes copra). We returned on board at noon,
where we faw only fix turtles which had been caught over
night, their laying feafon being almoft at an end. The
officer who had been Tent to the eaftward, found the wreck
of a ffiip there, which appeared to have been partly con-
fumed by fire, and was probably run on Ihore by the people,
in order to fave their lives. The diftrefsful fituation to’
which fuch a fet of men mull have been reduced, in this
barren ffiand, before a ffiip could take them up, drew an
■ expreffion of pity even from the failors. But their mifpor
tune
fortune was now become our advantage ; for our provifion mIy.
of fuel being very low, captain Cook fent his boats to take
in a fufficient quantity of the timbers of this wreck.
About eight in the evening, it being then quite dark,
a fmall veffel came into the bay, and anchored diredtly
within us. Captain Cook having hailed her repeatedly,
received in anfwer, that ffie was the Lucretia, a New York
floop, which had been at Sierra Leon, and was now come-
to catch turtles, in order to fell them at the windward'
iflands of the Weft Indies. A lieutenant was fent on board,
who learnt from the matter, that he had taken pur ffiip to
be a French Indiaman, and was very defirous of trading
with Engliffi India-ffiips, in which he was difappointed by
the Company’s regulations. He dined with our officers
the next day, but on the 31ft at day-break, left the ifland.
On the 30th in the morning, we landed a fecond time, and Tuefday
crofting the plain, arrived at a prodigious lava current, interfered
by many channels, from fix to eight yards deep;
which bore ftrong marks of being worn by vaft torrents off
water; but were at prefent perfectly dry, the fun being-
in the northern hemifphere. In thefe gullies we found a-
fmall quantity of foil, confiding of a black volcanic earth,
mixed with fome whitiffi particles gritty to the touch. Here,
we faw fome fmall bunches of purflane, and a fpecies of:
grafts (panicum fanguineum) which found fufficient nutriment:
in.