f o r m a - o f the h u g e , Rone pillars, for w t found feveral on the ground"..
Perhaps this happened in 1746, when Lima and'Callao, fuffered fo-
much by an earthquake j nor is it uncommon for earthquakes to
extend their power a great way. Capt. Davis, in the year 1687,.
being 450 leagues from the main o f America,, felt an earthquake,
very Rrongly, when at the lame time its molt violent effedts were
©blerved at Lima and Callao.
But I will, by no means, inlilt upon the circumltance, that the
iile was full o f woods and forells in Roggewein’s time, upon the.
mere authority o f thefe writers,' as a corroborative proof o f a n y
changes, which I fuppofe this ifle to have undergone j for one o f
thefe writers at lealt feems to contradidt his own report,, by telling
us, that the man who came on board, had a canoe made o f final I
pieces, none o f which was above half a foot in length§ which we
found really true, and is very natural, becaufe they have no wood :
but unluckily, upon the whole, the hiflory o f the giants twelve
feet high, deprived him entirely o f the charadter o f a faithful hiflo-
rian. And, befides this, we found the figures or Rone pillars, all
made o f a porous tufa, which had undergone a violent operation by
fire. Thefe pillars were already exiRing in Roggewein’s time ; con -
fequently the idle, its Rones, and Rrata, had already undergone the
violence of fire; fo that it evidently appears, that whatever changes
the illand has undergone, mufl have been anterior to Roggewein’s
arrival
arrival there in 1722. However, it was obvious to every one, that
the ifle had been fubjedt to the violence o f a volcano, which had
perhaps deflroyed a part of it.
But the tropical ifles in the South-Seas bear likewife the mofl
undeniable marks o f violent, changes- from fire and earthquakes ;
though their prefent cultivated Hate, the fine mould covering their
furface, .and the various, vegetables on i t , . partly hide the vefiiges
o f thefe revolutions, and require therefore the eye o f a man fifed to
thefe enquiries, and acquainted with nature in its, various Rates.
Th e excavated-.tops o f the.peaks o f M a i a t e a , . I I o i a - b o l a , and
M o u r .u a , the fpires and lhattered rocks of the .interior parts of
T e - A r r a b o o , or -the little peninfula o f O - T a h e i t e e , .together
with the honey-combed black rocks and lava o f T o b r e o n o o and the
M a r q u e s a s , are fuch proofs of thefe revolutions, as nobody will
difpute, who is well acquainted with the fubjedt, and has formerly
examined, the neighbourhood o f volcanos. Nay, all the N ew -
Hebrides, the Marquefas, and Society-IHes* together with the
Azores or Weflern-Ifles in the Atlantic, have all more or lefs, the
fame marks o f thole great changes, which they have undergone in
former ages. But i f we remember, that earthquakes and fubter-
raneous fires have in all ages raifed ifles from the depth o f the
ocean; i f we read the accounts o f the origin o f T h e r a s i a and
H i e r a , or S a n t e r i n i and V o l c a n e e l o , of the two K a m e n i s ,
o f
F o r m a t
i o n o f
I S L E S .