Ipii.' afterwards recollected, that to this ifland the Dutch at the
Cap? banifh fuch criminals as are not thought worthy of
n ** *'• death; for a certain number of years, proportioned to the
offence; and employ them as Haves in digging lime-ftone,
•which though fcarce upon the continent is plenty here: and
that a Danilh Ihip, which by ficknefs had loft great part of
her crew, and had been refufed ailiftance at the Cape, came
down to this ifland, and fending her boat afhore, fecured the
guard, and took on board as many of the criminals as fhe
thought proper to navigate her home: we concluded therefore
that the Dutch, to prevent, the refcue o f their criminals
m time to come, had given order to their people here to
fuffer no boat of any foreign nation to come aflaorer
Thurfday 2J. On the 25th, at three o’clock in the afternoon, we weighed,
with a light breeze at S, E. and-put to fea. About an hour
afterwards, we loft our Mafter, Mr. Robert Mollineux, a
young man of good parts; but unhappily given up to intemperance,
which brought on diforders that put an end to his
life. . ....... ; :
We proceeded in our voyage homeward without any re-
Monday zg. markable incident ; and in the morning of the 26th We
croffed our firft meridian, having circumnavigated tile globe
in the direction from eaft to weft, and confequently loft a
day, for which we made an allowance at Batavia.
Wednefw. At da>r' l,rcak’ on the of May,, we law the illand of St.
Helena; and at noon, we anchored in the road before James’s
fort. . - . .
We ftaid here till the 4th, to rcfrtfli, and Mr. Banks improved
the time in making ;the. cbinplfte circuit of the
ifland, and vifitmg the moft remarkable places^upon it.
It
It is filtrated as it were in the middle of the vaft Atlantic
ocean, being four hundred leagues diftant from the coaft of
Africa, and fix hundred from that of America.' It is the
futnmit of an immenfe mountain riling out of the fea,
which, at a little diftance all round it, is o f an unfathomable
depth, and is no more than twelve leagues long, and fix
broad.
Wednef. i .
The feat of volcanoes has, without exception, been found
to be the higheft part of the countries in which they are
found. iEtria and Vefuviüs have no land higher than them-
felvcs, in their neighbourhood; Hecla is the higheft hill in
Iceland; volcanoes are frequent in the higheft part of the
Andes in South America; and the pike o f Teneriffe is known
to be the covering of fubterraneous fire: thefe are ftill burning,
but there are innumerable other mountains which bear
evident marks of fire that is now extinct, and has been fo
from the time of our earlieft traditions: among thefe is Saint
Helena, where the inequalities of the ground, in its external
furface, are manifeftly the effect of the finking of the
earth, for the oppafite ridges, though feparated always bydeep,
and fometimes by broad vallies, are exactly fimilar
both in appearance and diredtion; and that the finking of
the earth in thefe parts, was caufed by fubterraneous fire, is
equally manifeft from the ftones, for fome of them, efpe-
cially thofe in the bottom of the vallies, are burnt almoft to.
a cinder: in fome there are fmall bubbles, like thofe that are-
feen in glafs which has been urged almoft to fufion, and
fome, though at firft fight they do not appear to have been,
expofed to the action of great heat, will be found, upon a.
clofer infpection, to contain fmall pieces of extraneous bodies,
particularly mundick, which have yielded to the power
of fire, though it was not fufficient to alter the appearance,
of the ftone which contained them.
It