It appeared, as we approached it on the windward fide,
—-—-i like a rude heap o f rocks, bounded by precipices of amazing
height, and confiding of a kind of half friable done, which
fhows not the lead fign of vegetation ; nor is it more pro-
mifing upon a nearer view: in failing along the fhore, we
came fo near the huge cliffs, that they feemed to over-hang
the fhip, and the tremendous effedt of their giving way,
made us almod fear the event: at length we opened a valley,
called Chappel Valley, which refembles a large trench; and
in this valley we difcovered the. town. The bottom of it is
flightly covered with herbage, but the fides are as naked as
the cliffs that are next the fea. Such is .the fird appearance
of the idand in its prefent cultivated date, and the fird hills
mud be paffed before the vallies look green, or the country
difplays any other marks of fertility..
The town dands jud by the; fea fide, and the far greater
part of the houfes are ill built; the' church, which originally
was a mean drudture, is in ruins, and the market-houfe is
nearly in the fame condition.
The white inhabitants are all Englifh, ~who, as they are
not permitted by the Ead India Company, to whom the
idand belongs, to carry on any trade or commerce on their
own account, fubfid wholly by fupplying fuch Clips as touch
at the place with refrefhments, which, however, they do
not provide in proportion to the fertility of the foil, and the
temperament of the climate, which would enable them, by
cultivation, to produce all the fruits and vegetables both of
Europe and India. This idand indeed, fmall as: it is, enjoys
the different advantages ’of different climates, for the cabbage
trees which grow upon the highed ridges, can by no
art be cultivated upon the ridges next below, where the redwood
and gum-wood both flourifh, which will not grow
upon
upon the ridges above, and neither of the three are to be W7'.
found in the vallies, which, in general, are covered with <__
European plants, and the more common ones of India.
Here are a few horfes, but they are kept only for the
faddle, fo that all labour is performed by fiaves; nor are
they furnifhed with any of the various machines which art
has invented to facilitate their talk. The ground is not
every where too deep for a cart, and where it is, the wheelbarrow
might be ufed with great advantage, yet there is no
wheelbarrow in the whole idand; every thing is conveyed
from place to place by the daves, and they are not furnifhed
even with the Ample convenience o f a porter’s knot, but carry
their burden upon their heads. They are indeed very numerous,
and are brought from almod every part of the world,
but they appeared to be a miferable race, worn out partly
by exceffive labour, and partly by ill ufage, of which they
frequently complained ; and I am forry to fay, that indances
of wanton cruelty are much more frequent among my countrymen
here, than among the Dutch, who are, and perhaps
not without reafon, generally reproached with want of humanity
at Batavia and the Cape.
Among the native produdts of this idand, which are not
numerous, mud be reckoned ebony, though the trees are
now nearly extinft, and are not remembered to have been
plenty: pieces of the wood are frequently found in the vallies,
of a fine black colour, and a hardnefs almod equal to
iron: thefe pieces, however, are always fo fhort and crooked,
that no ufe can be made of them. Whether the tree is the
fame with that which produces ebony upon the ifle of Bourbon,
or the idands adjacent, is not known, as the French
have not yet publiflred any account of it.
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