284 JOHN LEDYARD. 



tropical scenes which he witnessed in the interior 

 of this fertile and beautiful gem of the ocean, in 

 consequence of his having made a request to be 

 permitted to explore it : 



"The request was granted. The botanist and the 

 gunner of the Resolution were deputed by the com- 

 mander to accompany him. Natives were also en- 

 gaged to carry the baggage and serve as guides 

 through the woods. A tropical sun was then pour- 

 ing its rays on them at the Bay of Kearakekua ; but 

 the snows visible on the peak of Mouna Roa warned 

 them to provide additional clothing, and guard 

 against the effects of a sudden transition from heat 

 to cold. The party at length set off. On first leav- 

 ing the town, their route lay through enclosed plan- 

 tations of sweet potatoes, with a soil of lava, tilled 

 in some places with difficulty. Now and then a 

 patch of sugarcane was seen in a moist place. Next 

 came the open plantations, consisting chiefly of 

 bread-fruit trees, and the land began to ascend more 

 abruptly. 



"We continued up the ascent," he writes, "to 

 the distance of a mile and a half farther, and found 

 the land thick covered with wild fern, among which 

 our botanist found a new species. It was now near 

 sunset, and, being upon the skirts of these woods 

 that so remarkably surrounded this island at a uni- 



