366 cook's first voyage may, 



sea. Such is the first appearance of the island in its 

 present cultivated state, and the first hills must be 

 passed before the valleys look green, or the country 

 displays any other marks of fertility. 



The town stands just by the sea-side, and the far 

 greater part of the houses are ill built; the church, 

 which originally was a mean structure, is in ruins, 

 and the market-house is nearly in the same condition. 



The white inhabitants are all English, who, as they 

 are not permitted by the East India Company, to 

 whom the island belongs, to ^rry on any trade or 

 commerce on their own accent, subsist wholly by 

 supplying such ships as touch at the place with re- 

 freshments, which, however, they do not provide in 

 proportion to the fertility of the soil, and the temper- 

 ament of the climate, which would enable them, by 

 cultivation, to produce all the fruits and vegetables 

 both of Europe and India. This island, indeed, small 

 as it is, enjoys the different advantages of different 

 climates, for the cabbage-trees which grow upon the 

 highest ridges, can by no art be cultivated upon the 

 ridges next below, where the red-wood and gum- 

 wood both flourish, which will not grow upon the 

 ridges above, and neither of the three are to be found 

 in the valleys, which, in general, are covered with 

 European plants, and the more common ones of In- 

 dia. Here are a few horses, but they are kept only for 

 the saddle, so that all labour is performed by slaves; 

 nor are they furnished with any of the various ma- 

 chines which art has invented to facilitate their task. 

 The ground is not every where too steep for a cart, 

 and where it is, the wheel-barrow might be used with 

 great advantage, yet there is no wheel-barrow in the 

 whole island; every thing is conveyed from place to 

 place by the slaves, and they are not furnished even 

 with the simple convenience of a porter's knot, but 

 carry their burden upon their heads. They are in- 

 deed very numerous, and are brought to almost every 

 part of the world, but they appeared to be a miser- 

 able race, worn out partly by excessive labour, and 



