130 RECENT CHANGES. 



fortunately, an immunity from the periodic inter- 

 tropical deluges, which would be attended with 

 the worst effects in a land so mountainous as 

 this. But a short time before our arrival, a 

 heavy cloud, which some believed to be a water- 

 spout, burst over a mountain in the vicinity of 

 James' Town, and occasioned considerable in- 

 jury to person and property. Rupert's Valley, 

 and Sandy-Bay, are the two principal outlets 

 for the waters cast on this island by heavy 

 rains. 



The change of government which St. Helena 

 had recently experienced, had not, as might be 

 anticipated, given very general satisfaction to 

 the residents, or improved their interests. The 

 employment of signal-houses, to telegraph the 

 arrival of shipping, was abolished, or only re- 

 tained at the expense of the resident mer- 

 chants ; the formidable batteries were for the 

 most part deserted, or left in charge of an 

 invalid, residing on the spot with his family ; 

 the St. Helena corps, the former guardians of 

 the land, were disbanded ; the resident Ho- 

 nourable Company's officers, their " occupation 

 gone," had mostly retired to England, the Cape, 

 or elsewhere. Commerce was in a depressed 

 state: the poorer classes of people suffered 

 much from the scarcity and dearness of provi- 



