142 GALAl'Ac;u.S AKCHll'KLAGO. 



between two and three hundred in number : they 

 are nearly all peoj^le of colour, who have been 

 banished for political crimes from the Republic of 

 the Equador, of which Quito is the capital. The 

 settlement is placed about four and a half miles in- 

 land, and at a height, probably, of a thousand feet. 

 In the first part of the road we passed through 

 leafless thickets, as in Chatham Island. Higher 

 up the woods gradually became greener, and as 

 soon as we crossed the ridge of the island we were 

 cooled by a fine southerly breeze, and oiir sight re- 

 freshed by a giecn and thriving vegetation. In this 

 upper region coarse grasses and ferns abound, but 

 there are no tree-ferns : I saw nowhere any mem- 

 ber of the Palm family, which is the more singular, 

 as, 360 miles northward, Cocos Island takes its 

 name from the number of cocoa-nuts. The houses 

 are irregularly scattered over a flat space of ground, 

 which is cultivated with sweet potatoes and bana- 

 nas. It will not easily be imagined how pleasant 

 the sight of black mud was to us, after having been 

 so long accustomed to the parched soil of Peru and 

 northei'n Chile. The inhabitants, although com- 

 plaining of poverty, obtain, witliout much trouble, 

 the means of subsistence. In the woods there are 

 many wild pigs and goats, but the staple article 

 of animal food is svipplied by the tortoises. Their 

 numbers have of course been greatly reduced in 

 this island, but the people yet count on two days' 

 hunting giving them food for the rest of the week. 

 It is said that formerly single vessels have taken 

 away as many as seven hundred, and that the ship's 

 company of a frigate some years since brought 

 down in one day two hundred tortoises to the 

 beach. 



Septemler 29 fh. — We doubled the south-west 

 extremity of Albemai'le Island, and the next day 



