288 ST. HELENA. 



neither of these articles are the products of the 

 island, but must be purchased with money, the 

 low wages tell heavily on the poor people. Now 

 that the people are blessed with freedom, a right 

 which 1 believe they value fully, it seems probable 

 that their numbers will quickly increase : if so, 

 what is to become of the little state of St. Helena 1 



My guide was an elderly man, who had been a 

 goatherd when a boy, and kne\v every step amongst 

 the rocks. He was of a race many times crossed, 

 and although with a dusky skin, he had not the 

 disagreeable expression of a mulatto. He was a 

 very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the 

 character of the greater number of the lower classes. 

 It was strange to my ears to hear a man, nearly 

 white, and respectably dressed, talking with indif- 

 ference of the times when he was a slave. With 

 my companion, who carried our dinners and a honi 

 of water, which is quite necessary, as all the water 

 in the lower valleys is saline, I every day took 

 long walks. 



Beneath the upper and central green circle, the 

 wild valleys are quite desolate and untenanted. 

 Here, to the geologist, there were scenes of high 

 interest, showing successive changes and compli- 

 cated disturbances. According to my views, St. 

 Helena has existed as an island from a very re- 

 mote epoch : some obscure proofs, however, of the 

 elevation of the land are still extant. I believe 

 that the central and highest peaks form parts of 

 the rim of a great crater, the southern half of which 

 has been entirely removed by the waves of the 

 sea : there is, moreover, an external wall of black 

 basaltic rocks, like the coast-mountains of Mauri- 

 tius, which are older than the central volcanic 

 sti-eams. On the higher parts of the island, con- 

 siderable numbers of a shell, long thought a marine 



