GREEN HILL. 293 



age. To complete the desolate scene, the black 

 rocks on the coast are lashed by a wild and turbu- 

 lent sea. 



The settlement is near the beach : it consists of 

 several houses and barracks placed irregularly, but 

 well built of white freestone. The only inhabitants 

 are marines, and some negroes liberated from slave- 

 ships, who are paid and victualled by government. 

 There is not a private person on the island. Many 

 of the marines appeared well contented with their 

 situation ; they think it better to serve their one- 

 and- twenty years on shore, let it be what it may, 

 than in a ship : in this choice, if I were a marine, 

 I should most heartily agree. 



The next morning I ascended Green Hill, 2840 

 feet high, and thence walked across the island to 

 the windward point. A good cart-road leads from 

 the coast-settlement to the houses, gardens, and 

 fields, placed near the summit of the central mount- 

 ain. On the roadside there are milestones, and 

 likewise cisterns, where each thirsty passer-by can 

 drink some good water. Similar care is displayed 

 in each part of the establishment, and especially in 

 the management of the springs, so that a single 

 drop of water may not be lost : indeed, the whole 

 island may be compared to a huge ship kept in 

 first-rate order. I coiild not help, when admiring 

 the active industry which had created such effects 

 out of such means, at the same time regi-etting that 

 it had been wasted on so poor and trifling an end. 

 M. Lesson has remarked with justice, that the Eng- 

 lish nation alone would have thought of making the 

 island of Ascension a productive spot ; any other 

 people would have held it as a mere fortress in the 

 ocean. 



Near this coast nothing grows ; further inland, 

 an occasional green castor-oil plant, and a few 

 B B 2 



