i6 AT rORTO PRAYA. [chap.. 



his own happiness. The island would generally be cc 

 sidered as very uninteresting ; but to any one accustonu 

 only to an English landscape, the novel aspect of an uttei 

 sterile land possesses a grandeur which more vcgetati(i 

 might spoil. A single green leaf can scarcely be d'd 

 covered over wide tracts of the lava plains ; yet flocf 

 of goats, together with a few cows, contrive to exist. 

 rains very seldom, but during a short portion of the ye^ 

 heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards a lig| 

 vegetation springs out of every crevice. This soon withers 

 and upon such naturally formed hay the animals live. It 

 had not now rained for an entire year. VVheiv the island 

 was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of Porto 

 Praya was clothed with trees,* the reckless destruction of 

 which has caused here, as at St. Helena, and at some of the 

 Canary Islands, almost entire sterility. The broad, flat- 

 bottomed valleys, many of which serve during a few days 

 only in the season as watercourses, are clothed with 

 thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit 

 these valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher {Dace/o 

 lagoensis)^ which tamely sits on the branches of the castor- 

 oil plant, and thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It 

 is brightly coloured, but not so beautiful as the European 

 species : in its flight, manners, and place of habitation, 

 which is generally in the driest valley, there is also a wide 

 difference. 



One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira 

 Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. 

 Until we reached the valley of St. Martin, the country 

 presented its usual dull brown appearance ; but here, a 

 very small rill of water produces a most refreshing margin 

 of luxuriant vegetation. In the course of an hour we 

 arrived at Ribeira Grande, and were surprised at the 

 sight of a large ruined fort and cathedral. This little 

 town, before its harbour was filled up, was the principal 

 place in the Island : it now presents a melancholy, but very 

 picturesque appearance. Having procured a black Padre 

 for a guide, and a Spaniard who had served in the 

 Peninsular war as an interpreter, we visited a collection of- 

 bulldlngs, of which an ancient church formed the principal 

 part. It is here the governors and captains-general of the 

 islands have been buried. Some of the tombstones recorded 



* I state this on the authority of Dr. E. Dieffenbach, in his German translation 

 of tlie first edition of this Journal. 



