INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xv 



" rocky black lava was the residence of numberless man-of-war 

 " birds and boobies, which sat on their eggs, and suffered us to 

 " come close to them. On all this rocky ground, we only met 

 " with ten shrivelled plants, which were of two sorts, a species of 

 " spurge and a bind weed. 



" Having climbed over an extensive and tremendous current 

 -' of lava, more solid than that near the shore, we came to the foot 

 *' of the Green 3Iountam, which even from the ship, we had 

 *' plainly distinguished to be of a different nature from the rest 

 " of the country. The lava which surrounded it, was covered 

 " with a prodigious quantity of purslane and a kind of new fern. 

 " The great mountain is divided in its extremities, by various 

 " clifts into several bodies ; but in the centre they all unite and 

 " form one broad mass of great height. The whole appears to 

 '• consist of a gritty tophaceous lime-stone, which has never been 

 " attacked by the volcano, but probably existed prior to its 

 " eruption. 



" St. Helena has on its outside, especially where the ships lie 

 " at anchor, an appearance, if possible, more dreadful and dreary 

 *' than Ascension : but the further you advance, the less desolate 

 " the country appears, and the most interior parts are always 

 '• covered with plants, trees, and verdure. However, there are 

 " every where the most evident marks of its having undergone a 

 " great and total change, from a volcano and earthquake, which 

 " perhaps sunk the greatest part of it in the sea. 



" We visited (says the same author) isles that had still volca- 

 *' noes burning ; others that had only elevation, and marks of 

 •' being formed in remote ages by a volcano ; and lastly, we 

 " found isles that had no remains of a volcano, but strong and 

 " undoubted vestiges of having been violently changed and partly 

 -' overturned by an earthquake, subterraneous Jire, and a volcano. 



