APPENDIX. 211 



these animals occupied the rock entirely, and were so 

 numerous that no ship could dare approach land without 

 running the risk of being sunk. As for knowing whether 

 the apes have always existed there, or whether they have 

 become naturalized, it must be difficult to determine ; but 

 I think the first supposition the most probable, since these 

 animals are seen on the African mountains, and they might 

 as well have also inhabited a country so near it, and with 

 the same climate. 



Nothing can be so admirable as the English works on 

 this part of the mountain ; the rock being cut into large 

 subterranean passages, lighted occasionally by small 

 openings (port-holes). The requisite ammunition is all 

 placed here ; the cannons are varnished over, that they 

 may the better resist the humidity which prevails in these 

 vaults. The different heights are connected by steps and 

 ladders, and often the galleries enlarge into a spacious 

 room, such as that called St. George's Hall, in which the 

 governor sometimes gives fetes.* The roof is then orna- 

 mented with foliage and drapery, the galleries every where 

 illuminated, permitting the brilliant society of the town to 

 arrive either in carriages or on horseback. f The real 

 utility of these splendid works has been much contested ; 

 some have maintained that the firing of the pieces would 

 produce a dreadful crash, and that the smoke of the pow- 

 der would be very inconvenient to the gunners. I doubt 

 its being so ; but in all cases the effect of these batteries, 

 and particularly of the most elevated, would be but little 

 dreaded by an enemy near the foot of the mountain ; 

 it is true they may be more effectually employed against 

 a more distant point, and that they would destroy, with 

 the greatest facility, the camp of San Roque (the Spanish 

 lines). 



* Not lately. Trans. 



f Not all the way. Trans. 



