300 ISLAND OF ASCENSION. [1698. 



which have since exceedingly mnltiply'd, such as Bulls and 

 Cows, Goats, Sheep, etc. The Horses are become very "VVild.^ 

 You find there, moreover, Partridges, Turtles, and divers 

 other sorts of Game.^ The Sea furnishes a great deal of 

 good Fish, and we may say the few Inhabitants of this 

 Island might live much better, and more at ease, were it 

 not for a prodigious number of Eats that spoil their Fruit 

 and Corn. 



After having taken on Board the Picfreshments that were 

 necessar}^ we set sail with a favourable Wind the 26th of 

 Ap7'il about Noon, but did not lose sight of the Island till 

 we were got eight or ten Leagues off. We contemplated 

 with a great deal of Pleasure the assembled Mass of these 

 steep Eocks in the midst of a vast extent of Ocean, whose 

 impetuous and terrible Waves seemed to have a mind to 

 absorb it every Moment. 



Some few days after we found our selves off of the Island 

 of Ascension'^ which is in seven Degrees and a half of the 

 same Latitude,* but we did not design to Land there, and so 

 steer'd on. 



1 Island-bred ponies, remarkably sure-footed, are still extant in 

 St. Helena, and number now about 250. 



2 The partridge of St. Helena is probably the Caccahis chulrtr of 

 Northern India. There are also pheasants, which were abundant even 

 in 1588, when they are mentioned by Cavendish. The only indigenous 

 peculiar bird is the Wire-bird, jEgialitis, a species of rail. In the 

 French edition Leguat also mentions " pintades", guinea-fowl, and 

 " tourterelles", turtle doves, translated "Turtles" in the text. (Cf. 

 Melliss's St. Helena, p. 95.) 



3 Ascension is the next isolated spot in the midst of the Atlantic, in 

 8° lat., and its highest peak, called Green Mountain, is visible at the 

 distance of sixty-five miles. This island is now possessed by the Admi- 

 ralty, and used as a sanatorium and depot for the West Coast of Africa. 

 The best description of it is that written by the wife of Dr. Gill, the 

 well-known Astronomer Royal at the Cape, after the Mars expedition 

 of 1877. 



* In orig. : " mais nous ne Tapenjumes point," omitted by trans- 

 lator. 



