OF THE GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 449 
eastern volcano of the same island emitted smoke, but no flame, during his visit in 
18365. 
Owing doubtless to the severity of the volcanic action in the westernmost islands, the 
vegetation is described as very scanty. Narborough appears to be quite barren, except 
afew mangroves growing along its eastern shore. The northern end of Albemarle is 
described by Darwin as miserably sterile; but the southern side, exposed as it is to the 
prevailing moisture-laden south-easterly wind, is thickly wooded, and very green. 
Most of the other islands bear a scanty vegetation, some, such as James Island, having 
trees two feet and even two feet nine inches in diameter. The contrast, however, between 
the vegetation of the whole archipelago and that of the adjoining coast is very great. 
The climate of the Galapagos is described as mild for its situation under the equator, 
the surrounding water being of low temperature from the influence of the south polar 
current. Little rain falls, except during the months of November, December, and 
January ; clouds, however, usually hang over the higher mountains, where the deposit of 
moisture is far greater than on the sea-shore; and consequently the vegetation of the 
upper portion of most of the islands is more luxuriant. 
The ocean-currents which flow through the Galapagos are strong, varying from one mile 
to three miles an hour. They appear, judging from the Admiralty chart, and allowing 
for the obstruction opposed by the various islands, to be tolerably uniform in their 
direction, trending to the north-west. As light winds and calms are frequently expe- 
rienced, these currents make the navigation difficult to sailing ships, and we read of 
vessels being days and even weeks in endeavouring to beat against their course. 
The position of the Galapagos Islands appears to have been first indicated in the 
Spanish manuscript charts of the sixteenth century; but no record of the date of their 
discovery, nor yet of the discoverer, has been left. 
In the Latin edition (the first) of De Bry’s ‘Grands Voyages’ there is a map bearing 
the date 1592, in the “‘ Americ tertia Pars,” where these islands are indicated a little 
to the northward of the equator, and are called “Ys de los Galopegos.” ‘The map 
itself is called “‘ Americe pars magis cognita.” ‘his is the earliest published reference 
I can find to the archipelago. 
In the following year Hawkins, the contemporary of Drake, mentions the islands 
casually in his ‘ Observations in a Voiage into the South Seas, anno domini 1593,’ In 
mentioning Cape Passaos, on the west coast of South America, he says (p. 122), 
“it lyeth directly under the Equinoctiall line: some fourescore leagues to the west- 
wards of this cape lyeth a heape of Ilands, the Spaniards call Ilas de los Galapagos ; 
they are desert and beare no fruite.” 
The Spaniards established themselves on the shores of the Pacific at Panama about 
the year 1519; and in 1525 Pizzaro made his first expedition to Peru. It would be 
probably soon after this that the islands were discovered and named, as their existence 
appears to have been commonly known at the time of Hawkins’s expedition. 
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