ST. HELENA 183 



commanding positions for a signal station, but from its height it is 

 often hidden in the clouds and it is ordered Sep. 1692 that Matts 

 mount or Flagstaff should be discontinued as a look-out, being 

 mostly very foggy and hazey and inaccessible to an enemy 

 Prosperous Bay being much lower hath a very clear prospect. 



Friar's Valley is first mentioned July 14, 1684, in con- 

 nexion with Breakneck Valley. The shape of the pillar- 

 like rock on the ridge of hills bears a close resemblance to 

 a cowled friar, that there is no difficulty in knowing whence 

 the valley obtained its name. (Friar's Lodge is now 

 owned by Rev. J. H. Daine, R.C. Chaplain.) 



Hunt's Gutt, near Halley's Mount, was allotment 

 ground granted to Sergeant Maurice Hunt on January 15, 

 1683. It is described as adjoining Hutt's Plain, and next 

 the grand ridge that leadeth to the wood. 



Horse Pasture. — In the records are careful returns of 

 all stock in the island, including cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, 

 asses, and even poultry belonging to the Company, but 

 horses are not mentioned before 1733. We should there- 

 fore infer that no horses were on the island, yet a large 

 common in 1714 is called " Horse Pasture," which name it 

 still bears, and " Horse Ridge " is named as early as 1695. 

 An account of the voyage of M. Rennefort in 1666 

 proves that horses had been introduced at an early date, 

 but had become so wild that they preferred to break their 

 necks over the precipices into the sea rather than allow 

 themselves to be caught : — 



Ony avait portedes chevaux mais ils etoient devenues si farouches 

 que lorsqu'on les poursuivoit jusqu'aus extremites de l'ile se pre- 

 cipitoient du sommet des roches dans la mer plutot de se laisser 

 prendre. 



The absence of any allusion to horses in records from 

 1673 to 1734 justifies the belief that these wild lovers of 

 freedom committed suicide rather than be captured. The 

 first horse mentioned in the records was December, 1734. 

 It must have been of their stock, for we read : — 



A young black horse of the Company being grown big enough 

 for the saddle, the Government ordered him to be taken up and 

 broke, but as they were bringing him home, he raised himself upright 

 and fell with such force upon a sharp stick in a furze bush that it 

 went through the bladebone of his shoulder, and penetrated into his 

 heart, and killed him on the spot. 



