JULY 1769 INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND 107 
but a goat or an Indian could have stood. One of these ropes 
was nearly thirty feet in length; our guides offered to help 
us up this pass, but rather recommended one lower down, a 
few hundred yards away, which was much less dangerous. 
We did not choose to venture on it, as the sight which was 
to reward our hazard was nothing but a grove of vae trees, 
such as we had often seen before. 
In the whole course of this walk the rocks were almost 
constantly bare to the view, so that I had a most excellent 
opportunity of searching for any appearance of minerals, but 
saw not the smallest sign of any. The stones everywhere 
showed manifest signs of having been at some time or other 
burnt, indeed I have not yet seen a specimen of stone in the 
island that has not the visible ‘marks of fire upon it; small 
pieces indeed of the hatchet stone may be without them, but 
I have pieces of the same kind burnt almost to a pumice: 
the very clay upon the hills shows manifest signs of fire. 
Possibly the island owes its origin to a volcano, which now 
no longer burns, or, theoretically speaking, for the sake of 
those authors who balance this globe by a proper weight of 
continent placed near these latitudes, this necessary con- 
tinent may have been sunk by dreadful earthquakes and 
volcanoes two or three hundred fathoms under the sea, the 
tops of the highest mountains only remaining above the 
water in the shape of islands: an undoubted proof being 
that such a thing now exists, to the great support of their 
theory, which, were it not for this proof, would have been 
already totally demolished by the course our ship made 
from Cape Horn to this island. 
Ath. I employed myself in planting a large quantity of 
the seeds of water-melons, oranges, lemons, limes, etc., which 
I had brought from Rio de Janeiro; they were planted on 
both sides of the fort in as many varieties of soil as I could 
choose. I have very little doubt of the former, especially, 
coming to perfection, as I have given away large quantities 
of seed among the natives; I planted some also in the 
woods. The natives now continually ask me for seeds, and 
have already shown me melon plants of their raising which 
