1889.] Gigantic Land Tortoises. 1057 
eighty colonists, arrived in October, and at once assumed his 
station as proprietor and governor of the island " (p. 469). 
It is clear that the colonization of Charles Island was of the 
greatest influence on the fauna of the islands, especially on the 
tortoises. Buccaneers and whalers have done a good deal to re- 
duce these animals, but the colony of 2300 people reduced the 
number of tortoises on Charles Island in a short time to such an 
extent that when three years later Darwin visited the island 
they were already obliged to go to other islands to procure tor- 
toises. In 1832, when the Potomac visited Charles Island, tor- 
toises were still abundant, for a great many were brought from 
the island to the ship by the crew (p. 547). The number of 
whale-ships reported at Charles Island from October 13th, iS32,to 
August 30th, 1833, was not less than thirty-one, according to Rey- 
nolds. If each of these whalers took only two hundred tortoises 
on board, in less than one year six thousand tortoises were taken 
from Charles Island alone. There is little doubt that about one 
hundred thousand tortoises were taken from the Galapagos Is- 
lands since their discovery. 
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ative of four vovages to the South Sea 
