518 



CHARLES DARWIN 



The settlement is near the beach; it consists of several 

 houses and barracks placed irregularly, but well built of 

 white freestone. The only inhabitants are marines, and some 

 negroes liberated from slave-ships, who are paid and victu- 

 alled by government. There is not a private person on the 

 island. Many of the marines appeared well contented with 

 their situation ; they think it better to serve their one-and- 

 twenty years on shore, let it be what it may, than in a ship ; 

 in this choice, if I were a marine, I should most heartily 

 agree. 



The next morning I ascended Green Hill, 2840 feet high, 

 and thence walked across the island to the windward point. 

 A good cart-road leads from the coast-settlement to the 

 houses, gardens, and fields, placed near the summit of the 

 central mountain. On the roadside there are milestones, and 

 likewise cisterns, where each thirsty passer-by can drink 

 some good water. Similar care is displayed in each part of the 

 establishment, and especially in the management of the 

 springs, so that a single drop of water may not be lost : in- 

 deed the whole island may be compared to a huge ship kept 

 in first-rate order. I could not help, when admiring the 

 active industry, which had created such effects out of such 

 means, at the same time regretting that it had been wasted on 

 so poor and trifling an end. M. Lesson has remarked with 

 justice, that the English nation would have thought of mak- 

 ing the island of Ascension a productive spot; any other 

 people would have held it as a mere fortress in the ocean. 



Near this coast nothing grows; further inland, an occa- 

 sional green castor-oil plant, and a few grasshoppers, true 

 friends of the desert, may be met with. Some grass is scat- 

 tered over the surface of the central elevated region, and the 

 whole much resembles the worse parts of the Welsh moun- 

 tains. But scanty as the pasture appears, about six hundred 

 sheep, many goats, a few cows and horses, all thrive well on 

 it. Of native animals, land-crabs and rats swarm in num- 

 bers. Whether the rat is really indigenous, may well be 

 doubted ; there are two varieties as described by Mr. Water- 

 house; one is of a black colour, with fine glossy fur, and 

 lives on the grassy summit ; the other is brown-coloured and 

 less glossy, with longer hairs, and lives near the settlement 



