JOURNAL OF A 
road to the top of the hill above the cave, I once more treated my- 
self with a general view of this lovely spot and the surrounding 
country, and entering the cave, made a drawing of Plantation-house, 
and the chapel of ease above it; after which, I once more examined 
the heap of stones in the garden, and got some good specimens of 
volcanic scoriae. 
After breakfast, Captain Forbes rode to town, Mr. Somerset and 
I followed, and in about an hour, Sir Hudson and his retinue. We 
alighted at Sir Thomas Reade's, and finding that we could not im- 
mediately go on board, Captain Forbes and Mr. Somerset rode up 
Rupert's hill, to pay a visit to Mr. Balcombe. I intended to write 
one or two letters to be sent to the Cape, but the servant having 
locked the room at the Admiral's house, where I had deposited my 
writing apparatus, I took a walk a little ^yay up Ladderhill, and 
back to the jetty, intending to proceed along the rocks, to the 
arch I had observed on our landing, but found it inaccessible by 
land. 
On the Captain's return, we went with Sir Thomas to the castle, 
to take leave of the Governor. The castle is an old building, pos- 
sessing no beauty or peculiar feature. It lies to the left, on enter- 
ing the gate from the jetty. Having expressed to his Excellency, 
as well as to Sir Thomas and the other othcers, the grateful sense 
we shall ever retain of that kind attention which we had so largely 
experienced, we entered the Captain's gig, and went on board. 
Sir Thomas took charge of our letters, an opportunity soon offering 
for the Cape. But if the plan of obtaining provisions from the 
Portuguese settlements of Angola and Benguela on the opposite 
coast of Africa, succeeds, the communication between St. Helena 
and the Cape will not be so frequent. The loss in live stock im- 
ported from the Cape, is found to be too great. We had a good 
and swift passage, and yet lost twenty of our sheep, and not long 
ago, out of thirty brought from the Cape for the use of the officers, 
nine-and-twenty died during the voyage. 
The weather was fine, the sea smooth, and the wind as fair as 
