66 
PASSAGE TO ASCENSION. 
richly clothed \yith wood. One especially, presenting 
a perpendicnlar face to the sea, was of very singular 
and beautiful form; being pyramidal, with tapering 
pinnacles of rock rising erect from the slopes on 
either side, like those of Milan Cathedral, while every 
ledse and crevice gave nourishment to a rich luxuri- 
anco of parasitical and other foliage, and the precipi- 
tous surfaces were tinged with every variety of colour. 
Little villages appeared nestled in fertile spots, but 
these were few, and sometimes only guessed at by the 
gracefully curling smoke; the greater part of the 
population of the island being then at the capital. 
Four rocky islets, south of the island, are the resort 
of numerous sea-birds. After passing these, we gave 
onr last farewell to Annobone'"'. The breeze was 
fresh from south-west, with some rain. We steered 
head to wind, in order to get sufficient southing 
to enable us, when we should fall in with the trade- 
winds, to fetch the Island of Ascension. This is of the 
utmost importance at all times, but especially to a 
vessel constructed like ours, which could only make a 
passage under sail, with a very favourable wind ; since, 
from the want of a keel fore and aft, she made lee- 
way on every point. The fuel could not be expected, — 
* This ‘^bright isle” was discovered in 1748 by the Portuguese, and 
named from the new year. It is the smallest and outermost of those 
elevated by the line of volcanic action in a direction south-westerly 
from the Camaroon Mountain, and rises abruptly from a deep sea to 
aboidt three thousand feet. 
