The Endeavour returns to England. £4$ 
for a cart, and where it is, the wheel-barrow might be ufed 
with great advantage, yet there is no wheelbarrow in the 
whole illand ; every thing is conveyed from place to place by 
the Haves, and they are not furnilhed even with the Ample 
convenience of a porter’s knot, but carry their burden upon 
their heads. They are indeed very numerous, and are brought 
almoft from every part of the world, but they appeared to be 
a miferable race, worn cut partly by exceffive labour, and 
partly by ill ufage, of which they frequently complained ; and 
I am forry to fay, that inftances of wanton cruelty are much 
more frequent among my countrymen here, than among the 
Dutch, who are, and perhaps not without reaion, generally 
reproached with want of humanity at Batavia and the Cape. 
Among the native produfts ol this illand, which are not 
numerous, mull be reckoned ebony, though the trees are now 
nearly extinfl, and are not remembered to have been plenty: 
pieces of the wood are frequently found in the vallies, of a 
fine black colour, and a hardnefs almoll equal to iron : thefe 
pieces, however, are always fo fhort and crooked, that no 
ufe can be made of them. Whethel* the tree is the fame with 
that which produces ebony upon the ille of Bourbon, or the 
illands adjacent, is not known, as the French have not yet 
publilhed any account of it. 
There are but few infects in this place, but there is a fpe- 
cies of fnail found upon the tops of the higheft ridges, which 
probably has been there fince the original creation of their 
kind, at the beginni. g of the world. It is indeed very diffi- 
cult to conceive how any thing w hich was not depofited here 
at its creation, or brought hither by the diligence of man, 
could find its way to a place fo fevered from the reft of the 
world, by feas of immenfe extent, except the hypothefis that 
has been mentioned on another occafion be adopted, and this 
rock be fuppofed to have been left behind, when a large tradl 
of country, of wffiich it was part, fubfided by fome convulfion 
of nature, and was fwallowed up in the ocean. 
At one o’clock in the afternoon, of the 4th of May, we 
weighed and ftood out of the road, in company with the Port- 
land man of war, and twelve fail of Indiamen. 
We continued to fail in company with the fleet, till the 
I~th in the morning, when, perceiving that we failed much 
heavier than any other lhip, and thinking it for that reafon 
probable that the Portland would get home before us, I made 
the fignalto fpeak with her, upon which Captain Elliot him- 
felf came on board, and I delivered to him a letter for the Ad- 
miralty, with a box, containing the common leg books of 
the fhip, and the journals of fome of the officers. We conti- 
nued in company, however, till the 23d in the morning, and 
then there was not one of the ffiips in fight. About one 
o’clock 
