670 
shady walks, that add to the neat ap- 
pearance of the town, the houses of 
which are handsomely built in the En- 
glish style, generally two stories high, 
and well white-washed. Upon the whole 
it greatly resembles a pretty little country 
town in England, the mhabitants, lan- 
guage, and manners being all English. 
Looking up from the streets towards 
Rupert’s and Ladder-hill, the scene is 
awfully sublime! The stranger shudders 
to behold enormous masses of rock, 
impending on each side of the valley 
from a prodigious height, and which, 
from their wild fractured appearance, 
seem every instant ready to hurl de- 
struction on the town below! 
St. Helena Bay, being formed by two 
projecting promontories, and situated 
on the Lee side of the Island, is of course, 
completely sheltered from the S. E. trade 
winds by the mountains, and protected 
from the long swell of the southern ocean, 
by the island itself. It thus affords a 
safe and commodious anchorage for our 
ships, which lie close to the rocks, in 
water as smooth as glass. 
Fresh water distils down from the 
erevices in the rocks, and being collected 
in a reservoir, under Rupert’s hill, ships’ 
boats can lie at the jetty side there and 
have the hoses led into the casks. 
When all these circumstances are kept 
in mind, and we take a view of the town, 
the valley, and surrounding rocks, from 
the roads, we find no bad description 
of the whole, in the first book of the 
féneid, where Eneas, after the storm, 
ands near the port of Carthage. 
4€ Within a deep recess there lies a bay, 
An island shades it from the rolling sea, 
And forms a port secure for ships to ride ; 
Broke by the jutting land on either side, 
In double streams, the briny waters glide, 
Betwixt two rugged rocks: a sylvan scene 
Appears below, and groves for ever green, 
az =— —s == ae 
Down through the crannies in the living 
walls, 
The crystal streams descend in murm’rin 
falls, : 
No halsers need to bind the vessels here, 
Nor crooked anchors for No sTORMS THEY 
FEAR.” : 
Dryden s Translation. 
As our stay in this place was limited 
to forty-eight hours, we had no time to 
lose ; and accordinglya party of us having 
procured horses, we started from James- 
town, at day-break on the 24th De- 
cember, in order to make a tour through 
the island. 
Fournal of a Voyage in the Indian Seas. 
We commenced our journey by ascen- 
ding Ladder-hill, a precipice, which, at 
first sight, seems designed by nature as 
a barrier that would for ever defy the 
human race to scale; yet human industry 
has, by incredible exertions in blowmg 
up the rocks, formed a zig-zag path to 
its summit. 
About midway we stopped to take 
a view of the town, which, even from 
this height, looks like one in miniature ; 
the streets resembling those formed by 
the little houses which we see in toy- 
shops; the whole assuming such a mimic™ 
appearance, that a person would be almost 
tempted to think, he could cover a con- 
siderable part of the town with one of 
his hands. 
On Ladder-hill are mounted twenty- | 
two or twenty-four pieces of cannon; 
some ranged along the brow. of the cliff, 
that overhangs the town, and some along 
that which overlooks the roads. 
Six or seven of these are mounted on 
depressing carriages, so as to fire right 
down into the town and roads, thereby 
completely commanding those places ; 
the rest are mounted on common carria- 
ges, and serve the purpose of a saluting 
battery. Over these precipices few of 
us would venture to look. 
From hence we proceeded for High 
Knowl, over a tract which may be termed 
sterility itself; every step we ascended, 
presenting new views of rocks and moun- 
tains, congregated on each side in the 
wildest order, and without exhibiting an 
atom of vegetation! Such is the prospect 
when withm a few paces of the summit 
of High Knowl, and which is finely con- 
trasted with the glassy surface of an 
immense expanse of ocean, which the 
great height of the place enables the eye 
to survey. 
We now ascended to the tower on 
the top of the Knowl, which we no sooner 
reached, than all this rude scenery in- 
stantly vanished lke magical delusion, 
leaving the eye to range over a series 
of beautiful little vallies, groves, and 
lawns, verdant as the spring, and affording 
luxuriant pasturage to the flocks and 
herds that strayed among them. : 
Throughout this prospect were inter- 
spersed sinall plantations, gardens, and 
handsome little country-houses; the whole 
surrounded by a lofty irregular ridge of 
hills and precipices, that formed a grand 
outline and striking contrast to the pictu- 
‘resque scenes they enclosed. 
Here our attention was chained for 
some time; at length we descended the 
south side of the Knowl,.which is rather 
steep, 
<v 
