These Huge Reptiles, Surrounded By
The Black Lava, The Leafless Shrubs, And Large Cacti, Seemed To
My Fancy Like Some Antediluvian Animals.
The few dull-
coloured birds cared no more for me than they did for the
great tortoises.
23rd. - The Beagle proceeded to Charles Island. This
archipelago has long been frequented, first by the bucaniers,
and latterly by whalers, but it is only within the last six
years, that a small colony has been established here. The
inhabitants are between two and three hundred in number;
they are nearly all people of colour, who have been banished
for political crimes from the Republic of the Equator, of
which Quito is the capital. The settlement is placed about
four and a half miles inland, and at a height probably of a
thousand feet. In the first part of the road we passed
through leafless thickets, as in Chatham Island. Higher up,
the woods gradually became greener; and as soon as we
crossed the ridge of the island, we were cooled by a fine
southerly breeze, and our sight refreshed by a green and
thriving vegetation. In this upper region coarse grasses and
ferns abound; but there are no tree-ferns: I saw nowhere
any member of the palm family, which is the more singular,
as 360 miles northward, Cocos Island takes its name from
the number of cocoa-nuts. The houses are irregularly scattered
over a flat space of ground, which is cultivated with
sweet potatoes and bananas. It will not easily be imagined
how pleasant the sight of black mud was to us, after having
been so long, accustomed to the parched soil of Peru and
northern Chile. The inhabitants, although complaining of
poverty, obtain, without much trouble, the means of subsistence.
In the woods there are many wild pigs and goats;
but the staple article of animal food is supplied by the
tortoises. Their numbers have of course been greatly reduced
in this island, but the people yet count on two days'
hunting giving them food for the rest of the week. It is
said that formerly single vessels have taken away as many
as seven hundred, and that the ship's company of a frigate
some years since brought down in one day two hundred
tortoises to the beach.
September 29th. - We doubled the south-west extremity of
Albemarle Island, and the next day were nearly becalmed
between it and Narborough Island. Both are covered with
immense deluges of black naked lava, which have flowed either
over the rims of the great caldrons, like pitch over the
rim of a pot in which it has been boiled, or have burst forth
from smaller orifices on the flanks; in their descent they
have spread over miles of the sea-coast. On both of these
islands, eruptions are known to have taken place; and in
Albemarle, we saw a small jet of smoke curling from the
summit of one of the great craters. In the evening we
anchored in Bank's Cove, in Albemarle Island.
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