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.
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