MORTALITY ON BOARD THE HECLA. 381

officers and crew that she was almost unmanned. A more wretched spectacle could not be imagined than this ship presented on her arrival at St. Helena. She was literally a floating sepulchre from the dreadful effects of the African clime.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Sail for Ascension in company with the Eden.

Anchor

off George Town.-Character of the Island.-Establishment of George Town.-The Green Mountain and the Devil's Riding Ground. - Produce of the Island.- Dampier's Springs.-Turtle, their habits.-Method of taking them.-Male Turtle never obtained.-Insects.

ON 10th of February we left St. Helena, and after a delightful passage of four days we arrived at Ascension on the 14th February, in company with his Majesty's ship Eden. The scene from the anchorage has a barren aspect although warmed by the light colour of the sand, but it is by no means so repulsive in the eye of a visiter as the wild and rugged rocks of St. Helena. Ascension is in general a much lower island, interspersed with broken ridges of lava and scattered hills separated by extensive plains. St. Helena, as we have seen, is one towering mass of solid rock.

SCENERY OF ASCENSION.

383

Situated nearly in the middle of the vast Atlantic, Ascension is about twenty miles in circumference, being nine miles in length from east to west, and about five or six from north to south. The surface of the island consists of ridges of naked rock, hills of cinders, and plains of ashes, dust, and lava. The general contour of the hills, and the blending of their different colours, impart a soft and pleasing effect on the mind of the spectator: the blackness of one hill is relieved by the ash-grey tinge of another, and the brick-burnt soil of one cone is contrasted with the pumice, or brown lava, of an adjacent or an opposite one. By this variety and alternation of colour, the monotony which would otherwise prevail is broken, and the scenery in some parts assumes a wild and picturesque character; and though not sublime in barrenness, it may be regarded as an awful wilderness amid the solitude of the ocean.

On the southern or lee-side of the island is the garrison establishment, dignified by the name of George Town, consisting of a small square formed by fifteen or twenty wooden houses. Besides these, contiguous to them, is the government store, a substantial stone build

ing; a very neat and respectable hospital establishment on a small scale, for the reception of patients from the ships, and for the purpose of supplying them with medicine; a very good smith's shop; a public mess-room, and a row of humble dwellings for the garrison officers. On Cross Hill, close to the anchorage, is a signalpost which communicates with the mountainhouse; and Captain Bate, the commandant of the island at the time of our visit, had erected a house for himself on the brow of a hill to the eastward of the garrison. An admirable pier or jetty, terminated by a rock, forms the landing place, on which is a crane for the purpose of loading and unloading boats.

The establishment at George Town consists of a hundred and ten marines, with four lieutenants, a surgeon with his assistant, an agent victualler and fifty negroes, or kroomen, from the coast, all under the command of Captain Bate of the Royal Marines. The garrison comprises many artificers, and the energy and industry of these people is worthy of a better cause; for, although their labours are surprising, the results of them creditable and beneficial, yet I am afraid they can never make the desert smile.