Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Vol. 3 [of 3] · Charles Darwin
MAURITIUS TO ENGLAND.
APRIL 29TH.--In the morning we passed round the northern extremity of the Isle of France. From this point of view the aspect of the island equalled the expectations raised by the many well-known descriptions of its beautiful scenery. The sloping plain of the Pamplemousses, scattered over with houses, and coloured bright green from the large fields of sugar-cane, composed the foreground. The brilliancy of the green was the more remarkable, because it is a colour which generally is only conspicuous from a very short distance. Towards the centre of the island, groups of wooded mountains rose out of this highly-cultivated plain; their summits, as so commonly happens with ancient volcanic rocks, being jagged into the sharpest points. Masses of white clouds were collected around their pinnacles, as if for the sake of pleasing the stranger’s eye. The whole island, with its sloping border and central mountains, was adorned with an air of perfect elegance: the scenery, if I may use such an expression, appeared to the senses harmonious. I spent the greater part of the next day in walking about the town, and visiting different people. The town is of considerable size, and is said to contain 20,000 inhabitants; the streets are very clean and regular. Although the island has been so many years under the English government, the general character of the place is quite French: Englishmen speak to their servants in French, and the shops are all French; indeed I should think that Calais or Boulogne was much more Anglified. There is a very pretty little theatre, in which operas are excellently performed, and are much preferred by the inhabitants to plays. We were also surprised at seeing large booksellers’ shops, with well-stored shelves;--music and reading bespeak our approach to the old world of civilization; for in truth both Australia and America may be considered as new worlds.
One of the most interesting spectacles in Port Louis, is to observe the various races of men which may be met in walking the streets. Convicts from India are banished here for life; at present there are about 800, and they are employed in various public works. Before seeing these people, I had no idea that the inhabitants of India were such noble-looking figures. Their skin is extremely dark, and many of the older men had large mustaches and beards of a snow-white colour; this, together with the fire of their expressions, gave them quite an imposing aspect. The greater number have been banished for murder and the worst crimes; others for causes which can scarcely be considered as moral faults, such as for not obeying, from superstitious motives, the English laws. These men are generally quiet and well-conducted; from their outward conduct, their cleanliness and faithful observance of their strange religious enactments, it was impossible to look at them with the same eyes as on our wretched convicts in New South Wales. Besides these prisoners, large numbers of free people are yearly imported from India: for the planters were afraid that the negroes, when emancipated, would not work. From these causes the Indian population is here very considerable. MAY 1ST.--Sunday. I took a quiet walk along the sea-coast to the northward of the town. The plain in that part is quite uncultivated; it consists of a field of black lava, smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes, the latter being chiefly mimosas. Captain FitzRoy, before arriving here, said he expected the island would have a character intermediate between that of the Galapagos and Tahiti. This is a very exact comparison; but it will convey a definite idea to few, excepting to those who were on board the Beagle. It is a very pleasant country, but it has not the charms of Tahiti, or the grandeur of a Brazilian landscape.
The next day I ascended La Pouce, a mountain so called from a thumb-like projection, which rises close behind the town to a height of 2600 feet. M. Lesson, in the voyage of the Coquille, has stated, that the central plain of the island appeared like the basin of a grand crater, and that La Pouce and the other mountains once formed parts of a connected wall. From our elevated position we enjoyed an excellent view over this great mass of volcanic matter. The country on this side of the island appears pretty well cultivated, the whole being divided into fields, and studded with farm-houses. I was however assured, that of the whole land not more than half is yet in a productive state; if such is the case, considering the present great export of sugar, this island, at some future period when thickly peopled, will be of very great value. Since England has taken possession of it, a period of only twenty-five years, the export of sugar is said to have increased seventy-five fold. One great cause of this prosperity is due to the excellent roads and means of communication throughout the island. At the present day, in the neighbouring Isle of Bourbon, which remains under the French government, the roads are in the same miserable state as they were only a few years past in this place. The Macadamizing art has, perhaps, been of even greater advantage to the colonies, than to the mother country. Although the French residents must have largely profited by the increased prosperity of their island, yet the English government is far from popular. It is unfortunate that there appears to exist scarcely any intercourse among the higher orders of French and English.
MAY 3D.--In the evening Captain Lloyd, the Surveyor-general, so well known from his examination of the Isthmus of Panama, invited Mr. Stokes and myself to his country-house, which is situated on the edge of Wilheim plains, and about six miles from the port. We staid at this delightful place two days: being elevated nearly 800 feet above the sea, the air was pleasantly cool and fresh, and on every side there were delightful walks. Close by there is a grand ravine, which is worn to a depth of about 500 feet through the slightly inclined streams of lava which have flowed from the central platform. 5TH.--Captain Lloyd took us to the Rivière Noire, which is several miles to the southward, in order that I might examine some rocks of elevated coral. We passed through pleasant gardens, and fine fields of sugar-cane growing amidst huge blocks of lava. The roads were bordered by hedges of mimosa, and near many of the houses there were avenues of the mango. Some of the views, where the peaked hills and the cultivated farms were seen together, were exceedingly picturesque; and we were constantly tempted to exclaim, “How pleasant it would be to pass one’s life in such a quiet abode!” Captain Lloyd possessed an elephant; he sent it half way with us on the road, that we might enjoy a ride in true Indian fashion. I should think, as is commonly said to be the case, that the motion must be fatiguing for a long journey. The circumstance which surprised me most, was the quite noiseless step; a ride on so wonderful an animal was extremely interesting. This elephant is the only one at present on the island; but it is said others will be sent for.
MAY 9TH.--We sailed from Port Louis, on our way to the Cape of Good Hope, and on the evening of the 31st anchored in Simon’s Bay. The little town offers but a cheerless aspect to a stranger’s eye. About a couple of hundred, square, whitewashed houses, with scarcely a single tree in the neighbourhood, and very few gardens, are scattered along the beach, at the foot of a lofty, steep, bare wall, of horizontally-stratified sandstone. The next day I set out for Cape Town, which is twenty miles distant. Both towns are situated within the headlands, but at the opposite extremities of a range of mountains, which extending parallel to the mainland, is joined to it by a low sandy flat. The road skirted the base of these mountains: for the first fourteen miles the country is very desert, and with the exception of the pleasure which the sight of an entirely new vegetation never fails to communicate, there was very little of interest. The view however of the mountains on the opposite side of the flat, brightened by the declining sun, was fine. Within seven miles of Cape Town, in the neighbourhood of Wynberg, a great improvement was visible, and here the country-houses of the more wealthy residents of the capital are situated. The numerous woods of young Scotch firs and stunted oak-trees form the chief attraction of this locality. There is, indeed, a great charm in shade and retirement, after the unconcealed bleakness of so open a country as this. The houses and plantations are backed by a grand wall of mountains, which gives the scene a degree of uncommon beauty. I arrived late in the evening in Cape Town, and had a good deal of difficulty in finding quarters. In the morning several ships from India had arrived at this great inn on the great highway of nations, and they had disgorged on shore a host of passengers, all longing to enjoy the delights of a temperate climate. There is only one good hotel, so that strangers generally live in boarding-houses;--a very uncomfortable fashion to which I was obliged to conform, although I was fortunate in my quarters.
In the morning I walked to a neighbouring hill to look at the town. It is laid out with the rectangular precision of a Spanish city: the streets are in good order, and Macadamized, and some of them have rows of trees on each side; the houses are all whitewashed, and look clean. In several trifling particulars the town had a foreign air, but it is daily becoming more English. There is scarcely a resident, excepting amongst the lowest order, who does not speak some English. In this facility in becoming Anglefied, there appears to exist a wide difference between this colony and that of the Mauritius. It does not, however, arise from the popularity of the English; for the Dutch as well as the French, although they have profited to an immense degree by the English government, yet thoroughly dislike our whole nation. All the fragments of the civilized world which we have visited in the southern hemisphere, appear to be flourishing: little embryo Englands are springing into life in many quarters. Although the Cape colony possesses only a moderately fertile country, it appears in a very prosperous condition. In one respect it suffers like New South Wales, namely, in the absence of water communication, and in the interior being separated from the coast by a high chain of mountains. This country does not possess coal; and there is no timber, excepting at a considerable distance. Hides, tallow, and wine are the chief exports, and latterly a considerable quantity of corn. The farmers are beginning also to pay attention to sheep-grazing,--a hint taken from Australia. It is no small triumph to Van Diemen’s Land, that live sheep have been exported from a colony of thirty-three years standing, to this which was founded in 1651.
In Cape Town it is said that the present number of inhabitants is about 15,000, and in the whole colony, including coloured people, 200,000. Many different nations are here mingled together; the Europeans consist of Dutch, French, and English, and scattered people from other parts. The Malays, descendants of slaves brought from the East Indian archipelago, form a large body. They are a fine set of men, and can always be distinguished by a conical hat, like the roof of a circular thatched cottage, or by a red handkerchief on their heads. The number of negroes is not very great; and the Hottentots, the ill-treated aborigines of the country, are, I should think, in a still smaller proportion. The first object in Cape Town which strikes the eye of a stranger, is the number of bullock-waggons. Several times I saw eighteen, and I heard of twenty-four oxen being all yoked together in one team. Besides these, waggons with four, six, and eight horses in hand, go trotting about the streets. I have as yet not mentioned the well-known Table Mountain. This great mass of horizontally-stratified sandstone rises quite close behind the town to a height of 3500 feet: the upper part forms an absolute wall, often reaching into the region of the clouds. I should think so high a mountain, not forming part of an extensive platform, and yet being composed of horizontal strata, must be a rare phenomenon. It certainly gives the landscape a very peculiar, and from some points of view, a grand character.
JUNE 4TH.--I set out on a short excursion to see the neighbouring country, but I saw so very little, that I have scarcely any thing to say. I hired a couple of horses, and a young Hottentot groom to accompany me as a guide. He spoke English very well, and was most tidily dressed; he wore a long coat, beaver hat, and white gloves! The Hottentots, or Hodmadods as old Dampier calls them, to my eye look like partially bleached negroes. They are of a small stature, and have most singularly-formed heads and faces: the temple and cheek-bones project so much, that the whole face is hidden from a person standing in the same side position in which he would be enabled to see part of the features of a European. Their hair is very short and curly. Our first day’s ride was to the village of the Paarl, situated between thirty and forty miles to the N.E. of Cape Town. After leaving the neighbourhood of the town, where white houses stand as if picked out of a street and then by chance dropped on the open country, we had to cross a wide level sandy flat, totally unfit for cultivation. In the hopes of finding some hard materials for making a road, the sands had been bored along the whole line to the depth of forty feet, but without any success. Leaving the flat, we crossed a low undulating country, thinly clothed with a slight green vegetation. It was not the flowering season, but even at this time of the year there were some very pretty oxalises and mesembryanthemums, and on the sandy spots fine tufts of heaths. There were also several beautiful little birds:--if a person could not find amusement in observing the animals and plants, there was very little else during the whole day to interest him: only here and there we passed a solitary farm-house.
Directly after arriving at the Paarl, I ascended a singular group of rounded granite hills, which rise close behind the village. From the summit I enjoyed a fine view of the line of mountains which I had to cross on the following morning. Their colours were gray or partly rusty red, and their outlines irregular, but far from picturesque: the general tint of the lower country was a pale brownish green, and the whole entirely destitute of woodland.[1] From the naked state of the mountains, seen likewise through a very clear atmosphere, I was reminded of Northern Chile; but the rocks there, possess at least a brilliant colouring. Immediately beneath the hill, the long village of the Paarl extended; all the houses were whitewashed, and appeared very comfortable; and there was not a single hovel. Each house had its garden and a few trees planted in straight rows; and there were many vineyards of considerable size, which at this time of year were destitute of leaves. The whole village possessed an air of quiet and respectable comfort.
JUNE 5TH.--After riding about three hours, we came near to the French Hoeck pass. This is so called from a number of emigrant protestant Frenchmen, who formerly settled in a flat valley at the foot of the mountain: it is one of the prettiest places I saw in my excursion. The pass is a considerable work, an inclined road having been cut along the steep side of the mountain: it forms one of the principal roads from the low land of the coast, to the mountains and great plains of the interior. We reached the foot of the mountains on the opposite, or S. E. side of the pass, a little after noon. Here, at the toll-bar, we found comfortable lodgings for the night. The surrounding mountains were destitute of trees, and even of brushwood; but they supported a scattered vegetation of rather a brighter green than usual: the quantity, however, of white siliceous sandstone, every where protruding itself uncovered, gave to the country a bleak and desolate aspect.
6TH.--My intention was to return by Sir Lowry Cole’s pass, over the same chain of mountains as before, but a little further to the south. Following unfrequented paths, we crossed an irregular hilly country until we joined the other line of road. During the whole long day, I met scarcely a single person, and saw but few inhabited spots, or any number of cattle. A few roebucks were grazing on the sides of the hills, and some large dirty white vultures, like the condors of America, slowly wheeled over the place where probably some dead animal was lying. There was not even a tree to break the monotonous uniformity of the sandstone hills: I never saw a much less interesting country. At night we slept at the house of an English farmer; and at an early hour the next day we descended by Sir Lowry’s pass, which, like that of the French Hoeck, has been cut, at a great expense, along the flank of a steep mountain. From the summit, there was a noble view of the whole of False Bay, and of the Table Mountain, and, immediately below, of the cultivated country of Hottentot Holland. The flat, covered with sand-dunes did not appear, when viewed from this height, of the tedious length which we found it before we reached in the evening Cape Town.
JUNE 18TH.--We put to sea, and, on the 29th, crossed the Tropic of Capricorn for the sixth and last time. On the 8th of July, we arrived off St. Helena. This island, the forbidding aspect of which has been so often described, rises like a huge castle from the ocean. A great wall, built of successive streams of black lava, forms around the whole circuit a bold coast. Near the town, as if in aid of the natural defence, small forts and guns are every where built up, and mingled with the rugged rocks. The town extends up a flat and very narrow valley; the houses look respectable, and they are interspersed with a very few green trees. When approaching the anchorage there is one striking view: an irregular castle perched on the summit of a lofty hill, and surrounded by a few scattered fir-trees, boldly projects against the sky. The next day I obtained lodgings within a stone’s throw of Napoleon’s tomb.[2] I confess, however, this had little attraction for me: but it was a capital central situation, whence I could make excursions in every direction. During the four days I staid here, from morning to night I wandered over the island, and examined its geological history. The house was situated at an elevation of about 2000 feet; here the weather was cold and very boisterous, with constant showers of rain; and every now and then the whole scene was veiled in thick clouds.
Near the coast the rough lava is entirely destitute of vegetation: in the central and higher parts, a different series of rocks have from extreme decomposition produced a clayey soil, which, where not covered by vegetation, is stained in broad bands of many bright colours. At this season the land, moistened by constant showers, produces a singularly bright green pasture; this lower and lower down, gradually fades away, and at last disappears. In latitude 16°, and at the trifling elevation of 1500 feet, it is surprising to behold a vegetation possessing a character decidedly English. The hills are crowned with irregular plantations of Scotch firs; and the sloping banks are thickly scattered over with thickets of gorze, covered with its bright yellow flowers. Weeping-willows are common along the course of the rivulets, and the hedges are made of the blackberry, producing its well-known fruit. When we consider that the number of plants now found on the island is 746, and that out of these, fifty-two alone are native species, the rest being imported, and many of them from England, we see a good reason for this English character in the vegetation. The numerous species which have been so recently introduced can hardly have failed to have destroyed some of the native kinds. I believe there is no accurate account of the state of the vegetation at the period when the island was covered with trees; such would have formed a most curious comparison with its present sterile condition, and limited Flora. Many English plants appear to flourish here better than in their native country; some also from the opposite quarter of Australia succeed remarkably well. It is only on the highest and steepest ridges, where the native Flora is still predominant.
The English, or rather the Welsh character of the scenery, is preserved by the numerous cottages and small white houses; some buried at the bottom of the deepest valleys, and others stuck up on the crests of the lofty hills. Some of the views are very striking; I may instance that from near Sir W. Doveton’s house, where the bold peak called Lott is seen over a dark wood of firs, the whole being backed by the red water-worn mountains of the Southern shore. On viewing the island from an eminence, the first circumstance which strikes one, is the very great number of roads, and forts: the labour bestowed on the public works, if one forgets its character as a prison, seem out of all proportion to its extent or value. There is so little level or useful land, that it seems surprising how so many people (about 5000) can subsist here. The lower orders, or the emancipated slaves, are I believe extremely poor: they complain of want of work, a fact which is likewise shown by the very cheap labour. From the reduction in the number of public servants owing to the island having been given up by the East India Company, and the consequent emigration of many of the richer people, the poverty probably will increase. The chief food of the working class is rice with a little salt meat; as neither of these articles are the products of the island, but must be purchased with money, the low wages tell heavily on the poor people. The fine times, as my old guide called them, when “Bony” was here, can never return again. Now that the people are blessed with freedom, a right which I believe they value fully, it seems probable that their numbers will quickly increase: if so, what is to become of the little state of St. Helena?
My guide was an elderly man, who had been a goatherd when a boy, and knew every step amongst the rocks. He was of a race many times mixed, and although with a dusky skin, he had not the disagreeable expression of a mulatto. He was a very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the character of the greater number among the lower classes. It was strange to my ears to hear a man, nearly white, and respectably dressed, talking with indifference of the times when he was a slave. With my companion who carried our dinner and a horn of water, which latter is quite necessary as all in the lower valleys is saline, I every day took long walks.
Beneath the limits of the elevated and central green circle, the wild valleys are quite desolate and untenanted. Here, to the geologist, there are scenes of high interest, which show the successive changes, and complicated disturbances which have in past times happened. According to my views, St. Helena has existed as an island from a very remote epoch: some obscure proofs, however, of the elevation of the land are still extant. I believe that the central and highest peaks form parts of the rim of a great crater; the southern half of which has been removed by the waves of the sea. There is, moreover, an external margin of black volcanic rocks, which belong to an anterior condition of things. These have been dislocated and broken up by forces acting from below, so that the confusion in structure from these different causes is extreme. On the higher parts of the island considerable numbers of shells occur embedded in the soil, which have always been supposed to be of marine origin: and the fact has been adduced as a proof of the retreat of the sea. The shell turns out to be a Bulimus, or terrestrial species. It is however very remarkable, that it is not now found in a living state: a circumstance which in all probability may be attributed to the entire destruction of the woods, and consequent loss of food and shelter, which occurred during the early part of the last century.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.