Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0687
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[Page 687]
583.
Some account of St Helena
& more food to an inquisitive one than the shortness of my stay gave me opportunity to collect.
Making it as we did & indeed most ships do on the windward side it is a rude heap of Rocks bounded by precipecis of an amazing height composd of a kind of half friable rocks which however shew not the Least sign of vegetation nor does a nearer view apear more promising in sailing along the shore ships come uncommonly near it so that the huge Cliffs seem almost to overhang & threaten destruction by the apparent probability of their giving way in this manner they Sail till they open Chappel Valley where stands the small town Even that valley resembles a large trench in the bottom of which a few plants are to be seen but its sides are as bare as the cliff next the Sea Such is the apparent barrenness of the Island in its present cultivated state nor do you see any signs of fertility