Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0691
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[Page 691]
587.
Some account of St. Helena
nature shews not unaptly the Genius's of the two nations in making Colonies nor do I think I go too far in asserting that was the Cape now in the Hands of the English it would be a desart as St Helena in the hands of the Dutch would as infallibly become a paradise
Small as this Island is & not raisd very much above the surface of the Sea it enjoys a varity of Climates hardly to be beleivd the Cabbage trees as they are calld which grow on the highest ridges can by no art be cultivated on the lower ones where the red wood & Gum wood grow both which in their turns refuse the high ridges & neither of the three are to be found in the Vallies which indeed are in general coverd with European plants or the more common ones of the Indies in all probability originaly brought here by ships & the more so as much the Largest proportion of them are natives of England, among which I may