The town stands just by the sea side, and the far greater part of the houses are ill built; the church, which originally was a mean structure, is in ruins, and the market-house is nearly in the same condition.

The white inhabitants are all English, who, as they are not permitted by the East India Company, to whom the island belongs, to carry on any trade or commerce on their own account, subsist wholly by supplying such ships as touch at the place with refreshments, which, however, they do not provide in proportion to the fertility of the soil, and the temperament of the climate, which would enable them, by cultivation, to produce all the fruits and vegetables both of Europe and India. This island indeed, small as it is, enjoys the different advantages of different climates, for the cabbage trees which grow upon the highest ridges, can by no art be cultivated upon the ridges next below, where the redwood and gum-wood both flourish, which will not grow upon the ridges above, and neither of the three are to be found in the vallies, which, in general, are covered with European plants, and the more common ones of India.

Voyaging Accounts