for some time on the beach, we began to walk into
the country. The whole ground was covered with
roots and stones of all sizes, which seemed to
have been exposed to a great fire, where they
had acquired a black colour and porous appearance.
Two or three shrivelled species of grasses grew up
among these stones, and in a slight degree softened
the desolate appearance of the country. About
fifteen yards from the landing place, we saw a perpendicular
wall of square hewn stones, about a foot and a half
or two feet long, and one foot broad. Its
greatest height was about seven or eight feet,
but it gradually sloped on both sides, and its length
might be about twenty yards. A remarkable
circumstance was the junction of these stones,
which were laid after the most excellent rules
of art, fitting in such a manner as to make a durable
piece of architecture. The stone itself,
of which they are cut, is not of great hardness,
being a blackish brown cavernous and brittle stony
lava. The ground rose from the water side
upwards; so that another wall, parallel to the
first, about twelve yards from it, and facing the
country, was not above two or three feet high.
The whole area between the two walls was filled
up with soil and covered over with grass. About
fifty yards farther to the south, there was another
elevated area, of which the surface was paved
with square stones exactly similar to those which
formed the walls. In the midst of this area,
there was a pillar consisting of a single stone,
which represented a human figure to the waist,
about twenty feet high, and upwards of five feet
wide. The workmanship of this figure was rude,
and spoke the arts in their infancy. The
eyes, nose, and mouth, were scarcely marked on a lumpish
ill-shaped head; and the ears, which were excessively
long, quite in the fashion of the country, were
better executed than any other part, though a
European artist would have been ashamed of them.
The neck was clumsy and short, and the shoulders
and arms very slightly represented. On the
top of the head a huge round cylinder of stone
was placed upright, being above five feet in diameter
and in height. This cap, which resembled
the head-dress of some Egyptian divinity, consisted
of a different stone from the rest of the pillar,
being of a more reddish colour; and had a hole
on each side, as if it had been made round by
turning. The cap, together with the head, made
one half of the whole pillar which appeared above
ground. We did not observe that the natives
paid any worship to these pillars, yet they seemed
to hold them in some kind of veneration, as they sometimes
expressed a dislike when we walked over the paved
area or pedestals, or examined the stones of which
it consisted. A few of the natives accompanied
us farther on into the country, where we had seen some
bushes at a distance, which we hoped would afford
us something new. Our road was intolerably
rugged, over heaps of volcanic stones, which rolled
away under our feet, and against which we continually