man, with a family of five children.  One part of Regent Square is composed of the barracks for the marines, and the other for the liberated Africans that are employed on the island.  All these buildings are of stone, which is the cheapest material that can be procured.  The coral that is found on the beach, makes excellent lime, and enhances the utility of the quarries.  It is fortunate that the island contains these resources, as it is entirely destitute of brick and timber.  There was a tank of considerable size in progress, not far from the establishment; close to the landing-place there was a large pond of salt water for keeping the turtle which are taken during the season, for supplies to the shipping, &c.; there were about eighty turtles in it, at the time of our arrival.

Colonel Nichols, Captain Owen, and myself, dined with.  Mr. and Mrs. Stanwell, where, among other things, we had a large loin of wether goat, which, in my opinion, was equal to the finest mutton; indeed, had it been called mutton, I should not have known the difference, it was so fat and highly flavoured.  There are about six hundred goats on the island, who are allowed to wander in herds, browsing on the sides of the hills, and feeding on whatever herbage they can procure in the valleys.  In this way, no doubt, they pick up many aromatic herbs,[41] which give a peculiarly fine flavour to the meat; but the flesh of goats, is not the only description of fresh provisions on the island.  Those who reside here, are much better provided, in this particular, than people in England imagine, for there is a moderate supply of cattle and sheep, for general consumption, while most individuals have their own private stock of domestic poultry.  Turkeys arid fowls thrive well here; but geese and ducks, very indifferently, from the want of fresh streams and pools, so necessary to their nature, in consequence of which they lay their eggs, but do not produce young.  They have also a few goats, and abundance of guinea fowls,[42] in a wild state, which, in flavour, greatly surpass those that have been domesticated; and some of the domestic poultry of the gallinaceous tribe, that have returned to their aboriginal state.  These three species of Ascension game, with the hunting of wild cats, occasionally afford no little amusement to the officers of the establishment.  A number of cats were originally introduced; in their tame state, to destroy the rats, which, at one period, overran the island; but, after routing the rats, the cats, like the Saxons of old, finding themselves masters of the soil, became greater usurpers than the foes whom they had been called in to vanquish.  These treacherous animals, and most unworthy allies, discovering that they could sustain themselves in freedom, without the aid of the biped population, fled into the least inhabited parts of the island, where they lived most royally upon young guinea fowl, and other wild poultry; regaling themselves occasionally upon eggs, or such