So Late
As The Year 1716 There Were Many Trees, But In 1724 The Old
Trees Had Mostly Fallen; And
As goats and hogs had been
suffered to range about, all the young trees had been killed.
It appears also
From the official records, that the trees were
unexpectedly, some years afterwards, succeeded by a wire
grass which spread over the whole surface. [3] General Beatson
adds that now this plain "is covered with fine sward, and
is become the finest piece of pasture on the island." The
extent of surface, probably covered by wood at a former
period, is estimated at no less than two thousand acres; at
the present day scarcely a single tree can be found there. It
is also said that in 1709 there were quantities of dead trees
in Sandy Bay; this place is now so utterly desert, that nothing
but so well attested an account could have made me believe
that they could ever have grown there. The fact, that the
goats and hogs destroyed all the young trees as they sprang
up, and that in the course of time the old ones, which were
safe from their attacks, perished from age, seems clearly
made out. Goats were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six
years afterwards, in the time of Cavendish, it is known
that they were exceedingly numerous. More than a century
afterwards, in 1731, when the evil was complete and
irretrievable, an order was issued that all stray animals should
be destroyed.
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