LET, 1¥.] TRISTAN DWACUNHA. 131
LETTER THE FOURTH,
October 6th.
Yesterday we arrived at Tristan d’Acunha: very few ships touch there, on account of its being out of the way, but occasionally, as was the case with us, the wind allows of it, and good-natured skippers are glad when it so happens, on account of the poor Robinson Crusoes who live there.
Tristan d’Acunha is an extinct volcano, so steep that it seems te rise perpendicularly from the sea: the Captain told me it was eight thousand fect high: It is almost a bare rock, but here and there are patches of ground which can be cultivated. In Bonaparte’s time, Lerd Castlereagh took a fancy that the French might make it useful as an intermediate point of communication with St. Helena: sailors say it was an absurd notion, for that the winds and currents make it impossible for any ship to sail from the one island to the other. However, Lord C. established a corporal and party of soldiers to fake care of the island. When all fear of Boney was over, they were sent for hame ; but some of them had grown so fond of their desert island, that they begged leave to remain, and here they have been these twenty years— Corporal Glass, new styled the Governor, and five of his men, with their six wives, and among them thirty-two children. It was not possible for us to go on shore, but Glass and four of his inen came off to see us. They looked very healthy and comfort- able—eared not a sows for anything out of their island—and did not ask one question concerning anything outside their own little rock. The Captain gave them a good supper and plenty of valuable presents, and everybody made up a parcel of clothes or some little oddments. They said what they most wanted was nails, as the wind had lately blown down their houses. They have fifty head of cattle and a hundred sheep; a little corn, twelve acres of potatoes, plenty of apples and pears, and “ecco tutto!” I was curious to kuow whether old Glass was master, and whether the
