Chapter 15
1684 Words
ON the twelfth we made sail from Christmas Harbour retracing our
way to the westward, and leaving Marion's Island, one of Crozet's
group, on the larboard. We afterward passed Prince Edward's Island,
leaving it also on our left, then, steering more to the northward,
made, in fifteen days, the islands of Tristan d'Acunha, in latitude
37 degrees 8' S, longitude 12 degrees 8' W.
This group, now so well known, and which consists of three
circular islands, was first discovered by the Portuguese, and was
visited afterward by the Dutch in 1643, and by the French in 1767.
The three islands together form a triangle, and are distant from each
other about ten miles, there being fine open passages between. The
land in all of them is very high, especially in Tristan d'Acunha,
properly so called. This is the largest of the group, being fifteen
miles in circumference, and so elevated that it can be seen in clear
weather at the distance of eighty or ninety miles. A part of the land
toward the north rises more than a thousand feet perpendicularly from
the sea. A tableland at this height extends back nearly to the centre
of the island, and from this tableland arises a lofty cone like that
of Teneriffe. The lower half of this cone is clothed with trees of
good size, but the upper region is barren rock, usually hidden among
the clouds, and covered with snow during the greater part of the
year. There are no shoals or other dangers about the island, the
shores being remarkably bold and the water deep. On the northwestern
coast is a bay, with a beach of black sand where a landing with boats
can be easily effected, provided there be a southerly wind. Plenty of
excellent water may here be readily procured; also cod and other fish
may be taken with hook and line.
The next island in point of size, and the most westwardly of the
group, is that called the Inaccessible. Its precise situation is 37
degrees 17' S. latitude, longitude 12 degrees 24' W. It is seven or
eight miles in circumference, and on all sides presents a forbidding
and precipitous aspect. Its top is perfectly flat, and the whole
region is sterile, nothing growing upon it except a few stunted
shrubs.
Nightingale Island, the smallest and most southerly, is in
latitude 37 degrees 26' S., longitude 12 degrees 12' W. Off its
southern extremity is a high ledge of rocky islets; a few also of a
similar appearance are seen to the northeast. The ground is irregular
and sterile, and a deep valley partially separates it.
The shores of these islands abound, in the proper season, with
sea lions, sea elephants, the hair and fur seal, together with a
great variety of oceanic birds. Whales are also plenty in their
vicinity. Owing to the ease with which these various animals were
here formerly taken, the group has been much visited since its
discovery. The Dutch and French frequented it at a very early period.
In 1790, Captain Patten, of the ship Industry, of Philadelphia, made
Tristan d'Acunha, where he remained seven months (from August, 1790,
to April, 1791) for the purpose of collecting sealskins. In this time
he gathered no less than five thousand six hundred, and says that he
would have had no difficulty in loading a large ship with oil in
three weeks. Upon his arrival he found no quadrupeds, with the
exception of a few wild goats; the island now abounds with all our
most valuable domestic animals, which have been introduced by
subsequent navigators.
I believe it was not long after Captain Patten's visit that
Captain Colquhoun, of the American brig Betsey, touched at the
largest of the islands for the purpose of refreshment. He planted
onions, potatoes, cabbages, and a great many other vegetables, an
abundance of all which is now to be met with.
In 1811, a Captain Haywood, in the Nereus, visited Tristan. He
found there three Americans, who were residing upon the island to
prepare sealskins and oil. One of these men was named Jonathan
Lambert, and he called himself the sovereign of the country. He had
cleared and cultivated about sixty acres of land, and turned his
attention to raising the coffee-plant and sugar-cane, with which he
had been furnished by the American Minister at Rio Janeiro. This
settlement, however, was finally abandoned, and in 1817 the islands
were taken possession of by the British Government, who sent a
detachment for that purpose from the Cape of Good Hope. They did not,
however, retain them long; but, upon the evacuation of the country as
a British possession, two or three English families took up their
residence there independently of the Government. On the twenty-fifth
of March, 1824, the Berwick, Captain Jeffrey, from London to Van
Diemen's Land, arrived at the place, where they found an Englishman
of the name of Glass, formerly a corporal in the British artillery.
He claimed to be supreme governor of the islands, and had under his
control twenty-one men and three women. He gave a very favourable
account of the salubrity of the climate and of the productiveness of
the soil. The population occupied themselves chiefly in collecting
sealskins and sea elephant oil, with which they traded to the Cape of
Good Hope, Glass owning a small schooner. At the period of our
arrival the governor was still a resident, but his little community
had multiplied, there being fifty-six persons upon Tristan, besides a
smaller settlement of seven on Nightingale Island. We had no
difficulty in procuring almost every kind of refreshment which we
required- sheep, hogs, bullocks, rabbits, poultry, goats, fish in
great variety, and vegetables were abundant. Having come to anchor
close in with the large island, in eighteen fathoms, we took all we
wanted on board very conveniently. Captain Guy also purchased of
Glass five hundred sealskins and some ivory. We remained here a week,
during which the prevailing winds were from the northward and
westward, and the weather somewhat hazy. On the fifth of November we
made sail to the southward and westward, with the intention of having
a thorough search for a group of islands called the Auroras,
respecting whose existence a great diversity of opinion has existed.
These islands are said to have been discovered as early as 1762,
by the commander of the ship Aurora. In 1790, Captain Manuel de
Oyarvido,, in the ship Princess, belonging to the Royal Philippine
Company, sailed, as he asserts, directly among them. In 1794, the
Spanish corvette Atrevida went with the determination of ascertaining
their precise situation, and, in a paper published by the Royal
Hydrographical Society of Madrid in the year 1809, the following
language is used respecting this expedition: "The corvette Atrevida
practised, in their immediate vicinity, from the twenty-first to the
twenty-seventh of January, all the necessary observations, and
measured by chronometers the difference of longitude between these
islands and the port of Soledad in the Manillas. The islands are
three, they are very nearly in the same meridian; the centre one is
rather low, and the other two may be seen at nine leagues' distance."
The observations made on board the Atrevida give the following
results as the precise situation of each island. The most northern is
in latitude 52 degrees 37' 24" S., longitude 47 degrees, 43' 15" W.;
the middle one in latitude 53 degrees 2' 40" S., longitude 47 degrees
55' 15" W.; and the most southern in latitude 53 degrees 15' 22" S.,
longitude 47 degrees 57' 15" W.
On the twenty-seventh of January, 1820, Captain James Weddel, of
the British navy, sailed from Staten Land also in search of the
Auroras. He reports that, having made the most diligent search and
passed not only immediately over the spots indicated by the commander
of the Atrevida, but in every direction throughout the vicinity of
these spots, he could discover no indication of land. These
conflicting statements have induced other navigators to look out for
the islands; and, strange to say, while some have sailed through
every inch of sea where they are supposed to lie without finding
them, there have been not a few who declare positively that they have
seen them; and even been close in with their shores. It was Captain
Guy's intention to make every exertion within his power to settle the
question so oddly in dispute. {*3}
We kept on our course, between the south and west, with variable
weather, until the twentieth of the month, when we found ourselves on
the debated ground, being in latitude 53 degrees 15' S., longitude 47
degrees 58' W.- that is to say, very nearly upon the spot indicated
as the situation of the most southern of the group. Not perceiving
any sign of land, we continued to the westward of the parallel of
fifty-three degrees south, as far as the meridian of fifty degrees
west. We then stood to the north as far as the parallel of fifty-two
degrees south, when we turned to the eastward, and kept our parallel
by double altitudes, morning and evening, and meridian altitudes of
the planets and moon. Having thus gone eastwardly to the meridian of
the western coast of Georgia, we kept that meridian until we were in
the latitude from which we set out. We then took diagonal courses
throughout the entire extent of sea circumscribed, keeping a lookout
constantly at the masthead, and repeating our examination with the
greatest care for a period of three weeks, during which the weather
was remarkably pleasant and fair, with no haze whatsoever. Of course
we were thoroughly satisfied that, whatever islands might have
existed in this vicinity at any former period, no vestige of them
remained at the present day. Since my return home I find that the
same ground was traced over, with equal care, in 1822, by Captain
Johnson, of the American schooner Henry, and by Captain Morrell in
the American schooner Wasp- in both cases with the same result as in
our own.
- Writer
