CHAPTER 15

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.