[page 126, continued:] |
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 ON the twelfth
we made sail
from Christmas Harbor 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° 8´ S., longitude 12° 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 towards 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. [page 127:] 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° 17´ S. latitude, longitude 12° 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 steril [[sterile]], nothing growing upon it except a few stunted
shrubs. Nightingale Island, the smallest and
most southerly,
is in latitude 37° 26´ S., longitude 12° 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
steril [[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 Heywood, in the
Nereus, visited
Tristan. [page 128:] He found there three Americans, who were
residing upon the
islands
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 favorable 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. [page 129:] 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 Malninas. 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° 37´ 24"
S., longitude 47°, 43´ 15" W.; the middle one in latitude
53°
2´ 40" S., longitude 47° 55´ 15" W.; and the most
southern
in latitude 53° 15´ 22" S., longitude 47° 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.* [page 130:]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° 15´
S.,
longitude 47° 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. |
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