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.