Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

seal, of which the leonine is so little alarmed at the presence of men, that persons may get on its back, and be carried into the water. The black albatross breed there in a gregarious manner; and, upon being touched, throw out a deluge of foetid oil fluid. Wild goats and hogs, too, are seen among the bushes, a few having been left by early navigators. In 1814, this island was inhabited by three men; an American, named LAMBERT, a Portuguese, and a native of Minorca a. They lived upon fish and birds' eggs, and covered their huts of straw with seal-skins.

Lambert took possession of the islands, and constituted himself sole sovereign by a formal instrument, in which he stated, that as no power whatever had publicly claimed them, he had taken possession of them for himself and his heirs, with a right to convey them, by sale or free gift, as he or his heirs should think proper. He farther declared, that his motive for taking possession was to procure for himself and family a competence and a house far beyond the reach of chicanery and misfortune; and that in order to ensure this, he would devote himself to husbandry, and supply ships, calling there, with any articles, he might be able to procure.

By this document, he invited ships to lay by, opposite the cascade, where they would be visited by a boat from the shore, and supplied: and he promised, that himself and his people should be governed, in their intercourse with crews of ships, by the principles of hospitality and good fellowship. On taking possession, he built a hut, thatched it with coarse grass, and planted cabbages, turnips, carrots, parsnips and beet; lettuces, onions, raddishes, parsley and potatoes. All these grew better in winter than in summer, in a soil of vegetable mould. At this time, there were between three and four hundred acres of land, well adapted for cultivation; and a meadow of about fourteen acres.

At the end of a year's occupation, he had a small flock of

a A. D. 1810.

geese. The fowls bred three or four times in a year:-but all his English and Muscovy ducks, and his turkeys, excepting three, died from eating the entrails of fish. He had eight sows and four boars; seven of which he caught on the island. He, as well as his pigs, lived chiefly on the flesh of sea-elephants, which abounded in two ponds of ten or twelve acres in extent. There were, also, from twelve to sixteen wild goats. The little black-cock was also in great numbers, very fat, and its flesh delicate. On the mountains were petrels, sea-hens, mollahs, the albatross and other birds. Among the sea-cliffs they caught grampers, mackarel, and a beautiful species of cray-fish,

Having collected about a thousand gallons of oil, Lambert wrote to a friend, Capt. Briggs, giving him an account of the island, and proposed, that he should purchase a schooner of about twenty-five tons; make his brother master of her; and send it for the oil and skins he had collected, with three or four boats, and provisions for twelve months: Briggs to find the money and take half the profits.

Lambert remained on the island till May 17, 1812: when, under pretence of collecting wreck, he and one of his companions quitted the island in a boat; leaving his empire in possession of Currie and the native of Minorca. Currie had accompanied Lambert under an engagement of receiving wages and a share of the produce, during his stay: but received nothing. After Lambert's departure, he and his companion suffered many hardships; and the chief of their stock was taken from them by the vessels that came to the island.

Upon Napoleon's arrival at St. Helena, it was deemed. adviseable to take possession of this island; and the Falmouth frigate was, in consequence, despatched, and arrived in the month of August, 1816. Currie and his companion immediately placed themselves under the captain's protection a.

At this time they had three huts, covered with reed; twenty acres of vege

66

New Island (one of the Falkland Islands) has, of late, become remarkable for having been the solitary residence of a Captain Barnard, an American, whose vessel was run away with in the year 1814, by the crew of an English ship, which, on her passage from Port Jackson, had been wrecked on the south side of this island: Capt. Weddell, in his voyage from the South Polar Regions, met with Capt. Barnard in 1821, and from him learnt the following account :Capt. Barnard was at New Island with his vessel, in the performance of a voyage for seal-furs, and when on the south side of the island, he met with the crew of a wrecked English ship. Their number was about thirty, including several passengers, some of whom were ladies. He kindly took them to his vessel, treated them with all the hospitality which their destitute condition required, and promised to land them, on his passage home, at some port in the Brazils. Owing to the additional number of people, hunting parties were frequently sent out to procure supplies; and, when the captain, with four of his people, were on an excursion of this kind, the wrecked crew cut the cable, and in defiance of the Americans who were on board, ran away with the ship to Rio Janeiro; whence they proceeded to North America a."

a

On Capt. Barnard's return, he was struck with astonishment at finding his ship carried off. On reflection, however, he soon guessed the cause; which he attributed to the fear of being taken to America, where they would become prisoners of war. Nothing in the way of supplies having been left for him and his four companions, he was forced to consider how they were to subsist; and recollecting that he had planted a few potatoes, they directed their attention to them, and in tables, forty breeding sows, and two boars; but the American privateers had robbed them of all their ducks and fowls. For a later account, see Earle's Narrative of a Nine-Months' Residence in New Zealand and Tristan d'Acunha, 8vo, 1832.

a It is to be lamented, that Captain Weddell has not published the name of the vessel to which these unworthy people belonged.

the course of the second season obtained a serviceable supply. They had a dog, which now and then caught a pig; and the

eggs of the albatross, which were stored at the proper season, with potatoes, formed a substitute for bread, and the skins of the seals for clothes. They built a house of stone, still remaining on the island, which was strong enough to withstand the storms of winter, and they might have been comparatively happy, but that they were cut off from their relations and friends.

To add to the misfortunes of Capt. Barnard in being separated from his wife and children, his companions, over whom he exercised no authority, but merely dictated what he considered was for their mutual advantage, became impatient even of this mild controul, took an opportunity to steal the boat, and he was left on the island alone. Being thus abandoned, he spent the time in preparing clothes from the skin of the seals, and in collecting food for winter. Once or twice a day, he used to ascend a hill, from which there was a wide prospect of the ocean, to see if any vessel approached; but always returned disappointed and forlorn :-no ship was to be observed! The four sailors, in the meanwhile, having experienced their own inability to provide properly for themselves, returned to him after an absence of some months. He still found much difficulty in preserving peace among his companions; indeed one of them had planned his death; but, fortunately, it was discovered in time to be prevented. He placed this man alone, with some provisions, on a small island in Quaker Harbour; and, in the course of three weeks, so great a change was made in his mind, that when Capt. Barnard took him off, he was worn down with reflection on his crimes, and became truly penitent.

They were now attentive to the advice of their commander. In this way they continued to live, occasionally visiting the neighbouring island in search of provisions, till the end of two years, when they were taken off by an English whaler, bound

for the Pacific. Capt. Barnard informed Capt. Weddell, that a British man-of-war had been sent expressly from Rio Janeiro to take them off, but by some accident the vessel, though at the Islands, did not fall in with them a.

The peopling of PITCAIRN'S ISLANDS has excited much interest in Europe, and in all the British Asiatic settlements. Captain Bligh having sailed, in 1790, in order to plant the bread-fruit tree in one of the South Sea islands, his crew mutinied, and putting him in a boat, they sailed for Otaheite, where each sailor took a wife. With these women, and six Otaheitan men-servants, the mutineers again set sail; and after passing a Lagoon island, which they called Vivini, and where they procured birds' eggs and cocoa nuts, they ran their ship ashore on Pitcairn's Island, situate 25 degrees 2 seconds south latitude, and 130 degrees west longitude.

Finding the island small, having but one mountain, and that adapted for cultivation, they put up temporary houses, made of the leaves of the tea-tree, until they were able to cover them with palms. In this island they found yams, taro, plantains, the bread-fruit tree, and ante, of which they made cloth. They climbed the precipices, and procured eggs and birds in abundance: they made small canoes, and fished; and they distilled spirits from the roots of tea. In this manner the whole party lived four years: during which time there were born to them several sons and daughters. But a jealousy arising between the English and their Otaheitan servants, the latter revolted, and murdered all the former, except one,-Adam Smith;-whom they severely wounded with a pistol-ball. The women, upon losing their husbands, to whom they had become exceedingly attached, rose in the night, and, stealing silently to the place where their countrymen lay, murdered them. By this act there remained upon the island only

a I find this account in my portfolio; but whether I merely extracted or compiled it from Captain Weddell's account, I do not remember.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »