59 
soldiers employ for the same purpose the leaves of the Pelar- 
gonium, which scarcely yield to the others in strength of odour. 
* The low ground is overrun with a species of Acena (A. 
sarmentosa), a plant of no apparent utility, but an intolerable 
nuisance to such as have occasion to walk over the ground 
where it grows. Its fruit is a sort of dur, which on the 
slightest touch fixes itself on a person's clothes, and falling in 
an hundred pieces covers him all over with an unseemly crust 
of prickly seeds, not to be got rid of without infinite labour." 
The Alacrity, merchant brig, having arrived with stores and 
cattle at Tristan da Cunha, Captain Carmichael embraced the 
opportunity of returning by her to the Cape. 
** We left the island,” he continues in his Journal, * on the 
31st March, and by the aid of a strong westerly breeze accom- 
plished the voyage in ten days. It was not till eight days 
after our arrival that a French brig put into Table Bay, that 
had touched at Tristan da Cunha ten days before I left it. 
* After remaining for about a month at the Cape, I em- 
barked again on board the Marianne brig, of 180 tons, to 
return to Europe, having with several other officers of the 
regiment, been placed on half-pay. We sailed from Table 
Bay the "th May, and in 14 days ran down to St. Helena. 
There, however, we were not permitted even to cast anchor, for 
which we felt the less regret, as the aspect of theisland was not 
peculiarly inviting, and the Ex-Emperor of France was reported 
to be inaccessible to strangers. In the short stay we made off 
the anchorage, we remarked the extreme vigilance with which 
this important personage was guarded. A ship of war was 
stationed at every accessible point on the lee-side of the island, 
and others were cruizing to windward, boarding every vessel 
that hove in sight, ascertaining her country and destina- 
tion, and charging her, unless in extreme distress, to steer 
wide of the island. After taking on board a few casks of 
water sent us from the Newcastle, we stood on, and on the- 
morning of the sixth day made the island of Ascension. 
