60 
* Having run down to the lee-side of the island, we there 
found H. M. S. Spey at anchor, and we dropped ours at a — 
short distance from her. As this island is within a few days’ 
sail of St. Helena, and directly under its lee, even small boats 
might navigate with little risk from one to the other. The 
British government, conceiving it possible that Napoleon 
might contrive to elude the vigilance of his guard, and effect his 
escape by some such conveyance, thought it advisable to station 
a cruizer here, with a view to take him up on his arrival, and 
to keep off any vessel that might be engaged by his adherents 
to look out for him and secure his retreat, while, as a further 
check on such a project, a party of fifty or sixty seamen with 
a proportion of officers, is stationed permanently on the island. 
* This detachment, though settled here ever since the 
arrival of Napoleon at St. Helena, is still lodged under can- 
vas. If we consider the sum of downright bodily suffering, 
independently of all privations, to which these men are 
exposed, with only a thin sheet of canvas to ward off the 
direct rays of a vertical sun, and without a blade of herbage 
to temper its still more oppressive reflection from a burning 
volcanie soil, we must say that the necessity ought to be 
urgent indeed that would justify the exposure of so many 
valuable lives to such a trial. The tents are pitched on the 
acclivity of a hill about four miles from the landing place, and 
close by a small puddle from which with care and industry 
they contrive to squeeze about 70 gallons of water in 24 hours. 
On this, the only spot in the whole island where the slightest 
trace of water has been detected, they have laid out a small 
plot of garden ground, and strive to rear a few of the more 
hardy culinary plants; but their labour is rendered nearly 
fruitless by the rats, which destroy the greater part of them 
before they come to maturity. These noxious vermin are 
supposed to have been introduced by an American vessel which 
was wrecked on the island some years ago, and they have 
since multiplied at such a rate that 1700 of them are said to 
have been killed by the party in the course of one month. 
They subsist chiefly on the eggs and young of the — 
which breed in myriads on the island. — 
