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GEOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS. 



Notice of the Island of Tristan cTAcunha in the Atlantic. 



Mr. Earle, who gave a description of this island, lived at Tristan d'Acunlia 

 with the Governor Glass and his family. There were then on the island four 

 men, two women, and some children, who subsisted miserably by killing seals 

 and selling refreshments to ships. Since that period they have quitted the island, 

 and a farmer and his wife from England, who were going to New South Wales, 

 have established themselves there. The following account of the appearance of 

 the island, and the manner of the inhabitants' living, is from a letter in the Syd- 

 ney Gazette. 



" The circumstance which first offers itself to my memory of the voyage, (to 

 Calcutta,) is having touched at Tristan d'Acunha, probably the largest and most 

 fertile of a group of three islands, which are situated between the Cape of Good 

 Hope and South America. Tristan d'Acunha is about eight leagues in circum- 

 ference. The shores of the two other islands are so dangerous, that they can only 

 be approached in the calmest weather. One has the name of Nightingale ; the 

 other is called Inaccessible. The appearance of Tristan d'Acunha, to the north- 

 east, is very striking. At the foot of an almost perpendicular mountain of 9000 

 feet in elevation, and covered with thick shrubs, exists a beautiful plain of a 

 vast extent, which borders the shore. 



" We had scarcely cast anchor when we saw two men approaching us in a 

 little boat. As soon as they were on board, they expressed to us the extreme 

 pleasure which they felt at our visit, for no ship had come near them for several 

 months. They told us that they were the only men who lived on the island, and 

 that the wife of one of them was the only woman. The husband was an Eng- 

 lishman, and had been at one epoch of his life a rich farmer in Yorkshire ; but 

 being ruined by a series of misfortunes, he and his wife had been induced by an 

 old acquaintance, captain of a merchant vessel, to accompany him, without pay- 

 ing any thing for their passage, to New Holland, to endeavour to retreive their 

 fortunes. The ship having occasion to touch at Tristan d'Acunha, the farmer 

 and his wife were so charmed with the country, that they determined to remain 

 on the island instead of continuing their voyage. After having vainly sought to 

 turn them from this project, the captain gave them European grains, two cows, 

 sheep, poultry, and what other provisions they had on board, and, obliged to de- 

 part, they bade a sorrowful farewell, and left them to their lot. 



*' They were the only human beings on the island ; but it was evident that 

 there had been somebody fixed there a few months previously ; for they found a 

 hut ready to receive them, and several acres of land that bore the traces of recent 

 culture. 



'* They had scarcely inhabited the island the space of one year, when a Dutch 

 vessel stopped there to procure water, and one of the crew, who was displeased 

 with the captain, hid himself in the island till the departure of the vessel. He 

 was received with kindness by the Yorkshire farmer, and remained with him to 

 the moment of our arrival. The Dutchman was then disgusted with the life 

 which he led at Tristan d'Acunha, and he begged our captain to take him on 

 board, when he would work as sailor to pay his passage. The captain having 

 yielded to his request, the man appeared as pleased as if he had escaped from 

 prison. He, however, showed to his companions the greatest regret at leaving 

 them. 



" After having offered to the farmer some amusing books, some woollen 



clothes, a couple of barrels of powder, a quantity of flour, rice, and biscuit, we 



accompanied him to the shore, and we were enchanted with the air of satisfaction 



and of prosperity which reigned in the habitation. His wife, both good-looking 



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