168 THE ATLANTIC. [chap. hi. 



or lay, of a certain stamp among them would be an enormous 

 advantage ; but an educated man of another stamp, such as 

 they were much more likely to get, would be very much the 

 reverse. 



My own impression is that it would have been just as well to 

 have left the settlers of Tristan d'Acunha alone. At present 

 there is a general feeling of equality, and their arbiter is of 

 their own choosing ; and they took special care that it should 

 be fully understood that their deference to Peter Green was 

 purely voluntary. I should fear that the appointment of mag- 

 istrates from among themselves by external authority may give 

 rise to all kinds of jealousy and ill-will. If the place is under- 

 stood to belong to Great Britain at all, it is no doubt important 

 that, in such a case as that of the Shenandoah., they should be 

 able to produce evidence to that effect. The Tristaners of the 

 present day have certainly not left the most favorable impres- 

 sion on my mind. They are by no means ill off ; they are very 

 shrewd and sufficiently greedy ; and their conduct to the Stol- 

 tenhoffs, if their story be true, w^liich we have never had any 

 reason to doubt, in landing surreptitiously and killing the last 

 of the flock of goats on Inaccessible Island, if not actually crim- 

 inal, was, to say the least, most questionable. 



While the party on land were struggling among the tussocks 

 and penguins, and gaining an experience of the vigor of spon- 

 taneous life, animal and vegetable, Avhicli they are not likely 

 soon to forget, the ship took a cruise round the island to enable 

 the surveyors to put in the coast-line ; and in the afternoon the 

 hauls of the dredge were taken in 100 and 150 fathoms. A 

 large quantity of things were procured of all groups, the most 

 prominent a fine species of Primnoa, many highly colored Gor- 

 gonice, and a very elegant Moj)sea or some closely allied form. 

 Lophohelia prolifera or a x-ery similar species was abundant, 

 associated with an Amphihelia and a fine Ccenoeyathus. Hy- 

 droids and sj^onges were in considerable number, tangled in 



