Difficulties in Landing the Plates. 409 



I had fathomed all the sea round and had erected 

 a pair of shears, and showed D. the exact spot 

 where his boats could come, but only at high 

 water. I warned him that if he attempted to land 

 the heavy plates, some of them over a ton in weight, 

 his boats would be wrecked. But his inamorata did 

 not like the Cocos ; she hated the island, and the vessel 

 worse, and D., to oblige her to get away, would work 

 his boats at all hours. The consequence was that in 

 three days he had not a boat left. He then tried to 

 land the plates on a raft, but that turned a turtle and 

 went adrift ; but I saved it, and some twenty plates 

 which had sunk, at the neap tides ; and off D. went to 

 Port Blair and reported that the site chosen by me 

 was useless for landing purposes he got boats there, 

 but even then he managed to sink several. I had to 

 send my schooner, and she brought all that had been 

 landed. The skipper also fished up those in the sea, 

 and we landed all without losing a single boat. When 

 on shore, these plates had to be dragged up a sheer 

 cliff 110 feet high, but we got them all up without 

 breaking one. Had any fallen, they would have 

 been splintered to pieces, as they were only of 

 cast-iron. In her last voyage, to my great annoy- 

 ance, McG., the commander of the schooner, brought 

 over from Port Blair a European woman. I knew 

 her by character ver}^ well ; there had already been a 

 good deal of scandal about her. She was a woman 

 under thirty, but, with the exception of being white, 

 I could see no other attractions. She walked quietly 

 into my apartments and told me she had come to 

 spend a month with me. I was very angry ; I am 

 afraid I told her to go to the devil. I sent for the 



