A GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLANDS 



183 



Fig. 98. The ruined forest and village of Las Chozas, Masafuera. — Photo K. Backstrom Feb. 191 7. 



de Director y ]e^e de Cultivos", Guzman writes. This official was a thrifty fellow, 

 but he could not call up arable land where there was none. Houses were built in 

 many places, vegetables sown and potatoes planted, catde introduced and killed 

 surreptitiously by the convicts, but much food had to be imported, and when the 

 boarders obtained permission to send for their wives or relatives to keep them com- 

 pany the population rose to 350 persons. Good luck did not favour this humanitarian 

 enterprise, the situation on the island became, to say the least, unpleasant, the 

 schooner was shipwrecked and lost, and in 191 3 Masafuera was abandoned. The 

 buildings in Casas were in tolerably good condition in 191 7 (fig. 97), but the 

 wooden huts more or less fallen to pieces. Ruined forests, abandoned potato 

 fields and a host of new weeds told the story (fig. 98). Of domestic animals only 

 two horses could be discovered. We caught them because we could use them. 

 But, as Guzman says, "los juristas no podian aceptar que una Naturaleza 

 tan prodiga en helechos y en plantas sub-alpinas, no fuera generosa tambien para 

 con las legumbres, hortalizas y frutales . . . ", and in 1927 "Prision Carlos Ibanez" 

 was established, this time not reserved for ordinary criminals — in addition 150 

 political offenders were exiled to Masafuera. More trees were cut, new houses 

 built, new seeds sown, but the harvest was no richer than before, and in 1930 

 the colony was discontinued. Guzman seems to fear a repetition of this sad story, 

 to judge from his concluding remark "... el hombre con sus disposiciones legales 



