JUAN FERNANDEZ. 



349 



of considerable size for the place, is on a high and commanding spot : 

 it contained barracks for soldiers, which, as well as the greater part 

 of the fort, are mined ; but the flag-staff, front wall, and a turret are 

 standing ; and at the foot of the flag-staff lies a very handsome brass 

 gun, cast in Spain A. D. 1614. A few houses and cottages are still 

 in tolerable condition, though most of the doors, windows, and roofs 

 have been taken away or used as fuel, by whalers and other ships 

 touching here. 



The colony was in a tolerably flourishing condition for some years, 

 and the exiles had found means to cultivate vegetables and fruit, 

 which thrive so well here that many of the kinds have become 

 wild, to such an extent as, by supplying ships, to obtain additional 

 comforts in their exile. Some jealousy was, however, entertained 

 against this, and the banished men were forbidden the indulgence. 

 The cultivation of the grape, which was found to thrive wonderfully, 

 was also prohibited ; and dogs were sent over to the island to hunt 

 the cattle out of the woods, in order that the settlers might not be- 

 come too independent. Still, however, the settlement was kept up, 

 and ships frequently touched there, especially for water, which is 

 much better and more abundant than at Valparaiso, and keeps well 

 at sea; but the island, no longer permitted to raise provisions, was 

 victualled from Chile. At length, in the middle of 1821, an insur- 

 rection against the governor, headed by one Brandt, a North Ame- 

 rican, took place ; in which it was believed that one of the unhappy 

 Carreras of Vina a la Mar was implicated. This young man had 

 been banished to the island for some political crime, and was killed 

 in the very first of the disturbances; so that it is extremely doubt- 

 ful whether he had any thing to do with the conspiracy. I have 

 heard, indeed, that one of the exiles, who was jealous of him, not 

 without reason, took the opportunity afforded by the disturbance of 

 revenging himself. The insurgents having confined the governor 

 and overcome the garrison, seized the boats of an American whaler, 

 which had touched there, with the intention of going on board the 



