350 JOURNAL. 



ship, and so escaping to some foreign land. The whaler left her 

 boats, and brought news of the state of the island to Valparaiso. * 



This insurrection of Brandt's determined the government of Chile 

 to abandon the settlement. The garrison was consequently with- 

 drawn, the fort dismantled, and the place rendered as far as possible 

 unfit for future inhabitants. Nevertheless, early this year the 

 government of Chile published a manifesto, setting forth its claim to 

 the place, and forbidding any persons whatsover to settle there, or to 

 kill the cattle, or take the wood of the island. After walking about 

 a long time among the ruined cottages and gardens, I returned to the 

 place where I left my companions, and found that the young men 

 had pitched on a most charming spot for a dining room. Under 

 the shade of two enormous fig-trees there is a little circular space 

 bounded by a clear rivulet, which in its rapid descent bounds from 

 stone to stone, and mixes its murmurs with those of the breeze and 

 the distant ocean. Here I found Lord Cochrane and the rest seated 

 round a table-cloth of broad fig-leaves covered with such provision 

 as the ship afforded, eked out with fruit of the island hardly yet ripe. 

 Our claret was cooled in a little linny in the stream, and the deco- 

 rations of our bower were the rich foliage and fruit of the overhang- 

 ing trees, and the flowers of the opposite bank, on which stands the 

 castle, reflected in the broken silver of the water that gurgled past. 



After dinner I walked with Lord Cochrane to the valley called 

 Lord Anson's Park. On our way we found numbers of European 

 shrubs and herbs, 



" Where once the garden smiled, 

 And still where many a garden flower grows wild." 



And in the half-ruined hedges, which denote the boundaries of former 

 fields, we found apple, pear, and quince trees, with cherries almost 

 ripe. The ascent is steep and rapid from the beach even in the valleys, 

 and the long grass was dry and slippery, so that it rendered the walk 



* In consequence of this the British Commodore sent notices to the ports of Brazil and 

 the Spanish Colonies, to prevent English merchantmen from touching at Juan Fernandez, 

 lest the exiles should seize them and so escape. 



