THE KING OF TRISTAN D'ACUNHA. 403 



consideration, a proposal which may perhaps be feas- 

 ible, and which you may, on reflection, adopt viz., 

 to join me in the business of making oil and skins on 

 these islands. The mode I shall recommend will be 

 simple, and the least expensive that can be under- 

 taken that is, to buy a small fishing schooner of about 

 50 tons, such as may often be had in the spring, or 

 late in the fall, in Cape Cod, for 500 S., and if you 

 wish to give your brother Jonson employment for a 

 year or two, send him here in her with ten or twelve 

 men. Two or three of those kind of boats called at 

 Cape Cod half -boats a kind of whale boat which cost 

 about 25 S. there, with provision enough for twelve 

 months. For the purpose of saving the oil, a cistern, 

 as they have at the Cape of Good Hope, should be 

 made ; stones enough are on the spot ; lime and a 

 mason or two (many of a roving disposition may be 

 found in these times cheap), with a frame suitable to 

 the size of the cistern, with boards, &c., to cover and 

 make it tight A plaud flooring to support the casks, 

 which should be filled from a small wooden pump let 

 down into the cistern. The building would answer 

 for the men to live in. Some hhds. salt, which at 

 Cape D. cost 50 per hhd., and two or three asses to 

 carry blubber and skins from a distance; for the 

 greatest part of the work of the oilers is to carry the 

 blubber to the coppers. Two boilers of iron, holding 

 from 60 to 90 gallons each, with ladle, skimmer, 

 cooler, strainer, knives, steel, grindstone, beaming- 



