26 TKISTAN D'ACUNHA. [169O. 



Arriving in tlie height of the Isle Tristan we sail'd East- 

 ward to endeavour to gain it, but we cou'd not succeed 

 because of the Fogs and hazy Weather, which we had for 

 five or six days ; we lay by all that while, that we might not 

 go beyond it, nor come too near it. The Weather not clear- 

 ing up, we were afraid of losing our time there, and resolv'd 

 to take hold of the opportunity of a fair Wind which then 

 presented, and might bring us in a few days to the C«j;c of 

 Good Hoin ; But we had not kept on our Course thither six 

 Hours, before the Wind shifted again, and was in our Teeth, 

 which oblig'd the Captain to tell us, he must make a new 

 effort to put into the Isle of Tristan} His pretended design 

 succeeded in some sort, we saw that Island Thursday the 

 '27th of December, about six in the Morning, and coasted it 

 from the North, to the South and by JSast, but we cou'd find 

 no place to cast Anchor, we were always Sounding, but 

 never reach'd the Bottom. 



We perceiv'd plainly enough that the Captain's Chart was 

 false, because there was a Bay mark'd to be in that part 

 which we saw, where there certainly was none at all ; and 

 having no intention that we should land there, he wou'd 

 have perswaded us the Isle was inaccessible : But we were 

 sure Ships had formerly anchor'd there, and were confirm'd 

 in that Opinion by a good Chart of the Sieur Testard's, where 

 a Bay was mark'd in another place to the Westivard, and it 

 represented the Coasts that were before us, to be, as indeed 

 they were, very high and steep. 



• The Tristan d'Acunha Isles are three in number : Tristan, the 

 largest, to the north-east; Inaccessible, the westernmost and smallest; 

 Nightingale Island, to the south. The N.W. extremity of Tristan, 

 near the settlement, is in lat. 87° 2' S., long. 12° 18' W. The people 

 now living in the village on Tristan form a very interesting community 

 in Avhat is called Falmouth Bay. The Duke of Edinburgh landed here 

 in 1867, the Challenger in 1874. It is dangerous to range along the 

 margin of the ioland nearer than two miles, on account of the baffling 

 eddies, which leave a ship in the onset influence of the swell. 



