82 
FOREST AND STREAM: 
[Aug. I, 1903. 
Tristan D' Acunha* 
I HAPPENED to pick lip a copy of the Philadelphia 
Ledger the other day, and the first article I noticed in it 
was one under the caption of Tristan D' Acmiha, and 
after reading it through I sat for a while in a brown 
sludy. I had heard of this island before. This article 
proved to be one that had been copied from the London 
Times, and the Times had taken it from a British "Blue 
Book," a Government report. 
It carried me back more than fifty years to the time 
when as a schoolboy I would put in hours studying the 
maps hunting for islands. It was then I first met with 
this one; then went to the book out of which I got all 
my information to get some about this, but got very lit- 
tle about it. The island seemed to be but little known 
then, and it is not much better known to-daj'. Tristan 
lies in the South Atlantic, about half way between the 
Cape of Good Hope and the coast of South America ; it is 
in latitude 38 degrees south and longitude 12 West, -as near 
as I can remember now. 
It resembles Pitcairn Island, which I afterward foimd 
out all about in more ways than one. Both belong to 
England and both are really republics. They are of abottt 
the same size and the inhabitants of each are while ; but 
here all resemblance ends. While the Pitcairn Islanders 
are well educated, those on Tristan have no education 
whatever. 
I had wanted to go and see this island, but never got 
a chance to do it. All my exploration of islands hap- 
pened to be on the other side of the globe. But I heard 
all about it years after I had first found it on the map. 
A man who had been, as he called it, marooned on it, 
told me about Tristan. He had been left on it in much 
the same way as was Selkirk on his island, though neither 
of them were really marooned. I had known this man 
many years before he was maTOoned. He and I were born 
and raised in the same ward, and were pla5miates when 
we were boys. His name was Charles Wells. 
When he was 13 years old and I 15 we formed the part- 
nership of Wells & Co., one summer and took a contract 
gathering paving stone. Charley named the company 
while I furnished the capital, a flat-bottomed scow that 1 
built for just this purpose. It measured 15 feet over all, 
was 4 feet beam and had a depth of i foot. 
We would take the scow out into the Allegheny River, 
when the Avater was low enough to work, then getting 
out, one of us on each side would hold on to the sides 
while we found the cobble stones with our feet ; then 
loaded them on the scow, and bringing them ashore, piled 
them out where a team could get at them to haul them 
away. 
Our piles were at the foot of Craig Street, and we kept 
them marked "Wells & Co.," so that the contractor 
would know whom to credit his load to, then pay us on 
Saturday. 
They had just begun to pave the streets in our city 
for the first time then, and some of the first stone that 
was ever put down on the streets of Allegheny were fur- 
nished by Wells & Co. 
We kept at work finding them from the middle of May 
up to the first of October ; then the cold weather stopped 
us, and the firm of Wells & Co. was dissolved. The j unior 
partner (taking Charley's way of placing us) quit gather- 
ing stone, then Charley kept it up the next summer, but I 
Avent West to "fight Indians." 
We cleared on an average $1 a day each, while we Avere 
at this, which Avas doing very Avell for boys ; most of them 
when they are the age Ave then were cannot do as well 
now. 
Once in a while a high river would stop us for a day 
or two. When it did avc put in our time catching drift 
Avith a skiff that I owned. We caught some that paid 
us even better than the stone did ; it was part of a board 
raft; two platforms, that had broken loose up the river 
somcAvhere. Charley and I caught it, then towing it in 
tied it up at our landing to hold it for sah^age, and the 
owner afterward paid us $15 to release it. He Avas an up- 
river lumberman, and at first, when he found that only 
boys had his raft, he was not going to pay us anything, 
he said. 
. I had been expecting this to happen, and was on hand 
with my shotgun, holding the raft, and telling Charley 
to go and bring the ward constable, I kept on holding 
it. The man changed his mind then, and calling Charley 
back paid me the $15, at the same time telling me that 
we town boys were "too blamed smart for him"; if this 
had happened up at home, "I would just take my raft and 
pay nothing." 
"Yes, sir," I told him, "We are smart enough to risk 
our lives saving your property, then let you cheat us out 
of our pay. The law gives me $20 for your raft, I only 
asked you for $15." 
When the War of the Rebellion began in 1861, Charley 
and I both took a hand in it, and I did not see him again 
for 22 years, and had almost forgotten him. 
In the summer of 1883- the cavalry troop I belonged to 
Avas at Fort Cummins, New Mexico, and here I found 
Charley again and heard all about Tristan D' Acunha. 
The first night after Ave had got a squad of new re- 
cruits, when the roll was called, I heard a man answer 
"here" to the name of Wells ; and on questioning him I 
found Charley. Then Ave put in part of the night and all 
next day in each other's company giving accounts of 
what each of us had done in the past twenty-two years. 
When Charley left the army in 1865, he went to Phila- 
delphia, he wanted to be a sailor, and shipped there on a 
vessel bound for New York ; here he shipped again for 
Boston, and next went to New Bedford, and there 
shipped on a whaler bound for the Pacific. 
After leaving New Bedford they only met one whale 
north of the equator and took him. Charley began to 
tell me how he was taken, "You can omit that part of it," 
T told him, "since Wells & Co, dissolved I have taken 
whales myself. I know hoAV to do it noAV." 
He said that from the time they left home the first mate 
seemed to have taken a dislike to him, and ne/er missed 
a chance to run him; and the mate had struck him, and 
he had promptly knocked the mate down, then had been 
put in irons for it. Charley Avas very good-natured, but 
was quick tempered, and quite handy with his fists. The 
hoys at home had given him the nick name of "Bruiser 
Wells." I Avas one of the few boys who ncA^er had had 
a fight with him, though I Avas as quick tempered as he 
AVas, and about as quick to fight as he. He would need 
to know hoAV to use his fists if he attempted to knock 
down a whale ship's mate. T can think of several mates 
on the sliip that I put my time in whom he would not 
k nock down ; but then he would not have to try it, those 
mates were gentlemen. 
Charley appealed to the captain, but got no satisfaction 
fi'om him, and Avas still in irons when the ship touched at 
Tristan. Here the captain told him that he had better 
leave the ship; "I am not going to put you ashore here 
unless you say so, but there is bad blood between you and 
tlie mate noAv and I must stand by ray mate, so I think 
yoit had better leaA^e us here. If you and that mate quar- 
rel again he may shoot you." 
Charley was more than willing to leave; in fact, had he 
n.ot lieen in irons now he would have deserted, he said, 
and he told the captain that if he paid him off he would 
go. It would depend on how they made out on the voy- 
age whether he Avould have anything due him or not, even 
if he stayed. This crcAV had shipped on a "laj'," that is, 
they would be paid for their share of the oil that was 
taken. But the captain paid Charley some money and 
put him ashore, going Avith him himself and turning him 
over to the "king." Then one of the families took him 
in, and he remained for nine years. He need not have 
stayed so long though ; there had been plenty of chances 
for him to leaA-^e sooner. Quite a number of ships called 
in that time, and three times during that nine years 
English naval vessels called and took off any who wanted 
to leave. But he stayed on and finally left on a merchant 
vessel that took him to Rio, and from there he went to 
New York, then left the sea and Avent to the regular army. 
He had been in it now ten years before he came to us, and 
1 left him in it; he was in it still during the Spanish War, 
was wounded in Cuba, and if still alive he may be in the 
regular army home at Washington now; that is where 
] would expect to find him; he Avas a good soldier. 
When he landed on Tristan, there Avere about 200 peo- 
ple On it, all except three being natives of the island. 
While he lived there he taught the children to read and 
Avrite. None of the grown people could do either. 
The chief calls himself the king, but he has very little 
authority. Every adult male is a member of his council 
and they make a laAV Avhen they need one, then execute it 
themselves. They never held any kind of a church serv- 
ice ; but he said that Avhile he Avas on the island he had 
never heard a native use an oath. There were more Avom- 
en than men; and the king, Avhen he saAv that Charley 
meant to remain, offered to give him a wife, but Charley 
did not take her; he did not know hoAV long he Avould 
stay and did not Avant to lake one and then leave her. 
The king both married his subjects and buried them when 
they died, but the services were crude and very short, un- 
til Charley found a prayer book on the island, and after 
that he read the service Avhile the king looked on. 
"Why did you not appoint yourself chaplain?" I asked, 
"then hold church on Sunday?" 
"Oh, they get along Avell enough Avithout any church, and 
I did not want to make a burlesque out of it, I Avould 
look Avell acting chaplain, Avould I not? Besides, Ave never 
knew when Sunday came, anyhow." 
The men are tall and thin, and most of them are very 
ordinary looking; but the women Avere all good looking; 
every family had a small farm, a flock of sheep, a few 
cows and hog.s, and they raised plenty to eat. 
Charley said that he saw some of the finest potatoes 
there he had ever seen anywhere. When he Avas there 
they had a plague of rats. They overran the whole isl- 
and and destroyed a good deal of the crops, and it seems 
tliat they never have been got rid of since, for this late 
report from the island says that the rats are so bad 
there now that they are likely to driA'e Avhat few peo- 
ple still remain off the island. There are only sevent./- 
six inhabitants now, four of them being foreigners, Iavo 
Italians and the other two Spanish. One of the Italians 
seems to have taken Charley's place ; he is reported as be- 
ing the only Avell educated man on the island now. 
The children still there Avere reported to be fat and re- 
markably healthy and very well dressed. 
Shipwrecked men often make this island; they are well 
taken care of until they get a chance to leave; some 
never leave. The first men to come after Charley's ar- 
rival Avere a m.ate and two men from a Avhaler that had 
been burned at sea. The mate had left his ship Avith 
scA'en men; fiA^e of them had died short of the island. 
These three men afterward left on a merchantman, the 
mate going before the mast along Avith his men. In the 
next six years before Charley left, no less than fourteen 
men made this island at different times, the high moun- 
tain on Tristan can be seen a long distance at sea, and 
it no doubt has helped many a man to find this island. 
The island is not much larger than Pitcairn's Island, 
but_ has a chain of mountains running clear across it. 
This high peak is said to be 8,000 feet high, and has, on 
top, a lake of fresh Avater, Avhich rises and falls when the 
tide does. Why it remains fresh, if it has a sea outlet, as 
it must have, has never been found out. The people were 
always afraid that some day this lake would break its 
walls and SAveep them all into the sea. Charley examined 
it and told them that unless an earthquake broke it there 
was no danger of it ever hurting them. He said he 
thought the. Jake occupied the crater of an extinct vol- 
cano. 
The Thrush, the English vessel that last visited them, 
took them supplies of books and clothes, and offered to 
take off all the people and land them at Cape Town, but 
they did not want to go and leave their stock here. They, 
however, sent presents to their friend in Cape Colony, 
those who had left and had gone there years ago, saying 
that if they did not then they Avould not get any more 
clothing from these people, 
Cabia Blanco, 
Breaking the Chain. 
I, OF course, never let the editorial page of Forest and 
STRE.^M escape my notice, but sometimes it cuts deep to 
read it ; for instance, "Spring — ^Time to Go a Fishing," 
and "Vacation Time," seemed to aggravate me for the 
time being. So I broke away for a few- days and visited 
the scenes of my earlier days in old Massachusetts. I 
landed at the scat of Ilampshire county about sundown, 
tired and dusty. The next morning I started for the cen- 
ter of the town and was surprised to see the number of 
electric cars with the signs on them denoting that they 
went in all directions. I had read of all this, but to stand 
and see it all was different. I saw a car marked "Ml. 
Tom, Holyoke-Springfield." That was my car. I wanted 
to get around in the vicinity of Mt. Tom. I told the 
motorman to let me get off at a certain place, but he for- 
got me, and let me off about a half mile further on. It 
Avas all right, as far as I Avas concerned, but he looked 
meek. 
I got off where a famous trout brook runs under the 
railroad tracks. It is a long culvert that carries the water 
under the roadbed, and I remembered the place well, al- 
though it must be thirty years since I had been in that 
particular spot. Phcebes used to build their nests in the 
culvert on the high arch, and they do yet. I heard the 
same familiar call of the phoebe that I heard when I was 
a boy; I do not think it was the same bird. I crawled 
and slid down the railroad bank and looked in; then 
I stepped from stone to stone and got inside the culvert. 
There I stood and thought how we used to whistle and 
hear the echo; so I whistled and the same sound of years 
ago came to my ears. Then I gave a sharp yell ; it 
sounded just as it used to when we Avent to school near 
by, in the old red school house which Avas torn down 
long ago. Well, I stood there and felt ashamed of myself 
for whistling and shouting; I thought someone might 
b.ave heard me and would send word to the State lunatic 
asylum not four miles distant that some of their charges 
had broken loose. I Avent on up the brook until I came to 
the location of the old sawmill; there I had to stop and 
do some more thinking. That Avas long ago Avhen the 
saAvmill was running, but I used to ride back and fonh 
on the log carriage and watch the old "up and down" saw 
do its Avork that helped deprive a good part of Mt. Tom 
of its A'irgin forests. Llere I used to stand and Avatch the 
trout come out from under the mill and catch flies and 
anglcAvorms that we Avould throw in to the deep pool. 
There is nothing left there to tell that a sawmill ever ex- 
isted in that locality. From there I moved on to the 
.stone dam and read a sign, "No Fishing in this Pond." 
If I had had the tools with me I should liaA^e fished in 
those Avaters, not believing the sign Avas put there' for 
me. 
Up over the hill I Avandered to an old farm; went to 
the front door and rapped, and the same genial coun- 
tenance came to the door as of yore; but the absence of 
intent or motiA^e on my part Avas Avithheld. I was not 
knoAvn ; I Avas a stranger ; and it seemed evident I would 
be asked what my business was, so I broke the ice. 
"Well, well, I should not have knoAvn 3'ou. How you 
have grown ; I remember you when you Avere a boy and 
used to come up here tramping around Avith a gun over 
your shoulder larger than' yourself." After a good hand- 
shake and a talk of events past and gone, I could see a 
moisture in her pleasant blue eyes. I said good-by and 
started on, as my collar button seemed to be growing 
large. 
I knew my next stopping place Avould be the old ceme- 
tery; so I picked a few Avild floAvers and Jeft them where 
1 thought it Avould be appropriate. 
T followed the foot of the mountain on toward the Hol- 
yoke line for nearly a mile; then made a break for the 
hills. Mountain pastures were here and dry as a boiie 
now. Then I came to a small patch of woods, and the 
grass around these places Avas green and sweet. Even 
these small patches of timber Avould have been cut down 
if the rocks among them fiad not been in such evidencef 
that the farmer was afraid to wield his ax. Why farmers 
do not leave more shade trees in the pastures I do not 
know, but that to-day the majority of trees left standing 
are Avorth more than to be cut down is the growing 
fi'eling in that part of the country. I Avas noAV on top 
o£ what Ave used to call the "little" mountain. I felt 
tired and sat down on a large boulder and had a good 
smoke; then went on down the other side of the little 
Uioimtain. On my way doAvn I saw a blacksnake all of 
six feet long run into a juniper bush. I tried to chase 
him out, but could not; he knew his business. I went on 
down to the trout brook and looked for the places where 
I used to catch trout ; but all had changed ; in some places 
the brook had a new course, and in others the alders and 
trees were cut down from the side of the brook and the 
banks had caA^ed in. It Avas a sorry place to look for 
trout, but I saw a few small ones. I followed the brook 
for nearly half a mile and saw but few signs of life in it. 
But when Mt. Tom is set aside for a State forest reserva- 
tion, then the brook will grow again and fishing such as 
it Avas thirty-five or forty years ago can again be had with 
proper protection. I am afraid a Mt. Tom reservation 
is a good way off. There are a fcAv dollars in taxes every 
year that some people in Northampton Avonld miss 
awfully. 
I left the brook and started over the hills to the place 
Avhere I had left the trolley cars in the morning. As I 
neared the board "lean to" or trolley station, I saw a 
woodchuck, but he saw me first, and he started for the 
station and got there first ; but he went in on the ground 
floor, and just as his tail was going out of sight under 
the tloor he Avhistled. I didn't. I walked around inside 
the station a while (it was about 4!/^ by 5 feet)) reading 
autographs of people who thought they were prominent in 
life. As I was four miles from town I thought I would 
start, and the cars might overtake me. After I had walked 
about two miles, one did, and I jumped on and returned 
to town, highly satisfied with my day's tramp, Avhich 
brought recollections of long ago. The chain is mended 
now and seems stronger than eA'er. 
Staten Island, N. Y. 
