NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
823 
island were much as formerly, the vegetables consisting of the cabbage palm, celery, water 
cresses, sorrel, parsley, turnips, and radishes. Commodore Anson added to these produc- 
tions by sowing garden seeds and fruit stones, viz., lettuces, carrots, plums, and peaches, 
some of which prospered well. Some goats were captured whose ears had been slit by 
Selkirk thirty years previously. Anson remained at anchor in Cumberland Bay until 
September, when the health of the people having been restored, he continued his 
voyage. During their stay at Juan Fernandez the “ Trial ” visited Mas-a-fuera Island, 
and found there numerous goats, for, the anchorage being more exposed than at Juan 
Fernandez, the Spaniards had not landed dogs on that island with a view of destroying 
the goats. 
In 1743, two Spanish frigates commanded by Don George Juan and Don Antonio 
Ulloa visited Juan Fernandez, and Ulloa has given a description of the island. During 
their stay they visited the valley where Anson had erected his tents, to search for any 
instructions that might have been left behind, but found only some tent poles and 
small wooden bridges for crossing the ravine. Ulloa gives an account of a fish caught 
here, possessing a spur or bone which is an infallible remedy for toothache. This fish, he 
says, “ resembles the Tollo in shape ; from the fore part of each of the two fins on its back 
grows a kind of triangular spur a little bent, but round near the back and terminating 
in a point. It has a fine gloss and the hardness of a bone. At the root of it is a soft 
spongy substance.” Ulloa asserts that he himself and several of his friends tried this 
remedy with complete success, and that soon after the application of this spur or 
bone to the tooth, a drowsiness succeeded and the patient awoke free from pain. 
The dogs on Juan Fernandez in Ulloa’s time were a species of greyhound sent thither 
by the Viceroy of Peru to exterminate the goats, so that the island might no longer 
furnish supplies to piratical vessels. The goats, however, being more nimble and 
surefooted than the dogs, the latter fed on the Fur Seals and Elephant Seals. 
On a second visit to the island in the same year, Ulloa saw on the top of one of the 
mountains a bright light, which was at first very small, but increased so as to form a 
flame like that of a flambeau ; the full vigour of the light lasted three or four minutes, 
when it diminished, and was not seen afterwards. Subsequently it was discovered that 
the ground in the vicinity of the spot where this flame was seen was full of fissures 
still hot, and much burnt, from which Ulloa concluded that he had seen a small volcanic 
outburst. 
After the return of Anson, a question arose as to the advantage of forming a colony 
on Juan Fernandez, but the Spanish Government, obtaining intelligence that this project 
was under consideration in England, sent orders at once to take possession of all the 
outlying islands off the coast of South America, and in conformity with these orders a 
settlement was established at Juan Fernandez in 1750, consisting of a company of 
infantry and the necessary staff, with 22 prisoners. In all, 171 persons of both sexes were 
(narr. chall. exp. — vol. i. — 1885.) 104 
