14 
ST. HELENA. 
and several plans for its preservation were adopted. Governor 
Byfield himself did good service in taking care of two young Red- 
wood plants, which he discovered, until they produced a considerable 
quantity of seeds. Furze was abundantly planted to serve as fuel 
and lessen the cutting of indigenous trees for that purpose ; all goats 
and sheep were destroyed for a period of ten years, so that indigenous 
plants shot up spontaneously in great numbers, and, it is said, many 
parts of the Island, where no trees had grown for many years, became 
covered with wood. It was not only in this that Governor Byfield 
characterized his reign ; he distinguished himself as a sound econo- 
mist, unalloyed by meanness, and retired from office in 1731, when 
Governor Pike’s second rule commenced, during which he showed 
himself more arbitrary and severe than before. At his death Mr. 
Goodwin, Senior Member of Council, succeeded to the Governor- 
ship, but, as he only lived one year, an opportunity occurred for an 
intriguing knave called Duke Crisp, who was second in the Council 
Board, and therefore next to succeed to the office, to rob the Govern- 
ment to the large extent of 6284/. Knowledge of his proceedings 
having reached the Company, Mr. Robert Jenkins, commanding one 
of their ships, was sent out to investigate the matter. It was on the 
voyage out that his ship was boarded by Spaniards, who insulted 
and tortured him by tearing off one of his ears, which, it is said, 
upon his return to England, he exhibited before the House of Com- 
mons, and being asked by a member what he thought and did when 
they mangled him, made that memorable reply, “ I committed my 
soul to God and my cause to my country.”* Duke Crisp was, how- 
ever, soon dismissed with disgrace, not only from the office of acting 
Governor, but also from the Company’s service, Mr. Robert Jenkins 
taking his place at the head of affairs until the new Governor, Major 
Thomas Lambert, arrived on the 22nd March, 1741. He died a few 
months after, and, for a short time, until the arrival of Colonel 
Dunbar on the 11th March, 1743, an opportunity occurred for the 
Senior Member of Council, Mr. George Powell, who, as a matter of 
rule, succeeded to the acting premiership, to exhibit his unprincipled 
character. Governor Dunbar has left a memorial of his reign to the 
present day in the avenue of Peepul trees which he planted in James- 
town. After three years he was succeeded by Mr. Charles Hutchin- 
* Brooke's History of St, Helena. 
