TRISTAN D'ACUNHA.

Evening Star, Issue 7403, 24 December 1887, Page 4 (Supplement)

TRISTAN D'ACUNHA.

[Specially Wkittbn Fob T«b S'tab.] We bad been six wtocks at sea from Oravtrsend. Since the early darkness of a winter night had hidden from our eyes the white cliffs of the Kentish coaat we had been blest with no sight of land. Once, Indocd, there had been pointed out to us Vfhat was said to be one of the Cape Verde Isles, but to our inexperienced vision it was hardly distinguishable from the clouds which hung around it. Some of us had already begun to hunger for a glimpse of the hills and the green fields, and that distant monotone of grey had been no more ■ufficientfor us than would be a delicate eoviffU to appease the appetite of a fasting sun-downer. On this particular evening, however, tiro captain told us that we were in the neighborhood of Tristan d'Acunha, and if the wind held good we would probably be lying off that island by nine o'clock next morning. We hailed this sews with great delight, although to many it was the first announcement of the existence of such a place. Some had heard the name before, but whether it was a city in South America or a mountain in Spain they had never thought of making up their hiinds. In most nooks of geography it finds no place ; and so, the ignorance being almost universal, we applied to the captain for information. It does not take much to excite interest ftt the meridian of a long sea voyage, and the event that was to happen on the morrow appeared to us to be one of colossal importance. The captain had an audience whose curiosity was whetted by the most delicious anticipation, and which greedily devoured every word he uttered. Tristan d'Aounha, wo were told, is one of a group of small islands lying in the South Atlantic, abont 1,200 miles due east from the Cape of Good Hope. The two other principal islands of the group are Inaccessible Island and Nightingale Island, the rest being only a few barren rocks. Its history begins in the year 1815, when it was taken possession of by the British as an outpost garrison to St. Helena during the exile there of Napoleon, as Ascension to the north of the prison-isle was appropriated for the same purpose. At Napoleon's death the troops were withdrawn with the exception of three men, and theße, with some shipwrecked sailors, were the founders of the settlement. At first only one of the settlers had a wife, but after awhile they got a seacaptain to bring some from the Cape. The population usually numbers a few over a hundred, and is included in about a dozen families. The settlement has no regular government or written laws; has all its posaessionß in common, and has a kind of patriarchal constitution, being under the moral rule of one Green, the oldest inhabitant, who is entirely without official authority. It is virtually independent, as it does not acknowledge the dominion of Britain or any other European Power; and the citizens are very proud of their little sea-girt republic, as, indeed, thoy may be, for crime is unknown. Green's predecessor was Governor Glass, one of the original settlers, and previously a eorporal in the Royal Artillery. Now and again, as we were about to do, a passing ship calls at the island, and a British man-of-war makes periodical visits. Some years ago the Duke of Edinburgh landed there, and in his honor the settlement was named New Edinburgh, a name by which many years ago our own city was called. Scaling is the chief industry ; the products of which are bartered to American whalers, which call more or less regularly every year, and in which the young men often go away before the mast to nehold the strange world, of which their island home can give them but little conception.

Next morning we were all up at daybreak. The breeze was brisk and cool and still from the same quarter. Everybody was on deck straining their eyes through the dim morning light. At length, just when the clouds were beginning to glow with the first red fire of sunrise, we discovered, far away on the starboard bow, standing out from the sea at the horizon, a few dark irregular masses, which gradually assumed more definite shapes and livelier lines as we approached. Tristan d'Acunha itself was the only member of the group which was of any size, being a few miles in length and about the same breadth. With the exception of a small part of its northern shore, it rose abruptly from the waves on Ml sides, and seemed to attain a great height, for its summit was lost in the clouds. It was now broad daylight. The atmosphere was unusually clear. The sun was still behind a veil of clouds, which he was busily engaged in dispersing. There was consequently none of that haze which interferes with the view of distant objects. On the gentle slope to the north some objects were discerned, but so far were we from knowing our real distance from them that they were variously asserted to be sheep, cows, haystacks, and houses. They turned out to be the last of these; and, Been with a glass, they had low roofs and a door between two windows. The walls, as the settlers themselves afterwards informed us, are built of stone and are of great thickness, so as to resist the tremendous hurricanes that sometimes rage round their unprotected and lonely island. Soon the order was given to back the main yard, and we came to a stand about two or three miles from the shore. By this time the clouds had cleared away, the sun shone brightly, and the mountain was full in view, rising to no less a height, apparently, than six or seven thousand feet, and looking like the upper part of somo mighty Pelion piled on a submarine Ossa,

After watching expectantly for abont half «n hour we made out a white Bail dipping in the waves in the direction of the shore. By-and-bye it came alongside, and we saw a whaleboat, having on board, besides twelve or thirteen men, several sheep and fowls and a quantity of potatoes and other vegetables. The men were certainly like no men we had ever seen. Their faceß were pale and bleached ; not tanned and ruddy, as might have been expected. Their eyes, which struck one as mostly blue, glittered strangely, like those of the ancient mariner, and had in them a far-off look, as if they were never used but to gaze at the horizon all day and the stars all night. They were of all ages, from the half-caste of twenty to the stout, healthy-looking old Governor, who was certainly on the celestial side of sixty. They all wore shoes of raw hide; but there the uniformity ceased, and the rest of their attire was of the most varied description. Their trousers were of all cuts and colors, and exhibited several remarkable patchwork designs. They had doubtless been gathered from all corners of the earth, from London and New York, San Francisco and Calcutta, and been worn by all sorts and conditions of seamen—lndian coolies, British tars, Yankee mates, and naval officers. That part of the male body, which in civilisation is made hideous by a coat, was in them covered by jerseys, blue shirts, canvas jackets, pilot jackets, and morning coats, all of course more or less darned and threadbare. Among the head-dresses were to be seen straw hats, sou'-westers, soft felts, and tam-o'-shanters. As soon as the motley band came on board, the captain, who had touched at the island seven years before, saluted the Governor as " Yorky," he being, it appeared, a native of Yorkshire. His Excellency, after acknowledging the salutation, intimated that he wished to exchange some of tho produce of tho settlement for flour, sugar, etcetera, and asked for a glass of brandy, which he said he had not tasted for three years. When the captain and he had disappeared down the companion we turned to make the acqaintance of the liege subjects. These had brought various articles, which they were anxious to barter for old clothes, needles and thread, and other needful things which they had no means of obtaining except from passing vessels. Pants, as they called them, were eagerly sought after, the cause of which was revealed by the most cursory glance around. In return they offered eggs, apples, vegetables, bottles of milk—all luxuries to the voyager at sea—albatross-skins and catskina. They evinced a shrewdness in their dealings that would have done credit to a cockney tradesman, and which they had imbibed presumably from the Yorkshircman. All their produce was of a stunted nature. The fowls' eggs were no bigger than those of pigeons; the apples were like crab apples; the potatoes were small, so were the sheep. Even the milk had a taste suggestive of poverty. Money they did not care ahout

taking, as ifc was of little use to them ; and thny did not seem to have much knowledge of its value in the outside world, for when pressed to name the price of any article in sterling cash, they would frequently ask ten times its value. As soon as the trading was over, wc began to gratify our curiosity. Cats were apparently as great a pest in the island as the rabbit is in Otago. They had been imported to destroy the rats, which had been very numerous, and used to climb the trees of the orchards and eat the fruit. Besides the whaleboat, they had a good lifeboat Which had been given them by the Queen for the intrepidity they had shown in roscuing the survivors of the Shakespeare, a large four-masted ship which had been wrecked on Inaccessible Island. The settlement is in the diocese of the Capo of Good Hope, but was at that time without a chaplain. The population numbered 126, of which many were children, one or two newly born. Of the women we Baw nothing, and learned nothing, although we reconnoitred the village with a telescope and all the solicitude of those who had been cut off from the society of the fair sex for forty days and more.

Our skipper was now impatient to get away, so the islanders' stores were got aboard the boat, and everything was ready to start for the shore, when the Yorkshireman was found to be missing. On search being made he was found m the fok'sle in a state of advanced inebriation, spinning yarns to the watch below. He evidently wasdelightfullyconsciousof his condition, for his face was wreathed in smiles, and he beamed like a Bacchus in fustian. Although thore is no strong drink in tho settlement, the old fellow did not seem to feel a bit ashamed of being disgracefully drunk; and his loyal subjects regarded him not with aversion or contempt, but with the most respectful admiration, and handed him down the side and laid him in the bow of their little craft with the tenderest care. As he lay there, hardly able to move, he began to sing with a powerful voice one of those sea songs which are known to sailors of every nationality. The chorus was taken up both by the crew of the whale-boat and by our own, who were busy by this time hauling round the main yard. After the second verse the captain and mates joined in. At the end of the third we passengers did the same; and so it came to pass on that particular day that every male adult within the circle of the horizon was madly, uproariously, recklessly, shouting some ancient "shanty" with little music and less sense, When wo had ceased we could still hear their song, rendered mellow and beautiful by the distance. And thus, in an atmosphere of good-fellowship and melody, we floated apart. The singing of this absurd song had deeper meanings than appeared on the surface. It showed that these men were not only not soured by their solitary existence, but were happy and content; and it showed that the aim of the higher Socialism, as distinguished from that of the red flag and the public-house, is not the mere dream of those whose hearts arc bigger than their brains, but, in the words of him who may justly be called its poet laureate, that " man to man the world o'er shall brithers bo, an' a' that."

Tho voice of tho wind had sunk to the gentlest whipper, and our ship made but little" headway. The sea was calm. The sky was cloudless. The sun was still high in the heavens, and poured clown rays of unwonted fierceness. The albatross and the mollyhawk wheeled round the stern, piercing the drowsy silence with their discordant ories. Nobody was to be seen but the man at the wheel, and the officer of the first dogwatch pacing tho poop with listless steps. When the sun had set all that remained to our peering eyes of Tristan d'Acunha was a faint loom far on the starboard quarter, and that too was soon swallowed up in the swift darkness. W.G.