Three years in Tristan da Cunha

The aim of the following pages is to give a simple and true description of daily life among a very small community cut off from the rest of the world.

No attempt is made at literary style, the language being almost entirely that of letters to a sister or of my journal.

In the first and third chapters free use has been made of the Blue Book (Cd. 3098), September 1906; and of the Africa Pilot, Part II, Fifth Edition, 1901.

I desire gratefully to acknowledge to Mr. Casper Keytel of Monille Point, Cape Town, his very kind permission to use the excellent photographs taken by him; and also my indebtedness to my husband for help in the revision of these pages.

K. M. B.

1910

MAP OF THE ISLAND OF TRISTAN DE CUNHA [* OCR image only shows title]

CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S PREFACE MAP OF ISLAND OF TRISTAN DA CUNHA CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XIV CHAPTER XV CHAPTER XVI CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XIX CHAPTER XX CHAPTER XXI CHAPTER XXII CHAPTER XXIII CHAPTER XXIV CHAPTER XXV CHAPTER XXVI CHAPTER XXVII CHAPTER XXVIII CHAPTER XXIX CHAPTER XXX CHAPTER XXXI CHAPTER XXXII CHAPTER XXXIII CHAPTER XXXIV CHAPTER XXXV CHAPTER XXXVI CHAPTER XXXVII

APPENDICES A. THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF TRISTAN B. THE WEATHER C. SOME TRISTAN WORDS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I THE SETTLEMENT [Frontispiece] II THE PEAK SHOWING ABOVE CLOUDS III BETTY COTTON'S HOUSE (FRONT), OUR NEW HOME IV BETTY COTTON'S HOUSE (BACK) V THE WATERFALL VI MOCCASINS VII THE CEMETERY VIII HILL TOP. INACCESSIBLE IN THE DISTANCE IX THE FLAGSTAFF X GOING WEST XI IN SCHOOL XII BIG BEACH XIII THE HENRY GREEN FAMILY AT WORK ON A POTATO PATCH XIV A PAIR OF PENGUINS XV EARLY MORNING FROM THE WEST, SHOWING SNOW IN CREVASSE, NEAR PEAK XVI BUGSBY HOLE XVII THE CRATER LAKE XVIII ON THE SUMMIT OF THE PEAK XIX COMPLETE GROUP OF THE ISLANDERS XX A GROUP OF ALL THE MEN XXI THE PATH OF PLANTATION GULCH XXII CATTLE, NEAR POTATO PATCHES XXIII A PENGUIN ROOKERY XXIV SHEEP BEING DRIVEN HOME XXV OUR BATHING PLACE (LITTLE BEACH) XXVI THE OLD CHURCH HOUSE XXVII LANDING GOODS XXVIII MRS. REPETTO FISHING XXIX MR. KEYTEL'S HOUSE XXX FRESHWATER CAVE XXXI MOLLYHAWK ON ITS NEST XXXII NEARLY FINISHED XXXIII THE KETCH XXXIV FISH-CLEANING XXXV HOTTENTOT GULCH XXXVI ALL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN XXXVII ORANGES AND LEMONS

THREE YEARS IN TRISTAN DA CUNHA

CHAPTER I

Tristan da Cunha, a British possession, is an island-mountain of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic ocean. Latitude 37° 5' 50" S.; longitude 12° 16' 40" W. Circular in form. Circumference about 21 miles. Diameter about 7 miles. Height 7,640 feet. Volcano extinct during historic times. Discovered by the Portuguese navigator Tristan da Cunha, 1506. Occupied by the British, 1816. Nearest inhabited land, the island of St. Helena, 1,200 miles to the N.

In the autumn of 1904 we saw in the Standard a letter which arrested our attention. It was an appeal for some one to go to the Island of Tristan da Cunha, as the people had had no clergyman for seventeen years.

Now, Tristan da Cunha was not an unknown name to us, for as a child my husband loved to hear his mother tell of her shipwreck on Inaccessible, an uninhabited island twenty-five miles south-west of Tristan da Cunha.

She, then a child of four, and her nurse were passengers on the Blendon Hall, which left London for India in May 1821, and was wrecked during a dense fog on Inaccessible, July 23. The passengers and crew drifted ashore on spars and fragments of the vessel. Two of the crew perished, and nearly all the stores were lost. For four months they lived on this desolate island. A tent made out of sails was erected on the shore to protect the women and children from the cold and rain. They lived almost entirely on the eggs of sea-birds.