The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-24 00:00:00

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T.Ltlt FALKLAND ISLANDS.

The tollowing letters have been addressed to the editor
of the Times :

Sir—My attention has been called, by one of your lead-
ing articles this day, to a letter by Mr. Eddy, advocating
the Falkland Islands as the most eligible situation for a
convict settlement.

Having resided there seven years and a half as Governor

I may be permitted to explain many of the erroneous as
sumptions of Mr. Eddy, which his imperfect knowledge of
their climate, soil, &c., have led him into. First, I admit
that as to the question of economy of transport the Falk-
land Islands have the advantage over the Australias and
Vancouver's Island—not as compared, however, with kind-

son's Bay.
The pensioners, or military settlers, alluded to by Mr.
Eddy, were sent to the Falklands during my administra-
tion in 1849. The expedition consisted of a captain and 30
non-commissioned officers and privates. I was instructed
to make over to each man 25 acres of land, on which
wooden cottages, brought from England with them, were
to be erected at the expense of the colonial Government.
Rations, fuel, and a right to employment on public works
were also secured to them for the first and part of the se-
cond years; and a right of commonage, in addition to their
land, of 100 acres was allowed to each man.

On their arr.val great discontent was manifested among
them, participated in by their officer, and I had much diffi-
culty in inducing them to suspend their judgments as to
the entire impracticability of boths oil and climate to grow
anything besides the natural grasses of the country; and
it was not until they saw, some months afterwards, a crop
of very tolerable potatoes dug iu the Government garden
that I could persuade any of them to commence cultivat-
ing plots of their own. Notwithstanding that there were
slew of these men indefatigable in their attempts to raise
produce of various kinds, not one of them has ever suc-
ceeded in maintaining himself or family by agriculture.
Vegetables of all the ordinary descriptions succeed pretty
well, provide you raise a wall sufficiently high to protect
them ; turnips will, however, grow without shelter.
The inability to live by cultivation is not confined to the
pensioner class. Up to the present time no settler in the
Falkland Islands has ever maintained himself by agriculture
alone, and the numerous experiments I made (most of them
at my private expense) convince me that it is impossible to
do so. Wherever the soil is not pure peat' is mixed up
with heavy stones, and it cost me about 301. to clear and
prepare one acre in a selected situation for a crop of turnips,
and, although I manured it with guano in one part and
stable manure and blood in another, the crop in no way
recompensed the outlay. I repeated the experiment after
two years with no better result. In gardens, however, I
have seen with extreme care turnips as fine, although not
quite so large, as I hare ever seen in this country. My
trials to raise wheat, barley, oats, Sze., were complete
failures. In one instance only I obtained a tolerable sample
of barley, grown under the shelter of a wall. As Mr. Eddy
has introduced Lord Grey's name in his letter, I will merely

say that as regards the steps I took for the settlement of
the pensioners I met with his lordship's approval, and hav-
ing transmitted the samples of grain I attempted to raise
Lord Grey agreed with me in thinking it inexpedient to
encouraging further experiments. The staple produce of
the Falkland Islands hitherto has been the wild cattle, and
although there is no doubt that since the Government dis-
posed of the entire property over them and all other wild
animals in the island, including horses and pigs, to—first,
M. Lafone, of Monte Video, who subsequently sold his con-
tract, with the consent of her Majesty's Government, to
the Falkland Islands Company, the present possessors, the
numbers of them have largely decreased. There are and
always have been, however, sufficient to supply numerous
shipping, both mercantile and naval, touching the ports
with fresh beef, to which the settlers and shopkeepers were
enabled to add during the last five years of my office vege-
tables, occasionally fish and provisions of every sort.

I am therefore surprised that Mr. Eddy should hays
fallen into the mistake of supposing that Australian ships
are unable to procure refreshments at the Falkland Islands.
I admit that, occasionally, tho stock of poultry was defi-
cient, but the impossibility of raising grain or of importing
it at prices to indace large breeding of fowls is an answer
to that allegation. Rabbits at one dollar per dozen, and
any number of wild geese at is. each, form, however, some
substitute for the scarcity of domestic fowls.
•

Mr. Eddy likewise assumes that no facilities for repairs
of shipping exist at the Falkland Islands. I have no me-
moranda of the number of ships refitted, but I recollect in
one week seven large vessels coming into port, most of them
seriously damaged, and all (except one, which was con-
demned as unseaworthy) repaired and forwarded on their
voyages. Another instance I recollect of an American
ship of 800 tons which struck on a rock and tore off all her
false keel and part of her kelson. ' This ship was refitted,
and returned to the United States. I feel it due to the
exertions I made, in conjunction with the colonists, to
render the islands useful to the vast number of shipping
passing them to copy a letter I received from Captain Bar-
nard, R.N., of her Majesty's ship Vixen, which entered
the harbour in a disabled state :

" Stanley Harbour, June 6, 1853.
"Sir,—l beg to acknowledge with many thanks the re-
ceipt of your Excellency's letter of the 4th inst., offering
all the aid in the power of the local Government should I
experience any difficulty in procuring supplies of coals,
provisions, and stores required for her Majesty's steamer
under my command. Fortunately, I have been enabled to
supply all our wants from the stores of Mr. Dean (Lloyd's
agent) at so reasonable a rate that I have taken on board
300 tons of coals and a large quantity of biscuit, flour, and
sugar, and shall not have to trench ou the Government
depots, excepting for a small quantity of wide plank, spe-
cified in the enclosed requisition,
"On my return to Monte Video I shall consider it my
duty to report to the Commander-in-Chief the great facili-
ties that now exist at the Falkland Islands for coaling,wa-
tering, and procuring every requisite necessary at the
shortest possible notice fur a much less price than at any
other place between this place and England. The arrange-
ments for watering will enable the largest ship to complete
in a day.

" I have, &c.,
" H. BARNARD,
"Commanding her Majesty's ship Vixen
" His Excellency Governor Renuie."
Having thus explained the state of the Falkland Islands
as they were when I left them about a year since, I shall
only offer a very brief reply to Mr. Eddy as to my reasons
for thinking them ineligible for the foundation of a large
colony of convicts.
A gaol may be formed on any given site, and prisoners
may be coerced to work and to submit to discipline. On
those points no difference of opinion exists ; but the ques-
tion undecided is where that site is to be selected. I have
already, in your journal of the bth inst., given, under the
signature of " A Practical Man," my views as to the loco.
lities I think most eligible. I will therefore only now
discuss the special merits of the Falkland Islands.
Let us suppose an expedition fitted out on a large scale,
with all the needful appliances for forming a settlement.
For the first year or more full employment will be found for
xll the convicts in building prisons, guardhouses, &c.
Those works completed, what is to be undertaken with any
reasonable prospect of beneficial or remunerative result ?
In my evidence before the committee of the House of
Lords, last session, June 21, I replied in answer to a ques-
tion of the chairman (Lord Harrowby), that with the ex-
emption of a patent slip for the repair of shipping, there are,
as far as I can judge, no public works of any great utility
required of sufficient importance to employ a large body of
convicts ; and as the machinery of the slip must be made in
England, its erection would not involve great labour. As to
the docks, suggested first by Lord Grey, and alluded to by
Mr. Eddy, I was of opinion when on the islands, and subse-
quent consultations with eminent civil engineers since my
return convince me, that the nature of the ground and
slight rise of the tides (only abort 6 feet) would render the
construction, if not impracticable, at all events so
costly as to make the attempt highly inexpedient. The
facility of water carriage all round the islands is so
great that roads, if made, would never be used for heavier
goods, and no settler on his unshod horses would ride on
them. Draining might to a considerable extent carriedbediirerent
on, but to move large parties and to guard them in
localities, to cut drains for land of little or.ne valAufet,ecroutblde
scarcely be advantageous in any point ofsvnii eaw; he reckoned
cattle of the Falkland Islands the fisheries nreely that is an em-
the pursuit next in importance
w;
hbc," with the necessary boat
ploy ment unsuited to prisonb
required, might escape on
c ial ly
engage.t h e
The
cattleAmericana,a
rnot e
lag te"
craaeslrind pnoaefrytwei crhuemploy
wt
to onwyah roem,
number;he y-
evriihto. leTohfethteeremri
omfinptilusimshuuastebnet
maintained
itBa:inneerdS 'bayntabeneCak'rrelvyaesrotnlinmeable probability of the man coot
maim
is t hero any
ex ' voluntarily on the islands? My experience
tted settling
t e ma to the contrary. Notwithstanding the high
convinces
wages procurable by artisans and labourers, the former,
shipwrights, earning sometimes 4 and 5 dollars per diem,
the latter from 4s to Gs., few of them remain permanently,
and the small population is kept up chiefly by fresh arrivals.
The hardships endured by the fishermen, although the
gains are sometimes considerable, prevent their continuing
for any length of tine to follow that occupation, and the
facilities which now exist for every man who can pull a
rope to obtain service on board of the shipping touching
at the islands enables the industrious to carry off their
earnings to any part of the world, or the idle and vicious
to change their residences,

I, moreover, doubt exceedingly the groat safety of the
Falkland Islands as a prison. If you nr,ke regulations of
very st riugent character you will diminish the attraction
of the islands is a touching port for resits and refr ,shrnent.
No vessels excepting under circumstances of real distre S
N 1 ould ever come there, as the freedom beaAlry
creations of the crews and passengers would be seriously
ntorfered with for the memory oecn of the cowrie%

//e' (IZ2 e;_e7

and of corn's* if the discipline is less perfect escape would
by no means be difficult. ;."•;E !'4' SP T.' It
The convicts during their senfen —s tr', . , •
settling permanently in a colony', N'/
''C'', tt: ,- 4 ,
,
offers so few pleasurable or protitibl 'Pf A. • \--,
, ,..'t !"
go
soon as freed the able-bodied among 11 lx •
4
Islands, leaving the helpless or itilF-diskp4 , lta ~ ' i1,t,„1
burden on the Government.—Yolirs, ,: '-1; rktr*l. trai '., 4 /
GEORGE •
Lafq Governor, Falls latirslafil. S
43, Hertford-street, Mavfmir.

Sir—Will you permit me to add a few words to those o
)ur correspondent in this day's paper ?

My experience as a seamen about the Falkland Islands
and Tierra del Fuego while in command of the Fuegian
Mission schooner during the past two years enables me to
confute what Mr. Eddy has advanced on the subject ; and
I consider that it would be an immense boon to the corn
mercial and nautical world were the Falkland Islands made
a penal settlement.
That the colonists would not object to it I know to l
the case from what I have frequently heard them say; and
also from what his Excellency the present Governor has
often told me ; indeed, I believe that some request has al-
ready been made to the Homo Government in reference
to it.
Of the advantages to be derived by all classes who have
an interest in our shipping and commerce I will not now
dwell, more than to say that I am convinced many ♦essels
that now pass the Falkland Islands owing to circumstances
connected with the difficulty in getting repairs speedily
executed, would, were it a penal settlement with abund-
ance at our command, call there instead of going to Monte
Video, and endeavouring to attract attention to this sub-
ject and narrative of my cruise lam preparing for publi-
cation, that I shall be happy to give any public informa-
tion in my power that may lead to so desirable and such a
boon to Cape Horn ma, iners as the establishment of a
penal settlement to the Falkland Islands.
With regard to the Fuogian Mission, Mr. Eddy is under
a slight mistake as to ite being located on East Falkland. It
is on one of the west islands, and there are circumstances
connected with it shortly to be made public that will show
that there can bo very little fear of any hindrance being
evinced on their part to any plan for the deportation of our
convicts to the Falkland Islands. The " peculiar privileges
granted to the mission" consist, I believe, only in the per-
mission to choose a small portion of land in the West
Falklands, and purchase it at the usual price, without hav-
ing it first submitted to competition by public auction.
When I left the Falklands in November last the purchase
had not been effected.
I am, sir, your very humble servant,
W. PARKER SNOW,'
Late Commander of the Allen Gardiner.
Grosvenor-house, Knightsbridge, Jan. 21.