Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-01-17
TRISTAN D'ACUNLIA.
Romance of the snuth Atlantic.

From an article in the London Athea-
Gam on the recent voyage Of Prince
Afford in the frigate Galatea, We extract
the following account of a curious little
community dwelling in mid ocean.
On quitting Rio the romance of the
voyage began by call at Tristan
d'Aeunlia, the largest rock in lonely
group of islets in the great waters--a
group which is said to be further away
from other settlements than any other
land in the world. Here is a prime fact
for romance. One of the three rocks is
called Inaccessible, a second Nighten
gale and the third Tristan. The
nearest spot on which men live is ST.
Helena, aud that dwarf islet is a trile Of
1900 miles to the north A little story,
something like that Of pine Islanders, or
that Of the Pitcairn Islanders lends
charm to this lonely group. During the
early days Of Napoleon's captivity in
st. Helena, few sappers and guards
were thrown upon Tristan, who dug
ditch, raised battery, threw up log
huts and cleared patch of soil. When
they had been & year on their lonely
station, they were fetched away, no one
knew why \ corporal named Glass,
got leave to stay behind, and kept the
place for the British Crown. Three
Yankees had been there before, one Of
whom, q man named Jonathan Lam
bert had taken possession of the islet,
not for the Great Republic, bat for
Jonathan Lambert himself, who was
declared by Jonathan, in a regular pro-
clamatioa, to be sovereign owner and
prince of the then lonely rocks. JOna-
than being gone, Glass took up his
scepter, and pursuaded two fellows to
stay and share his empire Happily,
Glass had a wife a Creole woman, aud
two children, so that the human interests
came into play at once. The little party,
after making Glass Governor of the
Island, fell on the soil part of which
Lambert had cleared, and harvested vast
quantities Of potatoes Now and then
a stray seaman Joined the colony. and
two women came among them from the
Distant Cape. Seventeen years after
Glass and his folks were left alone, the
colony had grown into twenty-five men
and three women. Glass told the Capt.
Of H. VI 5. Berwick that ''they only
required few more women to make
the place an earthly paradise" Glass is
now dead. and his little colony exists
without any government; the men
growing potatoes and making shoes, and
the women, strange to say, wearing
crinolnes
The Prince went on shore and visited
the shauties of these curious people, to
whom the chaplain offered his services
in baptizing all the youngsters and
marrying all the stray couples who
might feel virtuously inclined and ready
for the yoke. The youngsters came uE
in troops to be baptized but whyn the
reverend gentleman mentioned marriage
the maidens were coy and the bachelors
slow to appear. Perhaps they did not
/ Ike marrying in the Princes presence
| Mr.. Miller gave them two hours TO con-
slider his proposition. and fingered il
vain, As he says, with much prOfes
sional regret, there were several girls or
the island old enough to marry, ana
seven young men, all Of whom we're ELI
gible - for the service, yet the two hours
slipped away without bringing the
young men and blushing virgins to the
altar of Hymen. The Prince could not
wait, and the British chaplain though
burning with zeal to bind these be-
nighted swains and nymphs in holy
matrimOny, had to push of for Galatea
leaving them as wild in morals and free
in life as they had been before his
advent. Who will not sympathize in
such a case of clerical distress?