Three Years in Tristan da Cunha

Three Years in Tristan da Cunha

Project Gutenberg's Three Years in Tristan da Cunha, by K. M. Barrow Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Three Years in Tristan da Cunha
Author: K. M. Barrow
Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8213] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 2, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE YEARS IN TRISTAN DA CUNHA ***

Produced by Eric Eldred, Charles Bidwell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

[Illustration: THE SETTLEMENT]
THREE YEARS IN TRISTAN DA CUNHA
BY
K. M. BARROW Wife of the Rev. J. G. Barrow, Missionary Clergyman in Tristan Da Cunha and fellow-worker with him on that island.
With thirty-seven original illustrations from photographs, and a map.
TO THE READER
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