I believe it was not long after Captain Patten’s visit that
      Captain Colquhoun, of the American brig Betsey, touched at the
      largest of the islands for the purpose of refreshment. He planted
      onions, potatoes, cabbages, and a great many other vegetables, an
      abundance of all which is now to be met with. In 1811, a Captain Haywood, in the Nereus, visited Tristan. He
      found there three Americans, who were residing upon the island to
      prepare sealskins and oil. One of these men was named Jonathan
      Lambert, and he called himself the sovereign of the country. He
      had cleared and cultivated about sixty acres of land, and turned
      his attention to raising the coffee-plant and sugar-cane, with
      which he had been furnished by the American Minister at Rio
      Janeiro. This settlement, however, was finally abandoned, and in
      1817 the islands were taken possession of by the British
      Government, who sent a detachment for that purpose from the Cape
      of Good Hope. They did not, however, retain them long; but, upon
      the evacuation of the country as a British possession, two or
      three English families took up their residence there
      independently of the Government. On the twenty-fifth of March,
      1824, the Berwick, Captain Jeffrey, from London to Van Diemen’s
      Land, arrived at the place, where they found an Englishman of the
      name of Glass, formerly a corporal in the British artillery. He
      claimed to be supreme governor of the islands, and had under his
      control twenty-one men and three women. He gave a very favourable
      account of the salubrity of the climate and of the productiveness
      of the soil. The population occupied themselves chiefly in
      collecting sealskins and sea elephant oil, with which they traded
      to the Cape of Good Hope, Glass owning a small schooner. At the
      period of our arrival the governor was still a resident, but his
      little community had multiplied, there being fifty-six persons
      upon Tristan, besides a smaller settlement of seven on
      Nightingale Island. We had no difficulty in procuring almost
      every kind of refreshment which we required—sheep, hogs,
      bullocks, rabbits, poultry, goats, fish in great variety, and
      vegetables were abundant. Having come to anchor close in with the
      large island, in eighteen fathoms, we took all we wanted on board
      very conveniently. Captain Guy also purchased of Glass five
      hundred sealskins and some ivory. We remained here a week, during
      which the prevailing winds were from the northward and westward,
      and the weather somewhat hazy. On the fifth of November we made
      sail to the southward and westward, with the intention of having
      a thorough search for a group of islands called the Auroras,
      respecting whose existence a great diversity of opinion has
      existed. These islands are said to have been discovered as early as 1762,
      by the commander of the ship Aurora. In 1790, Captain Manuel de
      Oyarvido, in the ship Princess, belonging to the Royal Philippine
      Company, sailed, as he asserts, directly among them. In 1794, the
      Spanish corvette Atrevida went with the determination of
      ascertaining their precise situation, and, in a paper published
      by the Royal Hydrographical Society of Madrid in the year 1809,
      the following language is used respecting this expedition: “The
      corvette Atrevida practised, in their immediate vicinity, from
      the twenty-first to the twenty-seventh of January, all the
      necessary observations, and measured by chronometers the
      difference of longitude between these islands and the port of
      Soledad in the Manillas. The islands are three, they are very
      nearly in the same meridian; the centre one is rather low, and
      the other two may be seen at nine leagues’ distance.” The
      observations made on board the Atrevida give the following
      results as the precise situation of each island. The most
      northern is in latitude 52 degrees 37’ 24” S., longitude 47
      degrees, 43’ 15” W.; the middle one in latitude 53 degrees 2’ 40”
      S., longitude 47 degrees 55’ 15” W.; and the most southern in
      latitude 53 degrees 15’ 22” S., longitude 47 degrees 57’ 15” W.

      On the twenty-seventh of January, 1820, Captain James Weddel, of
      the British navy, sailed from Staten Land also in search of the
      Auroras. He reports that, having made the most diligent search
      and passed not only immediately over the spots indicated by the
      commander of the Atrevida, but in every direction throughout the
      vicinity of these spots, he could discover no indication of land. These conflicting statements have induced other navigators to
      look out for the islands; and, strange to say, while some have
      sailed through every inch of sea where they are supposed to lie
      without finding them, there have been not a few who declare
      positively that they have seen them; and even been close in with
      their shores. It was Captain Guy’s intention to make every
      exertion within his power to settle the question so oddly in
      dispute. {*3}

      We kept on our course, between the south and west, with variable
      weather, until the twentieth of the month, when we found
      ourselves on the debated ground, being in latitude 53 degrees 15’
      S., longitude 47 degrees 58’ W.—that is to say, very nearly upon
      the spot indicated as the situation of the most southern of the
      group. Not perceiving any sign of land, we continued to the
      westward of the parallel of fifty-three degrees south, as far as
      the meridian of fifty degrees west. We then stood to the north as
      far as the parallel of fifty-two degrees south, when we turned to
      the eastward, and kept our parallel by double altitudes, morning
      and evening, and meridian altitudes of the planets and moon. Having thus gone eastwardly to the meridian of the western coast
      of Georgia, we kept that meridian until we were in the latitude
      from which we set out. We then took diagonal courses throughout
      the entire extent of sea circumscribed, keeping a lookout
      constantly at the masthead, and repeating our examination with
      the greatest care for a period of three weeks, during which the
      weather was remarkably pleasant and fair, with no haze
      whatsoever. Of course we were thoroughly satisfied that, whatever
      islands might have existed in this vicinity at any former period,
      no vestige of them remained at the present day. Since my return
      home I find that the same ground was traced over, with equal
      care, in 1822, by Captain Johnson, of the American schooner
      Henry, and by Captain Morrell in the American schooner Wasp—in
      both cases with the same result as in our own.