Tristan da Cunha

“ Tristan, the largest of the group, lifts a snow-clad peak almost eight thousand feet above the sea as a warning to mariners to steer wide of the cruel reefs. It has a small plateau where green things grow, and living streams and cascades of fresh water. The islands were discovered as early as 1506 by the Portuguese admiral, Tristan da Cunha, and in later years the Dutch navigators and the pioneers of the British East India Company hove to in passing, but it was not thought worth while to hoist a flag over the group. ”

“ At six o'clock in the evening we were in latitude 37 degrees 0 minutes south and longitude 12 degrees 42 minutes west, having a clear horizon but not the least sign of being in the neighbourhood of land. With the night came thick rainy weather and we were now to the eastward of the situation ascribed to Tristan da Cunha; I therefore determined to give over the search and to resume our course towards the Cape of Good Hope. The island of Tristan da Cunha, by Robertson's Elements, is laid down in 37 degrees 12 minutes south latitude and 13 degrees 23 minutes west longitude. ”

“ From time to time additional settlers arrived or shipwrecked mariners decided to remain; in 1827 five coloured women from St Helena were induced to migrate to Tristan to become the wives of the five bachelors then on the island. Later coloured women from Cape Colony married residents in the island. Other settlers are of Dutch, Italian and Asiatic origin. Thus the inhabitants are of mixed blood, but the British strain greatly predominates. ”

“ A young man in Tristan da Cunha is very peculiarly placed. There are no jobs or trades or form of employment in the ordinary sense. There is no currency. If any individual wants help, his neighbours give him a hand, during which time he is expected to feed them. A young man, therefore, can acquire nothing except as a gift from his parents. In many ways it may not suit his parents to allow him to marry, for it means, first of all, another family on the island drawing a full share of common goods. ”

“ They were already tired of their sojourn on the island, and inspired by the desire of reaching Tristan da Cunha, which is inhabited by about eighty families of Portuguese, English, and mulattoes, among whom Hislop assured them they might linger long enough before they were taken off by a passing ship—quite as long as if they remained on the Isle of Alphonso—and where, for subsistence, they would be forced to work as day laborers in the savannas and on the highways. ”

“ I read to them from a Malvern paper an account of the Tristan exhibits at Poolbrook and what the judges said about their knitting, which much gratified them.
Monday, June 15.—Graham and I have begun playing chess in the evening.
The people are delighted to have some one at hand with whom they can trade. Mr. Keytel is visited at all hours of the day. He has just been giving sweets round to the children. Repetto is constantly with him, and has been a great help in making the doors, window-frames, and other woodwork for his house. But Mr. Keytel has carefully to supervise everything. ”

“ Mrs. Lock used to say that she fully expected to find her dear commodore dead with grief. Mrs. Painter repeatedly retorted that it was far more likely she would find him with another wife, but she might make up her mind it would not be a black one.
Thus concludes the story of the Blenden Hall, East Indiaman, but it is so interwoven with the fortunes of Tristan da Cunha and its colonists that further tidings of them may prove interesting. ”

“ Unfortunately, the chances of leaving the island, even if an individual has made up his mind to make the venture, have now become very scarce. There is no regular communication, and consequently arrangements for a job cannot be made beforehand, and as there is no money on the island those who do find a passage cannot maintain themselves until work is found.
It so happens, however, that there are people in Cape Town who take an interest in Tristan da Cunha and who would be willing to give temporary help. ”

“ THE QUEST OF THE LADY WITH THE HAIR OF GOLD My lords, there were in the court of King Mark four barons the basest of men, who hated Tristan with a hard hate, for his greatness and for the tender love the King bore him. And well I know their names: Andret, Guenelon, Gondoïne and Denoalen. They knew that the King had intent to grow old childless and to leave his land to Tristan; and their envy swelled and by lies they angered the chief men of Cornwall against Tristan. ”

“ Mark had pardoned the felons, and as the seneschal, Dinas of Lidan, found the dwarf wandering in a forest abandoned, he brought him home, and the King had pity and pardoned even him.
But his goodness did but feed the ire of the barons, who swore this oath: If the King kept Tristan in the land they would withdraw to their strongholds as for war, and they called the King to parley.
“Lord,” said they, “Drive you Tristan forth. He loves the Queen as all who choose can see, but as for us we will bear it no longer.” ”

“ One day, as they were wandering in these high woods that had never yet been felled or ordered, they came upon the hermitage of Ogrin.
The old man limped in the sunlight under a light growth of maples near his chapel: he leant upon his crutch, and cried:
“Lord Tristan, hear the great oath which the Cornish men have sworn. The King has published a ban in every parish: Whosoever may seize you shall receive a hundred marks of gold for his guerdon, and all the barons have sworn to give you up alive or dead. Do penance, Tristan! God pardons the sinner who turns to repentance.” ”

“ The apparition of Tristan's wo-begone phiz in the midst of this assembly struck so forcibly the fair Cunegunda's perceptions of the ludicrous, that she burst into a peal of tremendous cachinnation; while the under-jaw of the baron fell convulsively, as he gazed upon 'the man who couldn't laugh,' and the merry notes of his guests died away into a quaver of consternation. This was a 'pretty fix' for the melancholy Tristan! He was taken all aback with the beauty of the lovely heiress of Ehrenfriedersdorf. Fair, plump, and just turned of eighteen, she might have served as a model for Hebe. ”

“ If a private individual chose to waste his fortune and his time upon the cultivation of a savage race, why should De Cunha interfere, since his government would be rendered less troublesome by their continuance in peace? why should he demolish the village of Cachoeira and drive the Guaymures back to their dens and their barbarism, solely to oblige a set of persons whom he denominated moral Locusts? While De Cunha continued to live in this world as if there were no other, while he worshipped only distinctions and delights, what cared he if others chose to venerate Gods, saints, or devils? ”

“ Take counsel, King, for if you will make no terms I will take back Iseult to Ireland, and she shall be Queen in her own land.'"
When the barons of Cornwall heard how Tristan offered battle, they said to the King:
"Sire, take back the Queen. They were madmen that belied her to you. But as for Tristan, let him go and war it in Galloway, or in the Lowlands. Bid him bring back Iseult on such a day and that soon."
Then the King called thrice clearly:
"Will any man rise in accusation against Tristan?" ”

“ Time, who travels on at his jog-trot pace, whether men turn the corners of their mouths upward or downward, had carried Tristan along with him into the twenty-first year of his serious existence; when his father the baron received a letter from one of his old friends, a brother Freiherr, as nobly descended as himself. The writer stated that he was waxing old, and that the dearest object of his heart was to establish his only child, the fair Cunegunda, comfortably and according to her rank in the world, before he went out of it ”

“ And as he came, he saw Duke Riol charging, rein free, at Kaherdin, but Tristan came in between. So they met, Tristan and Duke Riol. And at the shock, Tristan’s lance shivered, but Riol’s lance struck Tristan’s horse just where the breast-piece runs, and laid it on the field.
But Tristan, standing, drew his sword, his burnished sword, and said:
“Coward! Here is death ready for the man that strikes the horse before the rider.” ”

“ And Brangien promised the Queen that she would do her bidding.
On the bark that bore her to Tintagel Iseult the Fair was weeping as she remembered her own land, and mourning swelled her heart, and she said, “Who am I that I should leave you to follow unknown men, my mother and my land? Accursed be the sea that bears me, for rather would I lie dead on the earth where I was born than live out there, beyond. ...
One day when the wind had fallen and the sails hung slack Tristan dropped anchor by an Island and the hundred knights of Cornwall and the sailors, weary of the sea, landed all. ”

“ They planned to give news of their watching to the King, to see his tenderness turned to fury, Tristan thrust out or slain, and the Queen in torment; for though they feared Tristan their hatred mastered their fear; and, on a day, the four barons called King Mark to parley, and Andret said:
“Fair King, your heart will be troubled and we four also mourn; yet are we bound to tell you what we know. You have placed your trust in Tristan and Tristan would shame you. In vain we warned you. For the love of one man you have mocked ties of blood and all your Barony. ”

“ The conical peak of Tristan looked black against the bright sky, which seemed all ablaze with the splendor of the rising sun. Soon the principal island stood out from the rocky mass, at the summit of a triangle inclining toward the northeast.
Tristan d'Acunha is situated in 37 degrees 8' of southern latitude, and 10 degrees 44' of longitude west of the meridian at Greenwich. Inaccessible Island is eighteen miles to the southwest and Nightingale Island is ten miles to the southeast, and this completes the little solitary group of islets in the Atlantic Ocean. ”

“ And so Mark did, and ordered Tristan by his barons to go off without delay.
Then Tristan came near the Queen for his farewell, and as they looked at one another the Queen in shame of that assembly blushed, but the King pitied her, and spoke his nephew thus for the first time:
"You cannot leave in these rags; take then from my treasury gold and silver and white fur and grey, as much as you will."
"King," said Tristan, "neither a penny nor a link of mail. I will go as I can, and serve with high heart the mighty King in the Lowlands." ”

“ For as Tristan and his guards went down from the town to where the faggot burned, near the road upon a rock was a chantry, it stood at a cliff’s edge steep and sheer, and it turned to the sea-breeze; in the apse of it were windows glazed. Then Tristan said to those with him:
“My lords, let me enter this chantry, to pray for a moment the mercy of God whom I have offended; my death is near. There is but one door to the place, my lords, and each of you has his sword drawn. ”

“ Now it happened that when Sir Tristram had first returned from Ireland he had told his uncle of La Belle Iseult, of her beauty, and grace, and skill; for his heart was ever filled with love and admiration for her, and to him she was the very fairest woman in the world. So to wound Sir Tristram, and to take a sore and cruel revenge upon him, King Mark determined to ask her in marriage for himself, and to make his cruelty the greater, he determined that Sir Tristram should be the knight who should go to Ireland as his ambassador to ask her hand of King Anguish, her father. ”

“ But no one took up Tristan’s wager, and the King, taking Iseult’s palfrey by the bridle, gave it to Dinas, and went apart to take counsel.
Dinas, in his joy, gave all honour and courtesy to the Queen, but when the felons saw her so fair and honoured as of old, they were stirred and rode to the King, and said:
“King, hear our counsel. That the Queen was slandered we admit, but if she and Tristan re-enter your court together, rumour will revive again. Rather let Tristan go apart awhile. Doubtless some day you may recall him.” ”

“ He has, besides, the whole science of “venérie” at his finger-tips; in fact Tristan is the “Admirable Crichton” of medieval romance, there is nothing he cannot do, and that superlatively well—it must be regretfully admitted that he is also a most accomplished liar! Attracted by his gifts, pirates from the North Sea kidnap the boy, but terrified by the storms which subsequently beset them, put him ashore on the coast of Cornwall, whence he finds his way to the court of his uncle King Mark. ”

“ Brangien, dear sister, life is so hard to me that death were better! There is a fool without, shaven criss-cross, and come in an evil hour, and he is warlock, for he knows in every part myself and my whole life; he knows what you and I and Tristan only know.”
Then Brangien said: “It may be Tristan.”
But—“No,” said the Queen, “for he was the first of knights, but this fool is foul and made awry. Curse me his hour and the ship that brought him hither.”
“My lady!” said Brangien, “soothe you. You curse over much these days. May be he comes from Tristan?” ”

“ When the felons heard the news they said among themselves, "He is gone, the wizard; he is driven out. Surely he will cross the sea on far adventures to carry his traitor service to some distant King."
But Tristan had not strength to depart altogether; and when he had crossed the moats and boundaries of the Castle he knew he could go no further. He stayed in Tintagel town and lodged with Gorvenal in a burgess' house, and languished oh! more wounded than when in that past day the shaft of the Morholt had tainted his body. ”