I called on the Rev. and Mrs. Rogers, and later went to church, the service being held in the little schoolroom. It was well attended. One side of the room was filled by the women, who left their husbands to get in where they could. They looked well in their best cotton dresses, with bright-coloured handkerchiefs tied over their hair. This form of headgear is very picturesque, very practical, and eminently suited to this wind-blown island. I was accompanied by my hostess, and hoped to get a back seat where I could see all that was going on; but room being made for me on the front bench, I was bound to accept. I regret to say that I was guilty of many turnings of the head. The service was short and simple. I was surprised at the hearty way in which everyone, both men and women, joined in the hymns, which, as most of them could not read, they must have learnt by heart. I was told that the wife of a previous missionary had taught them a number of the best-known hymns, and that the “New Missus” (Mrs. Rogers) was bringing them up to scratch again in their singing. A larger place is necessary, for the room was filled and several people hung about the door unable to find a seat. All the missionaries who have been on the island have tried to persuade the people to build a church for themselves, but without success.
After church I called on Gaetano Lavarello, one of the shipwrecked sailors from the Italia, a Genoese by birth. I spoke to him in his own language, which he understood, but found when he attempted to reply that he had lost the fluent use of his mother tongue, having for nearly forty years spoken nothing but English. He expressed himself as quite content with life on the island. He had married a Glass, and had several children. He said the thing he felt the lack of most was tobacco. He had not had a smoke for a long time, and asked me if I could give him some plug or a stick of hard tobacco, offering in exchange a sheep. He said: “I have the largest flock and the best sheep on the island, and I will give you a good one.” Unfortunately, I had no tobacco, but told him I had no doubt that Commander Wild would give him some when the ship returned, and would not require the sheep.
I then called on Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. They are known by the islanders as “Reverend Rogers” and “The Missus,” which names I adopted, for there are so many “Rogers” on the island as to be confusing. They asked me to have lunch, during which they told me of the difficulties and heavy expenses they had been put to in order to come out and take up their work on this island. Apparently it was an entirely individual enterprise, and the Church organization had taken no part in it at all. The first assistance of any sort which they had received was at Cape Town, where considerable interest is taken in this little outpost.
The “Missus” was only nineteen years of age, and had had no previous experience to guide her in her preparations for the life she was to lead. It takes a lot of pluck for a woman to cut herself off from all home connexions and bury herself in a small spot like this, shut off entirely from the outside world, without guidance or counsel in the changes and chances which fall to the lot of every married woman. I admired the courage and enthusiasm with which she faced her self-imposed task, which included not only the instructing of the unwilling youth of Tristan da Cunha in cleanliness, morality and the “three R’s,” but also such multifarious duties as nurse, midwife, scribe, reader and general adviser to the womenfolk.
In the afternoon I again visited some of my patients. One woman was really very ill and in need of hospital attention. I did my best to persuade her to go to Cape Town. The husband, on having things represented to him, was agreeable, but there were numerous objections. I asked “The Missus” to use her influence to persuade her to seize the chance of a passing vessel to go. It must be admitted that this reluctance to leave the island is natural. These people have no money and are not well off for clothes (I believe this was the chief objection in the mind of the good lady herself), and the leaving of the island to those who have known nothing else resolves itself into a great adventure into an unknown world.
Commander Wild had asked me to take a census of the island, and this I proceeded to do, visiting the houses in turn. There was considerable vagueness about ages, and in many cases about names also. On more than one occasion a man (it was always the stupid male sex) did not seem clear about his own name, sometimes contradicting himself or appealing to bystanders for confirmation. As may be gathered from the history of the settlement, with comparatively few exceptions everyone on the island is either a Glass, Green, Swaine or Rogers. Consequently, individuals are better known by Christian names than by surnames, which probably accounts for their vagueness. It is rather remarkable that with so few names amongst them the new chaplain should be a Rogers.
The history of Tristan da Cunha is interesting. The island was discovered in 1506 by a Portuguese navigator, Tristão da Cunha, from whom it takes its name, and though individuals on different occasions lived on it for short periods at a time, for three hundred years it remained nobody’s property. It was formally annexed by Great Britain in 1816, and a garrison, consisting of about one hundred men, placed there, with the object of resisting any attempt by foreign Powers to use it as a base of operations for the rescue of Napoleon from St. Helena. The garrison remained for a year only. Corporal Glass, of the Royal Artillery, a native of Kelso, in Scotland, asked for, and received, permission to stay. He had married a coloured woman from Cape Colony, and had at the time two children. It was no doubt the possession of this black wife that chiefly influenced his decision. He was joined by Alexander Cotton and Thomas Swaine, two members of the relief ship. This little party was augmented by some shipwrecked American whalers, but none of them remained long, the only names persisting to-day of the original settlers being Glass, Swaine and Cotton. Some twenty years later Pieter William Green, a Dutchman, was wrecked on Inaccessible Island, and having made his way to Tristan da Cunha, elected to remain. About the middle of the century two American whalers, Rogers and Hagan, also settled there, and more recently, within the present generation, two Italian sailors, Andreas Repetto and Gaetano Lavarello, survivors cast upon the shores from the wreck of the sailing ship Italia, were so determined never again to risk their lives upon the ocean that they also threw in their lot with the islanders and stayed.
Of the original settlers, only Glass was married. The others obtained wives through the good offices of the captain of a whaling vessel, who brought five women from St. Helena. It was a funny way of choosing their mates, and the islanders of to-day speak of the incident as a great joke, guessing at the feelings of their great grandsires when they went to meet their brides and speculating upon the methods adopted in the selection. Occasionally the settlement has been temporarily augmented by other shipwrecked sailors, who seized an early opportunity to get away in some passing ship. There is evidence to show that they introduced a certain amount of new blood amongst the islanders, for some of them had children which were born after their departure. No new names were introduced, however, for the children adopted the names of the mothers. This factor must be taken into account when considering the effects upon the present generation of intermarriage and consanguinity.
The original garrison brought to the island a considerable quantity of live stock in the shape of cattle, sheep, pigs, geese, poultry, donkeys and goats, and were responsible for the laying down of the “potato patches,” small walled-in potato gardens situated about two miles to the west of the settlement under the lee of some high mounds. The live stock throve, and there are representatives to-day of every species except the goats, which took to the hills, but were destroyed by the heavy torrents which rapidly form and sweep down the gullies whenever there is heavy rain.
From time to time attempts have been made to introduce corn, maize and vegetables of different sorts, but owing to the violent winds which prevail they have never been a success. Practically the only vegetable grown in useful quantity to-day is the pumpkin, and this is in no great abundance. In the sheltered gullies at the back of the island there are some very stunted apple trees which produce small crops of apples.