Photo: Wilkins
THE “POTATO PATCHES” ON TRISTAN DA CUNHA
In the days, not very remote, when a number of sailing ships were making the Australian passage round the Cape of Good Hope and during the period of whaling activity, the islanders throve, for the ships were glad to obtain fresh meat and potatoes, and gave in exchange things of general value, such as clothes, tools and materials, and flour, sugar, tea and soap. With the establishment of fixed whaling stations ashore and the rapid disappearance of sailing ships in favour of steamers, which are more or less independent of winds and follow fixed routes, carry refrigerating plants, and to whom delay means loss of money, this trade by barter has languished and died away. They are a prolific people. The population has increased and is likely to increase more rapidly with every generation, so that their needs to-day are greater than they have ever been since the foundation of the settlement.
For this history of the island I am indebted to Miss Betty Cotton, an interesting old lady of ninety-five years, to whom I paid many visits. In spite of her age she is still very bright and active, with a clear memory for past events, of which she took a pleasure in narrating to me the salient facts I have set down, together with a wealth of more intimate detail which might well fill a volume. In everything which it was possible to verify I found her to be very accurate. Indeed, she was really a wonderful old lady, for she still moved actively about the settlement on fine days. She regretted, however, that she was no longer able to face the fiercer gusts of wind and her sight was very bad. She asked me to give her some pills, not because she felt ill, but had, I suppose, the general impression that some pills would do her good.
It is extraordinary how all the inhabitants carry their age, many of those who should normally be entering the “sere and yellow” being still bright and active and in appearance middle-aged. Many middle-aged people, in the same way, give the appearance of youth. This applies to both sexes, but more particularly to the men.
Certainly in this island, situated “far from the madding crowd,” there is little of the nerve-racking wear and tear of modern civilization. Freedom from epidemic diseases, the impossibility of over-indulgence in tobacco, alcohol or faked-up foods, the pure atmosphere and the healthy open-air life which they are compelled to lead are, no doubt, factors in producing this longevity.
CHAPTER XII
TRISTAN DA CUNHA (continued)[14]
Again during the night I was attacked by marauders, which allowed me little rest. In the morning, after breakfast, I took a walk out along the bluff to see if I could pick out through my binoculars any signs of the Quest at Inaccessible Island. It was too misty to get a clear view, but as there was a strong nor’westerly wind and a heavy swell with much surf, which would have made a landing there quite impossible, it did not seem likely that they would be successful. I was followed out from the settlement by the husband of the woman whom I wanted to go to Cape Town. He was anxious to discuss further the possibilities. Poor fellow! he was very concerned for his wife’s welfare. I went with him to his house, which is one of the cleanest and neatest on the island, situated some little distance from the rest of the settlement, to see my patient again. Some mischievous though probably well-meaning body at home had sent her a large supply of pills, with which she had been drugging herself heavily.
The morning was wet and squally, so I did not go far from the settlement, but walked about watching the men and women at their work and inducing the children, by sundry small bribes of chocolate, to come and talk to me. They were wonderfully free from shyness. Later, I called on “Reverend Rogers” and “The Missus.”