DISTANT VIEW OF CRATER-BASIN OF ST. PAUL.
On either side the ground rises nearly perpendicularly to a height of about 800 feet, which probably is likewise the average height of the walls of the crater. On the north side of the basin, a kind of terrace was seen low down, with huts thatched with straw, while on the shingle of the bar was planted a not very perpendicular flagstaff, on which, in honour of the arrival of a ship of war, old Viot had run up the French ensign. As the Novara's boat swept into the crater-basin, he saluted with the proverbial courtesy of his nation, which not even the rough occupation of a whale-fisher had been able to rub out of him. Viot had last come hither in the preceding March, with a mulatto and a negro on board of a fishing craft, named the Alliance, of 45 tons, in which he had sailed from St. Denis, on the Island of Bourbon, anew to take charge of the little fishing station here, which is at present the property of M. Ottovan, a French gentleman domiciliated in St. Denis.
While at Cape Town we were informed, in reply to our enquiries, by the first authority in the country, that the Island of St. Paul belonged to England, and was a dependency of the Mauritius; here, to our astonishment, we on the other hand learned from the inhabitants that St. Paul at present was under the protection of the French Government, and, in fact, was an appendage of the Island of Bourbon, the governor of which long previously had ordered the French flag to be hoisted, with all the naval formalities, by a detachment of French soldiers who had been landed from a French ship of war. According to Viot—who is to all appearance a thoroughly trustworthy man, but on whom, however, we throw the responsibility of the correctness of the following information,—the island seems, in fact, to have been, some twenty years since, the property of a French merchant of St. Denis, named Camin, who somewhat later entered into partnership with a person named Adam, a Pole by birth, to whom he ultimately resigned the entire island.[59] Adam, who was described to us as a man of exceedingly fierce and determined character, did wonders for the cultivation of the island. He left a number of Mozambique negroes, whom he compelled to work through the entire year, exposed to the severest privations, and employed in hewing stone from the rocks, with which huts were erected, in preparing a landing-quay on the north side of the basin, and in sowing a number of plots of ground along the lower margin of the crater with European vegetables.
[59] According to Captain Denham, who visited this island in 1853, the present proprietor called this fishing station, Marie Heurtevent, and said he had bought it about five years previously for 6000 dollars from a Polish merchant of St. Denis, where he himself also resided. (Nautical Magazine, pp. 68, 75).
About eight or ten years since, Adam (who afterwards, in the course of a voyage from Bourbon to New Zealand, met a disgraceful death, having been thrown overboard for his cruelty by the black crew of a small vessel, whom he had driven to desperation) sold the islands to their present possessor, M. Ottovan, a ship-chandler of St. Denis, who since then has twice each year, during the fine season, despatched a small craft of some 30 to 45 tons, manned by from 15 to 18 fishermen, from St. Denis to St. Paul Island, so as to turn to advantage the unusual abundance of this fishing-ground. This vessel leaves St. Denis regularly every November on its voyage of from 24 to 30 days to St. Paul. The return voyage to St. Denis takes place during the prevalence of the South-East Trades, and occupies a much shorter time, rarely exceeding 14 to 16 days. The fishing sloop, during its stay at the island, anchors inside the basin of the crater, so as to discharge her provisions for the fishermen, and to facilitate the freighting for the homeward voyage with the fish that have been caught, as also to guard her against sudden changes of weather, which in these latitudes, as we ourselves experienced, is, even during the best season, very stormy and dangerous. The fishermen use the excellent whaleboats (or baleinières), so admirably suited to the heavy swell of the Indian Ocean, in which they go out in the morning, returning to the shore at nightfall. The species of fish which is found in greatest numbers, and is caught exclusively by the hook, is usually called by the fishermen, "Indian Cod:" it is by no means, however, of the genus Haddock, and very slightly, if at all, resembles the codfish of northern waters, or common stock-fish, but seems to belong to the class of finger fish (cheilo-dactylus-fasciatus), which is usually classed among the crow fish (sciænæ). These are salted, dried in the open air, packed in casks, and dispatched in large quantities to the markets of St. Denis. It is calculated that the number thus sent off in the course of each year amounts to about 40,000. which are sold in the market of St. Denis by the hundred, for from 40 to 60 francs (£1 12s. to £2 8s.—total £640 to £960). The expenses of maintaining the settlement is very small.—Viot has 57 francs a month (£2 6s.); his two companions 40 francs and 25 francs respectively (£1 12s. and £1); the men engaged in the fishery receive 25 to 30 francs a month, besides provisions. The second voyage of the vessel ordinarily takes place in January or February, so as to return in April or May, with a similar cargo. It often happens that the owner of the vessel finds some more profitable employment for it, when it only returns during the second year, and their provisions, as meal, rice, biscuit, tobacco, &c., get rather short. The settlers, however, employ what leisure time remains after their work is done, in cultivating a number of plots of ground with cereals and vegetables, potatoes especially returning from time to time an excellent yield. Of these useful tubers, which grow with remarkable luxuriance in the turf-soil of the island, they raise from 60 to 80 cwt. annually. Fresh vegetables being articles in great request are more particularly made available by the inhabitants of St. Paul, by way of barter, when trafficking with the whalers, from 20 to 30 of which touch here in the year, to exchange their salt fish, rice, tobacco, cheese, brandy, &c., for the fresh provisions grown on the island. The number of vessels that pass within sight of St. Paul in the course of a year may be reckoned at from 100 to 150, of which, however, only a very few, except the whalers, visit the island.[60] In the year 1857, for example, it occurred only twice (one case being an English man-of-war), that passing ships sent boats to the island, five months of the year having elapsed in the first instance, and two in the second.
[60] All the Dutch Indiamen on the home voyage from Batavia, during the months of October till May, have been for many years in the habit of running south till they sighted St. Paul, so as to catch the S. E. Trades. But it has never been the policy of the Dutch to attract attention to the eastern seas, and accordingly no information found its way to Europe respecting these interesting islands, till the period mentioned in the text.
When the take of fish in the immediate vicinity of the island does not seem sufficiently remunerative, the fishermen occasionally launch out to greater distances. They then bring out from the basin of the crater the barque that brought them from Bourbon to St. Paul, and remain at sea for several days, or make for the adjoining island of Amsterdam, the shores of which are even more frequented by the fish than those of St. Paul.
As already remarked, our first movements were directed solely towards an examination of its physical features. We were accompanied on this tour of inspection by Ferdinand, an active, intelligent Mulatto, with thoroughly French manners. The French stock has this peculiarity as compared with the German, that it remains unmistakably French, even when mixed with two-thirds African blood. Ferdinand was for the first time in St. Paul, having been conveyed hither in the Alliance in the previous March, to work for M. Ottovan. Family troubles had been the cause of his banishment to this dismal island. Although only 24 years of age, he was already the father of two children, whom, he informed us, he had placed at school in St. Denis; and in sheer despair at the worthless conduct of their mother, had hired himself hither as a labourer at 40 francs a month, paid by the owner of the island. He proposed returning to St. Denis in the next ship that left St. Paul, in the hope that peace might be by that time restored in his family.
At various spots in the lower rim of the crater-basin, within which Ferdinand acted as guide, we perceived heavy volumes of smoke emerging from the shallow parts of the water, which obviously implied the existence of hot springs. The two most active and largest in circumference were on the north side of the crater-basin, and were known, the one as the Bath, the other as the Drinking Fountain. Moreover, at several points on the north bar, hot water bubbles up from the soil, of such a temperature that the same person who, with a hook and line had caught a fish in the cold water basin, might, with the same motion of his hand, let them drop into the hot adjoining spring, where, in fact, it is boiled within a few minutes and fit for eating! We have ourselves made this experiment, which is also mentioned by Lord Macartney, and found the fish thus prepared exceedingly palatable.
At high water the whole of the hot springs become mingled with the brine of the ocean, and thus indicate a temperature which is barely perceptibly higher than that of the latter. Adjoining the landing-place, several late visitors to the island have endeavoured to perpetuate the record of their fleeting presence on some compact granite blocks of rock, which are scattered in the path to the hot springs. Thus, on one of those stones, fast becoming obliterated by the weather, may be read:—"Savouret, 1841"—"J. D. Rogers, 1855, Mars."—On a second huge block:—"Hte. Rogers, 1852 to 1857;" and lastly, these names, with difficulty decipherable, "Pallefournier-Emile, Mazarni-Denoyarez, Grenoble, Canton de Sassenage, Département de l'Isère, 1844." In general we found none of the inscriptions on the island that can be recognized.