Soon the men became acquainted with the nature of the country they had been sent to improve. Its land was unfruitful and its character inhospitable. Vegetation was so scant and the soil so poor, that nowhere could a tree be seen. Large barren tracts of country, softened into mud by perpetual rains, everywhere met the eye; and the luxuries of living embraced but few varieties beyond fish, flesh, and fowl. Houses there were none, nor was there any society or amusement. What with rain, snow, fogs, gales, and tempests, the Falkland Islands have well been called the region of storms. The population, not more than 200 in all, consisted of a dissipated set of ruffians, the depraved renegades of different countries.
After landing the stores and provisions from the ‘Hebe,’ the detachment was put to work. Two portable houses were in course of time erected; one for his Excellency, and the other for the sappers. For durability they were built on stone foundations, and the roofs, to keep out the rain, were covered with tarred canvas and thatched with tussack. A number of outhouses and sheds to suit every convenience and want were rapidly run up, and the old dreary settlement gave unmistakable signs of vigorous industry and improvement. One of the houses, with six apartments, was erected as an addition to the old government-house, which was a long, narrow, crazy structure of one story, with thick stone walls, a canvas roof, and five ill-contrived rooms. The other for the sappers, was constructed a little distance in the rear of the Governor’s dwelling. Two ruinous cottages at Pig Brook were also fitted up, and two cottages at German’s Point rebuilt. To make the habitations of the location more homely and English, enclosures were fenced in for gardens and pasturage. A well likewise was built of dry stone with an oval dome and approached by stone steps. For purposes of correction, an oven built by the French settlers under Bougainville, about 1760, the oldest building in the group, was used for the confinement of refractory characters. The detachment, in addition to its other duties, served as the police of the settlement, and sergeant Hearnden was appointed chief constable.
Much of the time of the men was spent in boat service to Long Island and other places to get tussack, oxen, horses, peat, &c. The last was obtained in large quantities and stacked for winter fuel. Occasionally a few were out on reconnoitring excursions examining portions of the country, and surveying the islands and patches of land of colonial interest. In this service corporal William Richardson, who was a surveyor and mathematician, was the most conspicuous. When opportunity permitted, some were employed quarrying stone, repairing landing-places, making roads, and improving the paths and approaches to the settlement. To add to the diversity of their duties, a few were sometimes occupied in marking out allotments and indicating the passes or routes across bogs and lagoons by means of poles. The first pole was placed on the loftiest hill between Port Louis and Saint Salvador, which his Excellency, in honour of his sergeant, named Hearnden Hill. In short the men were compelled to turn their hands to anything, for an abandoned and desolate settlement rendered numerous services essential for the convenience and comfort of the settlers. Sergeant Hearnden was clerk of the works, and also filled with energy and ability a number of other offices of colonial necessity.[[408]] Frequently he was detached to considerable distances, and his reports upon the aspects and capabilities of particular sites and places were invariably received with approbation and his suggestions carried out.
Sections of the detachment were often sent on duty to Long Island, Green Island, Salvador Bay, Johnson’s Harbour, Port William, &c. Two or three times the men sent to Long Island could not return to the location, as the boats on each occasion were, by a driving gale, dashed back on the beach, and the men exposed through the weary night to the pelting storm. Once under such circumstances the party was without food for twenty-three hours. Two men detached to Jackson’s Harbour, when returning home, were caught in a snow-storm and with great difficulty reached the untenable hut at Fishhouse Creek. There, benumbed and fatigued, they sought shelter for the night, being unable to proceed further or to assist themselves.
To relieve the monotony of their public duties, the men were permitted to follow any sport which their inclination suggested. Boating, hunting,[[409]] shooting, fishing, and angling, were among the varieties of their diversions. Game was plentiful, and the men usually returned from their excursions laden with rabbits, geese, and birds of different form and plumage. In fishing, the party at one time in a single haul, caught at Fishhouse Creek thirteen hundred weight of mullet. The Governor, too, was ever ready to devise means to promote their amusement and comfort, and on one occasion so pleased was he with their general good conduct and exertions, that he honoured them with an excellent dinner from his own purse and shared himself in the festivities.
With the view of verifying the reported peculiarity of the tides at Southampton, Professor Airy, in February, proceeded thither to examine the rise and fall of the water. Some non-commissioned officers and privates were placed by Colonel Colby at his disposal for this purpose, who prepared and fixed the vertical scale of feet and inches, and kept a watch upon the general accuracy of the observed tides. “I was,” says the Professor, “extremely glad to avail myself of this offer, for I believe that a more intelligent and faithful body of men does not exist than the sappers employed on the trigonometrical survey; and I know well the advantage of employing upon a tedious business like this, a set of regular service men stationed on the spot.”[[410]]
On the 19th March about 150 non-commissioned officers and men of the corps at Woolwich under Lieutenant F. A. Yorke, R.E., were present in the night at a fire, which burnt the ‘Bull’ tavern to the ground.[[411]] The sappers were the first to render assistance and to secure from destruction much of the property.[[412]] By the falling of the principal wall of the building eighteen persons were severely crushed and wounded, six of whom were privates of the corps. Private Malcolm Campbell, one of the injured, rescued the landlord, Mr. Boyd, from being burnt to death. The latter in a state of great bewilderment rushed back into the burning tavern, and Campbell dashing after him dragged him through the flames and falling timbers, from a back room of the building, into the street again.[[413]]
During the summer a corporal and twenty-three rank and file of the royal sappers and miners, and nine men of the East India Company’s sappers were employed at Spithead under Major-General Pasley, in the removal of the wreck of the ‘Royal George.’ The operations were carried on from the 7th May to the end of October under the executive orders of Lieutenant G. R. Hutchinson, R.E. In all respects the duties, labours, and responsibilities of the sappers were the same as on previous occasions, except that the diving was carried out by the party, and a few of the East India Company’s sappers and miners, without in any one instance needing the help of professional civil divers. On the 2nd November the detachment rejoined the corps at Chatham.
Four divers were at first employed. On the 13th May the number was increased to five, and on the 3rd June to six, which force continued at the duty throughout the season. Several other men during the summer had been so employed when casualty or other cause prevented the regular divers descending, and the whole who had distinguished themselves in this work by their activity and success, were classified as follows:—
First-class divers:—corporal David Harris: lance-corporals Richard P. Jones, and John Rae: privates Roderick Cameron, James Jago, John Williams, and William Crowdy.