Tristan d'Acunha is believed to have been uninhabited until 1811, when
three Americans took up their residence upon it, for the purpose of
cultivating vegetables, and selling the produce, particularly potatoes,
to vessels which might touch there on their way to India, the Cape, or
other parts in the southern ocean. These Americans remained its only
inhabitants till 1816, when, on Bonaparte being sent to St. Helena, the
British government deemed it expedient to garrison the island, and sent
the Falmouth man-of-war with a colony of forty persons, which arrived in
the month of August. At this time the chief of the American settlers was
dead, and two only survived; but what finally became of these we are not
informed. The British garrison was soon given up, the colony abandoned,
and all returned to the Cape of Good Hope, except a person named Glass,
a Scotchman, who had been corporal of artillery, and his wife, a Cape
Creole. One or two other families afterwards joined them, and thus the
foundation of a nation on a small scale was formed; Mr.
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