The island was inhabited, from 1811, by American whale fishers.

After them, English soldiers were installed there to watch the St.Helena seas, and these remained until after the death of Napoleon, in 1821.

Several years later the group of islands populated by Americans and Dutchmen from the Cape acknowledged the suzerainty of Great Britain, but this was not so in 1839.

My personal observation at that date convinced me that the possession of Tristan d'Acunha was not worth disputing.

In the sixteenth century the islands were called the Land of Life.
On the 5th of September, in the morning, the towering volcano of the chief island was signalled; a huge snow-covered mass, whose crater formed the basin of a small lake.