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. Glass, with the
title and character of governor, like a second Robinson Crusoe, being
the undisputed chief and lawgiver of the whole. On being visited in
1825, by Mr. Augustus Earle, the little colony was found to be on the
increase, a considerable number of children having been born since the
period of settlement. The different families inhabited a small village,
consisting of cottages covered with thatch made of the long grass of the
island, and exhibiting an air of comfort, cleanliness, and plenty, truly
English.

It was to this island that the boat's crew of the Blendenhall had bent
their course, and its principal inhabitant, Governor Glass, showed them
every mark of attention, not only on the score of humanity, but because
they were fellow-subjects of the same power--for, be it known, Glass did
not lay claim to independent monarchy, but always prayed publicly for
King George as his lawful sovereign. On learning the situation of the
crew, on Inaccessible Island, he instantly launched his boat, and unawed
by considerations of personal danger, hastened, at the risk of his life,
to deliver his shipwrecked countrymen from the calamities they had so
long endured. He made repeated trips, surmounted all difficulties, and
fortunately succeeded in safely landing them on his own island, after