surface, when it continues to run along to the
enormous length of three or four hundred feet, with short alternate
branches at every foot of its length. Thus, in the stormy ocean, grows
a plant, higher and of greater length than any vegetable production of
the surface of the earth, not excepting the banyan tree, which, as its
branches touch the ground, takes fresh root, and may be said to form a
separate tree. These marine plants resist the most powerful attacks
of the mightiest elements combined; the winds and the waves in vain
combine their force against them; uniting their foliage on the bosom
of the waters, they laugh at the hurricane and defy its power. The
leaves are alternate, and when the wind ruffles the water, they flap
over, one after the other, with a mournful sound, doubly mournful
to us from the sad association of ideas, and the loneliness of the
island. The branches or tendrils of these plants are so strong and
buoyant, when several of them happen to unite, that a boat cannot pass
through them; I tried with my feet what pressure they would bear, and
I was convinced that, with a pair of snow shoes, a man might walk over
them.

Captain Peters kindly invited me to go on shore with him. We landed
with much difficulty, and proceeded to the cottage of a man who had
been left there from choice; he resided with his family: and, in
imitation of another great personage on an island to the northward of
him, styled himself "Emperor." A detachment of British soldiers had
been sent from the Cape of Good Hope to take possession of this spot:
but after a time they were withdrawn.

His present Imperial Majesty had, at the time of my visit, a black
consort, and many snuff-coloured princes and princesses. He was in
other respects a perfect Robinson Crusoe; he had a few head of cattle,
and some pigs; these latter have greatly multiplied on the island.
Domestic fowls were numerous, and he had a large piece of ground
planted with potatoes, the only place south of the Equator which
produces them in their native perfection; the land is rich and
susceptible of great improvement; and the soil is intersected with
numerous running springs over its surface. But it was impossible to
look on this lonely spot without recalling to mind the beautiful lines
of Cowper--

"O Solitude, where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?"

Yet in this wild place, alarms and even rebellion had found their way,
the Emperor had bu