Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 3.djvu/12

 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 wasimpossible to look on this lonely spot without recalling to mind the. beautiful lines of Cowper—

Yet in this wild place, alarms and even rebellion had found their way; the Emperor had but one subject, and this Caliban had ventured, in direct violation of an imperial mandate, to kill a fowl for his dinner.

"Rebellion," said the enraged emperor, "is the son of witchcraft, and I am determined to make an example of the offender."

I became the mediator between these two belligerents. I represented to his imperial majesty, that, as far as the matter of example