Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

238 FALKLAND ISLANDS. In 1823, the Buenos Ayrean Government took another step, in the appointment of a ' comandante de las Malvinas ;' and in the same year, Lewis Vernet, by birth a German, in concert with his friends at Buenos Ayres, " solicited and obtained from the Government the use of the fishery and of the cattle on the Eastern Malvina, and likewise tracts of land thereon, in order to provide for the subsistence of the settlement.* This under- taking did not prosper ; but the next year Mr. Vernet pre- pared a second expedition, in which he himself sailed. His own words (translated) are : + " After many sacrifices, I was enabled to surmount great obstables ; but still that which we expected to effect in one year was not realized before the expi- ration of five. My partners lost all hope, and sold me their shares. I bought successively three vessels, and lost them; I chartered five, one of which was lost. Each blow produced dismay in the colonists, who several times resolved to leave that ungrateful region, but were restrained by their affection for me, which I had known how to win, and by the example of constancy and patience which my family and myself held out to them." In 1828, the Government of Buenos Ayres granted to Mr. Vernet (with certain exceptions) the right of property in the Falkland Islands — and in Staten Land ! " It also conceded to the colony exemption from taxation for twenty years, and for the same period the exclusive right to the fishery in all the Malvinas, and on the coast of the continent to the southward of the Rio Negro, under the condition that within three years I (Vernet) should have established the colony." I About this time merchant-vessels of all nations visited the Falkland Islands, both in their outward voyage and when returning from the Pacific; but advantageous as their visits were, those of numerous sealers had a very different effect : for, instead of frequenting the settlement, their crews killed the seal indiscriminately at all seasons, and slaughtered great numbers of wild cattle. " For this reason," says Vernet, " I * See note in preceding page. t Idem. J Idem.