The (almost really) Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

To the Editor of the St. James’s Gazette

Sir,—In case any of your readers should feel any interest in the paragraph, with the above heading, which appears in your columns this evening, it may be worth while to correct a few inaccuracies in Captain Fearon’s account of the people, and of my brother, the Rev. E. H. Dodgson, who is “priest in charge,” of the island of Tristan d’Acunha.

So far from having to “eke out an existence,” they have plenty of meat and vegetables; and some of them may even be called “wealthy.” The chief drawback is that wheat will not grow there; and, as there are sometimes long intervals without vessels touching there, they are liable to exhaust their supply of flour. My brother has been there for three years, not eight; and, so far from its being “without fee or reward,” he has received, during those three years, two handsome donations from the S.P.G.; from whom also he received, during a previous sojourn at the island, a regular annual stipend.

It is true that the Government send a man-of-war once a year, to report on the condition of the people, but this is anything but “their only communication with the outer world;” many ships touch there in the course of the year.

One sufficient objection to their being removed “to a more favoured region,” is that they would have to go as paupers, as their wealth consists almost entirely of live stock, whose conveyance to any other country would cost more than the value of the stock.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,