After church I called on Gaetano Lavarello, one of the shipwrecked sailors from the _Italia_, a Genoese by birth. I spoke to him in his own language, which he understood, but found when he attempted to reply that he had lost the fluent use of his mother tongue, having for nearly forty years spoken nothing but English. He expressed himself as quite content with life on the island. He had married a Glass, and had several children. He said the thing he felt the lack of most was tobacco. He had not had a smoke for a long time, and asked me if I could give him some plug or a stick of hard tobacco, offering in exchange a sheep. He said: “I have the largest flock and the best sheep on the island, and I will give you a good one.” Unfortunately, I had no tobacco, but told him I had no doubt that Commander Wild would give him some when the ship returned, and would not require the sheep. I then called on Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. They are known by the islanders as “Reverend Rogers” and “The Missus,” which names I adopted, for there are so many “Rogers” on the island as to be confusing. They asked me to have lunch, during which they told me of the difficulties and heavy expenses they had been put to in order to come out and take up their work on this island. Apparently it was an entirely individual enterprise, and the Church organization had taken no part in it at all. The first assistance of any sort which they had received was at Cape Town, where considerable interest is taken in this little outpost. The “Missus” was only nineteen years of age, and had had no previous experience to guide her in her preparations for the life she was to lead. It takes a lot of pluck for a woman to cut herself off from all home connexions and bury herself in a small spot like this, shut off entirely from the outside world, without guidance or counsel in the changes and chances which fall to the lot of every married woman. I admired the courage and enthusiasm with which she faced her self-imposed task, which included not only the instructing of the unwilling youth of Tristan da Cunha in cleanliness, morality and the “three R’s,” but also such multifarious duties as nurse, midwife, scribe, reader and general adviser to the womenfolk. In the afternoon I again visited some of my patients. One woman was really very ill and in need of hospital attention. I did my best to persuade her to go to Cape Town. The husband, on having things represented to him, was agreeable, but there were numerous objections. I asked “The Missus” to use her influence to persuade her to seize the chance of a passing vessel to go. It must be admitted that this reluctance to leave the island is natural. These people have no money and are not well off for clothes (I believe this was the chief objection in the mind of the good lady herself), and the leaving of the island to those who have known nothing else resolves itself into a great adventure into an unknown world.