No token was seen, by either, of any settlement ever made upon this island; and Mr. Macbride thought himself so secure from hostile disturbance, that, when he erected his wooden block-house, he omitted to open the ports and loopholes.

When a garrison was stationed at port Egmont, it was necessary to try what sustenance the ground could be, by culture, excited to produce.  A garden was prepared; but the plants that sprung up withered away in immaturity:  some fir seeds were sown; but, though this be the native tree of rugged climates, the young firs, that rose above the ground, died like weaker herbage:  the cold continued long, and the ocean seldom was at rest.

Cattle succeeded better than vegetables.  Goats, sheep, and hogs, that were carried thither, were found to thrive and increase, as in other places.

“Nil mortalibus arduum est:”  there is nothing which human courage will not undertake, and little that human, patience will not endure.  The garrison lived upon Falkland’s island, shrinking from the blast, and shuddering at the billows.

This was a colony which could never become independent, for it never could be able to maintain itself.  The necessary supplies were annually sent from England, at an expense which the admiralty began to think would not quickly be repaid.  But shame of deserting a project, and unwillingness to contend with a projector that meant well, continued the garrison, and supplied it with regular remittances of stores and provision.

That of which we were almost weary ourselves, we did not expect any one to envy; and, therefore, supposed that we should be permitted to reside in Falkland’s island, the undisputed lords of tempest-beaten barrenness.

But, on the 28th of November, 1769, captain Hunt, observing a Spanish schooner hovering about the island, and surveying it, sent the commander a message, by which he required him to depart.  The Spaniard made an appearance of obeying, but, in two days, came back with letters, written by the governour of port Solidad, and brought by the chief officer of a settlement, on the east part of Falkland’s island.

In this letter, dated Malouina, November 30, the governour complains, that captain Hunt, when he ordered the schooner to depart, assumed a power to which he could have no pretensions, by sending an imperious message to the Spaniards, in the king of Spain’s own dominions.

In another letter, sent at the same time, he supposes the English to be in that part only by accident, and to be ready to depart, at the first warning.  This letter was accompanied by a present, of which, says he, “If it be neither equal to my desire nor to your merit, you must impute the deficiency to the situation of us both.”

In return to this hostile civility, captain Hunt warned them from the island, which he claimed in the name of the king, as belonging to the English, by right of the first discovery and the first settlement.