But the census of the isle, sadly lessened by the dispensation of justice, and not materially recruited by matrimony, began to fill his mind with sad mistrust.  Some way the population must be increased.  Now, from its possessing a little water, and its comparative pleasantness of aspect, Charles’s Isle at this period was occasionally visited by foreign whalers.  These His Majesty had always levied upon for port charges, thereby contributing to his revenue.  But now he had additional designs.  By insidious arts he, from time to time, cajoles certain sailors to desert their ships, and enlist beneath his banner.  Soon as missed, their captains crave permission to go and hunt them up.  Whereupon His Majesty first hides them very carefully away, and then freely permits the search.  In consequence, the delinquents are never found, and the ships retire without them.

Thus, by a two-edged policy of this crafty monarch, foreign nations were crippled in the number of their subjects, and his own were greatly multiplied.  He particularly petted these renegado strangers.  But alas for the deep-laid schemes of ambitious princes, and alas for the vanity of glory.  As the foreign-born Pretorians, unwisely introduced into the Roman state, and still more unwisely made favorites of the Emperors, at last insulted and overturned the throne, even so these lawless mariners, with all the rest of the body-guard and all the populace, broke out into a terrible mutiny, and defied their master.  He marched against them with all his dogs.  A deadly battle ensued upon the beach.  It raged for three hours, the dogs fighting with determined valor, and the sailors reckless of everything but victory.  Three men and thirteen dogs were left dead upon the field, many on both sides were wounded, and the king was forced to fly with the remainder of his canine regiment.  The enemy pursued, stoning the dogs with their master into the wilderness of the interior.  Discontinuing the pursuit, the victors returned to the village on the shore, stove the spirit casks, and proclaimed a Republic.  The dead men were interred with the honors of war, and the dead dogs ignominiously thrown into the sea.  At last, forced by stress of suffering, the fugitive Creole came down from the hills and offered to treat for peace.  But the rebels refused it on any other terms than his unconditional banishment.  Accordingly, the next ship that arrived carried away the ex-king to Peru.

The history of the king of Charles’s Island furnishes another illustration of the difficulty of colonizing barren islands with unprincipled pilgrims.