Where is Tristan da Cunha?
Tristan da Cunha is one of five small and remote islands in the South Atlantic midway between Buenos Aires in Argentina and the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Tristan is the only one of the five to be inhabited.
The island is 37 square miles in extent and was named after the Portuguese admiral who discovered it in 1506. Tristan da Cunha was created in prehistoric times when a volcano eruption raised it 18,000 feet from the sea bed. Cultivation is possible only on one part of the rocky outcrop, on a small plateau squeezed between the sea on one side and 2,000 foot cliffs on the other.
In 1816 Britain landed a small force of men on the island and took possession. The garrison stayed for a year. When it departed, one of its members, Corporal William Glass, was allowed to remain on Tristan with his family. With the arrival of shipwrecked sailors and of five women from St Helena, the population grew to 260 by 1961.
For 150 years the islanders’ way of life changed little. But in 1961 the volcano erupted and forced their departure to England. This evacuation seemed to be the end of life on Tristan but, weary of contact with modern civilization and longing for their island ways, the people began to return two years later.
The Tristan da Cunha Development Company now provides the island’s sole industry. By 1967 Tristan had a small harbor for the first time in its history. After that a road, a new hospital and a sewage system were built, and electricity was introduced. The island now has something approaching the best of both worlds, isolation and “away from it all” atmosphere but some modern amenities, too.
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