Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-09-10
ETGHTEEN YEARS AL0YE
a Tale OF the Pacific.

Tale OF the Pacific.
" OF the group commonly called the Santa
Barbara Islands, so near the mainland that
| on the map they seem mere crumbs of the
| Pacific coast, little is known even by Califor-
mans. Scarcely an American but has read of
! the tropical islands where the mythical Rob
inson Crusoe was wrecked yet few persons
! know that over the dosolate sleeps of nearer
| island Of the same vast sea hang the mystery,
the horror and the pathos of the story Of a
captive woman n story, if it could be fully
! told, more thrilling than that of Crusoe iu-
asmuch Us one is fiction, the other fact one,
the supposed exploits of hardy man, the
other, the real dosolatiou of suffering wont
an one, the tale Of mariner whom the wa
ters flung against his will into a summer land,
the other, Of one who voluntarily breasted the
waves, and fought death, in response to the
highest love of which the human heart is ca
pablo.
The Santa Barbara Islands, on one of which
this strange romance WIS enacted, lie to the
southwark of Santa Barbara channel the
nearest Of the group being about twenty five
miles distant from the mainland. The names
of the islands are Anacapa, Santa Rosa San
Miguel, Santa Cruz, Santa Catilna San Glenn
entc, Santa Barbara, San Nicolas They are
now uninhabted, and have been so for years
The islands nearer the coast Rre used for
sheep-grazing a sail-bo carries over the
shoarcrs and brings back the wool The more
distant are known to trappers as fine beds of
otterand seal. The sea-lions and sca-eephants
in the Centennial Exposition, New York
Aquarium and Cincinnati Geological Gardens
were lassoed off the outlying islands Of the
Santa Barbara group. Boats visit the beaches
for abalones, the meat of which is dried and
shipped TO China for food, while the shells
(HdGotis SpieBdCRS, HaGots 1.uEsrehs and
Haliotis cracherodij) sold at an average price
Of fifty dollars per ton at the San Francisco
wharf, are bought 10y dealers in marine shells,
cut into jewery to be sold TO tourists, or ship
ped to Europe to be manufactured into but
tons and other pearl ornaments. Excepting
the occasional camps Of shOarcrs seal-hunters
and abalone- packers, the island. are totally
deserted.
Yet, wild and desolate as they now are Ca
hrillo says that in the fifteenth century they
were densely pcopled by superior race, aud
that the mainland was dotted by villages.
The children of the islanders are described
10y early nayigators Us being white, with
light hair and rudly cheeks, and the women
rs having fine forms, beautiful eyes, and
modest dcmcanor.' The men wore loose
cloaks, the women dr, ,ssed in petticoats and
capes of seal skin, heavily fringed and hand
and wealthy embroidered their garments with
pearl aud small pink shells Necklaces of
sparkling stones aud carvcn ivory were worn
by the higher caste, and ear rings of iris. hued
abdlone were not uncommon. They cooked
their food in soapstone vessels or in water
heated by dropping hot stones into water
tight baskets. Bancroft, in his Native
Races, mentions, among articles of their
manufacture, needles, avis and ish-hooks of
bone or shell wator-tght baskets, ollas of
stone, and canoes, deep and long, with both
stem and stern equally elevated above the
water, Fletcher wrote of the coast when ne
visited it with Sir Francis Drake in 1879.
In the year 1912, Cabrillo landed at what is
now known as San Miguel, and christencd it
ISdl de Post,iOH. lie died on the island in
1913, ana is buried III its sands
Going back still further in our search, We
find that before the Spanish fleet, Sir Francis
Drake or Cabrillo ever visited the coast, the
villages thereon were thrifty and populous
aud tho isles of the sea swarming cities of the
period.
OF San Nicolas, on which the scenes Of this
wild romance are laid, very little has been
known until a recent date. 1t is the outer
most Of the group, distant seventy miles from
the coast and thirty miles away from its near
est neighbor 1t is thought to have been at
one time the abode of people differing in
manners, habits aud mode of life from the
inhabitants both of the mainland and The
neghboring islands. Mons. De Cessac
gentleman engaged in collecting arcbnoIogi
cal sprcimens Tor III, Fre,cL oovorn,,s,5.
says that the relics found by him on San Mic
ola, are more elaborate in form and 6nisL
and show n suuerioritv Of workmansbin'
This testimony tends IN confirm, the story IF
the early yoyagers concerning the cultivation
and reuIarkabIr taste of the bandson,e dualI
ers in Gha.las. hat centuries moo Mons Ia
C.ssac has found also u,,on Sc, NicoIos ar,i
clcs of warfare and dornesti, use cvidsntIv
belonging to "A northern trib4 similar IN tbose
picked up by him on the bordors of AIoska
Hence he infcrs that tho ,Isro ,yas ~ one
TINA tha dwelling of nortb rou,,.ry tr;Las
Corroboratinp Mons DE Css.,c's oninion
search through ancient manuscript has bror,bt
TO lipLt the fact that many vears moo s5in
belonging TO Popo and Bo9rdmon of Roston
and commanded NV ono CANAAN Vybitnora'
broupbt down from Sitka n Iot of Kod;oIs for
tho nnrnosa of otter buntirr, ~, Sar Nioolos
Island Tbev were Icft mon Tho isIand onJ
vears of fond rcsnIted in a massacre l., yvb;cS
every crown male islander was killed Inv The
powarful and well.armcd Kodiaks Tbe won.
en- were taken Inv tbo victors Iivad viii tbero
as wives. and bore children 10 tbe murderers
of their husbands and fathers The foot 10
recorded that the Inhabitants of San Nicolas
faded away STRANGELY and ronidlv so that in
1s3O less than two score men women and
children remained of the once dense nonuIa'
ton
Meantime Franciscan zealots poured from
the south of Europe into America, and under
lead of Father Junipero Sierra found their way
up the coast, building churches beside the
sea- planting gardens of olive and palm, max
ing aqueduets and affairs foundinga kingdom
leaves to Protestant America the names of
saints set indelibly on every stream, headland
and island along the southern slope of the Pa
eite. 1t was the dawn of a temporary ciyili-
zation, imposing and wonderful, civilization
whose ruins are most artistic and fascinating.
The missionaries pressed the Indians into