The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-08-16
CRUSOE SETTLEMENTS.
ROMANTIC LIFE OK A LITTLE SOUTH PACI-
FIC ISLAND.

ROMANTIC LIFE OK LITTLE SOUTH PACI-
FIC ISLAND.
About four months ago, as the Eng
lish bark Queens Islands was passing
Palmerston Island, in the Southern
Pacific, the captain was surprised to see
boat with eight persons put off from
the shore. ii was generally supposed
that this little coral island, one of the
least Important of the Hervey group,
and about three hundred miles from its
nearest noighbor, was uninhabited.
Capt. Reid, however, had accidently ap-
preached near enough to this little
speok in the ocean to discover another of
those romantic island settlements which
are now and then unexpectedly found in
the broao expanse OF the great Pacific.
The bronzed and rather scantily clad
white nan who clambered up the side of
the bark said he was William Marston,
the chief of the island, where he had
lived for twenty-five years. When he
was young man he deserted from the
British bark Rifeman in Tahiti and
made MS way IN small sailboat nearly
1,00O miles west to the Hervey group.
He took native wife and journeyed on
to Palmerston Island, where he built
him a cabin and started a cocoanut plan
tatiOn. A few natives joined him, and
now his little world contains thirty-three
human beings, of whom fifteen are his
own children. English is the only Ian.
guage spoken in this little community,
whose island home is not so large as
some Dakota farms. Here the subjects
Of the runaway English sailor live on the
happiest terms, getting along very well
without the news and gossip of the
world, while enjoying, nevertheless,
many of the good things of oivilizaii~-
brought to them by small tradino ~
to whom they sell the o~,ora .s,rer,opn3 ,eooris;
from their cocoan"t' e'" iiop''i oo'
;slanG': sN . past few years several
= . have been discovered in the Paci-
nc which, it was found, had long been
known by small traders, who in the in
terests of monopoly carefully kept their
information to themselves. After sgd
ney newspapers announced the discov-
cry of a fine new island not far from
New Guinea sea captain in port pro-
duced very good map of the island
which he had made several years before.
lie had probably hoped to hand down
the secret to his heirs as an exclusive
trading privilege. In this way it has
happened that Marston's little colony
has f1ourished unknown save to one or
two traders, whose interests have kept
them quiet.
Hundreds of the little islands of the
Pacific are uniLhabited, and are very
rarely seen by vessels. Who knows but
among them be modern Robinson Crus-
oes, waiting patiently for a sail, and liv-
ing IN fair degree of comfort upon the
bountles of which nature is so lavish in
those regions? We have recently told
the story of Mr.. Bell and his little fam
lily. who are monarchs of all they survey
in the Kermadec group, 900 miles from
their nearest neighbors. The passengers
and crew of the bark Henry James, who
were rescued in May last from a corai
reef III Polynesia, know what it is to be
castways in the Pacific, hundreds of
miles from inhabited islands. If they
had not fortunately saved their small
boat they might have been prisoners for
many months on the little island. Five
men iii boat carried the news of their
disaster 1900 miles to Samoa, ard in
less than two months deliverance came.
They needed clothing, but were not
otherwise IN serious want, for fish and
cocoanuh had amply supplemented the
slender food supplies with which they
stsd rs@Alad their place of refuge.
Among the jubilee presents received
by Queen Victoria were some hats and
other manufactures, most skillfully
made of straw, the humble tribute Of the
most unique and famous of the Pacific
colonies. In 1890 the Pitcairn islanders
may celebrate the centennial of the land
ing of their mutinous fathers on the lit
tie rock where Lady Belcher, their his
torian, says they have become "such a
community as has been the dream of
poets and the aspiration of philosoph-
ers." 1t is not often the world hears
from these happy islanders now number
ing 112 souls, who have perpetuated the
remarkable colony founded ninety-eight
years ago by English sailors; but 1t is
refreshing now and then to contemplate
their idyllic existence, cut off as they are
from the busy wolld, tilling the fertile
valleys Of their little home only two
and a quarter square miles in extent, pos
sessing schoolhouse and church, but
no jail; intelligent, neat and clean, with
plenty of books and fruit and flowers,
simple hearted, devout people, and the
only Christian community in the world
that has no strong drink, tobacco or
money.
A traveller on an English bark which
touched at Pitcairn in February last says
he saw among tue islanders men who in
stature would be credit to the Royal
yJo orlG ID bn fai 70
see, though their garments were not rich
and fashionable; women who are skilled
in the arts of house wifery, in the making
of fancy baskets and shell work, and
some, too, who can play excellently
on the little church organ. Born to
this isolation, the Pitcairn Islander hears
with wonder and delight, but without
envy, of the world beyond his sea girt
home. When, years ago, Pitcairn be-
came too crowded, considering its slen-
der resources, and the people were re-
moved by Great Britain to Norfolk, that
island, small as it Is, bew:ldered them by
its vastness. Having only footpaths in
Pitcairn, they thought the wagon roads
Of Norfolk unsightly, and the echoes
aroused by their voices in the stone
quarter where convicts had once lived
impressed them as most disagreeable
novelty. A minority decided that they
could not be happy among these strange
surroundings and they returned to Pit,
cairn to live and die.-New York Sun.
A WOMAN'S DISCOVERY.
"Ahother wonderful discovery has
been made and that too by lady in this
county. Disease fastened its clutches
upon her and for seven years she with
l. Ill