The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-08-23
manitowoe pilot.
THURSDAY, AUGUST %.
ISLANDS OF TIE PACIFIC.
Who Inhabits Them and Their Curious
Methods of Living.

About -FOUR months ago, as the Eng
fish bark Queens Island was passing
Palmerston island, in the Southern Pa
cific, the captain was surprised TO see
boat containing eight persons put OF
from the shore. Il was generally sup
posed that this little coral island, one
of the least important of the Hervey
group, and about three hundred miles
from its nearest neighbor, was uriG-
habited, SAYS the New York Sun.
Capt. Reid, however, had accidentally
approached near enough to this little
speck in the ocean to discover another
Of those romantic island settlements
which are now and then unexpectedly
found in the broad expanse of the great
Pacific.
The bronze and rather scantily clad
white man who clambered up the side
of the bark said he was William Mars
ton, the chief Of the little island, where
he had lived for twenty five years.
When he was a young man he deserted
the British bark Rifeman in Tahiti.
and made his way III small sailboat
nearly 1000 miles west to the Hervey
group. He took native wife and
iourneyed on to Palmerston ISL, where
he built him a cabin and started a CO.
coanut plantation. A few natives
Joined him, and now his little world
contains thirty-four beings, of whom
fifteen are his own children. English
is the only language spoken in this
little community, whose island home
is not so large as some Dakota farms.
Here the subjects of the runaway Eng
lish sailor live on the happiest terms,
getting along very we'll without the
news and gossip of the world, while
enjoying, nevertheless, many of the
good things of civilization brought to
them by small trading vessels, to whom
they sell the copra prepared from their
cocOanuts.
Within the past few years several
islands have been discovered in the
Pacific, which, it was found, had long
| been known by small traders, who in
| the interests of monopoly carefully
| kept their information TO themselves.
| After the Sidney newspapers annOunc-
| ed the discovery of a fine new island
| not far from New Guinea a sea captain
in port produced very good map OF
the island which he had made several
! wears before. He had probably hoped
| to hand down the secret to his heirs as
an exclusive trading privilege. In
this way it has happened that Mars
toms little colony has tiOurished I'M
! known save to one or two traders,
| whose interests have kept them quiet.
| Hundreds of the little islands of the
! Pacific are uninhabited and very rarely
| seen by vessels. Who knows but
among them may be modern Robinson
| Crusoes, waiting patiently for 4 sail
and living in Il fair degree of comfort
| upon the bountieS of which nature is
| so lavish in those rcgionsp We have
recently told the story of Mr.. Bell and
his little family, who are monarch of
all they survey in the Kermadec group,
eco miles from their nearest neighbOrs.
The passengers and crew of the bark
| Henry James, who were rescued in
| May last from coral reef in Polynesia,
| know what it is to be castaways in the
Pacific many 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
| in the boat carried the news of their
disaster / 900 miles, to Samoa, and in
| loss @han two months deliverance came.
| They NEEDED clothing, but were not
otherwise N serII:"rs want, for fish and
cocoanuts had amply supplemented the
slender food supplies with which Ihey
had reached their place of refuge.
Among the jubilee presents received
| by Queen Victoria were some hats and
| other manufactures most sklllfully
made of straw, the humble tribute of
| TIE most unique and famous Of Pacific
| colonists. In 1890 the Pitcairn island arS
| may celebrate the centennial of the
| landing of their mutinOuS fathers on
| the little Rock where Lady Belcher,
| ;heir historian, SAWS they have become
''such community as has been the
dream of poets and the aspiration of
| philosophers. 1t is not often the
world hears from these happy and
| peaceful islanders, now numbering 112
| souls, who have perpetuated the re-
markable colony founded ninety-eight
| years ago by English sailors; but it is
| refreshing now and then to contem-
plate their idylic existence, cut off as
| they are from the busy world, tiliing
| the fertile valleys of their little home
! only two and quarter miles in extent,
| possessing a school-house and church,
| but no Jail; intelligent, neat and clean,
| with plenty of books and fruit and
| flowers, Supplemented, devout peo-
| pie, 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 the islanders men
who in stature, would be a credit to the
| royal guards, and women who were
| fair to see, though their garments We're
4 not rich and faShionable-wo who
| are skilled in the arts of housewifery,
IN the making of fancy baskets and
| shell-work, and some. too, who can
| play excellent on the little church or
[ gan. Born TO this life of isolation, the
| Pitcairn islander hears with wonder
| and delight, but without envy, of the
| world beyond his Sea-girt home. When,
| years ago, Pitcairn became too crowd
| ed, considering its slender resources,
| and the people We're removed by Great
| Britain to Northfolk. that island. small
| as it is, bewildered them by its vast
| ness. Having only footpaths in Pit
\ cairn, they thought the wa@on-roads
| of Northfolk unsightly, and the echoes
1
| quarter, where convicts had once lived,
| impressed them as a most disagreeable
novelty. A minority decided that they
| could not be happy among these
| strange surroundings, and they re-
| turned TO Pitcairn to live and die.
II is a queer coincidence that the
| most romantic settlement of the Allan
| tic ocean had in 1886 exactly the same
| number of inhabitants as Pitcairn. 1t
| was in 1911 that the sailor Jonathan
| Lambert, and his two comrades began
| to till the soil of Tristan da Cunha,
| almost exactly midway between Africa
| and South America. They commits
stoned passing sea captain to find
| them native wives in St. Helena. a
| delicate undertaking which he dis
| charged to the perfect satisfaction of
| all concerned. Half-breed women
| from St. Helena and negresseS from
I Sprth A frira baya baan tho n,pfho,.s of