The Dickinson press., 1889-02-02
CRUSOE SETTLEMENTS.
ROMANTIC LIFE ON A LITTLE
SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND.

Story of n Runaway English Sai!or-An-
other Little Colony iii the kcrmalcc
Group-Castaways on u Coral 1iecf-Pit-
cairn Islanders.
About four months ago, rs the English
bark Queens Island was passing PaiincrSton
Island, in the Southern Pacific. the captain
was surprised to see boat containing eight
persons put off from the shore 1t was gem
erallv supposed hat this little coral island,
one of the least important of the Hervey
group, and about three hundred miles from
its nearest neghbor, was uninhabited. Capt.
Reid, however, had acciientiy approached
near enough to this little speck i'll the ocean
to discover another of those romantic island
settlements which are now and then uncx-
pectedly found i'll the broad expanse of the
great Pacific.
The bronzcd and rather scantly clad white
man who clambered up the side of the bark
said he was William Murston, the chief of
the little island, whero lie had lived for
twenty-five Years. When he was a young
man lie deserted from the British bark Rifle
man in Tahiti and made his way i'll a small
sailboat nearly ,ooo miles west to the Her
vey group. He took Il native wife and jour
nevcd on to Palmerston Island, where he
built him a cabin and started Il cocoanut
plantation. y 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 language
spoken in this little community, whose island
home is NOT so large rs some Dakota farms.
Here the subjects of the runaway English
sailor live OH 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 i'll the interests of monopoly
carefully kept their information to them
selves. After the Sydney newspapers sll-
nounced the discovery of II fine new island
moi far from New Guinea n sea captain in
port produced u Very good map of the island
which he had made several years 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 Marstons
little colony has tlourished unknown save to
ore or two traders whose interests have kept
thcmquiet
Hundreds of the little islands of the Pacific
are uninhabited, and are very rarely seen bv
vessels. Who knows but among them may
lie modern Robinson Crusoes, waiting pa
tently for Il sail, and living in fair degree
of comfort upon the bounties of which ma
turc is so lavish i'll those rcgions' We have
recently told the story of Mr.. Bell and his
little family, who are monarchs of all they
survey in the kermaec group, GOO miles
from their nearest neiShbors. The pasScn
gers and crew OF the bark Henry James, who
were rescued in May last from II coral reef
in Polynesia, know what it is to be cast
;ways in the Pacific, hundreds of miles from
inhabited islands. III they had not fortu
natey saved their small boat they might
have been prisoners for many months on he
little island. Five men i'll the boat carried
the news of their disaster 800 miles to Sa.
moa, and in less than two months deliver
ance came They needed clothing but were
not otherwise i'll serious want for fish and
cocoanuts had amply supplemented the scn-
der food supplies with which they had
reached their place Of refuge.
Among the jubilee presents received by
Queen Victoria were some hats and other
mamufactures, most slillfullv made of straw,
the humble tribute of the most unique and
famous of Pacific colonies In 1880 the Pit
cairn islanders may celebrate the centennial
# the landing of their mutnolls fathers Oh,
the little rock where Lady Belchcr, their his
toran, says they have become "such COM
nunity rs 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 l12 souls,
.1&t..
founded ninety-eight years ago by English
sailors; but it is refreshing now and then To
contemplate their ilyllic existence, cut of, rs
:hey are from the busy world, tilling the fer
tile valleys of their little home only two and
aqnarter square miles i'll extent, possessing a
schoolhouse and church, but no Jail; mtelli.
gent, neat and Clean with plenty of books
and fruit and flowers a simple hearted, de
nunity in the world that has no strong
drink, tobacco or money
A traveller OH 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, ant
women who We're fair to see, though theil
garments We're not rich and fashionable
women who are skilled in the arts of house
wifery, in the making of fancy baskets ane
shell work, and some, too, who can play OK
cellently on the little church organ Borl
to this life of isolation, the Pitcairn Islander
hears with wonder and delight, but withou
envy, of the world beyond his sea grt home
When, years ago Pitcairn became to-
crowded, considering its slender resources
and the people were removed by Grea
Britain to Norfolk, that island, small as
is, bewildered them by its vastncss. Hovin;
only footpaths in Pitcairn, they thought til
wagon roads of Norfolk unsightly, and th
echoes aroused by their voices in the ston
quarter where convicts had once lived i'm
pressed them as a most dsagrceable novelty
A minority decided that they could not
happy among these strange surrounding
and they returned to Pitcairn to live and die
New York Sun.