Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-06-13
KING CARL BENJAMIN.
The Picnic Which "a Young German from
Massachusetts, Is Having.

George Wright, who arrived in San
Francisco on the steamer Australia a
day or two ago from the Caroline
Islands, tells a story of the sudden rise
of a sailor to distinction in one of the
largest islands of an archipelago, sew
enty-iiye miles west of Haweis, where
Mr. Wright has a trading store.
"Ihe sailor,n said Mr.. Wright to an
Examiner reporter, lis Carl Benjamin,
and he has not less than twenty odd
native wives aud fifty copper-colored
children. He was wrecked in the
schooner Bombazine off the Ladrone
Islands nine years ago, and floated at
sea on a raft for couple of weeks be-
fore he struck land.
IF you will look at map YOU will
find lying midway between the tropic
of cancer and the equator thirteen
dots. On some maps they appear
marked Thirteen islands, well inhab-
tied. Well, it was on the biggest one
of these, called by the sailor Benja-
min Island, in honor of himself, that
he has taken up his home. 1t seems odd
that an island as big as this has not
been got down finer 10y the geogra-
pliers, but it remains practically terra
ineognitia, although it is ten by twen-
ty odd miles in extent.
"'Well inhabited means that there
is quite a sprinkliug of dark-skinned
native residents there, as well as many
men who move to and fro in their light
native boats. They eat breadfruit,
bananas, cocoanuts and cat fish, and
that's the end of it. They don't work
at all
benjamin has got to be king In his
PARKWAY home. There the white
capped waves beat against the coral
shores, and Benjamin has got nothing
at all to do but go swimming in the
surf, talk the native gibberish, which
he has learned, or Toll under palm
tree. Sometimes he has his wives fan
him while he smokes tho kaziba leaf,
which grows SO plentifully there, and
which after you get TO using IL you
like better than tobacco. Maybe you
think he hasn't soft thing of IL.
"Howeyer. Benjamin is doing some
good work there, despite the hot eli
mato. lie carried three or four books
with him on his raft-the last thing
YOU would eXpoct, and he has con-
tinucd TO instruct the natives in the
English language Benjamin - an
American of German or jewish de-
scent and is lover of books. Tho
first thing he did was to select an in
telligent native aud teach him the
alphabet lie learned rapidly and
soon began to teach it TO others, and
a number of them can now speak Eng
lish, while the rising generation im-
mediately around are gradually pick
ing up primitive knowledge OF
the language. Benjamin is looked up
on as "A sage An the chiefs come to
him for points, and of their own ac-
cord they have made him their reign
ing potcutatc. The chiefs, Of whom
there are three, are his cabinet
Benjamin has picked out the hand
soonest women for wives. They es-
TEEN it an honor, aud readily acknowl-
edge him their lord and master lIo
lives in struggling bamboo village.
| the village of HI, on coral reef His
children are a sprightly, lively lot.
Nobody buthers much with clothes
away down there in tho South Pacific.
Still nc wears a little something, as do
some of the natives, thanks to his
teachings, for he has instructed them
that there is no civilization without
some clothes.
Gle Is about thirty years old and
camo from Newburyport, Mass, but
says that he no longer has any desire
10 return to this country, and that he
is perfectly contented TO end his days
thore. He is the only white man, with
one exception, for hundreds Of miles
around.
ole has taken to wearing n string
of shells around his neck like the ma
tivcs, and he sometimes initiates their
example aud puts dots of blue pant,
got from native surub, on his face.
This is only on state occasions, how
ever, whom there is a discussion of in-
portant questions on hand with his
subordiuates.
The permanent population of the
island is perhaps not over 600 or 700
1t is very pretty and picturesque
place, and the soil is very rich. 1t ia
indented with beautiful bays, whose
shores are dotted with trees and shrubs
Of tropical growth that are often
times covered with fragrant flowers.
The island is about six hundred miles
west of the Marshall group