Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-05-01
HIS MAJESTY BENJAMIN.
The Shipwrecked Sailor Who Reigns in a
Caroline Isle.
'Let all be kings in q humble way"

Caroline lSl6s
"Let all be kings in q humble way"
Gilbert.
George Wright, who arrived in San
day or two g from the Caroline ISL
ands, tells in the San Francisco Examin-
er the story Of the sudden rise of a sailor
to distinction in me of the largest ISL
ands of an archipelago seventy-fve
miles west of Haweis, where Mr.. Wright
has a trading store.
"The sailor" said Mr.. Wright, lis
Carl Benjamin, and he has no less than
| twenty odd native wives and fifty cop
~per-colored children. He was wrecked
in the schooner Bombazine OFT the La
drone Islands nine years ago, and
hoated at eea on a raft for a couple of
weeks before he struck land.
IF you will look at a map you will
find lying milo way between the Tropic
of Cancer and the equator thirteen dots.
On some maps they appear marked
| Thirteen islands, well Inhabited Well,
it is ON the biggest one of these, called by
| the sailor Benjamin 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 by the
geographers, but it remains practically
a terra incognita, although it is ten by
twenty odd miles in extent.
"'Well inhabited means that there is
| quite a sprinkling of dark-skinned ma
tive residents there, as well as many
men who move to and fro in their light
native boats. They eat bread fruit,
bananas, %cocoanuts, and catch fish, and
that's the end of it. They don't work
at all.
benjamin has got to be a king in his
far-away home. There the white-cap-
ped 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 loll under a palm tree.
Sometimes he has his wives fan him
while he smokes the kaziba leaf, which
grows SO plentifully there, and which
after you get to using it you like it bet
ter than tobacco. Maybe you think he
hasn't a soft thing of it.
However, Benjamin Is doing some
good work there, despite the hot
climate. He carried three or four books
with him on his rait-tne last thing you
would expect-and he has continued to
instruct the natives in the English
language. Benjamin is an American OF
German or Jewish descent, and is a low
er of books. The first thing he did was
to select an intelligent native and teach
him the alphabet. He learned rapidly
and soon began to teach it to others, and
a number of them can now speak En-
glish, while the rising generation i'm
mediately around are gradually picking
up a primitive knowledge OF the lam
guage. Benjamin is looked upon as a
sage. All the chiefs come to him fo1
points, and of their own accord they
have made him their %reigning p%otentate.
The chiefs, of whom there are three,
are his cabinet.
Benjamin has picked out the hand
soonest women for wives. They esteem
it an honor, and readily acknowledge
him as their lord and master. He lives
in a struggling bamboo village, the vii
lage of XII, IN q coral reef. His chill
dren are a sprightlv, lively lot. No
body bothers much with clothes away
down there in the South Pacific. Still
be wears a little something, as do some
of the natives. thanks to mis- teachings,
for he has instructed them that there is
no civilization without some clothing.
HE is about 80 years old and came
from Newburyport, Mass, but says that
he 10 longer has any desire to return tic
this country, and that he is perfectly
satisfied to end his days there. He is
the only white man, with me excep-
ton, for hundreds of miles around.
"He has taken to wearing a string OF
shells around his neck like the natives,
and he sometimes initiates their exam
pie and puts dots of blue paint, got
from a native shrub, on his face. This
is only on state occasions, however,
when there is a discussion or important
questions on hand with his subordl
mates.
"The permanent population of the
island is, perhaps, not over 900 or 700
It is a very pretty and picturesque
place, and the soil is very rich. 1t is
indented with beautiful bays, whose
shores are dotted with trees and shrubs
of a tropical growth that are oftentimes
covered with fragrant flowers. The
island is about 500 miles west of the
Marshall group"