The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-21
THE SHETLAND ISLANDS.
An Ancient Scottish Community
Where the Red Petticoats
Scared Paul Jones.
The Interesting and Exciting
Approach to Lerwick, the
Capital City.
A Quaint People Who Combine Chacter-
istics of the Irish. the English
and the Scotch.

Especial Correspondence of The INDEPENDENT. |
LERw1cK, Shetland, Nov. lin cross |
ING from the Orkneys to the Shetland Is |
lands, distance of perhaps 100 miles from
Kirkwall, the capital of the former, to Ler- |
wick the capital Of the latter, it is possible |
for the traveller to encounter the fiercest
ocean tides, and the toughest waters,
known to any seas. The perilous tideway
is called the Roost of Sumburgh, and the
waters sweep through it with incredible We
locity. One who has known the toughest
passage from Dover to Calais, across the
English channel, will remember that expe
rience as gentle sail after tumbling about
in the Sumbureh Roost, and particularly
that portion nearest the southern headlands
of Shetland, known as the ''west shot, of
Sumburgh. Your steamer in the passage
sails almost within Mailing distance of lone
Fair Isle, standing midway between
the Orkneys and Shetland, and its
natives invariably intercept passing
vessels in their curious, frail
and any scrap of knowledge of the outside
world. Fair Isle was the Fridarey of the
Orkneyinga Saga. 1t and one or two of the
Orkney group still retain the name of the
Farce or Sheep Islands. No spot IN all
and beatings from the Atlantic, and its 2iO
souls are never free from the shrieking of
sea-fowl or the howlings of the deep. The
island has no light house. and has been the
scene Of many q, terrible shipwreck. In
1858 Ell Gran Grifon, war-ship of the
great Spanish Armada, commanded by Juan
Gomez de Medina, went to pieces in Sivars
Clio ON its desolate shores. Eighty-sis
souls persisted. Two hundred reached
land, many of whom died of starvation
hn ali h,,k n.
perturbed natives who believed that the
crew of Ell Gran Grifon had been sent tt
destroy them. Those escaping death by
sea, starvation and murder, finally secured
had curious results. The Spanish sailor
became, until they wore rescued from tn
island, dependents and slaves. Seekin,
the good will of their Faroese masters, tn
6paniards actually spun yarn. wove at han'
looms and knit for the women. That wa
nearly three and half centuries ago; bu
the very patterns in stockings, gloves
capes and Jerseys for which the Farce Isl
ards are To-day famous, were then tauRt
them by the shipwrecked crew of Ell Ora
Grifon; they are identical with those no
worn by the pescadores of Barcelona an
Spanish southern ports; while it is eve
ssid that Murillo, wins gave the Louvre.
Paris, its matchless Madonna, painted sin
ilsr patterns upon shawl in his study {
gallery, London.
II one can keep good sea-legs under hir
the approach to Shetland is interesting ar
exciting. Your steamer bounds, lurch,
aud pounds through tremendous seas, AZ
strange trembling OF the strongest vese
q always felt a. tho unseen forces of Il
1Sde way contend for mastery. Straig
belore ron il the southernmost Shetlal
@0-n0ee, the grim precipice of Snmbu
koad crowned by q noble light house, &
- eves erected in Shetland, built
0hogA etsvensop, the great Scottish en,