The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-05-16
A POOR LITTLE WOMAN.
Joaquin Miller Tells the story of Call
fornia's Robinson Crusoe.


Lave escaped notice. | shall write
them down here as briefly as pos
sible for the use of the coming
Defoe.
When the Jesuit priests founded
their settlement at Santa Barbara
they began to gather in all the
docile or friendly Indians and utilize
as we'll as civilize them.
After some years they found out
that one of the small islands lying
off about twenty miles from their
harbor of Santa Barbara was in
habited. The priests visited the
island and found the most intelligent
and gentle people there that had yet
been discovered on the continent.
They were loyal, affectlonatc, and
loved their narrow and lonely little
home in the sea above all things.
They had never visited the main
land. They had no wood to build
boats with, and so the long black
and barren mountain of land away
to the south was as inaccessible to
them as is the moon to us.
They had queer little houses Of
stone on the one low cliff, and they
were very sk1llful in spearing fish
and capturing all sorts of sea birds.
They made moccasins for their feet
out of seal skins, for seals were and
are to this day so abundant there
that you can scarcely walk about
without trec ding on some OF the
little baby seals. And all along, to
right and left, as you pass by, you
see the mild eyed mother seal nurs
ing her baby at her breast, as she
half rests and reclines against
rock, and lifts her kind, human
eyes to yours, as if to ask you to
please not hurt her little hairy baby
l found the eggs of water fowl SO
plentiful, when | visited this little
island almost twenty years ago to
gather material for an English maga-
zine, that it was absolutely impos
sible to walk about without crushing
great numbers under foot. And
these simple natives dressed their
bodies not in turs, but in feathers.
They skinned the sea lions. and out
of the skins they made remarkably
beautiful garments OF all hues and
fashions.
And this wonderful skill in all
their simple walks of life, together
with their perfect docility-for it
seems they knew nothing at all about
war, or even anger-tempted the
monks to undertake the transporta-
ton of the whole tribe, numbering
less than two hundred, to their set
tlement at Santa Barbara.
And so they sent their ship, and
contriving to get the simple and
conhding islanders all on board they
hoisted sail for the main land
After a time the poor prisoners
became alarmed, and fearing they
were to be taken from their beloved
island forever attempted to escape
over the sides of the ship into the
sea. But the cunning Spanish
soldiers and sailors had taken pre-
cautions against this and only one
managed to leap into the sea and
swim back to the island.
And now years and years rolled
by. A beautiful little city blossomed
out at Santa Barbara, only twenty
miles away from the lonely woman
on her silent little island. A huge
stone cathedral still standing there
with its frieze of human skulls set in
stone-like cement, was reared by
the hands OF the convicts and the
captives, but she saw nothing, knew
nothing of this. For her there was
no change day after day, year after
year. The same rise and fall of the
sea, the same solemn march of the
seasons, the same silent marching
and counter marching of the stars
above her and about her on the edge
of the sea, the same endless, awful
monotony of the rising and the
going down of the sun and the
moon and the stars And that was
all. 1t seems incredible to think that
any set OF human beings could have
been so entirely brutal as to leave
this woman there all these years so
utterly and so desola;eIy alone. She
did not even have the goats of Rob-
inson Crusoe, to say nothing of his
man Friday and like creatures. She
had only the dogs. And they be-
came so numerous and so wild, as
we shall presently see, as to be the
greatest terrors.
But it should here be explained as
sort of justification of the Jesuit
fathers that they had hardly got
their religious settlement solidly
founded when they were recalled by
the King of Spain, or at least made
powerless by the confscation of
nearly all their privileges and their
property. And SO other people took
their places, and time swept on.
After years and years, gold was
found in California and ships began
to sail by in great numbers. One
ship after another reported seeing
lone figure like that of human
being standing on a little pyramid
of heaped-up stones and looking out
after the ship till lost to sight.
Finally inquiry in and around San
Francisco revived the story about
the woman who had been left for so
manv wears on the island and the