Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-06-20
TWOL0NELY0 UTCASTS
Singular Experience of a United
States Naval Officer
ON THE BONN ISLANDS.
A Father and Son Both With Minds Utterly
Blank so Far the World and Events Were
Coneerned-The Fading Out of the Boys
Life-OnIy sight of the Sea-

A MISTY AND MURh1 DAY NJ SEA
N damp and foggy day that came at early
dawn with wet pulls of goldfish moisture across
lealeu waters and left its breath on the hairy
faces and on the bSsoms of the flannel
shirts of those who clustered on the fore
castle and looked to windward. long and
even swell upon the broad expanse Of ocean, a
fash of white in flying gull in the foamy wake
of a creaking ship. low and glowering horizon
and hanging clouds of mist and drizzle scurry-
ing before a fitful wind-acorvette bound to the
westward in the mighty Pacific! man
with navy cap pulled down over his face
climbs slowly to the starboard forecastle lad
der. He is followed by another, young one,
who carries a sextant box under his arm and a
note book between his teeth. Both look tired
ard wan from want Of sleep and rest They
are the navigator and his assistant
ssSun up nearly three hours, Mr.. Roberts,
exclaimed the former. ''and nary sight
= .How about ought they TO bear. sur!
'-Say " y. va little to the y
And the navigator pointed with bis hattened
hand over the huge anchor on the bows.
Seen ANYTHING that looked like landau
islsndy' he asked suddenly OF man who had
been leaning over the cathead and slipping.
every now and then, from TIN mug fun OF
steaming coffee u
ing me. when i came on at four bells. that
there was land he saw, sir, and others as mad
the morning watch says the same, SIR
The chatter OF pots and pans under the fore
castle the smell of burning cohee. the lazy
stream of smoke from the galley funnel, the
dark forms of blue-clad men moving about a
wet and slippery deck, n long coated figure on
the bridge walking restiessly to and fro,
muddy morning on a sea-going man-of-war.
Tine sun. sir, the sum- suddenly exclaims
the Young assistant
Il see it-quick--the sextant-readyF
''Ies, SIR.
''Stand by."
Land hor' comes ringing down from the
masthead.
where aeay?" bellows back the startled Of
Two points on the starboard bow, sir"
make it oUt:"
High land. SIR"
THAT will do, Mr.. Roberts," SAYS the navi-
gator You can put up the sextant and come
below, sir. They are the Bonin Islands"
TIE BONN ISLANDS
At noon the sun is nearly overhead. The
clouds of mist and vapor have long since dis
appeared. The ocean swell has Gained to one
vast blush surface. scarce rippled by a breath.
The sea-worn PROV of the old corvette sweeps
sharp around the lofty point of a rocky isle in
mid Pacific Her engines cease TO throb; a
sharp voice rings out clear command Then
comes a mighty Splash. the TdlIle VI rusty
chain. and. forty DAYS from Hawaii. we are
anchored in the calm and semi-tropic bay of
Peel Island. Benin group.
There are but few places now. even in the
most unfrequented byways of trackless
oceans. that have not at odd times at
traeted either the cuPidity or the Curl
osity Of the nomadic rover. Even over the
vast sweep of the southern seas. where al
most countless isles peep their coral fringe
above placid ocean. there remain but few if
IL. -
called upon for one purpose or another.
The buccaneers of the Spanish main. the
bloody pirates OF the Coral Islands, the horri-
BILE fleets of cannibal canoes-au the reckless
romance of sea and its distant and unknown
lands, have long since been swept from the
pages of fiction by the commonplace voyages
of the unromantic steamer OF the cold facts OF
the modern commercial traveller.
Still once in a while. in long and changeful
life. away from the middle and the deeper cur
rent of his experience. character SO
odd and strange, so outside the present and
still DO forgotten by the past as to reckon
even worse than the usual outcast from the
society Of other men Think of such one, of
that society never TO have known; of the sound
of the roar of the great world Of life never to
have heard, to have been born in the
nineteenth and died in the first century
of existence Yet upon these lonely
islands il reported that such a man lived. a
man who knew absolutely nothing and had no
even SIN pAtoh 4oStS VI iAlou-
ern history and achievements / met this man
q few days after our arrival, in an accidental
way.
The Bonin Islands are divided into three
groups. known to navigators as the Parry, the
Baily, the Peel and the Kater groups On the
Peel group are settled few English
and other Europeans, generally the de-
seendants of deserters from visiting
whalemen or other vessels Port Lloyd, the
calling station on the largest island of this
group. has a good barbor of basin-like proper
uOns and safe anchorage. 1t is the home OF
the great sea turtle of the western Pacific, and
upon its flesh the few inhabitants mostly sub
sist. while its shell affords them means of trade
with uassinO yes-ala