Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-03-19
THE ISLE OF SKULLS.
A Woman's Lonely Life Surrounded by the
Bones of Her Tribe.

From the San Francisco Examiner.
On the lonely wind-swept island of San
Nicolas, eighty miles off the coast of Ventura
county, where. as far back as the memory of
man runs. hundreds of white skeletons have
dotted the valleys and hillsides. local archeol-
ogists are now busy gathering the relics of
strange extinct race. The island is ten miles
long and oval in shape being four miles across
at the widest part. Strange utensils Of serpen-
tine. sandstone and steatite are found there
among the human bones, and the island and
its erstwhile inhabitants have a history SO
curious that it is difficult of comprehension.
In 1885 the padres of Santa Barbara. learning
that there were but sixteen of the strange In
dian race then living there, determined to res
cue them from the island. They went over in
a sloop and succeeded, as they thought, in get
ting all on board At the last moment an In
dian woman returned for her child. and one OF
the frequent storms of the channel islands
sprinGing up, the sloop was driven away with
out her. The sloop went on the rocks of Point
Conception and all on board were lost
Sixteen years later Capt. George Nideyer and
two men went from the coast on a sloop TO
hunt otter off San Nicolas. On landing thew
were, like Crusoe, astouished to discover hu-
man footprints In the sand. They saw no one
however, and storm compelled them TO put
to sea.
furious captain, revolving in his mind the sight
of the footprints In the uncauny island, de-
termined to go and discover and bring over
the lonely woman of whom he had vaguely
heard. Men accompanied him, and at length
they saw on the rf-beaten shore a woman
with long tawny hair dressed in a queer garb
Of colored bird skins, and scraping, with bone
knife, the bl1bber from q seal
They surrounded and approached her
stealthily, and. although suddenly confronted,
she did not appear in the least afraid, but
smiled, and then. falling on her knees. PRAYED
to the sun. The wild woman offered no objec-
ton when by signs she made to understand
that she was to go with them in the boat.
They reached Santa Barbara across the rough
sea aud the first thing the Iudian woman saw
was DIR. s. L. Shaw, now eighty years old and
yet living there, riding horse. She had never
seen nor heard of any object like it and thought
the man and horse were one and she knelt on
the shore and offered her devotions to it, Two
weeks afterward the last inhabitant of rock
ribbed, tempest-tossed San Nicolas died from
eating food to which she was unaccustomed.
furnished by her rescue.s. and the curtain fell
on her race forever.
Wild dogs had eaten her child. Her dress Of
red and blue feathers, wonderful creation of
barbaric hands, was sent to the pope of Rome.
Relic hunters have gathered mortars pestles,
ollas, toy steatite canoes and other curious
things there for some years past and shipped
them to various eastern and European uni
ver2tleS. Skeietons auo parts OF SKELETONS
have also been collected in large numbers, but
today the bones of thousands Of Indians are
scattered about there. Some lie face down, in
dicating that they have fallen in battle. There
are many human relics there that San Nico.
las is known as the isle of Skulls"
1.-THE lonely island. whose highest part il but
1O40 feet above the sea, " said resident of VEN
tura last night lis noted for the highly artistic
class Of many of its relics. Had the woman
rescued, then ffty-two years old, not died, q
story passing strange would no doubt have
been told of the race SO long hemmed in by
the waste of waters about Az it 10 much Of
the story is shrouded in mystery forever"