The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-21
THE ISLE OF SKULLS.
A Woman's Lonely Life Surrounded
by the Bones of Her Tribe.


by the Bones of Her Tribe
From the San Francisco Eraminer.
On the lonely wind>swept island of San
Nicolas, eighty miles off the coast OF Ven
tura county. where, as far back as the
memory of man runs, hundreds of white
skeletons have dotted the valleys and hill
sides. local psychologists are now busy
gathering the relics of a strange extinct
race. The island is ten miles long and oval
in shape, being four miles across at the
widest part. Strange utensils Of serpentine,
sandstone and seattle are found there among
the human bones, and the island and its
erstwhile Inhabitants have q history SO GU
rious that it is difficult of comprehension. %
In 1885 the padres of Santa Barbara,
learning that there were but sixteen of the
strange Indian race then living there, de-
termined to rescue them from the island.
They went over in a sloop and succeeded, as
they thought. in getting all on board. At
the last moment an Indian woman returned
for her child, and one Of the frequent storms
of the channel islands springing up, the
soop was driven away without her. The
sloop went on the rocks of Point Conception
and all on board were lost.
Sixteen years later Capt. George Nidever
and two men went from the coast on a
sloop to hunt otter off San Nicolas. On
landing they were. like Robinson Crusoe.
astonished to discover human footprints in
the sand. They saw no one, however. and
storm compelled them to put to sea.
IL was two years thereafter that the ad-
venturous captain. revolving iu his mind
the sight of the footprints In the uncanny
island, determined 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 surf-beaten
III g..
dressed In queer garb of oolord bird SKINS,
and scraping, with a bone knife, the blubber
from seal.
They surrounded and approached her
stealthily, and. although suddenly con-
fronted, 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 objection when by signs she was
made to understand that she was to go with
them In the boat.
They reached Santa Barbara across the
rough sea. and the first thing the Indian
woman saw was DIR. S. L. Snow, now 80
yers old and yet living there, riding a
horse. She had never seen mr. 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 1t. Two weeks
afterward the last inhabitant Of rocb-ribhed,
tempest-tossed San Nicolas died from eating
food to which she was unAccustomed, furn-
ished by her rescuers, and the curtain fell
on her race forever.
Wild dogs had eaten her child. Her dress
Of red and blue feathers, wonderful crea-
ton of b4rbaric 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 universities. Skeletons and parts
of skeletons have also been collected in large
numbers, but to-day the bones of thousa ads
OF Indians are scattered about there. Some
lie face down, indicating that they have
fallen in battle. There are so many human
relics there that San Nicolas is known as
the Elsie of SKULLS"
THE lonely island, whose highest part is
but l,040 feet above the sea- said resi-
dent Of Ventura last night, "is noted for
the high artistic class OF many OF its relics.
Had the woman rescued, then 50 years old,
not died, a story passing strange would no
doubt have been told OF the race SO long
hemmed in by the waste OF waters about
As IL is, much Of the story is shrouded Ia
mystery forever"