Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-04-22
THE IsLEOF SKULLS.
Woman's Lonely Lifs-Surrounded b
the Bones of Her Tribe.

the Bones of Her Tribe.
On the lonely wind.swept island of San
Nicholas, says the San Francisco Exam
liner, eighty miles off the coast of Ventura
county, where as far back as the memory
of man runs, hundreds of white skeletons
have dottea the valleys and hilsideS, local
psychologists are now busy gathering the
relics OF strange extinct race. The
island ten miles long and oval in shape,
being four miles across the widest part.
Strange utensils CT serpentine, sandstone
and steatite are found among the human
bones, and the island and its erstwhjle
inhabitants have a history so curious that
1t 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,
determined 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
tie frequent storms of the channel ISLANDS
sprlnglng up, the sloop 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 Nide-
yer and two men went from the coast on a
sloOp to hunt otter IF San Nicholas. On
landing they were, like Crusoe, astonished
to discover human footprints in the sand.
They saw no one, however, and storm
compelled them to put to sea.
1t was two years thereafter that the
adventurous captain, rev-Iving in his
mind the sight of the footprints in the
uncanny island, determined to 90 and
discover and bring over the lonely woman
OF whom he had vaguely heard. Men ac-
companled him, and at length they saw
on the surf beaten shore a woman with
long tawny hair dressed In queer garb of
colored bird skins, and scraping, with a
bone knife the blubber from a seal.
They surrounded and approached her
stealthiiy, 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 60 with them III the boat.
They reached Santa Barbara across che
rough sea, and the first thing the Indian
woman saw DR.. S. L. Shaw, now eighty
years old, and yet living there, riding a
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 deyotions to it.
Two weeks afterwards TIE last inhabitant
of rock-ribbed, tempest tossed San Nicho-
las died from eating food to which she
was unaccustomed, furnished by her
rescuerS, and the curtain fell on her race
forever.
Wild dogs had eaten l or CHI d. Her dress
of red and blue feathers, a wonderful
creation of barbaric hands, was sent to
the pope of Rome. Relic hunters have
gathered mortarS, pestles, olias, toy steat.
tie canoes and other curious things there
for some :, ears past aud shipped them tc
various eastern and European universities
Skeletons and 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, indicating that they have fallen in
| battle, There are so many human relics
there that San Nicholas is known as the
Isle of Skulls"
The lonely island, whose highest part
is but 1,040 feet above the sea, said &
residenc of Ventura, lis noted for the
high artistic class CT many of It's relics
| Had the woman rescued. then ifty-twc
years old, not died, a story passing
strange would no doubt have been tolG
of the race so long hemmed in by tn,
waste of waters about. As it is, muci
of the story is shrouded In mystery for
ever.