The morning call., 1894-07-25
DESERTED ISLANDS.

Another name is to be added to the long
list of islands.whiCh were once the homes
of prosperous communities, and now are
deserts. This is the island OF St. Helena.
where Napoleon died. For some years the
population of the island has been declining,
but the food supply now falls short OF the
wants Of those who remain, so that they
have to rely upon passing vessels TO avert
starvation. 1t is proposed TO raise fund
in London to establish fisheries for taking
the cod, funny. founder, sculpin and other
seafiSh which inhabt the surrounding
waters
The island Is tropical. 1t lies in 16 deg
south latitude. and is 1140 miles from
Africa and 1900 from South America. Its
population never exceeded 10000 souls.
and is now 5000 or 1000. Yet at one time,
in the days of the old East Indiamen. it
was quite a famous place. All the old
East India clippers touched there to water
on their voyage from London to Calcutta
or Madras or Bombay; and during the six
years of Napoleon's residence the visit to
the island was the leading incident of the
voyage. The British Government went TO
considerable expense t0 feed their pris-
oner suitably, and encouraged the natives
10 growing bananas. oranges and lemons,
for which passing vessels furnished a relI-
able market. When the opening of the
SueZ Canal put an end to the long cape
voyages the cultivation OF these fruits died
out, and the small cultivabIe area of the
island was devoted to the growth Of pOta-
toes. A real plague lately broke out in
the shape of the termite ant, which ate
every book and most OF the fabrics of cloth
and leather; thus the present Inhabitants
are destitute of clothing as well as food.
This is the case of an island which cannot
produce enough to feed its own people and
has no special product that will bear the
expense of expectation through the stormy
waters that surround it. It will probably
be entirely depopulated by and by.
Another island which lies some twenty
two degrees south of 81. Helena, in the
same ocean, is Tristan d'Acunha. This
was annexed and colOnized some 400 years
ago by the Portuguese, and has since been
occupied successfully by the English,
Standards, Portuguese and Dutch; each
race, after few years occuDation. aban-
doned it, and never returned. The popu-
lation never exceeded 100 in number. This
handful lived on the flesh Of penguins,
cattle, sheep and grass, and on the potato
crops, which ara abundant. When the
Antarctic whale fishery was booming the
people of Tristan d Acunha lived we'll on
It's profits; now it has ceased to be pursued
and the islanders contemplate a wholesale
migration to South Africa
An island about which a good deal of
romance hangs is Easter Island, in the
South Pacific, about midway between Val
paraiso and Tahiti. The monumental
RUNS which are found in many parts OF the
island imply that it must have borne at
one time a population of some ten thou
sand or more. and twenty years ago an
aboriginal population of a thousand or
more was reported by mariners. At latest
dates the only settlers were family from
Tahiti, which supported itself by raising
cattle for the Valparaiso marker, and the
head of the family declared that be was
ready TO leave as soon as be could get
! transportation.
The seas Of the globe are full of islands
on which hard labor will secure the abso-
lutte necessaries of life, as the descendants
| of the mutineers of the Bounty have
proved. But there are few uninhabited
| islands that will do much more. The
! South Pacific Archipelago, which has been
! the dream Of poets, Will produce nothing
| for export but copra. and community
cannot live on c0pra. Navigation to these
islands is always difficult, in consequence
of the reefs, and thus freights are high.
Islands which have no surplus products
that car be exchanged for goods can
hardly make much progress. aud it is
always problem whether the people had
better not 90 elsewhere. 1t was not the
design of providence that all the world
should be inhabited.