Omaha daily bee., 1895-09-30

acter does not inspire confidence. Their
chief holiday, excepting Ci ristmas. Is
the anniversary Of the landing OF the
mutlneers on Pitcairn island. These good
and simple people have made an interesting
chapter In history. IL begins with the story
OF one Of the most terrible crimes OF the
sea. Every one OF their fathers was n muir
derer and would have been hanged II he
had ben caught. But that fine old man. John
Adams. the last of the mutineers, lived 10
wipe out the blot upon his good name by
instilling in the minds Of the children so
much love for truth and goodness that they
and their descendants have never departed
from the path he taught them to tread.
CRUsoE OF SUNDAY ISLAND.
AS we look over the myriad Islands In
the Pacific we may sec white men on many
a little rock who are voluntary eXiles there.
Years ago a man named Bell, who was a
planter on a small scale in Samoa, decided
to emigrate, with his wife and children, to
Sunday island. an uninhabited speck in the
ocean, about 600 miles from New Zealand,
He knew 1t was a lovely spot, fertile, tenn
perate and healthful. So. In 1878, he hired
a trading schooner to land the He'll family
and all their possessions on Sunday Island.
There they have lived ever since, raising
European vegetables and other crops. Every
year or two a vessel would drop into Dem
ham bay to see Bell, sell him some clothing
and hardware and take away his market
able products. Bell called the island his
farm, and when he wished to see the whole
of 1t he had only to climb to its highest
point, LOO feet above the sea, and see the
little waves tapping his entire twenty miles
of coast line. In 1883 England annexed Mr..
Bell and his farm without so much as ask
ing his permission, and now he has to en-
dure a little human society, for a few other
planters have settled there.
Perhaps few Of our readers have ever
heard OF Mrs. Emma e. Forsythe, the
daughter of Mr. nee formerly nur consul
in Samoa. Her mother was a Samoan girl,
but the beautiful daughter was educated
in San Francisco, and is a thorough Amer
lean In telling. As a girl she had the rep
u,ation OF being better acquainted with the
trade and commerce of the Southern Pa
ciic than any American living in that re-
gion, and within the past fifteen years
since the death Of her husband, her energy
and intelligence have enabled her to accumu-
late a large fortune in a region Of which
very little is known. Casting about for q
field Of enterprise, she visited the Gambia
island OF New Britain, near New Guinea,
and there she found a high table-land, where
sho felt certain, there was a chance tc
start profitable plantations. For q mere trife
she bought from the chiefs a large
amount of land. Then she organized a firm
| of planters and traders, kept the control.
ling interest in her own hands, managed
the business herself, and five years ago, and
perhaps today, the company was doing the
largest business under any flag in that par
of the Pacific. The writer has not seer
recent statistics of her trade, but five years
ago she exported 962 tons o fcopra, thirty
seven tons Of pearl shells, thirty-fve tons
of beche de mer and 81 900 pounds of South
Sea island cotton. She was employing fifty
white men and several hundred natives, was
extending her enterprises far and near, and
although only about 40 years or age, shC
had already amassed a fortune under 8
tropical sun and among the cannibal islands
She has proven that at least one woman car
succeed where many a white man has failed