The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1900-10-16
Specks of Land in the Ocean
Dear to SchoOlbOy Hearts
ISLAND OF DUMAS ROMANCE
Monte Criste 20 BE Isea az Hsstins
Gresad b, the New King Of itaIy-R chin
sen Crusee's Lonely Heme In the seutber@
Paciic-Eisrrers of the Latter When It
Was tsea as n Penal Ceisny-Ns Basis
for Monte Cristo Remance.
From the Chicago cArOuisle.

From the Chicago Chreniele.
Announcement Is made in the cable dis
patches that the Island of Monte Cristo
has been purchased by the young King OF
italy Victor Emmanuel Ill, who intends
to erect there a hunting lodge. to when
he and his wife can retire when tired OF
court life on the mainland. This dot on
the Mediterranean Sea is doubtless among
the most famous bits of land on the globe.
1T Is practically uninhabited and not of
the slightest Importance. either historical
ly or straiegically, yet the genius Of Al
exander Dumas has made IL famous
wherever books are read or plays acted
III any tongue. The island is a part of
Italy. and it lies twenty-seven miles
south Of Elba, where Napoleon was king
and prisoner for less than year I'm 1914.
Little as il is. mountain peak 200 feet
high rises sheer from the sea upon its
narrow base. and the waves beat and
boil against il so that only in fair wealth
er can a laEding be made from small
heats There is no wharf or harbor.
There Is not an acre which can be Gull
tivated upon the whole island. but wild
goats nave fer generations earned liv-
ing among the crags and cartridges breed
undisturbed, while there is a luxurious
shade of olive trees. There are grottoes
on the island. but hardly such one as
Dumas descrlbed-the one in which the
marvellous treasure was found.
Long the Lair of bandits.
II was here that Edmund Dantes estab-
lished his marvellous underground retreat,
the description of which has dazzled read
ers for two generations There may have
been hidden treasures on the island, in
very fact, for 1t used to be favorite hid
ing place Of daredevil smugglers and pl-
rates In the days when pirates were real
and bloody, and when smugglers were
armed men with their lives III their hands
and not sleek clerks with silks and dia-
monds hid in their trunks.
Tradition tells US that many a jovfal
banquet was held here by Italian Robin
Hoods, many from Corsica and Sardinia,
when Lorenzo the Magnificent was play
ing his daring role in Florence, and there
is more than one legend which tells how
Moorish bandits frequently found the ISL
and a sure place of refuge. For within the
present century the fierce pirates from the
northern coast of Africa ravaged all the
inlets of the Mediterranean and even car
ried off Christian eaptives from the Ital-
ian towns. II took the smart men of the
American navy, like Preble and Decatur.
10 put down these people and let seamen
and coast jewellers sleep sound o. nights.
The island of Monte Cristo came TO
Italy along with all the rest of its new do
mains In 1871, when Louis Napoleon's en-
pire went TO pieces. Once there was talk
of putting prisoners there, but that plan
has now been abandoned. 1t wouldn't do
for men in striped suits to be next-door
neighbors of king and queen.
The new Queen of Italy Is one of the
finest shots in Europe and uses rife aud
shotgun with equal skill. Last year she
went to Spitzbersen. away in the frozen
North, and was successful In bringing
down many reindeer as well as large
number of elder duck and other game
and snow. A shooting box is to be built
on the island. and II is to be stocked with
birds and game, solely for the amusement
Of thtsfortanate young huntress.
RseinseH Crnsoe's Island.
Perhaps more dear to the youthful heart
than even Monte Cristo is Juan Fernandez.
a speck OF land on the surface OF the Pa
cific Ocean. Its fame has come from a
work of fiction which since its first appear
ance has been more widely read than any
similar book ever published. From the
passing Of Fernandez and his Spanish
colonists the island was seldom visited
save by some ship which was pressed for
water and fresh food, in which case It
furnished both in ample quantities, the
goats supplying fresh meat, the fruit trees
set by Fernandez giving OF their products,
while several kinds Of wild vegetables
grew in abundance on different parts OF
the island. History, however. records but
few of these visits up TO the beginning OF
the eighteenth century. From a rough
survey of the island it was set down as
being about twelve miles long by four
miles in its widest portion, curving In a
northwest and southwest direction, with
its highest peak at the bend Of the curve.
This peak was named by Fernandez "El
Yunque" CThe Anvil. from its close re-
semblance to that mechanical imp emeat.
For considerably over 100 years the soli-
tude OF the island was broken only by the
coming and going OF few visitors, until
1900 galley named the Cirque Ports call
ed under command of Capt. Straddling.
This British commander was unpopular
with his men, forty of whom deserted ana
fed TO the interior of the island. All but
five returned TO the ship, which sailed
away, but came back four years later By
deserters were there, the others having
been carried away by a French vessel
which called In the meantime.
Alone for Renr Years.
But this second visit OF the Cirque Ports
was TO be productive In the great event in
Fernandez's history, for while In the bay
the commander Of the galley had an ar
gument with his sailing master, one Al
exander Selkirk, who demanded that he
be given an allowance OF stores and land
ed on the island. His request was COM
piled with and the galley sailed without
him. For four years and four months did
Selkirk maintain his lonely vigil al the
top of the Islands mountain range. scam
ming the sea for the sail which might
come to end his dreary exile. In 1904 he
was taken of by the Duke. an English
privateer. on board Of which ne returned
10 England. bringing with him an extern
siye notebook covering his experience dur
ing those years Of solitude This note
book was presented by him TO the novelist
IIefoe and out OF IL the writer founded
what at once became one OF the most
popular hctional works Of that and each
succeeding generation. OF course, Defoe
used an authors latitude in It's eonstruc.
ton, but there exists to-day upon Jua n
Fernandez every one Of the principal land
marks described Ia the chapters OF Rob
inson crusos."
Thus did Juan Fernandez become
known. But in the years that have pa s..
Ell since SeikiFk's release there hsxs ~