The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-11-21

OF AT0LLS
Queer Romances of the
Pacific Ocean.
"A SEA CAPTAINS STORY
Vegetarians Sought New Life Far
From ,CIv'Iization--Dynasty
y of Bosses.

~ W OUSSCSs
The most interesting things | find in |
my cruise in the south Sea-" said Captain
W. L. Bostwick, Of Lima, Peru, TO San
Diego Union reporter, ARE the little ISL
ands that rear their heads above the wa
ter in the South Pacific ocean.
There probably few Americans who
know that for more than forty-fve years
the Stars and Stripes have bee.l flying
overan atoll away down In the South Sea.
in the northern part of the Samoan
group. and that an ardent American liv-
Ell there king for twenty-eignt years
and founded colony of American-Sa-
lslet. The island is Genie Hermosa, and
the lord and master there was O New
Hampshire man named Jennings. In 1851.
a young Yankee skipper. Eli Jennings,
was sailing around the Horn on a whaler
for the Hawaiian Islands. The snip stop
ped at Genie Hermosa for water and
fruit, and Jennings was charmed with the
spot and the primitive courtesy OF the
natives. He sailed away to Honolulu VIII.
pleasant memories of the atoN in the
the Yankees had done in getting ricn
among the HawaIians. So he quit the
whales and was back at Genie Hermosa
in another year.
The story of Jennings life on that BIT
Of land far off in the South Sea is almost
strange as anything in fictior. He
learned the Samoan language, married
the most beautiful samoan girl in the
whole archipelago, and was lord of all he
surveyed. He got several English saliors
tC come and live on Genie Hermosa.
English became the language of tn, ISL
and and the native We're taught industry
and temperance.
But Jennings never gave up his con-
tention that he added Genie HerInosa to
the United States. When he became rich
in the oopra trade. he procured American
! books and an American teacher from Ho-
nolulu. and all of his many dusky skin
ned children were taught American his
tory, American ideals and the Epscopa-
Ian religion.
LOVED BY THE SAMOA.NS.
Jennings was as much loved by the
Samoans thirty years ago as Robert
Louis Stevenson was years later. He
made Gente Hermosa one of the most
moral and industrious little comm unities
in all theISouth Sea. Under ais skill a
dozen large houses were built for the
Jennings family and as the headquarters
ness Of the island. When he died he left
:. lefeyen. grown up children and thirty
grandchildren. His. remains were eEcios-
ed in a mammoth sarcophagus of cement
and coral. which stands on the spot where
he first stepped on Genie Hermosa soil
, In 1851.
IAN American colony of vegetariaIs are
living on Tagula Islano, a tiny bit zoo
niles southeast from New Guiae3, and
1000 miles northeast from Australia I'm
der the leadership of a Methodist clergy
man. the Rev. James Newlin of Ohio, sew
enty people sailed from San Francisco ir
1890 for Hawaii. They believed that a
higher plane of Christianity was to be
, REACHED by vegetarian diet and freedom
from contamination with degenerate
mankind. So they gave up Their friend.
and homes in the Eastern states. Taguis
? Island WAS finally chosen for their colo
. ny. There were about fifty good-na ture,
. natives there, who welcomed the newcom
, ers.
!. II visited the Newlinites on the islan'
several years ago. They had lost by de
lsertion some twenty of the original mem
4 bers of the vegetarian colony, hut the!
Il had a good net increase In numbers b,
a reason of births and accessions OF peopl
from England, Australia and -.inerica
THEY built roads and homes and larg
= meeting house. They gained their livei
hood by growing indigo and yains an
< other fruits for the Australian and Ne'
o Zealand markets. They seeuGd &C be hap
:, Ply and they believed they We're the pic
lneers in scheme that would become Q
mighty Importance in another century
n The colonists had very little in oommo
3. With anything in the world Outside O
n their wee island. A few of them wrot
r. annually to relatives and friends l
|, America and Europe, and some had er
l. tirely cut themselves OFF from a know
q edge of all that had once been dear I
= them in the busy world.
e THE history of the Cocos group of is
al ands and the lordship that a couple
English Adventures, Ross and Hare a:
+, sumed over the natives there, is unusua
l. Hare and Ross, by coincidence, settle
& simultaneously on islands in the Coco
, group, and each proposed to be niaste
, there. After five years of petty warfar
Hare died. From 1877, when the origins
90 Ross first settled in the Cocos. Ross Ia
- ruled the archipelago. The irst tw
Rosses. the father and grandfathe- or II
= present proprietor, ruled the Islands, &
m their highland ancestors had held the
in Hands. There was a formal annexation
20 the group in 1857 by British man-of-wa
- but until eleven years ago the Ross d,
- nasty was practically unmolested by al
&c outside interference. Even now the Bri
Mt ish Colonial Office leaves the Ross fami
ge IT. govern the islands by the tradition
v. methods and by past experience.
THE Cocos Islands are about 10 d
grees south latitude and 10 degrees cas-
!. They are 200 miles southwest from Jaw
and 800 miles from Christmas Islam
They number twenty-five. and the large
i'd of them has an average diameter CT nj
miles. The population Is about zoo,
m whom the greater portion are native-bo
r and the rest are Malays. The Ross faI
II, are the only Europeans inhabiting Z
OF group. and though all the male menbe
o. the third generation were educated
e. Scotland. and are described as weil-ed
Gated. quick and intelligent, they ha
"A almost all contracted native marriag
and thrown their lot in with the IeoI
en- whom they rule. Their sons and daug
or tiers. with few exceptions. neither spe
set nor understand English, and Geor
ng Clunies Ross. the head of the family, a
,,a n man of remarkable force of charact
-, was at enc time eighteen years witho
''u hearing English spoken. and confessesi
being a little rusty in it's use.
ed IAN punishments are melted ont by o
of the Ross family upon the advice of
nd committee consisting Of George Clun
Ross and n native and a Malay citizs
These three men have the power of
hicting the death penalty but they ha