The Republican journal., 1904-09-15
LONELY COLONY DYING OUT.

Tiny Population of Tristan d'Acunha Has
Of Taking Their Children Away to BE
Educated.
When the British warship Odin ar
rived in England recently she brought
news for the first time in year OF the
little community of Tristan d. Acuuha,
That lives in such an Out-Of-the-Way
place that it almost seems on the edge
OF the world. This community num-
bers only seventy-three persons. For
eighty seven years these people have
been striving to build up common
wealth socialistic in its precepts and
practices, but they have gone back
ward IN the last twenty-four years, al
though there is now an apparently
slight tendency to advance. In 1880
the population was 100. In 1897 it had
fallen off to GA. Only once year is the
outside world in communication with
this old colony of England. Then a
British warship visits its shores and
tidings are brought to the mother
country of its condition.
But this lack of communication with
the great centers of industry and CON-
merce does not seem to bother in the
least the good people of Tristan
d'Acunha, who have established
miniature world all by themselves.
Their home is on the largest of three
islands in the Southern Atlantic and is
situated about midway between the
Cape of Good Hope and the coast of
South America. The Island of Tristan
d'Acunha is the northernmost Of the
group and has an area of forty square
miles, with volcanic peak that rises
1910 feet above the sea level. Property
there is held in common. Strong drink
is unknown and no crime has been ever
committed. The government - what
little there is of it's carried on under
d patriarchal system, and the inhabi-
tants lead an idyllic existence in cult
waiting the soil and fishing. The island
is surrounded by broad belt of kelt,
gigantic growth of seaweed through
which a small boat may approach the
rocky shore even in stormy weather,
which is fortunate, as there is no good
anchorage outside and practically no
harbor. On the beaches and the lower
lands is an extensive growth of coarse
grass that reaches height of eight or
ten feet This forms shelter for mil
lions of penguins. There are many
species of albatross, petrels and other
sea birds, but the finch and the water
hen are the only land BIRDS There is
but one species of tree, little stunted
affair that is more like bush. Potatoes
grow we'll here and there are plenty of
fish near the coast. The climate is
windy and rainy, but healthful, the
temperature in summer averaging 6S
and in winter So degrees above, Fahren-
heit. In the top of the highest noun
tam is fresh water lake that never
freezes.
Inaccessible Island is the WESTERN
most of the group and is twenty miles
from Tristan d'Acunha and Nightin-
gale, which is the farthest to the south,
and the smallest is ten miles from In
accessible
The population Of the Island of iris
tan d'Acunha was the result of a within
on the part of an English soldier The
group was discovered in 1906 by the Por-
tuguese and were visited by the Dutch
i'll 1913. They were uninhabited al
though in later years small numbers of
sealers lived there at different times.
Great Britain took possession of the
ground in 1916 and British troops were
stationed there during the imprison-
ment of Napoleon at st. Helena, which
10 L, oOV ullltS w Vic uOIlH. lHG SdIIl-
son was withdrawn in 1877 with the ex-
ception of Corporal William Glass, who
with his wife and ten children and two
men asked and obtained permission to
remain there. They had cattle, sheep
and geese sent to them and cultivated
crops. From time to time fishermen
and shipwrecked sailors joined the com
munity and it slowly grew. They made
a settlement on fiat, sheltered piece OF
land in the northwest part of this island
and called it Edinburgh.
Within the last few years the race ap
pears to be dying out for the want of
new blood. The greatest difficulty exists
in the education of the children, and ii
has been proposed to send them to Cape
Colony that they may be properly in
structed. The question has beer
brought up in London and some steps
in his direction will be doubtless take1
by ONE of the educational societies il
that city.
.