The daily sentinel., 1904-11-04

Illlll I lHI in the Isle of tristan
s91s@ da Cunha. For, though
seventy-seven white folk
inhabit this fly speck of an island in
the South Atlantic, there is no money
in circulation among them, and, sig
nificantly enough, there also is no
wrongdoing of any description.
Wrote a recent visitor to the island:
Money would be useless, for there is
nothing to buy" And he continued:
Living in honesty, sobriety and har-
mony, free apparently from all crime,
vice, dissension or double dealing, the
inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha seem
unconsciously to have carried out the
purpose entertained by the original
settler of 1911, Jonathan Lambert, by
keeping themselves beyond the reach
of chicanery and ordinary misfortune
"They have no written laws. All be-
ing law-abiding, they need none, each
doing what seemeth right in his own
eyes. They have no Jail. Crime
among them being unknown. such an
institution would be a superfuity.
They have no form of government and
pay no taxes. They enjoy perfect
independence and freedom which
never degenerates into license. The
community is absolutely moral"
CONTENT WITH THEIR LOT.
The outsider who recently visited
this later-day Arcadia did so for the
purpose of finding out whether Its in
habitants really wanted to leave 1t.
Tristan da Cunha belongs to England,
and, in January, 1908, British man
of-war called at the island and after
ward reported that most of the people
were weary of their life of isolation
and wanted to get away from the
place.
So the government of Cape Colony
sent a representative to offer the ISL
anders free transportation to that
country If they wished it, as we'll as
the means of making a new start in
life. But when the agent explained to
the folk of Tristan da Cunha how diff
ferent the outside world was from
their island home the little community
of seventy seven decided to let well
enough alone.
And the visiting official thinks they
acted wisely. for he says that having
lost the instincts of suspicion and cir
cumspection, they would fare i'll If set
adrift in any civilized community
where each man plays lone hand in
the game of life and cares little who
loses, so long as he himself wins"
Just as there are no newspapers in
Tristan da Cunha, no postoffice. no
churches and no schools, there also are
no shops. The only time. in fact when
the inhabitants think of anything like
| bargaining is when they trade with
ships passing the island. Even then,
however, there is no competition
among them.
All provisions or produce of any kind
supplied to ships are regarded as the
common property of the community
and the proceeds of their sale in cloth
ing or stores are distributed equally
among the several households. the
blowing of horn summoning a repre-
sentative of each family to the divi-
sion. To make the system work out
fairly each family takes its turn in
supplying what ship needs.
Tristan da Cunha was discovered in
1860 by the Portuguese navigator
whose name it bears. Great Britain
took possession of 1t some 800 years
later and while Napoleon was impris-
oned on st. Helena. 1900 miles distant
placed detachment of British soldiers
there as a sort of outpost garrison.
On the death of Napoleon in 1921 the
soldiers We're withdrawn, but a certain
Corporal Glass, with his wife and fam
| lily, and n few other men, were allowed
| to remain.
In 1888 the population numbered
forty souls and in 1852 had risen to
eighty-five.
In the course of the next two decades
twenty-five left the island for the
United States and forty-fve migrated
to the cape, reducing the number of
those remaining on the island to
thirty-six. An enumeration made in
1880 showed 100 living there, and these
| figures have remained the high-water
mark of population. There have been
two violent deaths, but they were
cases of suicide, due to mental de-
rangement.
MORAL TONE HIGH.
What makes the high moral record
of the little community so remarkable
is the fact that the original stock was
by no means picked" as is the case
with many more ambitious attempts
to establish ideal co.onies which have
signally failed. The male progenitors
were just plain, ordinary. rough and
ready men, the nationalities represent
ed among them being Scotch, Irish,
English and Dutch. They married
colored women. one being of African
birth and three others Asiatics.
In 1885 a great disaster befell the
islanders. Fifteen men. comprising
nearly the whole adult male popula-
ton, were lost in boat that left the