The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-25
| WOMAN CRUSOE ON
MYSTERIOUS ISLE
Last Remnant of Population on
San Nicolas
ALONE WITH WILD DOGS
Mound In the Pacific Ocean Built Up
Of Human and Fish Bones, Sea
Shells and Various
Implements.
ALONE WITH WILD DOGS

Los Angeles Cal, Saturday.-About 50
miles due northwest of San Pedro, in
| California, lies desert island that has
all the combined romance of the ages in
it's history. It is rarely visited, and has
but a single inhabitant, yet it has a pc
cullar fascination to many people. The
very elements seem to conspire to make
the place forbidding, as it almost inva-
riably blows a gale of wind In the vi
cinity, and when one reaches the inhos-
pitable island there is no bay nor har-
| Dor for craft much larger than a row.
boat
The island is about seven miles long
by two or three in width, and rises to a
height of 800 to 1000 feet in the center
Windswept, forbidding, haunted by the
spirits Of storms, it does not invite in
spection, and appears to have been cursed
! by the elements; yet despite this, the
Island was at one time the home of q
numerous people, race that has been
lost sight Of The writer made several
attempts to reach the island in a Cotton
yacht, and was literally blown off, final
|
to anchor near long, spectre-like tongue
of land that extends out into the ocean
and where the tide ran like a millrace
and heavy ground swell swept around
the point from the windward side. No
more forbidding outlook can be imagined.
The island of San Nicolas appears like a
| sand dune. The landing was O. wave
| swept beach that received high swell
! frafa f1,Y.aA fntC oR,1 . i10ta
that skill in landing alone would make it
possible.
Only One Inhabitant Now.
The boat lay off, waiting for a low sea,
and finally went sailing in upon one of
| lesser size, and the crew jumped over
board and held on to the boat that the
undertow and back rush attempted to
claim. In this manner the entire party
! landed and an investigation of the
| island was begun. The one inhabitant a
| Basque, came down to the beach. He
| had not heard the news of the world for
year. and did not display any ambition
to learn 1t. But he was not happy. Too
many dead people, too many bones that
make wind spirits blow, he said, and
when he hard that the party was after
| the remains of these dead people he
| showed an inclination to leave. In all
probability there is not in any land
About ten feet in height and nearly a
mile in length, 1t was at this time a YER
| table Golgotha, a collection of bones and
| implements of the lost people, ever
changing, ever shifting; today exposing
numbers of skeletons, tomorrow covering
| them up in sheets of sand.
| The mound was a town site upon which
hundreds of people had lived for untold
| ages They had brought in their shells
| and fshbones, piled them up at the doors
| Of their huts, slowly building themselves
up higher and higher, until in time they
came to live on top of a vast shell mound.
| Here they buried their dead. concealed
| their household goods, and when a man
or woman died his or her possessions
were buried with them, and so the big
| mounds were made up of shells, stone i'm
plements, fish and human bones-a monu-
ment to this lost race.
Few Survivors Taken Off.
| Where the original islanders cafe from,
| who they were or why they lived on
| such a wind-swept, nearly waterless
| island is one of the mysteries, but it is
| known that the mission fathers visited
| San Nicolas years ago and took off the
| few survivors found there and divided
them up among the various mainland
| tribes. When this human loot was being
| carried into execution a storm came up,
| and in the hurry of departure 1t was
| found that a woman had left her baby
| on the beach,
| 1t was impossible to land so the cap
tain sailed away, but not with the moth
| err She had plunged into the waves and
| swum a long distance to the shore, and
| with her child was deserted, the captain
| intending to return later for her. San
| Nicolas, however, was not visited for
many years. The vessel was wrecked,
| but the legend lived, and many years af-
tor tnria Ct 1n1 To iGff hn cla md
| and learn If the woman had survived.
| An expedition was got up in 1850, the par
| ty making Il safe landing. They formed
| a line across the island in order not to
miss any signs of human habitation, and
| began slow search from the south point
| north. They soon found evidence of an
| cient occupation, and in deep canyon
discovered a hut and a woman-the moth
| er who had been deserted years before
| She was living in the hut, which was
| made of whale ribs and lion hair, her sole
| companions being several wild dogs that
savagely charged the strangers.
! The woman could not make herself I'M
| derstood, and, singularly enough. no one
| in all the Indian tribes in Southern Cali
| fornia could be found who understood
| her. She told her discoveries by signs
| that the wild dogs had killed her child
| long ago; that she killed sea lions and
| sea birds with stones and lived on them.
|
the men, but finding that they treated
her kindly, she consented to go with
| them. She took all the rude articles she
had used during her years of solitude,
| her skin dresses. made mostly from the
| skins of the sea lion, and so interesting
| were the costumes that they were sent
to Rome to the pope by the priest who
| nstigated the rescue.
Origin Sought In Vain.
| The woman was taken to Santa Barba-
| "a and named Maris. after the little YES
| sci which accomplished her rescue. She
| was placed in the care of family, who
| lid everything possible for her. She was
| bright and vivacous in disposition,
| earned some Spanish danced and sang
for her friends and was visited by In
| dams from various parts of California In
| an effort to find one who could under
| stand her. But civilization proved too
| much for her. and she died in three
| months. one of the most remarkable Cru
| soes known. as her story is based on act
| ua fact and in its details is much stran-
| ger than fiction.
The interesting mound which the writer
| examined ON San Nicolas was formed
| turing past centuries by the ancestors Of
| this woman, and possesses an intense in