Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-16


and South America. The colony
numbers only seventy-three people, and their only
link with the rest of the world is the annual visit paid
by British third class cruiser from the South African
squadron Last year the British ship Odin called at
Tristan to if any of its strange inhabitants
wanted medical aid or cared to come out into the
world The men have few canvas boats, and come
their visitors, to trade mutton, butter,
and albatross skins for anything they can get.
They own quite a number of cattle sheep and pigs,
and grow excellent potatoes. They gave
limited fresh milk which is the strongest beverage
to be found in Tristan
The islanders have patriarcha form of Govern
ment under John Swain, the oldest nhabltant. To
him referred any disputes that may arise,
which appear to be very few The seventeen fam
lies of Tristan have intermarried for several gen.
erations; and weddings and baptisms per-
formed by the Captain of the visiting man of war.
Last year we baptized three babies and celebrated
two interesting marriages All round the settle
nent, and extending for about mile out to sea,
there grows gigantic seaweed, kelp which reaches
to the surface in hundred and fifty feet of water
and forms a treacherous trap for any castaway
craft that may find itself in these little known
waters. The hereabouts fairly with fish.
Drop line baited with anything from salt pork to
a piece of bread, and you will haul up delicious
SeVen-pOund hvetlnger or a kind OF bass weighing
from ten to sixty pounds. The lack of wheat, owing
to the of rats, is a serious drawback. Ere
quently the islanders taste bread for eight
months out of the twelve, and most of them subsst
Slight variations OF meat and potato diet. he
climate goes to extreme.
When | crossed the Odin from the cape
took out number of young English fruit trees
experiment There is little native timber of any
kind. We brought away samples of the guano
from Inaccessible Island not far away; and if the
Cape Government authorities pronounce favorably
upon it, regular trade may be opened with the cape.
Robinson Crusoe's Island
TUAN Fernandez, the lonely island wherein Alex
) ander Selkirk, the original of Defoes Robinson
Crusoe,' passed his years of exile, lies four hundred
and fifty miles from the Chilean coast Few people
know where Crusoe's island is, and still fewer
of the adventures of the Scottish mariner
this lonely rock which led Defoe his famous
romance. Fernandez himself discovered the little
archipelago in the sixteenth century, and settled
down on Mas-a-tierra, the Juan Fernandez Island
of to-day. He grew tired of his lonely king
dom, however, and went off to the mainland, leav-
ing behind him herds of goats and pigs,
The lslet next appears as pirate stronghold. 1t
lay to the Spanish settlements in the heroic
days of buccaneering; and L'Olonnois the Cruel,
Montbars the EXtermnator, Sir Henry Morgan the
pirate and knight, Sharp and Dampier all took
their treaCherous ships to the island to get fresh
water and meat. After Sharp had tried to surprise
La Serena he and his anchored off Juan Fer
nandez. He tells that he found the shore so thckly
covered with seals that he had to blaze away into
the thick of them before he could effect landing
And the goats had multiplied that his sailors
shot sixty of them Christmas Day. The pigs
had been equally prolific; while the waters
fairly alive with fish.
1t is strange how many Crusoes have lived on this