The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-04-10
ANISTERIOUS ISLAND
San Nicolas Was Once Peopied
by a Race of Indians.
AN ENIGMA OF THE PACIFIC.

On This Barren, Wave Swept Sand
Dune Are Mounds of Shells and Bones
and Stone implements, Monuments Of
Lost Race of Ancient People.
About eighty miles due northwest
Of San Pedro, in California, lies
desert island that has all the combined
romance Of the ages in its history. It
is rarely visited aud has but . single
inhabitant, yet it has a peculiar fas-
cination for many people. The very ele-
ments seem to conspire to make the
place forbidden, as it almost invariably
blows a gale of wind in the vicinity,
and when one reaches the inhospitable
island there is no bay or harbor for {:
craft much larger than rowboat.
The island is about seven miles long
by two or three in width and rises to
a height Of 800 to 1000 feet il the
center. Wind swept, forbidding, haunt
ed BY the spirits Of storms, it does not
invite inspection and appears to have
been cursed by the elements, yet de-
spite 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 sixty ton yacht and was
literally blown off, finally making it
one day about noon, coming to anchor
near a-~long, Specter-Eke tongue Of
land that extends out into the ocean,
where the tide ran like mill race
and heavy ground swell! swept
around the point from the Tlndwarc
side. The island Of San Nicolas ap-
pears like sand dune. The landing
was wave swept beach that received
q high swell from three points, and it
was evident that skill in landing
alone would make it possible.
The boat lay off, waiting for a low
sea, and finally went sailing in upon
one Of less size, and the crew jumped
overheard 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 inhab-
liant, a<Basque, came down to the
beach. He had not heard the news Of
the world for year and did not dis
play any disposition to learn it, but he
was not happy-too many dead peo-
pie, too many bones that make wind
spirits blow, he said, and when he
heard that the party was after the re
mains Of these dead people be showed
an inclination to leave. In all proba-
bGity there is not in any land a more
remarkable mound to be seen. About
ten feet in height and nearly q mile
in length, it was at this time verita-
bic Golgotha, a collection Of bones and
implements Of the lost people, ever
changing, ever shifting, today expos
ing numbers Of skeletons, tomorrow
covering them up in sheets Of sand.
The mound was town site upon
which hundreds Of people had lived
for untold ages. They had brought in
their shells and fish bones, piling them
up at the doors Of their huts, slowly
building themselves up higher and
higher. until in time they came to live
on the top Of vast she'll mound. Here
they buried their dead, concealed their
household goods, and when man or
woman died his or her possessions We're
buried with them, and so the big
mounds were made up Of shells, stone
implements, fish and human bones-a
monument Of this lost race.
Where the original islanders came
from, who they were or why they
lived on such a, wind swept, nearly
waterless island is one Of the mys-
teries, but it is known that the mission
fathers visited San Nicolas years ago
and took of the few survivors found
there and divided them up among the
various mainland tribes. When this
human loot was being carried into ex-
ecuticn, a storm came up, and IN the
hurry of departure it was found that
q woman had left, her baby on the
beach.
It was impossible. to land, so the
captain sailed away, but not with the
mother. She had plunged into. the
waves and swum 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 YES
sci was wrecked, but the legend lived,
and many years after a priest decided
to visit the island and learn If the
woman had survived. An expedition
was got up in 1850, the party making
safe landing. They formed line
across the island in order not to miss
any signs Of human habitation and be
gan 6 slow search from the south
point north. They soon found e7i-
dence Of ancient occupation and in e
deep canyon discovered a hut and a
woman, the mother who had been de-
serted years before. She was living N
the hut, which was made Of whale ribs
and sea lion hair, her sole companions
being several wild dogs that savagely
charged the strangers.
The woman could not make herself
understood, and, singularly enough, no
one IN all the Indian tribes in southern
California could be found who under
stood her. She told her discoverers by
signs that the wild dogs had killed her
child long ago and that she killed sea
lions and sea birds with stones and
lived on them.
At first she appeared to be afraid Of
the men; but, finding that they treated
her kindly, she consented to so with
them. She took all the rude articles
she had used during the years Of her
solitude, her skin dresses, made mostly
from the skins Of the sea Iors, and so
interesting were the costumes that
they were sent to Rome to the pope
by the priest who instigated the res
cue.