Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-02-12
THE LoNELlEsT SPOT ON EARTH
A Rock in the South Atlantic, the
Home of 80 White People.

Tristan d'Acunha, a desolate rock il
| the South Atlantic, has been called
says the New York Sun. the loneliest
spot on earth To the so white people
who live there it is their world. They
are almost utterly cut off from their
kind. To them railroad and te!e-
graphs, electric lights and all the III
ventions of the last half-century are
but Il name. Once n year or 50, they
may get news of the outer world from
some sailing ship or man-of-war OF
the British South African squadron
y thousand miles of the Atlantic
separates them from Africa's most
southerly extremity on the one hand
| while 1900 miles in the other direction
South America ends abruptly in
stormy Cape Horn.
II is hard to imagine more lonely
spot than Tristan d'Acunfa. Yet only
last year one Of the community who
visited the Cape grew hOmesick and
went back in the boat that conveyed
the new chaplain and his wife to the
island. For many years Mr.. Dodgson,
a brother of Lewis Carroll of alice
in Wonderland" fame, acted as
teach the men and women how to read
and write. 1t was a pretty hopeless
task, for they have the minds of chill
dren, except when it comes to driving
q bargain. and how to do that they
seem to know by instinct.
Last year Rev. J. c. Barrow and his
wife volunteered to go out to The
island. The couple landed on Palm
Sunday in 4 furious storm. They and
their belongings We're literally hurled
on beach eight miles east of the
settlement. They were received by
the whole island population. The in
habitants set apart two huts as church
and school house, and Mrs. Lucy
Green, an old widow, turned herself
out Of her own home that the new
Corners from the world. might have
somewhere 10 lay their heads. More
over the II families agreed to take
turns in supplying the Barrows with
meat. milk. potatoes and fircwood, as
we'll as fish, butter and eggs when
such luXuries We're available. The
islanders depend very largely upon
potatoes, but these often fail, owing
to hot winds that blight the crop In
one season nearly 400 of their cattle
died OF starvation. owing To lack Of
foresight in allowing the land to be
overStOcked
The population remains practically
stationary, between 75 and so souls.
Two recent additions have been made
in the form of a couple Of Italians.
shipwrecked sailors who have married
island women. One Of these cast
Always. Andrea Repetto. is the only
man in Tristan who can both read AMI
write; he was Il petty officer in me
Italian navy.
Great is the excitement when sail
is sighted by the islanders. They get
ready fresh provisions and vegetables,
which they hope To barter for clothes
and all kinds Of unexpected novelties
But even when vessel puts into the
little bay which is the harbor of the
island the weather is 50 uncertain that
it must he kept ready for instant de-
parture.
The settlement proper is built on a
bold bluff on the northwest side of the
rock. The rest of the island rises
sheer and inaccessible in colossal cliffs
from the stormy Atlantic. Practically
all the male population goes forth
when Il rare visiting ship puts in. and
they do thriving trade in mutton,
butter. milk and albatross skins.
Each householder keeps cattle.
sheep, and pigs, but all attempts to
cultivate wheat or grain of any kind
have failed, owing to the swarms Of
rats that infeSt the rock. Last year
the British man-o'-war Odin called at
Tristan with mails and supplies.
which We're promptly got ashore at he
landing place. hauled up on the beach
and then taken Off to the different
cottages by the solitary and primitive
bullock wagon that acts as mail coach
and parcels delivery.
Fresh milk is the strongest beverage
to he obtained in Tristan. There i.
excellent sport in the vast swarms of
aquatic birds that make their homes
on the cliffs. Among these are
magnificent albatrosses, many of them
measuring nearly Is feet from wing %
wing. The land birds of Tristan are
very few and rare.
Several springs have their source on
the lofty mountain that forms the
apex of the island, and one of these
falls from the lower cliffs in a beauti-
ful cascade. The remains of a fort
can be seen, a relic of Napoeon's
exile. For while he was confined on
st. Helena the British government
deemed it advisable to garrison
Tristan d'Acunha with troops from
Cape Colony.
The Tristanites have no precise
form OF government, although John
SWAIN. the oldest inhabitant, is recog-
nized as king and legal head of the
community. He is also chief justice
and referee in all disputes that may
arise. Marriages and baptisms are
performed by the captains Of visiting
men-o'-war The islanders have inter-
married for several generations, with
conspicuously bad results in the chill
dren of today.
ROUND about this rock and EXTEND
&Edor some miles out into the
Il.