The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-05-05
AN ISLAND WITH A ROMANCE
History Of Volcanic Tristan de Cunha
Like Land Of Fairy Tale.

/
your Robinson Crusoe" till the COW
! er came off and the lovely red cloak
which Crusoe wore in the frontis-
piece had a great big tear right
| through the middle of it, where you
grabbed it one day when you thought
| baby was going to chew it-didn't
| you begin to love islands? And later
when you came in for your big bro
theirs Treasure Island and its rob-
! bers bold--werent you sure again
| that nothing really interesting ever
! happened away from an island?
| There's really and truly an island
whose history is really and truly as
romantic as any famous isle of fic-
ton, says the Boston Herald Once
upon a time, at the end of nowhere,
in the southwest of the south seas
81 degrees latitude, to be exact-an
ambitious young volcano buried in
the aforesaid seas conceived a desire
to rise in the world So when nobody
was looking, as nobody well could
/ be, since the nearest land was Cape
! Town, 1000 miles away, this climber
of a volcano began to rise so wisely
and so well that he came right up
to the surface of the sea through all
(
saw the sky.
Then he was so surprised that he
just stopped and ran out all his ton
CUES of red hot lava, and at that
moment, though nothing was further
from the young volcanoes thoughts,
the island of Tristan de Cunha was
born, even if it had to wait a good
| long while for a name.
W nd
tinued to stick out its tongues, and
lava accumulations grew thicker and
ticker on the basis of submarine
rock. Now the island remains and the
volcano, after playing his part in
one way, has continued to help in
another, for the crater has served as
a permanent reservoir for the inhabi-
tant during the last few centuries.
The island has been really inhabi-
ted during the last 100 years.
The Portuguese discovered and
named it in 1906. Its life as a
| country" began when England an
nexed it and planted a garrison there
in 1917 to watch Napoleon on st.
Helena. Later this garrison was re-
moved, but the island was no longer
to be left to itself. "A butcher, a
DdhhSI anu Il CdIulSSt1Ch EudkeT.
or in other words, an Englishman, a
Scotchman and an enterprising Yam
kee from New London. Conn, had
landed as members of whaling
crew in the period of British Occur
pancy, and decided that the rock GER
tainly possessed possibilities, bare
and barren as it looked to be.
They knew that the Undiscovered
NO r>t1 l.
oyerhanging trees, sometimes like
the natural fruit apple trees in many
a New England pasture, would make
/ excellent grazing ground, so in 1924
they set out from Cape Town with
fifty sheep and twenty head of cat
tie.
For years, then, it was three men
on an island But, though the men
had reckoned on increase of flocks,
they had forgotten to reckon on in
creasing of the awful, brain-rack-
ing, Notwithstanding lonliness of the
place, 1000 miles from the world
Whalers touched occasionally, to be
sure; but to men accustomed to the
close comradeship of hold and fore
castle such snatches of social inter-
course were simply unbearably tan
talizing. 1t is recorded that the Yam
kee succumbed first to the inevitable
and, without sharing his plans, took
the first passage that offered itself to
st. Helena, saying that 'he was
coming back
He came, but not alone In St
Helena are race of people who are
called the Vans, descended from the
Englishmen and women from India
for the British government placed
a large number Of Indians on this
island. Some of these Yam girls are
very beautiful, inheriting Caucasian
wilderness from their fathers and
beautiful dark brown eyes, with
heavy lengths of straight. soft, black
hair, from their Indian mothers II
was one of these fair maids whom
the Yankee induced to return with
him to his island home
So Eve came into Eden, and, OF
course. the temptation was not tc
be resisted. Pretty soon the Scotch
man and the Englishman discovered
errands in St. Helena and it wasn't
long before there were three Ewes
instead OF one.
Unlike their great original, they
brought no exile with them, instead
Luey uelpSu u make Tie IdUu para
| disc. For life was simply idyllkc
there for many years. The men cared
for their flocks together; the women
were the mothers and home-makers
There was no financial troubles, for
/ there was no money; no difficulties OF
government, there was no state
no elaborate penal system, for there
were no criminals.
In all its history no man has been
killed on the island. The people just
lived, sanely, simply happily. seeing
enough of the outside world through
/ the coming of ships, to prevent any
lapses into barbarism, but remain
ing unsophisticated. Some of the adj
venturous young men broke away
! from time to time. There is at pres
ent colony of people from a island
/ near New London, Conn, the home
! of the original Yankee founder, but
/ for the most part the children
/ have lived on as their fathers did,
in the joyous content one may i'm
agine the Arcadians felt in the days
! of old.
1t is perhaps only this spirit of
, simple, natural kindness which has
made the people OF Tristan da Cum
ha strive so hard to be of assistance