The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-23

/
self did not touch the Marine Rail
way
Cook Found Christmas Isle.
Christmas Island. where the passen-
gers and crew Of the wrecked British
steamer Aeon are now awaiting relief,
has been longer discovered than is
generally known. For instance, in the
Hawaiian Spectator, conducted by
IAN Association Of Gentlemen in
volume I, 1883, published on the Mis-
sion Press at Honolulu in 1888, there
appears a sketch of Christmas Island,
| together with a chart.
The information for the sketch came
from Captain George Benson of the
English warship Briton, which was
wrecked on a bay on the northeast
side of Christmas Island on October 10,
| 1886. No lives were lost, and most of
the water and the ships stores were
| saved, but it was more than seven
months before the crew was able to
! leave the island. Captain Benson and
| several of his men attempted to reach
the Sandwich islands, as the Spec
tator terms Hawaii. in boat which
| they bdilt ON Christmas Island, but
after having been at sea eight or ten
| days We're compelled to put back. They
were all taken off by the American
whaleship Charles Frederic, Captain
| Brown, of New Bedford, May, 1887,
and landed on Kauai. Captain Ben
SON s description of the island, in part,
is as follows:
Christmas Island was discovered by
the celebrated circumnavigator, Cap
tain Cook, December %, 1877, but he
gives no account of having explored it,
but he states that it was about twenty
leagues in circumference. l have no
| reason to doubt that the island has
| increased in size, being of eoraline for
nation, which may account for my
finding it more than eighty miles
around.
Having remained on the island up
ward of seven months after my ship
wreck, together with the whole of my
ships crew, consisting of twenty-nine
men, l shall now endeavor to present
some description of it and its bound
aries. With respect to the island
itself, it is little else than sand bank,
bounded by a coral reef, which makes
off about a cable s length from the
shore, and surrounds the island with the
exception of the southwest point,
where the surf makes TO the beach.
The lagoon is filed with numerous
shoals. In many ponds we found a
fish resembling the herring, but some
what larger.
Captain Cook speaks of capturing
500 turtles while here. There are many
seabirds of different varieties inhabit-
ing this island. Their eggs afforded
me many a delicious repast, and are so
plentiful that I have seen 1000 lying
ON the ground within the space of one
square acre. Those of the birds we
commonly call " Man-of-war hawk
were much preferable to any others.
The land is extremely low and com
posed entirely of sand with only a few
bushes and small trees. In my opinion
it could not be seen from ship more
than sixteen miles.
On the western parts of the island
are some groups of cocoanut trees; the
whole number may be about 1000. On
the west point, or rather the point
which forms the southern entrance to
the lagoon, there is a group of those |
trees having the names of several |
whaleships carved on them. These |
ships must from time to time have sent |
their boats on shore to procure cocoa |
nuts. I had cocOanuts brought up from
the west and planted on the south side,
due south of the spot where we were
wrecked. Before leaving the island / |
perceived that seven had come up, and |
have no doubt that in time they will |
form an extensive grove. | hoped |
their being placed so near the east end
might be of some service, as they will
enable ships making the southeast end
to see the land at a considerably |
greater distance than it would be pos
sible to do if they were not there.
I could not find any fresh water, al /
though we dug in several places, and
in one instapce to a depth of nine
feet, but invariably came to salt water.
Had we not succeeded in saving a
quantity from the wreck, we must all
have persisted. For the first four
months of our residence we had only
two small showers; after that the rain
fell. in great abundance.
Had Too Many Chairs.
One of the reasons why the Pacific
Mail company has decided that no
steamer chairs, other than those pro-
vided by the steamship, viii be permit
ted on the decks of their steamers, is
that sometime ago at one of the Orien-
tai ports, passenger with a large fam
lily came aboard, each one having a big
wicker-work chair. They Uttered up
the decks Then at another port more
chairs came on and soon the decks
were crowded with chairs of all de-
scriptions. In order to give uniformity
in this respect the company decided to
allow only its own chairs on deck, a
fee of 81 for the entire trip being
charged Of course, persons travelling
from Oriental ports or even Hawaii
can take their own chairs along, free
of expense, but they win be carried
between decks and viii not be available
for deck use.
Caught Message to Lurline.
The wireless apparatus at Kahuku on
Monday night caught message being