The Washington herald., 1908-03-08
Islands Have Had Varied
and Curious Experiences.
ONCE REFUGE OF PIRATES
Used as P0st-Office by Whaling
Ships-Darwin Visited Group in
1s35-Fantastic and Unique AMI
mails in Home OF Tortoise-Lizards
that Sleep ON One Side.

SUI IDllcIHe IItuuelC1- JuSl Al present
II is their luck to have tagged the Pa
cihc feet with the tale OF Jeffs, ma
rooned American sailor from Norwalk.
Conn. Their unpronounceable name is
worrying cable operators and telegraph
editors throughout the civilized world
Their location itself, although insalu-
brious and remote, is ingeniously planned
10 add to their pre-eminenee IN the So
ciety of islands. As every one knows. the
equator runs right through Quito. the
capital OF Ecuador, and II was from the
success of Quito in the Biographies and
schooIrooms that the Galapagos Islands
took their cue. apparently. for they are
directly on the equator. some GOO miles
to the west OF South America and the
Ecuador coast
Bizarre in Appearance.
Moreover, they present a slngularly
bizarre and memorable appearance. look
ing like nothing else than bevy of vol
canoes out Tor stroll: and when one
thinks of il. a volcano, all by itself. must
make almost as queer figure in mid
! ocean as would barroom or a cantilever
bridge.
But the islands were not satisfied TO
sit by slothfully. relying upon their lOca-
ton and makeup, and in their short ex-
istence-they are many thousands OF
years younger than South America or
anything else thercabouts. the babies OF
the Pacific, in fact-they have turned out
natural history and a human history
which the oldest continent might look
upon with pride.
Their animals are fantastic and unique,
4
looking them over every little while since
the year 1855. when Charles Darwin. IN
the Beagle. nTst visited them and timed
the giant tortoise with a watch and pull
ed the tails OF the lizards to see them get
cross.
As for human beings. the old bucca-
neers used the islands as a headquarters
Then the South Sea whalers took TO drop
ping in at the group, which they used as
sort Of post-ofiice. And every now and
then a sailor would be cast away on the
Islands, TO be taken on later wearing,
perhaps. the regulation goatskin trousers
Tor whicn Robinson CrIsoe set the fash
ion and tell his story TO an admiring
world.
Seaman stranded There Now.
Now il IS Frederick Jens. OF Norwalk.
Conn, who is adding a page or so to
the story Of the Galapagos Islands. He
was q seaman on a Norwegian sailing
vessel. the reports have H. and when the
ship went down IN a storm the captain
with the crew put of in small boat
and made Indefatigable Island. one OF
the Galapagos group.
That particular island Is uninhabited.
but two others have a few settlers. and
in some way word OF the castaways was
l % %
Ecuador. A relief expedition was sent
out and all hands taken of except Jeffs
Just why Jeffs was left behind is not
made clear by the dispatches: the reports
state that he had separated from his
companions and was on the other side
of the island. but as the other side OF
the island could be only twenty-five miles
away, the explanation seems unsatis-
factory.
Our vice consul, Robert g. Jones'
learned OF the lone castaway and noti-
fed Washington. as well as a Mrs Clar-
idge. Of SOrwalk. said to be a sister OF
the seaman In due course Rear Admiral
Evans was ordered to send a supply boat
to hunt up Jeffs.
The earliest visits TO the islands were
by the buccaneers In the seventeenth cen
tury. These brethren Of the coast" as
they called themselves. branched out on
the Pacific in 1880. when the Caribbean
had become too limited a field. They
were in the height OF their power then
and cruised up and down the South
American coast. harrying the merchant
men and incidentally using the Galapagos
Islands as a convenient ambush. where
they could lie concealed TO pounce upon
the unsuspecting ships that sailed past.
Used as n Marine POst-OffIce.
Then after the fall Of the buccaneers
the whalers came to the fore. and the
equatorial islands became a harbo- OF
refuge. a headquarters. and a post-office
for the South Sea sailormen
The post-office was a matter of common
knowledge at sea as long ago as 1919,
when Aidshipman David Glasgow Far
ragut visited il on the cruise OF the Es-
sex in the War of 1912, and described It
in his diary as "a letter box nailed to
tree, In which whalers and other vessels
deposited records of their movements"
1t Is on Charles Island the southern
most of the group.
Since then the box has been succeeded
by a barrel. and only last May two let
ters addressed TO persons In the United
States were delivered after having mil
dewed in the barrel for two seasons. one
Odessa, Mo-. and another to a scientist
in Alameda. Cal.
OF the castawayS on the islands, one
was found by the Albatross expedition in
the last century He had been on one or
the smaller islands so long that he had
Host all notion of time, and his hair and
beard had grown to a great length
Darwin Found Skull.
mora tragic faIa ono -, t,,---
the account OF Darwin as to what he saw
on James Island in 1885 He was exam
ming a salt pond in an extinct crater:
The lake is quite circular and is
fringed with a border of bright green
succulent plants, the almost precipitous
walls of the crater are clothed with wood.
so that the scene was altogether both
picturesque and curious 4 few years
since the sailors belonging 70 a sealing
vessel murdered their captain in this
quiet spot, and we saw his skull lying
among the bushes"
Anybody who wants vivid description
of what these volcano islands are like
is referred to that chief source of curl
Gus and picturesque information about
out-of-the-way things-'Darwin's Jour-
nal Of the Voyage of H. NJ S. Beagle
Around the World" There is a chapter
devoted entirely 10 the Galapagos
Archipelago"
One would naturally expect to meet
queer living things in such a scene, and
the Islands easily come up 20 expecta-
tions In this respect. Huge tortoises. ard
lizards a yard long are the chief inhab-
itants. The former have been famous
for centuries and gave the islands their
name, galapago being Spanish for tor
toise.
Darwin's Account of TOrtOIses.