The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1934-05-18

weather and lack of supplies, forced
the party to sail away before the clue
could be investigated.
What had been the colonists fate?
The blazed sign was all that was
ever found of the Lost Colonies ex.
cept hasty marks of departure, burned
chests, rusty iron implements, house
hold effects, and books. Even in that
wilderness colonists of Shakespeare's
day could not exist without books.
Whatever the fate of the colonists,
either they or their early successors
left their Elizabethan English dialect,
manners, customs, and features in
this American byway.
AS the little mail boat hobs along
toward Roanoke island, the travellers
thoughts turn from the story of Viz.
ginia Dare and the first colonists to
another historic drama of the Banks.
In 1872, just across the channel from
Roanoke island, on the ocean sand
spits of Mays Head, the pilot boat Pa
triot, carrying Theodosia Burr Aston,
daughter Of Aaron Burr and wife of
Governor Aston of South Carolina,
ended it's last voyage. After the tragic
collapse of her fathers career and the
loss of her little son, the only hope
of the Burr family. Mrs. Aston was
in the depths Of despair. She set sail
from Georgetown, S. c., to join her
lonely father, and disappeared for
everi
Life on the Island.
A bit of life on Roanoke is revealed
by a recent visitor, a woman doctor.
An old midwife and nurse, the wild
ow of a life service man, was to care
for her temporarily in her ancient
cottage by the sound, where she lived
alone. Her name was Mis-" Bashi--
the mis-" an island designation for
mistress, and "Bashi," she said, "a
Bible name after Bathsheba, the wife
of Uriah but they call me Bashi.''
Surnames on the island do not de-
note the individual, for the families
in a hamlet are usually all members
of one or two clans.
"I'll wipe the dusties off you, your
cornbread is waitin', and your cake
all dressed up in coconut."
Mis- Bashi stirred about the spa
cious old brick fireplace, with its
crane and firedogs. and brought from
the Goals an old four-legged skillet in
which she had baked delicious corn
bread. Lying on the hearth was
mammoth bushy-tailed, long-haired cat,
one of the numerous beautiful de-
scendants of an island Maltese and
brown, bushy-tailed Norwegian cat
that had been the sole survivor Of a
wreck.
In a worn slab-wood rocker in which
the old woman had rocked her six
children the doctor rested after din
ner and listened to her tale of re-
markable life history.
What she learned entities Mis- Bashi
to a place in the annals of medical
history. The old nurse belonged to
the islands remnant. Her blood, her
sterling character, and her beautiful,
broad dialect were heritages of the
old Devonshire castaway. She was
comely and agile, her visage one of
strength and thought
OF only five weeks "schoolin'," she
had never learned to read. but had
been taught to work indoors and out
and to spin. At sixteen "out" (old)
she married and at twenty-one "out,"
in a far life service station hamlet,
she undertook her first obstetrical
case.
doctor, I knew nothin' of it; but
Mehaley read me a doctor book, and
the moon was comm to full, so the
baby would be thrifty. One born in
the dark of the moon is not"
Mis- BashPs Nursing.
On her little plantation, in pine
woods by the sound, though widowed
later, she cared for psychiatric
mother, raised her own brood and her
mothers and her brothers children,
cared for cows. pigs, and gardens.
Then for 45 years she ministered to
all the sick of the region, local doc
tor coming only at rare intervals.
Her sand pony Napoleon carried
her in a two-wheeled cart through
woods and sand and water. in gale or
sunshine, to her patients. Often afoot
she swung with her Viking stride down
beaches or through the woods She
was smart, exact, and knowing, though
she signed by mark, and she was
known as 'couthy" (capable) wom-
an. Her dignity of bearing and cour-
tesy were exquisite. Thus she fell
into the role that nature cast for her.
Months later the doctor realized
how the personality of this island
woman, linked with touch Of
science, prevented morbid results from
household conditions. She estab-
lished her own art of medicine and
| n worked