An extraordinary story of the sea comes from America. On
September 11th, an old gentleman residing at Brooklyn received a letter from Ojee, one of the islands of the South Sea, hitherto supposed to be uninhabited, written by a certain Captain Green, thought to have been ship- wrecked in 1858 in a ship called the Confederation.' The letter, which was sent by a whaling barque, stated that the Confederation' had foundered at sea, but that Captain Green and the crew of sixteen, including two women, had taken to the boats, and landed. on the island of Ojee. There being abundance of game, filth, fruit, and water on the island, the castaways did well. In July, 1859, a ship was seen, and nine of the men tried to reach her in a boat, but the weather being stormy, the boat was lost. The women became the wives of two of the men, and when the letter was written the population was twelve, though there had been several deaths. They were all happy and contented. During the thirty years they only communicated with three vessels. The story is a strange one, and suggests many questions, such as why did they not get taken off by one of the earlier ships communicated with, or at least send word by them. Perhaps, however, they were too contented to desire a change. But whether the story is true or not, there is no doubt that the. Pacific still contains plenty of strange things. For instance, there is still & vast region of the ocean to the north-west of the trade routes from San Francisco to Sydney and Auckland which has been but imperfectly explored. Suppose it should contain an island as big as the Isle of Wight, peopled by a race sprung from white castaways of the last generation, who have been steadily forgetting their old civilisation and developing a new one. What an opportunity for Mr. Herbert Spencer and sociologists !
Previous page
