THE ISLE OF HORROR.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2668, 18 December 1928, Page 3

THE ISLE OF HORROR.

Tilburn Island, 17 miles away from the Mexican State of Sonora, in the Gulf of California, has been known for many years, as an island of horror. Now its savage inhabitants are nearing the extinction point. The Indians are reputed to be cannibals, and the few whites, or members of other tribes, who visited the island, are not known to have left it again. It is surmised that they were cooked and eaten, in just the same way as the Maoris used to treat their visitors a century ago. Col. C. J. Velasde, a native Mexican authority on Indian lore, states that for the last four centuries they have been continually at war, with, the result that they are now only 250 survivals, of whom only 50 males have reached the adult stage. Their chief characteristic is that they are completely isolated in contact, thought, and custom, and consequently they have a hereditary hatred of all other humans. Their closest neighbours regard them as belonging to another world. For hundreds of years they have repulsed all would-be invaders, including the Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans. Like the Red Indian their favourite method of attack is the ambush, and those who have fought against them declare that they fight with tooth and nail, and these weapons are mOre to be feared than their poisoned arrows, clubs, and spears. Upon rare occasions, they have visited the Sonorans and bartered for blankets (called “Sarapes”) with gold dust. While one cannot quite see the animals have a particular partiality towards blankets, it is said that the Seris pride themselves upon being like the animals thhey worship, and among their numerous deities are the pelican and turtle, and the sun and moon. The unforgiveable sin on the island, is a marriage to a member of another tribe.