ON A LONELY ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19957, 28 May 1928, Page 6

ON A LONELY ISLAND.

OTTLE TRISTAN DA CTJNHA CANADIAN STEAMER'S CALL. FIRST FOR ELEVEN MONTHS. FEAR OF ANOTHER BIG WAR. [FROM OUB OWN CORHESPONEENT.I TORONTO. April 21. Not for eleven months had the 151 inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha, the little South Atlantic island described as the lo:neliest inhabited spot in the seven seas, sighted a ship. Then one morning, a little over a month ago, a ship's whistle sounded through the fog. It was the steamer Empress of France, >vhich, in the course of a South America-Africa tour, was able by a short diversion from its course to carry supplies and donations from Montreal to the little community that insists on carrying on an independent existence in its own way. Interesting particulars of the ship's call lire cont&ined in ft letter from. Miss Eleanor Suckling, of Toronto, a passenger, "I had no idea of Tristan," she writes, "It is 1400 miles from Capetown and 1000 mijes from St. Helena. It is 32 miles around. The volcanic peak in the centre is 7196 ft. high. On the northwest corner is a plateau one mile wide at the shore, nine miles long and a hundred feet above the sea. In other places the cliffs rise straight up from 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. high. There are other landingplaces around the island, but none as good as this plateau, where the settlement is. An Excited Populace. "There are 33 houses and 33 families, comprising 151 people altogether. A church and a school are being built. They have 250 sheep now, which is the most they have ever had, and about 50 cattle, 200 geese, and some chickens, many donkeys, bullocks and goats. They grow potatoes and have a few apple trees, but there is scarcely anything else so far as trees are concerned except juniper bushes on the sides of the hills. Because of this lack of wood they depend entirely on driftwood for their buildings, furniture and fuel. Eleven nonths, they told us, was the longest tuna on record in which no ships have been seen. They thought there had been another big war. "We blew our siren one mile from shore about 6.45 a.m. and the people rowed out in their home-made boats constructed of wooden ribs and slat bottoms covered with canvas. They ware so excited that they almost capsized their boats trying to come aboard all at oncei. There were about 20 men in the three boats that came out. They came on board ji st down the hall from my cabin and cane past on their way up on deck. They h ave white, woollen socks which the women knit from the cheep's wool. "When I heard the uv n's voices and the stocking feet go thudding past, I knew we had arrived at Tristan. Just then some more came running and stumbled over the bulkhead at my door. One of them stopped andHhook hands and said' "Good morning, God bless you!' and then ran on. They were so excited over our coming that they were acting just like children. They speak quite good English, but with a peculiar accent and intonation and have high-pitched voices. Womun'a Old-fashioned Attire. 4, The people on the island are very mixed in race, being English, Irish, Scottish, Negro and Italian. Fair children are considered to be something about which to be very proud, but nearly all of them have curly hair. The men who came on bo«xd were given their breakfast, a hair-cut and a shave, and all the passengers asked them questions and showed them the ship. Soon after breakfast the crew lowered three of the lifeboats and commenced loading in the things that were on board for the island. They were all in small boxes. "When the women on shore saw the boats coming in they hurried down to the landing-place. Some of them wer>J carrying children. They wear very oldfashioned dresses, all in white, coming right down to the ground, with a brightcoloured ribbon for a sash tied tightly around the waist, Nearly all are buttoned up the back and have large safety pins in the neck. They wear coloured silk handkerchief or scarves over their heads and the children, even the babies, are dressed just like the older women, except for the head scarf. Anriuls of Silts. "The island men came back from the shore with the women and children. I think it is the first time a captain has aver let the women come on board his ship. There were 49 women and children. Some of the babies are quite pretty with their curls. The prettiest one of them all was a little girl who was called Asturia because she was born the night before the Asturia arrived two years ago. The women, when they came on board, were shown all over the ship by the passengers. We gave the children toys and clothes and then they had their lunch and went back to shore with their arms actually filled."