THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS.

Western Star, Issue 1055, 12 June 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS.

Certain diplomatic events (says the London correspondent "of the Manchester Guardian) have 4rawn-atten? tion to one of the most,authentic cases of the Eobinson Crusoe kind known. In 1825 Captain Eoss, a Scotchman, visited the Cocos-Keeling Islands, an archipelago of coral.forand tout •'■slightly, raised; above the level of the'.sea,' far out in the Indian Ocean, aud till then. unvisited by Europeans.;, Two yearsvla.ter,,he settled there .premarieptly. He succeeded in inducing some Malays from Java and the Straits Settlements to join him/arid'help'/tb cultivate 'the soil* the prddupe being ; ;sent annii^J^ ( r |to Batavia.'and singaporej whence necessaries were produced in exchange. Captain 'Eons' ruled ■ iriu a patriarchal fashion. ; Iri'' 1854 /he ;died, j; aridt'-'was succeeded by his; son, ls.i $ E;' Ohenies Eoss, who was educated at the Glasgow university. Inlßs7ifcbei,lslandSowere formally, , the British' ! Goy6rnmMt'''^rid' J plkced | under the Cdlbnyef Ceylon. Lately IMr Eoss has .i tafeen;, ,a^^m if tffe I mannercjn: whichbislanda; are«being picked up by • various European nafeioris and to.fi, -applied .Government for sdme title connrmirig him in the poss^ssion^of;,the gLiiands. An officer was in despatched | fronr Singapore in & British wan .vessel I for this Arid a,l?o J ,|;o ; , s transfer j the. islands. .tOiiTtte jurisdiction of that of -■ theniStraits j Settlemerits.''' i The°orily : di'awb 1 acB: ; '''lo a settlemen!b,,,whicli a beautiful climate arid perpetual' sunshine isia terrestrial paradise is that 1 typhoons at intervals sweep; ovßr the ', islands'' wittf' a^fa jl 8,62, srid; ! [weM ated by these scourges, biit they are in a flourishing condition.