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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1903)
By William Thorp The Queer Cayman Islanders IIIAT splendid looking men!" ex w claimed an American tourist, aj he watched hulf a dozen sailor jQj'Cl unloading turtles from a small t i 'l schooner anchored in the harbor Of Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Not one of them was less than six feet tall, and two were verltul.li giants. Well built, tanned by the tropical sun, brawny, handsome, frank of countenance and agile as cats, they looked the popular ideal of the sailor. In contrast with the black loaf rs on tho wharf and the undersized, pasty faced Creole clerk who was tallying their Cargo, they seemed like gods among men, "Don't you know who they are?" raid a Jamaican friend to tho tourist. "They ure Cayman Islanders, No wonder you admlra them. I suppose that, physically and mor ally, they are about tho Uncut race of men In tho world." The C'aymanlans, tucked away and Iso lated from the rest of the world on tiny Islands In the Caribbean sea, bet we. n Ja maica and Cuba, have succeeded In estab lishing that Ideal commonwealth of which philosophers and statesmen have drranvd. Crime, immorality and disease are unknown among them; they hnve Just as much civili sation as is good for them, and no more; . and they hold fast to primitive ideas of duty and religion, and practice the old fashioned virtues of a bygone nge. The Cayman Islands are three In number -Grand Cayman, Utile Cayman and Cay-, nan Brae. On the first over a thousand people dwell and they have even a couple Of small towns, called Georgetown and Sodden Town. On the second there are about a hundred residents, and on tho third, a rugged, barren rock jutting shady out of the placid blue Surface of the Carib bean, only a couple of families dwell. Unlike the other islands of the West In dies, they are inhabited mainly by white people. There are no negroes in tho mailer Caymans, and only a small mi nority of them In Grand Cayman, and these recent arrivals. The original set tlers were some of Cromwell's "Ironsides," and the manners and virtues of that stern breed of men survive In their descendants to this day. When Cromwell had England and Europe andcr his heel, he sent out an expedition , which captured Jamaica from the Spaniards. Some of the men In that ex pedition were veterans of Naseby and Mar ton Moor, and they were n iturally ad vanced to the highest positions in the new colony, nut when Charles II came to 1 Is wn again, these men found the tiineo out of Joint. They were deprived of their of fices, and harshly treated by the royalist authorities. Unwilling to "bow the knoo to Bool," they sold their possessions, bought a ship and sailed away to colonlzo the Caymans and llvo as they pleased, un hindered by kings or governors. They were another shipload of I'ilgrlm Fathers. The Caymans wero desert islands, oc casionally used by buccaneers for relit ting and provisioning their ships. The "Iron aides" soon made short work of those (entry, and hud the islands to themselves. They established a patriarchal form of Sj-overnment, tilled the ground, built houses and Villages and sailed tho neighboring nil In ships of their own construction. They hoisted the British (lag, but prac tically they wore an independent people. Their descendants today are nominally t V V ii M p. .. . ; f mr"r- .. . . , ... . . i S : J ,t. T' i .;.;..'.''...-.-"--..'. 'v ;'. ' ' . - ..'" ' -.'.' : ,; ' - - -'. subject to the governor of Jamaica, but they make their own laws and govern them selves through elected overseers and ves-' trymen an old parochial form of govern ment which prevailed in England when the original colonists left that country. All tho other colonies In the West Indies are autocratically ruled by officials sent out from England, but the Caymonlans are as Independent as the Canadians or the Aus tralians. They are Englishmen of the , sturdiest type, even if they have been Isolated on tropical islets for a few hun dred years, and they would not stand for any other kind of government. Just as they have kept the old English methods of government, so they have kept the old English customs and manners. Even the women dre-58 like the Furltin mnids of Oliver Cromwell's time. That U because they never 'e a foreign worn in or a fafhl n paper. Daughters have dresse.l like their rmthers for generations. They have had no other way, and, even if they had, a new-fangled Idea would have been frowned upon as a snare of the Evil On The spirit of 8mite-Them-lIip-and-Th!gh Tompkins and his fellows still pervades the little commonwealth, but It has its advantages. On the other West Indian islands, from half to two-thirds of the children are born out of wedlock, . and half the population steals the other half's crop. On the Caymans, the morals are of the best, and neither theft nor any U: BUil'l'INa TLfRfESri5K Xfl OCEAN'LIMEn. LANDING TURTLE AT KINGSTON, JAMAICA. other crime is practiced. There Is not a single policeman In the archipelago, and no need for one. "What would you people do to one of your number if he or she went wrong?" a patriarchal Cayman islander was once asked. "Verily," he replied, in tho slow, grave archaic speech of his people, "the thought hath never been present with me. In my life of more than threescore years, the Iord hath preserved ua from that calamity. I knew not what we would do. But such an one could not live among us there after." "Do ships often call here and brlns you news f the outside world?" he was askod. . "No," he replied. "Once In three or f iur years a British warship comes hither, bringing the governor of Jamaica on a tour of inspection. In my life I have seen but three others. "There was a Brl.lsh steamer many years ago which came here for supplies, being out of her course and overdue. Soon after wards a timber schooner, going to Jam ilea, was blown hither by a hurricane. Tho third was an American steam yacht, a few years ago. The owner was rich and great in his own country, so they told in?, but he liked our simple ways, and stayed among us for many months." But if Caymanlans do not get many vis itors, they do a lot of visiting themselves. a 'iVv t h- 4 One of their principal Industries Is ship building, In which they are experts. Their schooners are the stanchest and swiftest in the Caribbean sea, and there are n; hardier or more fearless sailors than ther. Shippers in all the ports of the West 1.. dies and the Spanish main are eager to give them charters. They usually work for themselves, how ever, catching turtles on the Central An er Ican coast. They are the turtle flshers-in-chlof to the world. The green turtle sou esteemed by the aldermen of London nil by the patrons of the best restaurants r all the cities of the United States is placed upon the table through the energy and dic ing of these simple, plain-living Cayman lans. Themselves the least luxurious o' people, they provide the world with oni of Its greatest luxuries. Turtle fishing la no easy task. Squal a and hurricanes are frequent in the Cant bean, and many a Cayman sailor hai ic lshed with his schooner, or lingered mis erably In an open boat under the blazing tropical sky until he died of hunger ml thirst. Innumerable coral reefs and win -bars add to the danger of navigation, i s pcclally along the Nicaraguan coast, where the turtles are caught as they bask upo.i the beach. The Nlcaraguans are another perl. They strongly object to the Caymani u s catching turtles on their territory, and trv to mete out to them the punishment awarded to real poachers In Siheilitt waters. The Nicaraguan and British fov ernmcnts are always nagging at one an other on the subject, and at the present moment they are engaged In a more than usually bitter controversy over It. But. the Caymanlans can generally take good care of themselves. Seldom a month passes without their having a tight on the beach with Nicaraguan officials and s '1 diers. Nino times out of ten tho Cayman lans win the battle and carry oft tlu-ir turtles in triumph to their schooner, leav ing half a dozen Nlcaraguans stunned and senseless on the sand. Tho Nicaraguan government does not want to have any Caymanlans killed In these affrays, lest the British government should take serious offense; and the soldiers do not, therefore, use their rides. They try to arrest tho Caymanlans, whose oars and boat stretchers are more than a match for clubbed guns. Lately the Nlcaraguans have given up their attempts to suppress the fishery, and row they are trying to collect a tax on ach turtle caught. But the Caymanlans send the tax collectors limping home with bruised shins and broken heads. After the turtles have been fought for and won, they are taken to Jamaica by the schooners and sold to merchants there, who ship them in ocean liners to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and London. With the money obtained by the sale of the turtles, the Caymanlans buy flour, rice, cloth, pork and other supplies for their families and neighbors at home. Until a few years ago they never used money, but transacted all their business by barter. The growth of their turtle fishery com pelled them at last to adopt a currency. Cayman postage stamps have only been used for a year or two, and they are much prized by collectors. The malls a new In stitutionare carried at Irregular tntOTMsB fey. the turtle schooners.