AV THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 17 



k 



Fremantle, for the island intended to be annexed was one of 

 the same name somewhere in the Andaman group! It is 

 gratifying, however, to know that the islands are after all 

 really British territory, for I myself carried down a copy of 

 the Proclamation in the Ceylo}i Gazette of NovemLer 1878, by 

 which the Cocos-Keeling Islands were annexed to the Govern- 

 ment of Ceylon, "to prevent any foreign power stepping in 

 and taking possession of them, for the purpose of settlement, 

 or for a coaling station,'' as Eussian agents, it was reported, had 

 been examining the locality with sinister views. 



The islands being of extreme salubrity, the true Keeling 

 population, now mostly of mixed blood, had rapidly increased, 

 and they enjoyed unbroken prosperity till J 862, when a 

 cyclone in a few hours entirely wrecked their homes. The 

 present proprietor, the third in succession, then a student 

 of engineering in Glasgow^, was hurriedly summoned to aid 

 his father in the restoration of the islands, a task he was 

 suddenly left alone to accomplish, w^hen quite a young man, 

 by the death of his parent. Abandoning all the mure 

 ambitious plans of his life, he gave himself up to the new 

 position which he had been so unexpectedly called to fill, and 

 with the warmest heartiness threw himself into all the interests 

 of the islanders- He devised and has carried out liberal plans 

 for their improvement, and for the advancement of those com- 

 mitted to his charge. Marrvini? a Cocos-born wife, who shared 

 his ideas and interests, tliey became the parents of the people 

 rather than their masters and rulers. 



As rapidly as possible he rid himself of the chain-gang men, 

 and being able, by a change in the laws at Batavia, to obtain 

 coolies of the non-criminal class, he engaged only those of 



the best character. He cleared off the remaining forest and 

 planted the ground with palms. Success attended his efforts. 

 At length he brought into the Indian Ocean the new sounds 

 of the puffing of steam mills, the whirring of lathes and saws, 

 and the clang of the anvil. The general education of the 

 children has b:;en under a younger brother of >Ir. Eoss's, 

 educated in a Scottish university. Every Cocos man has had, 

 besides performing his ordinary duties of gathering nuts 

 and preparing oil—which, exchanged in Batavia, returns as 

 gain, or the food which they cannot produce within their o^Tn 



