THE LOST WOMAN OF SAN NICOLAS 319 



ing to Nidever, when any one went to see her. So 

 much of a curiosity was the "Lost Woman" that 

 Captain Nidever was offered a large sum to let her 

 become part of a show. But the old Captain refused; 

 he purposed that she should be happy the remainder 

 of her life, and to his credit, be it said, she was. He 

 fed and clothed her. 



They estimated that she was about forty-five years 

 of age when they found her. The new food she was 

 obliged to eat at Santa Barbara did not agree with 

 her, and in about six weeks she was taken sick, and 

 died. Captain Nidever gave the padres her dresses 

 of bird skins, her awls, wooden knife, lines, and grass 

 bottles; the bird skin dresses were sent to the Pope 

 with an account of her life. 



The life of Alexander Selkirk was not so pathetic as 

 that of this woman. Robinson Crusoe's island was 

 rich in the bounties of nature, had trees and verdure; 

 but twenty years on wind-swept San Nicolas takes 

 one into the depths of tragedy. 



On the east end of San Nicolas I found on my first 

 visit a number of whale ribs thrust into the sand, 

 which may have been left there by any of the col- 

 lectors who visited the island since the time of Juana 

 Maria. As I roamed along the shore, which was 

 carved into extraordinary shapes by the wind, I could 

 not divest my mind of the pathetic picture of this lone 

 woman on San Nicolas; and as the wind howled and 

 hissed through the rigging at night I could understand 

 how the lone Basque herder believed that it was the 

 protesting voices of the dead, of men murdered by 

 warring men from the north, of women deserted and 

 forlorn. 



