CHAPTER II 



THE ORIGIN OF THE CLUNIES-ROSS FAMILY 



THEmore recent history of the atoll tells thestoryof three genera- 

 tions of the Clunies-Ross family; and it is a record of remarkable 

 human enterprise carried out in strange ways and in a strange 

 place, by men of no ordinary stamp of mind or individuality. 



For eighty years some member of the Clunies-Ross family 

 — men standing out among their fellow men — has with the 

 most wonderful endurance and pluck, and with a singular mix- 

 ture of persistence and tact, ruled and fathered the people, and 

 developed his island kingdom. 



Although this little history includes but three generations, 

 and comprises but eighty years, yet it is instructive of history 

 in general, for much of the early doings of the family are noAv 

 mere legend ; much is forgotten, and much more is guessed at ; 

 and many are the conflicting tales that are at present current 

 concerning the birth of the colony and its younger days. 



The history of the Ross family is one of peculiar interest, 

 and in variously distorted forms, fragments of it have on 

 several occasions appeared in print. Each representative of 

 the Straits Government who has come upon the annual visit to 

 the islands has given some outlines of the life of the present 

 proprietor — and no more picturesque figure could tempt the 

 pen ; yet of the early history of the famil}^ there is but little 

 that has been published that can claim any real title to accuracy. 



Ross Primus was a remarkable man, and every page of his 

 story marks him out as one to whom a strange fascination 

 belongs ; as an example of those strong men whose lives are 

 naturally interwoven with romance, and one to whom out- 

 landish enterprise was his commonplace, and adventure his 

 destiny. 



