26 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



estimate the hardihood of the man who took his family and 

 " hutted " them in this remarkably isolated spot. His writings 

 show him to have been of a philosophic turn of mind, and 

 quaint reflections come into all the accounts of his extra- 

 ordinary endeavours ; yet the philosopher was a man of hard 

 business capacity and of daring activity. 



He ruled the scum of sailor-men and governed a staff of 

 coolies mostly recruited from, convict gangs ; and he carried 

 on the whole enterprise without the shedding of blood in a place 

 Avhere there was no appeal to authority save that which he 

 Avielded. 



Piety is evident all through his journal, but it is a piety 

 that becomes at times rudely interrupted by threats of violent 

 justice to wrongdoers and speculations upon the successes of 

 his enterprises. He was a man with a firmly settled belief in 

 Divine justice ; but, situated as he was in an isolated coral 

 reef seven hundred miles from land, he by no means underrated 

 his ability to be its successful instrument. 



The story of Ross Primus is one that should not lightly be 

 forgotten, for although his whole efforts were spent in a small 

 and out-of-the-way corner of the world, he was of the stamp 

 of the real pioneer and a man in every way remarkable. 



