CHAPTER IV 



THE HISTORY OF THE ATOLL, 1854-1871 



When the pioneer was dead, the rule of tlie islands descended 

 to his eldest son, John George Clunies-Ross, who had for 

 many years assisted his father in the work of administration, 

 and afforded him the leisure to indulge his literary tastes. 

 John George Clunies-Ross was one of the children who, 

 with Elizabeth their mother, had been " hutted " on the 

 islands in 1827 ; and in the islands he remained through- 

 out his youth and early manhood. He was born in London, 

 and was christened at Stepney, and he was but a small 

 child Avhen his father set about his enterprise of making a 

 settlement upon the islands which he was afterwards to govern. 

 His education had been received on the atoll at the hands of 

 his mother and father, assisted by the Scotch mate Leisk ; 

 and although the foundations of his schooling would appear to 

 have been slight, he was a man of remarkable aptitude for 

 learning, and devoted the greater part of his life to study. 



Of Ross Secundus there is no such vivid picture as that 

 left behind b}^ his father or that presented by his son, and of 

 his governorship there is no clear or detailed record. 



He appears to have been a philosophic man — a good 

 observer and a true lover of nature — and somewhat of an 

 idealist. In manner he was quiet and very reserved, and 

 much given to a habit of silence. 



In 1859, four years after his taking over the control of the 

 settlement, he visited his native England, and this one brief 

 journey home was the only occasion upon which he ever 

 returned to the larger world ; for the rest of his life was spent 

 in his own atoll, and in expeditions among the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago. 



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