30 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



great part of the administration of the settlement passed into 

 the hands of this strenuous young man. 



During these years of which we have no detailed account, 

 Ross Secundus was engaged in fostering the industries of the 

 colony, and in perfecting the code of island laws compiled by 

 his father. 



The' legal code, which has been drafted by three generations 

 of the Clunies-Ross family, is a matter for the contemplation of 

 the modern jurist : for it has stood the stress of many crises, 

 it has risen triumphant to meet several curious emergencies, 

 and has proved equal to all the strains imposed upon it. In 

 the framing of these laws Ross Secundus took delight, and 

 with his son, a man of strong and vigorous policy, to act with 

 him and carry on the work of the islands, he passed in a great 

 measure from the active administration of the colony into a 

 position of passive headship. 



As well as a special aptitude in the details of legal enact- 

 ments, Ross Secundus had a great inclination for the practice 

 of medicine, and he became the physician of the islands. He 

 had, of course, no medical training, but he was an ardent 

 practitioner of such simple methods as were requisite for the 

 combating of the sicknesses of coral isla,nd life, and the 

 hygienic welfare of his people was his first care. Some extra- 

 ordinary cures are credited to him, and he enjoyed a very 

 exalted reputation among the people as a clever doctor and a 

 marvellous healer. 



For all this, and for his patient researches into the natural 

 history of the islands, he received the native title of T%ian- 

 pandai, or " the learned one," and to this day a cowry shell, in 

 whose finding he took special delight, is called sipiit tuan, (the 

 master's shell) by the natives. 



There can be no doubt that his philosophic bent of mind 

 has caused but scant justice to be done to his character by 

 those who have from time to time told the island story. He 

 has been pictured by his biographers as a dreamer, and one to 

 whom the practical details of life were of so little concern 

 that he passed his days in idle speculation, to the detriment of 



