CHAPTER V 



HISTOEY OF THE ATOLL FROM 1871 



Of the nine cliilclren born to Ross Secundiis, seven were sons : 

 George, Charles, Edwin, Alfred, Alexander, Andrew, and John ; 

 and two were daughters : Isabella and Eliza. 



George Clunies-Ross, the eldest child, was born in 1842, 

 and at the age of 30 he was called upon to take charge of 

 the islands, and guide the destinies of the colony after the 

 death of his father. He had not been very many years in the 

 islands with his father before he was called upon to take sole 

 charge, for he only left Scotland and his studies in engineering 

 to come to the settlement and render assistance in repairing 

 the great destruction wrought in the atoll by the cyclone of 

 1862. 



George Clunies-Ross — Ross Tertius — was educated at Eliza- 

 beth College in Guernsey, and afterwards he proceeded to 

 Glasgow, where he took up, with great success, a course of engi- 

 neering. This advantage of a practical Scottish education he 

 shared with all his six brothers, for it had been the wise decision 

 of his father to send all his boys to Edinburgh or to St. Andrews. 

 The advantage Ross Tertius received, and that has stood him 

 in such good stead, he has in his turn handed on, and all his 

 four sons have been to Scotland for their education, Dollar 

 and Edinburgh having known most of them. 



Ross Tertius came to the atoll, a young man of the most 

 energetic nature and in the most active period of his life, and 

 very soon it was apparent in the islands that in him the spirit 

 of Ross Primus, with all his courage and fortitude, was back 

 again to rule and guide the colony. 



From the study of books and machinery he passed to the 

 study of the ruling of natives, and no better student ever 



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