/A' 'IHM CVCOS'KEELJA'O I:ilA^'^/iS. 



15 



islands. Direct application was then made by Ross to King 

 William to proclaim the atoll English territory, but without 

 success. Hare, after several years of a most worthless sort 

 of existence, took his departure for Singapore, where it is said 

 be shortly after died. 



Mr. Darwin's visit took place not very long after Hare's 

 departure, and just after the change of the settlement from 

 South-Eastern to ^few Selima Island and his report as to the 

 comfortable and flourishing stAte of the yoiing colony at that 

 time is not very faTonrable. It was always a subject of keen 

 regret to Mr. Ross, that on ^Ir. Darwin's visit, in 1836, he 

 was not at home* Mr» Leisk, who was in charge, showed Mr. 

 Danvin over the place, and gave him a great deal of infor- 

 mation, but though given in good faith, much of it Wi^s not 

 quite accurate. After a few years of peaceful and imdisturbed 

 possession of the atoll, the whole of which Mr. Ross then laid 

 claim to, it attained to a most prosperous condition j and 

 itH ships became well known throughout the Archipelago, 

 Boss himself being styled the King of the Cocos Islands. 

 Two villages were erected, one for the hired coolies, and the 

 other, a little way distant, for the Europeans and those who 

 threw in their lot with the new colony and were to share its 

 fortunes — the true Cocos colonists. This state of jtrosperity 

 was due mainly to the efforts of his eldest son— the father 

 devoting the closing years of his life chieBy to study.* Their 

 trade prospered and afforded a handsome annual balance 

 for many years, and altogether life seems to have been very 

 plcjisant save for one element, the hired population. 



The only coolies who could bo got to engage to leave Java for 

 a term of years, were criminals who had served their time in the 

 chain-gangs of Batavia, and as they far outnumbered the Euro- 

 peans and colonists, and were capable of any atrocity, they were 

 a constant source of clanger, and a heavy anxiety to those in 

 charge. Every night a strongly armed patrol of true Cocos 

 people had to mount guard from sunset to sunrise, and still 

 continues to do so, with military regularity and rigour, the 

 watches being struck, as on ship board, all through the night . 



♦ By a curious mistake in the Raval Swiety*s Catalogue of Scientific 

 Piiiwrs, Mr. J. C. Kosa^s cri deism of Mr, Darwin's * Coral Ite^fs' is attributed 

 to J. C. Ross, the Arctic explorer. 



