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Show The Loneliest British Possession. The island of Tristan da Cunha, in the Atlantic, is inhabited by a colony of women. It is true there aro men there, but compared with the number of women, they hardly count. The nearest point to Tristan da Cunha is St. Helena, 1,300 miles away. A n d St. Hole n a is responsible for the fact that Tristan is populated. YVhile Napoleon was a prisoner on St Helena, the British Government maintained a garrison on Tristan. Vhen Napoleon died, the reason for garrisoning this island ceased, and the soldiers withdrew all except ex-cept Corporal william Glass, his family, and two privates. The privates married Glass's daughters. daugh-ters. That was eighty years ago, and the present population is descended from these people, for the most part. An occasional castaway has swelled the population, popula-tion, and there is a tradition that a I prison brig stopped there a matter of half a century ago, and left several women convicts. In 18Q7 . there were thirty-two men on tho island, and the women only outnumbered them by a dozen or so. But one night half the male population secretly sailed away in the only boat, and were never heard of again. The Lst news from the island was brought by the Australian ship Dartford, which reports that the islanders are comparatively contented, and that the male inhabitants in-habitants number less than one dozen, though the.' population numbers altogether about' 100 souls. I m m m |