Salt Lake Telegram | 1928-12-07 | Page 28 | A Washington Bystander

I. I Ia a J JA A WASHINGTON VA NOTON BYSTANDER F II J By KIRKE I. I L. L SIMPSON W WASHINGTON When WASHINGTON When f if ever ever ever- the Nicaraguan canal is built and the United States establishes a a apro protective protective pro pro- naval base off oft the Mosquito coast on Great or Little Corn Island personnel assigned to that sla station will find a people still talking the English of the days of Good Queen Bess They are lineal descendants of the British buccaneers who once made of mark on the fleets of Spain lumbering up from the tho south to beat their slow way through Yucatan Strait and so into intI the open seas and ho eastward for Spain The two Corn islands some 60 miles nilles off the Nicaraguan coast were vete the extreme southwesterly outpost of the curious chain of buccaneer buccaneer buc buc- caneer cancer settlements flanking both sides of sea approach to the bottle bottleneck bottleneck bottleneck neck of the strait itself tseH BUCCANEER INHERITANCE Captain Sherby Hopkins whose roving spirit led him to remote corners corners corners cor cor- ners before he ho settled down wn to tho the peaceful business o of at a Washington law office has been een all along these those island remainders of the thc halcyon days of tho Spanish Main i He is authority for the statement that Elizabethan English still embellished embel with seventeenth century idioms is the the prevailing tongue among muong th the inhabitants white or 01 na- na Tho 1110 island islan populations off the thc beaten highways of ot travel for nearly near near- I ly 13 three centuries have known only slow change In custom or manner of I life They are a a. sea keeping people pee peo pIe famed for tl their il If skill in n navigating navigating navigating navi navi- gating the swift schooners they build DESCENDANTS REFORMED Incidentally the name buCcaneer buccaneer buCca bucca neer acer now redolent with deeds of blood and daring on tho high seas synonymous with piracy and the black flag flown by tho the brethren of the coast had no such sinister background when the Spaniards breathed it in fear as they sought safe passage through this bone of terror In the original Spanish it was vas meaning simply Wild tild hog hunters That was tile the occupation of the wandering sons of old England who first settled the is is- is lands Then came the Spanish Anglo-Spanish clash dash that set them loose to rove love the narrow southern seas in search of or treasure laden galleons the swift mobilizing stinging mo mosquitoes of the tho Spanish Main Nowadays their descendants aregood aregood are good Methodists having be ben been n converted converted con eon by missionary efforts more than a century ago Captain Hopkins hopkins Hop Hop- l kins Insists that they held prayer meetings every night and he adds They are dry too too really really dry not just legislatively speaking They ont dont allow liquor on the islands On occasion they have reverted to type The captain tells of a time when a Honduran 1 official touched at one of the islands and made off with a white girl stolen from the beach The fishermen n mobilized for forwar forwar forwar war as s lad had their forefathers dashing dash ing lug out but butin ut in swift to o overtake overtake overtake over over- take the government cutter and string the offending official to his own signal halyards It was thus he sailed back to the mainland No Captain Hopkins says say nobody nobody nobody no body troubles those people very much