A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 118: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. 115 athletics and the training of the senses a religious duty, whereby it came to pass that his descendants were dis- tinguished by exceptional bodily strength, litheness of limb, acuteness of hearing, and keennessof vision. Ow- ing to their descent from two European ancestors, more- over (though Fane’s children had necessarily intermar- ried with Caribs and half-breeds), they were whiter and less piebald than the other families of mixed blood, and formed a true aristocracy, not by right of birth merely, but by virtue of their physical and moral superiority, which was probably the end Fane had in view. He called his government a commonwealth, and him- self its ‘‘ Protector” (from which I infer that he was an admirer of Oliver Cromwell); but in reality it was a pa- ternal despotism of a very uncompromising sort. The ruling body was ostensibly a Council of Nine, presided over by the Protector, and nominated by himself; and though they were at liberty to offer suggestions and make proposals, he was under no obligation either to adopt the one or accept the other. The office of protector was made hereditary. in Fane’s own family; but on the strictest principle of primogeni- ture—in other words, the first-born child was to succeed, whatever might be its sex. Sons and daughters were placed on a perfect equality. ‘The Council of Nine had, however, a right to veto, and it was about the only right they possessed. In the event of two thirds of their num- ber declaring that, in their opinion, the heir or heiress was physically or mentally unfit, or morally unworthy to rule, he or she would have to stand aside in favor of the next child in the line of succession. Denzil Fane lived long enough to consolidate his authority, firmly establish his dynasty, and organize, ac- cording to his own ideas, the community of which he was the head. He ruled the Fair Island for nearly half a century, and died full of years and of honors. The islanders revered his memory as the children of Israeli revered the memory of Moses, and even more religiously than the Americans of to-day revere the the memory of George Washington. Hisrecorded opinions were held in high honor, and the views and sayings ascribed to him by tradition had almost the force of law. (E(O) mm Cc eyole) “S (Ele) m