Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 October 1883 — A Woman Silent for Eighteen Years. [ARTICLE]

A Woman Silent for Eighteen Years.

A well-authenticated instance has appeared in a Western paper of a castaway woman Avho for eighteen years subsisted upon an island off the main coast of California. The fact of her existence was discovered by a in ah who went from the mainland to hunt for otters, and who found footprints deeply imprinted in the ground. He was unable to folloav lip the footmarks which awakened his curiosity for nearly three years, when a companion, who Avas with him upon an expedition, suddenly came upon the object of their search. The woman had made for herself a small circular inclosure of brushAvood, Avith an opening on one side, and she was clothed in a garment made of the skins of a species of duck indigenous to the island. Her food during her eighteen years of captivity, if her statements are reliable, was a sort of wild cabbage and the roots she found close at hand. When rescued she could not express herself in any of the Indian dialects, and the supposition was that she belonged to a Northern tribe. She was still pleasing in expression, although Aveather-beaten and bronzed from exposure.