their young, who grew up without any religious,
moral, or intellectual training. The outlaw died on
the Mewstone, and Fyn and his sister, accustomed
from infancy to an island life, could not endure the
thought of going to the mainland for the rest of their
days, and so they settled on Looe Island. Here
they were joined by a negro, and by their united
efforts honeycombed the ground under their hovel
and the large barn adjoining for the accommodation
of smuggled goods. Their only associates were
these free-traders.
One day the black man vanished, and it was never known what had become of him, whether he had left or been murdered by Fyn and his sister. There were naturally no witnesses; nothing could be proved against them. Recently a skull has been dug up near the house, and is kept in a box in the dwelling, but it is not that of a negro. Actually there is a layer of human remains about two feet below the surface of the turf, exposed on the east side of the island, where wind and spray are gnawing away the cliff, and any number of teeth and bones may be picked out. Whether these are the remains of an early Christian monastic cemetery, or of shipwrecked sailors buried on the cliffs, cannot be told, as no investigation has been made to discover the approximate period to which this layer of dead men's bones belongs.
Formerly there was a chapel on the summit of the island, but only its foundations remain. The island belonged to the monastery of Lamana (lan-manachau, the church of the monks) on the mainland.
