It was at once resolved by the united governments of Europe that they should be offered transport to this Island—an offer which the most part gladly accepted, chased as they had been from country to country, and very weary of their wandering.
Indeed, what other chance remained for them, since to enter any civilized country, any country governed by settled rule of law, was to die?
From all points of the compass ships with various flags entered the circle of reefs that surrounded Meliora, and set down their strange passengers on that beautiful shore.
A land large enough for all, fertile as a garden of romance, perfect in climate, and abounding in all they could need for food, clothing and shelter, what more could the outlaws desire?
Chapter II.
“Exile is when a man is for a crime condemned to depart out of the dominion of the commonwealth, or out of a certain part thereof, and during a prefixed time, or for ever, not to return to it; and seemeth not in its own nature, without other circumstances, to be a punishment; but rather an escape, or a public commandment to avoid punishment by flight.”—Hobbes’ Leviathan.
The first to land in Meliora were a company of English Socialists, with whom a few of the best who so called themselves were careful to cast in their lot. These were men of forethought and resource, and the truth that the circumstances of men are made by their inner natures was never more clearly seen than in the difference which soon appeared in the homes of the new settlers. The leader of this elect company was an old Scholar who in his younger days had distinguished himself in many ways, but, from a genuine belief that the medicine of a sick world lay in a socialist creed, had laid aside all that had gained him fame and credit for this one dream, and sealed his choice with the brand.