Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-08-21
CAST AWAY IN THE PACIFIC.
A Poor Italian Who Was for Many Years
a Slave Among Cannibals.
The crew of the bark Rambler. which

The crew of the bark Rambler, which
trading trip among tne islands OF the
western Pacific, reported having seen
in a crowd of native New Brltainers the
unfortunate italian of whom sailors
have now and then brought tidings.
AS far as is known no attempt has even
been made to restore him 10 his native
land. For years he was It solitary cap
tive among the fierce natives Of Bou-
granville, one Of the largest islands of
the Solomon group. He was starved,
maltreated and ovcrworked. His suf-
ferings made him almost an imbecile.
twenty years of life among the worst
savages Of the Pacific SO changed him
tina; ne is hardly recognizable rs a man
of European origin.
The crew Of the Rambler say be is
as big a cannibal as any Polynesian,
wears one long lock of hair in a coil on
the top Of his head, is dressed in native
bark cloth, will not visit the vessels
that at rare intervals east anchor near
the tribe with whom he now lives, and
will not open his lips to white men eX-
cept to ask for food.
When Mr.. Romilly was cruising in
the western Pacific in 1881, he saw the
man and tried unsucceSsfully to talk
with him. His name, it is said. was
published years ago, but every recent
writer who has mentioned him seems
to have forgotten it. He was a mem
Der Of the celebrated expedition which
the Marquis dc Ray sent to New Ire
land. This large party of French and
Italian ~colonists. deceived by glowing
accounts of the richness and salubrity
of the country, left their homes to set
tie in the new FL Dorado. They were
landed in the most inhospitable coast
of New ireland. and the ship sailed
away, leaving them to their fate.
Some of them died of hunger and
fever. Others were lost while making
their way TO other islands in small
boats. A few were eventually rescued.
The last relic of this melancholy enter
prise is the italian whose wretchcd ex-
%istence is still prolonged. With five
comrades he rowcd POO miles to Bou-
Granville, where, as soon rs they
touched the shore, his companions
were killed, and he was reserved for
a more terrible fate. He was sold as a
slave TO a bush tribe in the interior.
Years Of captivity SO completely
he was offered to a Queens
land labor ship for two toma-
hawks the trade was made. His new
| owners thought he was Il native, aud
expected to make a fine profit by dis
posing Of his services 10 some Queens
land planter. They discovered, how
ever, after u few days that he was
nothing but an unfortunate Italian, and
so they showed him ashore on New
Britain as an object of 40 commercial
value. There he still lives, a miserable
reminder of the most unfortunate party
of Europeans who ever went TO the
western Pacific.
A number Of white men long held in
captivity among sayages are known to
have been greatly weakened in mind
by their cruel experiences. Joseph
Forbes, a young English sailor, was Il
prisoner ~ the little islands Of Timor
Laut, northwest of New Guinea, for
seventeen years. When he was res
cued. in 1889, he could not talk to his
rescuers nor even understand a word
OF English. The knowledge of his
mother tongue, however, rapidly came
back 10 him as he improved in mental
hca!:n. He died only a few years ago
in Australia.-New York Sun.