Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-08-19
CAST AWAY IN THE PACIFIC.
A Poor Italian Who was for Many Years Slave
Among Cannibals.

Among Cannibals.
The crew of the bark Rambler, which
returned to London late in May from a
trading trip among the islands of the
western Pacific reported having seen in a
crowd of native New Britainers the I'M
fortunate italian of whom sailors have
now and then brought tidings. AS far as
is known no attempt has ever been made
To restore him to his native land. For
years he was solitary captive among the
fierce natives of BougainYille, one of the
largest islands of the Solomon group. He
was starved maltreated, and overworked.
His sufferings made him an imbecile.
Twenty years of life among the worst
savages of the Pacific coast so changed
him tibet he is hardly recognized as a man
of European origin.
The crew of the Rambler say he is as
big cannibal as any Poleynesian, wears
one lock Of hair on the top of his head, is
dressed in native bark cloth, will not visit
the vessels that at rare intervals cast an
Choir near the tribe with whom he now
lives, and will not open his lips to white
man except 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 member of the celebrated
expedition which the Marquis de Ray
sent to New Ireland. This large party of
French and Italian cOlOnists, deceived by
the glowing accounts of the richness and
salubrity of the country, left their homes
to settle in the new Ell Dorado. They
were landed on the most inhOspitable
coast of New Ireland, and the ship sailed
away, leaving them to their fate.
Some of them died of hunger or 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 enterprise is the Italian
whose wretched existence is still prolong-
ed. With five comrades he rowed 200
miles to Bougainville, where as soon as
they touched the shore, his companions
were killed and he was reserved for more
terrible fate. he was sold as a slave to a
bush tribe in the interior. Years of cap
tivity so completely changed the man
that when he was offered to Queensland
labor ship for two tOmahawks the trade
was made. His new owner thought he
was a native, and expected to make fine
profit by dlsposlng of his services to
some Queensland planter. They discov-
cred however, after a few days that he
was nothing but an unfortunate italian,
and SO they showed him ashore on New
Britain as an object of no commercial
value. There he still lives, a miserable
reminder of the most unfortunate party
of Europeans who ever went to the west
ern Pacific.
A number OF white men long held in
captivity among saVages are known tC
have been greatly weakened by the crue
treatment. Joseph Forbes, a young
English sailor, was a prisoner on the little
islands Timor Laut, northwest of New
Guinea, for seventeen years. When he
was rescued, in 1889, he could not talk tc
his rescuers nor even understand a wore
of English. The knowledge of his mother
tongue, however, soon came back tC
him, as he improved in mental health
He died only few years ago in Aus
trailia.