Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-09-02
RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION
CAST AWAY IN THE PACIFIC.
A Poor italian Who Was for Many Years
Slave Among Cannibals.

The crew of the bark Rambler which
returned to London late in Nav from
trading trip among the islands of the
western Pacific, reported having seen in
q crowd OF native New Britainers the
unfortunate 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 a solitary can
tive among the fierce natives of Bou-
| granville. one of the largest islands of
the Solomon group. He was starved.
maltreated, and overworked. His suf-
ferings made him almost an imbecile.
twenty years of life among the worst
savages of the Pacific so changed him
that he is hardly recognizable as a man
of European origin.
The crew of the Rambler say he is as
big eannibal 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 cast anchor near the
tribe with whom he now lives. and will
not open his lips to white men, except
| to ask for food.
When Mr. komilly 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 10
have forgotten it. He was member
OF the celebrated expedition which the
Marquis de Ray sent to New Ireland.
This large party of French and Italian
colonists, deceived by glowing accounts
of the richness and salubritv of the
| country, left their homes to settle in the
new 81 Dorado. They were landed on
the most inhospitable coast of New Ire
land, 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 wretehed existence
is still prolonged. With five comrades
he rowed two hundred miles to Bou-
granville, where, as soon rs they touch
ed the shore, his companions were
killed, and he was reserved for a more
terrible tate. He was sold as slave to
a bush tribe in the interior. Years of
captivity so completely changed the man
that when he was offered to Queens
land labor ship for two tomahawks the
trade was made. His new owners
thought he was native, and expected
to make a fine profit by dsposing of his
services to some Queensland planter.
They discovered. however, after a few
days that he was nothing but an un-
fortunate Italian. and SO they showed
him ashore on New Britain as an object
of no commercial value. There he still
lives, 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 savages are known to
have been greatly weakened in mind
by their cruel experiences. Joseph
Forbes, young English sailor, was n
prisoner on the little islands of Timor
Laut. northwest of New Guinea, for
seventeen years. When he was rescued,
in 1889, he could not talk to his rescuers
nor even understand word of English.
The knowledge of his mother tongue,
however, rapidly came back to him as
he improved in mental health. He died
only few years ago in Australia
~ Y. Sasn.