The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-11-24

Great Britain recently estaDllsneu Il
protectorate- in other words seized
the Solomon Islands, a group located
in the Pacific ocean and discovered by
Mendana in 1867. A writer in the Pail
Mall Budget man who in days
gone by sailed in a British trading
vessel-has the following TO say re-
garding the Inhabitants and an expe-
rience he had among them at one
time: They are the very kittle cattle
10 have to do with now. a few years
back they were ever kittler. Canni-
balls in the days of Mendana-they are
cannibals yet. And even in the hall
cyon times of blackbirding, when
"wool money" was plentiful in the
other groups, the fleet gave the Solo
mons as wide berth as possible, I'M
less luck went against them else
where. Roast recruiter was a better
dish even than the proverbial mis-
sionary. And new subjects have
tasted both.
We went down there two or three
times before good Bishop Patteson
| tried to take them in hand. But we
were not after "labOr." All we
| wanted was some tortoiseshell, cats
eyes, dalwood-anything in fact
| that we could get, bar themselves
The Queensland planters have already
! had a taste of their quality. They
suIked, refused all food, and i'll due
course died. So they really were not
worth kidnapping, even if it could be
managed with safety, which it could
| not. More suspicious, watchful anC
| treacherOus natives exist nowhere
| Therefore, we wanted none of them
| Since n few missionaries have gained
| q footing on some of the islands they
have improved enough to be recruited
! and learned enough to work, and now
| there are some very tOlerable "boys
taken from the SOlomons, under the
new regime, on the plantations.
COMING TO TRADE.
But. as I said, wo didn't call fol
"Iabor,n merely to see what we coulC
do i'm rair trade. And we lay of
MEETINGS triced up and every man 6
revolver in his belt, Snider handy
and stand of pixies against the
mainmast. And they came off il
hundreds, the artful beggers, waving
their arms joyously and standing III
| in their canoes to show that they
carried no wepons, thinking that we
were as green as the rushes that con-
cealed the spears and clubs in the
bottom of the canoes. And they
pulled round and ground, and leered
languishingly up at us, as much as tC
say, "Good Lord! Here's supply o
| long pigi Roasted white man. How
can we'get at it ~
Suddenly there was rush for the
open space left near the gangway o
forty or fifty canoes. But the savage:
were met with a bristling clump o.
boarding pixies. Whereupon they
retired smiling widely, as if it was the
best joke in the world. Then they a
went off to a distance and presently
one canoe came alongside, and hel
crew held up sheets of shell, cat's-eyt
stones wrapped in big leaves anC
other curios. We let this lot on boarC
and passed the canoe astern. They
were perfectly naked, bar the slightes
apology for a loin cloth. Their colo
was q very dark brown, and they haC
great tiZzled heads of hair. stained s
dirty red. Moreover, they were
covered most of them, with cuts anC
wounds, many yet raw and gaping
There had probably been question o
home rule adopted lately on the
| island.
a CERTIFICATE OF CHARACTER.
One fellow, evidently a chief. draw