The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-06
Miles a Day.

greater part Of the islanders gazed with
superstitious wonder, and in order to
make the captives like themselves they
tore the clothing from the young men
and left them to run naked. The young
Americans never went otherwise during
their long stay on the Hawaiian ISL
and
When the curiosity Wore away the
superstitious wonder of the natives haa
turned to contempt, because the white
men were not so agile at tree climbing
and enduring at aquatic feats as them
selves They began a series OF horrl-
BILE abuses toward the poor captlVes.
For weeks and months Holden and
his companion never slept at the same
time. One would feign sleep, but keep
awake, fearing that a horrible fate was
near at hand for both of them All
manner of tricks to worry and torment
the castaways were pract1ced. stones
and missiles would be thrown at the
two men, and when they would run
and dodge and scramble out OF range
as best they could the Hawaiians
would roll and scream with laughter.
1t took weeks before Holden could eat
the food of the natives, but rather tnan
starve he became an adept at eating
raw mullet. His companion, however
sickened and wasted away under the
treatment. and one day he was found
dead on the seashore, where he had
craWled to take a farewell look across
the waters.
Along with about $50 other slaves
bIack-skinned men, who had been taken
in recent warfare on some adjacent ISL
and Holden was set at work IN taro
field. owned by a chief whom the white
man had been taught was his master.
The heat under the fierce tropic sun on
the interior of the island almost roasted
Holden. In vain he motioned TO the
dusky boss (whO sat in the shade near
at hand and watched the slaves work.
that he was suffering from the intense
heat, but the Hawaiian only grlnned
derisively and ordered the white man
back to his task In two days Hol-
denis body was scorched and burned
to such a degree that it does not seem
any one could have suffered so and
lived. He was carried unconscious to
a spring and thrown in the shade or
palms There the cool breezes OF
the evening restored consciousness
His master came and lookeQ at MIN
and ordered women to attend him, put
they were so curious to observe the
agony of sunburn on white man
skin that they were only q source OF
annoyance and petty torture
When young Holden had been upon
the Hawaiian island for a period that
seemed to him to be about ten months
for he had no means of gauging the
fight. of time-the three chiefs that
seemed to have the most TO do Win
him decided that he should be tattooed
in order to be more like themselves and
so that he could never get away from
the tribe Holden did not know what
was going to be done when he was
stretched out upon the grass by dozen
powerful Kanakas and tied prone to
posts and trees.
In vain he tried to tell as best ne
could in the new tongue that he would
serve his masters always and would
never murrnur if he might be spared
the agony of wholesale tattooing. But
all his body, except the face, hands and
feet, was subjected to savage decora-
ton. There were millions OF prlcks
into the flesh. One hideous design
alone on Holden's shoulders required
seven days of physical anguish and
tens of thousands of flesh punctures.
Every other day for several months the
tattooing of the white man proceeded.
When at length the agony and tor
ture of the tattoeing was finished Hol-
den would not have been recognized by
his own mother He had long hair,
nrodigious growth of whiskerS, his face
and hands were brown from the hot
sunshine, and he was mass OF tat
tooed designs from neck to feet.
later. when he had learned the Ian
guage of his captors, he found that his
was the most elaborate case of tat
tooing known on the island for a gener-
alton, and that he was then immune
from the petty cruelt1eS or the KanakaS.
When two years passed and Holden
saw there was no possible return to
civilization, he became more reconciled
to his life and almost popular with the
natives and he no longer suspect
ed to hard work. He was counseled by
che chief of the island and he was
looked I'D to by the men generally He
saw four distant sails in two years,
and when each sail faded from view
across the tossing blue of the Pacific he
resolved to abandon alb hope of ever
living a life other than that among the
island savages. He learned to fish and
swim as the natives did. He con-
stantly declined marriage with the ka-
naka girls, and he was kept busy man
ufaeturing excuses for preferring to re-
main single where boys and girls of
II who were unmarried were curiosi-
ties. Once he lay i'll for weeks with a
dreadful fever. He was very near to
death. The natives, who then valued
his services wanted to keep him alive
and they ministered to him in their
crude way and practiced superstitious
arts to drive the evil spirit out of him.
And again he recovered.
One day in the autumn several ma
tiveS ran shouting to the chief that
white mans ship was out at-sea off
the west coast. The whole settlement
was wild. Holden was indescribably
moved, as may we'll be imagined, at the
sight of ship so near the coastline,
but he dared not show his emotions to
his watchful and suspicious captors
Going down on the beach, Holden
saw several proas filing with ka-
nakas, and, feigning Indifference, got