The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-12
A SOUTH SEA ADVENTURES.
1HE DIsAsTRoUS CRUISE OF TIE
SUTHERLAND.

NurlnE n Previous hunt Tor Fehrls IeF
which RE wsr Imprisoned In Queensland.
THB sUY printed n despatch recently saying
that Aftcs months of suffering from disease
and the hostility OF tho solomon Island can
hlbnls. the Sur Francisco schooner Sophia Su.h-
orland has Just returned to ApiR, Samoa. or
her orew Of fifteen argonnuts who set sal! foT
tie western Pacific In search Of lodges Of gold
which they believed were awaiting the pros.
pector. four died Mt sea from scurvy and fever.
Officials in tho South Sea have grown to dis.
trust vessels which start from san Francisco
for a cruise below the limo. 1t has often hap
pened that schooners have come light to Apia
and TO Leruka and 10 TonGatabu seeking cargo
Of copra for tho coast, and afterward gin and
guns have been found in tho possession OF wild
islanders to whom such possessions provide
10th the incentive and tho tools Of massacre.
Eo when the papers Of San Francisco brought
the news that the Sophia Sutherland was to
carry n crew Of n hundred gun fighters armed
TO the tcoth who were going TO find gold in the
Sole the CoDsuls in Apia took alarm. The
schooner Came into port last September, and
tho hRrkOr authorities found there were only
fifteen men aboard. md not enough In Tho way
Of weapons 10 go around. Thirteen young men
who had been mechanics in San Francisco
were the crew, and at Tho same time principal
stockholders OF the South Sea Gold Mining and
mn lNlbA oisN" \ " - fN+ '''- e'N
fighter was in sight. Inc most that could be
alleged against tho skipper, Capt. AleclS Nc
Lean, was that IN the old days when the game
paid not a British nor q Yankee cruiser had
breu able TO convict him OF pelagic seal poach'
ing. The fifteenth man was Soronson. But be-
fore So=enson can he properly comprehended
It will he necessary to skot h In tho only back
ground against which such \ man can oXist in
these days when piracy encounters business de-
preston.
For 300 years there has been a belief that gold
existed in tho SoiomonH. In the :ar.off days
Naen tho vice.royalty Of Peru was second only
20 Mexico in the Spanish possessions. expedi.
tions were sent ont into the unknown South
Sea to make discoveries, to find gold. Quiros,
MendAha, and Torres have left their names on
the charts Of tho western Pacific, for they found
and rebound the chain of mountainous islands
which they called after the name of Solomon,
N tho belief that they mad rediscovered 0phir.
One island still carries the name OF the heroic
lady DonR Nsabcl, who hid from the fierce saw.
nEes the grave Of her husband, the dead Ad:
the sea, and herself, led back tee shattered ex.
petition in safety to Manila. Thcy arc n cruel
place. these solomon Islands, and they never
fSil to take toll OF the best OF those who have to
40 with them. Look at Just "a few names on
ta-ir sacr,hcial roll. There is MendaNa at the
head. La Pcrousc met his fate. so long n blnck
mystery, just outside their limit. Bishop Pat.
tesop lied ihereaway{. so peTished CommodcTe
Nyo'SiOhe"' E'S - '"N '. ,"iA
tell you that the average duration of Il white
trader in the, Solomons falls under three years;
oven. Only two years ago a scientific party
from the Austrian coryett Albatross was lured
TO massacre in these mountain forests. With
such q record tits small wonder that the British
and German Royernrnents in, partitioning the
shall visit the Islands without the permit Of the
respective commissioners.
These Solomon Islands are the scene in
which this man Sorenson developed, in the
days when they were sill unanneXed, and the
tnfreauent naval vessel was the rare manifesto:
ton of law. Sorenson is a Dane, n meek race Of
water folk for the most part, but with now and
then a throwing back tothc old brutes of Viking
western Pacific, he soon put himself in the way
of beComin n worthy successor of that dis
tinguished American Bully Hayes; lacking
Bully Hayes's sense Of humor and skill in sea-
manship, for Sorenson still finds the seXtant
and tho chrononeter too great n mystery for his
and devoid of that ingenuity in crime which
stamped the career Of the late Capt. Hayes
is q diver for pearl shell, and he has worked at
that trade with, success beyond the common.
honest to his employers. He was in tho way OF
reporting a bank barren when in fact IL was
rich banks thus obtained is the stock, in trade
of the pearl diver. and on this capital he trades
% get a schooner for himself.
So with Sorenson. In 1883 he approached
some people in Melbourne with samples of shell
and stories of his exclusive knowledge of in.
exhaustible banks. Such u man does not ped.
die this sort of rma along shore. lou
can sell a sailor a farm with profit. but he
or on. So he formed a Joint stock company Of
landsmen. They bought the Port Philip pilot
schooner Albert. which happened to be on the
market, hired a master and shipped n small
crew. This was Sorenson's suggestion. He
concealed his. ignorance of the art of naviRa-
ton, and professed that thus they would have
a check upon the honesty OF his dealings with
them. The Albert was naviGated to the Solo:
mons. Once in these Observation-Disclosures of
the Pacific, ANYBODY can navigate by land
marks. of the peaks, in sight. There was no
promptly disposed of him by turning him adrift
with one companion in the dingy. The rest
next Btep was to recruit a crew of islanders.
This was easy to such a man. A native chief
was invited aboard with his paddlers. The
chief was asked below into the cabin to get a
With a south Sea Islander II only gin is i il pros:
dlers were driven into the sea with, a rife, and
then Sorenson announced his plan; The people
the shell:they had ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS a crew fo1
the schooner; otherwise the chief must suffer
Such is the regard for rank among the island ers
that the Infamous transaction was faithfully
sorensop sold his Melbourne crew of white mer
10 q chief of the cannibals. with no stipula
ton as to the uses to which they were 10 be ru,t
The payment was In pearl shell. FortunatelS
who had some humanity. and who rescued tbs
Captain Of tho Albert and his companion anC
tugc a British g%unboat, the Dart, came along
and. az soon. as1 the, first Of these deeds Secam,
KNOWN, pursuit OIL me schooner was Prompt
The crew were rescued from their ~cRoUivit!
before they HAD gone 10 the oven, the ALDER
was overhauled, and Sorenson was captured
He was tried in Cooktown IA tho colony o
Queensland, in; 1854, and was sentenced to tel
years at hard labor. After his release ii
1894, for such q man can never earn good con
duct credlts. he disappeared. Tho only thin
known:o OF, his doings Is that he appeared on
trading schooner ln.the German Solomons. an,
was deported with that prompt despatch whicI
chAracteriZos imperial colonial administration
Early in 1897 he was in, San Francisco wit
gold specimens of marvellous richness, nus
gets and flakes of virgin gold, and chunks @
quartz In which there was far more gold tina
cock. He was not telling people In Renera
where ne got II, but he let it be known the
ing q companion with some capital to wor
the deposit. A negro was the first TO take III
bait, a negro with some few thousands saved
Just how the transaction was worked no or
knows, but in a short time Sorenson had til
money and the negro blew his brains out.
Then, Sorenson.fell in with a,lOt OF young m,
chanics. each of whom had saved some none
and all Of whom were regretting that they la
not taken the first chance at the Klondike. A
this time last year gold was in the air in Sa
Francisco. and.any man who could show sue
specimens as sorenson had was, sure TO lin
listeners. lie would not tell them whenC
came this gold until they had formed n con