The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-25


"A in the Sandwich Islands appears
in the New York Herald of March
+, 10. Horace Holden is the hero of the
tale. in which he is described as the
first American who lived in the Islands.
The hair-raising narrative is from the
pen of H. G. Tingley of Salem, Oregon.
I The story runs as follows:
Horace Holden, of this city, Is PROB
ably the very first American who lived
in the Sandwich Islands. Many people
put him first among all the white men
who lived on any of the Hawaiian
group. Captain Cook antedated Mr..
Holden forty years, but Captain Cook
never spent more than a few weeks on
either of his two visits in the archi-
pelago. The story of the life that Mr..
Holden led among his dusky captors,
the manner. of his appearance among
the HawaiianS, and his finai escape
from them are as interesting as chap
ter from Robinson Crusoe," or Swiss
| Family Robinson"
| Horace Holden is white haired and
| feeble. He has lived quietly in Salem
| for thirty years, and is known by thou
sands of people here. Very few people
who have met this aged, quiet, modest
man daily for years on the streets here
| have any idea of what extraordinary
| experiences have been his, and no story
writer has yet known what a volume
of thrilling tales might be formed from
| the adventures Mr.. Holden has had.
Mr.. Holden was born in little village
| in New Hampshire in June, 1910. He
was a sailor by instinct, and from his
earliest boyhood his dreams and as
| pirations We're all of the sea and life
| in strange lands across the broad
| ocean. In 1928, the year he was eight
cen, he went on his first long voyage.
| With the famous old whaler. the
| stanch Mentor, he sailed out of the
| great port of Bedford, Mass, one Octo-
Der day. The crew were all experience
ed whalers and had been with the Men
| tor almost from pole to pole in pur-
suit Of whale oil and whalebone Now
| they were embarked for a two years
| voyage around the Horn and up the
Pacific coast Young Holden eagerly
/ accepted the chance to sail on the
whaling voyage and to see new parts
of the world That was ten years be-
fore Richard Henry Dana sailed from
| New Bedford and made the voyage so
| famous in his 1.-TWO Years Before the
! Mast"
The whaling ship rounded the Horn
in January, 1929, and proceeded up the
| coast toward the whaling fields in the
North Pacific. The voyage proceeded
| without incident until one densely dark
night, May 81, 1929, when the Mentor,
while in a terrific storm was tossed
upon a ledge of rocks. Later it was
4
coral reefs. The ship was wrecked and
everything on board was lost, and all
the crew but two were washed away
and drowned in the roaring, surgng
| sea. In some unaccountable way young
| Holden and a fellow sailor were car
ried to coral reef projecting above
! the water When daylight came the
famished, drenched and terrified men
saw that they We're within sight OF
land, All that day they chung to the
| coral AT sunset dozen long, canoe
like boats padded by naked, yelling
savages, came out to Holden and his
companion The coffee-colored men
had seen the wreck and had come out
to look it over more closely.
The two sailors were taken to one
of the islands of the Hawaiian group.
The particular island Mr.. Holden be-
n lieves was Hilo, from the descriptions
i he has since read of that island. Thou
sands of nude natives were on the
shore when the two white men landed
there from a canoe. Great excitement
was created among the natives, and
the news that there We're two real live
white men on the island was carried to
the tribes inland. For days Mr.. Hol-
den and his companion were regarded
with intense timidity and curiosity.
The Hawaiians came and lived near
the strange men with white skins so as
to satisfy their curiosity concerning
| the habits and mode of life among the
wonderful strangers. Great throngS OF
native men and women. almost as nude
as the day they were born, would feel
| the flesh of the white captiveS, pinch
the white skin and twirl the hne hair
in their fingers to see whether 1t was
, ali natural Children in droves viewed
Holden and his companion from safe
| distances, and ran screaming to their
mothers If the white men moved to-
ward them The greater part OF the ISL
anders gazed with superstitious wonder
| at young Holden and his companion.
and in order to make the captfves like
! themselves they tore the clothing from
| the young men and left them to run
naked as themselves. The young
Americans never went otherwise dur
ing their long stay on the Hawaiian
island.
When the curiosity Wore away and
the superstitious wonder of the natives
had turned to contempt because the
white men We're not so agile at tree
climbing and aquatic feats as them
selves. the natives began a series of
horrible abuses upon the poor prison
ers. who were terrified lest any act OF
theirs or some untoward circumstance
might anger the dusky savages tc
murder and cannibalism.
For weeks and months Holden and
, his COMPANION never slept at the same
: time. The were ceaselessly watchful
Of the sayages One always feigned
sleep. but kept awake, fearing that
some horrible fate was in store for