The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-02


SALEM. Orr, March 14-Horace Hol-
den died at Tillamook today, aged "a
years. He was an Oregon pioneer of
1874, and a man whose experiences in
Guided two years of torture among
savages in the Pelew Islands
Holden was born in Hillsboro, N. H.,
in 1910, and at the age of u listed as
a sailor on the Mentor, bounc for the
Indian Ocean. The ship was wreck
ed on one of the Pelew Islands. and
Holden and few companions escaped
a watery grave. They fell among saw
ages, who stripped them, tattooed them
and employed them with slaves. After
two years of this life Holden was the
only survivor of the party. He finally
induced the savages to place him on
board a passing ship and he was
brought back to America. In 1896 Mr.
Holden married Miss Mary Millin, of
Boston, who died eight years ago. In
1887 he went to the Sandwich Islands
for the purpose of introducing the silk
growing industry. Seven years later he
came to Oregon, settling on donation
land claim about a mile south of Salem,
where he lived until II years ago when
he moved to this city.
In the last four years he has lived
and although nearly a century old his
strength was such that he could walk
a considerable distance without ex-
haustion. He left three sons: Horace
F. Holden of Tillamook; Eugene Hol-
den, of Wardner, Idaho, and Theodore
Holden of New Jersey. The remains
will be brought to Salem for burial.
Horace Holden was exploited on the
mainland not long ago as the first
white man to visit the Hawaiian Is
lands, where it was said he had been
horribly tortured, but this is not true
about his priority, as Holden came
here in 1887.
shipwrecked on the Gilbert Islands
where he suffered many tortures at the
hands of the natives. This story was
publishd in a New York paper a few
years ago. but Hawaii was given the
discredit of the barbarism.
| In 1928 Holden went on his first trip
on a whaler This vessel was wrecked
in the Pacific and Holden with COM
panion was thrown on coral reef on
one of the Gilbert Islands. The two
men We're taken from their perilous
position by a boat crew of savages.
Holden telling the story some years
before his death. says that when they
| landed they were Immediately sur
rounded by thousands of natives en-
| tirely nude, women as well as men.
| There was great excitement on the is
lands, as Holden and his companion
were the first two white men the ma
I tives had ever seen. Greatly Interested
the men and women examined the
white skin of the strangers, pinching
it to see Wherein the difference from
their own tan coloring was. For a
! While the men We're regarded with SUI
perstitious awe by the natives. but
finally this gave way to contempt, as
they discovered that Holden could not
climb trees, row, and perform athletic
feats in as skillful manner as they
themselves could. They tore the
clothes from the white men to make
them as near like themselves as pos
sible. and this was followed by a series
of horrible abuses perpetrated upon the
prisoners For months Holden and his
companion took turns in sleeping and
standing guard. and during all thai
time they We're ceaselessly watched
by the natives. At times the two mer
We're tied to trees and left to tn.
cy of mosquitoes and gnats
women and cF''6
laughed et