Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-24
LUCKY BIT OF TRADING IN THE soUTH sEAs
Eerprsing Americans Remarkable
We'll Highly
the New YorkS IN

Between New Guinea and the Solo
mon group there is a cluster Of islands
marked on the chart as Woodlark
Islands. 1t was ON these islands that I
met with the most profitable bit of
trading that ever befelI me during a
quarter OF a centurys experience in the
South Seas.
Nearly thirty years pa ssed since 1895,
when the islands were discovered, with
out the natives seeing more than half
dozen ships, and | am sure that no
one from these ships put foot on shore,
for the inhabitants were not to be
trusted then, being warlike and treach-
erous.
The master of one of these whalers
was told by the natives-or rather made
to understand, for not one of them
knew "a word of EnRlish-that about
twelve months previously a large vessel
had one wild night run on shore on
the south side OF the group. and that all
on board had perished. She had evil
IDENTIFY struck on the reef near the
island of Elane with tremendous vio-
lence, then slipped off and sunk.
On his reporting the matter to the
colonial shipping authorities he learned
that two vessels were missing one a
Dutch bark Of 700 tons, which left
Sydney for Dutch New Guinea, and the
other a full-rgged English ship bound
to Shanghai No tidings had been
heard of them for more than eighteen
months, and it was concluded that the
vessel lost on Woodlark island was one
or the other, as that island lay in the
course both would have taken.
In 1S6S-69 there was a great outburst
Of trading operations in the northwest
flo igl 70
in most instances, and there was keen
rivalry between the English and Ger
man trading firms to get a footing on
such new islands as promised them a
lucrative return. Scores Of adventur-
Gus white men lost their lives in a few
months, some by the deadly malarial
fever. Others by the treacherous and
cannibalistic savages.
Others quickly took their places,
nothing daunted, for the cocoanut oil
trade, the then staple industry of the
northwest Pacific, was very profitable.
and men made fortunes rapidly. What
mattered it If every returning ship
brought news of some bloody tragedy,
such and such brig or schooner hav-
ing been cut off, and all hands MUIR
dered, cooked and eaten, the vessel
plundered and then burned? Such
things occur in the northwest Pacific
in the present times, but the outside
world now hears of them through the
press, and of the punitive expeditions
by warships of England, France or Ger
many.
At that time 1 was in Levuka, the
old capital of Fiji, supercargo of little
topsail schooner of rs tons. She was
owned and sailed by a man named
White, an extremely adventurous and
daring fellow, though very quiet in his
manner. l was being paid 500 per
month and 10 per cent commission on
all trade sold, and all native produce
bought
We had been trading among the
islands of the Fiji group for
six months. and had not done at all
we'll. White was geratly dissatisfied,
and wanted to break new ground.
Every few weeks a vessel would sail
into the little port of Levuka with a
cargo of cocoanut oil, dun
naged with ivory nuts, the latter worth
in those days G40 a ton. Both oil and
ivory nuts had been secured from the
wild savages of the northwest in ex-
change for publishing hoop iron knives,
old Tower muskets, with ball and cheap
powder, common beads and other
worthless articles on which there was
a profit of thousands per cent.
White made up his mind to join in
the rush to the islands to the northwest
between New Guinea and the Solo,
mons.
II have" he said, ''just been talking
to the skipper of that French mission
ary brig, the Anonyme. He has just
come black from the northwest, and he
told me he had landed French priest
(this was Mgr. D'Anthipelles, the head
of the Marist Brothers mission, Oce-
ania) at Mayu (Woodlark island) He
the priest-remained on shore to es-
tablish mission. and told Rabalau, the
skipper of the brig, that the natives
were very friendly, and said that they
would be glad to have a resident mis-