The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1906-11-06
No MORE
FOR THEM
crrom saturday, Advcr,isor)

fFrom Saturdays AdNcrtiforD
Among the passengers OF the $. s.
Korea calling here yesterday. are I'VE
young men returning TO the mainland
from Yokohama at the expense OF the
government, their tickets having been
procured for them by the American
consul at Yokohama In February last
they had sailed from San Francisco
with the whaler Gotama, a small
schooner of 100 tons. Now they are
going back to relate to their friends
on the Coast the adventures they have
passed through, including a fight for
their lives with sharks. life for hve
long months on tiny island with none
too friendly natives, ana voyage TO
Japan ON a Japanese copra schooner.
arriving there barefoo,ed, natless and
penniless.
I'VE wasn't exactly shanghaied at
Frisco" said one of the FIVE. but we
didn't know we was goin' until we got
sober. There was nineteen of us in the
fo'c'sle and every time we had blow
everything got soaked. We throwed
the mattresses away when we was
month out because they got so mouidy
YOU couldn't sleep in the same ship
with 'em. And the chow we got was
fierce. Say. you wouldn't feed stun
like we got to a hog, II you thought
anything of the hog.
I'VE sighted the Ladrones when we
was sixty-eight days out ana they
looked good to us. The skipper thought
he'd go ashore for some fresh vege-
tables. We thought we'd get ashore
too. We'd had all the whaling in that
shin that we wanted and the cocoanut
palms and the green island seemed 10
be Just about what we was lookin' for
We knew there wasn't any use asking
for permission, f'r tn skipper had an
idea we was lookin' for good chance
to Jump out an wouldn't let us go In
the boats.
THAT night we slips overheard and
struck out for the sand. We made
bundle of what buds and things we
needed and tied them around our
necks, but we hadn't got very far be-
fore they got soaked and We had to
slip them off and let them go. All we
had was shirt and pair of pants
each and our sheath knives. We swan
along all together and kept the sharks
away by splashing. We was a mile
and a half from shore and the tide
was running out hard against us, and
between the tide and the sharks all
around us 1t looked like we wasn't go
ing to make 1t. But we did. and, tell
you, the feel OF the coral sand under
my toes was the best thing that ever
happened. That's what / thought
then.
Say, you know them stories about
going to South Sea island and being
king among the natives and marrying
chiefs daughter. Well, forget 'em.
There amt anything in 1t. The natives
was friendly all right They hid us
away so that the officers OF the ship
couldn't find us when they come the
next day and hunted us all over the
little island. 1t was the Pogon Island
We was on and there was only about
ten men and women living there. not
counting the kids. But there wasn't
any marrying of kings daughters for
us. Rustling shellfish up and down the
island and getting breadfruit and yams
enough to live on didn't give us any
time to get married in and the natives
was too darned handy with their fish
spears for us to be breaking up any
happy homes. anyway. Clothes didn't
bother us, for we just rustled breech-
c!outs and got next to the native style
right away.
I'VE stayed there for three months.
watching for any old kind of ship to
take us off. We'd have gone back on
the old whaler and been dead glad of
the chance II she'd ever come back.
Then a little copra schooner that was
owned by a Dutchman came In and
took us over to Agrlgan Island, which
was thirty miles away and quite bit
bigger. The Dutchman promised to
call for us and take us to Guam on
his way back, but we didn't see him
any more. Two months later Japa-
nese schooner came in and took us
aboard. We sailed with the Japs to
Yokohama, working out passage, doing
our turn with the watch and standing
our trick at the wheel when It came
around. And then the Jap goes and
puts in a bill TO the consul for our
passage money, fifteen yen for each
one of US, after we had done the most
work on his ship / puts up holler,
but they puts up squeal in their own
language. and / guess they got their
money.
The consul buys us tickets for
Frisco and you bet we're glad to be
going there again. No more South
Sea islands in mine. Little old
'Friscos good enough for me-"
~<s-
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