The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 31, 1901, Page 2

HOLDEN of Salem, Or., ly the very first Ame: n him first among n who lived on any Captai dusky captors, ame g the prisoners, w t of theirs or nce migh to murder ahd For weeks and months Helden and hi< companion never slept at the samejtime. They we easelessly watchful of th ways feigned sleep, bu some horrible that Hawallans, however bably never had = ught of making food of the whils men, but rather t ke them providers of food. All manner of tricks to worry » She covie were prac- and missil would be the two men, and when the n and dodge and scramble they, could the Ha- wit) s best ream companior 2ld be tied riggling at the stings of a cloud before Holden of the natives, became an adent at ok week: but e he g raw mullet right from f roiling live squid flesh un g H comy however, sick- 2 wasted away under the treat- e had hands of the natives, ne was found dead on the eashore, where he had crawled to take a £ farewell look across the waters to where he imagined was his home g wit hundred and fifly ned men, who ha nt warfare on some Holden was set at work in d Ly a chief, whom the kad been taught was e heat under the fierce interior of the Island st roasted Hoiden. In vain he mo- t 7 boss, who sat in the dand watched the that Le was suffering under t, but the Hawalian only and’ ordered the white ne: and aves work ntense grinned man back to his ta deris body was scorched burned to such a degree that it does seem any one could have been 8o sun- n two days Holde burned and outlived it. He was carried unconscious 1o a spring and thrown in the shade of paims. There the cool breezes of evening restored consciousnebs. He S, O awoke to the pain of a consuming fire. He er believed he could recover from the agony of the raging, burning cuticle all over his hody. His master, the chief, came and looked at him and ordered sev- eral women to attend to the suffering man, but they were so curious to observe the agony of sunburn on a white man's skin that they were only a source of an- noyance and petty torture rather lhan{n aid to the sufferer. In a week young Holden's pain was past and a new and delicately tender cuticle began to form. The black natives came in swarms to see him and observe what was to them an extraordinary thing—the formation of a new white skin. One morn- ing, when Holden was lylng on his face and stomach., weak and discouraged, a of jabbering kanakas sat about curiously observing the only white man they had ever seen. Suddenly one of the kanakas sneak=d over to the outstretched, drowsy Holden and with his long, hatvk- like fingernails, sharp as razors on both hands, scraped away at one sweep down the body the tender flesh from the neck to the knees. If redhot irons had been slowly drawn down the body of the young man 1t would not have been more agoniz- ing than were the eight bleeding stripes of raw. quivering flesh that the kanaka's fingernails left. The kanakas roareu and ghouted at the humor of the thing, and for months after- ward Holden would see them imitating his agony at that time, while knots of spectators laughed and laughed. Even little boys used to imitate Helden’s dread- ful pain at the time his tender cuticle was torn away In strips by the kanaka. When the young castaway had recov- ered from his sunburn and lacerated woundg and a new skin had been formed he was kept busy while off duty from work dodging stones and clubs that were thrown at him to create fun for the dusky populace. He was ever watchful lest, un- awares, be might be treated to other party WIOSTL TURES I WAS T HOPACE HOLDFN THRILLING S—. ADVIEN LD WHIEN ME CABTIVE OF SAYe AG[E BIANARAD 70 YZADRS AGD. = READ [LISE A ROMANCE, STOLL LIVING N SALEH, OREGON, 0 ordeals with the fingernails. Occasion- ally he was lacerated by a kanaka cutting at his inviting bare back, but when the savage joke grew anclent and he showed that he accepted his unhappy lot with resignation and that he could eat raw fish and rotting vegetables the same as his swarthy captors, hébwas treated more considerately. ‘When young Holden had been upon the Hawalian island for a perlod that seemed to him about ten menths, for he had no means of gauging the flight of time, the three chiefs that seemed to have most to do with him decided that he should be tat- tooed in order to be more like themselves and so that he could never get away from the tribe. Holden did not know what was to be done when he was stretched out on the grass by a dozen powerful kanakas and tied prone to posts and trees so that he could not move a muscle. In vain he tried to tell as best he could in the new tongue that he would serve his masters always and never murmur if he might be spared the new ordeal of wholesale tat- tooing. All his body, except his hands, face and feet, were subjected to tattooing. An indelible fluld, obtained from a tropi- cal plant like the indigo, was used. Doz- ens of tattooing instruments, all having sets of minute thorns and prickers In atf- ferent forms, were used. There were mil- lions of pricks into the flesh. One hideous design alone on Holden’s shoulder re- quired seven days of physical anguish and tens of thousahds of flesh punctures. Every other day for seven months the tattooing of the white man proceeded. The whole population saw some part of the tattooing, and hundreds of men and women spent days in watching with grins " and laughter the writhing and flinching of Holden under the uperation of the tat- tooers. The flesh at timeS became swol- len, livid and angry under the pricking of the poisonous fluid into it hour after hour. Crude designs of birds were taltooed on the man's chest. Trees and lilies were tattooed on the arms u'd thighs. When at length the agony and torture of the tattooing was finished Holden could not have been recognized by his own mother. He had long halr, a prodigious growth of Wwhiskers, his face and bands were brown- ed from the hot sunshine, and he was a mass of tattooed designs from neck to feet. Later, when he had learned the lan- guage of his captors, he found that his was the most elaborate case of tattooing known on the island ‘or a generation, an1 that he was then immuned from petty cruelties by the kanakas about him. When two vears passed away and Hol- den saw there was no possible return”to clvilization he became more reconciled to his life amid the kanakas. He became popular with the natives, and he was no longer subjected to hard work. He was counseled with by the chief of the island and looked up to by the men generally. He saw four salls fsland In’ two vears, aud when each safi faded from view across the tossing blue of the, Pacific he resolved to abandon all hope of ever living other than that among of distant ships from the the island savages. He learned to fish and swim as the natives. He became as wonderfully adept at aquatic feats as any of the uncommon swimmers on the island. He constantly declined marriage with the kanaka girls, and he was kept busy manufacturing® excuses for prefer- ring to remain single where boys and girls ' of seventeen who were unmarried were curiosities. Once he lay 11l for weeks with a dread- ful fever, He was verv near to death. The natives, who then valued his services, ‘wanted to keep him slive, and they min- istered to him In their crude way and practiced superstitious arts to drive the evil spirit out of him. ' Dutghe recovered by some miracle. One day In the spring several natives ran shouting to the chief that a white man’s proa was out at sea off the west coast. The whole settlement was wid. Holden was terribly moved, as may well be imagined, at the sight of a ship and sail so near the coast line, but he dared not show his emotfons to his watchful and suspicious captors, who had many a time sald they never meant to lose him from among them. Golng down on the beach, Holden saw several proa canoes: filling with kanakas. Holden, feigning Indiffer. ence, got into one in which the chief was, Every one was 8o excited at the wondeér- ful visiting ship that no attention was paid to Holden's suppressed eagerness and emotion. The oroas were paddied out two miles toward the shid. Then none of the sav- ages dared go within a mile of the craft. Several proas started back to the shore, because the kanakas In them were afraid of capture by the white men. Holden vainly begged and entreated the men mn the proa with him to go nearer the ship. 1t was all he could do to keep them from starting for the shore. Finally, he waved his hands, hallooed and whistled with his fingers, to draw attention from the ship. Twice the kanakas in the boat were ready to paddie buck to the island and let the ship go, but Holden begged them to wait and get gifts from the rich white men on the ship. At last, after he had exhausted his lung power, he saw a yawl let down from the ship's davits. The boat came cautiously within a quarter of a mile from the prog Holden saw that the sailors had no idea that they were looking at a white man, for his hair and whiskers were then Wke Samson's and his color like that of his kanaka associates. As the yawl drew (Continued on Page Threa)