EIGHTEEN DAYS WITHOUT FOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8222, 5 April 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

EIGHTEEN DAYS WITHOUT FOOD.

-<»- EIGHT PELEW ISLANDERS PICKED UP IN A CANOE 200 MILES FROM LAND. San Francisco, February 4.—Advices received by steamer to-day say that the American ship Joseph S. Spinney arrived at Hiogo, Japan, January 3, with six Pelcw Islanders, whom she had picked up in an open canoe over '200 miles from land. November 23, seven men and their old King set out to pay a visit to a chief on another island of the Pelcw Croup. Their craft was a dug-out, 30 feet long, with only 15 inches beam. Before they could make their port of destination a gale sprang up, and they were blown out to sea. They were without food or water. In this fearful condition they remained for eighteen days. December 11, the old King, faint with hunger and mad with thirst, decided that his boy, aged sixteen, must be killed in order that the others might live. Preparations for the sacrifice were nearly completed when the sails of the Spinney appeared on the horizon and the boy "was saved. The men when rescued presented a fearful sight. The King was so wasted that the chief mate carried him up the ship's gangway under his arm. Before reaching Hiogo the King and one other man died. The six survivors are somewhat larger than the .Japanese, have coppery skins, long (lowing hair and spreading nostrils. They are tatooed from head to foot in gay colours. Their chief consolation is smoking. Each has a hole pierced in his oars in which lie sticks his pipe when not in use. Captain Curling, of the Spinney, says the King each morning saluted him by rubbing his nose on the back of his hand. The men were formally presented to Consul Smithers as the American King, and honoured him with much rubbing of noses. The problem is how to return them to their own country, where vessels rarely touch. Besides, they cannot tell the name of the island on which they lived.