A WHITE MAN AMONG SAVAGES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1491, 2 December 1881, Page 2

A WHITE MAN AMONG SAVAGES.

Interesting particulars were published in the Sydney Daily Telegraph in connection with the ill-fated French-Italian emulation expedition, under the auspices of the Marquis de Rays. Captain M'Laughlin who explored several islands in the Solomon group, discovered a white man naked among the savages at Bonka Island, and counted seventy war canoes each containing forty armed savages. After considerable stratagem he got alongside a canoe containing the white man, who was ultimately with tome difficulty and danger purchased for three American hatchets. It was discovered that he was an Italian named Luigi Boero, who had been for fifteen months a captive with the savages. When he found that he was to be liberated hia joy knew no bounds, and he became almost frantic. He embraced Captain M'Laughlin in an agony of joy, while the savages surrounded them, shouting, yelling, %nd brandishing their weapons. Luigi Boero believed that he was utterly lost. He imagined that he had been with his captors three yean. He, with five unfortunate mates, left Liki Harbor to go on a cruise in an open boat. Three days afterwards they struck a reef. The boat unfortunately was broken, and they fell into the hands of the Natives. He got separated from his companions, whom he only once afterwards saw, when they had a fearful tale of agony and suffering to relate. They were treated worse than dogs. They were slaves of everyone in the village, and obliged to work in the broiling sun, with their skin peeling off. When enfeebled and sick they were cruelly beaten and tortured. Three months previous to the arrival of the steamer Genii, Luigi heard that all but two had succumbed to the barbarous ill-treatment, fever, and want of f x)d. Captain M'Laughlin, after rescuing Loiifi, sailed for Rougainville and other islands, where he hjard of Another white man in captivity, but was unsuccessful in rescuing him. It v auppoosed th*t this unfortunate Italian is the only survivor of his six countrymen who started with him. It is, however, doubtful, and it may be that one at least of the others is still alive in captivity among the savages. The tale is causing extraordinary sensation in Sydney.