Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), Thursday 21 September 1933, page 1


W~KE BY CEARLEF CHAUVE THE TORY OF TIte PICTUE SA I * NAPM I -"qDUTrRIBUTED BY UINIVER(AL PICJIJ -

STRANGEST of the tragedies of the "graveyard of the Pacific," the web of reefs and rocks round Pitcairn is the mystery of Elizabeth Island. There the Pitcairners found the skeletons of a man and of a woman in a cave. Six other skeletons and part of a wreck were fqund on the island, but no one knows anything about their history. CIKAPTER NINE. At Malvern Island, a little dot to the north-west of Easter Island, there are great blocks of coral piled one upon the other, capped with dolmens, and it is said that paved terraces of stone can be seen beneath the waters surrounding this little ocean speck. About Mango Reva, to the north of Pitcairn, revolve some :of the most fascinating and curious stories that I have heard. The most famous pearls of the dangeroius Archipelago have been plucked from the great oysters of its lagoons, In whose opalescent depths have aJo been found the skeletons of* warriors whose dead bodies were thus hidden from the cravings of the worst cannibals in the world. Slaves for Priests. It was to Manga" Reva that the fanatical Jesuit priest Laval followed the stories of great wealth, brought to the Peruvian waterfronts 'by the sailors of that day. Laval ,-shipped for Manga Reva and gained the confidence of King Mapateoa, who gave his people as slaves to the priest. This crazed Jesuit built a palatial palace for the king, and an immense cathedral, the roof and walls of which were set with mother of pearl shell. To this cathedral King M-apateoa gave a great pearl which Laval placed on the high altar, and an immense necklace of black pearls was placed upon the statue of the Madonna. ,As slaves to Laval the Mangareviais worked and perished, leaving a great church on every atoll. The French authorities,...who had Ibeen out of touch with this lonely outpost, heard of the priest's madness and the tragic end of thousands who had been pressed into slavery. Laval was removed from Magna Reova, but the damage had been done. His body lies to-day in a crypt in front of the high altar of his great cathedral, and the famous pearls now have a place among the most valuable jewels of the Pope's collection. Shepherd of Rapa. Pitcairn's neighbor to the northwest is the strangely-shaped Island of Rapa, which was discovered by Vancouver during the year following the arrival of the mutineers at Pitcairn. This island, which is 20 miles in circumference, is a paradise hidden from the world. Lying in. the gentle sub-tropics, with great fertile valleys and flowing streams, it posessses a fine harbor called Aural, is owned by the French, and peopled by a handful of primitive natives and a lone Englishman, who shepherds a flock of sheep and expects a boat when he sees one, and even then is often disappointed.

I met this man on my journey across the Pacific ; he had left Rapa to buy sheep in New Zealand, and hhd spent six months waiting for a likely ocean tramp to take him home. There was a time when ten thousand natives lived on the fruits of that beautiful land. To-day that race has, dwindled to a few hundred, and its fruits lie rotting on the ground. Skeleton Isle. Henderson or Elizabeth Island, as it is sometimes marked, is a closer neighbor to Pitcairn, lying only two hundred.miles to the north-east. It is a low-lying island, of about fifteen miles in circumference, and is undulating and well timbered. It is solely inhabited by pelicans, rats and skeletons, and the only permanent water to be found there is available at springs which ooze through the sand at low tide. The Pitcairners first noticed this island in 1843, when 11 sons of the mutineers sailed there in a whaler, the America. In 1851, no less than 30 Pitcairners visited the island . in an old shellback, the Sharon of Fairhaven, for the purpose of securing timber to build their homes and boats with, as large timber was scarce on Pitcairn. An exhaustive search was made for water, which, besides the springs on the beach, was found on the northwest side of the island, slowly dripping from the roof of a cave. Upon reaching the foot of the cave, the Pitcairners were amazed ,to find a rope ladder dangling from its entrance, and, upon entering, they were shocked with the sight of two human skeletons, male and female, lying together in the cave. There were no marks or signs to give a clue to the mystery, all that could be found being a few perished scraps of clothing lying about the cave. "Island of Moon." Six other skeletons were also found lying in caves and portions of a wrecked ship were found on the beach. Five years ago Pitcairners visited" Henderson Island again, and saw the remains of the two skeletons in the large cave. What ship was it that left its bones on Henderson Island, and of whom were the two skeletons in the big cave who chose to die together? Man and wifeor lovers ? A little to the south-east of Henderson Island is the treacherous. coral isle of Ducie. Old Polyn.:sian chroniclers say that at one time Ducie was a great island known as Hite-Marama, which means the Island of the Moon. Pitcairn's nearest neighbor, the Oeno atoll, marked on all maps as "low and dangerous," is only 70 miles to the north. It is a thirsty, parched circlet of sand and monotonous solitude-of shattered wrecks and strutting bosun birds. Oeno atoll shares with Christmas Island the dubious honor of having collected the most wrecks in the Pacific. Each chapter of Pitcairn's strange history is linked to this cursed coral isle, whose name has been written so indelibly into the hearts of every Pitcairn woman. (To be continued.)