The Superior Times

A Captive in the South Seas.

Australia is ringing with the story of Luigi Boero, lately rescued from the South Sea savages. Captain McLaughlin, who explored 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 some difficulty and danger ransomed for three American hatchets. He was an Italian named Luigi Boero, and had been for fifteen months a captive with the savages. When he found he was about to be liberated he embraced Captain McLaughlin in an agony of joy. Boero, with five mates left Liki Harbor to go on a cruise in an open boat. Three days afterward they struck a reef, the boat was broken, and they fell into the hands of the natives. He got separated from his companions, whom he only once afterward saw. All were treated worse than dogs. They were the slaves of every one, and made to do horrible work, always treated with the greatest ill-usage, and obliged to work naked in the sun, with their skin peeling off. Captain McLaughlin, after rescuing Luigi, sailed for Boughanville and other islands, where he heard of another white man in captivity, but was unsuccessful in rescuing him. It is supposed that this unfortunate Italian is the only survivor of the six.