The Bamberg Herald

South Carolina Gazette.

Col. John F. Hobbs, now of New York, a graduate of Newberry college in the class of 1879, who is now in Newberry attending commencement, years ago started a journey to the far corners of the earth, his physician having advised him that the too close attention which he had given to the study of his profession, the law, had so broken down his health that if he remained in this country it was only a question of time with him, and that it was necessary for him to get his mind completely off affairs here.

During the course of his travels Col. Hobbs went around the world seven times, touching every land and sailing every sea.

How he became king of one of the tribes of the New Hebrides islands is only one of the many experiences—experiences which have come to very few who have loved to recount them.

Col. Hobbs is still king of that island, and there never will be another.

Speaking of how he became king Col. Hobbs said:

"As the vessel on which I had shipped was going into the New Hebrides, one of those fearful typhoons came. In a few minutes after its silver crest was seen the boat was in its grip, and we were parked on deck with our cork belts on. In half an hour the boat was knocked to pieces. I have never heard of another one being saved. It is popular to say that you were the only one. I hope that others will yet in life turn up. I floated for two days and a night with my cork belt around me, and was ultimately picked up by the native boat of one of the tribes to what afterwards became the kingdom over which I am forced to rule, because you can't resign. They think I am up in heaven with the great white Spirit Father—and I am glad somebody thinks I am good enough to be up there.

"They took me to this island, and for weeks I was in fear that they were fattening me for some royal feast. You learn quickly—necessity teaches you very fast—and I soon learned that I was a guest of honor; that I wouldn't be eaten.

Preparing for Fight

"I found that the natives were getting ready for a fight with an adjoining island, for which preparations had been in the making for five years. Before the fight occurred, a supposedly friendly vessel came in—one of those tramp things that knock about among the islands doing what damage they can, and doing good to nobody, and invited the natives to come aboard, as they usually do with gay ribbons and things to trade with them. They really came for a cargo of women to take down in Samoa and the Fiji and the Willis islands, to sell or trade to the chiefs or German plantation managers for wives. Many years afterwards I happened to be in those quarters again and I found only one of them. They had all died of broken hearts. They got these women below decks in the cabins, showing them various articles, forced the men up and off the boat, killing two or three of them because they resisted. I protested and demanded to be taken to the nearest consular station and they threatened me. I told them if they killed me it would mean the wiping of friendly traders off the South Pacific. They had had enough of that kind of trouble before, and they put me off with the natives.

"I was taken back to the head village, and in due course another trader came. This time it was an English vessel. They invited the natives aboard to trade. The natives wouldn't go, but invited them ashore by hanging up their articles of barter on the limbs of trees. Some of the crew came ashore—a boat load of them. As they sat around making their bargains, in the best way they could without the knowledge of each other's language, the native warriors lifted their clubs, and with one signal killed three or four of them. The others got back in their boats and to the vessel and went away.

How Promotion Was Won

"In due time a cruiser appeared off the village with the purpose of shelling it, which would have resulted in what we have often read about—the cutting down of the cocoanut groves and the burning of the villages. Fearing that this procedure would be followed in this case, I sent a request out to the captain of this little cruiser asking him for a conference with me and the head warrior chief of the Illikan tribes—which is more of a language than a race. So Roahouma, the head war chief and I went out, and I explained the whole situation to the captain and showed him how unjust things were. I said, 'Are you going to cut down these people's cocoanut groves that take so many years to grow, and burn their villages, because they are defending their wives and children?' He said, 'No, sir,' and he sailed away.

"That circumstance won me promotion, and I became a war chief of
the second grade. Eventually the fight came on between our 1,000 warriors and the 1,500 of the enemy. Like the old Greeks, and in the time of David and Goliath, the chiefs went out and fought the chiefs, and the men the men. I asked the King Oumalia, being the name under which every king ruled, to let me command a portion of the army; and while Raohouma took the others out in the open plain and waited for them to come through, I took my forces, created enough subchiefs in my division of 400 to meet the chiefs of an army of three or four thousand. I invited the enemy through a ravine, and we fell on the head of the column, and in 20 or thirty minutes we had them beaten—killing a number of them. They surrendered, and not only gave us their war equipment, but took food with us, and that meant we were superior friends thereafter and they would never fight us again.

Made War Prince.

"The king then made me a war prince, second in rank to Raohouma. The king died suddenly. He had no heirs, and the problem was to find a successor. The hodokai met an assemblage or parliament of the civil and military chiefs of the villages of the four islands of this government. The historian recited the history of the tribes, going back two hundred years. He found no precedent; it was necessary to start a new line. To have elevated a war chief or the head civil chief to the throne would have meant internicene strife for all time. So this tall, powerful athlete, the head war chief, turned to me. I was sitting on a mat looking on, as a newspaperman, instead of sitting in the council. He turned to me and said: The Great White Spirit Chief, didn't the great White Father leave him on the water hill (the wave) for us? Didn't he by his single hand send away the dreadful kalangawalia (which means the fearful winged thunder house—the cruiser)? Didn't he, with less than half our inferior army, defeat our superior army? Make him king.

"They then began, Oleali, oleali oleali,' (we agree, we agree), and he brought the wand over to me. As the News and Courier once said of me, being a good Democrat I accept the nomination. So that is how I became king of Illika. My wife, if she were in Illika, would be M'lalie. My oldest daughter Ethel would be Ouelia, 'the sweetest bud in the land.' My daughter Claire would be Ilyuda. My wife's name would mean the 'sweet softening spirit over all the land.'"

During this rule Col. Hobbs broke up cannibalism. He spent altogether about 18 months in Illika. He doesn't know that he will ever go back though he is still king.