Treasure Hunt ends in Suicide

[jeff of pa]

The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.), 16 Jan. 1909.




https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...ext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

 

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[Ryano]

wow - hail to the chief !

 

[Honest Samuel]

Sorry for the lost of lives. God bless.

 

[Samanthy]

How NOT to do a treasure hunt!

 

[Rebel - KGC]

AGREE!

 

[KANACKI]

Some times a story is nothing what it seems.

Kanacki

 

[BillA]

put on your rubber boots, perhaps even a snorkle
just where did the dynamite come from?

congrats Jeff, it stuck on the wall

 

[KANACKI]

I know the island of Malaita well. Its a long island with a huge bay in the north and down in the south there is a small strait almost like a river that cuts the southern tip of island in two. The Island was no go zone up till about the 1890's when massacres was common. Blood feuds was common. Each areas of the island has different languages but commonality in some words. The was in their day fierce warriors and cannibals. Around 1897 a group of miners from California arrived in the Solomon island on a a neat little schooner called Sophie Sutherland.

At this time, there was no central power among the groups on Malaita, and there were numerous blood feuds, exacerbated by the introduction of Western guns, and steel tools which meant less time constraints for gardening. Around 1880, Kwaisulia, one of the chiefs, negotiated with labour recruiters to receive a supply of weapons in exchange of workers, this weapon supply gave the chiefs considerable power. From those experiences with black birders where massacres was aplenty on both sides. The Malaitans was distrusting on white men and refused permission for gold seekers to search Malaita for gold.

While the 18 miners that came on the Sophie Sutherland found traces of gold on Guadalcanal they was not permitted by chiefs to search Malaita. However it did not deter this alleged captain spinning a yarn about being blood brothers in premise that gold might be found on Malaita. Hence the voyage of the wheat-sheaf in 1909. But as we know the trip was a failure because there is no gold on Malaita. The Captain told porkies on the vain believe that his story was a means to an end. Unfortunately it financially devastated those hopeful prospectors that poured their live savings into a voyage based on a lie. One of the investors Mason killed himself because of this.

Such as many of these hopeful stories appeared around the turn of the century.

Kanacki