Missed

Another Arcadia That

Story ot the Percy Edwards"

. , A REQUEST by a correspondent, in the J uly “P.I-M.”, for some details of „, the career of the brigantine “Percy Edwards” has brought forth the story of a strange expedition, Mr. P. Hill, of 844 Military Roaa Mosman, Sydney, gives the following ex tracts from “ a story of great length”- The American ship “Big Bonanza' arrived in San Francisco in 1896 and her skipper, Captain Bergmann, reported that while his shin was becalmed off the is land of St. John, in the Hermit Group

they found that the island was populated entirely by “dusky amazons”—ladies who were ready and willing to entertain visitors.

When they spread this story around, people laughed at them. But a company was started, with shares at fifty dollars; and soon they had a hundred share holders. The company was called the “United Brotherhood of the South Seas”.

The shareholders included 50 young men, who were to go to the island of St. John, to start a colony—a sort of Arcadia.

The brigantine, “Percy Edwards”, of 189 tons register, was bought for 3,000 dollars.

She sailed from San Francisco on Febru ary 25, 1897, with Bougainville, in the Solomons, as the final destination. They called at Honolulu, thence to Levuka, and thence to Suva.

The authorities refused to let the party land at Bougainville, so the Brotherhood was abandoned, and they sailed for New Zealand.

On the way they ran into dirty weather, and the old vessel began to leak. The course was set for New r Caledonia, where the “P.E.” was sold for 4,000 dollars to a French trader, who was said to have used her as a “blackbirder”.

From then on the “P.E.” was not heard of, but in 1914 the “bones” of an old ship on the beach at Noumea were identified, without hestitation, as that of the “Percy Edwards”, by an elderly man who was once a cadet on her.