NO PLACE FOR HIM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 6, 7 June 1913, Page 9

NO PLACE FOR HIM

MAN WHO REFUSED THRONE AND DUSKY PRINCESS.

The funeral of Captain Philip Henry Nicholls, a Devonshire man, who had a remarkable life of adventure on the high seas, took place the other day at the Southern Cemetery, Manchester. He was a splendid type of the bluff, brave seaman that Devon still breeds. His strangest experiences occurred in the Sulu Islands, in the Eastern Archipelago, where the native rulers welcomed him and bestowed heathen honors on him. The title of "Datto," the highest in the 'Debrett' of the islands, was conferred on him, and the local Sultan—His Highness Haji Mohammed Johmafai Kiram —gave him a diamond-studded sword. "You can have an island to rule over, noble sea captain," said the Sultan through an interpreter. Captain Nicholls accepted the regal gift quite light-heartedly, but he soon found out that the monarch's generosity carried with it a proviso unexpressed, but quite imperative. Tt was that he should marry one of the Sultan's daughters. Mr. Nicholls already had one wife at home in England. There was no way out. so he hurriedly gave his kingdom and all his royal prerogatives, matrimonial and ceremonial, back to the Sultan, and decided that a Sulu throne was no place for him. He knew that by declining, however politely, a Sulu bride, ho would upset the gentle Sulu folk, and therefore he tried unostentationusly to ■leave the hospitable land. His fear was well grounded, for as he left his little vessel was attacked by the islanders. "I should not have minded being a king and ruling an island," the captain declared long afterwards, "but T did not want to marry a dusky princess." Captain Nicholls had exciting encounters with pirates. His little three-masted schooner Uncle Tom was once cleared for an out-of-date action after the captain had lnid a difference with a Spanish war vessel in Sulu. But the Spanish Commander and Captain Nicholls discussed the casus belli over lunch, and the affair ended in bottles instead of battles. After bidding farewell to the Princesses and pirates, savs the Star. Captain Nicholls settled down to a much more peaceful and prosaic life in Manchester as a corporation sanitary inspector.