Melancholy Death of Dr. Beraz.—By the arrival yesterday of the Nettie Merrill from Lahaina, intelligence was received of the finding on Tuesday morning last, of the dead body of Dr. H. Beraz, a much esteemed German physician residing on East Maui, under circumstances that indicate that he was either drowned in crossing the gulch of Kapia, orthat he had met with foul play.  A letter from an intelligent native, Mr. Aholo, relates the following circumstances: “On Thursday, April 4th, Dr. Beraz left Mr. Unna’s house and went to the Catholic Mission, reaching there at 10 p. m., and stating that he was going to visit a sick woman further on. The priest urged him to stop for the night, as it was very dark and rainy. The Doctor, however, insisting upon going, the priest loaned him a cloak. This was the last heard of him until Friday morning, when the cloak and the saddle cloth of the horse ridden by the Doctor were found on the beach by a policeman, who recognized the cloak as belonging to the priest, by whom it was also identified as the one loaned to the Doctor. At first it was supposed that the articles found had been dropped by the Doctor, but as Saturday and Sunday passed, without hearing from him, anxiety was felt, and on Monday morning search began to be made. Two women who were engaged in picking limu  at the beach, discovered the body in a hole in the rocks, and on its being taken out it was recognized at once to be that of the unfortunate Doctor Beraz. It was quite destitute of clothing save a tie and collar on the neck, and was much bruised and beginning to decompose. The skull was fractured, and the hair, teeth, and beard gone. It was buried  on Tuesday, in the burial ground of the Catholic mission.” We learn further that the Sheriff of Maui had gone to Hana to make every possible investigation into the circumstances. Dr. Beraz was a young man, of about 30 years of age, a native of Bavaria, and had resided on these islands about two years. He came here principally to pursue his favorite study of ethnology, and was much esteemed as a cultivated gentleman and a successful and humane physician and surgeon. The community of Maui will much miss him.

(PCA, 4/13/1872, p. 3)

Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Volume XVI, Number 42, Page 3. April 13, 1872.