THE ROSARIO AND BISHOP PATTESON.

Evening Star, Issue 2811, 21 February 1872, Page 2

THE ROSARIO AND BISHOP PATTESON.

The Fiji Times was the authority for the statement that H. M.S. Rosario had killed 70 natives of Santa Cruz in retaliation for Bishop Patteson’s death ; and upon it the northern papers have been writing much after the Exeter Hall style, abusing Commander Markham in no measured terms. The telegram which came by way of A uck - land yesterday, told us that the report vvas a canard. The llosario attacked Santa Cruz, because two of licr men were assassinated

there. Santa Cruz and Nukapu, where the Bishop was murdered, are different islands, and their people and language are totally distinct. The Fowio’s visit to the islands was to st p the slave trade as far ns pos-iblc, as the following document will show ; “Norfolk Island, November Ist, 1871. Sir, —The surviving members of the Melanesian Mission desire in ill respects to carry out the work of the late Bishop on the principles laid down by him and accepted by them. His opin'ous on the use of armed force for the punishment of outrages committed by the inhabitants of the Mo anesian Islands were often expressed, and he protested by anticipation against any such punishment of those who mi,;hL cause his own death, or that of any member of the mission 1. Me held that armed force could never be rightly used to avenge a missionary, who of his own free will and choice had accepted and incurred the risk. 2. He was persuaded, by long experience in those islands, that the real guilt in such cases lies, not with those who commit such crimes, but with those who provoke them by their own outrages against the native inhabitants. Cordially accepting these principles, and knowing that the slave trade now prevailing in those seas is accompanied by continual outrages, more than sufficient to provoke—if they cannot justify—any hostility against _ white men visiting these islands, wo desire most respectfully and earnestly to protest to you against the use of the force under your command for the chastisement of the inhabitants of the Island of Nukapu concerned in the murder of Bishop Battespu. We desire, on the other hand, as earnestly and respectfully to entreat you to use all the means in your power to put a stop to the traffic which is devastating those islands in which Bishop Pattesou’s work was carried on.— (Signed bv the members of the Melanesian Mission at Norfolk Island.)-Addressed to Commander Markham, H. M.S. Kosario'”