THE FIJI MASSACRE.

Evening Star, Issue 3150, 25 March 1873, Page 3

THE FIJI MASSACRE.

INQUEST ON MR AND MRS BURNS AND FAMILY.

(From The Fiji Times, 15 th February.)

About half-past 7 on Tuesday morning, 4th February, some of the imported labor from Mr Burns’s plantation arrived at Barawai, stating that the mountaineers had killed Mr Burns and his wife. Mr Macintosh immediately despatched Messrs. Stirling and M'Grath with about forty imported labor to render assistance. In about half an hour they got in sight of the wretches and saw them coming out of the house as thick as bees. When they saw the two white men coming they quietly walked away. Stirling and MT-rath followed them up the plantation until they crossed the river, where they managed to fetch down one at a long distance. In looking about the plantation they found the bodies of Mr and Mrs Burns, sorao distance from the house, both quite naked and mutilated. In a short time after, nearly all the settlers on the river were on the place. At the examination of the bodies, I saw that Mr Burns had been clubbed and tomahawked. His brains were beaten out, bottom jaw broken, two deep cuts on left breast, and one on the breast bone. He was found in the middle of the plantation, the place where be was murdered. One of the Tanna men ran to bis assistance, and took a tomahawk which Mr Burns had hold of with his left baud from a mountaineer. Mr Burns shot the Kai Colo through the head with his revolver. At the same time a great number more came up and surrounded him. He only managed to shoot two of them before they managed to give him his death blow. The Tanna man ran to the river, and got away. Mrs Burns, poor lady, must have suffered agony, by the look of her. She must have received two cuts with an axe or tomahawk on the top of her left shoulder on the first attack ; her left hand was raised to the wounds, and still remains in the same position, now in her grave. She had a cut under her left jaw, part of her teeth down her throat, and two holes, one on each side, just above the hips, evidently made with a spear, which had passed through her body before she fell. I had a spear in my hand, no doubt the same that had been through her. It was about Oft. long, and deeply stained withbloodTft. up. 1 believe her death was caused by a club. The back of her head was beaten in, and a small pan ion of her brains out. She must have been killed at one corner of the house under the verandah, for I saw a large pool of blood, some long hairs, and her back comb broken in pieces altogether on the floor. She was then stripped naked, part of ker dress torn into shreds, which i picked up saturated with blood. Then they dragged her by the hair of the head, the trail of her body on the ground plainly to be seen, to the place where she was found, some distance up the plantation, face downward, with nothing on her but her wedding-ring, which is now in the possession of Mr 1C nnedy,[and which will soon be in the hands of her brother. The mountaineers, no doubt, were taking her away with the intention of eating her, but were too closely pursed by Stirling and M'Grath, and compelled to leave her. When the unfortunate lady saw her husband being murdered she sat down to write a note, supposed to be to some of us for help, but evidently had no time. Their cook, a Tanncse, said to her, ‘ Come to the boat.” “ They are gone, except the large one,” she replied, “and it is too far in the river.” Not being able to swim a d leave her babes behind in the hands of those bloodthirsty villains, she could not make an attempt at the water. The above statement was hiade to me by the Tanna man himself, who took to the water and got away. The little boy was found outside the house, with a deep cut on the right side of his head and three deep cuts in his right groin, and his little head clubbed to a pulp. The little girl, an intant, was a shocking sight It would appear they had taken her by the legs, and dashed her brains out against the post of the bedroom door, and them dropped the child amongst its scattered brains. The four bodies were brought and laid out under the verandah side by side. As far as I can ascertain at present there are ten Erromanga men, five Tanna men, and one Solomon woman killed. Two Tanna men found with their legs cut off, and carried away by the mountaineers; also several

other bodies, no doubt for a cannibal feast. A number of clubs, spears, &c , were picked up in and about the house, which, by their appearance, have done a gre it deal of work in murder and destruction of property. After ransacking everything, they commenced to destroy all they possibly could. Some money, a cheque, and other valuable papers, letters, a clock, jewellery, and a gold watch were found all over the floor amongst the wreck. Papers, (fee., recovered in good preservation. Everything in the bedroom, with the exception of one large mirror and medicine chest, unbroken, wore taken away. A bundle of clothes was picked up by some of the imported labor, far up the plantation. Another small bundle was also picked up with a lot of cartridges, some baby’s shoes and clothing, and a piece of Mrs Burns’s hair, no doubt pulled out of her bead for the purpose of making threads for small beads, with which to ornament their clubs and other murderous weapons. In the kitchen they had thrown everything all over the floor, which was coveted with beans, rice, flour, tea, &c. They were very successful in taking away a number of guns, I think not leas than twenty, but they did not get much ammunition.

In the afternoon it was decided that the bodies of Mr and Mrs Burns and the two children should be taken to Rarawai, and bo buried beside the murdered bodies of Messrs Macintosh and Spiers. Four white men, and some of Macintosh’s laborers, volunteered to stop and take charge of the place that night. We arrived with the bodies at Rarawai about three o’clock. With the permission of Mr Macintosh, 1 got some of his boards, made a shell, and put the four bodies into it ; and, with the assistance of some laborers, I lowered them into the grave that night, as we found they would not keep until next day. [To be continued.)