Massacre of an Exploring Expedition.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 69, 18 September 1896, Page 2

Massacre of an Exploring Expedition.

BARON VON NORBECK SPEARED TO DEATH, FIVE oftiik EXPEDITION KILLED [Per Press Association! Sydney, September lg. News has been received that the . natives of the Solomon Islands have ! massacred Baron Foullone Von Norbeck, the noted scientist. Midshipman Do Beauford, also two i blue jackets belonging to the Austrian I man-o'-war Albatross, and a native guide and four other sailors were seriously wounded. ] r>aron Von Norbeck was leading a scientific expedition, and landed at the i?laud of Guadalcanal when the natives attacked and upparod the party. Later. Details of Ghe massacre so far are meagre. The news was contained in a telegram received by the Admiral from Mr Woodford, Deputy-High Commissioner of the Solomons. It was forwarded to Cooktown by a specially chartered schooner. The Baron and party were exploring the interior of the island. Mr Woodlord headed the expedition which brought back the wounded. A second expedition to recoyer the dead bodies failed in its object. The warship Pylades has gone to the scene. The Albatross was placed at the Baron's disposal by the Austrian Government for t;ho purpose of scientific research, and had been cruising among the islands sicce May last. This Day. The Captain of a schooner brought sealed despatches from the Commander of the Albatross addressed to the Austrian Consul in Sydnc-y. He was also ordered to maintain tu<; strictest secrecy houcc the difliculty of learning details of tin; massacre. The despatches will reach the Consul to-day. The schooner made a longer passage than was anticipated, and the Albatross arrived at Cooktown simultaneously with the schooner's arrival at Brisbane. A petty officer nam^d Maras, of the warship, was admitted to the hospital on his arrival, suffering from a fracture of the skull, but died shortly afterwards. One story is that the expedition was followed by a large party of natives, and when it was some distance inland the natives arrived with axes, and made an attack on the members of the expedition and forced them to retire. The Solomons lie aOO miles east of New Guinea, and stretch GOO miles south east in nwo parallel chains. They are densely wooded, and the mountains rise 8000 feet high. The paople are constantly at war with one auotbe are cruel and savage cannibals, wear little or no clothing, and tatoo their bodies.