FIJI.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 825, 26 September 1870, Page 2

FIJI.

FRIGHTFUL SLAUGHTER OF FLTIA.NS. MURDER AND CANNIBALISM. IHji Times, July 23. \ We have just heard frightful news from Ba, on the North-west Coast of Yiti Levu. For some time past the Ba people have been at war with the mountaineers, and a few have been killed on both sides, but a letter just in from the native minister informs us of a fearful massacre. The mountaineers fromNavosa came down to Nalotu, an inland district, hitherto subject to Ba, and the advanced fortress, or Bri nimua, of the Ba people. They put up a war-fence, and then Wavvabalavu, the Navosa chief, called out and said: "You Nalotu people, lam Wawabalavu. lit was who ate Mr Baker and the Bau men. Do you trust to the Lausakau people? Don't, their trade- is fishing. You offer peace offerings make submission that you may live." The Nalotu people were filled with fear, and presented peace offerings. The mountaineers then entered their towns, ana remained for a few days in apparent friendliness, but their number was being continually increased by new arrivals from the hills. They then turned round suddenly upon the Nalotu people and slaughtered 370 pf them. That so many have been killed is beyond doubt. Silas, the native minister who lives at Ba, writes:—"The Navunivasi town, 171 killed ; Drantani, 114; Koroikewa, 58 ; Nasag, 27 ; altogether, 370. This number clubbed is clear, but there are many still missing, who are hiding in the jungle, or have been taken prisoners of war to Navasa. Perhaps they are killed, but their bodies have not yet been found. Only 104 have escaped alive to Ba." The heathen say that the next town they will attack will be Sagunu, the chief town of the Ba district. It is thought that Nabeka a noted cannibal Ba chief, who is envious of Tui Ba, is one with Wawabalavu in this treachery ; and we shall probably soon hear that Sagunu has met with the same fate as Nalotu. We hear of several whites going to settle in the Ba district. In our opinion, they could not settle in a more unsafe neighbourhood. There is no intermediate tribe between the mountaineers and Ba, now that Nalotu has. fallen, and neither Sagunu nor any other Ba town is safe for the present. The Lasakau warriors leave today, by order of Cakobau, to protect Sagunu ; but they are few and feeble compared with the mountaineers. Sooner or later, either by Cakobau or the white residents, or both combined, the Viti Levu mountaineers will have to be subjugated.

Captain Field, of the Mary Ann Christina, informs us that on board the Colleen Bawn, at Tanna, he met with Jimmie Lasulasu, who has long since been rockoned with the dead. Our readers will remember that a boat which left Levuka for Nasavusavu about twelve months ago, with seventeen New Hebrides labourers," their employer, Mr Norman, late of Sandhurst, near Melbourne, and the aforesaid Jimmie, never reached its destination. The boat was thought to have been wrecked, and all on board lust. Jimmie Lasulasu informed Captain Field that when on their way to Nasavusavu the natives took possession of the boat, compelling them to steer first one way and then another, and threatened to kill them if they did not land them on their own island. On the seventeenth day they murdered Mr Norman, splitting his head open with a tomahawk. They cooked and ate the body, thrusting portions of his cooked companion into the face of Jimmie. The journey was long, and with no food or water on board, the hardships may be imagined. The natives died one after the other, till by a lucky chance the boat was cast upon the shore reef of an island only twenty mile 3 from that to which they belonged. Jimmie has been living on that island for the last twelve months, and was perfectly nude when rescued by the Colleen Bawn a week or two since. Mr Norman was a highly respectable settler, who, besides his plantation at Fiji, had a grocery business at Sandhurst, in charge of which he left his wife, now his widow, when he came down here. He procured the labourers from the William and Julia. They had been engaged and brought here by Captain M'Liver, and some who came with them are said to be now on Mi' Scott's plantation at Vic'o. A report reaches us of the murder of a man named Malonry, by some white men, on the Sigo Toko River.