THE, CARL TRAGEDY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 302, 19 December 1872, Page 5

THE, CARL TRAGEDY.

His Honor then, in a most impressive and solemn manner, passed sentence of. death upon Joseph Armstrong and Charles Dowden.

The following remarks made by the judge who' sentenced Armstrong and Dowden to death for the horrible massacre on board the ship Carl, will be read with interest: — His Honor said that he entirely concurred in the finding of the jury, and was quite satisfied that the evidence given by Dr. Murray, the seamaD. and the passenger Wilson, was substantially correct. Such horrible transactions as these men had related were seldom hetfrd of iv any court of justice. Their evidence was a detailed statement of revolting crimes perpetrated by them and by the prisoners — crimes of such a terrible nature aa to be hitherto almost unknown to civilised men. The account given by any one of the Ithree persons referred to revealed a mass of treachery, falsehood, and cruel wrong, which no honest man could listen to unmoved, or think upon without indignation. By falsehood and by treachery tha natives were lured to come on board to be deprived of their liberty, and when falsehood was not enough terrific violence was used. The canoeß of the poor creatures were smashed, and the "natives thrown into the sea to the risk of their lives, and doubtless to the death of many. And when any of these men, so brutally and cruelly used, " were troublesome " (for that was the term .that had been coolly, used) whenever they did not submit to be captured that they might be deliberately sold into slavery — means were taken to make them more manageable, and they were struck on the head and on the arms, with clubs and bags of shot. In this way these powerful men (who had been eventually masacred) had been overpowered by the prisoners, and by those who acted with them. This in itself was bad ; in its cold, heartless cruelty and baseness, most revolting. It was something that shocked all sense of civilisation. And what was it all done for? For the low and paltry desire of ill-gotten gain ; that men who ought to have been civilised men might sell a poor, helpless, savage race of men. There was no doubt about the crime, and the circumstances under which vifcwas committed. The prisoners had found a slave market at Levuka, and that market they had bestirred themselves to supply. It was absurd to suppose that those* for whom these men were procured were ignorant of the means employed to get them; Of course they knew all about it. It was a supply of stolen men presumed to be obtained under the sanctiQn of a Government, and by its license — and it. was to be hoped that that "Government" would now, at all events, open its eyes to the nature of such an abuse committed under the license of its Dam-, Who could listen to such a catalogue of wrongs as had been that day described, and remain unmoved ? These horrors bad been detailed by one of those who shared in the guilt with compunction, but by two others the thing had been described without the slightest apparent sense of having done anything wrong. Not only that, but more. The atrocity of firing down upon these poor captured creatures, cooped up together in the hold of the. Carl, was. committed, and was coolly justified as an act of selfdefence. Could it be possible to delude anybody into believing what was so transparently false ? These unfortunate men were shot down in the dark hold of the Carl by scores ; the hold being transformed, in one night, into a human slaughter-house full of victims, and theu the ship waß cleared. The murdered dead were first thrown overboard, and then the wounded and dying men were brought up on deck. These living outraged men are thrown overboard too — flung into the deep water, one by one, with the life blood still flowing in their veins — the living as well as the dead. There could be no possible pretence for this cruel deed. In the unfeelingness of the hearts of all on board, the living wounded men (whose only crime against the captain, owner, and crew of the Carl was that they had vainly tried to regain their lost liberty), were ruthlessly pitched overboard, not one voice being raised in their defence. It pained him (the judge) deeply to think that some who were quite as guilty as the two prisoners be permitted to escape. It was a stain upon the Government, upon this community, upon the administration of justice, that the ringleaders of ,air these atrocities — the chief mover and instigator of all these acts, the man Murray who had employed the unhappy, prisoners to act against the islanders, in the. way that he had described, should nevertheless, escape. ;;Coiild Jit be possible: that the man whose ;y^icp';;'.waB;^p^-iraiBed ,)to» ;^denpunce'vthem;;' , ; ;for^Ka^^he4hlad. led, ; d i o : ;;:hadi >gonjBAlD*^ 7^r|pen||ii^| |||^^^^Kq|e|||^t|jbi3shwJ •;*;