CRUISE OF H.M.S. BLANCHE.

Southland Times, Issue 1681, 27 December 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

CRUISE OF H.M.S. BLANCHE.

(From the Sydaey Morning Herald, Nov. 16.) H.M.S. Blanche, six guns, Captain Cortl&nd H. Simpson, left Sydney, New South Wales, on 12th May, for th« South Sea Islands, with orders to visit as many islands, beche-de-mer fisheries, and pearl stations, as possible ; to obtain &11 the reliable information with regard to British subjects reported murdered, the practice of skull-hunting, treatment of islanders employed on fisheries and plantations, the practice of kidnapping ; and to collect information on these and all other subjects of interest. In the first place, it will be necessary to inform your readers that for some years there have been trading vessels running between Australia and the South Sea Islands, and this trade is fast increasing. The principal produce of the islands (which are exchanged for barter in the shape of tomahawks, knives, beads, cloth, pipes, tobacco, &c.) is cocoa-nut oil, copra from the cocoanut, beche-de-mer, pearls, pearl shells, and tortoiseshell. The practice of skull-hunting is a most barbarous custom of the natives of these islands, who in many cases, undoubtedly, have been assisted by the white men, brought abcut in the following manner : — A vessel arrives at one of these islands, and the King is informed by the master of tbe vessel that he is desirous of trading and bartering. The answer is, that he has so much cocoanut oil, &c, which he is willing to part with for trade gear, provided be will allow some of his (the King's warriors) to take passage in the vessel to such and such an island with whom they are at war. This is agreed on, and a number of these so-called warriors are embarked. On arrival at the island, the unsuspecting natives, as usual, come alongside, when these socalled warriors suddenly attack, kill them, and cut off their heads, which are kept and placed on pegs in their taboohouse as trophies. The master of the vessel, on his return, secures the, trade ag before promised in exchange for tobacco, pipes, &c, as moat fancied and wanted by the natives. It is but right to state, that although it has been reported by the missionaries in these islands that white men have assisted in this barbarous practice of skull-hunting, vet no single case has been fully proved. Although none of the white men on board actually lent a hand in the murders committed, yetthe master ought certainly to be severely punished for his share in aiding and abetting, more especially as the natives of" the island where the murders are committed, thinking it is done for the white men, take the first opportunity of revenging themselves by murdering the next white men who come for trade. The practice is to kidnap the natives from these islands either by force or false pretences, and to take them to Queensland or Fiji, where they are engaged generally at from £15 to £25 each. They are employed on the sugar plantations, sheep walks, &c, labor being scarce (and very dear for white men) in the above-named places, and at the end of three years they are given about £5 or £10 worth of articles, and are sent back to their islands. During the Blanche's cruise she visited the Solomon, Caroline, Marshall, and Gilbert groups ; anil at all the islands visited — 25 in number — found the natives afraid of the man-of-war, and in consequence extremely well behaved and civil. The natives of the Solomon Islands are supposed to be the most treacherous and bloodthirsty of any known savages ; they are the most inveterate cannibals, and apparently their sole object in life is to get each other's heads. They are not, however, a courageous race, rarely, if ever, fighting openly, but attacking suddenly, and from the rear. At Isabel Island, Solomon Group, they have a curious mode of building bouses in the trees, which is peculiar to this island only. The tree village visited was built on "the summit of a rocky steep mountain, about 800 ft. above the sea, and was very difficult to ascend ; the native path, which, without a guide, could hardly have been discerned, being very slippery, and leading through a wood thickly grown with bushes, creepers, &c. On arriving at the summit of this mountain, which was one of enormous rocks, amongst which were growing the gigantic trees, in the branches of which the houses of the natives are built. The

stems of these trees are perfectly smooth, without a branch for some 50ft to 120 ft. One house was visited, which was Borne 70ft to 80ft from the ground, and the ascent was by means of a ladder, made of some pliable tree, or very strong creeper, somewhat resembling the vine. This ladder is made fast to a post within the house, and can be pulled up at pleasure. The houses are firmly and well made, capable of containing a dozen people, and are used at night to sleep in when threatened by their enemies, so as to guard against surprise, all of them being fortified with a number of large stones, which the occupants throw with great dexterity and precision. At the foot of these trees is the day hut, used for eating, &c. At one of the villages on the seashore of Isabel Island a most sickly and repulsive sight presented itself. Across the door of the chiefs house were nailed 23 or 25 human heads, taken about three weeks previously by this chief and his followers, from some of his fellowislanders, who, they stated, had turned bushmen. The attack had been made from the rear, as was evident by the skulls ; the flesh was still on the bones, the eyes protruding, jaws broken, and the stench frightful; the bodies of all these men had been eaten. At M'Askill Island, Solomon Group, we obtained seven large turtles for about 2£lb of tobacco, which cost 8d a pound at Sydney. These turtles averaged 1101 b of flesh each when killed and cut up, being at the rate of 331 b a penny. At Lugunor Island, Caroline Gnmp^ j where it is doubtful if any white men had been for years, as no sign of traffic was found, the men wore their hair in regular European fashion, chignons being commonest, which were kept iip by a comb having four teeth. The top part of tbe comb that was visible being carved, and the whole surmounted with a cock's feather, it gave them rather an effeminate appearance. At Hogolu Islands, Caroline Group, the natives were very much frightened, having entirely deserted during the mght the village off which the Blanche anchored. The next day, seeing a number of canoes collected together, a boat was sent to endeavor to persuade them to come alongside and barter. After a time the boat succeeded in getting 1 amongst them. They were all quite naked, painted in regular savage style, and the buats loaded with spears, slings, and stones. They eventually came alongside, and were very friendly. At St. Matthias' Island, Solomon Group, no anchorage could be found. The natives came down to the beach in great numbers, and seemed very anxious for the vessel to stop, shouting and gesticulating in the most absurd manner. Both men and women were quite naked. The latter wore a sort of apron behind. At New Hanover, Solomon Group, it is very doubtful if white men had ever been there before, as the natives were ignorant of the use of tobacco, and took in exchange for their spears, &c, of which they brought for barter, paper, printed or not, and when obtained they knew not what to do with it. They were arrant thieves, and very expert. One was detected stealing a shirt, which was hung up some distance inside a port, and, when chastised by the indignant owner, smiled pleasantly, apparently only sorry at being detected. Visited the 3.E. coast of New Guinea, but it was so full of shoals at even four or five miles from the land, that it was dangerous to proceed, so had to turn back after anchoring for one night. The natives came off to us in very large canoes, having enormous outriggers. They were fine-looking men, quite naked, not very dark in color.and wore their hairfrizzledout At Bonham Island, Marshall Group, Lieutenant T. T. A. Smith died of remittent fever after a few days' illness ; he was buried on shore with the usual salute of three volleys, in the native cemetery ; and the ship was detained while the carpenters made a headstone of wood for his grave. His loss was much felt. The Blanche arrived at Sydney yesterday, 189 days since leaving, during which time the vessel had been over 13,000 miles of water, being 70 miles a day, including all stoppages, anchored at 25 islands, passed close to about 30 others. The engines halve made 226,671 revolutions, and the ship's company had eight days' fresh meat and 181 of salt meat.