NATIVE OUTRAGE AT BROOKER ISLAND.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 91, 28 June 1879, Page 2

NATIVE OUTRAGE AT BROOKER ISLAND.

Xoi'MEA, April i. 11.M.5. Cormorant, Captain Bruce, anchored here a few hours after the departure of the mail. She conies from a cruise of some months amongst the South Sea Islands, and reports the discovery of no less than forty or fifty shoals mid reefs not laid down upon the charts. These were caused, no doubt, during the volcanic disturbances which some months since so altered the soundings at Tanna Island, as you were advised. Cue important mission of the Cormorant was to inquire into the circumstances of the minder of Mr. Ingham, at Brooker Island. Captain Bruce asserts that the good results which would have followed the visit of the Cormorant were much lessened by the fact of the natives being forewarned by traders of what they had to expect. (in arriving at the place they cunningly pretended the most lamblike innocence, coming off in their canoe to trade, bringing isliml produce and conducting themselves in such a way thut Cantoin Bruce, being refused the aid he fully expected from the missionaries, found it impossible to treat such confidence in any way but a friendly manner, until, pcisovuriug in searching for proof of their culpability, the lvmains of poor Ingham's bout and the plunder were discovered by the search party. Then the " innocent" natives mode themselves scarce as before they had been " confiding. Possessed of the appliances and the determination to make their power known ('apt. Bruce soon convinced tho wretches of their powerlessness when one of 11. M. ships, doing mora than merely show li r teeth, proves she can bite, anil very hard 100. When tho murderers Med for protection to the other sido of the sheltering hills, distant a mile or two from the ship, they found themselves pursued by rocket shells, urn! which followed them "over the hills and far away," and bunt amongst then some thirty or forty seconds after the watchers on the lull tops laid wen the shot tired from the Vestal, They must have thought that the very '• devil," (their only god) was pursuing them to death. Mole especially when after the ship I,ml left, they found their villages devastated, though not u mail hail put his foot on shore. Captain Bruce very wisely punishing the ticichci-

ous cannibals in a most effective manner without useless risk to his crew, one man of which is of more value than the whole population ten times told of ouc of the " i '.iiiiuLal Islands." A new and very peat danger is being fostered by traders amongst tlie South Sea Island; one of the ai-ticles most in demand by the islanders is dynamite! Will the greed for money pause at nothing with some people 1 It is devoutly to be hoped that those mercenary spirits who, for the take of gaining a few paltry shillings, place in the possession of these bloodthirsty blacks so powerful a weapon of destruction will be the first to fall a victim to its employment. Sooner or later there is little doubt but some of these cunning fellows who have spent years amongst the whites in QHeensluud, New Caledonia, or Fiji, who speak good English or French, and are porfuctly acquainted with the use of many articles of Civilised life, including the death-dealing dynamite, will blow some vessel to pu-ces with this explosive. What easier than for these cunning fellows to visit a vessel in the most friendly spirit, rind out if she has plenty of trade on board, then at a given signal the eanoes all leave (he vessel. One of the best speaking, most friendly fellows, remaining on board till the eanoes are at a safe distance, when he drops his charge of dynamite in the ship, plunges overboard, diving like a fish, and coming up to see the vessel sinking, and the canoes returning to get their trade and the furnishing of a cannibal feast for nothing. Is there no power to make the selling of dynamite, to the South Sea Islander a crime severely punishable 'i There is surely enough murder and blood-shedding already amongst the Pacific Islanders. This dynamite question reminded Copt. Bruce of an expedition up the Niger, in Africa, the shores of which river he found lined with cannon of various calibre sold to the natives by the very merchants whose interest the expedition was sent to protect. Herald."