TRIBAL FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 351, 31 March 1910, Page 3

TRIBAL FIGHT.

IN. NORTHERN TI'"i;kITORY. MARAUDERS HACKED TO DEATH. James Runcie McPhmon, who arrived at Port Darwin recently in hit lugger from a trepanging expedition j»loug the coast to eastward, reporc* that while working in Rolling Bay he witnessed a singularly ferocious and fatal tribal fight between 50 Junction Bay natives employed ::y him in trepanging and a maraud : ng expedition of Liverpool River natives numbering 30 or 40 braves. The fight took place on a cleared space near the seashore. McPherson pulled ashore to his smokehouse on the morning of January 24, and noticed that only a few of his working natives were about He was told they were expecting a light with hostile natives. About 4 p.m* th<tt day a peculiarly blood-curdling ye!! rang ouc from some bushes about 200 away, and immediately following »fcf> scores of ghastly white-painted figures darted out from thick bushes on eifh?.- ride of the clearing at the rear of the smoke-house. The air was soon thvk 'with flying spears, and the combatants approached within 15 yards of eacT tther. The spears used were hnr°-, leavy barbed ones. The natives on oW c s'de showed amazing quickness in avoiding or warding off these barb-pointud ueath-dealers. In about a quarter of on Lour all the spears were broken. Oiv of the Junction Bay natives was then transfixed by a large spear as he was in the act of stooping to pick up a sp-'i.r thrown by an opponent. The tranffixing of this man seemed to fill both tides with ferocious fury. They immediately closed, and a furious hand 1 melee ensued. .

TOMAHAWKS AtfD IRON" BARS. The Junction: Bay natives .had an advantage in numbers and weapons, be-1 ing armed with knives, I<.roahawks and j iron bars 4ft long made from hatch battens taken from tbe wreck of the steamar Australian. Their opponents bad only ordinary bush waddies and woomeras. The iron biT S proved deadly weapons, inflicting ghastly wounds) wherever they struck. With.u half an hour the survivors of the nuiauding party -fled into the scrub, leaving 11 of their number on the field, 'itest were immediately hacked and beaten to death with tomahawks and bars. Those who fled were pursued, <»n<j McPherson thinks that few, if, any t scaped. On going ashore on the following morning McPherson found that a'.i the bodies had been cremated, only a few charred bones being left in the still smouldering fire. McPherson that a wonderful lot of odds am' miU from the steamer Australian U ,to be found among the natives. Hundreds of mile* down the coast in one camp he found a much-prized oval mirror which probably once adorned one f the steamer's saloon cabins.

The natives, of Liverpool River are of mi exceptionally treaehoruus and murderous character, as proved by several outrages perpetrated in the neighborhood during recent year* It was in this neighborhood thii two buffalo hunters named Moore and McKenzie were killed in 1898, ..lit in that case it was shown that the mm owed men had provoked the natives by forcibly abducting native womeff: The£ vep shot Witt their own rifles by two natives named Copperang and Nabaloora who later we're arrested, tried anc* sentenced to death. Owing to the proton facts-, howwt*r, the death sentence was commuted, and ifcft er remaining in g.iol for eleven months J lo ** l were released. They returned to own country and probably are still" alive, »*l may be more dangerous as the rWfft of their K' experience of the wMhd man's differed. ways. « A TREACHEROUS AlfAB& ,

It is only a few months sinct? that Mr. McPheraon narrowly <• scaped being speared to death while e*ir,ing on trepanging operations in the Liverpool i Eiver mouth. On thnt occasion, he was suddenly and treacherously attacked by a number of these natives while temporarily curing trepang All his own boys at this time were as* ay in canoe* gathering trepang. TEis fir-t intimation of danger was the auspicious swishing of a dozen or more large s>ptars through - the bough-covered struM •. re in which he was sitting smoking 1.110 half dreaming. Fortunately he -was armed with a rifle and revolver, and nireated back towaids the edge of the water, while fifteen or twenty yelling, dancing natives congregated on the *crub-covered bank behind the smoke-louse, and continued hurling spears Some of these he warded off with his rifle, and others he dodged; while springing to one side to avoill 'one spear another missile struck him on the pomt ef the hip. The sharp barbed point penetrated downwards nine inches' into the flesijy part of the thigh. At the moment he felt only a sharp twinge of pain, and broke the spear shaft off w'tfc his hand. He then fired and shot one of the natives, and the remainder disappeared in the scrub. Subsequently, on board his lugger, he made fast s I*.ti ■> ard to the broken spearhead, an.! himself dragged it out by main strength but eight of the barbed points broke off and remained in the wound. Nearly two weeks elapsed before he reached Port Darwin and he suffered agonies in the meantime, He wsi operated on at the Palmerston HospHa*. ,'«nd the eitrht broken barbed points wre extracted from the wound. Th's iro'df nt occurred in Jwlv, 1909. On the present occasion Mr. McPherson states th»* when he heard the signal crv come from the scrub, he was sitting on an upturned bucket near the smol-eTonse cutting up tobacco preparatory to haiing a comfortable smoke. A FASCINATED SPECTATOR.

He remained a passive and fascinated spectator to the whole gruesome tableau, which occurred within 100 yards of where he was sitt ; ng. The whirring rush of heavy speavs r. and fro, the ghost-like ways in which the wild, white painted forms on eai'h 310' avoid these, bounding high in the air, then leaping on one side, and at times dashing the gpears aside with cuts of their iwoomeras, or waddies. giving vent the while to wild yells anl hfirsh cries of defiance, made a weird n*d savage picture. When Mr. McPh<>. son's Junction Bay boy Billy was sop*eel towards the end of this due of spears, both sides appeared to go mad with fury, and become devoid of all cense «f fear. As Billy fell, transfixed by a great barbed spear, they "saw red." ■»i«-i, as if fired by mutual impulse, sidf« closed up, and a fierce nand-to-hani 1 ! melee ensued, such as Mr. McPher'on hAri never previously witnessed between ratives. In their horrible white iua?ke of warpaint, and with bTnzing eye? and every feature

instinct with the pure savage, devilish, and murderous lust f'r b'oyj I hey presented a fearsome a.iJ U-n jiving spectacle to the lonely unlool-ei .Air. Mc- ; Pherson, sickened by lJjp spectacle, started to walk down t Lis dinghey. Before ho reached hii 'l'.it, however, a dozen of the Junction P.jy boy; came running after him, iejiK--:.ulng li.'s rifle. Several were be»patter.'d vitb blood, and in their condition o ; murderous excitement, he deemed it wise to comply with their demand. He slipped out the cartridges, and immediately thereafter the weapon was plucked suddenly from his hand, and the wbob- party "dashed off in pursuit of their em mips. He ha." hardly got on board hi* iugger when some of them came ruining with the empty rifle, clamoring for cartridges, but to this demand he did not think it j wise to yield. ' The party of Junction Bay natives who went in pursuit of tl.ar foes did not return to camp unt'.' late the following day. When questioned by Mr. McPherson, they deniel having overtaken any of the Livcrj.iol River natives, but as several of tiiem bore dried bloodstains on their bodies', and they appeared completely exhausted. Mr McPherson believes f urthor fighting took j .place in the bush, and that few of the murderers lived to return to their I homes.

Polling Bay is a kind of neutral territory, situated between junction Bay and the Liverpool River, and the bulk, or more, of Junction Bay natives were employed by Mr. McPNnon in his trftpanging business. Mr. McPherson brought back with bim the Junction Bay-native, who was wounded, also the spear 'which caused the wound, and several other specimens "f the battle.