THE MASSACRE OF LIEUTENANT BOWER AND PARTY.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1318, 9 December 1880, Page 3

THE MASSACRE OF LIEUTENANT BOWER AND PARTY.

From the narrative in the Sydney Morning Herald, we give the following particulars in amplification of the narrative in Tuesday's paper :— The following are the men whom Lieueuant Bower took with him in the whaleboat:—Francis Savage, A.8., Benjamin Venton, of Bethunl Green, London, A.8., Alfred Came, Southwark, London, A.8., "William Patemon, Belfast, Ireland, A.B , and John O'Neil, Southwark, London, A.B. Came and O'Neil got leave to bathe, and splashed into the water. Venton was told off to look after the boat, to spread out the gear, aud to dry it and the boat ; and Lieutenant Bower, with Savage and Patf.rson. went along the beach to do a little more surveying. They went a short distance, and then Patorson returned for sonvthinjr. Soon after, Savage heard yells, and running back, he srw a crowd' of about fifty natives whirling round the boat and more hurrying through the bush. Returning to the captain, he shouted, "The boats attacked;" and the captain also returning to sue the truth was espied by the natives, six of whom broke off and ran for him. He cried, "My God, Savage, it is a case !" and darted into the bush. Savage saw no more of him, but subsequently learned that he had eluded pursuit by climbing a tree. It was now between 5 and 6 o'clock, just growing dusk, and the sky cloudy ; and bavage, as he doubled and zigzagged through the thickets, which readied to the water's edge, knew that his only chance of life was to get away from Nogu ; so, after a brief rest, he plunged into the sea, and struck out for a little island near the mainland. . . On Monday, Savage's life was once more in danger, for he was taken round to Barranago Bay, and all the males in the tribe, about 500 men and boys, assembled for a erand council. Savage was in the centre, and, from looks and gestures, he could see that he was being spoken of, but definite information he could not obtain, since to every question the English-speaking native returned only a grant. Afterwards this man became more communicative, and confided to him that he was quite safe now, and would be kept until Louis (Captain Nixon, of the Pacific), came along. The party then took to fishing with no less civilised an acent than dynamite, which they knew perfectly how to use. The captive saw in their possession Snider rifles and plenty of ammunition. The chief was one Timbacora. The interpreter, who was Captain Nixon's trading agent, gradually told Savage of the fate of his companions. The tree into which Bower climbed was a very conspicuous one, situate near the shore, but the captain expected to escape observation there. The murderers sought him in vain that night, but next morning they paddled all round the island, and seeing him in the tree landed and shot him twice through the body with the rifles taken from the boat. He dropped to the earth, and then a scene of nameless horrors ensued. When found, his body was naked, headless, and divested of the riant arm, and great pieces of flesh were stripped from the back. The men who were bathing had been clubbed at once ; Paterson, taTten from behind, had shared the same fate ; but Venton, who had time to seize a boat-stretcher, fought hard for his life, as la native afterwards admitted. "One man very strong," *aid the interpreter to Savage, " plenty tight. The attacking party thought Savage drowned, but asO'Neil'sbody was not discovered by the Sandfly, though the interpreter said fiwunen were killed, it » likely that it was left in the water where the poor wretch was struck down. Savage was told that the arms got in the boat were "five rifle, one small, fellow rifle (a Savage remained jjear Barraugo Bay

until Thursday afternoon, when his signals were perceived by the Saudfly. Mr Bradford sent the skiff for him. On Friday morning the Sandfly went to Nogu Island, which is shaped like a pear, the thick portion wooded, and the stalk a bare sandspit. On this sandspit, visible a mile away, were two stakes bearing a crossbar, to which the headless body of Venton was bound. The biceps muscle was cut through to the bone, and the wrists were slashed across; he was covered witli tomahawk cuts, and the contraction of the fingers told what his death agony had been. It may have been that he was tortured before he died ; he was the only one who was able to strike a blow, and the only one whose body' was so treated. Further on, lay the headless bodies of Came and Paterson ;and a little way in the bush Mr Coughlan discovered the captain's body under the tree where he was shot. They buried the remains, read the service over them, and then returned to Barranago, the only safe anchorage near. On Saturday Coughlan returned to Nogu for a rifle left behind, on the preceding day; and on Sunday Mt Bradford and eight men, well armed, went into Rita Bay to see if there were any sijjns of the whaleboat. All that they saw was a jumper lying on the j beach, and one of the men went for it. It proved to belong to Savage. They could not get the vessel into Rita Bay ; and on Sunday, October 31, Mr Bradford and his crew again pulled in, in the teeth j of a heavj fire from concealed natives, j They returned the fire, landed, discovered two water-casks, burned the village, and were just embarking when fire was opened on them again. RoborJ; Buckle, A.8., was shot through the heart, and a seaman named Whitlook was wounded in the left forearm. On Monday, November 1. the Sandfly weighed anchor for Sydney. | The Syduvy Midi has the following j respecting the boat's erew :— Leading seaman Savage speaks in the moat kindly terms of the king in whose custody he remained during a few days, stating that his majesty made him a sort of aide-de-camp, and entrusted him with an old horse-pistol ; but he does not look back with very pleasurable recollections on the consultation during which the issue was his life or death. The verdict was, fortunately for him, in his favor, and, though neither the plate nor the cutlery were of the choicest, he had no reason to \ complain of the manner in which he was j served with fish and fowl. He was also allowed to go almost everywhere he liked. He describes the women he saw as being neither good nor bad looking, but " rather yellowish," and he says they were carefully watched by the males. The victims were nearly all young, and few of them had any relatives depending on them. Venton was about 26 years of age, and was a powerful, active man. O'Neill, aged 23, and Came, 21, were like brothers ever since they entered the service. The latter was unable to swim, and O'Neill had been instructing him in the art during some little time before the catastrophe. Buckle was about 24 years of age, and was born in London. It is to be regretted that his mother partly depended upon him for her means of support.