AFRICAN EXPLORATION AND CANNIBALISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 17, 23 January 1891, Page 5

AFRICAN EXPLORATION AND CANNIBALISM.

(Liverpool Catholic Rveiew.)

One is, it need hardly be said, predisposed to refuse credenoe to the horrible charge preferred by the Arabic interpreter, Assad Farran, against (he late Mr. Jameson. Easterns are, we know, endowed with extraordinary powers of imagination, and had Assad Farran 's story been allowed to stand by itself there are few would consider it other than a wicked invention. But a letter fmrn Mr. Jameson himself, written just before his death, has been published by his widow, and in this tbe writer makes astounding avowals as to the part he played in connection with the shocking cannibal feast. He was, he says, assured that a dance which bad been indulged in was usually followed by " a lot of people being eaten." He professed to be sceptical, and an Arab said, '' Give me a bit of cloth and see." He gave "a small piece of six hankerchiefs," and then followed a horrible 'scene of cannibalism. Mr Jameson asserts that he deemed tbe Arab s request merely a plan for " getting something oit of him." but we think that by bis own cv dence he could not have been deceived as to the object for which the gift was sought. The entire revelations which Mr. Sianlty has made are one more illustration of tbe inhumanity of wbicb civilised men are capable when they come in contact with savage races. We are glad to see that the Spectator demand* that the recurrence of such dreadful scenes as were witnessed in the Yambuya Camp must be prevented, even if Parliament has to pass a strong measure forbidding British subjects to organise expeditions in Africa. Every day baa been bringing fresh horrors to light ; and Borne of tbe worst stories, stories which no one would be justified in believing without the strongest evidence, are practically proved by the exculpatory letters written by the relatives of the accused persons in the hope of clearing their characters. The British public had little idea, when they followed with such keen interest the fortunes of the Emm Belief Expedition, that the expedition was in great part compoeed of slaves, obtained from the men-stealers, and only prevented from escaping by the lash, the fetter, and the bullet. Of course, under such a Bystem, horrible cruelties were certain to be committed. We can understand the reluctance of Mr. Stanley and others to bring these things to light, especially as two of tbe Englishmen most deeply implicated have siuce died. But it is a thousand times better that the truth should be known ; for it is tolerably certain that Englishmen will not in future subscribe money for an African expedition without some guarantee that it will be conducted on principles very different from those on which the late Major Barteiot thought fit to act.