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AMONG THE CANNIBALS 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW GUINEA: 
 
 BEING 
 
 THE STORY OF THE NEW GUINEA MISSION OF 
 THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. S. McFARLANE, LL.D., F.RG.S., Etc 
 
 IV - 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH A SERIES OF ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY AN 
 ARTIST WHO HAS VISITED THE ISLAND. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 
 AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, 
 
 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 A*^ 
 
J)Uil4-0 
 
 **•''»•• • 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 The following pages have been written for the directors of the 
 London Missionary Society, as the first of a series of manuals 
 giving an account of the different missions connected with the 
 Society, which they are intending to publish. 
 
 Before their wish to issue such a manual was made known to 
 me, my dear friend Mr. Abraham Haworth, of Manchester, and 
 others, had been seriously urging me to write the story of the 
 New Guinea Mission, being the only one (as they said) who 
 could, from experience, relate the interesting story of those first 
 years of pioneer work, when we had to form the acquaintance 
 and acquire the language of the savage tribes, and establish the 
 mission, not only " in perils in the sea, and in perils by the hea- 
 then," but amidst the sickness, suffering, and death of the mem- 
 bers of the mission. 
 
 Although I began the book somewhat reluctantly — ^knowing 
 that it would have to be written chiefly at odd times, whilst 
 going about the country attending missionary meetings, — still I 
 must confess that it has been a pleasing occupation. I have sim- 
 ply (as in Writing "The Story of the Lifu Mission ") gone back 
 in thought and lived over again our life in New Guinea. 
 
 It leaves my hands with the earnest wish and prayer that it 
 may be the means of deepening the interest and faith of Chris- 
 tians of all sections of the Church of Christ in the truest and 
 greatest of all enterprises — Christian missions to the heathen. 
 
 S. McFARLANE. 
 
 Elmstone Lodge, 
 
 Bromham Road, Bedford, 
 
 Mf50619 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 This work was originally published by the London Missionary 
 Society, and it is now republished, with the consent of that soci- 
 ety, by the Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School 
 Work, as one of its Missionary Series, The republication was 
 undertaken on the earnest recommendation of the late venerated 
 President of the Presbyterian Board, the Rev. William P. Breed, 
 D. D. 
 
 The work is now presented to the Church in the confident 
 expectation that it will prove not only interesting, but highly 
 instructive, and also stimulative to missionary labor. 
 
 E. R. CRAVEN, 
 Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of P. and S.-S. W, 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 *■ PACK 
 
 The Home of the Cannibals ..•••• 7 
 
 II. 
 How WE Got at the Cannibals • • • . . 25 
 
 HI. 
 Exploration. The Opening up of the Country, and 
 
 THE Progress of the Mission 57 
 
 IV. 
 The Papuan Institute 81 
 
 V. 
 
 Manners and Customs of the Cannibals • • . 93 
 
 VI. 
 Savagedom versus Christendom ...... 129 
 
 VII. 
 Native Agency and Native Churches . • • • 137 
 
 VIII. 
 Results : Then and Now . . • • • • • 149 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Pioneers of the New Guinea Mission . 
 
 Dauan Island 
 
 Port Moresby, showing Mission Station 
 Murray Island Mission Premises . 
 Murray Island, by Moonlight 
 Dinner Island (Samarai), China Straits 
 Port Spicer, on the Fly River 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 38 
 
 64 
 
 89 
 
 120 
 
 158 
 
 181 
 
OU are the first boat, remember ! Take 
 care and make fast ; we will follow and 
 help to tow in." These words were 
 uttered by the son of an old cannibal, 
 at the valedictory meeting held at Lifu, 
 on the eve of our departure to establish 
 the New Guinea Mission ; and they 
 were uttered amidst great enthusiasm 
 The speaker was describing the process of catching 
 whales, with which the people were familiar, as the 
 whaling ships came annually to Lifu, and many of the 
 young men were employed as boats' crews during the 
 season. He was one of the seniors in the institution 
 
^^*;';'' ; AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 for the training of pastors and pioneer evangelists, and 
 he was addressing four of his fellow-students, whom I 
 had selected, with four of the native pastors, to be the 
 pioneers of our New Guinea Mission. His father had 
 been the king's orator in heathen times, whose busi- 
 ness it was to address the multitude on feast days 
 and great occasions, and he was a powerful and very 
 popular speaker. The son had inherited some of his 
 father's fire, and was turning it to better account. He 
 drew a graphic picture of the mode of whale catching 
 — sighting the whale — the chase — the harpooning, 
 requiring a steady aim and strong arm in order to 
 "make fast," then the assembling of the boats to 
 assist in towing in the monster. " Now," he said, 
 turning to the pioneers, " New Guinea is the whale. 
 It is sighted. We are going to chase it. You are the 
 first boat, remember. Take care and make fast ; and 
 we will follow and help to tow in. The consequences 
 of any mismanagement on your part may be very 
 serious. You may only wound and irritate the whale, 
 and drive it away." Here he spoke most earnestly 
 and pointedly about the importance of their living the 
 Christian life before the natives of New Guinea ; only 
 by such means could they reasonably hope to inake 
 fast. If their conduct was bad, they would throw the 
 harpoon (preach) in vain. His speech produced a 
 great impression. Others followed in the same strain, 
 until the meeting became one of the longest and most 
 enthusiastic we ever had at Lifu. 
 
 The crowded and well-dressed assembly, the eight 
 teachers being consecrated to foreign missionary work, 
 the spacious and substantial stone chapel, the ani- 
 mated speakers, and the attentive hearers, presented a 
 
THEIR HOME. 9 
 
 thrilling scene. Not many years before they had wor- 
 shipped in a house, near the one in which they were 
 assembled, made of poles, string, and grass. They 
 had but few articles of European clothing amongst 
 them, and were a sad, yet interesting, and in some 
 respects very ludicrous sight. Now they were met 
 together to send forth missionaries from amongst their 
 own people to other and distant heathen lands. What 
 but the gospel could have produced such an astonish- 
 ing change in twelve years ? 
 
 The glory of our South Sea mission has been that 
 when the natives of an island have received the gospel 
 and felt its power, they have offered themselves as 
 missionaries to carry the good news to the heathen 
 beyond ; thus our Lifu and Mare converts became the 
 pioneers of the New Guinea Mission, and the meeting 
 to which I have referred was the beginning of their 
 foreign mission work. As therefore the New Guinea 
 Mission is but the extension of our Loyalty Islands 
 mission, I must take you to Lifu before going to New 
 Guinea. 
 
 The voyage is much pleasanter and quicker now 
 than it was when I went there thirty years ago. It 
 took us eight months to reach our station in those 
 days, but it may be done now in a less number of 
 weeks. I have a lively recollection of the hard bis- 
 cuit, pea soup, American dried apples, and cock- 
 roaches, and the weary tossing in an over-loaded 
 vessel, with the water sometimes six inches deep in 
 both cabin and saloon. There were no Plimsoll's 
 marks in those days ! You must please to imagine 
 yourselves there without having endured the weari- 
 some voyage, or hard fare, or any of those peculiar 
 
io AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 feelings which sea-going people suffer on their first 
 voyage, or having found it necessary to pay tribute to 
 Neptune. 
 
 It was a lovely morning in August when we first 
 landed on one of those charming South Sea islands — 
 not the August of the northern hemisphere, which is 
 associated in our minds with fields of waving yellow 
 corn, trees loaded with apples, pears, plums, and 
 luscious fruit, purple grapes, and leaves turning 
 russet brown ; but the August of the southern tropics, 
 one of the coolest months of the twelve. The August 
 of lands waving with majestic palm trees and the 
 graceful, large-leafed banana plants and ferns ; where 
 the sky-line is broken by the feathery tops of cocoa- 
 nut trees, and the dense jungle is gaudy with brilliant 
 flowers and crotons, and where the lovely orchids, in 
 all their bewildering variety of tint and shape and 
 size, excite the admiration of the traveller, and the 
 delight of the scientific collector. 
 
 When we came on deck on that memorable morning, 
 a soft breeze, warm as new milk, was just beginning 
 to stir the air, but not yet strong enough to lift the 
 pale mist from the sea, to which it was clinging closely. 
 In the distance, dim and indistinct, could be heard the 
 lapping of the waves on the shore, as they rolled up 
 the broken shells and coral on the beach, as yet in- 
 visible for the fog. Gradually the blue overhead be- 
 came more and more distinct, and the gray mist seemed 
 to melt away as the rising sun began to exert its power. 
 As the fog rose, we first saw the tops of the adjoining 
 hills, then the middle heights and knolls, and, lastly, 
 the white, shimmering sandy beach. The sea had not 
 a ripple on its surface* ; it was smooth as oil. There 
 
THEIR HOME. \t 
 
 was just a faint heave, in which the reflection of the 
 land was curved and bent, but not broken. 
 
 Our vessel was soon surrounded by canoes filled 
 with young cocoanuts, bananas, and oranges, coral, 
 shells, and curios, which the noisy natives were 
 anxious to exchange for European articles. We lower 
 our boat and pull in to the beach, where a crowd of 
 natives are waiting to receive us. It is a strange 
 scene. Instead of the oak and the elm and the 
 beech, the majestic yews and chestnuts and poplars, 
 the apple and pear and plum trees of this beautiful 
 England, there rise before you the stately palms, the 
 wide-spreading banyan, the tamarind, with its thick 
 foliage, and the mango, with its abundant wood and 
 rich burden of luscious fruit ; orange, banana, and 
 cocoanut groves, instead of our stately orchards ; and 
 plantations of yams and sugar-cane, melons and 
 papao apples, instead of our waving cornfields. 
 And instead of our stone and brick houses, there 
 are grass huts surrounded by stockades, in the midst 
 of rank vegetation, close by stagnant pools and deadly 
 swamps. 
 
 I must not dwell on those first years of missionary 
 labour at Lifu. Whilst they were years of disappoint- 
 ment, danger, toil, and loneliness, they were also years 
 of great blessing, of most useful experience, and of 
 encouragement and happiness. I may say that before 
 I had been six weeks on the island I had travelled 
 round it a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, visit- 
 ing the villages and trying to acquire the language. 
 Three months after our arrival I began to preach to 
 the people, which I continued regularly afterwards. 
 
 Although there was plenty of work for my sue* 
 
la AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 cesser to do after I left to establish the New Guinea 
 Mission, still a marvellous change had taken place 
 in those twelve years, from idolatry, cannibalism, and 
 constant wars, to the worship of the true God, peace- 
 ful industry, and a growing education. Schools and 
 churches were established throughout the island, and 
 the New Testament and Psalms translated into the 
 language of the people. The Teachers' Seminary 
 was in good working order, supplying native teachers 
 and pastors and pioneer evangelists. European stores 
 were established in different parts of the island on 
 account of the rapidly growing trade with the natives, 
 and the people were not only paying for their books 
 and providing for their pastors, but also making a 
 very handsome annual subscription to the London 
 Missionary Society, to help to send the gospel to the 
 heathen beyond. For many years I had in that mis- 
 sion, as my devoted colleague. Rev. James Sleigh, 
 who had been previously settled as a Congregational 
 minister, both in England and Australia, and who 
 rendered good service in the Lifu missiofi in the re- 
 vision of the New Testament and the translation of the 
 Psalms, besides by his faithful pastoral work. I was 
 succeeded by my friend. Rev. S. M. Creagh, who left 
 his station on the neighbouring island of Mare to 
 take charge of the seminary at Lifu, by appointment. 
 In 1870 I was informed by the secretary of the 
 London Missionary Society, that it was the wish of 
 the directors that I should turn my attention to New 
 Guinea, and make arrangements for commencing a 
 mission on this largest, darkest, and most neglected 
 island in the world. Accordingly 1 began at once 
 to collect information and mature plans. There waa 
 
THEIR HOME. ij 
 
 very little known about New Guinea in those days, 
 and that little was far from encouraging. So I deter- 
 mined to make a prospecting voyage with a few of 
 our best natives, to spy out the land. 1 laid the matter 
 before the students, native pastors, and churches of 
 Lifu, and asked for volunteers, giving them to under- 
 stand plainly the dangerous character of the work, on 
 account of the climate and the savages. Every native 
 pastor on the island and student in the seminary 
 offered himself for the work. We' selected four ex- 
 perienced pastors and four of the best students, and 
 had some glorious meetings in connection with their 
 appointment and departure. 
 
 I chartered the John Knox, a small vessel that for 
 many years had been owned by the Presbyterian 
 mission in the New Hebrides group, where she had 
 done good work. Although small, she was a good 
 sea boat ; rather uncomfortable for so long a voyage, 
 but still quite safe. 
 
 My arrangements were all made when the John 
 Williams arrived at Lifu, with Mr. and Mrs. Murray 
 on board. They were leaving (on account of health) 
 the Samoan mission, and had been appointed by the 
 directors to join that in the Loyalty Islands. As 
 Mr. Murray had had great experience in the location 
 of pioneer evangelists in the South Sea islands, 1 pro- 
 posed that he should leave his wife with mine at Lifu, 
 and accompany me on this interesting voyage to New 
 Guinea, and share the responsibility and theJionour 
 of establishing the new and important mission. I 
 was delighted to find that he readily consented, al- 
 though he decidedly objected to going in so small a 
 vessel as the one I had chartered, which led to some 
 2 
 
14 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 alteration in my plans and to the commencement of 
 the mission on a larger scale than I had originally 
 intended. The committee in Sydney were authorized 
 to charter a suitable vessel, and send it to us at Lifu. 
 The schooner Emma Paterson was engaged, but 
 never reached us. She was wrecked on the coast of 
 New Caledonia, on her way to Lifu. The crew aban- 
 doned her, leaving the captain alone on the wreck, 
 and taking with them a good supply of provisions 
 and spirits, declared their intention of going to the 
 then newly discovered goldfield at the north end of 
 New Caledonia. A boat was found on the coast 
 about ten days after they had left the wreck, which 
 was half full of water, and contained a human hand 
 and foot, and these are supposed to be the remnant of 
 the crew of the Emma Paterson. I arranged with the 
 captain of one of the South Sea island traders, who 
 called at Lifu, and was open to charter, and in July, 
 1 87 1, we started for New Guinea. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe our feelings as we 
 sailed towards that great land of cannibals, a land 
 which, viewed from a scientific, political, commercial, 
 or religious point of view, possesses an interest pecu- 
 liarly its own. Whilst empires have risen, flourished, 
 and decayed ; whilst Christianity, science, and philo- 
 sophy have been transforming nations, and travellers 
 have been crossing polar seas and African deserts, 
 and astonishing the world by their discoveries, New 
 Guinea has remained the same : sitting in the blue, 
 warm, Southern Ocean, kissing the equator at the 
 north and shaking hands with Australia in the south, 
 bearing on her bosom magnificent forests and luxu- 
 riant tropical vegetation, yet lifting her snow-capped 
 
THEIR HOME, 15 
 
 head into the clear, cold atmosphere 17,000 feet above 
 the level of the sea — steaming hot at the base, where 
 the natives may be seen in the cocoanut groves mend- 
 ing their bows and poisoning their arrows, making their 
 bamboo knives and spears, and revelling in war and 
 cannibalism as they have been doing for ages, but 
 freezing cold at the summit, where the foot of man has 
 never disturbed the eternal snows. It was this terra 
 incognita that we were approaching, with its primeval 
 forests and mineral wealth and savage inhabitants. 
 
 In these days, when so many have done what not 
 many years ago was known as the "grand tour"; when 
 alligator shooting on the Nile, lion hunting in Nubia, 
 or tiger potting in India can be arranged by contract 
 with Cook's tickets ; when the Holy Land, Mecca, or 
 Khiva are all accessible to tourists ; when every 
 mountain in the Alps has been scaled, and even the 
 Himalayas made the scene of mountaineering 
 triumphs ; when shooting buffaloes in the " Rockies " 
 is almost as common as potting grouse on the moors, 
 — it comes with a sense of relief to visit a country 
 really new, about which little is known, a country 
 of bond fide cannibals and genuine savages, where the 
 pioneer missionary and explorer truly carries his life 
 in his hand. A land of gold, yet a land where a string 
 of beads will buy more than a nugget of the precious 
 metal. A land of promise, capable of sustaining 
 millions of people, in which however the natives live 
 on yams, bananas, and cocoa-nuts. A land of mighty 
 cedars and giant trees, where notwithstanding the 
 native huts are made of sticks, and roofed with 
 palm leaves. A land consisting of millions of acres 
 of glorious grass, capable of fattening multitudes of 
 
16- AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 cattle, where however neither flocks nor herds are 
 known. A land of splendid mountains, magnificent 
 forests, and mighty rivers, but to us a land of heathen 
 darkness, cruelty, cannibalism, and death. We were 
 going to plant the gospel standard on this, the 
 largest island in the world, and win it for Christ ; 
 and as the gospel had worked such marvels in other 
 parts of the world, we felt sure that it would not fail 
 in this home of the Papuan and cannibal tribes, of 
 which I must now give some account. 
 
 About 370 years ago New Guinea was discovered 
 by a mere accident. There were in those days a 
 number of gallant spirits who were immortalising 
 their names and that of their country by their 
 " glorious exploits." Among these was Don Jorge 
 de Meneses, a distinguished Portuguese navigator, 
 who was proceeding on a voyage from Malacca, to 
 dislodge the Spaniards from the Moluccas. The 
 usual route home to which the Portuguese had been 
 accustomed was by the south of Borneo and of the 
 Celebes, and by the island of Amboyna. But Don 
 Jorge thought he would try another course, and so 
 went round the northern end of Borneo, and being set 
 to the eastward by currents, and standing afterwards 
 to the south, made the discovery of New Guinea, 
 where he landed and remained a month. Two years 
 later, another Portuguese (Alvarez de Saavedra) 
 landed on its shores ; and although there is no record 
 of his having penetrated inland, he called the island 
 by the high-sounding title of Isla del Oro, from the 
 idea which he formed of its abounding in gold. In 
 1545, a Spanish mariner named Ynigo Ortiz de Rez, 
 also voyaging to the Moluccas, sailed 250 miles along 
 
THEIR HOME. \^ 
 
 its northern coast, and gave it the name of Neuva 
 Guinea, from some fancied resemblance it bore to 
 the Guinea coast on the west of Africa.^ In 1616 
 Schouten visited the country in the Dutch ship Unity, 
 and discovered one large and several smaller vol- 
 canoes.2 In 1699, Dampier, in the Roebuck, circum- 
 navigated the island. On landing, he was met with 
 considerable resistance, the natives using clubs and 
 spears and hollow sticks from which they threw fire 
 at their opponents. In 1768, the French vessels La 
 Boudeiise and L' Etoile, under the command of M. de 
 Bougainville, sailed along the southern and eastern 
 coasts. In 1 770, Captain Cook sailed along the coast, 
 and confirmed the statement of its disconnection from 
 the continent of New Holland. There were several 
 visitors after this: amongst others. Captain Edwards, in 
 the Pandora, in 1791 ; Bampton, in 1793 ; and Black- 
 wood, in 1845 ; but little or no further information 
 relative to the place was given until Stanley, in 
 H.M.S. Rattlesnake, ran along the coast and made a 
 rough survey of a portion of it. Still, although the 
 island has been visited at various points by Portu- 
 guese, Spanish, French, Dutch, and English navi- 
 gators, very little was known either of the country or 
 its inhabitants, until after the establishment of our 
 mission there in 187 1. And as our mission is divided 
 
 ^ The name by which it was known in the Moluccas long 
 before Europeans knew of its existence, and by which it is still 
 known there, is Tanna Papua, the land of the frizzly-haired 
 people ; and being the home of the Papuan race, Papua is a 
 more appropriate name than New Guinea. 
 
 - The names given by the early Dutch voyagers to the two 
 principal rivers they discovered, Moordenaar or Murderer, and 
 Doodslaager or Slaughter, prove their intercourse to have been 
 anything but friendly. 
 
i8 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 into three districts — western, central, and eastern — 
 I shall observe that order in speaking of that part of 
 the country which is the portion that now belongs to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 The western district extends from the Baxter 
 River to Bald Head, comprising nearly the whole of 
 the Papuan Gulf. All this part of the country is low, 
 with the exception of a hill at the mouth of the 
 Mabidauan River, lOO feet high, another about forty 
 miles inland, and a similar one about twenty miles up 
 the Fly River. Although the land is generally low, a 
 large portion of it being under water during the rainy 
 season, the soil is a rich alluvial, in some places ten 
 feet deep. Up the Baxter and Fly rivers I found 
 the banks sometimes twenty feet high, the country 
 undulating, patches well wooded, others being covered 
 with merely a thick scrub, all good land ; and for 
 hundreds of miles up the Fly River there are no 
 natives to be seen, although they are pretty numerous 
 for the first hundred miles from the coast. The 
 country abounds in sago palms, wild nutmeg, betel- 
 nut, banana, and cocoanut trees. The Papuan Gull 
 is the most valuable part of the English portion of 
 the island. Here lie the water-ways into the interior 
 of this great country, along whose fertile banks the 
 finest sugar-cane may be cultivated, and on whose 
 bosom the immense logs of valuable timber from the 
 magnificent forests, also produce from the interior, 
 may be floated down to the sea at comparatively little 
 expense. This is the great delta of the country, and 
 the easiest way of reaching the interior, and must soon 
 become the centre of active commercial enterprise. 
 It was in this district that our mission was com- 
 
THEIR HUME. 19 
 
 menced, and here we made our most valuable geo- 
 graphical discoveries. 
 
 The central district extends from Bald Head to 
 Orangerie Bay. The east side of the gulf has a bold 
 and rocky shore, with extensive coral reefs. The 
 peninsula is exceedingly mountainous. When visiting 
 the hill tribes about twenty-five or thirty miles inland 
 from Port Moresby, I was surprised and disappointed 
 to find, from the summit of a mountain over 2,000 feet 
 high, the country looking so mountainous. We were 
 then about twenty miles from Mount Owen Stanley, 
 and as far as we could see, in every direction, the hills 
 seemed to rise tier upon tier in the wildest confusion. 
 The highest mountains on the peninsula are Mount 
 Owen Stanley, which is 13,205 feet. Mount Suckling, 
 11,226 feet, and Mount Yule, 10,046 feet. There are 
 also many others of great altitude. There is a back 
 range of very lofty mountains running east and west 
 on the other side of the Owen Stanley range, with a 
 great deep gorge dividing the two ranges. The Owen 
 Stanley range runs out about ten miles to the west of 
 Mount Yule, the back range continuing to the west as 
 far as the eye can reach, right into the heart of New 
 Guinea. The Port Moresby district is one of the 
 healthiest parts of the peninsula, being a dry, barren 
 locality compared with the country to the east and 
 west. In the latter districts there is more rain, richer 
 land, and altogether much finer and more fruitful 
 country. Probably the finest tracts of land on the 
 peninsula are to be found in the vicinity of Yule 
 Island ; and the splendid harbour between that island 
 and the mainland makes Hall Sound the most valu- 
 able port on the peninsula, it being the one nearest 
 
20 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 the rich country of the gulf. Yule Island itself is a 
 beautiful and fertile country. I have visited it many 
 times, and travelled all over it. M. d'Albertis, the 
 naturalist, lived there about a year ; and we both, as 
 well as others, regarded Hall Sound as being the best 
 place on the peninsula for a settlement with a view 
 to govern or open up the country. 
 
 The fact of our having a mission station at Port 
 Moresby has led to several expensive, fruitless, and 
 disastrous attempts to explore the country. Being 
 situated about 200 miles from the main body of the 
 island, there has been, and always will be, trouble 
 about carriers. No one has crossed the peninsula yet, 
 although it is not more than ninety miles broad, and we 
 have only just heard of a naturalist having reached 
 Mount Owen Stanley, which is but fifty miles from the 
 coast. So that to attempt to explore the interior of the 
 country from Port Moresby is a useless waste of time, 
 energy, money, and even life. A party might take 
 their tent and supplies in a boat, and going by the 
 tide up the Fly or Aird rivers reach, with comparative 
 ease, safety, and little expense, the very heart of New 
 Guinea, and there form a depot and commence their 
 travels. In the vicinity of Hood Bay there is some 
 good, fertile land, and the finest native tribes with 
 which we are acquainted in New Guinea. In walking 
 round that large bay from Hula to Kerepunu, I 
 saw the most extensive and best made plantations I 
 have seen in the island. I noticed the same up the 
 rivers on both sides of the bay. Aroma is a thickly 
 populated, sandy peninsula. Entering McFarlane 
 Harbour, sailing across Marshall Lagoon, and up the 
 Devitt River, we passed through many miles of low, 
 
THEIR HOME. 21 
 
 swampy country ; but there appeared to be very good 
 land beyond. Cloudy Bay is true to its name, for 
 although I have passed it many times, I have never 
 seen it clear. 
 
 From Orangerie Bay to East Cape is the eastern 
 district. There is not much to tempt a foreigner 
 (unless he be a missionary) in this eastern district. 
 The natives are numerous, and require nearly the 
 whole of the land for their plantations. There may 
 be, and probably is, mineral wealth amongst the 
 mountains of the peninsula ; but the ore must be very 
 rich to make it payable, as the expenses would be 
 great. That gold exists in New Guinea has been 
 long known. I myself obtained from the bed of 
 the Baxter River ample proof of this fact two years 
 before traces of it were discovered on the peninsula. 
 The fact is, that notwithstanding all the writing about 
 it, and searching for it, nothing more has yet been 
 discovered than might be obtained in almost any 
 river in Queensland. The locale of payable gold has 
 yet to be discovered in New Guinea. That it is 
 found amongst the sand and mud of rivers in minute 
 quantities is a fact of little value, seeing that gold 
 is the most widely distributed of all metals, and that 
 these small grains may have travelled hundreds of 
 miles from the parent stock. Although we do not 
 know where payable gold exists in New Guinea, we 
 do know where there is fine sugar-growing country, 
 and plenty of splendid timber, and suitable places for 
 the cultivation of coffee, rice, and sago ; and with 
 these valuable birds in the hand, the others had better 
 for a time be left in the bush. 
 
 Taking the island as a whole, we may justly regard 
 
22 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 it as one of the richest in the world. It has its snowy 
 mountains I7,cxx) feet high, its splendid ranges and 
 fertile valleys, its green-clad hills and sunny slopes 
 and rich plains, its magnificent forests of valuable 
 timber and beautiful birds, its noble rivers and grand 
 waterfalls, its flowing streams and dashing cascades, 
 its extensive cocoanut groves, well-cultivated gar- 
 dens, and numerous wild fruit trees, its vast alluvial 
 plains for the cultivation of sugar-cane, its extensive 
 tracts of country for raising cattle, its presumably 
 great mineral wealth. All combine to make it a 
 most valuable and interesting country. 
 
 Who knows what new species may not be hidden 
 in the interior, remaining traces of those that are now 
 considered extinct ? And it is quite possible that 
 ancient structures may be found similar to those in 
 the Marshall group, which are supposed to have been 
 built by a prehistoric race of men, at a period when 
 a continent connected all those islands, where now 
 the Pacific Ocean rolls between. The country is 
 larger than any in Europe except Russia. It is 
 1,500 miles long, and from 30 to nearly 500 miles 
 wide, containing an area of 303,241 square miles, 
 or, including the immediately adjoining islands, of 
 311,958 square miles. Consequently its area is about 
 the same as the united area of the British Islands 
 and France, or of the British Islands, Italy, Turkey, 
 and Greece. With the groups of New' Britain, 
 Admiralty Islands, the Solomon Islands, the New 
 Hebrides, and Loyalty Islands, all lying to the east 
 and south-east, it forms that division of the islands of 
 the Pacific which geographers have named Meiatiesia^ 
 or black islands, from the colour of the inhabitants. 
 
THEIR HOME. 23 
 
 Situated close to the equator, and extending only 
 eleven degrees south of it, the climate of New Guinea 
 is hot and uniform, and the rains abundant, leading 
 there, as elsewhere in similar situations, to the growth 
 of a luxuriant forest vegetation, which clothes hill and 
 valley with an ever-verdant mantle. Only on the coasts 
 nearest to Australia, and probably influenced by the 
 dry winds from that continent, are there any open 
 or thinly wooded spaces ; and there alone do we find 
 some approach to the Australian type of vegetation 
 in the occurrence of numerous eucalypti and acacias. 
 Everywhere else however, even in the extreme south- 
 east peninsula and adjacent islands, the vegetation is 
 essentially Malayan ; but Dr. Beccari, who collected 
 plants extensively in the north-western peninsula and 
 its islands, was disappointed, both as regards its variety 
 and novelty. The forests of New Guinea are every- 
 where grand and luxuriant, rivalling those of Borneo 
 and Brazil in the beauty of their forms of vegetable life. 
 The animal life is also interesting, although the mam- 
 malia are singularly few, and with the exception of a 
 peculiar wild pig all belong to the marsupial tribe, or 
 to the still lower monotremes of Australia. Wallace 
 declares that the tigers, apes, and buffaloes described 
 in the fictitious travels of Captain Lawson would be 
 as much out of their real place there as they would 
 be in the highlands of Scotland. ■ The tracks of large 
 animals discovered by recent travellers are now known 
 to be those of the cassowary, which, as far as we know, 
 is the largest land animal of New Guinea. 
 
 Having now given some account of the kome of 
 these cannibal tribes, I must proceed to describe how 
 we got at them and how we found them. 
 
24 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 The country is interesting, but the people are 
 much more so. Our primary object in going there 
 was not that we might render it safe to land upon its 
 shores, which are Hned with cocoanut, banana, sago, 
 betel-nut, fig, wild date, mango, and other fruit trees ; 
 it was not that we might open up the interior, and 
 render the iron-wood, ebony, canary-wood, cedar, and 
 other valuable timber, besides the pepper, ginger, 
 turmeric, and spices, accessible ; it was not that we 
 might facilitate the acquisition of birds of paradise, 
 crown pigeons, parrots, lories, and other beautiful 
 birds that dwell in the dark, tangled, luxuriant, and 
 magnificent forests ; it was not that we might render 
 life and property secure whilst the miner digs for 
 coal, iron, and gold, which are known to exist there, or 
 whilst the sailor collects from its shores the trepang, 
 pearl, turtle-shell, and fish, which treasures there 
 abound — although we are fully persuaded that the 
 introduction of Christianity will do this more effectu- 
 ally than anything else : it was not the treasures of 
 the country, but the inhabitants that we sought — the 
 multitude of souls who have lost the image of God, 
 which Jesus Christ, whose gospel we are commanded 
 to carry to the very ends of the earth, and preach to 
 every creature, came to restore ; and we are fully con- 
 vinced that this gospel is not only the best civilizer, 
 the best reformer, and the best handmaid to science, 
 but that it is the only way to eternal life, and indeed 
 the only means of preventing the natives from being 
 s vept from the face of the earth by the great tidal 
 wave of what we are pleased to call "human progress 
 and civilization." 
 
CANNIBALS. 
 
 MUST begin by describing some of 
 the peculiar difficulties which we had 
 to encounter in conveying the mes- 
 sage of the Cross to these cannibal 
 tribes. In the first place, our cap- 
 tain would not take the vessel we 
 had chartered within twenty miles 
 of the New Guinea coast, where we 
 commenced our mission. It was an unsurveyed coast. 
 Navigation was exceedingly dangerous. If he had 
 lost his vessel, he would have lost the insurance; so 
 he anchored off an island in Torres Straits, twenty 
 miles from New Guinea, and positively refused to go 
 any nearer. Hence our first difficulty arose from the 
 
26 AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 dangerous character of the unsurveyed coast; rocks, 
 reefs, sand-banks, mud-flats, rendered invisible by the 
 muddy water poured out of the great rivers in the 
 Papuan Gulf We were obliged to leave our vessel 
 and take to the boats. 
 
 How well I remember that first sail along the man- 
 grove coast of the island, with a few Lifu teachers 
 in our boat, to form our first mission station ! It 
 was a day long to be remembered. Dark clouds 
 hung over the dark land, and occasional showers and 
 bursts of sunshine and sickly heat reminded us of 
 the deadly fever of the country. Our hearts, like the 
 heavens, were ready to burst, as we thought of the 
 ignorance, cruelty, darkness, and death of the long- 
 neglected tribes of the great island before us, yet were 
 glad that the time had at length arrived for attacking 
 this stronghold of heathenism. We knew something 
 of the immense difficulties and dangers before us ; but 
 our strength was in the name of the Lord of hosts. 
 We were as David before the mighty Goliath, but we 
 knew what the smooth stones from the brook would 
 do. We were simply going to form the acquaintance of 
 these savages, and leave with them a few teachers, who 
 seemed men very much like themselves — that was all. 
 But what great issues depended upon so insignificant 
 an event ! We felt that we were beginning a work 
 destined to change these people and their surround- 
 ings most completely. But what would happen 
 before the light penetrated the darkness? What 
 labours, and prayers, and tears, and suffering, and 
 persecution, and wars, and death, before the tribes 
 were won for Christ ! — all of which have come to pass 
 to an appalling degree Of the final result we had 
 
HOJV WE GOT AT THEM. 27 
 
 no doubt. That Christianity would triumph over the 
 superstition and cruelty of those benighted people we 
 were convinced. But how many of those in the boat 
 would live to see it ? How many would, ere long, 
 fall, by the fever of the country or the spears of the 
 savages, was a painful question. Not long afterwards, 
 and not far from the village we visited that day, the 
 first martyrs of the New Guinea Mission suffered, two 
 Lifu teachers and their wives being murdered by the 
 ignorant savages, who soon found, as they afterwards 
 confessed, that they had murdered their best friends, 
 supposing them to be enemies. They have since 
 received teachers from our Papuan Institute, and 
 embraced Christianity, and are now living at peace 
 among themselves, and with their neighbours. 
 
 Having overcome the difficulties and dangers of an 
 unsurveyed coast, and reached the people, the next 
 thing was to communicate with them. Here is 
 another great difficulty peculiar to New Guinea. In 
 most of our missions in the South Seas one language 
 prevails throughout the group, where, in some cases, 
 there is a population of over one hundred thousand 
 people, as in the Sandwich and Fiji Islands. Indeed, 
 one language may be said to prevail over the whole of 
 Eastern Polynesia, the differences being of a merely 
 dialectic form ; whilst those in Western Polynesia, not 
 only differ greatly from Eastern Polynesian dialects, 
 but also differ from each other. In New Guinea 
 however you meet with a different dialect, on an 
 average, about every fifty miles ; and this increases 
 enormously the difficulties of missionary work. 
 
 Then there is another serious difficulty with which 
 we were unacquainted in the South Seas, and that is 
 
28 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 the absence of powerful chiefs. We found them, as 
 a rule, in the South Seas, despotic. The word of the 
 chief was law, and a law against which there was no 
 appeal ; so that if a missionary by presents, kindness, 
 and tact gained the confidence of the chief, and 
 became his acknowledged friend, he might move about 
 the district in safety, and would be listened to atten- 
 tively and treated kindly, as the friend of the king. 
 But in New Guinea it is totally different. There are 
 no real chiefs, but simply Jieadmen^ who are leaders 
 in time of war, but have little influence or power in 
 times of peace beyond their own families. So that 
 in landing amongst these people you are exposed to 
 the anger, jealousy, or cupidity of any man who may 
 wish to enrich himself or to spite his enemies by taking 
 your life ; and this is by no means a pleasant feeling, 
 especially if you happen to be in a cannibal district. 
 
 Even when you have reached the coast in safety, 
 and gained the confidence of the people, and acquired 
 their language, then you have to encounter the sickly 
 climate, which has proved fatal to so many members 
 of our mission. A consideration of the known, as 
 well as the unknown and probable difficulties, led me 
 to select Darnley Island as the most safe, central, 
 and in every way the most suitable place at which 
 to commence our mission. For such a work as we 
 were beginning, we required a central station, which 
 we might make our sanatorium, city of refuge, and 
 educational centre. As a Scotchman, I remembered 
 lona and its history in connection with the evangeli- 
 zation of Scotland, and hoped that Darnley would 
 prove the lona of New Guinea. So that on leaving 
 Lifu, we sailed direct for Darnley in the Papuan Gulf, 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 29 
 
 and anchored there in Treachery Bay, on Saturday 
 evening, July ist, 1871. 
 
 It may be interesting to state whence this bay de- 
 rived its name, as illustrating the difficulties from 
 another quarter with which the missionaries who are 
 commencing a mission amongst savage tribes have 
 to contend. Observing the name on the chart, I 
 turned to the sailing instructions for an explanation, 
 and there found it stated that the natives of Darnley 
 are a wild, savage, and treacherous people, that they 
 murdered a boat's crew, and must not be trusted. 
 Nothing however is said of the cause of this massacre. 
 Doubtless nothing was known of it by the writer. 
 When I became acquainted with the people and their 
 language, I asked the old men if they remembered a 
 vessel calling, and a boat's crew being killed. " Oh, 
 yes," they said, " we remember the event very well ; 
 every man was killed." Then they stated the cause^ 
 which does not appear in the published account. It 
 was this. The captain sent in two boats to get water 
 at the only place on the island where there is watei 
 throughout the year. I have known the people there 
 to be eight months without rain, and all the wells on 
 the island dry, except this pool in Treachery Bay. 
 The natives did not object to their filling the casks, 
 because there was plenty for all; but having filled 
 them and towed them off to the ship, a number of 
 the sailors returned with a bundle of dirty clothes 
 and a bar of soap, and began washing and bathing 
 in the only drinking water the natives had. The 
 natives very naturally objected ; but the sailors, think- 
 ing themselves masters of the situation on account 
 of their revolvers, persisted, and the consequence was. 
 
30 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 as stated in the sailing instructions, every one of that 
 boat's crew was murdered. Of course many of the 
 natives were killed, some during the affray and 
 others by the revenge party sent on shore by the 
 captain immediately afterwards, who did all the mis- 
 chief they could, both to the people and their houses 
 and plantations, besides taking away a number of 
 girls as prisoners.^ 
 
 Without knowing the cause of the massacre, we 
 judged from the name of the bay that there must have 
 been some foul play ; and as we did not know the 
 language of the people, nor they ours, we determined 
 to make, if possible, the impression upon their minds 
 that we were different from others who had called 
 there. Acts of kindness are a language that people can 
 understand all the world over, and that was the only 
 language we were able to use in our first touch with 
 these cannibal tribes at different points of our mission. 
 The first man upon whom we tried this language was 
 the leading warrior of the island, who is now the 
 senior deacon of the church there. Soon after we cast 
 anchor on that memorable Saturday evening he made 
 his appearance on the hill, evidently to reconnoitre. 
 
 * Many Europeans, in dealing with savage and half-civilized 
 tribes, are apt to place too much fnith in their revolvers and 
 rifles, and to suppose that a single shot will frighten away the 
 natives. I know there are times when it will do so; indeed, 
 such times have occurred in my own experience, when to 
 frighten them away, and prevent a collision, in which much blood 
 would have been shed, was certainly the most humane thing 
 to do. But I have seen the mate of a vessel holding a revolver 
 at the breast of a Lifu native, dming the first year of my mis- 
 sionary life, without frightening him into submission. A few of 
 the native's friends stood by, and coolly told the mate, in broken 
 English, that if he shot the man they would kill him instantly. 
 Had I not been there, the crew of that boat would most likely 
 have been killed as the result of their injustice and folly. 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 31 
 
 We beckoned to him, and then jumped into our boat 
 and met him on the beach. That meeting, Hke many 
 other of our first meetings with the cannibals in 
 New Guinea, was very different from the pictures in 
 books and magazines of the missionary's first landing 
 amongst savages. I have often been amused at the 
 pictures of Moffat, Williams, etc., compared with my 
 own experience. Instead of standing on the beach in 
 a suit of broadcloth with Bible in hand, the pioneer 
 missionary in New Guinea might be seen on the 
 beach in very little and very light clothing, with an 
 umbrella in one hand and a small bag in the other, 
 containing (not Bibles and tracts, but) beads, Jew's 
 harps, small looking-glasses, and matches ; not point- 
 ing to heaven, giving the impression that he is a 
 rainmaker, but sitting on a stone with his shoe and 
 stocking off, surrounded by an admiring crowd, who 
 are examining his white foot, and rolling up his wet 
 trousers (he having waded on shore from the boat) to 
 see if he has a white leg, and then motioning for him 
 to bare his breast, that they may see if that also is 
 white. The opening and shutting of an umbrella for 
 protection from the sun, the striking of a match, the 
 ticking and movement of a watch — these things cause 
 great surprise and delight, and loud exclamations. I 
 remember being thus engaged on one occasion when 
 two large war canoes arrived. We soon became aware 
 of great excitement and noise in the village. Suspect- 
 ing that the new arrivals meant mischief, and knowing 
 that our best plan was, as a rule, to keep down 
 excitement and appear indifferent, we commenced to 
 sing to the people who were standing around us, to 
 their great delight. But I am afraid we sang that 
 
32 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 hymn as many are often sung in this country, that 
 is, without thinking about the words we were uttering: 
 for the tide had gone and left our boat high and dry 
 on a mud-flat, so that our eyes were on our boat, 
 anxiously watching the rising tide, and our ears en- 
 gaged with the noise of angry words and strife going 
 on in the village close by, which we had reason to 
 believe was about ourselves, and which proved to be 
 so ; for we found afterwards that the strangers had 
 proposed to kill us and take our boat and all that we 
 had, but the people amongst whom we had landed 
 regarded us as their guests, and drove their neighbours 
 out of the village. Picture us however sitting upon a 
 log on the beach, singing, under these circumstances, 
 " O'er the gloomy hills of darkness " ! It may, at this 
 distance, appear a very poetical situation ! I certainly 
 did not consider it so at the time. It was, like some 
 other situations I have been in during those first years 
 of pioneering work, a very unpleasant reality. 
 
 What we did, when we met this savage on the 
 beach at Darnley, was to induce him to enter our 
 boat and accompany us to our vessel, which, after 
 a few friendly demonstrations, we succeeded in doing, 
 though he was evidently very much afraid. We 
 talked to him on board in a manner most effectual. 
 Not knowing the way to his heart through his ear, we 
 took the familiar road through his stomach by giving 
 him a good dinner, then made him a few small 
 presents, and sent him away rejoicing, giving him to 
 understand, by signs, that he was to return next morn- 
 ing at sunrise and bring his friends with him. It 
 would have been interesting to know what was said 
 around the fires in the cocoanut groves that night 
 
I/O IV WE GOT AT THEM. 33 
 
 Our presents would be handed round for inspection, 
 and gazed upon with longing eyes. They would 
 naturally feel that there were plenty more where they 
 came from, and the question would be hotu to get 
 them. On these occasions some propose stealing, and 
 sometimes even suggest murder and plunder. The 
 wiser men however advise barter and begging. They 
 have probably had intercourse with some foreign 
 vessel, or have heard of natives who have, where 
 the murder and plunder theory has been tried with 
 results far from encouraging. Long before sunrise 
 we heard unmistakable evidence of a crowd having 
 assembled on the beach, they were chattering away 
 like cockatoos ! After our morning bath on deck 
 (one of the greatest luxuries in such a climate), 
 during which there were loud exclamations at our 
 white skins, we sent in the boats to bring them 
 off to the vessel. This took some time, there being 
 a large number, and all being anxious to get 
 on board, hoping, no doubt, to be treated like 
 our friend the night before ! On such occasions, in 
 our first contact with savages, we take the pre- 
 caution to fasten a rope across the after part of the 
 vessel, beyond which we do not allow the natives 
 to come. Two or three of the crew are stationed in 
 the bows of the vessel, the mate and remainder stand 
 behind the rope in the after part, keeping a sharp 
 lookout on the crowd. All movable articles, which 
 might tempt the natives, are put below, and the 
 hatches fastened. The way to and from the cabin is 
 in the reserved part of the vessel, which the natives 
 are not allowed to approach till we are acquainted 
 with them. Neglect or contempt of these precautions 
 
34 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 has often led to very serious and fatal consequences. 
 As a rule, pioneers should not allow natives who are 
 savages and cannibals to get behind them. The 
 temptation to a savage who is walking behind you 
 with a club or tomahawk on his shoulder is often very 
 great ; he knows of no tribunal in heaven or on earth 
 to punish him, and is often led to kill, not from 
 revenge, but from sheer ambition, knowing that if he 
 is successful he will gain both approval and popularity 
 from his countrymen. 
 
 Imagine then this crowd of savages on board our 
 vessel, naked, and ornamented with paint, feathers, 
 and shells ; all talking at once, examining everything, 
 peering into every place, pressing against the rope 
 which they are trying to remove or surmount in order 
 to get to the cabin, standing in the rigging to get a 
 better view. Some of them falling, or being pushed 
 overboard amidst the laughter of their friends. What 
 were we to do with such a congregation on that 
 memorable Sabbath morning ! How I longed to be 
 able to speak to them ! All we could hope to accom- 
 plish was to make a favourable impression upon their 
 minds, and show, by our conduct, that we were 
 different from others who had visited them. To 
 this end I conducted our morning service in the 
 Lifu language. The crew joined our eight teachers 
 and their wives, who all appeared on the after part of 
 the deck in Sunday attire. Seven nationalities were 
 represented, from the educated European to the 
 debased savage. Every shade of colour might be 
 seen, both in skin and dress, from white to black. It 
 was a strange and most interesting sight. Never 
 before or since have I preached to such an audience. 
 
HOH^ WE GOT AT THEM. 35 
 
 We sang, to the astonishment and dehght of the 
 savages, "Jesus shall reign," etc. ; and the hills sent 
 back the response in solemn and glorious echo, 
 "Jesus shall reign." We prayed together, good old 
 Mr. Murray praying in English, that God would direct, 
 protect, and bless His servants in the great work they 
 were beginning, for never did men feel more than we 
 did then their absolute dependence upon Divine help. 
 I preached in the Lifuan tongue, that being the 
 language understood by the majority of those con- 
 nected with our vessel. The savages looked on in 
 silence and wonder. After the service we mingled 
 with them freely, and took some of the leading men 
 into the cabin ; then made them a few presents, and 
 sent them away, feeling (as 1 afterwards found) that 
 whoever we were, we differed from those who had 
 hitherto visited them. 
 
 In the afternoon we visited the village, where we 
 were received kindly, return presents being made by 
 the people. Of their houses and manners and cus- 
 toms, I shall treat in another chapter, and so need 
 not do more here than state how we gained their 
 confidence and established the mission. For three or 
 four days they continued to visit us on board, and we 
 them on shore. We are always very careful on these 
 occasions not to give cause of offence. We never 
 enter their sacred places against their will, nor ridicule 
 their superstitious ceremonies, nor take a cocoanut or 
 banana without buying it. We show our interest in 
 the sick and make presents of jews' harps and beads 
 to the children, but never make free with the women 
 or girls, lest the object of our visit should be mis- 
 taken. Thus, in a few days, confidence is established 
 
36 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 to a very considerable extent, and the natives, as a 
 rule, are willing to allow us to leave native teachers 
 amongst them. It was so at Darnley, and on the 
 fourth day we succeeded in obtaining, by barter, a 
 grass hut, in which the teachers were to live until 
 they built a house for themselves. We knew from 
 experience that if our native teachers were only 
 allowed to live amongst the people, they would 
 very soon, not only gain their confidence, but also 
 their affection. The men I selected to occupy our 
 first mission station were from Lifu. One of them 
 (Gucheng by name) came to us as our servant boy 
 when we landed there in 1859; he remained in our 
 family for five years, then entered the seminary which 
 I established at Lifu for the training of native pastors 
 and pioneer evangelists, in which he remained for 
 another five years ; he then became the pastor (by 
 the choice of the people) of a model village which I 
 had succeeded in getting the natives to construct, and 
 thence proceeded to New Guinea, being the first of 
 the eight teachers selected as pioneers for the New 
 Guinea Mission. 
 
 How well I remember standing near the door of 
 that grass hut on the morning of the fifth day, when 
 the teachers' boxes and bundles had been landed, and 
 all was ready for us to start for the point on the New 
 Guinea coast where we intended, if possible, to form 
 our next station ! The teachers did not know that I 
 was there ; they were sitting on their goods, which 
 were placed together in one corner of the hut, as 
 emigrants do on the wharf in a strange land. As I 
 approached, I heard one of the women crying most 
 piteously ; it was Gucheng's wife, who had been a girl 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 37 
 
 in my wife's school. I stood for a few minutes outside, 
 unwilling to intrude, for such grief seemed to render 
 the place sacred. '' O my country ! Why did we leave 
 our happy home ? Would that I were back at Lifu 
 again ! 1 told you I did not want to come to New 
 Guinea ! These people will kill us when the mission 
 vessel leaves, or they will steal all we possess." Then 
 I heard her husband, in tremulous tones, saying: "We 
 must remember for what we have come here. Not to 
 get pearl shell, or trepang, or any earthly riches, but to 
 tell these people about the true God and the loving 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. We must think of what He 
 suffered for us. If they kill us, or steal our goods, 
 whatever we have to suffer, it will be very little com- 
 pared with what He suffered for us." I could stand 
 it no longer, but walked away till I recovered myself; 
 then I entered the hut, and talked and prayed and 
 wept with them. Our party soon joined us, and when 
 we walked down to the boat, I need scarcely say that 
 we were all sad and sorrowful ; and as we pulled off to 
 the ship, and beheld the weeping little group on the 
 beach, surrounded by naked, noisy savages, one could 
 not help feeling how little the world knows of its truest 
 heroes. 
 
 Having formed our first station on an island that 
 we considered the most suitable for a sanatorium, city 
 of refuge, and educational centre for our mission, the 
 next thing was to proceed to the coast of the main- 
 land, and begin the work there. As all this part of 
 the coast is low land, intersected by fresh-water rivers 
 and salt-water creeks, the rivers having formed mud- 
 flats and sand-banks for miles off the coast, navigation 
 is (and was especially so at that time) exceedingly 
 
38 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 dangerous. Perceiving the risk, the captain of our 
 vessel (as I have already stated on a previous page) 
 positively refused to go within twenty miles of the 
 coast, and we could not blame him, though the pro- 
 spect of two or three days and nights in an open boat, 
 at such a place, and amongst such a people, was not 
 very pleasant. However we had gone to do a certain 
 work, and intended, if possible, to do it ; and as this 
 seemed the only possible way, we adopted it. Leaving 
 the ship and crew at Warrior Island, we (Mr. Murray 
 and I, the native teachers and their wives, and a few 
 natives in charge of the boat) sailed for Dauan, a small 
 island, about 1,500 feet high, a couple or three miles 
 from the coast, being the only high land near the 
 coast in that part of New Guinea. The pearl-shellers 
 were, about that time, beginning their work in Torres 
 Straits. They had formed a station at Warrior Island, 
 where we left our vessel, and a South Sea islander, 
 who had been to Dauan, accompanied us as one of 
 our crew. One of our great difficulties and dangers, 
 in our first contact with savages, arises from the treat- 
 ment which they have received from foreigners who 
 may have preceded us ; and this South Sea islander 
 being rather a notorious character, his presence and 
 knowledge of the island was a somewhat doubtful 
 advantage to us. 
 
 The first night we slept in the boat, anchored 
 off one of the small, uninhabited islands in Torres 
 Straits. On the afternoon of the second day we 
 reached Dauan, anchored our boat a hundred yards 
 from the beach, and some of us waded on shore, 
 where we were met by the chief and a few of his 
 people. The women and children had all retreated 
 
DAUAN ISLAND. 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 
 
 39 
 
 to the bush on the approach of the boat, and the 
 men carried spears and bows and arrows, as they 
 generally do, to be ready for any emergency. Our 
 mode of procedure on this and other occasions, when 
 first coming in contact with savages, was similar 
 to that at Darnley ; further description is therefore 
 unnecessary — presents, tact, forbearance, kindness, — 
 indeed, all may be summed up in the exercise of 
 common sense, without which a man may be ever 
 so pious, and clever, and self-sacrificing, and kindly 
 disposed towards the natives, and yet fail in his 
 mission. 
 
 The first night we spent on shore was a memorable 
 one. After all was landed, and our teachers were pre- 
 paring the supper, Mr. Murray and I walked along the 
 beach, and sat down by a creek, with the great land of 
 New Guinea before us. The sun had set, and the dark 
 outline of the land stretched away on either side. We 
 were alone, for all the natives were busy with their 
 evening meal. We sang a few of the good old mis- 
 sionary hymns, and prayed together, and talked of 
 the great work we were beginning, with its probable 
 consequences, both of a depressing and encouraging 
 nature ; but we little thought that we should live to 
 see and hear of so many martyrs of the New Guinea 
 Mission, most of them none the less martyrs because 
 they have been struck down by the deadly fever of 
 the climate, whilst others have fallen by the clubs, 
 spears, and poison of the natives. 
 
 At evening prayers, the savages looked on in silence 
 and wonder, and afterwards we all sang, to their great 
 delight. The houses are built on posts, and the na- 
 tives usually sleep in a kind of loft over the general 
 
40 AMOAG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 room, in order to get away from the mosquitoes. We 
 had secured a house for our teachers, and Mr. Murray 
 and I slept in the loft, whilst our teachers occupied 
 the general room. We did not find the mosquitoes 
 very troublesome ; but the rats were numerous and 
 annoying, careering over our bodies, and displaying 
 quite an inquisitive turn of mind. 
 
 From Dauan we proceeded to the Katau River, to 
 form our third and last station. The Katau is situ- 
 ated between the Baxter and Fly rivers, and is the 
 river which was explored by the Macleay expedition 
 a few years after we commenced our mission. There 
 is a large village at the entrance, on the main body of 
 the great island, at the outskirts of which I have often 
 seen cassowaries and kangaroos. We learnt from the 
 natives of Dauan of the existence of this village, and 
 determined to form there, if possible, our first mission 
 station on " New Guinea proper." We started from 
 Dauan in the gray morning, with a light, fair wind and 
 favourable tide. We had not proceeded very far when 
 I perceived something hanging before my face from 
 the brim of my straw hat, and found it to be a centi- 
 pede 1 We slept in our clothes in that " upper room," 
 and this venomous creature must have got on to me 
 in the night. I remember on another occasion, when 
 sleeping on board our mission vessel, the Ellengowan^ 
 raising myself to turn my pillow, which is very plea- 
 sant on a hot night, when, to my great surprise, I 
 discovered a scorpion between the two ! 
 
 On arriving at Katau we found the natives very 
 much excited. The women and children had been 
 sent away, and bows and bundles of arrows collected 
 and placed in readiness behind one of the long houses. 
 
NO IV WE GOT AT THEM. 41 
 
 This was only very natural precaution, at which we 
 were not surprised, seeing that we were strangers, and 
 knowing that all strangers are regarded as enemies, 
 and the mode, of treating enemies in cannibal districts 
 is to cook and eat them, the only fear being lest the 
 enemy should prove too strong for them, and they 
 themselves should become the victims. It takes a 
 long time for the savages to learn that the missionary 
 settles amongst them purely for their benefit. They 
 cannot understand such disinterested motives, and 
 sometimes for years are trying to find out some sel- 
 fish reason for his living amongst them. I remember 
 a captain of a vessel telling me at Lifu, after I had 
 been living amongst the people for three years, that 
 the natives had been asking him privately who and 
 what we missionaries were. " We can understand you 
 captains," they said ; " you come and trade with us, 
 and then return to your own country to sell what you 
 get : but who are these missionaries ? Have they done 
 something in their country, that they dare not return ?" 
 They seemed to regard us at that time as those who 
 had been sent away for their country's benefit ! 
 
 I remember another amusing instance of this want of 
 confidence in us, which happened on the New Guinea 
 coast. We were visiting a part of the south-east penin- 
 sula, where the natives are not cannibals, but are very 
 much afraid of them. Our vessel was crowded with 
 these savages, and as usual they were peering into every 
 place, and examining everything. I noticed a group 
 around the salt-beef cask ; they were talking seriously, 
 and pointing to the few pieces of salt beef that re- 
 mained. This group rapidly increased, until "the har- 
 ness cask" seemed to become the centre of attraction. 
 
42 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 Suddenly there was a general stampede. The natives 
 were flying over the side of the vessel in all directions, 
 and pulling away with all their might. We tried to 
 persuade them to remain on board, biji the more we 
 did so, the more anxious they appeared to get away. 
 Upon inquiry, we found that the pieces of beef had 
 puzzled them, and created the alarm. They knew of 
 no animal to which they could belong except man, 
 and came to the conclusion that we were cannibals ; 
 and seeing the cask nearly empty, they thought that 
 our object was to replenish it ! — hence the hurry to 
 leave the ship. 
 
 We introduced the two teachers and their wives to 
 the people of Katau, got the usual permission for 
 them to live amongst the people, and the usual pro- 
 mise from the chief of protection, and made the lead- 
 ing men of the village the usual presents, but felt that 
 it would be wise to advise the four teachers to live 
 together at Dauan for a short time, till they became 
 acquainted with the people and their language ; so the 
 two teachers for Katau returned with us to Dauan. 
 We left a boat with them, and a supply of such things 
 as they were likely to need, in order that they might 
 visit the villages, or escape from them if necessary. 
 All being arranged, we commended them in prayer 
 to the care of the great Missionary, and returned to 
 our vessel at Warrior Island, to reach which it took 
 us two days' hard beating against the strong trade 
 wind in our open boat — a most disagreeable voyage. 
 
 We had still two of our eight native teachers to 
 locate, our intention being to form four mission sta- 
 tions ; but an unlooked for and serious event occurred, 
 which led us to alter our plans, and abandon, for a 
 
NOW WE GOT AT THEM. 43 
 
 time, the idea of forming one at the mouth of the Fly 
 River, as we intended. Whilst on our way thither, 
 we were met by a boat, sent by two of the teachers 
 whom we had left at Dauan, with a letter for me, 
 from which we were surprised and grieved to learn 
 that trouble had arisen, leading two of our teachers 
 and their wives to escape in the boat, who declared 
 that they thought the others were murdered. 
 
 This was startling and terrible news to us. We 
 were anchored off a small, uninhabited island, where 
 all around seemed blackness and darkness as we sat 
 on deck on that memorable night. The sound of the 
 wind in the rigging, like -the strains of an aeolian harp, 
 had never before seemed so mournful, and the rippling 
 waters lapping the sides of the vessel, with an occa- 
 sional wave breaking on the bows, and murmuring 
 past in the stillness of the night, made us feel increas- 
 ingly sad and lonely. When all had retired, I paced 
 the deck, as I have often done since, in deep, anxious, 
 perplexed thought. This was our first great trouble 
 in the New Guinea Mission, to be followed, alas ! by 
 so many others. It had, at least, one good result, in 
 developing the noble character of some of the men I 
 had selected as pioneer evangelists. The two teachers 
 whom we had not yet located came to me as I sat 
 alone on deck that night. They had evidently been 
 thoughtfully considering the whole situation. "We 
 have something to say to you," they said, " Well," I 
 replied, " what is it ? " They answered : " We know 
 that your heart is very heavy on account of the sad 
 news that we have received. We have been talk- 
 ing and praying over the matter, and this is what we 
 wish to say. If we find, when we return to Dauan, 
 4 
 
44 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 that the people have killed the teachers, we want to 
 take their places ; and if we find that they are not 
 killed, then we will take the place of the two who 
 have run away from their post." This was a noble 
 offer, displaying a truly heroic spirit. Seldom do we 
 find instances of greater devotion and self-sacrifice 
 than this. The responsibility of a pioneer missionary 
 is very great, when he has such a splendid staff of 
 native teachers as we get from our South Sea mission, 
 who are ready to go anywhere and dare anything for 
 Christ, if the missionary desires or approves ; their 
 very readiness to face the deadly fever of the coun- 
 try, or its savage, cannibal inhabitants, has often made 
 me shrink from locating them in some parts of New 
 Guinea. 
 
 We returned to Warrior Island, left our vessel there 
 as before, and proceeded to Dauan in an open boat. 
 Our feelings on the voyage, and especially as we drew 
 near the place, may be more easily imagined than 
 described. We knew enough of savages to feel that 
 if our teachers were murdered, their wives would most 
 likely be spared for a worse fate. What we ought to 
 do in that case was the question. We felt that we 
 could not leave them in the hands of these savages 
 without making some effort to save them. But what 
 should the effort be ? We might, in trying to rescue 
 them, be the cause of their death. It was indeed an 
 anxious time, one amongst a few others of the kind 
 that stand out prominently in my recollection of 
 those first years of pioneer work in New Guinea. 
 However, fortunately, as some would say, providen* 
 tially^ we consider, we found that our teachers had not 
 been murdered. As we were wading from the boat 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM, 45 
 
 to the beach, one of them made his appearance, to 
 our intense rehef. On my reaching the beach, the old 
 chief who had received my present and promised to 
 take caf^ of the teachers clapped me on the back, and 
 pointed to the objects of our anxiety, indicating that 
 he had kept his word» I returned him a friendly slap, 
 and made him understand that I appreciated his faith- 
 fulness. If he had any misgivings during the previous 
 week, there could be little doubt that he now rejoiced 
 in having saved the lives of the teachers we had com- 
 mitted to his care. 
 
 I must state what led to all the trouble, which will 
 show the difficulties and dangers with which we had 
 to contend from another quarter in our pioneer work. 
 Two days after we had left the native teachers at 
 Dauan, a trading vessel called there (several had re- 
 cently arrived from the South Seas in search of pearl 
 shell). The captain, ignorant of our arrival in Torres 
 Straits, sent two boats with armed crews of South Sea 
 islanders, in charge of two white men, to plunder the 
 plantations of the natives. Some of these men stood 
 guard with loaded muskets, whilst the others helped 
 themselves to yams, bananas, cocoanuts, etc., filling 
 their boats, and returning to the ship without giving 
 the plundered people anything in return. As a natural 
 consequence, the savages were enraged, and thirsting 
 for blood. They dared not go near the men with 
 muskets, but they saw that most of them resembled 
 those that we had left as teachers two days before, 
 and they were at once associated in their minds. Re- 
 venge is the first thing a savage thinks about upon 
 receiving an injury, and that is taken either upon the 
 offender, or upon the tribe to which he belongs. 
 
46 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 In this case, seeing they could not punish the men 
 who had robbed their gardens, they determined to be 
 revenged upon those whom they thought belonged 
 to the same tribe, and were probably, in some way, 
 associated with them. 
 
 So they assembled under a large tree in front 
 of the house in which the teachers were lodged, and 
 commenced the war dance. It was necessary to ob- 
 tain the consent of the old chief with whom we left 
 the teachers before the people dared to kill them, and 
 this the old man refused to give. Throughout the 
 night he was urged to yield. One after another the 
 savages tried their powers of persuasion, but the old 
 warrior hung his head in silence. The sun set and 
 rose again, and still they danced round the fire in their 
 feathers, paint, and shells, looking wild and hideous, 
 as I have often seen them. What a long, anxious, 
 terrible night it must have been to the teachers and 
 their wives, whose house was close by, not knowing 
 what moment the savages might begin the massacre ! 
 Whilst they were imploring the chief to consent to 
 their murderous plan, the teachers were also imploring 
 their great Chief to protect them. Two went into the 
 loft to pray, whilst the other two remained below with 
 the women, to try and comfort them ; and when they 
 descended, the other two took their place, so that a 
 constant stream of prayer was kept up the whole night. 
 And what a prayer-meeting that would be ! With 
 what intense anxiety the teachers! wives must have 
 watched the savage crowd, especially those who, from 
 time to time, were pleading with the old chief for 
 permission to kill their husbands, which would leave 
 them defenceless, and exposed to a worse death ! 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 47 
 
 At length the morning came, after a long night of 
 anxious watching. The sun chased away the dark 
 clouds, and lifted the thick veil of mist that hangs 
 over the swampy coast of New Guinea at night, but the 
 savages made no sign of separating and returning to 
 their homes. The fire and the noise and the excite- 
 ment were kept up ; and under these circumstances, 
 it is not surprising that two of our teachers proposed 
 to escape in their boat. They felt that the old chief 
 would get no peace until he complied with the wishes 
 of the people, and that sooner or later, with or with- 
 out his consent, they would be murdered, and their 
 goods and wives seized and appropriated. The other 
 two and their wives however refused to leave their 
 post. They said : " The missionaries have placed us 
 here to acquire the language and teach the people, 
 and here we will remain till they take us away. If we 
 die, we die ; if we live, we live ; we are in the hands 
 of God." They all felt that we ought to be com- 
 municated with, and their position made known to us; 
 so the two who proposed leaving put a few things 
 together, and with their wives entered the boat, 
 which lay at anchor opposite their door, hoisted 
 the sail, and left the place. What must have been 
 the feelings of their friends as they stood on the 
 beach and watched the boat gradually disappear ! 
 It was the last link severed. Whether the savages 
 admired the courage of those who remained, or were 
 afraid of consequences, is not very clear. Although 
 they are generally moved most powerfully by the 
 latter consideration, they are nevertheless often actu- 
 ated by the former. Be that as it may, the depar- 
 ture of the boat was followed by a turn in the tide of 
 
48 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 affairs. The assembly was broken up, and the old 
 chief took a present of food to comfort the teachers 
 who remained and was ever afterwards their stanch 
 friend. 
 
 Our second visit had the happiest results. The 
 teachers were greatly comforted and encouraged, and 
 the savages were led to feel that the natives we had 
 left amongst them were cared for, and that if they 
 killed them they might bring upon themselves serious 
 trouble. We had taken back the boat, but not the 
 two teachers who left in it, they remained by the 
 vessel, the other two who had volunteered taking 
 their place ; and on our return to Warrior Island we 
 decided to leave them there for two reasons. First, 
 that they might be a check upon the South Sea 
 islanders, who were then beginning to arrive in 
 Torres Straits, in the employ of pearl-shellers, and 
 who, being liberally supplied with muskets and am- 
 munition for their protection, and with rum and gin 
 to induce them to work and as rewards for work- 
 ing well, often found their recreation in visiting 
 heathen villages, and plundering plantations and 
 homes, taking food from the one and wives and 
 daughters from the other. The poor savages soon 
 found that their clubs and spears were of little use 
 against snider rifles, and so fled to the bush on the 
 approach of these civilized (?) natives. Our mission 
 in Torres Straits greatly checked, and eventually 
 stopped these outrages. Another reason for leaving 
 two teachers at Warrior Island was, that the Warrior 
 islanders had intercourse with those of Bampton, 
 an island off the mouth of the Fly River, where we 
 contemplated forming our other mission station. 
 
HO IV WE GOT AT THEM. 49 
 
 Warrior appeared healthy, Bampton did not ; and 
 so we thought it wise to leave them for a time, where 
 we knew it was tolerably healthy and safe, till they 
 became acquainted with the people and place of 
 their destination. 
 
 After establishing these mission stations, we ran 
 across the straits to Cape York, where a Government 
 station had been formed for assisting and protecting 
 shipwrecked crews, and where we found a police magis- 
 trate, with half-a-dozen water police and as many 
 black troopers. Mr. Jardine, the police magistrate, re- 
 ceived us kindly, expressed interest in our work, and 
 promised to visit the teachers during our absence. The 
 next part of our programme was to re-visit Darnley, 
 where we had left our first teachers, and then cross 
 the Papuan Gulf and try and find out what the natives 
 on the south-east peninsula were like, so that we 
 might be the better able to advise the directors of the 
 London Missionary Society, and mature our plans for 
 working the mission. At Darnley we found all well. 
 The teachers were encouraged by the attitude of 
 the people towards them. They had assisted them 
 in putting up a neat little cottage, made of grass 
 and leaves, so far indicating their desire that the 
 teachers should remain amongst them. Thus at this 
 early stage of the mission, we had the pleasure of 
 seeing our teachers comfortably housed. We spent 
 a Sunday with them, and had a most interesting 
 service in the cocoanut grove — the best of all places 
 for worship in such climates. 
 
 Before we left Darnley the yohn Knox arrived, 
 which caused great rejoicing amongst our party. 
 This was the little vessel that I first chartered for our 
 
so. AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 prospecting voyage to New Guinea. The master and 
 owner, Mr. Thorngren, had decided to embark in the 
 pearl-shell fishery in Torres Straits, and found no 
 difficulty in getting a crew at Lifu amongst the friends 
 of our teachers. They had a most adventurous voyage 
 in this vessel of eleven tons burden. Had they made 
 a direct course on leaving New Caledonia, they would 
 have had to traverse fifteen or sixteen hundred miles 
 of ocean ; how many they really did travel it is diffi- 
 cult to say. They made for the Louisiades, but were 
 carried by currents and contrary winds to the Solomon 
 Archipelago, which Mr. Thorngren mistook for the 
 Louisiades. Then New Britain was mistaken for 
 New Guinea, until sailing along the coast he found 
 that they were on the wrong side of the peninsula. 
 On their way they spent twenty-one days among the 
 islands of the D'Entrecasteaux group, having peace- 
 ful intercourse with the natives, whom they found to 
 resemble those of Eastern Polynesia in colour, hair, 
 language, canoes, etc. This was important informa- 
 tion for us. We had found the natives in the Papuan 
 Gulf to be Papuan, their noses being the distinguish- 
 ing feature. It would be interesting to see what 
 they were like at Redscar Bay, near the middle 
 of the peninsula, the next place to which we were 
 bound. 
 
 Leaving Darnley, we sailed across the gulf, keeping 
 as much to windward as possible, seeing that we were 
 really on our homeward voyage, and had a long 
 way to beat to windward. We made the coast at 
 Yule Island, running in near enough to see the 
 natives, but did not land. Yule Island lies in the 
 mouth of a bay about six miles wide, blocked at one 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 51 
 
 end by reefs, with a fine passage at the other for large 
 vessels, making, between it and the mainland, one of 
 the finest harbours in New Guinea, known as Hall 
 Sound. As we passed it and gazed upon its green- 
 clad hills and thick forest land, both Mr. Murray and 
 I felt that it might prove a good Dauan for that part 
 of the country. We regarded such islands, close to 
 the mainland, as likely to be of great service in carry- 
 ing on the evangelization of New Guinea. Rough 
 weather set in whilst we were off Yule Island, causing 
 us a week's hard beating to reach Redscar Head, 
 where we anchored to have intercourse with the 
 people. We found them at first exceedingly shy, 
 showing no disposition to come near our vessel ; but 
 after a visit on shore we succeeded in getting a num- 
 ber to come on board, where we treated them in the 
 usual way. Our object was accomplished. We found 
 them lighter in colour than those in the gulf, with a 
 language resembling the Eastern Polynesian, and like 
 them wearing the maro. Mr. Murray recognised in 
 their numerals and other words a very marked like- 
 ness to the Samoan, and the people themselves ap- 
 peared to be of the same kind as those we saw at 
 Hood Bay, seventy-five miles to the eastward, and 
 those described by Mr. Thorngren, with whom he had 
 intercourse at the east end and opposite side of the 
 peninsula. We had good reasons therefore for con- 
 cluding that the whole of the south-east peninsula 
 was peopled by these Malayo-Polynesians, and con- 
 sequently decided to recommend the directors of our 
 society to appoint a couple of missionaries from 
 Eastern Polynesia, with a staff of teachers from that 
 branch of our South Sea mission, to take up the 
 
52 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 work on the south-east peninsula of New Guinea, 
 leaving our Western Polynesian teachers to carry on 
 the work in the Papuan Gulf, where we had begun 
 the mission amongst the darker tribes, who were more 
 like themselves. 
 
 It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the London 
 Missionary Society was the only society in a position 
 to supply missionaries and native evangelists from both 
 Eastern and Western Polynesia, to meet the peculiar 
 wants of a mission in New Guinea. Our society had 
 just the kind of agency needed for the evangelization 
 of the two races in that portion of New Guinea which 
 we intended to make the field of our mission, and 
 which has now become a colony of Great Britain. 
 Here was a fine field for mission work for the 
 native Churches of Polynesia : the Loyalty Islands 
 mission taking the dark race ; and the Tahitian 
 mission, the Hervey Islands mission, the Niue mis- 
 sion, and the Samoan mission, the lighter coloured 
 tribes on the peninsula. If nothing more had been 
 done in the South Seas than prepare a native 
 agency for this great work, it would be a grand 
 result. 
 
 In our return voyage to Lifu we encountered strong 
 head winds and currents, in consequence of which 
 we ran short of provisions. The native portion of the 
 crew were reduced to one cocoanut each per day 
 and we to a little dry biscuit and coffee ; and we all 
 had fish when we could catch them ! At Lifu, they 
 had begun to entertain grave doubts about our safety 
 which was perfectly natural, seeing that we hoped to 
 return in three months, and were absent five, and con- 
 sidering the dangerous navigation and the savage 
 
BO IV IV E GOT AT THEM. 53 
 
 character of the natives of New Guinea. Great was 
 the joy therefore on our return, and equally great 
 was our gratitude to God for His goodness to us, and 
 to those we had left behind. We had sent our report 
 to the directors of our society from one of the north- 
 ern ports of Australia, and so had not long to wait for 
 their reply, which expressed their glad surprise, devout 
 thankfulness, and hearty sympathy and co-operation. 
 In appointing me to this New Guinea work, their 
 idea was that I should begin after my visit to Eng- 
 land, from which I had been absent thirteen years, 
 and to which I was about to return, to carry through 
 the press the New Testament and Psalms in the Lifu 
 language ; but being a " canny Scotchman," I was 
 anxious to make a prospecting voyage to my new 
 sphere before meeting the directors in London, in 
 order to be able to speak from experience in discuss- 
 ing plans for carrying on so great and difficult a 
 work. My brethren in the Loyalty group were un- 
 animous in authorizing me, at our annual meeting, 
 to engage the John Knox for the purpose ; which I 
 did, at the rate of ;^20 per month. 
 
 In order to meet the peculiar difficulties of our new 
 mission, it was evident that we must adopt some 
 other plan than that which had hitherto been pursued 
 in the South Seas. To go in the JoJui Williams and 
 locate teachers on New Guinea, to be left unvisited 
 till her return voyage twelve months afterwards, 
 would be simply inhuman. Two things appeared 
 essential : missionaries must be on the spot, and they 
 must have the means of paying frequent visits to the 
 teachers, in order to direct, protect, and if necessary 
 remove them. Mr. Murray was consequently directed 
 
54 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 to return to New Guinea, and take charge of the infant 
 mission, whilst I was in England. It was arranged 
 that he should proceed thither in the John Williams, 
 taking with him Eastern Polynesian teachers to com- 
 mence the mission amongst the lighter coloured 
 tribes on the south-east peninsula at Redscar Bay, 
 where we had held intercourse with the people, and 
 some more from Lifu and Mare for the Papuan Gulf 
 The eastern teachers were from the Hervey Islands, 
 and were accompanied by their missionary. Rev. W. 
 Wyatt Gill, who was proceeding to England on fur- 
 lough, and who rendered Mr. Murray valuable help 
 in locating the new teachers and visiting all the 
 stations. 
 
 On that occasion the central branch of our mission 
 was commenced at the mouth of the Manumanu River, 
 in Redscar Bay ; but the place proved so exceedingly 
 unhealthy, that the surviving teachers were removed 
 to Port Moresby in the following year, that port having 
 just been discovered by Captain Moresby. Messrs. 
 Murray and Gill also landed teachers at Bampton 
 Island, near the Fly River, the place that we intended 
 to visit during our prospecting voyage, but were pre- 
 vented by the trouble at Dauan. These two teachers 
 (Lifuans) and their wives however were the first 
 martyrs of our New Guinea mission. In their zeal, 
 they had unwisely interfered with some of the super- 
 stitious rites of the heathen, who retaliated by giving 
 them the fatal blow with a club whilst their heads 
 were bowed at evening prayers. Their wives lived 
 for some time after. The heathen quarrelled about 
 them, one being ultimately killed by the enemy of 
 the warrior who had taken her as his wife. The other 
 
HOW WE GOT AT THEM. 55 
 
 was caught by a crocodile whilst wading out to a 
 point, where she had been in the habit of going to see 
 if any boat or vessel was coming to her rescue. Such 
 is the most authentic account I could obtain from the 
 natives of the place years afterwards, although they 
 were reluctant to speak on the subject. These were 
 the people of whom I have written, who confessed 
 the great mistake they had made in murdering 
 their best friends, supposing them to be enemies, 
 and where we have now a prosperous mission 
 station. 
 
 Mrs. Murray accompanied her husband to New 
 Guinea, and the Queensland Government kindly 
 allowed them to use an unoccupied house on the 
 hill, adjoining the one where the police magistrate 
 had quarters, at Somerset, Cape York, thus providing, 
 for a time, a sanatorium for the mission, until we 
 were able to decide upon the most suitable place for 
 our central station. With the John Knox and a 
 friend like Mr. Thorngren in Torres Straits, Mr. 
 Murray was able to superintend the young mission 
 until we arrived with the new vessel, Ellengowan. It 
 was a trying time however for a man of his age ; 
 still the danger and discomfort of travelling in boats 
 and small vessels, and the anxiety arising from the 
 unhealthy state of the mission, and the sickness and 
 death of the teachers, were a fitting close to so long 
 and honourable a missionary career. 
 
 I have now given some account of " How we Got at 
 the Cannibals," and established our mission amongst 
 them, both on the main body of the island and on 
 the south-east peninsula ; also on some of the islands 
 off the coast, to be used as stepping-stones to the 
 
56 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 mainland, and as sanatoriums and "cities of refuge " 
 for the mission. I will now proceed to describe 
 briefly the opening up of the country, and the pro- 
 gress of our work. 
 
THE OPENING UP OF THE COUNTRY, AND THE 
 PROGRESS OF THE MISSION. 
 
 W^lJ^M^^' ^ ^^ experience gained from our 
 ^, H f ' prospecting voyage convinced me 
 
 H that a small vessel with steam 
 
 H power was highly desirable, if not 
 
 ^m absolutely necessary, during the 
 
 first years of our pioneer work and 
 explorations ; and I determined, if possible, during 
 my visit to England to obtain such a vessel. Soon 
 after my arrival, I was sent to Scotland to represent 
 our society at some of the annual missionary meet- 
 ings, and whilst attending those at Dundee was the 
 g^est of Miss Baxter, to whom I unfolded my plans 
 
 57 
 
58 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 for carrying on and extending the work. That bene- 
 volent lady took a warm interest in our mission from 
 the first, and her interest was of a very practical 
 kind. She listened to all I had to say, without say- 
 ing much herself, made inquiries from practical men, 
 sea captains, and others ; and finding that all agreed 
 that it would be unwise, if not even a useless waste 
 of life, time, and money, to attempt such a work as 
 we contemplated, without a small vessel with steam 
 power, she consulted ship-builders and engineers as 
 to the best kind of vessel and probable cost. When 
 I left Dundee, she desired me to inform the directors 
 that she would provide such a vessel for the New 
 Guinea Mission as they might consider most suitable. 
 This led to the purchase and equipment of a small 
 steamer of thirty-six tons register, which was named 
 Ellengowan^ that being the name of Miss Baxter's 
 residence, near Dundee. The Ellengowan steamed 
 from London to Torres Straits, vid the Suez Canal. 
 
 A missionary's furlough in England is often the 
 busiest time of his life. Mine was unusually so, as 
 I had carried through the press the New Testament 
 and Psalms in the Lifu language, published "The 
 Story of the Lifu Mission," and spent much time in 
 connection with committees and arrangements with 
 reference to our new mission, besides taking my full 
 share of deputation work amongst the Churches. 
 Our directors feel that a missionary who has been at 
 his station (often a lonely and sickly one) for ten or 
 twelve years needs a change ; and they seldom allow 
 him to return without his being fully convinced that 
 he has had it, and being equally convinced that one 
 may have too much of a good thing ! 
 
EXPLORATION. 59 
 
 Amongst other things, the directors of the London 
 Missionary Society decided that the staff of mission- 
 aries for New Guinea should be increased to foiir^ 
 and that we should follow the scriptural rule, and 
 go "two and two," to superintend the eastern and 
 western branches of the mission. In the mean- 
 time, they would appoint another experienced mis- 
 sionary to accompany me, and after we had fixed 
 upon headquarters for both branches of the mission, 
 they would send out two young missionaries (one 
 being a medical missionary), that the new and the 
 old might be associated at each of our central 
 stations. This was an admirable arrangement, and 
 they succeeded in securing for me an excellent col- 
 league, one of the best missionaries in the South 
 Seas, Rev. W. G. Lawes, of Savage Island, an able, 
 plodding, cautious, conscientious, kind, and gentle- 
 manly man, who had been to Savage Island pretty 
 much what I had been to Lifu, and was the first mis- 
 sionary who lived amongst the people, translated the 
 New Testament and the Psalms into their language, 
 and trained a native agency. We met in Australia, 
 and came home in the same vessel. Of course we 
 talked much of the new mission, which I was anxious 
 he should join, and had reason to believe that he 
 would do so, if asked by the directors. They felt 
 that he would be just the man, and formally re- 
 quested him to transfer his services to the New 
 Guinea Mission. 
 
 We were also fortunate in securing for our pioneer 
 steamer, the Ellengowan, a good captain and engineer. 
 Christian men of experience and ability, who were in 
 perfect sympathy with us in our work. The former 
 
6o AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 had been trained as a ship-builder. He went to sea 
 as a ship's carpenter, studied navigation, became mate 
 of the Jo/m Williams, and was a favourite amongst 
 the natives throughout the islands where the John 
 Williams called. Mr. Runcie appeared to be the 
 very man we wanted, for he could both navigate our 
 vessel and repair it. I met him in Sydney, on the 
 eve of my departure for England, and found that he 
 would be willing to take charge of our vessel, which 
 appointment he ultimately received from the direc- 
 tors of our society. We were equally fortunate in 
 our engineer. He was a member of one of our 
 London Churches, and the minister, Rev. A. Buza- 
 cott, finding that I was in search of a suitable man 
 for this important post in our little steamer, recom- 
 mended Mr. Smithurst to me, as being the very 
 person we wanted. I hiad an interview with him, 
 looked over his testimonials, which were of a high 
 order, felt convinced that he was the man for us, 
 and mentioned him to the directors, who appointed 
 him at once to assist in getting the EU'engowan 
 ready for her long sea voyage. Considering the 
 nature of the service in which the captain and 
 engineer were to be engaged, it was of the utmost 
 importance that they should be intelligent Christian 
 men, in sympathy with mission work. We had 
 reason therefore to be thankful at having secured 
 such men as Captain Runcie and Mr. Smithurst, who 
 both rendered such excellent service in very trying 
 circumstances. 
 
 It was arranged that we should meet the Ellen- 
 goivan in Torres Straits, — she steaming out via the 
 Suez Canal, calling at certain ports for coal and sup- 
 
EXPLORATION. 6i 
 
 plies; we, the mission party, proceeding in a sailing 
 vessel to Sydney, where we were to meet the John 
 Williams, which was to take us to Cape York, the 
 temporary headquarters of the mission. On our 
 arrival in Sydney, it was considered desirable that I 
 should proceed at once to Cape York by one of the 
 coasting steamers, to make preparations for the arri- 
 val of our party. There were no means of informing 
 Mr. Murray, who was not even aware of our arrival 
 in Sydney. Judge of his and Mrs. Murray's surprise, 
 when I presented myself at the door of their house, 
 about nine o'clock on a dark night. The joy and relief 
 and general excitement proved too much for Mr. 
 Murray, who soon after my arrival had a serious illness, 
 which he regarded as an indication that it was time 
 for him to retire from active missionary work. Con- 
 sequently he prepared to leave in the John Williams. 
 The news of my arrival spread amongst our 
 teachers, some of whom soon found their way to 
 Cape York, and assisted in erecting a large grass 
 house for the reception of the teachers who were 
 coming by the John Williams. I had taken some 
 weather-boards, with which we inclosed a portion 
 of the verandah of the house occupied by Mr 
 and Mrs. Murray, thereby increasing its size to 
 meet the large demands that would soon be made 
 upon it. Mr. Jardine, the police magistrate, kindly 
 allowed me to use the Gov^ernment cutter, in which 
 I visited some of our mission stations. Then the 
 Ellengowayi arrived from England ; and about the 
 same time H.M.S. CJialle^iger, on her deep-sea sound- 
 ing expedition, called at Cape York, and remained a 
 week. Captain (afterwards Sir George) Nares made 
 
62 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 that week a very pleasant one for me, frequently 
 sending in a boat for me to go off to dinner, and 
 coming up to the mission house without any cere- 
 mony — so different from the visits of captains of 
 French men-of-war at Lifu. The scientific staff on 
 board the Challenger made their mess the largest 
 in the British navy, so that the evenings spent on 
 board are remembered as amongst the most pleasant 
 of my life. The Ellengowan had arrived with a leaky 
 boiler, but Captain Nares sent his boiler-makers on 
 board, who soon made the necessary repairs. Three 
 weeks after her arrival she had been beached and 
 thoroughly overhauled, and was again ready for sea 
 before the John Williams reached Cape York. 
 
 Not only was the Ellengowan in readiness, but 
 the house was erected for the accommodation of 
 the teachers, and the alterations and additions made 
 to the mission house completed, and Mr. Murray 
 had nearly all his things packed ready to leave, 
 when, to our great surprise, Mr. and Mrs. Lawes 
 and child arrived by one of the steamers passing 
 through Torres Straits. Before I left Sydney, we 
 had arranged that I should go on first to make 
 preparations, and that he would follow in the John 
 Williams, in charge of the mission party. Unfor- 
 tunately however, at the last moment, when all his 
 goods were on board, his youngest child was seized 
 with what was supposed to be scarlet fever, and 
 he and Mrs. Lawes decided to remain, and follow 
 in a steamer, which was to leave for Torres Straits 
 the following week ; hence their arrival at Cape York 
 before the John Williams. We were of course de- 
 lighted to see them, but naturally very anxious 
 
EXPLORATION. 63 
 
 about my wife and family, and the native teachers 
 and their wives, when we found that the John 
 Williams had started from Sydney with so many 
 passengers, without as usual, a missionary on board 
 to attend to them in case of sickness. We were 
 however glad to learn that all were well when the 
 vessel left Sydney, and hoped to find them so on its 
 arrival. We had not long to wait, and when she 
 appeared we were soon on board, to meet the dear 
 ones, and congratulate the captain upon his successful 
 navigation in such dangerous waters. 
 
 I learnt that day what it is to pass in a moment 
 from real joy to deep grief on finding that my 
 daughter had died, and been buried at sea, and 
 that the watching, grief, and anxiety had almost 
 proved too much for my dear wife. Our beloved 
 child was six years of age, a sweet little girl, 
 the very light of our home, and who, we thought, 
 would be especially so during the first dark years 
 of our New Guinea Mission life. She was perfectly 
 well when the John Williams left Sydney; but the 
 voyage was a rough one, and she suffered intensely 
 from sea-sickness. After leaving Sydney harbour she 
 took to her bed, and never left it, being unable to take 
 any nourishment. She died on the seventh day out 
 from sheer exhaustion, being quite conscious up to the 
 last. When one of the native teachers' wives was pray- 
 ing by her bedside, she said, " I love Jesus, and Jesus 
 loves me, and I am going to His house." Just before 
 she died she became blind, and called for her mother, 
 and putting her arms round her neck, said, " I'm not 
 afraid, mamma, I'm not afraid ; I'm just going to lie 
 and think " ; and so she passed away from the arms 
 
64 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 of her lonely, disconsolate mother. Captain Turpie's 
 kindness and attention during this trying time were 
 beyond all praise, especially considering his anxiety 
 about the navigation and management of his vessel. 
 
 The directors recommended, as the wisest course, 
 that Mr. Lawes should leave his family with mine at 
 Cape York, whilst he and I made a thorough survey 
 of our new mission field, and decided upon the most 
 suitable points for central stations. Before he left 
 Sydney however he was led to see the desirability 
 of proceeding to Port Moresby at once in the John 
 Williams upon her arrival at Cape York, there being 
 some talk of a party of explorers and gold-diggers 
 going there, and from the good report of the place 
 given by the discoverer. Captain Moresby, and also 
 from the fact of Eastern Polynesian teachers having 
 been located there the previous year by Messrs. 
 Murray and Gill. Under other circumstances, the 
 getting our goods on shore and unpacked, and Mr. 
 Murray's packed and on board, the landing and 
 re-embarking of teachers, etc., would have been an 
 enjoyable excitement ; but in our great grief it was all 
 confusion, and like a dream when we actually saw 
 the JoJin Williams being towed out of the harbour 
 by our little Ellengowan with our friends on board. 
 The least I can say is, that we felt lonely, and could 
 not help thinking of the beautiful home and pro- 
 sperous mission we had left at Lifu, and of the happy 
 home we might have had in England, with our dear 
 children around us. But these were not the thoughts 
 to be indulged in by a pioneer missionary, and we 
 knew from experience that they were only to be 
 exorcised by work, plenty of which had to be done 
 
rORT MORIiSBY, SHOWING MISSION STATION. 
 
EXPLORA TION. 65 
 
 before the return of the Ellengowan from Port 
 Moresby. 
 
 My colleague, Mr. Lawes, soon found himself in the 
 midst of work, excitement, and anxiety. The teachers 
 had erected, at the mission station, good houses for 
 themselves and their friends, such as they had been 
 accustomed to in the South Seas, and Mr, Lawes had 
 taken a weather-board house from Sydney, also the 
 tent which we got in London for the mission. The 
 John Williams and the Ellengozvan remained at Port 
 Moresby until these were put up, the crews of both 
 vessels assisting in their erection, and doing all in 
 their power, not only to make the stores secure and 
 the house comfortable, but also to maintain and in- 
 crease the good feeling existing between the mission 
 and the people. The teachers had only been there 
 about a year, and although the place was considered 
 tolerably healthy, it was evident that the confidence 
 of the natives had yet to be gained and the character 
 of the climate in that locality tested ; and the accom- 
 plishment of these objects sorely tried the faith, 
 patience, and courage of my colleague and his staff 
 of teachers. 
 
 During the first season we got our baptism of New 
 Guinea fever. The acclimatizing attacks are generally 
 the worst ; mine lasted twelve days, accompanied by 
 severe vomiting. The teachers, in both branches of 
 the mission, suffered much, indeed many of them did 
 not recover. Port Moresby proved exceedingly un- 
 healthy, so that our hospital at Cape York was soon 
 filled with teachers from both branches of the mission. 
 This state of things led to our search for healthy 
 localities suitable for mission stations. In the Papuan 
 
66 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 Gulf the land is low and swampy. Our Lifu and 
 Mare teachers found it impossible to live on the 
 mainland at Katau and Tureture ; fortunately they 
 had Dauan and Darnley to fall back upon, or Katau, 
 like Port Moresby, might have been called " the grave 
 of the mission." 
 
 I learnt from the natives of the existence of a large 
 river, lake, or inland sea (it was difficult to make out 
 which from their description) about twenty miles to 
 the west of Dauan, and determined to visit it, and 
 see if it were possible by it to reach high land 
 and populous districts for our mission work. I was 
 accompanied on that interesting voyage by two 
 friends, James Orkney, Esq., member of the Victorian 
 parliament, and Mr. Octavius Stone, F.R.G.S. The 
 former had rendered valuable service to the mission 
 in his private yacht, during my absence in England, 
 and was greatly interested in our work. The latter 
 has written a book about New Guinea, in which he 
 speaks for himself We were delighted to find a 
 noble river, about a mile wide at the entrance, six or 
 seven fathoms deep, without any bar or impediment 
 to a steamer of 5(X) tons burden for a distance of 
 seventy or eighty miles, although the approach to the 
 river's mouth from Dauan is rather intricate and 
 dangerous. Having gone about ninety miles, we 
 were stopped by fallen trees and snags. The river 
 had become very narrow, and we had passed many 
 tributaries of considerable size. Some of the largest 
 of these however were salt, and as I found after- 
 wards led to the coast farther to the west, thus 
 forming a large island. We did not see any villages, 
 although we landed every morning whilst the crew 
 
EXPLORATION. 67 
 
 were cutting fuel for our day's run, and penetrated 
 a considerable distance into the interior on both sides 
 of the river. Only on two occasions did we see 
 natives, and they appeared very much afraid, and 
 disappeared as we approached. Their tracks, and 
 sometimes temporary dwellings, were seen at several 
 points. Atone place we found a tobacco and banana 
 plantation. We were disappointed however in 
 not being able to reach the high lands. Before 
 returning, we cut a frame in the trunk of a tree, in 
 which, we placed a portrait of her majesty the 
 queen, and around it hung a few presents for the 
 natives — hatchets, knives, a looking-glass, etc. Being 
 the first Europeans to enter this river, we named it in 
 honour of the donor of our missionary steamer, by 
 means of which our explorations were made, calling 
 it the Baxter River. 
 
 Failing to find suitable places for mission stations 
 up the Baxter River, I resolved to take the first 
 favourable opportunity of trying the Fly River. At 
 the Royal Geographical Society I had met Captain 
 Evans, hydrographer to the Admiralty, who was mid- 
 shipman with Captain Blackwood during his visit to 
 New Guinea in 1845, and learnt from him all that 
 was known about the Fly River. They discovered 
 what they supposed to be the mouth of a large river, 
 judging from the body of fresh water flowing out, 
 attempted to enter it in the ship's pinnace, were 
 met by large canoes full of savage-looking men, who 
 were evidently coming to attack them, and having 
 no desire to shed blood, returned to the ship, and 
 gave the name of their vessel to the river. Captain 
 Evans declared it to be his firm conviction that it 
 
68 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 would require two of her majesty's gunboats to open 
 up that river ; and when my report of our voyage up 
 the river was read before the Royal Geographical 
 Society, he declared to the meeting that he considered 
 it one of the best pioneer voyages of modern times. 
 When I informed Mr. Lawes of my intention, he 
 replied that I had better send the Ellengoivan back 
 to Port Moresby with a large supply of stores, before 
 I commenced so perilous a voyage ! 
 
 I was fully alive to the difficulties of the task, and 
 made my arrangements accordingly. As my object 
 was to see if there were suitable localities for mission 
 stations which could be conveniently reached by the 
 river, I determined to avoid, if possible, any chance 
 of collision with the natives (who of course were 
 ignorant of our friendly intentions), by landing to cut 
 fuel at uninhabited places. If successful in the object 
 of our search, it would be a comparatively easy 
 matter afterwards to conciliate the natives, and give 
 them a true idea as to whom and what we were. I 
 was accompanied on this, as on the previous voyage, 
 by two gentlemen, who were anxious to form part of 
 the expedition — Mr. Chester, the police magistrate 
 at Cape York, and Signor d'Albertis, the Italian 
 naturalist. The latter was particularly fortunate in 
 arriving just in time to join us, which led to his 
 obtaining a steam launch from the New South Wales 
 Government the following year, and ascending the 
 river much higher than I felt justified in going. We 
 had difficulty in finding a passage into the river, and 
 owing to its great width and numerous sand-banks, 
 mud-flats, and small islands, very considerable diffi- 
 culty in ascending it. We found that what we at 
 
EXPLORATION. 69 
 
 first supposed to be the eastern bank was really 
 a large island about thirty-five miles long, on each 
 side of which the Fly River empties itself into the 
 sea, pouring forth such a body of fresh water, that 
 the line between that and the salt sea may be seen 
 miles from the coast. The river is about eight 
 miles wide where it branches off on each side of the 
 island of Kiwai. It narrows rapidly to three or four 
 miles, and then gradually becomes more defined. It 
 is studded with small and beautiful islands, whilst the 
 banks are lined with stemless palms and cocoanut 
 groves, in which are numerous villages and towns of 
 warlike people. These savages at several points came 
 out to attack us, in large and fleet canoes, holding 
 twenty-five or thirty men each. They looked well in 
 their war-paint, feathers, and shell ornaments, with 
 a kind of helmet surmounted by a paradise bird 
 plume, kept waving by their excited movements. 
 One could not but admire their courage. We were 
 strangers to them, and regarded by them as enemies 
 come to murder and plunder ; and like men, they 
 came out to defend their homes and families, probably 
 hoping to return, as they had often done, with trophies 
 of their success, in the shape of human heads and 
 plunder. Whenever we found that it was impossible 
 to hold communication with them, and that they were 
 determined to attack us, some standing with bows 
 strung and arrows fixed, just waiting excitedly to get 
 within range, we felt that the most humane thing to 
 do was to prevent a collision, which would have led 
 to much loss of life, and this we did by frightening 
 them away in a harmless manner. 
 
 We found the banks of the river pretty thickly 
 
70 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 populated for the first eighty miles or so, but for the 
 next eighty or ninety miles we did not see any natives, 
 and only on one occasion did we find any traces of 
 them. As we proceeded the banks became higher, in 
 some places rising to twenty feet, and the soil, as may 
 be supposed, is a rich alluvial. The wild nutmeg and 
 other spices abound. Pigeons shot had generally their 
 crops full of the former. There are immense tracts 
 of good sugar land on the upper parts of the Fly 
 River, where the country appears to be very thinly 
 populated. This great river is the Thames of New 
 Guinea, running 500 miles into the interior. We went 
 up about 160 miles in the Ellengozvan ; but as there was 
 no prospect of finding that for which I, as a missionary, 
 was in search (for neither mountains nor natives could 
 be seen), provisions running short, and our crew 
 beginning to suffer from fever, our own legs also begin- 
 ning the ominous swelling, I determined to return. 
 
 About seventy miles from the mouth of the river 
 we had the misfortune to ground on a sand-bank 
 and break our shaft, and this right opposite a village 
 of howling savages. Afterwards, during a visit to a 
 village near that place, I measured one of the houses, 
 and found it to be 5 12 feet long. There was little fear 
 in ascending the river, because we went with the 
 flowing tide, so that if we stuck, we were soon afloat 
 again. But in returning (the tide being too strong for 
 us to steam against it) with an ebb tide the case was 
 totally different, and often very serious. We had 
 made a chart of the river during our ascent, but could 
 not then find the deep water channel at the place 
 where we grounded coming down. The river is there 
 about three miles wide, with numerous banks and 
 
EXPLORATION. 71 
 
 small islands. I found afterwards that the deep 
 channel is close in shore, by the village. 
 
 Our prospects were far from pleasing when we found 
 that our vessel was really "hard and fast" on that bank, 
 and that the shaft, by attempting to back the engine, 
 had broken close by the propeller. We looked at the 
 fleet of canoes that had for some time been following 
 us, at the crowd of noisy savages in front of the village, 
 and at each other with something like dismay. How- 
 ever there was no time to be lost. The water was fast 
 leaving our vessel, and it might be serious to allow the 
 Elleiigowan (from her peculiar shape) to heel over on 
 her side. For such emergencies, which often occurred 
 in those days, we carried eight good chocks or spars, 
 by means of which we kept the vessel upright until 
 the return of the tide. At low water it was only ankle 
 deep around the Elleiigowan. We hoisted the pro- 
 peller on deck, and got all ready for the midnight high 
 tide. The natives watched our movements in the 
 evening, but did not come near, and were probably 
 very much surprised and disappointed to find next 
 morning that we had disappeared. With two boats 
 towing we w^ent with the tide, anchoring when it 
 changed, and thus, in three days, got out of the river. 
 At some of our anchorages we managed to hold friendly 
 intercourse with the natives, and thus paved the way 
 for the establishment of our mission amongst them 
 two or three years afterwards. At the mouth of the 
 river we got a light, fair wind, to which we spread our 
 sails and soon ran across Torres Straits to Cape York, 
 where our engineer and captain in a few days re- 
 paired the damage with the duplicate shaft, etc., which 
 I had taken the precaution to bring from England. 
 
72 AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 Failing to find high land, or healthy and populous 
 localities up those large rivers in the Papuan Gulf, 
 and seeing that the teachers were suffering and dying 
 around us, both in the Papuan Gulf and at Port 
 Moresby, I determined to try the east end of the pen- 
 insula. It seemed from the narrow and mountainous 
 character of the peninsula that we might find it more 
 healthy at the extreme end, working from East and 
 South Capes westward. It was clearly our duty to 
 make every effort to find tolerably healthy localities, 
 and with this object I arranged to visit China Straits, 
 and find out what the place was like, before coming 
 to any decision about forming a mission there. Call- 
 ing at Port Moresby, I consulted with Mr. Lawes, who 
 joined me in this expedition. We visited many places 
 on the coast on our way down, and made some impor- 
 tant discoveries of harbours, lagoons, rivers, islands, 
 and passes ; amongst which may be mentioned, as 
 likely to become useful for commerce, a fine harbour 
 off the town off Kerepunu, in Hood Bay ; Mullens' 
 Harbour, in Orangerie Bay ; and Stacey Island, which 
 was supposed to be South Cape, between which and 
 the mainland there is splendid anchorage for vessels 
 of any size, and plenty of good water. 
 
 Ourvoyage proved most interesting and encouraging. 
 The natives were numerous, and with the exception 
 of Orangerie Bay apparently disposed to be friendly. 
 At that place however we should probably have had 
 serious trouble if we had not had steam power. The 
 savages, who in that district are cannibals, tried to pick a 
 quarrel with some of our crew who were cutting fuel on 
 shore. They afterwards came off in large numbers and 
 crowded our deck, and became very impudent. With- 
 
EXPLORATION. 73 
 
 out noticing it, the anchor was quietly heaved up, the 
 propeller set in motion, and the vessel slowly moved 
 out of the harbour. The natives, in the midst of 
 their excitement, did not at first observe this. When 
 it was noticed, and the attention of the crowd called 
 to it, the effect was most ludicrous. Whatever their 
 ideas might have been about taking our vessel, they 
 were instantly changed to anxiety and impatience to 
 leave it. We never had our deck cleared in so short 
 a time. They tumbled over the side in a most extra- 
 ordinary manner. Some dropping into canoes, some 
 on to catamarans, others into the sea, in the wildest 
 confusion, whilst we steamed quietly away. In China 
 Straits, which Captain Moresby had discovered the 
 year before, there appeared to be likely places for 
 mission stations, and it seemed that this very popu- 
 lous district might be worked from a central station 
 on one of the islands with very fair prospects of suc- 
 cess. This visit led to the formation of the third 
 branch of our New Guinea Mission in the following 
 year. 
 
 In this brief account of exploration in those first 
 years, I must not omit to mention two of our most im- 
 portant discoveries. During the south-east monsoon, 
 many vessels, bound from Australia to China, pass 
 through Torres Straits, where it is well known a large 
 percentage have been wrecked. A slight error in 
 reckoning or in the chronometer causes the captains 
 to miss Bramble Cay; then, to avoid what looks on the 
 charts a terribly dangerous place, they attempt to beat 
 away from the extensive Warrior Reef, on to which 
 some of them are driven by a strong wind and tide. 
 To our surprise and delight we found a fine passage 
 6 
 
74 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 through the Warrior Reef at the north end, three miles 
 wide, with six or seven fathoms of water. There is 
 good anchorage on the lee side of the reef This 
 became our usual way between the Fly River and 
 Thursday Island, being much pleasanter and safer on 
 the lee than on the weather side of this long and 
 dangerous reef Being the discoverer, I named the 
 passage " Missionary Passage." 
 
 The other important discovery I made about this 
 time, when begitming the Fly River mission, was a 
 good passage into the river, about eight miles to the 
 eastward of Bampton Island, with an even, sandy 
 bottom, gradually shallowing from nine to three 
 fathoms and a half, and then as gradually deepening 
 to six fathoms ; and a fine harbour, formed by three 
 islands situated in the middle of the river, safe at all 
 seasons, and smooth as a mill pond, with six fathoms 
 of water close to the shore. Here we commenced 
 our mission work in the Fly River, and to this port 
 we conducted the Australian geographical exploring 
 party, led by Captain Everill ; and this port is likely 
 to become of great service in Fly River commerce. 
 
 Whilst I was thus engaged in becoming acquainted 
 with the western district and extending the mission, 
 my colleague, Mr. Lawes, was also busy at Port 
 Moresby, which he decided to make the headquarters 
 of that branch of the mission, and along the coast 
 eastward as far as Hood Bay, forming mission stations, 
 becoming acquainted with the people and their lan- 
 guage, and attending to the sick and dying teachers. 
 His chief difficulty and greatest trouble and anxiety 
 arose from the sickly nature of the climate, which 
 caused an appalling mortality amongst the teachers. 
 
EXPLORATION. • 75 
 
 The little mission cemetery of two years' growth, 
 situated behind the village, with its eighteen graves, 
 told a sad tale. 
 
 Owing to the unhealthiness of the district the 
 directors appointed a medical missionary to be 
 associated with Mr. Lawes, the son of the well 
 known missionary who was the founder and for so 
 many years the head of the training institution in 
 Samoa, Dr. Turner. This appointment however was 
 no benefit to the mission, as the young doctor only 
 remained a few months in the field. His wife (an 
 excellent Christian lady) died from the fever of the 
 country, and he returned to England with his infant 
 child. Mr. Lawes also left Port Moresby at the same 
 time, and ^ent his wife and child to England, informing 
 the directors that he had given the place a fair trial of 
 two and a half years, and considered it (Port Moresby) 
 quite unfit for a place of residence for Europeans. 
 Those who know Mr. Lawes will feel that he is not the 
 man to give up readily anything he has undertaken, 
 so that his decision about Port Moresby was not a 
 hasty one. That season however had been an un- 
 usually bad one. Not only foreigners, but the natives 
 themselves had suffered severely from the fatal fever. 
 
 Mr. Lawes lived with us some time at Cape York, 
 visiting the teachers on the peninsula occasionally, 
 until the arrival of Rev. James Chalmers, who had 
 been appointed to the New Guinea Mission. Most 
 of the Eastern Polynesian teachers there having 
 come from Rarotonga, where he had been labouring 
 for many years, his presence as their missionary and 
 his knowledge of their language, combined with his 
 energetic spirit and great influence over them, was like 
 
76 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 new life to them. He had brought a number with him 
 from Rarotonga, to take the places of those who had 
 fallen, and to extend the mission. Meeting these had 
 the happiest effects upon their friends in the mission. 
 From that time our mission took a new departure. 
 Mr. Lawes left on a much-needed furlough, whilst 
 Mr. Chalmers and I decided to try the east end of the 
 peninsula, which seemed to Mr. Lawes and me, the 
 year before, to offer such fair prospects for mission 
 work. Before doing so however we made a short 
 trip of twenty-five or thirty miles into the interior 
 from Port Moresby, in order to visit the hill tribes, 
 and see what inducement there was to establish an 
 inland mission in that locality. The very mountainous 
 character of the country, and the sparse population, 
 scattered on the tops of hills and mountains, many 
 of the houses being built in the forks of trees, con- 
 vinced us that on the peninsula, as in the Papuan 
 Gulf, the population is mostly on the coast, where 
 the large and numerous villages have the stronger 
 claims. 
 
 Before the arrival of Mr. Chalmers, I had selected 
 six of the best Lifu and Mar6 teachers for this East 
 Cape mission, and arranged that they should leave 
 their wives with Mrs. McFarlane, until we got the 
 mission fairly established, and learnt from experience 
 the nature of the climate. Mr. Chalmers joined with 
 six of the Rarotongans he had brought with him ; and 
 as his wife accompanied him, their wives accompanied 
 her. We arranged that he, with the Rarotongans, 
 should take the South Cape district, whilst I, with the 
 Lifu teachers, took that of East Cape. He selected, 
 as his headquarters, a small village on Stacey Island, 
 
EXPLORATION. 77 
 
 near South Cape, which he regarded as the most cen- 
 tral and suitable point from which to work the dis- 
 trict. I selected an island in China Straits, as being 
 the most central and healthy-looking place in the 
 East Cape district. We each located our teachers at 
 what we considered the most healthy points, and 
 threw ourselves heartily into the work of clearing and 
 building at our central stations. The natives were 
 a wild set of cannibals, both troublesome and dan- 
 gerous, easily excited but fortunately easily appeased. 
 It was a new experience for Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers, 
 who had been accustomed to the civilized natives of 
 Rarotonga ; but, like true missionaries, they adapted 
 themselves to the circumstances, and settled down 
 amongst this savage people, to learn their language 
 and improve their condition. 
 
 Mr. Chalmers located his teachers between South 
 Cape and Orangerie Bay ; but to our great disap- 
 pointment and grief the place proved exceedingly 
 unhealthy, even more so than Port Moresby. Mrs. 
 Chalmers and four of the teachers died, and Mr. 
 Chalmers returned to Port Moresby, to take charge 
 of the Rarotongan teachers in that district. All the 
 stations in the South Cape district were broken up, 
 except the one on Stacey Island, where Mr. and Mrs. 
 Chalmers had lived for a time. 
 
 The death of Mrs. Chalmers was not only a great 
 loss to her husband, but a serious loss to the mission, 
 especially to the Rarotongan teachers and their wives. 
 Like Mrs. Turner, she had come to New Guinea with 
 a malady which the climate rapidly developed. Her 
 family in New Zealand and her friends in Australia, 
 all urged her to remain in Sydney, whilst Mr. Chal- 
 
Jr8 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 mers paid the desired visit to New Guinea, before pro- 
 ceeding to England on furlough, as they intended. 
 She declared however that, having no family, she 
 would go where her husband went. Her death led 
 Mr. Chalmers to postpone his visit to England, and to 
 devote himself to the extension of the mission in the 
 Port Moresby district, making his home with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lawes. His love of travel and missionary zeal 
 led to numerous journeys, of which he has given 
 detailed accounts in " Life and Adventure in New 
 Guinea." These however have all been confined to 
 the south side of the south-east peninsula. He has 
 not yet visited the Fly River, nor indeed any part of 
 the great body of the island, so that there still remains 
 plenty of congenial work for our friend in British 
 New Guinea. 
 
 In establishing the East Cape branch of our mis- 
 sion, I determined to pursue the same plan as I had 
 adopted in the west ; namely, to form a station on a 
 tolerably healthy island off the coast, as a retreat in 
 cases of serious illness. Teste Island became to the 
 mission at the east end what Darnley was in the 
 west — a city of refuge. There we formed our first 
 mission station in that district, which has grown and 
 prospered ever since. The next was on the mainland, 
 in Milne Bay, near East Cape ; then in Discovery 
 Bay ; and after thoroughly examining the different 
 points of the district, I decided to form the central 
 station on a small island in China Straits, called Din- 
 ner Island by Captain Moresby, between which and 
 the mainland and Heath Island, there is a splendid 
 harbour. I purchased this small island from the 
 natives, for the London Missionary Society, for the 
 
EXPLORATION. 79 
 
 headquarters of our mission in that part of New 
 Guinea, and had it cleared, and houses put up, and 
 vegetable gardens made. It soon became known to 
 the surrounding tribes as neutral ground. We were 
 visited from all parts, and sometimes had over a 
 hundred canoes and catamarans at the place at one 
 time. From the first we were greatly encouraged 
 by the attitude of the natives. Although cannibals 
 and notorious thieves, they were friendly, willing to 
 help us, and evidently anxious that we should re- 
 main amongst them. They probably thought that it 
 would be more profitable to fleece us than to eat us, 
 seeing that we formed the connecting link between 
 them and the land of hoop iron and beads and 
 hatchets. 
 
 The opening up of the eastern branch of our mis- 
 sion was an interesting experience. As in the west, 
 the captain of our vessel would not go near the main- 
 land at East Cape, owing to the dangerous character 
 of the navigation, so that we had to go in boats, there 
 being no one to introduce us, and we utterly ignorant 
 of the language of the people, and they of ours. The 
 teachers, as usual, worked well. They soon gained 
 the confidence of the people, who assisted them in 
 erecting good houses and chapels ; after which their 
 wives joined them, and commenced work amongst 
 the women. They suffered however, as in the Port 
 Moresby and western districts, from the deadly fever 
 of the country. Some died, others had to be removed ; 
 and I was obliged to give up all hope of finding suit- 
 able localities in New Guinea for our South Sea Is- 
 lands teachers. It became painfully evident that New 
 Guinea must be evangelized, if evangelized at all, by 
 
8o AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 New Guineans. The responsibility of bringing South 
 Sea islanders to a place where half of them died was 
 too great, hence my resolve to establish the " Papuan 
 Institute," and train a native agency from amongst 
 the people themselves. 
 
Y object was to found an institu- 
 tion that should be worthy the 
 London Missionary Society 
 and the New Guinea Mission, 
 and work it on somewhat 
 different lines from similar 
 institutions in the South Seas, 
 so as to meet the peculiar wants of this mission ; viz. 
 to assemble promising young men and boys from 
 different points of the mission, speaking different 
 languages, at a central station ; and there, removed 
 from their evil surroundings and family influences, 
 teach them, making the English language and an indus- 
 trial school prominent features in the course of their 
 
82 AMONG THE CANNIBALS,. . 
 
 instruction. Like most schemes that verge from 
 the beaten track, it met with considerable opposi- 
 tion, being declared " impracticable," " Utopian," etc., 
 which led to difficulty and delay in obtaining the 
 sanction of the directors. But as in my recommenda- 
 tion to provide a small steamer for pioneering work 
 during the first few years of the mission, the question 
 was solved by Miss Baxter supplying the steamer ; 
 so in the case of the Papuan Institute, the same kind 
 lady offered to provide institution buildings and 
 ;^IC)0 a year towards the annual expenses of the in- 
 stitution. These are the kind of arguments that make 
 a quick impression upon directors. 
 
 The first thing was to select the most suitable site 
 for such an institution. The place required to be 
 healthy for a sanatorium for the mission ; fertile^ in 
 order to supply plenty of native food for the institu- 
 tion ; and central^ for conveniently reaching all parts 
 of the Papuan Gulf: and these requirements could 
 only be found on one of the islands of the two small 
 groups situated opposite the mouth of the Fly River, 
 the Darnley and Murray groups, which are totally 
 distinct in their physical features from all the other 
 islands in Torres Straits, bearing a luxuriant tropical 
 vegetation like the adjacent mainland of New Guinea, 
 whilst the other islands are barren, like the adjacent 
 mainland of Australia. We decided upon Murray 
 Island on account of its population and position, 
 there being between 300 and 400 natives on the island, 
 and its being a little out of the track of vessels, which 
 is a decided advantage for educational purposes. 
 
 As Murray Island is the lona of New Guinea, 
 it may be interesting to give some account of it 
 
THE PAPUAN INSTITUTE. 83 
 
 in connection with the establishment of the Papuan 
 Institute. It is about two miles long and one broad, 
 and is surrounded by a reef which extends half a mile 
 from the shore on the south-east side, but on the north- 
 west is only about 100 yards wide. The south-west 
 end of the island rises rather abruptly from the sea in 
 a conical peaked hill to the height of 750 feet, from 
 the summit of which a narrow-backed ridge runs in 
 a north-easterly direction, the length of the island 
 gradually inclining, until it terminates near the end of 
 the island, about 1 50 feet above the level of the sea. 
 The land from the top of this ridge on the north-west 
 side of the island slopes at about fifteen degrees down 
 to within eighty yards of the sea, between which and 
 the beach there is a fine belt of planting ground, 
 where the natives have their houses. After descend- 
 ing 400 feet from the summit of the cone, the interior 
 of the island is almost level with the ridge in question, 
 with a similar slope on the south-east side. This 
 table-land (slightly depressed in the middle) abounds 
 with cocoanut trees and tropical fruits, and is exceed- 
 ingly fertile. It is evident that an active volcano 
 formerly existed on the island, the crater being at the 
 south-west end, from which the conical peak and 
 narrow ridge have been formed. As one looks on 
 the huge piles of trap rock here, and on the two 
 adjacent small islands, the mind naturally wanders 
 back to the pre-historic era, when the silence of many 
 a dark night was broken by the booming of eruptions, 
 and the hill sides were aglow with molten lava, creep- 
 ing down like a thing of life, and the surrounding 
 waters danced and sparkled in the glare of this 
 monster beacon. 
 
84 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 Disintegration has long been doing its work, and 
 now the whole island (hill-sides included) is covered 
 with a deep, rich soil. The mission houses are erected 
 on the slope on the north-west side of the island, 
 lOO feet above the sea level, the Papuan Institute 
 buildings being on the level below. The situation is 
 healthy, convenient, and pleasant. The anchorage is 
 opposite the mission premises, and is very good during 
 the south-east season, or about nine months in the 
 year. In the north-west season it is on the opposite 
 side of the island inside the reef, but only suitable for 
 small vessels. The island being high, and only four 
 miles from the great barrier reef, forms a good mark 
 from the gulf. There are several clear breaks in the 
 reef behind the island, through which vessels of lOO 
 tons might, with a fair wind, enter with perfect 
 safety. Flinders Entrance however is convenient, 
 and may be used at all seasons, for vessels of any 
 size. There are also three passages on the Torres 
 Straits side : the Cumberland Passage, one by the 
 barrier reef, and one by way of Darnley Island. So 
 that although the island is surrounded by reefs, it is 
 by no means so difficult to get at as a stranger is apt 
 to suppose. 
 
 The natives, when visited by Captain Flinders in 
 1802, are described as being a warlike race, and very 
 dexterous in the use of their weapons, which consisted 
 of bows and arrows of a very superior construction, 
 requiring great strength and skill in their use. They 
 possessed large and fast canoes, capable of carrying 
 eighteen or twenty men, and were regarded as rather 
 formidable enemies. Their canoes and weapons were 
 obtained from the Fly River, in exchange for shell 
 
THE PAPUAN INSTITUTE. 85 
 
 ornaments. Although at one time great warriors, 
 they are now at peace with their neighbours and 
 amongst themselves. They have but few wants, 
 which are abundantly supplied by the eagerness of 
 the pearl-shellers to get vegetables. The old people 
 have but little ambition to improve their surroundings, 
 although the boys and girls are bright and intelligent, 
 and anxious to learn. The whole population has 
 embraced Christianity, and attends public worship, 
 and all have family worship at their homes. There is 
 amongst them a growing trade, and a growing educa- 
 tion, which is gradually overcoming their indolence. 
 The island has proved a very suitable " city of re- 
 fuge," sanatorium, and educational centre. 
 
 Having decided upon the site for the Papuan In- 
 stitute, the next thing was to find pupils willing to 
 leave their homes to be educated at Murray Island, 
 and this could only be accomplished after having 
 gained the confidence of the people. My plan was to 
 obtain a few of the first converts of the mission, to 
 form a nucleus around which others might be gathered, 
 and by whom they might be influenced for good ; and 
 so gradually create a desire to learn, and a desire to 
 be good and to do good. I selected nine of our most 
 promising and energetic young converts for this pur- 
 pose, without telling them what I hoped they would 
 become. One of our South Sea Island teachers 
 happened to say to one of them that they would 
 become pioneer teachers to the people of the Fly River, 
 which led to a good deal of fear and trembling and 
 anxiety, that could only be removed by my assuring 
 them that they would not be sent anywhere in that 
 capacity unless it was their own expressed wish to go. 
 
86 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 It was evident that they were not prepared to face 
 their old enemies with no weapons but the word of 
 God. They Httle thought then what they would 
 become at their own earnest request. 
 
 After these yourkg men and their wives — most of 
 them being married — had been with us for nearly 
 three years, and had become better acquainted with 
 Christian truth and Christian duty, and were amongst 
 the first members of the infant Church established at 
 Murray Island, and were looking forward with earnest 
 expectation to being pioneers of the gospel, which 
 was becoming to them more and more precious, the 
 time appeared to have arrived for making the attempt 
 to obtain sixty or eighty young men and boys from 
 our stations and villages with which we were well 
 acquainted, and so formally establish the " Papuan 
 Industrial School and Teachers' Seminary," which had 
 in the meantime received the sanction of the board of 
 directors in London, and the pecuniary support of a 
 kind friend, as already intimated. 
 
 From the time that we commenced the mission on 
 Dauan and Saibai, in 1871, I looked to those islands as 
 the stepping-stones to the great body of New Guinea, 
 about three miles distant, and hoped and believed 
 and prayed that the savage, skull-hunting tribes who 
 lived there would furnish earnest, energetic, enthu- 
 siastic pioneer teachers for the sickly adjacent country 
 to which they were accustomed. For years these 
 people refused to embrace Christianity, because it 
 condemned skull-hunting and war, in which they 
 found their delight. Twice the South Sea Island 
 teacher had to fly for his kfe, and once they attempted 
 to poison him. At last however they yielded to 
 
THE PAPUAN INSTITUTE, 87 
 
 better influences, burnt their idols, and assured me 
 that they had embraced Christianity. On my next 
 visit I determined to test their profession, and ac- 
 cordingly informed them that we were commencing 
 a large school at Murray Island to teach them good 
 and useful things, and that I wished them to let me 
 have tzventy of their best young men and boys to ac- 
 company me to the institution for instruction, which 
 they would no doubt be anxious for their sons to 
 receive now that they had really embraced the gospel. 
 I do not suppose they expected to have their faith 
 tested in this way ; but they were equal to the occa- 
 sion, and brought off to the Ellengowan next morning 
 twenty-three of their sons, some of them fine-looking 
 young fellows, and others interesting, sharp lads, I 
 did not give presents of any kind to the fathers or 
 friends, lest it might be taken as a sort of payment. 
 They were given up freely, and have remained wil- 
 lingly (after the first six months), visiting their homes 
 once a year during the vacation. From Mabuiag I 
 obtained a similar number in a similar way. The rest 
 came from Poigu, Katau, Tureture, and Bampton ; 
 also a few from Darnley and Murray, numbering in 
 all about a hundred persons. 
 
 The Papuan Institute is divided into two branches, 
 the industrial school and teachers' seminary — the 
 former being the feeder of the latter. Several who 
 have joined the Church and entered the latter came 
 to the industrial school as heathen young men from 
 heathen villages, and are now able and faithful evan- 
 gelists on the New Guinea coast. Our object has 
 been to create a healthy tone and missionary spirit in 
 the institution, and I am happy to say that we have 
 
«8 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 SO far succeeded, that, whereas it was difficult at first 
 to get pupils and retain them, now there is not one 
 of them who would not consider it a disgrace to be 
 expelled, and they all seem glad to return after the 
 holidays. 
 
 For the industrial school department we have 
 secured the services of Mr. Robert Bruce, a yacht- 
 builder from Glasgow, whose work there has been 
 favourably noticed in the public journals of that city. 
 He and Mrs. Bruce are members of the Church, and 
 in sympathy with the mission. We have been very 
 busy in this department since it was established. The 
 institution building — sixty feet long by thirty feet 
 wdde, made in Sydney — has been erected ; also a 
 house for my colleague, Rev. Harry Scott. A work- 
 shop, sixty feet long by twenty-five feet wide, has 
 been built, in which are to be found carpenters' 
 benches, blacksmith's forge, a turning-lathe for wood 
 and iron, with iron bed and slide-rest complete, cir- 
 cular-saw bench, with self-acting gear. A house has 
 been built for the assistant teacher, who is a South 
 Sea islander ; also two rows of cottages for the pupils, 
 all of which are built of lath and plaster, with corru- 
 gated iron roofs. The frame of a house has also been 
 prepared for our central station on the Fly River, 
 where the mission there was commenced. The old 
 Venture^ a five-ton craft of light draught that I bought 
 for ;^30 after the wreck of the Mayri^ has been almost 
 rebuilt, and fitted up for our work on the Fly River. 
 The yacht Mary, about twenty tons, has been a great 
 undertaking. All the wood was cut at Murray Island, 
 dragged from the bush over the hill, and sawn on the 
 premises, and the work done by Mr. Bruce and the 
 
THE PAPUAN INSTITUTE. 89- 
 
 pupils. She is strongly built, and most conveniently- 
 fitted up. The cabin provides comfortable sleeping 
 accommodation for five persons, and is neatly finished 
 and panelled. Every available space is used for cup- 
 boards, lockers, etc. The fore part of the vessel is 
 fitted up for the crew, and there also is sleeping ac- 
 commodation for five persons. The middle portion 
 is large and airy, and as all the ballast (six tons) is 
 under the flooring, there is plenty of room for either 
 natives or cargo. There is no necessity to carry both 
 at the same time. This boat has been built expressly 
 for work in the Papuan Gulf for which the Ellen- 
 gowan is too large ; and, having nobody to please in 
 its construction but ourselves, we have what is now 
 admitted by all to be a most suitable craft for the 
 work. In addition to all this, my own house has been 
 completed, and servants' houses built ; and a gallery, 
 desks, and forms made for the institution building. 
 Mission boats have had to be repaired, and an im- 
 mense quantity of timber cut, and coral collected for 
 making lime for all these buildings. So it will be 
 seen that the industrial school is no mere empty 
 name, but that solid, needful work has been done, 
 and, in consequence, much useful experience gained. 
 
 Now we come to the seminary, in which the young 
 men are specially trained for the real work of pioneer 
 teachers. Before they enter this department they are 
 expected to be able to read and write tolerably well, 
 and to be acquainted with the elements of arithmetic. 
 They then receive a course of instruction in the Eng- 
 lish language, geography, practical arithmetic, object 
 lessons, Bible history, and indeed every subject which 
 the portion of Scripture in hand suggests. We have 
 
90 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 also a sermon class four days in the week, the outlines 
 of each sermon being copied into their note-books for 
 future use. On the arrival of Rev. Harry Scott, a 
 student of Cheshunt College, to be my colleague, he 
 and his amiable and devoted wife threw themselves 
 heartily into the work. Mr. Scott relieved me of 
 most of the work in the institution, allowing me more 
 time for translating, and superintending the teachers 
 in this rapidly extending branch of the mission. 
 
 Over twenty students have passed through tha 
 Papuan Institute, and been appointed to stations 
 where they are doing a good work, sixteen in and near 
 the Fly River, and six on islands in Torres Straits. It 
 is six years since we received any teachers from the 
 South Sea Islands for this branch of the mission, and 
 the old ones are being gradually returned to their 
 homes, being unsuitable for the sickly climate of New 
 Guinea, and their places are being filled with teachers 
 from the Papuan Institute. Thus the mission is 
 fairly established on a sound basis, and reasonable 
 hopes may be entertained of its steady progress. The 
 Fly and adjacent rivers are evidently the great water- 
 ways into the interior of New Guinea. The popula- 
 tion in their vicinity is most numerous, the land the 
 most fertile and heavily timbered, and the climate 
 the most sickly, necessitating trained pioneers from 
 amongst the people themselves ; hence the import- 
 ance of the Papuan Institute. 
 
 Having tried the Papuan Institute for the Gulf 
 district, and found that it worked well, a similar train- 
 ing institution was started at Port Moresby, for which 
 ten or twelve boys were collected from different parts 
 of the peninsula, as far as East Cape. This institu- 
 
THE PAPUAN INSTITUTE, 91 
 
 lion is also growing in numbers and power. It has 
 already sent forth eight trained New Guineans as 
 native teachers, who, like those in the western branch, 
 are doing good service amongst their countrymen; 
 Another such seminary is about to be established in 
 the eastern branch of the mission, to which two mis- 
 sionaries have been appointed. These three institu- 
 tions, kept in good working order, will soon supply 
 the great want of the New Guinea Mission — a good 
 native agency raised from amongst the people themselves. 
 
TRADING CANOES 
 
 V. 
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF 
 THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 E now come to consider the 
 natives of New Guinea, and are 
 met at once by one or two very- 
 interesting ethnological ques- 
 tions, upon which some leading 
 anthropologists take different 
 views, owing to the scanty and 
 contradictory nature of the information received. It 
 is unfortunate for the elucidation of these questions 
 that so much is written by many who know so little 
 of the subject. Almost every visitor to New Guinea 
 considers himself qualified to pronounce upon matters 
 which those who have lived amongst the people for 
 
94 .AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 years and studied feel reluctant to hazard an opinion; 
 and these statements appear, not only in newspapers, 
 reviews, and books, but also in papers read before 
 scientific societies, where the natives of the south-east 
 peninsula have been described as Malays, although in 
 the description the writer has shown that he was 
 unacquainted with Malay characteristics. Drs. Meyer, 
 Beccari, Micklucho Maclay, Signor d'Albertis, and 
 Mr. Wallace can speak with authority on these topics, 
 having resided amongst the natives for a consider- 
 able time, and made them their special study ; and 
 having done this at different parts of the great island 
 very much enhances the value of the conclusions 
 to w^hich they have arrived. These, although differ- 
 ing in some respects, all concur in regarding the 
 tribes throughout New Guinea as belonging to one 
 race, notwithstanding the common opinion that they 
 are composed of two distinct races, Papuan and 
 Malayan. Having seen a good deal of the native 
 tribes along the coast from the Baxter River to East 
 Cape, since my first acquaintance with them in 1 871, 
 and being almost the only European who has visited 
 the bush tribes on the great body of the island, in the 
 vicinity of the Fly, Baxter, and Katau rivers, and 
 having taken some interest in these questions, I may 
 perhaps, without presumption, claim a hearing on the 
 ethnology of these people. 
 
 To know whence the natives are, we must find out 
 who they are ; and this can only be done by observing 
 what they are — what they are chiefly in language, 
 legends, and cult. It is now established by the best 
 philologists, that all languages in their development 
 proceed from the simple to the complex, from mono- 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 95 
 
 syllables to polysyllables, from agglutinative to in- 
 flexional. Thus considered, the languages of Papua 
 and Polynesia, through all their various dialects, are 
 amongst the oldest living on the face of the earth. 
 Dieffenbach, in his " Travels in New Zealand," states 
 that " the Polynesian language is, in its whole forma- 
 tion and construction, by far more primitive than the 
 Malayan and the rest of the J avano-Talago languages. 
 It belongs to a primitive state of society." If this be 
 true of the language of the brown Polynesians, who 
 are considered a pre-Malayan race, how much more 
 so of the language of the Papuans, who are evidently 
 a much older race, the dialects of which not only 
 greatly differ from the Polynesian, but differ very much 
 from each other ! 
 
 It is by no means an uncommon opinion, even 
 amongst intelligent people, that degraded savages, 
 like the Papuans, many of whom are notorious canni- 
 bals, have no proper language at all, and that the 
 missionary who settles amongst them has to make 
 one for them. I remember seeing, in a well-known 
 magazine, an account of the distinguished African 
 missionary. Dr. Moffat, written by a reverend doctor 
 of divinity, who stated about the missionary hero 
 that " he set to work by himself and made a language, 
 reduced it to writing, taught it to the natives, (!) and 
 then commenced a translation of the Bible." This 
 idea of a missionary making a language is rather 
 amusing, considering the difficulty some of us have 
 in acquiring the one we find in existence. The fact 
 is, that a missionary has simply to learn the language 
 of his people, write it out, translate into it, and teach 
 the people to read. It does not follow that because 
 
96 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 a tribe or nation has no written language, that their 
 speech is merely a kind of gibberish, not having any 
 correct sense, sound, or grammar. I have been a 
 missionary amongst the Papuans for nearly thirty 
 years, and have reduced four of their languages to 
 writing, and can testify that in some respects they 
 are even superior to our own. Some of them have 
 a court and a common language, inclusive and ex- 
 clusive pronouns, dual and trinal numbers, seven words 
 for the pronoun yoii, all differing in grade, so that a 
 person may be complimented or insulted by the you 
 applied to him ; and the words are all as precise in 
 their meanings as if they had been defined by John- 
 son. The grammar is as regular and uniform as if it 
 had been formed by Lindley Murray, whilst the pro- 
 nunciation is as exact as if it had been settled and 
 phonographed by Walker, Webster, or Worcester ; 
 thus clearly pointing backward to a higher state of 
 civilization from which they are falling. How came 
 these cannibals to have such a language, if they have 
 not brought it down with them ? If all our civiliza- 
 tion is to be traced to a slow but gradual develop- 
 ment from a state of primitive barbarism and savage 
 existence, how are we to account for the state of the 
 natives in New Guinea and the South Seas ? Here 
 are two large sections of prehistoric men, who are 
 still in the age of stone and lake villages. Where is 
 the evidence that they are advancing in civiliza- 
 tion, intelligence, morality, or happiness ? The fact 
 is, there is abundant evidence that both races are 
 retrograding, and none whatever that they are advanc- 
 ing, except from influences from without. 
 
 Since I became acquainted with the bush tribes in 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 97 
 
 the vicinity of the Fly River, I have been much in- 
 terested in the discovery that some of them practise 
 cremation, waiting and mourning till the body is re- 
 duced to ashes, which are placed together in the form 
 of a human figure and left. If it be true that " the 
 custom of burning the dead was well-nigh universal 
 in remote ages in the countries of the old world," then 
 it is probable that the Papuans brought this custom, 
 as well as others, with them. It seems from Homer to 
 have been the general custom in the most primitive 
 period of the history of Greece. It was also a druidic 
 rite, which is said to " agree better than burying with 
 the venerable druidic theory of transmigration, which 
 is so little understood at the present, but which is so 
 closely associated with the doctrine of evolution." 
 
 By the side of cremation may be placed the rite 
 of circumcision, which is practised in some parts of 
 New Guinea and on some of the South Sea Islands. 
 Making fishing-nets might also be referred to as a 
 branch of industry amongst the natives, the knowledge 
 of which was brought from some of the old centres 
 of civilization. In different parts of New Guinea, my 
 wife has surprised and amused the natives by taking 
 their netting out of their hands and doing a little for 
 them. It is the same stitch as that in our own country. 
 The stone gods and charms found amongst the natives 
 of New Guinea, and on most of the islands in the 
 South Pacific — some standing erect, from one to eight 
 feet in height, others portable, and carried about by 
 the natives — also point to very ancient forms of wor- 
 ship: the Linga symbolism of the Shiva cult in India, 
 for instance. Linguists, like the lamented Bishop 
 Patteson, have also noticed a striking resemblance 
 
98 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 between the grammatical structure of the Hebrew 
 language and the Papuan dialects, especially as to 
 tenses. The poetry of these people seems also more 
 akin to Hebrew than either Greek or Latin. It is not 
 measured by feet. It is neither rhyme nor blank 
 verse, nor does it correspond in structure to the 
 Hebrew parallelisms. It seems little else than prose 
 — elevated prose it may be — but cut up into divisions, 
 like verses, and these are followed by choruses, chiefly 
 single syllables with no meaning. This, according to 
 Dr. Kitto, was the kind of singing with which Laban 
 wished to send away Jacob. The style of the poetry 
 seems to afford facilities for improvising. The music 
 is a kind of chanting. It runs along on the principle 
 of a short note and a long one alternately, within a 
 narrow scale. 
 
 I might also refer to their legends, some of which are 
 remarkably like the records of Old Testament history, 
 and may be found in my " Story of the Lifu Mission." 
 All these things, and much more of the kind, plainly 
 indicate that these natives have fallen from a higher 
 civilization, that their progress is downwards, and 
 that they are merely the remnant of a worn-out race. 
 
 Now let us consider that the first empires which 
 arose in the world were formed by descendants of 
 Ham Nimrud, the grandson of Ham, went into 
 Assyria and founded Nineveh, and the city which he 
 built and the empire he founded continued for ages 
 to overshadow all western Asia. Mizraim, the son of 
 Ham, founded the Egyptian monarchy and the Philis- 
 tian commonwealth. Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, 
 settled in Palestine, and his descendants founded first 
 the Canaanitish kingdoms, then Tyre, and subse- 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 99 
 
 quently Carthage. These were for a very long time 
 the leading nations of the world ; they possessed its 
 highest civilization, and held all but a monopoly of 
 its commerce. These young monarchies no doubt 
 sent forth strong and vigorous colonies, which took 
 possession of the Asiatic archipelago, Australia, New 
 Guinea, and Western Polynesia. From the Asiatic 
 archipelago they appear to have been driven out by 
 a succeeding and superior race, who also in time being 
 similarly treated by the Malays, passed on to occupy 
 the islands in Eastern Polynesia, fighting and min- 
 gling with the Papuans on their way ; in some cases 
 succeeding in driving them into the interior, and 
 forming settlements on the coast, as on the south- 
 east peninsula of New Guinea and some of the large 
 islands in the South Sea. This pre-Malay or Poly- 
 nesian race have left mementoes of their passage in 
 the Polynesian names of various places, and in out- 
 lying remnants of their own race on scattered points 
 of the Papuan archipelago. Perhaps the last and 
 best confirmed attempt of these Polynesian wanderers 
 at permanent settlement on Papuan soil was at the 
 Fiji Islands. The number of Polynesian names by 
 which these islands and places in them are called even 
 now by their Papuan inhabitants argues a permanence 
 of residence that cannot well be disputed. The large 
 infusion of Polynesian vocables in the Fijian language, 
 and the mixture of the two races, especially in the 
 south-eastern part of the group, indicate a protracted 
 sojourn and an intercourse of peace as well as of war. 
 I think the foregoing considerations plainly indicate 
 the part of the world from which the people of New 
 Guinea and Western Polynesia have migrated. 
 
loo AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 We will now consider some of the manners and 
 customs of the natives of New Guinea, My diocese, 
 both in Western Polynesia and in New Guinea, being 
 composed chiefly of cannibal tribes, I shall first notice 
 that ancient and horrible custom. 
 
 The name cannibal is derived from Caribs, the 
 original inhabitants of the West India Islands, who 
 were reported to be man-eaters, and some tribes of 
 whom, having no " r " in their language, pronounced 
 their name Canib, and that latinized became canibales, 
 which has come into popular use as a generic term for 
 man-eaters, cannibals. These Caribs were a bold and 
 warlike race, and, like many of their class in the 
 South Seas and New Guinea, made a stout resistance 
 to the progress of European civilization. Cannibalism 
 is frequently referred to by classical and early 
 Christian writers. Perhaps some of my friends and 
 fellow countrymen are not aware that St. Jerome 
 gives his personal testimony to the practice in a way 
 not very flattering to our ancestors. He states " that 
 when he was a boy living in Gaul he beheld the Scots 
 — a people of Britain — eating human flesh ; and though 
 there were plenty of cattle and sheep at their disposal, 
 yet they would prefer a ham of the herdsman or a 
 piece of female breast as a luxury " .! Statements of 
 old authors still more absurd induced some thinkers 
 to believe that cannibalism is unnatural, and to deny 
 that it was ever practised by human beings except 
 under the pressure of starvation. The accurate obser- 
 vation of late travellers has however put it beyond 
 doubt that cannibalism has been and is systematically 
 practised, and practised by those who are by no 
 means the most degraded of the human race. The 
 
THEIR MANNERS A^ND -CUSTOMS, ^ _49i 
 
 aborigines of Australia, for instance, who are gene- 
 rally considered an extremely degraded type, feed 
 on herbs, snakes, worms ; whilst the aborigines of 
 New Zealand, who are admitted to be the most highly 
 developed race with which European civilization has 
 had to compete, were, until recently, systematic feeders 
 on human flesh. It has been supposed that the reason 
 why, among the Jews and several eastern nations, the 
 eating of swine's flesh was forbidden as an unclean 
 food was its resemblance to human flesh, and the 
 danger that persons accustomed to the one might not 
 retain their abhorrence of the other. The question is 
 how the abominable practice arose. Some say from 
 superstition ; others, from hunger ; others, again, from 
 revenge. An instance has been given to show that 
 it is the natural development of ferocity in degraded 
 natures; viz. the fate of the Princess Lamballe in the 
 French Revolution, whose heart was plucked out by 
 one of the savages of the mob, taken to a restaurant, 
 and there cooked and eaten by him. 
 
 It is well known that amongst the notorious can- 
 nibals of Fiji it was considered an act of supreme 
 revenge upon a fallen enemy ; and we are informed 
 that the most violent exhibition of wrath one man 
 could manifest to another was to say to him, " I will 
 eat you." " In any action," observes Dr. Seemann, 
 " where the national honour had to be avenged, it was 
 incumbent upon the king and principal chiefs — in fact, 
 a duty they owed to their exalted station — to avenge 
 the insult offered to their country by eating the per- 
 petrators of it." But the same writer thinks it worthy 
 of inquiry if their practice of cannibal feasts did not, 
 in some degree, partake of a religious ceremony. His 
 
102 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 supposition, he thinks, is countenanced by a very 
 singular fact. Not only are the ovens used for this 
 purpose never appropriated to any other use, but 
 whereas every other kind of food is eaten with the 
 fingers, three or four-pronged forks, made of hard 
 wood, are used for eating human flesh. Every one of 
 these forks, he says, is known by its particular — often 
 obscene — name ; and they are handed down from 
 generation to generation, and greatly valued. Dr. 
 Seemann mentions the great difficulty they had in 
 obtaining specimens for their ethnological collection. 
 And when they were afterwards shown to natives 
 who did not know how they had been obtained, they 
 always looked grave, and were especially anxious that 
 they should not be displayed before their children. 
 " My handling them," says the doctor, " seemed to 
 give as much pain as if I had gone into a Christian 
 church and used the chalice for drinking water." 
 In the centre of one of the Fiji Islands there stands a 
 great banyan tree— the akautabii^ sacred tree, or " the 
 tree with the forbidden fruit." Under its spreading 
 branches war and licentious dances were practised, 
 accompanied by the murder of prisoners and by canni- 
 bal feasts. Before cooking the victims, sometimes even 
 before their death, certain parts of the bodies of both 
 sexes used to be cut off and hung in the branches of 
 this tree, which was sometimes perfectly loaded with 
 this singular and repulsive fruit. The renowned can- 
 nibal chief Thakumbau is known to have revelled in 
 all the abominations of cannibalism under this sacred 
 tree. On one occasion, for instance, he cut out the 
 tongue of a captive chief who had used it to beg for 
 a speedy death, and jocosely ate it before his face. 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 103 
 
 My object however is not to write a chapter of 
 horrors on cannibaHsm, which might easily be done, 
 but simply to show that it is a terrible reality, that it 
 exists in New Guinea, and that its practice does not 
 indicate the lowest type of humanity. Judging from 
 my own experience of cannibal tribes, I am inclined 
 to the opinion that the practice arose from revenge. 
 Both in New Guinea and the South Sea, so far as I 
 know (with but one exception, the Tugarians, of 
 whom I shall speak presently) it is only the bodies of 
 enemies that are eaten. Still, it may have originated 
 in connection with some religious observance. The 
 religion of these natives has some peculiar features, 
 and the use made of them by the priests must tend to 
 infuse a taste for those revolting practices. We are 
 painfully reminded in history that the greatest refine- 
 ments of cruelty and the most brutal disregard of 
 human suffering have been at one time or another and 
 in various places connected with religion at compara- 
 tively advanced periods of national progress. Baking 
 and boiling alive have a terrific sound, and are re- 
 garded as indications of a very savage condition ; but 
 the slow combustion by fire of the living heretic, the 
 frightful tortures of the inquisition, are facts equally 
 remarkable for their cruelty and equally depreciatory 
 of our nature, yet were not deformities belonging to 
 our savage state. We are accustomed to hold the 
 microscope over these natives and exclaim with horror 
 at their practices, when it might be well to turn it 
 upon ourselves and consider some of the enormities 
 associated with our civilization. 
 
 I can testify to the possession of many noble 
 qualities by the cannibals. They are not deficient in 
 
I04 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 courage, manliness, and even humanity, as some 
 people foolishly declare them to be ; and they are 
 even distinguished for their hospitality. Indeed they 
 are as a rule a good-tempered, liberal people — 
 greatly superior in these qualities to their lighter 
 coloured neighbours who look down upon them. On 
 the south-east peninsula of New Guinea, for instance, 
 we have the cannibal tribes occupying each end — those 
 who are generally regarded as their superiors being in 
 the centre. The latter speak with contempt of the 
 former — although they take good care not to do so in 
 their presence — and look upon them as being greatly 
 their inferiors. Such is the blind, arrogant pride of 
 human nature. The fact is, that the cannibal tribes 
 make better houses, better canoes, better weapons, 
 and better drums — and keep a better table, they would 
 say — than their neighbours ; indeed, they exhibit great 
 skill and taste in carving ; and any one who has visited 
 both tribes will at once notice the good-natured hospi- 
 tality of the cannibals, compared with the selfishness 
 and greed of their neighbours, who are incorrigible 
 beggars. Still their cannibalism is the distinctive 
 feature which separates them from other tribes. And 
 even cannibalism has its degrees. Those at the east 
 end of New Guinea consider themselves quite respect- 
 able cannibals compared with their neighbours in the 
 D'Entrecasteaux group. I remember trying to per- 
 suade some of them to accompany me on a visit to 
 Normanby Island, when they described the natives of 
 that place as a set of degraded cannibals, who ate 
 every part of the human body, even the hair being 
 boiled with the blood and devoured. And yet, when 
 visiting one of the villages of these exemplary canni- 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 105 
 
 bals, in company with Mr. Chester (the police magis- 
 trate of Thursday Island) and Mr. Chalmers, we were 
 disturbed at night by a great noise in the village, and 
 went out to see what it was all about. We found our 
 friend the chief — a notorious old cannibal, who wore a 
 necklace of small bones indicating the number of per- 
 sons he had killed — mounted on the village rostrum, 
 which he paced most excitedly, as he poured forth 
 what appeared to be quite an oration. Upon inquiry 
 we found that the object of his vituperation was a 
 woman in a small village about a mile distant, who 
 had that day been visited by some friends from a 
 distance, and being anxious to place before them the 
 best she had, had served up the body of her husband, 
 who had died the day before ! Old Bony's proposi- 
 tion was that they should banish their wives, lest they 
 should treat their bodies with like disrespect after 
 death. His proposal however met with little favour, a 
 native who stood near us jocosely remarking that he 
 was only angry because they did not send him a piece. 
 Of the cannibals in the western branch of our mis- 
 sion the Tugarians are the most savage, warlike, and 
 cruel. They are a cannibal tribe of pirates, who 
 come from the west of the Baxter River and make 
 periodical raids upon the villages along the eastern 
 coast, well known and greatly feared by the natives 
 between the Baxter and Fly rivers, although no one 
 seems to know where the Tugarian village is situated. 
 These cannibal pirates use long, fleet canoes, propelled 
 by paddles, in which they steal along the coast and 
 up the rivers and creeks, plundering, murdering, and 
 making prisoners as they go. They break the arms 
 and legs of the prisoners when taken, so as to pre- 
 
io6 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 vent their fighting or running away, and then keep 
 them as fresh meat until required, cooking one or two 
 bodies at a time. Their piratical voyages last several 
 months sometimes, as they are in the habit of camping 
 on the coast at different places after successful raids. 
 
 The island of Poigu, at the mouth of the Baxter 
 River, has been almost depopulated by these can- 
 nibals, who however are not always successful. I 
 remember being much interested in the Poiguans' 
 account of the only successful encounter they ever had 
 with their mortal enemies. On this occasion the 
 Tugarians were seen approaching the island in the 
 daytime in their outriggerless canoes. The Poiguans, 
 whose canoes have double outriggers and a platform, 
 determined to make a desperate effort to save their 
 families, homes, and plantations ; and so hastily col- 
 lected stones, which they placed on the platforms of 
 their canoes, seized their weapons and paddles, and 
 hastened to meet the enemy at sea, where they hoped 
 to have the advantage over their more numerous and 
 powerful enemy. Their wives and children watched 
 the canoes approach each other, although not in 
 " breathless silence," yet we can imagine with what 
 intense anxiety. The Tugarians, flushed with suc- 
 cess, and confident in their numbers, yelled and 
 flourished their paddles at their insignificant foes. 
 The Poiguans locked their shields to protect the 
 rowers, and approached the enemy amidst a shower 
 of arrows. When close to them they suddenly made 
 such use of their stones and spears as to produce the 
 utmost confusion amongst the enemy, most of whose 
 canoes were soon capsized and smashed. Many were 
 killed, and the rest fled, leaving the Poiguans to re- 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 107 
 
 turn victorious to their rejoicing wives and families. 
 Subsequent night attacks however have proved most 
 disastrous to the Poiguans, only a comparatively few 
 of whom now remain, and they are taking refuge at 
 our mission station at Dauan. Two of our senior 
 students when I left were Poiguans — real good, smart 
 fellows. They are now engaged in evangelistic work 
 in the Fly River. 
 
 Perhaps the worst defeat which the Tugarians have 
 ever suffered happened to them three years ago, when 
 they attacked the Saibaians. Saibai is one of the 
 oldest stations of our New Guinea Mission. It is 
 about three miles from Dauan, and a mile and a half 
 from the mainland of New Guinea. The inhabitants 
 until recently were desperate skull-hunters ; many of 
 their finest young men are now in the Papuan insti- 
 tute, preparing to go as evangelists to the Papuan 
 Gulf The Saibaians received a terrible warning of 
 the approach of the Tugarians. The latter, having 
 fallen upon a village on the mainland opposite and 
 killed twelve of the inhabitants, were camped within 
 sight of Saibai, the smoke from their cannibal feasts 
 rising before the eyes of those who, the Tugarians 
 thought, were to be their next victims. The Sai- 
 baians, on hearing the news from some natives who 
 had fled from the attacked village, at once assembled, 
 held a council of war, and decided to meet them at 
 sea. Crossing over, they met the canoe fleet ofl" the 
 New Guinea coast, and, according to arrangement, 
 tried friendly overtures ; but these were replied to by 
 most warlike demonstrations. The Tugarians, confi- 
 dent in their numbers, disdained any peace overtures, 
 und performed before the Saibaians some very insult- 
 
io8 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 ing acts, which aroused the war spirit in some of the 
 Saibai men ; but the chief restrained them, and it was 
 not until he himself was wounded that the order was 
 given to return the fire. The Saibai men, though 
 comparatively few in number, had a rifle and two 
 muskets, which they had obtained from their friends 
 in Torres Straits ; and these were a host in themselves, 
 causing the Tugarians to beat a quick retreat, leaving 
 fifteen of their canoes behind them. How many were 
 killed or wounded (if any) is not known, the canoes 
 being abandoned. It is to be hoped that they will 
 not make their appearance again, although 1 heard, 
 when visiting some inland tribes in that part of New 
 Guinea a short time ago, that they had informed some 
 of their friends of their intention to be revenged upon 
 the Saibaians. It is during the calm season of the 
 year that these expeditions are made, so the Saibaians 
 at that time keep a sharp look out. 
 
 There is no doubt that the cannibals are very fond 
 of human flesh. I remember, when at Lifu, putting 
 the question plainly to one of my pundits, who had 
 been a notorious cannibal, but was at that time, and 
 had been for many years, a deacon of the Church and 
 a very consistent, devoted, and spiritually minded 
 man. I asked him to tell me honestly whether they, 
 as cannibals, really liked human flesh. The old man 
 looked ashamed, and expressed a desire not to speal^ 
 on the subject, saying that " those were dark days." 
 I pressed the question however, telling him that I had 
 an object in wishing to know the real state of the 
 case. He then solemnly assured me, that although 
 they had tasted fish, fowl, turtle, turkey, beef, pork, 
 etc., there was nothing so good as human flesh. No 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 109 
 
 doubt he is right. Man is the best fed animal, and I 
 dare say if we had a piece of well-cooked human flesh 
 served up, without knowing what it was, we should 
 pronounce it to be the best bit of meat that we had 
 tasted for a long time. Considering the great liking 
 that cannibals have for human flesh, and that canni- 
 TDalism very soon sneaks out at the back door when 
 Christianity has entered at the front, we still behold 
 the power of the old gospel over the human heart — 
 the response of the soul, however degraded, to the 
 call of its Master. 
 
 Cannibalism has received its death blow in New 
 Guinea. It may "die hard" in some places, but die 
 it must. Not only is the axe laid at the root of that 
 terrible tree, but the tree itself has been struck with a 
 fatal blow that will quiver through all its branches, 
 carrying death to the remotest twig. 
 
 In concluding my remarks on this subject, I will 
 give two instances of how cannibahsm begins to dis- 
 appear before the march of the gospel of peace and 
 love. Calling at the Engineer Group when visiting the 
 eastern branch of our mission before I left New Guinea, 
 I heard of their last cannibal feast. The chief Aualu 
 is a tall, powerful, notorious cannibal. Near his house 
 there stands a sacred inclosure made of carved slabs. 
 Inside of the inclosure the women are never allowed 
 »to enter. It is the receptacle of all the human bodies 
 taken in war. Here they are prepared for the canni- 
 bal feast, and divided amongst the villages. Unlike the 
 cannibals I have lived amongst in the South Pacific, 
 these people do not cook the bodies whole and then 
 cut them up, as they do pigs. The warriors stand 
 around whilst the victims are being singed with a 
 
no AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 torch and skinned, and then cut up into suitable por- 
 tions for each village. The cooking is done in pots, 
 and not, as in the South Seas, amidst hot stones. The 
 victims of the last cannibal feast were from Brooker 
 Island. The commodore from Sydney, with two men- 
 of-war, had been to punish the Brooker islanders for 
 the massacre of Mr. Ingram's party and other white 
 men. Aualu, who was a friend of Mr. Ingram's, was 
 not at all satisfied with the punishment inflicted by the 
 commodore, no one being either killed or wounded. 
 He consequently assembled his warriors and held a 
 council of war, when it was decided that the Brooker 
 islanders ought to have a greater number of their 
 people killed than they had killed of Mr. Ingram's 
 party. The war canoes w^ere got ready, and Aualu 
 started to avenge the death of his friends. They re- 
 turned to their homes with twelve bodies of the enemy, 
 had a grand cannibal feast, and then promised the 
 native missionary at Teste Island it should be the last. 
 They have lived in peace ever since, and seemed very 
 anxious that I should locate a teacher amongst them. 
 We had staying with us an interesting little Papuan 
 girl about nine years of age, who was saved by one of 
 our native missionaries from a horrible death, under 
 circumstances which illustrate how cannibalism recedes 
 before the gospel. One of our Lifu teachers, hearing 
 that the natives of a neighbouring village had brought 
 home the bodies of two men whom they had caught 
 and killed, also a little girl, doubtless the daughter of 
 one of the murdered men, hastened to the spot, and 
 there beheld the two bodies lying beside a large fire 
 that was being prepared to cook them, the heads 
 severed and placed by themselves, and a child still in 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. in 
 
 the canoe, which was guarded by some natives on the 
 beach. He took in the situation at once, and saw that 
 there was no time to be lost. He had been Hving with 
 the people for several years, and they had learned to 
 respect and value him, which he knew very well, and 
 therefore spoke accordingly. After telling them how 
 grieved he was to see them persisting in cannibalism 
 after all he had said, he informed them that his Mas- 
 ter's commands were that they should leave the people 
 who would not receive their message, and go some- 
 where else ; he should therefore be obliged to leave 
 them unless they gave up those bodies to be buried, 
 and spared the life of that child by handing it over to 
 his wife. The fact that they ultimately complied with 
 the teacher's wish, considering the circumstances, was 
 to me, who knew something of what it meant to give 
 up those bodies, a very pleasing proof of the begin- 
 ning of a good work amongst them ; and I am happy 
 to say that there has not been any cannibalism there 
 since. Thus this horrible custom disappears before 
 Christianity. 
 
 With reference to government in New Guinea, we 
 have not yet found any chiefs in New Guinea worthy 
 the name. Those represented as such are simply 
 leaders in time of war — headmen, v*^ho, compared 
 with the chiefs of the South Sea Islands with which 
 I am acquainted, are powerless in time of peace. They 
 cannot impose a tax of any kind, and have no control 
 over the people beyond their own family. I was par- 
 ticularly impressed with this fact when we established 
 a mission station at the village of one of these head- 
 men, who had been represented to us as the biggest 
 chief in New Guinea, and who has been exhibited as 
 
112 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 such in Queensland to the wondering community ot 
 Cooktown. The fact is, that he, Hke the rest, has no 
 authority except as a war leader. Physically he is a 
 big man, certainly one of the most powerful-looking 
 men I have seen in New Guinea, and he greatly boasts 
 of his strength and exploits, and is feared as the bully 
 of a village is feared. His name is Koapena. When 
 we arrived at his village, according to arrangement, 
 with two South Sea Island teachers and their boxes, 
 he met us on the beach with a crowd of natives. To 
 see the man and hear him talk one would suppose that 
 he was a powerful and despotic chief; indeed, this was 
 our first impression ; but when it came to carrying 
 the teachers' luggage up to his house, his true position 
 became ludicrously evident. We begged him to ask 
 some of his men to carry the goods, and we would 
 pay them. He spoke to them, he entreated, he 
 stormed ; but they only laughed at him; and told him 
 to carry them himself Finally, in a rage, he and his 
 own sons shouldered the boxes and walked off with 
 them, amidst the laughter of the crowd. When in his 
 house, we were crowded almost to suffocation, and 
 begged him to send some of the people out, that we 
 might get a little fresh air. Here again he seemed 
 utterly powerless even to send the boys out of his 
 own house ; and, to complete his humiliation in our 
 estimation, when we made him a present those around 
 snatched the things out of his hand and bore them 
 away in triumph, notwithstanding his protestations, 
 it was quite evident that this great man, of whom we 
 had heard so much, was no chief at all, but simply a 
 noted warrior, who, by physical strength and daring, 
 had forced himself to the front. 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 113 
 
 These headmen live and dress just Hke their neigh- 
 bours. They have to make their own plantations and 
 build their own houses, also fish and hunt for them- 
 selves. It is only when there is a council of war or an 
 actual engagement that they come to the front and 
 speak with authority. If cannibals, they superintend 
 the cutting up and dividing of the victims. Amongst 
 most of the tribes the headmanship is hereditary ; 
 sometimes however the tribes become dissatisfied 
 with his leadership, and he is deposed and another 
 appointed in his place, though this seldom happens. 
 His badge and source of authority is really his club, 
 which is generally a very superior one, made of stone. 
 
 The absence of powerful chiefs, as amongst the South 
 Sea Islands, has been seriously felt by us in establishing 
 mission stations amongst the people. The interest and 
 protection of a powerful chief (which is not difficult 
 to secure by presents and kindness) is not only a source 
 of security, but of advancement for the mission ; where- 
 as there is generally but little advantage in having 
 a New Guinea chief for your friend, his influence being 
 so small that he can neither protect your life nor pro- 
 perty. You may be attacked by any man in the 
 village without his asking the sanction or fearing the 
 frown of the headman or anybody else, except the 
 party attacked and his friends. Still these headmen 
 may be descendants of chiefs who were as powerful 
 and despotic as those now reigning in the South Sea; 
 for not only do the sons succeed to the office, but they 
 generally succeed also to the name. Query therefore: 
 Is democracy a sign of advancement or retrogression? 
 
 In their government the natives of New Guinea, so 
 far as we know them, are patriarchal and democratic. 
 
114 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 All important matters are decided in a general council 
 of the village, at which the headmen and sacred men, 
 or priests, have most to say, and whose advice is 
 generally followed. I mean by headmen the heads of 
 families — a family being a combined group of sons, 
 daughters, uncles, cousins, nieces, etc. The sacred men 
 are the doctors and sorcerers of the village. 
 
 All land, both cultivated and uncultivated, is owned 
 by the heads of families. Having no written language 
 they, of course, had no written laws. The boundaries 
 of their lands are however well defined, and their 
 land laws strictly observed. Any disputes about land 
 boundaries (which rarely occur) are settled, like all 
 other grievances, by public opinion in a general council 
 of the people. Crimes, such as stealing, adultery, etc., 
 are dealt with very summarily, the offender being 
 punished by the person injured. Club law prevails, 
 sustained by public opinion. Death is the usual pun- 
 ishment for murder and often for adultery. The 
 injured party being at liberty to seek revenge on the 
 brother, son, or any member of the family to which 
 the guilty party belonged, sometimes the culprit and 
 his family seek refuge in another village, which proves 
 a city of refuge. It is seldom any one dares to pursue 
 them and risk hostilities with the village that protects 
 them. The revenge then takes the form of burning 
 down their houses and plundering their plantations. 
 
 Wars generally originate about women or in some 
 private quarrel between two individuals, which the 
 village takes up. Their weapons are clubs, spears, 
 bows and arrows, stones, and wooden swords, which 
 are generally made of ebony and artistically carved. 
 Some of their short spears are also well carved. 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 115 
 
 Their bows are mostly made from bamboos and very- 
 powerful, their arrows being made from reeds and 
 pointed with bone, which is often a human bone 
 saturated with poison. In war they never stand up 
 in orderly ranks and shoot at each other ; according 
 to their notions that would be the height of folly. 
 Their favourite tactics are rather of the surprise and 
 skirmishing order. I remember one of the chiefs 
 questioning me about our mode of warfare, and his 
 look of amazement when I described the rows of men 
 placed opposite each other and firing at one another 
 with guns. He eagerly inquired whether the men 
 were within range, and when I replied in the affirmative 
 he exclaimed : " Then you are great fools. We 
 thought you were wise men, but it seems you are 
 fools." Then he asked where the chief stood, " Oh," 
 I said, " he remains at home and sends his men to 
 fight." At which there was a burst of laughter, the 
 chief remarking proudly that New Guinea chiefs not 
 only accompanied the fighting men, but kept in front. 
 And it occurred to me that if we were to adopt a 
 similar custom our wars would probably be less 
 sanguinary. The heroes are those who obtain the 
 greatest number of human heads. They are often, 
 like Achilles, swift of foot, who dash towards the 
 enemy and hurl a spear with great precision. Their 
 great ambition is to signalise themselves by the num- 
 ber of heads hanging in their houses. No hero in the 
 Grecian games rejoices more over his chaplet than 
 does the young Papuan glory in the distinction of 
 having cut off a man's head. I remember the pride 
 with which the young chief of Saibai pointed out to 
 me five skulls hanging in front of his house. His 
 
Ii6 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 bravery was the subject of village song. He is now 
 a devoted and leading member of the church there. 
 
 Their wars are not very sanguinary. They have 
 not yet learnt the art of killing by hundreds and 
 thousands. A dozen slain at a battle is a large num- 
 ber. It is usually two or three on each side, and a 
 few wounded, both sides claiming the victory. The 
 women sometimes accompany the warriors, and whilst 
 the men are fighting or skirmishing the women are 
 plundering the plantations of the enemy ; and when 
 they return twit their husbands with their want of 
 success, pointing to their baskets full of yams, and 
 asking them where the skulls are which they have 
 brought. 
 
 Of all the tribes with which I am acquainted in 
 New Guinea, there are none equal, either in bravery 
 or cruelty, to the Tugarians. I have in my possession 
 a battle-axe from this tribe, the only iron weapon I 
 have seen amongst the savages of New Guinea along 
 th2 600 miles of coast-line with which I am ac- 
 quainted. It is evidently made from a piece of iron 
 fiom some wreck, and is more like a small pickaxe 
 than an ordinary axe. So far as we know, the natives 
 of New Guinea have no idea of working the minerals 
 with which their country abounds, so that the absence 
 of gold ornaments by no means indicates the absence 
 of gold, any more than it did in Australia. They 
 value iron of any kind very highly, especially thick 
 hoop-iron, which they sharpen and use as axes. 
 Long knives are greatly prized, being used for clear- 
 ing the scrub for their plantations and as swords in 
 war. 
 
 They possess very few and very inferior tools, 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 117 
 
 which are made from stones, flint, and bones ; yet 
 their carving is surprisingly well done, showing con- 
 siderable artistic skill, both in the design and in the 
 execution. They carve images of birds, fish, and 
 men, and ornament their canoes, paddles, houses, 
 drums, clubs, etc., with tolerably well-executed draw- 
 ings and carvings, A large nail is to them quite a 
 treasure. They sharpen it and use it as a small chisel. 
 I have seen a cannibal native execute some very good 
 work on his canoe with a spike nail that I gave him. 
 
 There is a good deal of ingenuity displayed by the 
 natives in the construction and ornamentation of their 
 canoes. Any one can tie a bundle of bamboos to- 
 gether and form a raft, as the natives in the interior 
 do for crossing rivers. Nor does it require much skill 
 to fell a tree, cut off the branches, and hollow out the 
 log, as many of the inland tribes do who live on the 
 banks of creeks and arms of the large rivers. But to 
 construct a war canoe, with its single or double out- 
 rigger, and its artistically carved stem and sternposts, 
 its carved images, and handsome steering paddle, and 
 well-executed drawings of fish, etc., on its sides, is the 
 work of a distinct and not very numerous class of 
 professional carpenters and painters. The lakatoi or 
 large trading canoe used by the natives in the barren 
 district of Port Moresby for obtaining food from the 
 fertile Papuan Gulf, is a kind of raft, made by lashing 
 six or eight canoes together, upon which a platform is 
 raised, made from pieces of old canoes, the sides being 
 made in the same way as their houses, of leaves sewn 
 together, and the whole propelled by an immense 
 mat sail or sails. Of course, they can only go with a 
 fair wind, and so leave for the gulf at the south-east 
 
Il8 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 monsoon, and return with the first of the north-west. 
 The best canoes I have seen in New Guinea are 
 those at the east end, which are really well-built boats, 
 consisting of two or three planks sewn to the sides of 
 a log neatly hollowed out. Timbers and thwarts are 
 fitted, and the whole ornamented with carved work, 
 drawings, shells, streamers, etc. They have an out- 
 rigger, and are propelled by a large mat sail, which 
 they handle very dexterously in beating to windward. 
 These canoes will outsail an ordinary whaleboat, and 
 go to windward of it. 
 
 Their sails, like their canoes, differ widely, from a 
 plaited cocoanut leaf to a well-made mat sail like an 
 immense kite, the top being concave instead of convex. 
 The canoe paddles of the savages at the eastern end 
 of the south-east peninsula are the best I have seen. 
 They are generally made of cedar, smaller than an 
 ordinary paddle, prettily shaped and regularly cut, the 
 top of the handle being neatly carved. 
 
 Native houses, like native canoes, differ very much 
 amongst different tribes. Some are like gigantic bee- 
 hives ; others are like a row of cottages without any 
 partitions. As previously mentioned, I measured one 
 of" this kind at an inland village thirty miles up the 
 Fly River, and found it to be 512 feet in length. Some 
 are built on posts all sizes and all shapes, often like 
 a boat turned bottom upwards. I noticed amongst 
 the inland tribes in the Papuan Gulf, near the Fly 
 River, that the houses were built of bark instead 
 of grass or leaves, as is generally the case ; still, like 
 those of the inland tribes on the peninsula, they are 
 inferior to the houses on the coast. The hill tribes 
 often build their houses for safety in the forks of 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 119 
 
 trees. They first make a platform, which not only 
 bears the house, but also a quantity of stones, which 
 are always kept handy to defend it from the enemy. 
 They live on the ridges of the hills, which are some- 
 times very narrow. I remember spending a night at 
 one of these places. We had more than one reason 
 for preferring camping out to sleeping in one of their 
 houses. My hammock was slung between two posts, 
 but it seemed so dangerous as I lay and looked 
 down the steep sides of the mountain, which was 
 over 1,000 feet high, that I got out and lay on the 
 ground. 
 
 The most peculiar and interesting are the villages 
 built on posts in the lagoons, and on some parts of 
 the coasts, varying in distance up to a mile from the 
 beach, reminding one of the old lake dwellings. 
 These houses are much like large, ricketty pigeon 
 cots, along the floors and platforms of which you 
 tread your way with fear and trembling, expecting 
 every moment to drop through into the sea. The 
 interior of many of the native houses is both clean 
 and comfortable. The better class consist of a plat- 
 form or portico, then the large living room, and above 
 a s4eeping apartment. They are well thatched, the 
 sides made of leaves neatly sewn together, and stand 
 upon strong posts six or eight feet high. 
 
 The natives are mostly vegetarians. Occasionally 
 they get some fish, kangaroos, or human flesh ; but 
 this is rare, except at a few fishing villages on the 
 coast. Their food consists of yams, taro, bananas, 
 cocoanuts, sugar-cane, and sago, the last-named 
 article being cultivated chiefly in the Papuan Gulf, 
 where there is plenty of fresh water. It is the 
 9 
 
I20 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 chief article of export from the gulf, being exchanged 
 with the tribes about Port Moresby for pottery. We 
 also purchase a good deal from the natives of the Fly 
 River for food for our Papuan Institute. This very 
 useful palm has a creeping stem-root like a nipa 
 palm. When it is fifteen years old it sends up an 
 immense terminal spike of flowers, after which it dies. 
 It is not so tall as a cocoanut tree, but is thicker and 
 larger. The mid-ribs of its immense leaves are twelve 
 or fifteen feet long, and sometimes the lower part is as 
 thick as a man's leg. They are very light, consisting 
 of a firm pith covered with a hard rind. The pith in 
 the upper part is of snowy whiteness and of the con- 
 sistency of a hardish pear, with woody fibres running 
 through it a quarter of an inch from each other. The 
 pith is pounded by a club while still in the trunk. It 
 is then washed in a kind of trough formed of the 
 large sheathing bases of the leaves. A net-like 
 strainer is made from the fibrous covering from the 
 leaf-stalks of the cocoanuts. The trough being deep 
 at the centre and shallow at the ends, the starch 
 which is dissolved sinks down to the bottom of the 
 trough, while the water runs away from the upper 
 part. It is then made into bundles of 60 lbs. or 80 lbs. 
 each, encased in the sheathing bases of the leaves, 
 and kept for use or barter. It has a reddish tinge^ 
 and being made up soon spoils. Rewashed and 
 thoroughly dried it makes good sago, and keeps a 
 long time. 
 
 The natives have also abundance of wild fruits and 
 edible roots, amongst which may be mentioned the 
 bread fruit, mango, wild date, rose apple, and native 
 plum. Nature bountifully supplies them with the 
 
MURRAY ISLAND BY MOONLIGHT. 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 121 
 
 necessaries of life. For plates they use wooden 
 platters, plaited cocoanut leaves, and the beautiful 
 banana leaf Knives and forks are easily made from 
 bamboos, and spoons from pearl and cocoanut shells. 
 Some cook in earthenware pots, others on hot stones. 
 Their plantations are carefully cultivated and well 
 fenced in. I have seen miles of them looking like 
 well-kept gardens. The soil is turned over with 
 pointed sticks by the men, the women following, 
 breaking it up and throwing out the weeds. The 
 yams, bananas, etc., are planted in straight rows, for 
 which purpose they use a line, and the bunches of 
 bananas are carefully preserved from the birds by 
 being encased in dried banana leaves. In the vicinity 
 of the Fly River they drain the land by means of deep 
 trenches, which reveal to the stranger the great depth 
 of the rich alluvial soil. These trenches are well 
 made and carefully kept, and bridged over wherever 
 there is a road. In visiting a village off one of the 
 arms of the Fly River, about thirty miles from the 
 coast, I was surprised to find such luxuriant vege- 
 tation, well-cultivated plantations, numerous deeply 
 dug trenches, and apparently abundance of food 
 everywhere. Some of these inland tribes trade with 
 those on the coast, bartering vegetables, paradise 
 birds' feathers, etc., in exchange for fish and salt. 
 The women generally do the bartering, and are very 
 noisy and acute in the transaction. 
 
 In Hood Lagoon there is a village of agriculturists 
 close to one of fishermen, where there is a regular 
 market for the almost daily exchange of their fish 
 and vegetables. It is a regular Billingsgate. To see 
 the women exhibiting their fish to the best advantage 
 
122 AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 is really amusing. The chief articles of barter amongst 
 the natives however are pottery, sago, pearl shells, 
 armlets, and canoes. The last-named are generally 
 obtained in exchange for armlets and pearl shell ; one 
 large size armlet being the price of a fully equipped 
 canoe, or equivalent to a man ; i.e. if a person is killed 
 an armlet will generally atone for the offence and 
 prevent a war. The armlets are made from the heads 
 of conical shells found in Torres Straits and off the 
 east end of New Guinea. Fish are mostly caught by 
 nets, though often by line and hook, and sometimes by 
 spear. I have seen them catching sardines in a very 
 ingenious way. These small fish move about the reef 
 in immense shoals. They keep close together, and 
 move on very slowly in a compact body. The natives 
 have a hand-basket, which is strongly, neatly, and 
 lightly made in the shape of an extinguisher. The 
 fisherman stands with this in his hand opposite the 
 shoals which are near the beach. On each side of 
 him stands a man with a long bamboo, on the end of 
 which is fixed a light ball. When all are ready these 
 two men rapidly push their poles into the shoal at an 
 angle, allowing them to meet at the ends, which of 
 course causes the sardines to retreat from the pole- 
 heads, and as they dart towards the beach, the man 
 with the basket at the same instant plunges in and 
 scoops them out. This is repeated along the beach, 
 and they follow the sardines until they have as many 
 as they want. Dugong are speared from a platform 
 erected on the reef. 
 
 Turtle are very cleverly caught at sea. On our 
 way to and from the Fly River we often catch them. 
 When seen lying listlessly on the surface, the boat is 
 
THEm MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 123 
 
 steered towards it. A native fastens a small rope to 
 his arm, others stand by ready to haul in, and there 
 is perfect silence whilst the boat glides up to the mon- 
 ster. It generally gets close up to the turtle before the 
 latter is aware. The moment it dives the man with 
 the rope fastened to his arm plunges in, and as he can 
 dive quicker than the turtle, he soon catches it and 
 seizes the shell firmly with both arms, giving the signal 
 to pull. Now the excitement on deck becomes intense 
 as the natives haul in the rope. Presently there is a 
 most ludicrous scene. Man and turtle both appear, 
 the one on top of the other, holding on for dear life, 
 both turning over and over like a patent log as they 
 are dragged along by the boat. Another native jumps 
 in and fastens a rope to the arm of the turtle, by 
 which those on board haul it on deck. Green turtle 
 weigh from 300 lbs. to 600 lbs. each. The students in 
 our Papuan seminary caught sixteen the year before 
 I left for the Christmas feast. The eggs are considered 
 a great delicacy by the natives. Sandbanks and unin- 
 habited islands are the most likely places to find them. 
 Whenever we anchor for the night at such places, 
 the natives go ashore with pointed sticks or small 
 iron bars, with which they probe the sand in likely 
 places, examining the points carefully to see if they 
 are wet. As soon as they see any indication of having 
 probed an ^gg they quickly remove the sand, and 
 often find as many as 1 50 or 200 eggs in a nest. It 
 is at these places that the turtle are most easily and 
 plentifully caught. The natives remain on shore during 
 the night, and when the turtle come up on the beach 
 beyond highwater mark to lay their eggs, the natives 
 go quietly and turn them over on their backs, which 
 
124 AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 renders them helpless. They sometimes get half a 
 dozen in a night in this way. 
 
 Their hunting is confined to the kangaroo, wild pig, 
 and cassowary, these being the only animals there are 
 to hunt in New Guinea. Kangaroos are caught with 
 strong nets, into which they are driven by setting fire 
 to the long grass in front of the nets, the natives 
 guarding the sides to prevent their escape, and so 
 driving them into the semicircle formed by the net. 
 The ends are then drawn together and the circle 
 gradually lessened, surrounded by the natives, who, 
 when the circle becomes small enough, commence a 
 general slaughter. They catch as many as forty at 
 once in this way. The cassowaries are more difficult 
 to obtain. To secure them the natives use spears and 
 bows and arrows. The wild boar hunt is the most 
 dangerous and exciting, in which spears are almost 
 exclusively used. The animal often turns upon its 
 pursuers, and is not unfrequently victorious in the 
 encounter. I know of two instances where the struggle 
 proved fatal to both hunter and hunted. Not long ago 
 a war party were proceeding to a bush village near the 
 Fly River, on a skull-hunting expedition. Their road 
 lay through a forest of tall trees where wild pigs 
 abound. They had not gone far when one crossed 
 their path. Spears and arrows instantly flew after it, 
 but missed. Some of the men pursued, but being 
 intent on the business of war, soon returned. One 
 man however continued the chase, whom they found 
 on their return lying at the root of a tree gored to 
 death, the boar also lying dead not far off. The con- 
 dition of both showed that there must have been a 
 fearful struggle for life. 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 125 
 
 The smoking practised by the natives is worthy 
 of remark. When it was introduced we cannot say. 
 In 1 87 1 we found the natives at Saibai and Katau 
 smoking from bamboo pipes, and on our voyages 
 up the Baxter and Fly rivers found tobacco plan- 
 tations far in the interior. On the south-east penin- 
 sula however it is a recently acquired habit. They 
 did not know the use of tobacco when we first met • 
 them. They have learnt to smoke from foreigners. 
 It is also very probable that the natives of the 
 Fly River district acquired the habit from the Torres 
 Straits natives, who most likely were taught by the 
 early beche de mer fishers. Wherever it came from, 
 the habit is now universal amongst all the tribes 
 with which we are acquainted ; men, women, and 
 children, old and young, all smoke, and tobacco is 
 the most eagerly sought article of trade. They use 
 bamboo pipes, from two to four feet in length, orna- 
 mented with fanciful designs, burnt in. All the 
 sections of the bamboo are opened except the end 
 one, near which a small hole is made, giving it the 
 appearance of a flute. On the peninsula, in the 
 vicinity of Port Moresby, the tobacco is rolled in a 
 leaf, and the smoke inhaled from the end of the 
 bamboo. In the Gulf they place the tobacco in a 
 small bamboo, about four inches long and three- 
 quarters of an inch in diameter, in appearance like a 
 large cigar. This they insert in a small hole of the 
 pipe, and place the lighted end in their mouth, as boys 
 place a lighted candle. They blow the large bamboo 
 full of smoke, then take out the small bamboo and 
 inhale the smoke from the small hole, taking one pull 
 and handing it on. When empty, it is handed back 
 
126 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 to the young man who is manipulating, and he repeats 
 the performance. 
 
 The well-known Fijian custom of kava-drinking is 
 not practised on the south-east peninsula at all, so far 
 as we know, but I find that it exists amongst the 
 natives of the great body of the island near the Fly 
 River, although there is a difference — if no improve- 
 ment — in the way in which it is prepared. In the 
 South Sea Islands it is the girls who make it ; here it 
 is the boys who chew the root. 
 
 The Gulf tribes also tattoo differently from those 
 on the peninsula. The latter do it in the ordinary 
 way by painting and pricking the skin, like the New 
 Zealanders ; whilst the former do it by cutting and 
 inserting into the wound powdered shell, which gives 
 it when healed a swollen, rib-like appearance. This 
 custom is practised also amongst the aborigines of 
 Australia. The cuts vary in length according to the 
 part of the body where they are made. 
 
 The natives of both sexes are as fond of ornamenting 
 their bodies as the belles and swells in our own coun- 
 try. They do not wear much clothing in their heathen 
 state, nor do they require it in such a hot climate, but 
 they use a profusion of ornaments and paint. The 
 hair is frizzed out carefully and cut in fantastic shapes. 
 Sometimes it is done up in scores of small curls like 
 whipcords, from which are suspended portions of 
 human bones. I have a segment of a human back- 
 bone that I cut from the back hair of a young cannibal. 
 They use a variety of head-dress made chiefly from 
 paradise birds' plumes and cassowary feathers. Their 
 necklaces are made of white and red coral beads of 
 their own manufacture, which involve an immense 
 
THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 127 
 
 amount of labour and are greatly prized. Some are 
 made of dogs' and kangaroos' feet. A large pearl 
 shell cut in the form of a crescent and ornamented is 
 worn on the breast, suspended from the neck. Ear- 
 rings are made from turtle shell. I have got as many 
 as twenty-five small rings from the lobe of one ear. 
 They have many ways of decorating their ears. The 
 lobe is generally pierced, and the hole greatly distended 
 by inserting bits of wood and a piece of the strong 
 part of the cocoanut leaf, which acts like a spring. 
 When the surface has become large and set it is filled 
 with ear-rings. In some cases it is severed, and a 
 weight attached to the end, which is worn till the 
 elongated lobe hangs like a tassel from the ear. This 
 is then pierced with small holes, which extend all 
 round the edge of the ear, and coral beads laced along 
 both sides, which they consider looks very handsome. 
 The septum of the nose is also pierced, and a neatly 
 prepared piece of shell, like a clay pipe-stem slightly 
 curved, from four to eight inches long, inserted. The 
 arms are decorated with bracelets and shell armlets, 
 and white cowries are tied to the legs just under the 
 knee. Add to all this a painted face, flowers, and gay 
 crotons fastened to the arms and legs, and you will 
 form an idea of a New Guinea native in full dress 
 ready for the dance, of which they never seem to get 
 tired. Night after night you hear the drums beating, 
 the noise often continuing till daybreak. 
 
SJ! VA GEDOM v. CHRISTENDOM. 
 HAVE chosen the heading of this 
 chapter as a fit subject for a few 
 concluding remarks upon the natives 
 of New Guinea. We all doubtless 
 believe that we belong to one of the 
 most civilized nations on the face 
 of the earth, that we have made 
 and are still making wonderful pro- 
 gress, and we look down upon savages (some with pity, 
 others with contempt, and many with indifference) 
 as being far below us. Yet few seriously consider, 
 amidst this intellectual and material advancement, 
 what is really the end aimed at. What is the 
 ideally perfect social state towards which mankind 
 ever has been and still is tending? There must be 
 
 129 
 
I30 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 some goal, some state of perfection which we may 
 never reach, but to which all true progress must bring 
 us nearer. Our best thinkers maintain that " it is a 
 state of individual freedom and self-government, ren- 
 dered possible by the equal development and just 
 balance of the intellectual, moral, and physical parts 
 of our nature — a state in which we shall each be so 
 perfectly fitted for social existence by knowing what 
 is right, and at the same time feeling an irresistible 
 impulse to do what we know to be right, that all laws 
 and all punishments shall be unnecessary. In such a 
 state every man would have a sufficiently well-balanced 
 intellectual organization to understand the moral law 
 in all its details, and would require no other motive 
 but the free impulses of his own nature to obey that 
 law." Now where do we find the nearest approach to 
 such a perfect social state ? Amongst savage or civi- 
 lized nations ? Some say that it is to be found in one 
 part, and some in another of Christendom ; but who 
 ever thinks of looking for such a state of things in 
 savagedom ? And yet I do not hesitate to say that 
 I have found the natives in the South Seas and New 
 Guinea, in their low state of civilization, approaching 
 nearer that ideal perfect social state. My object in 
 this chapter is to lead the reader to consider a few 
 things which may be observed in each of these king- 
 doms worthy the attention of all who are interested 
 in human progress. First let us take a peep at 
 savagedom. 
 
 Many people form their opinion of savagedom from 
 the miserable hordes of natives that hang on the 
 skirts of European settlements, leading a precarious 
 and vagabond existence. These are too commonly 
 
SAVAGEDOM VERSUS CHRISTENDOM. 131 
 
 composed of degraded beings, corrupted and enfeebled 
 by the vices of society without being benefited by its 
 civilization. Their spirits are humiliated and debased 
 by a sense of inferiority, and their native courage 
 cowed and daunted by the superior knowledge and 
 power of their enlightened neighbours. Society has 
 advanced upon them like one of those withering airs 
 that will sometimes spread desolation over a whole 
 region of fertility. It has enervated their strength, 
 multiplied their diseases, and added to their original 
 barbarity the low vices of artificial life. It has given 
 them a thousand superfluous wants, leading to selfish- 
 ness, covetousness, and arousing the basest passions 
 of the soul. They become drunken, indolent, feeble, 
 thievish, and pusillanimous. In savage life they were 
 gentlemen, as far as having the means to supply their 
 wants goes to make a gentleman ; but in the face of 
 civilization they feel keenly their numerous wants and 
 repine in hopeless poverty, which, like a canker of the 
 mind, corrodes their spirits and blights the free and 
 noble qualities of their nature. Like vagrants they 
 loiter about the settlements, once their happy hunting 
 grounds, now covered with spacious dwellings replete 
 with elaborate comforts, which only render them 
 sensible of the comparative wretchedness of their own 
 condition. Luxury spreads its ample board before 
 their eyes, but they are excluded from the banquet 
 Plenty revels over the fields, but they are stai-ving in 
 the midst of its abundance. The whole wilderness 
 has blossomed into a garden, but they feel as reptiles 
 that infest it. 
 
 It is not amongst this class that we must look for 
 the "noble savage," not where civilization has met 
 
132 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 him and clothed him in its most filthy garments, but 
 in New Guinea, where the natives are found in their 
 primitive simplicity, the undisputed iords of the soil, 
 displaying a proud independence, their lives void of 
 care, and with little to excite either ambition or 
 jealousy, as they see every one around them sharing 
 the same lot, enduring the same hardships, feeding on 
 the same food, and arrayed in the same rude garments. 
 They have no laws or law courts (so far as we know), 
 but the public opinion of the village freely expressed. 
 Each man respects the rights of his fellows, and any 
 infraction of those rights very rarely takes place. In 
 these communities all are nearly equal. There are 
 none of those wide distinctions of education and 
 ignorance, wealth and poverty, master and servant, 
 which are the product of our civilization. There is 
 none of that widespread division of labour, which, 
 while it increases wealth, produces also conflicting 
 interests. There is not that severe competition and 
 struggle for existence, or for wealth, which the dense 
 population of civilized countries inevitably creates. 
 All incitements to great crimes are thus wanting, and 
 petty ones are suppressed, partly by the influence of 
 public opinion, but chiefly by that natural sense of 
 justice and of his neighbours' rights which seems to 
 be in some degree inherent in every race of man. 
 These remarks of course apply to separate communi- 
 ties. There are tribal wars, as in civilized countries, 
 although the natives do not yet understand the art of 
 wholesale slaughter as we do, and moreover the man 
 who makes the quarrel has to lead in the fight. Still 
 they consider it perfectly right to plunder and kill 
 the enemy 
 
SAVAGEDOM VERSUS CHRISTENDOM. 133 
 
 Now look at Christendom and civilization. What 
 do we find ? Take our country for example. We 
 are the richest nation in the world, and yet one- 
 twentieth of our population are parish paupers, and 
 one-thirtieth known criminals. Add to these the 
 criminals who escape detection, and the poor who live 
 mainly on private charity — which, according to Dr. 
 Hawkesley, expends ;^7,ooo,ooo sterling annually in 
 London alone, — and we may be sure that more than 
 one-tenth of our population are actually paupers or 
 criminals. Each criminal costs us annually in our 
 prisons more than the wages of an honest agricul- 
 tural labourer. We allow over 100,000 persons known 
 to have no means of subsistence but crime to remain 
 at large, and prey upon the community. Yet we like 
 to boast of our rapid increase in wealth, of our enor- 
 mous commerce and gigantic manufactures, of our 
 mechanical skill and scientific knowledge, of our 
 high civilization and Christianity, although perhaps 
 it might be more justly termed a state of social 
 barbarism. 
 
 Nearly all of us, I suppose, associate savages with 
 dark skins, and seem to think that white savages 
 cannot exist, but only people, who, if trouble enough 
 were taken, and money enough spent, would become, 
 at least to an endurable degree, civilized persons. 
 They do not wish, it is alleged, to be savages, and 
 are only forced into that condition by the pressure of 
 circumstances, lasting perhaps for generations. That 
 comforting theory may of course be true, for we 
 hardly know what effects generations of untoward 
 circumstances will cause ; but those of us who have 
 been behind the scenes in the South Sea Islands, 
 10 
 
134 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 New Guinea, and in some of the large cities in this 
 country, know very well there are thousands of per- 
 sons (and some of them well educated) who hate 
 civilization, with all its restraints, with a hatred which 
 is incurable by any fear, or any reward, or any kind 
 of inspection. They are not criminals, as a rule, any 
 more than the wild tribes are ; but they are savages, 
 loving above all things to live lives untrammelled by 
 the infinite series of minute restraints and obligations 
 which go to make up civilization. \{ the climate is 
 cold, they will wear clothes — they will hardly do that 
 in warm climates, — but that is the sole concession they 
 will make to the claims of civilization. They do not 
 care to clean anything, or preserve anything, or pro- 
 vide for anything. It is useless to give them furni- 
 ture, for they prefer to camp ; useless to store food 
 for them, for they will consume it all at once. They 
 will work when there is nothing to eat, but if they are 
 full they abhor work until they are empty again. It is 
 possible to live without washing, or decency, or furni- 
 ture, or foresight, or care ; and they prefer so to live, 
 though the result seems to the civilized unqualified 
 misery and pain. They do not think it unqualified, 
 but qualified very greatly by their freedom, holding 
 only three things to be essential, food, sleep, and 
 wives, and only three to be luxuries — more food 
 drink, and tobacco, just as the millions do whom we 
 all agree in calling savages. 
 
 I have no hesitation in pronouncing the savages of 
 Christendom infinitely worse than those of heathen- 
 dom, and infinitely more difficult to improve. And 
 whatever my views may be about the " development 
 theory," I am forced, from known cases, to admit the 
 
SAVAGEDOM VERSUS CHRISTENDOM, 135 
 
 possibility of complete retrogression from a civilized 
 state, although many writers deny it. And I believe 
 that in every civilized community there is a con- 
 siderable percentage of both men and women, to 
 whom the first condition of external civilization, 
 the incessant taking of minute trouble, is utterly 
 hateful, and who, if left to themselves, would not 
 take it, but would prefer a condition of pure savagery. 
 The rich, of course, seldom reveal this disposition, 
 because others take the trouble for them ; but un- 
 skilled labourers in this country, who earn possibly 
 only twelve shillings a week, who know nothing, and 
 are pressed by no public opinion, are constantly 
 tempted to throw off the burden of respectability, 
 abandon furniture, give up the small decencies and 
 formalities of life, and camp in a room on straw, as 
 uncleanly and nearly as free as savages would be. 
 They live from hand to mouth, shift from room to 
 room, are beyond prosecution for money, drink if 
 they have the cash, smoke somehow whether they 
 have it or not, and are perfectly indifferent to the 
 opinion of society — are, in fact, savages. 
 
 Now I can conceive but one remedy for this sava- 
 gery wherever it exists, and that is religion — a pure, 
 simple, elevating religion, like that of Jesus Christ. 
 You cannot elevate savage tribes in heathendom by 
 giving them tomahawks and tobacco, beads and 
 blankets ; for they will soon sell these, and even 
 their food, for brandy. Nor can you elevate the 
 savages of Christendom by putting them in good 
 houses and providing them with honest work, for 
 very soon your model houses would be like styes, 
 and the honest work abandoned. My contention is 
 
136 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 however that, supposing both classes of savages to 
 embrace the gospel, those of heathendom find them- 
 selves nearer the goal which civilization has been 
 aiming at and striving ibr during many centuries. 
 What we are pleased to term civilization generally 
 begins in despotism, or, I might even say, in murder 
 and plunder. A country is seized, the land appro- 
 priated, and the natives subdued, and placed under 
 laws. Then, as education advances, and the subdued 
 begin to feel their power, the struggle begins, and 
 goes on for ages, between radicals and conserva- 
 tives ; the one trying to regain the rights and liber- 
 ties of their fathers, and the other trying to retain 
 what was gained by conquest. All I can say is, that 
 I devoutly hope that New Guinea may be preserved 
 from such civilizing influences. 
 
MISSION STATION, '" 
 
 MABUIAG. 
 
 VI I. 
 
 NATIVE AGENCY AND 
 NATIVE CHURCHES. 
 
 NE of the greatest peculiarities of 
 the spread of Christianity in the 
 South Pacific and New Guinea is 
 "I the work accompHshed by native 
 agency. From Tahiti to New 
 Guinea, the native converts have 
 been the pioneer evangelists. 
 Island after island, and group 
 after group, first learnt the message of love from 
 the lips of these simple, earnest, faithful men and 
 their heroic wives. These native teachers are better 
 acquainted with the habits and manners and customs 
 of the heathen than missionaries are, and so are well 
 
 _ ,/ 
 
138 AMONG THE CANMBALS. 
 
 adapted to fill the gap between the debased savage 
 and the European missionary. They quite naturally 
 avoid mistakes and dangers which a young missionary, 
 in all the plenitude of his wisdom, is apt to make 
 amongst a savage people. No amount of piety or 
 zeal or intelligence, or all combined, will preserve 
 a man from falling into grave errors, if he lacks 
 experience. 
 
 My experience goes to show that our native teachers 
 can get at the heathen of their class, and influence 
 them in favour of Christianity, quicker than European 
 missionaries. So that a missionary is not making the 
 most of his time when he settles down amongst a 
 savage people to do that which a native teacher can 
 do quite as well. There is plenty of work for a 
 missionary to do, that a native teacher cannot do. It 
 requires the educated European missionary to reduce 
 the languages to writing, and to translate the Scrip- 
 tures, and prepare school books ; to establish and 
 superintend schools, and train a native ministry ; and 
 above all, in a new mission, to move about as rapidly 
 as possible, directing, stimulating, and protecting the 
 native teachers. This is the machinery which requires 
 to be well oiled, and kept in good working order, and 
 which has been used more in the South Sea than 
 perhaps in any other mission, and with the most 
 encouraging results. 
 
 Most people in this country have but a very inde- 
 finite idea of what sort of a person a native teacher 
 really is. He is not like your village schoolmaster, or 
 your local preacher, or indeed any agency with which 
 you are acquainted. The eight pioneer teachers with 
 whom we commenced the New Guinea Mission, for 
 
NATIVE AGENCY AND NATIVE CHURCHES. 139 
 
 instance, were all the sons of cannibals, indeed two of 
 them had themselves been cannibals. Some of our 
 best teachers are removed but one generation ahead 
 of the* cannibals amongst whom they labour. I have 
 known some of them who could scarcely read or 
 write. As soon as they lay hold of the primitive 
 truths of Christianity, or rather, as soon as those 
 truths lay hold upon them, they are anxious to be 
 sent to convey the glad tidings to the islands beyond. 
 They may not have taken their degrees in science and 
 divinity, but they have in prayer and faith. They 
 may know nothing about the theory of evolution, 
 but they know something about the transforming 
 power of the gospel. To hear them pray and preach 
 is to be convinced of the reality of their conver- 
 sion, and of their faith in the simple, full, and free 
 gospel. 
 
 It must not be supposed however that our native 
 teachers are, as a rule, u. /educated. One of the eight 
 Loyalty islanders with whom we commenced the 
 New Guinea Mission in 1871, and who is still doing 
 good service in that difficult field, where so many 
 of his comrades have fallen around him, can speak 
 and write four languages fluently, besides possessing 
 a very fair knowledge of English, being able to read 
 the English Bible, and write a tolerably good English 
 letter. I have seen long letters which he has written 
 to a Queensland magistrate, a friend of mine, which 
 give evidence of a fair English education. His father 
 was a cannibal. Another of the eight pioneers can 
 also speak and write four languages, and he also has 
 a fair knowledge of the English language. He has 
 translated the Gospel of Mark from the Lifuan into 
 
140 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 one of the New Guinea languages, also a catechism 
 and small hymn-book. Of course there must be 
 many imperfections in translating the Scriptures from 
 ciny but the original languages, even if done by a 
 European missionary. Still it is a great work for 
 a native teacher, the son of a cannibal, to undertake 
 and accomplish. 
 
 The native teachers from Eastern Polynesia, where 
 the power of Christianity has been felt for a much 
 longer period, are further advanced in civilization 
 than those from Western Polynesia. RarotQngan 
 teachers especially are fine, strong, energetic, and 
 intelligent natives, who make the best Polynesian 
 pioneer evangelists, and who have done splendid work 
 in Western Polynesia and New Guinea. 
 
 It will appear from what I have said about the 
 the New Guinea pioneer native teachers, that some 
 of these men are real heroes, and are accompanied by 
 heroic wives. They will settle down amongst tribes, 
 however savage, and brave dangers, however great, in 
 order to teach their fellow men the message of the 
 Cross. This spirit is well illustrated in the words 
 and conduct of one of the Lifu men that I trained 
 and took to New Guinea in 1871. A party were 
 sitting round the fire in the cocoanut grove, at one of 
 our stations, eating sugarcane, and drinking cocoa- 
 nuts, whilst the teacher told them of the wonderful 
 effects of the gospel upon the South Sea islanders. 
 When he expressed his intention to carry the gospel 
 to a neighbouring heathen district, the natives at 
 once and unanimously opposed it, saying that it was 
 madness to think of going there. It was very difficult 
 to get at, on account of reefs and banks and currents ; 
 
NATIVE AGENCY AND NATIVE CHURCHES. 141 
 
 that the river was full of crocodiles, and the bush full 
 of snakes, etc. 
 
 " Are there any people there ? " asked the teacher. 
 
 " Oh, yes," they replied ; " but they are dreadful 
 savages and cannibals, great warriors, and very 
 treacherous." 
 
 "That is enough," said the teacher ; " wherever 
 there are people, missio7iaries must go!* 
 
 And these good men, when they are appointed to 
 a station, do not always wait to be taken there in the 
 mission vessel and introduced by the missionaries in 
 the usual way. 
 
 Pao, for instance, the energetic, devoted, and brave 
 apostle of Lifu, was left at Mare with the teachers 
 appointed to that island, until the return of the John 
 Williams. Pao grew impatient however to get to 
 his sphere of labour. Long before the return of the 
 mission vessel, Pao might be seen with his com- 
 panions in a canoe which he had prepared, with his 
 Rarotongan Bible and a few clothes tied in a bundle 
 and stowed away in the end of his small craft, hoist- 
 ing his mat sail to a gentle breeze one fine morning 
 and starting for Lifu, forty miles distant. What must 
 have been his feelings, as he sat in the stern of that 
 little canoe, with his long paddle guiding her as she 
 sped over the crested waves ! And when he sighted 
 the island, what peculiar emotions must have struggled 
 in his breast ! How he would grasp more firmly the 
 steering-paddle and eagerly watch the island as it 
 appeared to rise inch by inch to view 1 And as they 
 neared the island, and began to discern the houses or 
 huts, then the natives, and approaching the reef saw 
 them assembled on the beach all armed, his feelings 
 
142 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 may be better imagined than described. He did nc^ 
 however, as many missionaries do, haul down his sail, 
 and paddle about outside the reef, waiting for some 
 canoe to come off to get information ; he dashed over 
 it and sailed right on to the beach, and placed him- 
 self at once in the hands of the natives. The king 
 received him as his enemu (friend), and so the good 
 work began. Had the king regarded him as an 
 enemy, he would have been clubbed, cooked, and 
 eaten. 
 
 One of the Lifu teachers whom I left at Darnley 
 in 1 87 1 to become acquainted with the language and 
 people before taking him to Murray, seems to have 
 remembered Pao's action at Lifu, and followed his ex- 
 ample. He also crossed over in a canoe, which he had 
 made, from Darnley to Murray, and landed amongst 
 the natives, who were then wild, naked savages. 
 And in this way these good men have been the real 
 pioneers in Polynesia and New Guinea. There are 
 some islands in the South Sea where they have had 
 no other missionaries than these native teachers, and 
 yet the populations have become Christian, good 
 stone churches have been built, schools established 
 and kept in good working order, and the whole made 
 self-supporting. Of course the teachers have been 
 visited annually by European missionaries, and would 
 not, it must be admitted, accomplish much without 
 such supervision. 
 
 The following is the testimony of the police magis- 
 trate of Cooktown, who paid a semi-official visit to 
 our mission stations, and whose report was published 
 in the Queenslander : 
 
 " I had many opportunities of closely observing the South Sea 
 
NATIVE AGENCY AND NATIVE CHURCHES. 143 
 
 Island teachers, male and female, having had them frequently 
 at my house at Cooktovvn, having travelled with them almost 
 daily during my stay in New Guinea, having been a frequent 
 visitor to their houses and a partaker of their hospitality. I 
 found them to be a most excellent people, physically and men- 
 tally of a superior class. They are a devoted and self-sacri- 
 ficing body of men. Many of them in their own islands were 
 men of property and influence, but have given up all those 
 advantages to assist in spreading the gospel, which they had 
 themselves received from the missionaries, among the savage 
 and benighted inhabitants of New Guinea. Nor in doing this 
 can they be said to be influenced by mercenary motives or hope 
 of profit. The London Missionary Society pays them £10 a 
 year each, not a very magnificent sum for the services of two 
 people, a man and his wife both fairly educated. They are not 
 permitted to trade with the natives except for articles necessary 
 for their subsistence, such as an occasional pig, yams, cocoa- 
 nuts, and the like. Many of these men have proved their 
 devotion by the sacrifice of their lives, and have died either by 
 the club of the savage native, or from the scarcely less deadly 
 influence of the cHmate in some of the localities where stations 
 were at first formed. Nor can they even look forward to a 
 posthumous fame as an incentive to their work or as a reward 
 for their zeal. They die by violence or disease, and beyond the 
 narrow circle of the missionaries or their fellow labourers nothing 
 more is heard of them. The world knew them not, and cares 
 next to nothing about their fate. The names of John Williams 
 and Bishop Patteson are widely known, and wherever known 
 deservedly reverenced as martyrs to the cause to which they 
 had devoted their energies and dedicated their fives. Their 
 lives have been written, their example is cited as an incentive 
 to future missionaries. Their virtues and courage, their energy 
 and zeal are extolled, and most justly. No such distinction 
 awaits the teacher-martyr ; and yet martyrs they are, as true and 
 devoted as any that fill the long roll of those who suffered for 
 their faith. If New Guinea is ever evangelized it will in a great 
 measure be due to the devoted efforts of the humble native 
 teachers. All honour to them ! And, in saying this, let me 
 not be supposed to depreciate the patience, the courage, the 
 energy, and perseverance shown by the European missionaries 
 — their efforts are beyond all praise ; but while fully and grate- 
 
144 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 fully recognising their zeal and devotion, let us not fail to do 
 justice to the virtues of their humble coadjutors." 
 
 As to the churches established in Polynesia and 
 New Guinea, there can be no doubt that in their 
 organization and management a good deal of wisdom 
 and foresight, common sense and sound piety, have 
 been displayed by the missionaries. If we take the 
 Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of Paul, Peter, 
 James, and John, or the New Testament as a whole, 
 for our guide, we shall find that the churches 
 organized by nonconformist missionaries in Poly- 
 nesia will compare favourably with the primitive 
 churches gathered by the apostles in various parts 
 of the Roman empire during the first century of the 
 Christian era. Indeed in many respects there is a 
 most striking resemblance between the churches 
 organized by the apostles and the Polynesian 
 churches. And the more closely the examination is 
 made, and comparison drawn, the more manifest the 
 parallel will appear. The very language employed 
 by some ecclesiastical historians respecting the 
 churches of the first century would aptly describe 
 the organization of nonconformist mission churches in 
 the South Sea Islands and New Guinea. All those 
 great ecclesiastical establishments, and " Church and 
 State " arrangements, centreing in Antioch, Constan- 
 tinople, Rome, and elsewhere, were an aftergrowth — 
 may we not say fungus-^xov^Xh. ? — when Christianity 
 became corrupt. 
 
 Some of our methods may be a little surprising to 
 a portion of the Christian public in this country, 
 though they seem perfectly justifiable to us, both 
 from Scripture and the circumstances of the case. 
 
NATIVE AGENCY AND NATIVE CHURCHES. 145 
 
 For instance, in our Loyalty Islands mission we 
 made a new departure in the elements used at the 
 administration of the Lord's Supper. It appeared to 
 us very incongruous to see what was used for bread 
 and wine at times. When the John Williams was 
 anxiously looked for by the missionary to bring a 
 fresh supply of flour, a curious compound would be 
 made for bread ; and water, coloured with wine or 
 treacle, used as the ivine. Moreover we were training 
 a native agency, and preparing the people to supply, 
 from amongst themselves, the elements for carrying 
 on spiritual work. How would the native pastors be 
 able to get wine for this ordinance ? Were they to 
 seek it on board the trading vessels that called at the 
 islands? What sort of wine (!) would they be likely to 
 get from the traders ? And although they might not 
 have so much difficulty in obtaining flour, what sort 
 of bf-ead would they make ? These were plain, prac- 
 tical questions, which led us to ask, What would 
 Christ Himself be most likely to do under the circum- 
 stances? and the answer of reason and common sense, 
 borne out by Scripture, was, that He would naturally 
 use the bread and wine of the country. We accor- 
 dingly commenced a practice which has now spread 
 nearly all over the South Sea Islands, of using at the 
 ordinance of the Lord's Supper the unmixed and 
 refreshing milk from young cocoanuts and the pure 
 white yam — the ordinary meat and drink of the 
 people. These are used as symbols, just as our Lord 
 used the ordinary food of the country when He and 
 His disciples partook of that memorable supper. To 
 have introduced foreign bread and wine would have 
 led, most likely, to undue importance being attached 
 
146 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 to the elements. Our object has been to prevent any 
 mystery from gathering round the symbols, and direct 
 the attention of the natives to what they symbolize. 
 
 Then again, in the matter of baptism, we have 
 adopted, in our New Guinea Mission, a somewhat 
 different method from what we, like the other mission- 
 aries, pursued in the South Pacific. If a New Guinea 
 native wishes to embrace Christianity, and we have 
 reason to believe that he is sincere in his renunciation 
 of idolatry, he receives the ordinance of baptism (and " 
 his family too, if he has any), and is placed under 
 special instruction in our seekers' class, until he is 
 admitted to the church. Thus some of them are 
 baptized months and even years before they become 
 members of the church and partake of the ordinance 
 of the Lord's Supper. We see no scriptural reason 
 for withholding baptism from those who wish to join 
 the Christian community. It is a public pledge of 
 their renouncing heathenism and embracing Chris- 
 tianity. Before becoming members of the church 
 however, they should know what it means, and what 
 it involves, and prove themselves worthy of joining 
 that inner circle. 
 
 We have made another departure in our New 
 Guinea Mission in the admission to church fellowship 
 of natives who have more than one wife. I must con- 
 fess that, during my missionary life at Lifu, I often 
 had serious misgivings about conforming to the usual 
 rule of requiring a native, with two or three wives, 
 when he abandons idolatry, to forsake them all, ex- 
 cept one. Why should he be required to make this 
 selection ? The other one or two are, according to 
 the laws of the country, as much his wives as the one 
 
NATIVE AGENCY AND NATIVE CHURCHES. 147 
 
 selected. They are the mothers of some of his chil- 
 dren. In some cases they have lived together many 
 years in peace and happiness, and I have known it to 
 be very difficult for the man to decide which to retain 
 and which to abandon. The women thus forsaken 
 were exposed to temptation and ill-treatment, which 
 sometimes led to serious trouble. Moreover such an 
 arrangement appears as unscriptural as it is unkind 
 and unjust. 
 
 In beginning the New Guinea Mission I consulted 
 with Dr. Mullens and some of the directors on the 
 subject, and was pleased to find that they also con- 
 sidered the arrangement harsh and unscriptural. And 
 so I determined not to interfere with these social 
 relationships in which the gospel found the people of 
 New Guinea. If a native who has two wives em- 
 braces the gospel, he is not relieved of his obligations 
 to either, although, if one dies, he cannot take another 
 in her place so long as he has a wife. And of course 
 the young men who marry under the gospel dispen- 
 sation can only take one wife. The rule affects only 
 the mm^ried heathen who embrace Christianity, or 
 rather the small portion of them who have more than 
 one wife ; and it seems to be in harmony with the 
 teaching of the New Testament and with reason and 
 common sense. 
 
 The polity of our native churches is Congregational. 
 They are trained to select cmd provide for their 
 pastors, and manage their own affairs as soon as pos- 
 sible. There is however a very marked Presbyterian 
 element manifest in that polity, the annual meeting 
 of missionaries and native pastors being a kind of 
 synod. Representing an undenominational society. 
 
148 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 we do not feel bound to follow any particular form 
 of church government ; consequently we are eclectic. 
 The grand distinguishing feature of these Poly- 
 nesian and New Guinea churches is their zeal in mis- 
 sionary work. They have experienced the blessings 
 of Christianity, and they lay themselves and their 
 substance freely upon the missionary altar. With 
 many of them the extension of Christ's kingdom 
 becomes a passion. Missionary meetings are the 
 most enthusiastic gatherings of the natives, and to 
 become a missionary to the heathen is the highest 
 ambition of Christian young men. The churches in 
 this highly favoured land have much to learn in this 
 respect from the piety, faith, and devotedness of 
 these young converts. 
 
»^ir^. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 RESUL TS. 
 
 HE regeneration of the world being 
 God's work, we may expect it to 
 proceed like all other great changes 
 in the world and the universe, 
 slowly. Everything in nature 
 teaches us to work and ivait. No 
 form of existence is presented at 
 once complete and perfect. The 
 forms of vegetable life have their 
 germination, their budding, their flowers, their ripened 
 fruit or seed, their stately and progressive growth. 
 And when their decay comes on, it is but pre- 
 paratory to a resurrection of new beauty, without 
 11 MP 
 
ISO AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 any interruption to the mysterious continuity of 
 life. Analogous to this are the forms of animal 
 existence. A feeble beginning ; a gradual growth 
 and development of strength, beauty, and sagacity. 
 Minerals are formed in the bowels of the earth by 
 slow, secret, but sure processes. By the abrasion of 
 rocks soils are collected, and barrenness is clothed 
 with verdure, and waving forests spring up and be- 
 come so ancient that no one can tell the story of their 
 birth. The ocean gradually recedes from one conti- 
 nent and gradually approaches another ; and the 
 headlands and harbours of the ancient navigators are 
 changed. In the ocean depths curious and minute 
 operations are busy, century after century, building 
 up the coral caves and mountains, a fairyland of the 
 watery world, and the stable foundations of future 
 continents. Astronomy teaches that in the wide and 
 illimitable space nebulous matter is gradually con- 
 greting and forming into new worlds. And thus crea- 
 tion, through endless ages, is extending by processes 
 which appear to us slow, but which are under sure 
 laws. Geology has detected in our globe signs which 
 cannot be mistaken, indicating the gradual upbuilding 
 of the crust on which we live, the formation of the 
 mountains and valleys, the rivers, lakes, and oceans. 
 
 God does not complete His work at once. The 
 wonder, the beauty, and the glory of His skill appear 
 in successive, and, we may believe, endless presenta- 
 tions of new forms of increasing perfection. We may 
 expect therefore to find the same gradual growth in 
 the moral and spiritual kingdom. God has given us 
 the seed^ which is adapted to all nations. It is not 
 our business to try to analyse or comprehend it, but 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 151 
 
 to plant it, according to the command of our Lord. 
 In the great work of enHghtening the world, we must 
 remember that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in the 
 kingdom of God, the seed must be sown, and sown in 
 harmony with the conditions that God has established. 
 The work is difficult, and the progress slow. Still, it 
 is no more so than in the kingdom of nature ; and 
 the great mysteries of spiritual life and development 
 are no greater than in the seed ; and success is given 
 in proportion to our efforts in both cases. As we sow, 
 so shall we reap, in more senses than one. Increased 
 effort means enlarged success. Results however 
 must not be judged by the number of converts^ but 
 rather by the extent of our obedience ; not by the 
 number of those who receive the message, but by the 
 number of those before whom its grand persuasives 
 have been so faithfully placed, that they have been 
 obliged either to receive or reject it. There are few 
 missions however in which the visible results have been 
 more encouraging than in our New Guinea Mission, 
 considering the time and the means employed. The 
 first five years were the most trying time. They were 
 years of disappointment, sickness, suffering, and death. 
 After the mission was fairly started at the different 
 points to which I have referred, the progress became 
 steady, healthy, and, on the whole, most encouraging. 
 From the central stations the mission extended 
 right and left. In the Port Moresby district, our 
 energetic brother Chalmers soon became acquainted 
 with the principal tribes to the east and west of Port 
 Moresby, and mission stations were planted as far as 
 the Aroma district on the one side, and the Maiva 
 district on the other. Mr. Lawes made occasional 
 
152 AMONG THE CANMBALS. 
 
 trips to these places, but, as a rule, he found more 
 congenial and not less useful work in teaching and 
 translating at the central station. Besides having to 
 reduce the language to writing, translate the Scrip- 
 tures, prepare school books, and attend to the schools 
 and native seminary, he very soon had a good deal of 
 his time occupied by European visitors and settlers. 
 
 Port Moresby being a fine harbour and easy of 
 access, it became the rendezvous of traders, travellers, 
 explorers, and a number of those men who seem to 
 be drifting about the world with no particular object 
 in view. Parties came to search for gold, others to 
 look for cedar. Some came to purchase land as a 
 speculation, and others to get native labour for sugar 
 plantations in Queensland. In fact, New Guinea 
 began to attract so much attention, that the Austra- 
 lian colonies very naturally became alarmed lest the 
 French or Germans, or some other power that might 
 become unfriendly to Australia in the future, should 
 step in and annex the unclaimed half of this large and 
 valuable island, where they might found a colony, 
 possessing magnificent harbours and rivers and natural 
 resources, in dangerous proximity to Australia. 
 
 As New Guinea is only ninety miles distant, Queensr 
 land, being the adjacent colony, naturally felt most 
 strongly on the subject ; and knowing how difficult it 
 would be to convince the home Government of the real 
 gravity of the situation, and lead them to move in the 
 matter in time to keep others out, they determined to 
 take possession first, and communicate with the im- 
 perial Government afterwards. Accordingly the police 
 magistrate at Port Kennedy was sent across to Port 
 Moresby, in the man-of-war schooner Peail, to hoist 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 153 
 
 the British flag, and proclaim a protectorate over the 
 half of New Guinea not claimed by the Dutch. It 
 was confidently hoped that the home Government, 
 being relieved of the responsibility of taking the ini- 
 tiative, would sanction this somewhat bold step of the 
 Queensland government, and thus acquire a valuable 
 territory, and gratify her Australian colonies, w^ithout 
 costing her a penny ; for the colonial governments 
 were prepared to take all pecuniary responsibility in 
 the matter if the authority was granted. 
 
 The home Government however declined to sanc- 
 tion the step taken by the Queensland government, 
 thereby causing a good deal of official and news- 
 paper correspondence, which created a very strong 
 feeling in the colonies at the time, and which might 
 have become serious had not the home Govern- 
 ment ultimately consented to secure the portion of 
 the island adjacent to Australia. For this purpose 
 the commodore was sent to Port Moresby with 
 several men-of-war to proclaim a protectorate over 
 the half of the unclaimed portion of New Guinea, 
 i.e. over about a quarter of the island — thus leaving 
 an equal portion still exposed to the French, to be 
 taken for a convict settlement, which the Australians 
 had reason to dread. They felt that it would be a 
 very simple matter to proclaim the protectorate over 
 the whole, just as the Dutch did over the other half, 
 and so secure it to Australia, to whom it most natu- 
 rally belongs, and who might in future be embarrassed 
 by some powerful and unfriendly neighbour. The 
 imperial Government however thought it sufficient to 
 proclaim to the world that it would consider it an 
 unfriendly act in any power to take possession of the 
 
154 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 adjacent unannexed portion ; notwithstanding which 
 the Germans immediately annexed the territory in 
 question. It is some satisfaction to feel that we have 
 at least got good neighbours and good colonists. 
 That the whole of New Guinea will ultimately be- 
 long to Australia there can be but little doubt. It is 
 only a question of time ; so that most Australians 
 regard all who go to New Guinea, to spend life and 
 money in developing the country, as contributing to 
 the future greatness of Australia. Still they feel that 
 future complications might have been prevented by 
 the home government sanctioning the hoisting of the 
 British flag in New Guinea by the government of 
 Queensland. 
 
 I need not describe the ceremonies connected with 
 establishing the protectorate. They are matters of 
 history. They all took place on the south-east 
 peninsula at different points, the navigation being 
 considered too dangerous for the men-of-war to visit 
 the western branch of our mission, and hoist the flag 
 on the great body of the island, in or near the Fly 
 River. This accounts for my not being present at 
 these ceremonies, which caused some surprise and 
 inquiries amongst many friends. To meet with 
 officers of her majesty's ships in the mission field, 
 and especially in New Guinea, has always been to 
 me a source of real enjoyment ; so that it was at con- 
 siderable self-sacrifice that I remained at my work in 
 the Papuan Gulf whilst these gentlemen were on the 
 coast of the peninsula, a couple of hundred miles 
 away. My colleagues, Messrs. Lawes and Chalmers^ 
 were on the spot, so that my services were not re- 
 quired ; hence my duty was plain. Had the commo- 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 155 
 
 dore wished to visit the Fly or adjacent rivers, or 
 any part of the western district, I should have been 
 pleased to place my services at his disposal. 
 
 Port Moresby soon became the centre of an active 
 Government staff, chief of which was Sir Peter 
 Scratchley, as high commissioner, who in a very 
 short time died from the fever of the country, and 
 was succeeded by the Hon. John Douglas, C.M.G., 
 late premier of Queensland, a gentleman whose ap- 
 pointment gave great satisfaction to all the Australian 
 colonies, where he is well known and highly respected. 
 Mr. Douglas was fortunate in having as his lieutenant 
 a young gentleman of ability and enthusiasm — Mr. 
 Musgrave, the nephew of the governor of Queens- 
 land, who told me that New Guinea had been the 
 dream of his nephew's life. I made his acquaintance 
 at Port Moresby, where he has been for years actively 
 engaged in carrying on the government for the benefit 
 of both natives and Europeans. In fact, he is spoken 
 of there as "the government." There can be little 
 doubt that his successful administration in New Guinea 
 is due largely to the splendid training he received under 
 his distinguished uncle. Sir Anthony Musgrave. 
 
 The influx of explorers, travellers, traders, etc., to 
 Port Moresby, whilst often forming an agreeable 
 break in the monotony of missionary life in such 
 places, often also interferes seriously with missionary 
 work, and especially where there is a training in- 
 stitution for the education of native teachers. The 
 young students learn more at a port than we like 
 them to know. Hence in Samoa the missionaries 
 established the native seminary at Malua, which is 
 about twelve miles from the port, and they found it 
 
156 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 quite near enough. For the same reason I selected 
 Murray Island, instead of Darnley, for the Papuan 
 Institute, and have had abundant reason to be thank- 
 ful for being so guided in my choice ; so that from a 
 missionary point of view it would have been better 
 if the Government had selected some other place 
 than Port Moresby as the base of their operations. 
 It was perfectly natural however that they should 
 make that their headquarters. It was discovered 
 by Captain Moresby. It is a fine harbour ; easily 
 approached from the sea, and being about the middle 
 of the peninsula, is central for governing British New 
 Guinea. 
 
 The demands made upon the time of Messrs. 
 Lawes and Chalmers by the arrival of Government 
 officials, explorers, travellers, and traders was very 
 considerable, the latter often accompanying the men- 
 of-war to different parts of the peninsula, whilst the 
 former had his duties increased at the port Both 
 however very willingly rendered what service they 
 could, which was often of great benefit to the natives. 
 Whilst Mr. Lawes devoted himself to educational 
 work and the translation of the Scriptures and pre- 
 paration of school books, Mr. Chalmers found con- 
 genial work for his restless, energetic spirit in extend- 
 ing the mission westward, towards the great body of 
 New Guinea, amongst the cannibal tribes, where the 
 Port Moresby canoes are accustomed to go during 
 the summer months to barter their pottery for sago. 
 Westward from Port Moresby the tribes become 
 more numerous and more warlike, and as the Papuan 
 Gulf is approached, the cannibals begin to appear. 
 Mr. Chalmers has published an interesting account 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 157 
 
 of these journeys and his intercourse with the 
 natives. 
 
 Whilst the mission was being extended by my 
 colleagues in the central branch, I was busy with 
 my faithful lieutenants (the Loyalty Islands teachers) 
 doing similar work in the eastern and western 
 branches. The mission station on Stacey Island, 
 near South Cape, where Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers first 
 settled when they joined our New Guinea Mission, 
 was continued by Rarotongan teachers, and occa- 
 sionally visited by Mr. Chalmers ; all the others in 
 the eastern district were conducted by teachers from 
 Lifu and Mare, and by local preachers who were 
 trained by our teachers, and who rendered good ser- 
 vice. I purchased an old weather-board building in 
 Cooktown, which had been used as a store, took it over 
 in the Ellengowan^ and erected it on Samarai (Dinner 
 Island), where it still stands as the mission house, sur- 
 rounded by other buildings and native plantations, 
 the rendezvous of the surrounding tribes, especially 
 during the visits of the missionary or men-of-war. 
 This was the centre from which we branched out in all 
 directions, forming mission stations on both sides of 
 Milne Bay, on the large islands (Heath and Haytor) 
 in China Straits, as well as on those off the east end of 
 New Guinea, as far as the Engineer Group, where I 
 formed a mission station at the village of the notorious 
 old cannibal chief Aualu, of whom and of whose last 
 cannibal feast I have already written. By steadily 
 pursuing these methods, and as opportunity offered, 
 and the staff of native helpers at our disposal admitted, 
 gradually extending our operations in all directions, 
 the work has grown larger and more important. 
 
158 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 Superintending the eastern branch of the mission 
 necessitated my being away from my home in the 
 western branch a good deal, the time of absence vary- 
 ing from four weeks to five months. I had to pass 
 Port Moresby to reach East Cape, which afforded an 
 opportunity for intercourse with the brethren there ; 
 and I generally called with supplies for the Raro- 
 tongan teachers on my way eastward, Mr. Chalmers 
 doing the same for the Lifu and Mare teachers in the 
 eastern branch, when he visited his station at Stacey 
 Island. We were each obliged to superintend our 
 own teachers, wherever they might be located, as I 
 could not talk to the Rarotongans in their language, 
 any more than Messrs. Lawes and Chalmers could talk 
 to the Lifu and Mare men in theirs ; and moreover no 
 one can manage these Polynesian teachers like their 
 own missionaries. I was delighted therefore when 
 Messrs. Sharpe and Savage arrived from England to 
 take charge of this eastern branch of our mission. 
 
 It was quite a red-letter day when I introduced 
 them to the teachers and people as the missionaries 
 who were going to settle amongst them. They 
 assembled in great numbers from all sides, bringing 
 presents of food of all kinds, and in the best way 
 they could conceive showed their delight and grati- 
 tude. The missionaries were greatly pleased with all 
 they saw, and after carefully surveying the whole 
 district, decided to make their headquarters at 
 Samarai, which I had selected six years before as 
 being the most suitable place for the central sta- 
 tion. Both Messrs. Sharpe and Savage however got 
 their baptism of fever at Port Moresby, whilst on 
 their way to settle at China Straits ; from which the 
 
DINNER ISLAND (SAMARAl), CHINA STRAITS. 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 159 
 
 former died, the latter proceeding to Murray Island, 
 where he recovered, and joined the western branch of 
 the mission. The Rev. Albert Pearse, who for many 
 years has been labouring in the South Pacific, has been 
 appointed to carry on the work in this most interest- 
 ing and most successful branch of our mission. Some 
 of our Lifu and Mare teachers have died, and the 
 remainder have returned to their homes, their places 
 being filled by Eastern Polynesian teachers, some of 
 whom have been trained by Mr. Pearse, and with 
 whose language he is, of course, familiar. He has 
 for his colleague a young man whom I met several 
 years ago in Adelaide. He was then a very promis- 
 ing student in the college there, and spoken of very 
 highly by the professors and ministers, who expressed 
 their disappointment at his wish to go to New 
 Guinea, regarding him as a man likely to make his 
 mark amongst the churches at home. It is to be 
 hoped that the eastern branch of our mission will 
 rapidly develop under the management of two such 
 men, with a staff of teachers who regard Mr. Pearse 
 as their father, and a seminary that will soon supply 
 evangelists from amongst the people themselves. 
 
 The natives throughout the district are begging for 
 teachers to be located amongst them. Many of the 
 towns and villages have given up war and cannibalism, 
 refrain from work on Sundays, and even conduct 
 public worship amongst themselves as best they can. 
 Indeed they are in pretty much the same state as the 
 masses of Malagasy were during those memorable and 
 anxious years immediately after the queen declared 
 herself a Christian. At the stations where the teachers 
 are settled, the people are more advanced. Schools 
 
i6o AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 are established, and many of the natives can read and 
 write ; hundreds of them have renounced idolatry, 
 and been baptized. I have myself baptized about 
 five hundred natives in the East Cape district, and 
 Mr. Chalmers has done similar work in the South 
 Cape branch. The teachers in both districts have, 
 with our help, reduced the languages to writing, and 
 translated portions of Scripture, which have been 
 printed in Sydney. Thus it w^ill be seen that the 
 eastern branch of the New Guinea Mission is in a 
 very hopeful condition. Were it not for the fever of 
 the country, this would be one of the most en- 
 couraging and delightful mission fields in the world. 
 
 In the western branch we have more difficulties to 
 contend with than either in the central or eastern 
 districts. The country is low and swampy, intersected 
 by rivers and creeks, and studded with islands. The 
 inhabitants (who are numerous on the coast and on 
 the banks of the rivers near the sea) are a wild, war- 
 like race of cannibals and skull-hunters, who delight 
 in war and plunder, making frequent voyages for 
 the express purpose. It is impossible for foreigners 
 to live throughout the year on this low land. To 
 attempt to form our central station on the mainland 
 in this part of New Guinea would have been to prove 
 my unfitness to establish and superintend a mission in 
 this district. The first consideration of a missionary 
 who has a foreign native agency under his care in 
 a sickly country is to provide, if possible, a sanatorium 
 at some central point, which may not only become a 
 refuge in times of sickness and danger, but also an 
 educational centre, where the missionary can carry on 
 his work of instruction and translation, and where 
 
RESULTS: THEN AXD NOW. 16 1 
 
 he and his wife can attend to the wants of the sick 
 teachers, instead of their having to be nursed by them. 
 We should have Hked to find such an island as Murray 
 nearer the mainland ; it would have greatly facilitated 
 our work in the Papuan Gulf. Still the most distant 
 point and mission station in that district is not nearly 
 so far from Murray Island as some of the mission 
 stations in the central district are from Port Moresby. 
 So that Murray is tolerably central, and unquestionably 
 the most healthy point in the New Guinea mission. 
 
 Before the arrival of Mr. Chalmers, Mr. Lawes and 
 I arranged that the western branch of our mission 
 should extend eastward as far as Yule Island. My 
 plan for working this district was to establish our 
 headquarters at Murray Island, which is central, and 
 then attack the district from each end. Accordingly 
 I established a mission station on Yule Island in the 
 east, and on Talbot Island in the west, the latter 
 being at the mouth of the Baxter River, the former in 
 Hall Sound, hoping that the mission would extend 
 eastward and westward, till the workers met about 
 the Aird River. Although we had to sail across the 
 Papuan Gulf in order to reach Yule Island from Mur- 
 ray, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, still, 
 considering that there is a fair wind both ways during 
 both monsoons, and that we can leave Yule Island in 
 the evening, and be at Murray by noon next day, and 
 vice versa, it will be seen that our central station was 
 convenient for both ends of the district, as well as for 
 the Fly River, which is immediately opposite. 
 
 Yule Island is one of the most important points in 
 British New Guinea, as a government, missionary, 
 or commercial centre. Between it and the main- 
 
162 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 land there is a magnificent harbour, known as Hall 
 Sound. The island itself is beautiful and fertile, one 
 of the prettiest sights along the coast, the glorious 
 grass and forests of trees on the green-clad hills and 
 sunny slopes giving it the appearance of park-land. 
 The back country, east and west, is rich and thickly 
 populated, whilst Mount Yule lifts its giant head 
 ii,ooo feet above the sea, in solemn grandeur, appa- 
 rently surveying and guarding the district. 
 
 I have a lively recollection of our first landing at 
 this place. The natives had a bad reputation, so we 
 arranged our plans accordingly. Leaving our steamer 
 EUengoivan in Hall Sound, with the captain and 
 European portion of the crew, I proceeded with our 
 Lifu and Mare teachers and sailors in an open boat, 
 to the principal village, which was about two miles 
 distant. As we pulled along the coast inside the reef, 
 we saw the naked, painted savages assembling on the 
 beach with their weapons, and in a gathering crowd 
 hastening to the place of landing. On such occasions 
 I usually appoint two men to remain in the boat, 
 which they keep afloat in readiness, whilst the others 
 accompany me on shore, to endeavour to gain the 
 confidence of the natives, and give them some idea of 
 our object. Our intention was to wade from the boat 
 when we reached shallow water near the beach, leaving 
 two of our number to push it out a little, and wait for 
 us. On several occasions I have had cause to be 
 thankful that the boat was thus in readiness, enabling 
 us to get quickly away from hostile demonstrations, 
 and even flying arrows and spears. These Yule island- 
 ers however quite upset our plans. The crowd stood 
 on the beach watching their opportunity, and the 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 163 
 
 moment we got within reach they dashed into the 
 sea, seized the boat, and dragged it up the beach, 
 before we had time to leave it, until it was far beyond 
 high-water mark, the bows being right in the bush 
 This was done amidst great noise and excitement, 
 and when accompHshed, they motioned to us to leave 
 the boat. There was a comical side even to that 
 situation, for the two men who were to have remained 
 in the boat, looking a little bewildered, asked, " What 
 about keeping the boat in deep water ? " There was 
 a determined expression on the countenances of the 
 others as they turned towards me for the reply, which 
 seemed to say, " Just give the word, and we will take 
 the boat back in spite of them." " Never mind the 
 boat," I said; "jump out, and let us all go together to 
 the village. Make good use of your eyes, your ears 
 are of little use here." 
 
 The moment we jumped out of the boat we were 
 all " taken in charge." The chief seized me by the 
 hand. The South Sea islanders accompanying me 
 were each taken in the same way, and we were all 
 marched along a narrow path through the bush. As 
 the village is generally near the beach, we were not 
 only surprised, but, I confess, considerably alarmed 
 after walking about a quarter of a mile without seeing 
 any signs of either village or plantations. My native 
 companions were well acquainted with the manners 
 and customs and stratagems of such people, having 
 themselves been born and bred in similar circum- 
 stances, and they advised that we should make a 
 stand and try and get back to the boat. "These 
 people," they said, " are only taking us into the bush 
 to kill us." Although generally guided by them in 
 12 
 
I64 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 such matters, I felt that on this occasion it would be 
 unwise to follow their advice, seeing that the conduct 
 of the natives would bear a favourable as well as an 
 adverse interpretation. I therefore ordered the con- 
 tinuation of our journey, and was delighted to find 
 soon afterwards that we had, at least, arrived at the 
 village. It was a large cleared space in the forest, 
 with neat and well-built houses all round, and a ros- 
 trum in the middle, to which we were conducted, and 
 where presents were exchanged, and a friendly feeling 
 established, which led to the formation of a mission 
 station on my next trip. 
 
 I regularly visited this island for several years. It 
 was one of our wooding stations when we had the 
 steamer Ellengowan, and I was hoping that it would 
 soon become one of our central stations. Indeed, 
 Dr. Turner, on his arrival, was seriously thinking of 
 settling there, and accompanied me over a large por- 
 tion of the island, looking for the most suitable site 
 for his house. I was obliged to remove the teachers 
 when a neighbouring tribe murdered Dr. James and 
 Captain Thorngren, who were engaged collecting 
 natural history specimens. The whole district was 
 in such an excited state about the massacre, that I 
 deemed it prudent to remove the teachers for a time. 
 Mr. Chalmers, soon after his arrival in New Guinea, 
 reopened the mission with some of his Rarotongan 
 teachers, forming the station on the mainland oppo- 
 site, considering that point a more convenient centre 
 for the populous district. The Roman Catholic 
 priests, who have followed us in our missions in 
 the South Sea Islands, arrived soon afterwards, and 
 finding Yule Island unoccupied by our society, estab- 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 165 
 
 lished themselves there. Judging from their conduct 
 in the Pacific, they would probably have settled at 
 this important centre, even if we had had a native 
 teacher living at the old station ; .but our mission 
 station having been moved to the opposite side of the 
 harbour, gave them a good opportunity and excuse 
 for making Yule Island the basis of their operations, 
 of which they were not slow to avail themselves. 
 
 I met the two French priests at Thursday Island, 
 on their arrival to commence their mission on New 
 Guinea, having been asked by the collector of customs 
 to act as interpreter for him. I called upon them 
 afterwards and had a friendly interv^iew, during which 
 I endeavoured to persuade them to commence their 
 mission on a part of the island beyond the boun- 
 dary occupied by the London Missionary Society, in 
 order to avoid misunderstandings and trouble and 
 collisions, which not only hinder the progress of 
 Christianity, but are a disgrace to it. The high 
 commissioner, Sir Peter Scratchley, also urged upon 
 them the same course ; but their reply was, that they 
 were under orders from Rome, and had no alternative 
 but to settle in some part of British New Guinea, and 
 as our society had no station on Yule Island, they 
 regarded that as the most suitable place for them. 
 They have now quite a staff of priests, laymen, and 
 sisters of mercy there, right in the middle of our 
 mission field. We may be thankful that our Govern- 
 ment have taken possession of that portion of New 
 Guinea where our mission work is carried on, other- 
 wise we might have a repetition of the policy pursued 
 by the French in the South Pacific and Madagascar. 
 
 Leaving the Yiile Island district to the care of my 
 
l66 AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 colleagues, Messrs. Lawes and Chalmers, I turned my 
 attention to the establishment of mission stations on 
 the banks of the Fly and Katau rivers, and their back 
 country. 
 
 It was at the mouth of the latter river that we 
 formed our first mission station on the mainland of 
 New Guinea, but owing to the very malarious charac- 
 ter of the country, our Lifu and Mare teachers were 
 unable to remain there. For twelve years we tried 
 the place with eight different South Sea Island 
 teachers, all of whom were obliged to leave on ac- 
 count of the deadly fever of the district, and all would 
 probably have died if we had not had a sanatorium 
 provided for them on an island in Torres Straits, 
 where they all recovered, and were appointed to other 
 stations. The old chief Maino was our friend all 
 along, although he had a weakness for cutting off the 
 heads of his enemies, and declined to embrace Chris- 
 tianity because its precepts forbade him this pleasure. 
 The last time I saw him (he died two or three years 
 ago) he was sitting, as usual, cross-legged, on a mat 
 in front of his house, waiting to receive us, and look- 
 ing as dirty and as ugly and as great a savage as 
 when I first saw him thirteen years before. He was 
 getting too old to pursue his favourite sport, skull- 
 hunting. His son and successor is a fine, tall, power- 
 ful man, who attached himself to the teachers from 
 the first, and by whom he was educated. He has been 
 for many years an earnest Christian and indefatigable 
 local preacher. Owing to our South Sea Island 
 teachers being unable to remain at the place for more 
 than short periods, very little was done for the elevation 
 of the people during the first twelve years, until we got 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NO IV, 167 
 
 teachers ready from our Papuan Institute, who are 
 accustomed to the cHmate. It was after these good 
 men had permanently settled at Katau and Tureture, 
 that I determined to commence a mission amongst 
 the inland tribes in the back country, a short account 
 of which may be interesting. 
 
 Having taken teachers from our Papuan Institute, 
 we proceeded to Saibai, where I remained two days, 
 holding the usual meetings, examinations, services, 
 and administering the sacrament. We then organized 
 an expedition to visit the bush tribes, who had ex- 
 pressed a desire to see the white missionary and have 
 a teacher located amongst them. I had two teachers 
 from our Papuan seminary with me for this purpose. 
 In forming stations on the coast, the presence of our 
 mission vessel has a salutary effect upon the natives. 
 They see that the teachers are not like driftwood, but 
 are well supported and will be looked after. To make 
 a similar impression upon the minds of the savages 
 inland, it is desirable that the teachers be accompanied 
 by a large number of their friends. About sixty of the 
 Saibaians readily volunteered, the bush between the 
 coast and the place where we were to meet the bush 
 tribes by appointment being good hunting ground 
 for kangaroos, cassowaries, wild fowl, and pigs. We 
 started in the Venture (mission boat) and seven 
 canoes, and proceeded along the coast eastward for 
 ten miles to the Mabidauan River, where we com- 
 menced our journey inland. 
 
 On the western side of this three-mouthed river 
 there is the only hill in this part of New Guinea. It 
 is about 100 feet high, and stretching away from it to 
 the westward there is very good land, free from man- 
 
i68 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 grove trees and swamps, with four miles of a fine 
 sandy beach. The natives about this part of the 
 coast have all retired inland from fear of the Tuga- 
 rian cannibal pirates, who make periodical voyages 
 along the coast, murdering and plundering wherever 
 they get a chance. Messengers had preceded us to 
 inform the bush tribes of our approach and the place 
 of meeting. After walking through six miles of good 
 sugar-country we arrived at the rendezvous nearly two 
 hours before the bushmen. We hoped and desired 
 to see a large gathering of the people, but there were 
 only a few representative men from each of the tribes. 
 The bushmen, as far as I have seen them, both 
 on the south-east peninsula and on the great body 
 of the island, are decidedly inferior to the coast 
 tribes physically, socially, and morally. They are 
 diminutive in stature, dwell in inferior houses, and live 
 together pretty much like fowls. Skin diseases are 
 prevalent, and I am told that they never wash them- 
 selves. They greatly fear the coast tribes, both to 
 the east and west, who for ages have regarded the 
 bush as their happy skull-hunting ground, and have 
 driven the inland tribes to select most out-of-the-way 
 places for their villages, which, judging from those I 
 have visited, are well fortified by swamps and rivers. 
 I proposed to the bush tribes, whose representatives 
 met us, that they should assemble at our place of 
 rendezvous, where their forefathers resided, and form 
 a township, assuring them that there is no longer cause 
 to fear their former enemies of Saibai and Fly River, 
 as Christian teachers were now living amongst them. 
 They seemed very anxious to occupy their former 
 planting ground, and promised to remove thither at 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 169 
 
 once and build their houses, also one for the teachers 
 who are to reside with them. The place is well wooded, 
 is near a river, contains a cocoanut grove and good 
 plantation ground, and my hope was to see ere long 
 these scattered and persecuted tribes living unmolested 
 with their teachers and advancing in civilization. We 
 returned to the coast, and on our way managed to bag 
 a cassowary, two wild pigs, two kangaroos, and a few 
 wild fowl and pigeons. 
 
 We camped on the beach for the night, and very 
 soon the fires were lit and the game roasting on 
 hot stones. Break-winds were made by a fence of 
 cocoanut leaves, and I was accommodated with a mat 
 on the ground and a sail overhead. It is especially 
 observable amongst the natives how a good meal puts 
 everybody in a good humour. All our party seemed 
 unusually happy that evening. After evening worship 
 we had a long talk about their heathen customs, much 
 to the delight of the old men, who were the oracles of 
 the evening. The only thing we had to fear was rain, 
 and as there had not been any rain for months, we felt 
 pretty safe, especially as the night was beautifully 
 clear. Owing to an extensive sand-flat the Venture 
 was anchored nearly two miles off, so that in any case 
 it would be difficult to find her at night. As the even- 
 ing advanced conversation flagged, one after another 
 rolled himself up in his mat, and the babel of voices 
 was reduced to a few quiet conversations at different 
 fires. Finally, silence and darkness reigned, until we 
 were all awoke about two o'clock in the morning by 
 a very formidable enemy in the shape of a heavy 
 downpour of rain. Its effects were highly amusing, 
 as well as decidedly unpleasant. The sleeping camp 
 
I/O AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 was soon astir ; silence gave place to noise and con- 
 fusion. At first we all supposed that it was only a 
 passing shower, and there was a good deal of merri- 
 ment amongst those who had secured dry spots under 
 trees, whilst others were rushing hither and thither try- 
 ing to improve their quarters. Five minutes had made 
 a most ludicrous difference in our camp. The natives 
 now, instead of being stretched on their mats in every 
 direction, apparently endeavouring to cover as much 
 space as possible, were sitting on stones or pieces of 
 wood with their knees drawn up under their chin, and 
 their mats over their heads. Fortunately for me 1 
 had taken my sun umbrella on shore, under which, 
 like the rest, I tried to occupy as little space as pos- 
 sible, squatting like the natives, with my pillow (the 
 bag containing our provisions and barter goods) on 
 my knee. With my umbrella and the sail 1 managed 
 pretty well to keep off the waters from above ; it was 
 the streams below that caused us trouble. However, 
 as there is an end to the longest lane, so there is to 
 the greatest tropical shower and most unpleasant 
 night With the break of day came fine weather. 
 The sun rose in a clear sky, and everything looked 
 peaceful and bright, as if there had been no disturb- 
 ing element during the night. Nature smiled, and 
 so did we. The Saibaians returned in their canoes 
 to their homes, and we proceeded eastward to the 
 Katau River, which we reached at sunset. 
 
 On the following morning we started for an inland 
 town of which I had heard a good deal, and where I was 
 anxious to place a teacher. We could scarcely have 
 been more unfortunate in the day, as there had just 
 been a thunderstorm, and, for three hours before we 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 171 
 
 started, the rain fell in torrents. However the jour- 
 ney was on my programme, and I saw no sufficient 
 reason for crossing it out. It may interest some to 
 know that this is the point whence the mythical 
 " Captain Lawson " commenced his wonderful travels 
 in New Guinea ! Our party consisted of about twenty, 
 with Maino's son as guide and interpreter. We were 
 prepared to walk, wade, or swim. There was not much 
 to be feared from the people, except that they would 
 run away on our approach, a thing which we endea- 
 voured to prevent by sending a messenger ahead. 
 
 Just before we started a large alligator was seen 
 on the opposite side of the river, about 200 yards off. 
 The monster had about half his body out of the water, 
 nibbling away at something on the bank. A rifle 
 bullet struck him on the head, causing him to spring 
 up and fall backwards into the river. This reminds 
 me of the first alligator we saw when the Elkngowan 
 anchored at Port Spicer. We had just arrived, and 
 were admiring the harbour, with its banks of stemless 
 palms, when we saw a large alligator drifting down 
 the middle of the harbour with the tide, with his head 
 half out of the water. A shot was fired at him, the 
 bullet entering the water close to his head ; he ducked, 
 and when opposite the vessel raised just his eye above 
 the water for a few seconds to take a good survey of 
 this new phenomenon in those waters. We should 
 like to have put a bullet into it, but before we were 
 ready he seemed to have come to the conclusion that 
 it was safer below, so we saw no more of him. 
 
 Behind the village of Katau there is but a narrow 
 belt of mangrove, passing which we came to fine open 
 country studded with plantations, all well inclosed 
 
172 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 with strong and close bamboo fences, nearly six feet 
 high, to preserve them from the numerous wild pigs, 
 kangaroos, and cassowaries. Indeed, scarcely had we 
 left the mangrove belt when we started a kangaroo 
 on our track. Hnawia, a handsome young Papuan, 
 who lived with his teacher, justified the opinion that 
 I had formed of his love of sport, for no sooner was 
 the kangaroo seen than he bounded after it, hopping 
 over the long wet grass very much like the animal 
 he was pursuing. We heard a shot, and waited for 
 the result. He soon returned " like a drowned rat," 
 with his red waistcloth in tatters, but without the 
 kangaroo ; still he was smiling and shaking his head 
 knowingly at the narrow escape the animal had had, 
 and seemed to be explaining to his friends how that 
 the ball had passed through the kangaroo's ear, but 
 that not being a vital part it had escaped. 
 
 We walked about six miles through fine country, 
 in which it is difficult to find a stone. It is deep, 
 rich, alluvial soil, covered chiefly with long grass and 
 scrub, with here and there some very fine timber. 
 There are miles of plantations, and it is probable that 
 the plains through which we passed have been cleared 
 by the natives for that purpose, for the bits of forest 
 through which our road lay are heavily timbered. 
 There is abundance of water. We crossed two arms 
 of the Katau River, over which the natives have con- 
 structed a very good bamboo bridge, about lOO feet 
 in length. In fact, there is far too much water in this 
 part of New Guinea ; but if the land were drained 
 by digging trenches, as it is near the native villages, 
 I have no doubt that it would be considered amongst 
 the best of sugar-growing land. The wild nutmeg 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOIV. 173 
 
 seems to indicate that spices that have failed in Singa- 
 pore might flourish here. 
 
 When within about two miles of the town we 
 began to meet natives of the place, and from that to 
 our destination the number increased. The last mile 
 was the worst part of the road, being through a swamp. 
 It appears that the people used to live on the oppo- 
 site side, but being exposed to attacks from the coast 
 tribes, they removed their houses to the place where 
 the town now stands. There was a crowd awaiting 
 our arrival at the entrance to the town, but the moment 
 they caught sight of me they fled in all directions. 
 We were received by two chiefs and principal people 
 in an open space surrounded by houses, and some 
 cocoanuts and bananas were placed before us. I made 
 them a small present, and explained the object of my 
 visit. I told them that we were men of peace, and 
 that I had come to place a teacher amongst them to 
 tell them about the true God and good things ; that 
 their enemies had received teachers, and therefore 
 they need not fear any more attacks from them ; that 
 we wished them all to live in peace and learn the 
 gospel of peace, which the teacher had come to pro- 
 claim. They not only expressed their willingness to 
 receive a teacher, but proposed to return to the site 
 of their former settlement and live there with him, 
 which is nearer the planting ground. I expressed my 
 delight at this suggestion, as it will place their town- 
 ship two miles nearer Katau, and avoid the necessity 
 of crossing that disagreeable swamp to reach it. 
 
 During our meeting groups of women and children 
 were peering at us through the trees and from behind 
 the houses, and when we walked through the town 
 
174 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 (for a town I may call it, having counted eighty-five 
 houses, some of which were sixty feet long by twenty- 
 four feet broad), men, women, and children stood at the 
 corners of the streets and peeped at us from behind 
 the houses, uttering exclamations of wonder. Few, 
 if any of them, had seen a white man before, and they 
 were quite amazed at my size, they being a diminu- 
 tive race. When we stood for a few minutes I was 
 immediately surrounded by a group of admiring and 
 wondering spectators, who seemed to measure me with 
 their eyes from my feet upwards, and then exclaim ; 
 but none had the courage to come near enough to 
 touch me. I was thus saved from the disagreeable 
 handling which I have been accustomed to receive on 
 the coast and south-east peninsula. The moment I 
 moved, the women and children fled in all directions 
 in apparent terror. They are an inferior race to 
 the coast tribes, and speak quite a different language. 
 They are, as a rule, short, thin, and dirty ; live in inferior 
 houses, which are built, not as the coast tribes, on posts, 
 but on the ground, and more like sheds, the sides being 
 of bark and bamboos, thatched with the usual pan- 
 danus leaves. The interior of their houses, like their 
 persons, are filthy. The trophies of the chase hang 
 about in all directions in the shape of bones of the 
 wild pig, cassowary, and kangaroo. I did not see any 
 skulls. I suppose it is the skulls of these inland tribes 
 that chiefly adorn the houses of the coast people. 
 
 When we returned a large party accompanied us 
 for a couple of miles to the place where they propose 
 forming their new township. A very suitable place it 
 is. There is a grove of cocoanut trees, and plenty of 
 splendid timber and bamboos for house and fence 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 175 
 
 building close by, and being near an arm of the Katau 
 River, there is plenty of good water, which they all 
 greatly need. It is to be hoped that the settlement 
 of a teacher amongst them will be the beginning of 
 brighter days for them. On our return we were tired, 
 wet, and hungry. I should like to have plunged into 
 the river, but knew there were too many alligators 
 about, so I had several bucketfuls of water poured 
 over me ; and then, after a good meal and a good 
 sleep, was prepared for our next day's journey, which 
 was to another inland tribe in the opposite direction, 
 at a village situated twelve miles up the Katau River, 
 behind Tureture. 
 
 We arranged to make this trip in a canoe and the 
 little dingy that we carry on the deck of the Venture. 
 We started after breakfast with a flood tide, the dingy 
 being towed by the canoe, which was propelled by 
 six strong men with large paddles. I had been a few 
 miles up this river before many years ago, and, 
 remembering its beauty, was anticipating a very en- 
 joyable trip, in which I was not disappointed. The 
 pleasure was very much increased, of course, by the 
 fact that we are now known to the natives and are 
 regarded b}- them as their friends, and that I was going 
 to form a mission station in the interior. Fancy me 
 in a pyjama suit and big straw hat, sitting in state in 
 the dingy, with a box of sardines and a few biscuits 
 and a couple of cocoanuts in the stern, my fowling- 
 piece between my knees, gliding along this beautiful 
 winding river, admiring the rich, dense, and endless 
 variety of its tropical foliage, the graceful creepers 
 trailing in the stream, the huge vines encircling the 
 trees like great boa-constrictors, stemless palms, mag- 
 
176 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 nificent tree-ferns, immense bamboos, large cane, and 
 tall trees, the home of beautiful birds. Whenever one 
 was seen paddles and tongues were still, and we 
 glided on with the tide to get within range. In this 
 however we did not succeed so often as we wished. 
 I shot in this way a beautiful bird about the size of a 
 large pigeon. It had a long beak, white breast, red- 
 dish back, and wings the colour of the paradisea rig- 
 giana, and a black head, on the crown of which were 
 three fine white feathers about ten inches long. 
 
 For the first six miles there are mud and mangrove, 
 the land seems low. After that the banks become 
 higher, plantations appear, and natives at work on 
 them. These were all friendly, knowing whom we 
 were. We had the same interpreter as the day before, 
 these inland tribes speaking the same language. As 
 we passed along, a place on the bank was pointed out 
 where a native woman had recently been caught by 
 an alligator. She was going down to drink when the 
 alligator suddenly caught her and dragged her under 
 in the sight of her friends, who saw no more of her. 
 After a three hours' hard pull we tied our canoe to a 
 tree and walked two miles through splendid country, 
 on the banks of the river to the village. The people 
 and houses were much the same as those visited the 
 day before, although fewer in number. There are 
 several other villages near which I had not time to 
 visit, as we wished to get back before sunset. The 
 teacher and chief from Tureture walked inland and 
 met us at this point. We were well received by the 
 natives, who were expecting us, and who gladly ac- 
 cepted a teacher, promising to build him a house at 
 once. He will leave his wife at Tureture for a time 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW, 177 
 
 There were considerable excitement, wonder, and 
 fear manifested by the natives at the village, as at the 
 one we visited the day before. Being small men, 
 they were very much astonished at my height. I 
 was much amused when we were walking back to the 
 boat by one of our escort immediately in front of me, 
 who seemed much concerned about the safety of my 
 head amongst the branches of the trees as we passed 
 along. Sometimes he would stop under a branch 
 that I could scarcely touch with my outstretched arm, 
 and looking and pointing upwards, would tell me to 
 take care of my head ! When we reached the canoe 
 and dingey we found that the tide had not yet turned, 
 so we had some refreshment before starting, which 
 proved intensely interesting to the natives. When 
 the tin of sardines was opened there was a great 
 shout. Fish are scarce in the bush. They had pro- 
 bably never seen so many at one time before — 
 certainly not in so small a compass, and as each 
 sardine disappeared — all but the tail — there was an 
 exclamation. They stood around and peered at us 
 from all sides. When we gave them a biscuit they 
 smelt it, tasted it, and then passed it on. Not so 
 those who had accompanied us from Katau. It was 
 amusing to see them laughing at the ignorance and 
 simplicity of their bush friends, they themselves 
 being but a step in advance. We returned delighted 
 with our visit, reaching the mouth of the river at 
 sunset. 
 
 A thickly wooded island, about a mile in circum- 
 ference, is situated at the entrance to the river, which 
 forms a very safe and pretty little harbour for small 
 vessels. This is now the port for four of our mission 
 
178 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 Stations. From Port Spicer, in the Fly River, we 
 reach five others, and from Saibai, three more. We 
 have now twelve mission stations in that part of New 
 Guinea, including Saibai and Dauan, where the mission 
 was commenced, which are close to the mainland, and 
 have been used as stepping stones to it. Three of 
 the most central stations are occupied by Lifu teachers, 
 the rest by the young men with whom I commenced 
 the Papuan Institute. I have been anxious to secure 
 these different points simultaneously, so as to prevent 
 jealousies and war. It depends upon the villages 
 now occupied by our teachers whether there shall be 
 war or peace in this part of New Guinea, and there 
 is every prospect of the latter now that the mission 
 stations are established. These skull-hunters will, we 
 trust — by the blessing of God upon the teaching of 
 these simple, earnest, good men — learn war no more. 
 
 We commenced our return voyage from Katau, 
 intending to call at our newly formed station, Ugar, 
 in Torres Straits, on our way ; but this proved by far 
 the most formidable, unpleasant, and dangerous part 
 of our voyage. It was a dead beat to windward, and 
 the weather, which had been so calm that we had 
 often to pull the Venture with oars, became, after our 
 first day out, very boisterous. During the first day 
 and night we beat up from Katau, through Mis- 
 sionary Pass, and by the following night reached 
 Ugar, after a very rough, wet, and altogether disagree- 
 able passage. In the morning I had a long pull over 
 the reef in the dingey, and was received on the beach 
 by the teacher, Papi, and the chief and people. The 
 teacher's house is finished, and they are about to 
 commence their church. They are a small com- 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 179 
 
 munity of superior natives, living on one of the most 
 fertile islands in Torres Straits, and appear very happy 
 with their teacher, who is a quiet, good man, adapted 
 to the place. 
 
 Starting with the tide, we hoped to reach Darnley 
 before dark, but were doomed to bitter disappoint- 
 ment, not arriving till noon next day. In all my 
 experience of boating, and few missionaries have had 
 more, I never spent such a night at sea, and I hope I 
 may never spend another like it. When within about 
 six miles of Darnley, it began to blow and rain in 
 true tropical style. The squalls were very heavy, and 
 unfortunately we were in the " big ship channel," 
 through Torres Straits, to the north of Darnley, with 
 the heavy seas from the gulf rolling in upon us past 
 Bramble Cay. We reefed our sails with difficulty, 
 and tried to make headway. Tack after tack, but no 
 nearer the land. The sun went down, and left us to 
 battle with the elements in the dark. No one but 
 those who know something of boating can form any- 
 thing like an adequate idea of our position. Fifteen 
 of us in a boat thirty feet long by eight feet broad, with 
 a cargo of sago in the hold and a dingey on deck ! To 
 watch the waves on a dark, stormy night from the 
 deck of a large vessel, with a feeling of security and 
 a comfortable cabin below, is a very different thing 
 from sitting on the deck of the Venture, holding on to 
 the rigging amidst blinding rain and spray and a 
 howling wind ; not looking down upon the great black, 
 white-crested waves as they go hissing past on a dark 
 night, but really looking up at them, and that in 
 no very poetical mood, especially as they frequently 
 break over our little craft. My great fear was lest 
 13 
 
i8o AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 considering the great strain upon the masts, rigging, 
 sheets, etc., something should carry away. Slowly, 
 wearily, most anxiously the night wore on. Never 
 did I long so much for daybreak. We were wet and 
 cold and hungry, and had not been able to make a fire 
 for twenty-four hours. It came at last, but slowly, 
 as any other morning, notwithstanding our anxiety. 
 Finding ourselves near a sandbank, we made for it, 
 anchored our boat to leeward, took some firewood and 
 water on shore, and made some tea ; then shot and 
 cooked a dozen birds, and, after a good meal, started 
 for Darnley, which we reached in a few hours. 
 
 There we spent a day and night to recruit. I need 
 hardly say how thankful we were to reach this point 
 in safety. Thence to Murray Island we were amongst 
 known reefs, on and behind which we could anchor, 
 and, if anything happened, fall back upon Darnley. 
 We used to think the passage between Darnley and 
 Murray very intricate and dangerous, as most stran- 
 gers do, but there are really two good passages for 
 large vessels. Boats like the Venture find the reefs 
 very convenient. We anchored on one for the night, 
 the sea being quite smooth, although there was a 
 good breeze. We thought it would be deep enough 
 to keep us afloat at low water, but at midnight we 
 were aroused by the vessel bumping. Our business 
 was to see that she did not settle down on any stones. 
 A native jumped overboard and removed them all 
 around our craft, and having made her bed, we all 
 went to sleep. Next day we reached Murray Island. 
 
 The next and most important extension in the 
 western branch of the mission was the establishment 
 of mission stations in the Fly River, an event which 
 
PORT SPICER, ON THE FLY RIVER. 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. iSi 
 
 will long be remembered by those who took part in 
 it There was not much danger or difficulty in estab- 
 lishing the missions to which I have just referred, 
 owing to our being well known at Katau and Ture- 
 ture. In the Fly River however the case was very 
 different Amongst these hostile and warlike tribes 
 it was necessary to move cautiously. Here I followed 
 the same plan as the one adopted both in Torres 
 Straits and China Straits, the western and eastern 
 branches of our mission ; viz. to commence at some 
 central and neutral point, and proclaim ourselves the 
 friends of all. We found just such a place on an 
 island in the middle of the river, opposite the town 
 of Kiwai, which, with the other islands, forms a fine 
 harbour of the shape of a T, with three ways of getting 
 in and out, and splendid anchorage in the stem of the 
 T at all seasons, smooth as a mill-pond, and six 
 fathoms deep to within a few yards of the beach. 
 The mouths of the Fly River being exposed to the 
 strong south-east trade wind and the heavy seas rolling 
 up the Papuan Gulf, and this being the only good 
 anchorage near the principal mouth of this great river, 
 it is likely to become of considerable commercial 
 importance in developing the resources of the interior 
 of the island ; we have therefore named it Port Spicer, 
 after an honoured family, whose name has become a 
 household word in connection with Christian missions 
 and philanthropic work. 
 
 Here we erected the house which had been con- 
 structed at the industrial school in connection with 
 our Papuan Institute, the Ellengowan remaining at 
 anchor in the port whilst the work was being done, 
 the captain and crew, in the meantime, rendering 
 
i82 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 good service. In five days the house was put up, and 
 on a flag-staff at each end might be seen waving the 
 dove and olive branch and the union jack — the flags 
 of our society and our country. As at Samarai 
 in China Straits, so at Mibu in the Fly River, the 
 tribes came from both sides to the mission station, 
 and thus enabled us to form their acquaintance and 
 gain their confidence. We visited both districts, 
 and, after becoming well known as the friends of 
 all, moved our station to the town of Kiwai, at the 
 request of the people. We were anxious to get a 
 footing at this place, as the Kiwai warriors are nume- 
 rous and powerful, and the terror of the surrounding 
 district ; so that we gladly availed ourselves of the 
 opportunity, although we felt that the invitation was 
 not given from any desire to listen to the gospel of 
 peace and love that we had to preach. It was these 
 Kiwaians who went to attack the boats of H.M.S. 
 Fly, when they were entering this great river, which 
 they named after their ship. And these were the 
 savages who murdered a shipwrecked crew of twenty- 
 three, a short time before we commenced our mission 
 amongst them. They gave us a good deal of trouble 
 and anxiety for several years. On one occasion they 
 arranged to murder our teachers to supply animal 
 food at a great feast time, and the teachers only 
 saved their lives by escaping in the night. I managed 
 some time afterwards to re-establish the mission. On 
 another occasion they surrounded and seized my boat, 
 and it was with great difficulty that we succeeded in 
 getting away. Now the mission is firmly established, 
 and the good work progressing most encouragingly. 
 Of late years we have used Kiwai as our central 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NO IV. 183 
 
 station in the Fly River. The farthest point at 
 which we have formed a mission station is at Sumaiut, 
 a large village about thirty miles higher up the river, 
 to which we conducted the geographical expedition 
 of Australia when they visited the Fly River, and 
 where, on my first visit, we found a party in the 
 village, led by the medicine-man, strongly opposed to 
 us. Ultimately arrows were shot to disperse us, one 
 of which stuck in a cocoanut tree just over my head. 
 Our interpreter, an old chief from Bampton Island, at 
 the mouth of the river, hearing what was going on, 
 quietly slipped into his canoe and got away in the 
 midst of the excitement, without our missing him, 
 until we required his services. Under these circum- 
 stances we too thought it wise to slip away to our boat 
 in the most quiet and expeditious manner possible. 
 Considering the character of the tribes that we have 
 visited, and amongst whom we have established 
 missions, the marvel is that, during our pioneer work, 
 we have never come into collision with the natives 
 where there has been blood shed ; and that is some- 
 what surprising when we remember that in many, I 
 may say almost all, districts a stranger is regarded as 
 an enemy to be killed, and, amongst the cannibals, to 
 be cooked and eaten. We have abundant reason to 
 feel that in our New Guinea Mission we have been 
 'under Divine guidance and Divine protection, and 
 results show that we have had the Divine blessing. 
 
 In the western branch of our mission we have 
 formed three churches at different points for the sur- 
 rounding districts. One at Murray Island, one at 
 Mabuiag, and one at Saibai ; these contain an aggre- 
 gate of over 400 members. At all these places the 
 
i84 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 whole population have embraced Christianity, and 
 are to be seen respectably clothed in European gar- 
 ments, or rather in neat garments made of European 
 material. When the natives renounce idolatry and 
 embrace Christianity, the outward sign of that change 
 is clothing. The very name for embracing Chris- 
 tianity amongst most tribes is the word for fastening 
 on the loin cloth. Many natives attend our churches 
 who have not yet adopted clothing, just as worldly 
 people attend church in this country ; but as soon as 
 they become seriously affected by the gospel, and are 
 led to abandon idolatry, they adopt clothing of some 
 kind. In connection with these churches we have 
 good schools, attended by nearly all the young people 
 of the place, and a good many of the old ones too, all 
 being anxious to learn to read. In this district they 
 are now paying for their books, and making a hand- 
 some annual contribution to the parent society. Two 
 years before I left we felt that the time had arrived 
 to commence " May meetings " amongst them, and 
 so teach them that those who receive the gospel are 
 to hand it on to the heathen beyond. At our first 
 May meeting the people of this district contributed 
 i^45 8j-., and at the meeting before I left the collec- 
 tion amounted to £6/\ \os. — a very tangible proof of 
 their appreciation of the gospel, and their desire for 
 other heathen tribes to receive this good news. 
 
 In our mission work in New Guinea we have had 
 to contend with difficulties quite peculiar to the place. 
 We have had to sail in unknown and dangerous 
 waters in order to reach the natives. We have had 
 to contend with savages and cannibals, who regard 
 strangers generally as enemies to be killed, cooked, and 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 185 
 
 eaten. We have had to pass through sickly swamps 
 and be exposed to deadly fevers in planting and 
 superintending our mission stations. We have had 
 to reduce the languages to writing, and translate por- 
 tions of the Scriptures, school books, and hymn-books 
 into them. We have had to battle with the evil in- 
 fluences of abandoned sailors, although we have been 
 helped rather than otherwise by many of the visitors 
 and travellers who have come to New Guinea. We 
 have had to guide the natives in making and admi- 
 nistering laws, in developing the resources of their 
 country, in building houses, making roads, and, in 
 fact, in everything connected with their material as 
 well as their spiritual progress. It is therefore some 
 encouragement to feel that we have opened up about 
 six hundred miles of coast line, gained the confidence 
 of the natives, and established our sixty mission 
 stations all along the coast, except between the Fly 
 River and Motumotu in the west, and Aroma and 
 Orangerie Bay in the east. We have formed six 
 churches, which contain an aggregate of between six 
 and seven hundred members, reduced six of the lan- 
 guages or dialects to writing, and translated portions 
 of the New Testament, a school book, catechism, and 
 hymn-book into each. We have two institutions at 
 work for the training of native pioneer evangelists 
 and pastors : the Papuan Institute at Murray Island 
 in the Papuan Gulf, containing over fifty students ; 
 and the institution at Port Moresby, containing ten 
 or twelve. Twenty-five have been sent out from the 
 former, and eight from the latter, as native pioneer 
 teachers, and are located at stations in the interior, on 
 the coast, and on islands off the coast, and are doing 
 
1 86 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 excellent Christian work amongst the people with 
 whom, in many instances, their fathers used to 
 fight. 
 
 Upon these and similar institutions must depend 
 the evangelization of New Guinea. The climate has 
 proved fatal to over a hundred members of our mis- 
 sion, European and Polynesian missionaries and their 
 wives and families ; more than half the number who 
 have joined our mission have died in the field, thus 
 clearly indicating that the native agency must be 
 raised from amongst the people themselves. This con- 
 sideration was forced upon me during the early years 
 of the mission by the appalling mortality amongst 
 our South Sea Island teachers, and induced me to 
 attempt the formation of the Papuan Institute ; the 
 success of which led to a similar attempt being made, 
 some years afterwards, at Port Moresby, where there 
 is now a growing seminary. We get the best of our 
 young converts for these institutions ; and consider- 
 ing the evil influences and temptations by which they 
 are surrounded in their villages, and the number of 
 languages spoken throughout our districts, we feel 
 the importance of removing them to our central 
 stations for instruction, where they spend four or five 
 years surrounded by Christian influences, and are 
 taught useful arts, as well as Bible truths, and learn 
 to speak and understand a little of the English lan- 
 guage, which proves exceedingly useful to them when 
 they are appointed as native evangelists and pastors, 
 enabling them often to arrange difficulties between 
 traders and natives, and to act as interpreters when 
 captains of men-of-war and others visit the places 
 where they are located. I have been told repeatedly 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 187 
 
 by officers of her majesty's ships that they consider 
 it very important that our native teachers should be 
 able to speak a little English. The hope of New 
 Guinea lies in a good staff of these native agents. 
 With a few European missionaries to train and super- 
 intend them, these men will carry the gospel to the 
 very heart of the island. It is an agency easily 
 obtained, and will be increasingly so, as Christianity 
 and civilization advance. It is economical ; a native 
 teacher only costs £\2 a year. It is an agency 
 that has proved exceedingly successful in the South 
 Sea Islands, and thus far in New Guinea. Our 
 difficulty hitherto has not been in obtaining native 
 teachers, but in getting missionaries who are able 
 and willing to remain in the field. 
 
 Our New Guinea mission, like that in Central 
 Africa, has proved fatal to many of its faithful 
 labourers, and exceedingly trying to all. Out of eight 
 missionaries who were sent out from England to help 
 us, only two remain in the field. The Rev. Harry 
 Scott and his excellent wife, who joined the western 
 branch of the mission two years before I left, and 
 from whom we were expecting so much, have been 
 obliged to leave on account of the fever, and the 
 doctor forbids their return. This is exceedingly un- 
 fortunate, as they had acquired the language, and 
 thrown themselves most heartily into the work, for 
 which Mr. Scott has many peculiar qualifications. 
 He rendered most valuable service during his con- 
 nection with the mission, and my wife and I were 
 delighted to feel that we were leaving our station 
 in charge of such an able and devoted couple. 
 The Rev. E. B. Savage took charge of the Papuan 
 
1 88 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 Institute, and the mission in the Papuan Gulf, when 
 Mr. Scott left ; and he has since been 'delighted to 
 welcome the arrival of a fellow-student as his col- 
 league — Rev. A. E. Hunt, who, with his devoted, 
 practical, and energetic wife, has entered enthusiasti- 
 cally upon the important work of training a native 
 agency, and superintending and extending the work 
 in the Papuan Gulf 
 
 There are now six European missionaries in the New 
 Guinea Mission. Two in each of the three branches, 
 each couple having a good staff of native teachers, 
 numbering altogether about eighty. Two very pro- 
 mising young men from Cheshunt College are about 
 to join the missionary band there ; so that with such 
 a European staff, and a native agency growing up from 
 amongst the people themselves, we have reason to 
 believe that this largest, darkest, and most neglected 
 island in the world will soon have proclaimed through 
 its length and breadth the gospel of peace^ and liglit^ 
 and love^ and life eternal. 
 
 In conclusion, I call the attention of the Christian 
 Church to the New Guinea Mission as another proof 
 of the transforming power of the gospel, calculated 
 to create and stimulate the missionary spirit. Let 
 the present appearance and condition of some of the 
 towns and villages where we have mission stations be 
 compared with what they were fifteen years ago, and 
 the difference is truly wonderful. Instead of the war 
 song, the cannibal feast, and the night dance, churches 
 and schools and family worship are established. 
 Instead of the wild-looking appearance of the people, 
 dressed in feathers and shells and paint, they are 
 now respectably clothed, and ashamed of their former 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW. 189 
 
 appearance and habits. Instead of dirty huts, lazy 
 and cruel husbands, and neglected children, there are 
 now well-built houses, industrious and kind husbands, 
 and bright and intelligent children. Instead of every 
 man doing as he liked, which led to village quarrels, 
 plunder, and war, there are now laws established, 
 magistrates and policemen appointed, and law and 
 order prevail. 
 
 This, of course, can only be said of some of our 
 mission stations, and our mission embraces but a very 
 small portion of the island. Like the heathen world, 
 this great country has only, as yet, been touched 
 by Christianity ; but wherever it has been touched, 
 it has been changed. Christianity never fails, al- 
 though its preachers and professors sometimes do. 
 Wherever the gospel seed is planted in harmony with 
 the Divine conditions, prayer and faith, it is sure to 
 grow. It must be so, for the growth is the work of 
 God, and He never fails to perform His part in the 
 missionary work of leading the world to its Saviour. 
 
 A change is taking place in New Guinea as mar- 
 vellous and as rapid as that which transformed the 
 natives of the South Sea Islands. Instead of heathen- 
 ism and cannibalism, there is springing up a growing 
 education and a thriving trade. Side by side with 
 the preaching of the gospel goes the social improve- 
 ment of the natives. Better roads are made ; better 
 houses are built, which are soon furnished with the 
 useful appliances of civilized life ; and whilst the 
 missionary is forming Christian churches, his wife is 
 forming (what is equally important) Christian homes. 
 It must not be supposed that unmarried missionaries, 
 male or female, could possibly have accomplished the 
 
igo AMONG THE CANNIBALS, 
 
 good which may now be witnessed. Christian prin- 
 ciples have been exemplified in family life before the 
 heathen with the happiest results. In the South Sea 
 Islands there are multitudes of homes which are 
 centres of refinement, culture, happiness, and intelli- 
 gence, presided over by woman, officiating in those 
 offices recognised as her sphere of duty. In these 
 abodes it is no mockery now to sing " Home, Sweet 
 Home." 
 
 My hope and prayer is, that the story of the New 
 Guinea Mission, which I now bring to a close, may be 
 the means, not only of strengthening the faith and 
 quickening the zeal of those who are interested in 
 Christian missions, but also of leading the sceptical 
 to reconsider their views on the question, in order that 
 the Church, in all its branches, may take a new 
 departure, and make a great, united, and determined 
 effort to carry out the instructions of oi^r Lord, who 
 has commanded us to PREACH THE GOSPEL TO 
 EVERY CREATURE. In this, the greatest and grand- 
 est of all reforms, we are sustained by numerous 
 promises, and ought to be impelled by every feeling 
 of humanity and a strong sense of duty. We are cer- 
 tainly encouraged by the most remarkable success. 
 
 The history of missions during the last century has 
 proved the adaptability of the gospel to all races, 
 classes, and conditions of men. It has met and sub- 
 dued every form of evil, mitigated every species of 
 suffering, substituted in many places the revelation 
 of God for the lies of heathenism, and the morality 
 of the gospel for the vices of idolatry. It has rescued 
 women from a degrading servitude, and children from 
 an early death. It has substituted order for anarchy, 
 
RESULTS: THEN AND NOW, 191 
 
 law for despotism, benevolence for cruelty, and justice 
 for oppression. It has elevated tribes and nations, 
 and given them a knowledge of our literature and 
 laws, our arts and institutions. It has made property 
 secure and industry profitable, and created content- 
 ment and domestic affection where vice and discord 
 made existence a curse. It has given children the 
 blessing of paternal care, and parents the joy of filial 
 gratitude. It has indeed turned men from darkness 
 to light, and from the power of Satan to God, teach- 
 ing them how to live and how to die, fitting them 
 for the duties of this life, and preparing them for the 
 life to come. 
 
 Considering what Christianity has done and is still 
 doing for heathen nations, the marvel is that more of 
 the wealth and talent of the Church are not devoted to 
 this glorious enterprise. The time for speculation and 
 discussion on the question has gone. The success of 
 missions is their defence and their appeal. Who that 
 is interested in the welfare and progress of his fellow 
 men, of whatever creed or nation, would, if he could, 
 stamp out Christianity and restore idolatry ? Who 
 would pull down the churches and disband the 
 members, or scatter the week-day and Sunday 
 schools, or burn the school books and Bibles? Or who 
 would rebuild the old temples, rekindle the fires upon 
 their altars, call forth the victims for sacrifice, make 
 the hills and valleys ring with the shouts of midnight 
 revellers around the burning pile ? And if all are 
 bound to admit that Christianity has been a great 
 blessing to these tribes, none can escape the obligation 
 to propagate it. God has clearly indicated the means 
 by which the world is to be saved, and the millions of 
 
192 AMONG THE CANNIBALS. 
 
 heathen must remain for ever ignorant of the salvation 
 of Jesus, and perish in the bHndness of idolatry, un- 
 less the news of His mercy be conveyed to them by 
 the lips of its living heralds. The command and the 
 promise are clear and emphatic. " Go ye therefore, 
 and make disciples of all the nations." " Lo, I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 
 THE END. 
 

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