H.M.S. CORDELIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 261, 4 November 1890, Page 3

H.M.S. CORDELIA.

AH ISLAND CRUISE.

BEPRISALS ON NATIVES,

VILLAGES SHELLED.

H.M.s. CoRDELfA arrived at Sydney on Tuesday last from tho China station, via Solomon Islands and other South Sea localities* where she had been engaged in punishing the native 3 of several i§landa for murderous outrages on European traders. It was stated the other day that a pretty lively cruisehad been made to tha Solomon group of islands by the Cordelia. The liveliness was believed to have chiefly consisted in firing at native settlements. Murders, robberies, and atrocities far exceeding in their barbarity the horrors of Bulgarian heinousness have been committed upon copra-tnakers, stovekeepers and European settlers, and, it is alleged, with a measure of impunity on the parb of the natives and immunity from punishment unknown under any "other flag: but tha British. Some traders affirm that the returned labour boys from Queensland, the Sandwich Islands, and other places, and whose opportunities of travel and observation in more 'civilised climes would be thought to have improved their bettor nature, are often the -inclters. The trader in merchandise, ho who eschews the labour traffic and confines his. operations to exchange for produce, is frequently called upon to suffer for sina arising either directly or indirectly from the labour trade. No ono acquainted •with the island trade -can doubts that. The records of native outrages prove it beyond cavil, and the reports made by British men-of-war confirm it. Reports of the operations of labour vessels under other flags than the red ensign have no.fc been wanting to show that) evil results have followed their visits, and that revenge has been taken by the natives on the first Europeans who chanced to call after such visits. On tho other hand, reports by naval officers are not by any means invariably favourable to the white trader who restricts his business to merchandise. The investigations which the warships have made into alleged unprovoked murders, it must not be supposed always result in an unqualified condemnation of the kanaka. There are- traders tho jnention ot whose names amongst the natives afc any of the islands is ever meb by expressions of good feeling, and there are anames which are not. This is the testimony of several men-of-war officers who £iave spent many months amongst the different groups. But there is also 0, vast amount of evidence to establish the statement that many innocent lives have been taken irom purely bloodthirsty motives. Tho weak and unprotected trader has after years of seeming security been pounced upon, killed, and ©aten by tho very natives from whom he would least have suspected of being capable of an act of treachery. Within the past 12 months enormities of that character have occurred in the Solomon Group and at other islands, and it was to punish the perpetrators of these deeds that H.M.s. Cordelia's cruise was undertaken. The Cordelia wa3 ordered to Australia from the China station. She went out there on her first commission, and in last February, her term of service huving expired, she was re-commissioned for this station by Captain Harry T. GrenfelU Ab Hongkong her present crew arrived by the troopship Himalaya,, and joined tho vessel in which they aro to spend three yeare in the South Seas. A start was made on the 18th of February, and the ship touched at ManilaandatAmboyna. At Port Darwin she received orders to p'rbceed to ArrOo Islands, off the New Guinea coast. The business at .' the Arroo Islands was to look up the alleged ' {plunderers. of a trading vessel named tho 1 ysabel and another craft named the Elsie. ! Captain Strahan reported the massacre of rfche crews of these vessels some time since, and that the vessels were afterwards destroyed by fire. The Cordelia reports that after diligent search and careful inquiry aothirio , satisfactory was ascertained. r Then a week at Thursday Island for coal fend despatches, and a visit 1 1 Cooktown ' and Townsvilie for mails, and the warship seb oub under fresh instructions from the Admiral to look after a number of toma 1 hawking cases at the Solomon Group, and anete oub powder and shot where de* served. The first case taken up after calling at Dinner Island en route was at locokongo, where, a year ago, the schooner Enterprise, of Sydney, lost her mate, Mr ISTeilsen, and two native boys., The short account is that a head was wanted to christen a new canoe-houee, and the unlucky jNeilsen was made the victim. The "boys'" lives were taken for food, finding no doubt about the matter, the Cordelia blazed into the native village, and shelled the plantations. Neilsen's head doing service a3 a trophy, was captured by L the Cordelia's men. In connection with this butchery of the Enterprise's boat's : crew , the officers of the Cordelia remarked 4hat they (Neilson and the boys) should nob liave landed on the island unarmed. The > Tineleaders in the Enterprise outrage-had always before been on the best of terms with the captain of the trading schooner and his men. No mischief was suspected when the mate and his " boys paddled ashore from the vessel; but finding the three visitors in their power, tho feavages auickly tomahawked them and carried the bodies off the beach to the village. A visit was next made to Simbo. bimbo r bag long been notorious for the butcheries committed on shipwrecked men, and the savagery of its inhabitants is but too well established. The Cordelia seized a quantity of arms there, and fired along 4he coast. Whether anyone was hurt is not known, the bush being dense and the natives too sensible to show themselves. Next, the Savo massacre was avenged ab Wycissi. The Savo, trading schooner, was attacked by the natives in canoes, and several of the crew were killed. A Mr Keating, a trader, was badly cut about the hodv but escaped with hie life. Hβ came am to Sydney, and after receiving treatmen b for his wounds in the hospital there he partly recovered. Mr Keating went to Wvcissi in the Cordelia, and pointed oub the place at which the massacre occurred. A boat's crew landed and destroyed the native canoes. Owing to an accident having occurred to one of the Cordelias crew by filing from aloft, the.ship's, g «ns were nob turned on the village, as the Soise, the doctor considered, murb-prove fatal to the injured man, suffering from concussion of the brain ; but such a penalty as ib is hoped will have a wholesome effect was inflicted on the natives. In all two cruises were made by tne Cordelia through the Solomon Group, and before finally leaving inquiry was instituted into a charge against a trader named P Edmunds. The charge was taken to • Fiji whither the Cordelia proceeded from ibhe' Solomons, but a nolle prosequi was uiibsequently entered, and Mr Edmunds came on as a passenger to Sydney by the > Cordelia. Ib will thus bo seen that the latest addition to Her Majesty's ships in animation haebeen fully employed eince %er departure from Hongkong laeb Feb""Sβ Cordelia on arrival at Sydney saluted *h« flae of Rear-Admiral Lord Charles «™f t> and came up to moorings in Farm William P. Hillyar, Alexander Y. U M.

staff paymaster,. John. J. Hoar; chief engineer, John T. Ryder ; sub-lieutenanb, Claude P. Buckle; engineer, William J. Hender ; assistant engineer, Percy D. Martell; gunner, William Honer (acting); boatswain, Frederick St. J. Boughton ; carpenter, Richard T. Morey ; midshipmen, Gerald J. Sands, Edmund C. Carver, Frederick S. Litchfield, R. C. Kemble Lambert, Osvvald H. Davies, Edward A. Thomas, Philip A. Bateman-Cham-painj Jamos T. Bush, Charlos E. W. Pyddoke, Spencer D. Forbes ; clerk, Frederick M. Mitchell. Re-commiesioned at Hongkong-, February 18th, 1890. The ship is of the same class as the Calliope. Guns: 10 6in breech-loading, 10 machine guns, and six W hitehead torpedoes.