NATIVE DISTURBANCE IN GERMAN WEST AFRICA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 293, 11 December 1899, Page 5

NATIVE DISTURBANCE IN GERMAN WEST AFRICA.

■PAUTY 01? OFFICIALS AMBUSHED,

The Elu'er Dempster steamer Niger arrived aI. Liverpool on October 13 from South-West Africa, and reported the murders of Lieutenantt Quise, the German Governor of Eio del Eey, Ilerr Lovmeyr, mart about 100 soldiers and native carriers. According- to the information which had come down the river, it seems that Lieutenant Quise and Herr Lovmeyr went up the Eio del Eey, towards the Cross Eiver, to quell some disturbance which had broken out between natives in the hinterland. The Governor was accompanied by about 100 troops and carriers, the majority being1 carriers. The Cross Eiver. where the expedition went, is said to be the boundary of the English and German territory. The German expedition took as a. guide a chief from a village on the road. It is said that, this chief proved treacherous and led the expedition into an ambush, and they were fired upon ■while crossing a bridge. The chief was promptly shotby the Germans, and then the natives made a determined, attack on the white men. The Germans fougiit with great courage, but being- outnumbered, and getting little or no assistance from their carriers, the whole party is said to have been murdered. After their victory the natives attacked a neighbouring- factory., Fortunately there were no white men in it at the time, but the black clerk in charge was killed and. the factory plundered. Some friendly natives, seeing the warlike spirit of the marauders, hastened to the English factory a short distance off, and warned-the two white men there. These, who were Englishmen, on hearing the cries of the approaching natives, had only just time to get into their canoe. The canoe in the hurry was capsized, but was righted in time to enable the two white men to make good their escape. They had, however, to leave their factory and its contents to the mercy of the savages. The two white men, after-being 13 hours in their canoe, arrived down at the parent facr tory in the lower Eio del Eey Eiver, where, the Niger was at anchor, The greatest excitement prevails in Eio del Eey, where there were only one white German official find about half a, dozen native soldiers. The Niger left Eio del Eey on September 17. At that, time a, German merchant steamer was entering the river, and should the natives come down from the interior the people in Eio del Eey could have sought refuge on board the German vessel. Word was being sent to Cameroons Eiver, which is the headquarters of the German administration, so that assistance and probably a" relief expedition might be despatched to the Eio del Eey territory. The trade of the river, when the Niger left, was at a standstill, owing to the massacres and general disturbance. Eeuter's Liverpool representative interviewed the Ambas Bay Trading Company of Liverpool,- who are the only British merchants who have fae-" tories in the Eio del Eey, to see if they had any confirmation of the mur-. derof^ni-'German expedition as reported .by the steamer Niger. The company'has just received their mails by the 'Niger, and found that much, if not all, of the report was confirmed by their agent. All the white agents and clerks of the Ambas Bay Company were safe, and the company in Liverpool said they did not fear the natives coming down to the factories in Eio del Eey, as the German authorities in Cameroons could, if necessary, send troops in. the Eio del Eey in. a few hours to protect all interests there.