“The Press” In 1866

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31225, 24 November 1966, Page 16

“The Press” In 1866

November 24 NEW CALEDONIA.—The “Southern Cross” says:—We are in receipt of newspapers from Noumea, in New Caledonia, up to the 30th September.

A monument has been raised at Gatope to the memory of those seamen who were slaughtered and devoured by the cannibals at that place in August, 1865.

The “Moniteur,” of the 9th September, speaks of this circumstance in the following terms:— “At the moment when history was about to record the 294th anniversary of the horrible affair of St. Bartholomew’s Eve. New Caledonia added to that accursed remembrance the mournful gloom caused by an event which will long continue to excite very painful

recollections amongst our colonial population. On the 24th of August, this year, twelve months had elapsed since the seamen belonging to the Secret were massacred—hacked to

pieces and eaten by the cannibals of the western tribes, already guilty of the same atrocious conduct to the crew of the coasting vessel, Reine des Hes. The time, therefore, was naturally chosen for the performance of a ceremony destined to recall the sorrowful fate of those unfortunate beings to the sympathies of all. It was with this in view that the war steamer Marceau, having on board the bones of the victims —gathered together last year at Pouangue and Pouhilime, by the expeditionary columns which had been detached on that service—left Noumea on the 20th August for Gatope.