TRIBAL FIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 777, 29 March 1910, Page 2

TRIBAL FIGHT.

IN NORTHERN TERRITORY. MARAUDERS HACKED TO DEATH. James Runoio M'Pherson, who arrived at Port Darwin recently in his lugger from a trepanging expedition along tho coast to eastward, that while working in Rolling Bay lie witnessed a singularly ferocious and fatal tribal fight between 50. Junction Bay natives employed by him in trepanging and a marauding expedition of Liverpool River natives, numbering 30 or 40 braves. The fight took place on a cleared spaco near the seashore. M'Pherson pulled ashore to his smokehouse on the morning of January 24, and noticed that only a few of his working natives were about. Ho was told they were expecting a fight with hostile, natives. At about 4.p.m.. that day a peculiarly blood-curdling yell rang out from some bushes about 200 yards away, and immediately following tin's scores, of ghastly white-painted figures darted out from thick bushes on either side of the clearing.at the rear of the smoke-house. The air was soon thick with flying spears, and tho combatants approached within 15 yards of each other. The spears used were large, heavy barbed ones. The natives on either side showed amazing quickness in avoiding or warding off these barb-poiutod death-dealers'.' In about a ; quarter of an hour, near ly •■■ all tho spears were broken. . One of tho Junction Bay natives was .then transfixed by a large spear as he was in the act of stooping to pick up a spear thrown by an opponent. The transfixing of this man seemed to fill both sides with ferocious' fury. They immediately closed,, and a furious hand-to-hand melee ensued. '. ■ ■'-,-. Tomahawks and Iron Bars. The Junction Bay natives"■ had ,an advantage in numbers and weapons, being armed with knives, tomahawks and iron bars 4ft.- long made from hatch battens taken'from the' wreck of the steamer Australian. Their opponents had only ordinary bush waddjes and woomeras. The iron bars proved deadly weapons, inflicting' ghastly- ■-wounds wherever they struck. -AVithin ;half an hour the survivors of th'e : marauding party fled.into-the scrub, leaving 11 of. their number on the field. These woro immediately hacked.and beaten to death with tomahawks and iron bars. Those who fled were ..pursued, and M'Pherson thinks that few, if any, escaped. On going ashore on the following morning M'Pherson found that all the bodies nad been cremated, ! only a' few charred bones being left in tho still smouldering fi-d: M'Pherson states that a wonderful lot of odds and ends from the wreck of the steamer Australian is to he found among the natives. Hundreds of miles down- the coast in one camp ho_ found a much-prized oval mirror, which, probably once adorned-one of the steamer's saloon cabins..

The natives'of Liverpool Paver are of an exceptionally treacherous and raurdorous character; as proved by ..several outrages perpetrated: in the'neighbour hood It was' in~ this .neighbourhood-' that 4 two'.-buffalo hunters, natiied Moore were killed" in 1898^'but in : that case it was shown that the murdered men had provoked the natives by forcibly abducting native women.'. They were shot with their own' rifles. by two natives' named Copperang; arid Nabaloora,' ' who ' later were • arrested,' tried, and , sentenced to death.. Owing to the :'-'proveh facts, however,, the death sentence' was' commuted, : arid after,'" remaining in . gaol eleven. months" both ,'wcre released."'They returned'to'their own country,' aud-probably:-are. ~s y n. alive, .and may, be/more'dangerous as ■ tho result of their brief experience' of the white man's diffcrerit ways; • A.: Treacherous Attack. It is only' a few' months since .that Mr. M'Pherson narrowly escaped being .speared, to .death/'while, carrying on trepanging ' operations, in': the Liverpool, Kiver mouth;., .Q\\. that he was suddenly: and trcache.rQusly•; .attacked by a o number, of,".tliese.natives while, .temporarily"" resting;"in." the smokehouse', in which,he: had been engaged curing Jrepaiig.;■ iij.ll 'his. own, boys at tins tiirio were away in.icarioes gathering-tr'epang.,." His- first : intirnation of danger was the,;,.suspicions swishing of a dozen or \ more • large spears through the bough-covered 1 structure in which ho was .. sitting smoking and half dreaming. Tortun-' ately he. was.armed with a rifle and revolver, and retreated back towards tho, edge of the water,/while fifteen : or twenty yelling,. dancing natives congregated, on .the scrub-covered . bank behind the smokehouse, and continued hurling spears. Some of these he warded otf with the rifle, and others he dodged; .while ; springing to one sido to avoid one spear, another missilo struck him on tho point of the hip.' The sharp barbed point penetrated downwards nine inches into the fleshy part of the'thigh. At tho moment he felt only a sharp twiiigo of pain, and' : broke the ■_ spear ■ shaft" off with his hand. He then fired and shot one of the natives, arid the remainder' disappeared in tho scrub. Subsequently, on board hid lugger, he made fast a lanyard to the- broken,spearhead, and himself dragged it out by main strength; but eight' of the barbed points broke off and' remained in ; the wound. Nearly two weeks elapsed before he reached-Port |Darwin, and he suffered excruciating: agonies in the meantime. He was operated on at the Palmerston Hospital, and eight broken barbed points were extracted from the wound. This inoident occurred in July, 1909. On the present occasion Mr. M'Pherson states that when he heard the signal cry come from the scrub, he ■ was ■ sitting bit an. upturned bucket near the smokehouse cutting up tobacco 'preparatory to having a comfortable smoke. A Fascinated Spectator. • Ho remained a/passive and fascinated spectator to the whole ' gruesome tableaux, which occurred within 100 yards, of where he was sitting. The whirring rush of. heavy spears to. and fro, the ghost-like way in which the wild, white-painted forms on 'each side avoid these, bounding high in the'air, then leaping 'on one side, and at times dashing the spears aside with sweeping outs of their woomeras, or waddies, giving vent tho while to wild yells and harsh cries of defiance, made a weird and savage picture. When Mr. M'Pher-' sou's Junction Bay boy Billy was speared towards the end of this duel of spears, both sides appeared to go mad with fury, and become devoid of all senso of fear. As Billy fell, transfixed by a great barbed spear, they "saw red," and, as. if.fired by mutual imI pulso, both sides closed tip,' and a fierce, hand-to-hand .melee, ensued, such I as Air. M'Pherson had never previously witnessed between natives. In their horrible white, masks of warpaint) and with blazing eyes and overy feature'in-, stinct with tho pure savage, devilish, and murderous lust', for blood, 'they presented a fearsome , and terrifying spectacle to -the 'lonely- onlooker: Mr. M'Pherson, sickened.by the spectacle, started to walk down: to his dirighoy. Before he reached '-his boat,- however, a dozen of the Junction Bay boys camo running after, him, demanding his rifle. Several were..: bespattered with : blood, and on their conditiomof murderous excitement, he deemed it wise to comply with their demand. He' slipped out the Loartridgesj and immediately thereafter

the weapon was plucked suddenly from his hand, and the whole party dashed off in pursuit of their enemies. Ho had hardly got on board his lugger when somo of them came running with the empty rifle, clamouring for cartridges, but to this demand he did not think wise to yield.

The party of Junction Bay natives who went in pursuit of their foes did not retiirn to the camp until late the following day. When questioned by Mr. M'Phorson, they denied having overtaken any of the Liverpool River natives, but as several of them bore dried bloodstains on their bodies, and they appeared completely exhausted. Mr. M'Pherson believes further fighting took place in the bush, and that few of the murderers lived to return to their homes. Pollin" Bay is a kind of neutral territory, situated between Junction Bay and the Liverpool River, and the bulk, or more, of Junction Bay natives were employed by Mr. M'Pherson in. his trepauging business. Mr.' M'Pherson brought back with him the Junction Bay native who was wounded, also the 1 spear which caused the wound', and several other specimens of the battle.'