THE NEW BRITAIN MASSACRE.

Evening Star, Issue 5767, 2 September 1881, Page 4

THE NEW BRITAIN MASSACRE.

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A letter which has been re.-.-ived irom iim i;,-v, li. h)anks, of the Wesley.m Mission hi iiir; New '.ftritain 11 roup, by the Kev. lb ('hapnuui, of Sydney, giver, some lm-imida. - ~i the murder of Mv Klinsmeth, unnaturalist, and two Frenchmen wJlowe.lv in bis service. Mv Danks heard ot the murders, and that Mrs Klinsmeth was alone in her house, and he says:-"! had the. boat at once got out, and sail* put into her, nnd made ready to g," ;UV:I .V beiotv .sunrise next morning; (Hood I'Yiday). Accordingly at four o'clock a.m. we cleared l'ort Hunter, and got into Mioko pa^snge soon after sunrise. flere we iound Air Kliirsmeth's boat .stranded on some boulders. It had drifted away from the scene, of the murder, and found a resting-place here. All the ;:-t-.r.i d the boat was burnt, and she was hacked about very much, as though she, too, had done them (the .Natives) somewrong. Her planks were smashed, ami she was "pierced in several places. < )f course she was full of water, but we got her oil; and took her in t«>w. it was ha>< work to get along with this additu-i. , weight, but we at last landed her m • ">'*> j Harlior, when 1 .saw poor Mr* ' | i • i c t ii-row Thai l She presented a picture ot » l! " • i i .hallSiot soon forget. H^-j^^li! ana worn, heartache and - l = riil (k ,, 01a i the once erect iorm to M turn was written j i( . and her feature, her - lliinillislK , a | *£' ,hook hands in a mechanical j stieiigtii. >■ j t .j Klll mo tioiu;d me to a seat, ' k,, ; d «t M » ™>nl. Then she ! to my right, and little by! little "ho opened lier mind to me, and j ~,-adually the tears bc-an to How, and as she paused from one subject to another -all con- ] cerning her murdered husband—they came | faster and faster until she relieved her heart | by gi v h»g vent to a flood of tears. After i this she seemed to talk without nuicheUbrt, j her conversation previously being constrained j and difficult. The scene of the murder is the j other side of the harbor from Mr Klinsmeth's house, yet within sight, on an i island named Outnam. This island was J bought some time ago by Mr Klinsmelh, and it hj said that the Natives then promised him j that they would go in Ins boat whenever he j desired "them. "He wished them to go on I Sunday last t'j a place called Ityarara, but j they would nor, and it is said they were j impudent. Mr K linsmeth became angry, ami j went to Outnam, accompanied by the two J Frenchmen. Mi.s Klinsmeth did not seem | to know exactly what followed upon their j landing, except that some Native houses ] were burnt, and all the whites killed. Mr | Klinsmeth was the only one shot the ball entering the abdomen and passing right through the body. All the bodies weie mutilated most 'fearfully, but they were recovered by our teachers and taken back to Mioko, where they were buried. European j life in that part of the Pacific can hardly lie \ worth living if, as appear:-) io be the case, it i is continually threatened by revengeful or greedy savages, who no sooner taste blood than "they thirst for more." Mr Danks J further writes that the Mioko Native-? who J murdered Mr Klinsmeth and his companions j immediately afterwards planned the death i of Mr Blohm, a resident trader. The ; intended victim, .however, having been j warned, was forearmed, and the plot could ! ot be carried into eifecl. '