CANNIBALISM IN WEST AFRICA.

Evening Star, Issue 9834, 24 October 1895, Page 4

CANNIBALISM IN WEST AFRICA.

. The African Royal Mail steamer Cabenda, which arrived at Liverpool 'recently from the West Coast ctf Africa, brings news of an extraordinary case of cannibaUsm, in a British colony* air a result of which three men are reported to have been hanged. The Cabenda left Sierra Leone ou the day on whioh the three men had been hanged in the Irnperi country at the scene of these crimes. The men belonged to a sooiety called the "Human Leopard Society. Covered with leopard skins, they had been in the habit of secreting themselves in the bush near various villages. Anyone who ventured out was set upon and killed, and a cannibal feast Was afterwards, held. So serious had the matter become, that the Sierra Leone Government sent men in pursuit of themurderers. NineNativeswerearreßted. On investigation six were liberated. The other three were brought down to Freetown for trial before a jury. Amongst these was a man named Jowe, who was formerly a Sunday school teachssat Sierra Leone, but who subsequently went to trade in the Imperi country, which is under the Sierra Leone Government. Jowe, in his defence, declared that he had been compelled to join the society by threats. As, however, he had been a member of the society for a long time, and could have left the country, his plea was not admitted. The defence of the others Was that the murders were committed to obtain certain parts of the body—srich as the band, the heart, the leg—of which to make medicine or "Ju Ju." The three prisoners were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, and it was decided that the execution should take place at the scene of the crimes. A force of frontier police with the 'prisoners and a scaffold accordingly went down to the Imperi Country, which is about fifty miles from Sherbro 1 , on the Colonial 'Government steamer Countess of Derby. The scaffold was erected in the public street and the bodies of the three men were allowed to hang for forty-eight hours. The scaffold will be left there permanently as a warning to the Natives against such horrible conduct as that of which the "leopards" were guilty. The murders committed by them were numerous. One girl, who had been tied to a tree by the fiends and was about to be killed and eaten, screamed until her cries brought to the scene a party who rescued her. She was a slave girl and was taken care of by the nuns of the St. Joseph's Catholic Mission at Bouthe. A man was also brought to the Mission with terrible wounds inflicted by the " human leopards." He died from his injuries,—Exchange.