THE CANNIBAL ISLES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 6

THE CANNIBAL ISLES.

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF FIFTY-FIVE YEARS AGO.

(By Hugh H. Ltjsk, Auckland.)

lI.—HOW WE WENT’.

The voyage to be undertaken, in the autumn of 1858 was in some respects different from any of those that came afterwards in the establishment of the mission to the dark islands of Melanesia. Bishop Selwyn had mado two royages before, it is true, but the conditions had been such that they were little more than gropings along the fringe of the island groups that were to constitute the new mission no'd. Now that the work was to bo fairly begun it had become evident that the first step must be to learn something about the islands and their people. This had been made possible by the beginning of 1858, when th 6 first mission vessel reached New Zealand. The first Southern Cross was by no means a largo or pretentious craft, but she was rather a pretty schooner, something like a yacht in appearance and between a hundred and fifty ana two hundred tons burden. Small as she was, she seemed of respectable size when compared with the majority of tho shipping which at that time was familiar to Auckland harbour. We who were about to take part in her first voyage of discovery certainly looked upon her as a very satisfactory vessel, and a great improvement in every way on tho little coasting schooners that had been used on the two former voyages. In the former attempts to learn something of the Melanesian islands only a few of the groups nearest to New Zealand had been reached at all, and landings had not taken place at many of these; on this new voyage it was intended to go much farther north, and get some general idea at least or the entire field of the work of the new mission. In the course of the former voyage it had been arranged that the new mission should confine itself to work in the more westerly of the island groups, going as far north as the Solomon Islands, but not interfering with the more southerly of the New Hebrides that were already the seat of the Presbyterian Mission, nor with Fiji, where a Methodist Mission was being established. The Loyalty Islands, the more northerly and larger islands of tho New Hebrides, the Banks group, and the more southerly of the Solomon islands really comprised what was intended to be the field of work, and a very little experience served to show that it was a large enough undertaking. The party that started on the first voyage of the Southern Cross was not a large one. As our first object was to return to their own people the twelve native lads who had been the pupils of the summer school at St John’s College the Loyalty islands were naturally the first towards which our course was directed. We went a little out of our most direct course that we might call at Norfolk Island which had lately begun a new career of settlement, after a history that had been anything but pleasant for many years. The island had been selected in 1788 as a small convict settlement for the most undesirable of the convicts sent to Botany Bay, and although the settlement had been abandoned after a twelve years’ trial it was reestablished in 1826, and remained in use till 1855 ns a place of exile for the worst of the New South Wales criminals. The place naturally had obtained a very bad reputation in these years, and it had been a great relief to most peoplo when the convicts were finally withdrawn in 1855 by the Colonial Government. In the following year it was offered for settlement to those of the Pitcairn islanders who were willing to . remove from their little, and. by that time greatly overcrowded island in the eastern Pacific. The fact that the Pitcairn islanders were tho descendants of the mutineers of tho Bounty seemed to give them a special claim on the Government of New South Wales, and the idea of settling them on the island that had for so many years had a had reputation as a place of punishment had been generally accepted as a good one. Norfolk Island is only about five hundred miles from Auckland, so that a voyage of less than four days brought our little party in sight of the land. It is one of the characteristic islands of the Pacific, though one of the smallest, and presents the appearance of a nearly flat table-land that formed the top of a range of hills the rest of which has sunk in the ocean probably many thousands .of years ago. The island has nothing that can be called a harbour, hut towards its south-west end the land recedes into a bay which has a sloping beach and is practically the only available landing place. The island is about five miles long, and three miles wide in the centre, hut everywhere except on this beach, which is about half a mile in length, it rises in' perpendioular cliffs of very considerable heislit from the ocean. There is one little island lying off the west end of the island which is perhaps half a mile in circumference. It seems to consist mainly of a huge rock, but it has been found to contain one thing of very unusual interest to naturalists as a record of the distant wist, in the form of a small wingless bird which is evidently a species of tho kiwi of New Zealand, while . entirely unlike any Australian bird in many resnects.

The Southern Gross drew close in shore in the hay and found a place of anchorage that was safe as long as the wind continued to blow from any point north of south-east or southwest. Our party spent a day on shore in making the acquaintance of the new settlers from Pitcairn. Island, and in examining the island itself, and it is not unlikely that tho impressions gained in this way may have suggested the selection, after some years, of Norfolk Island as the headquarters of the Melanesian mission. On the next day the Southern Gross sailed for the Loyalty Islands, the most southerly group of the tropical islands within the new mission field.

Wo sighted the south-east end of New Caledonia., hut as none of the lads wo had on, hoard came from the principal island of the group, we made no attempt to land there, but made for two of the smaller island of which our pupils were natives. At the time theso islanders were still savage, to all intents and purposes, but they wero not nearly so dangerous as those on the islands lying farther north, as the people wero not cannibals, and were even disposed to be friendly. It was too dangerous to go inside tlie great coral reefs that encircled each of the islands and outside the reefs the depth of water, though it has since'then been ascertained to bo far less than that of almost any other island in that part of the ocean, was evidently far too great to male© anchorage possible. _ The Southern Cross had therefore to lie off and on outside, while Mr Patteson and I, with the six lads who belonged to the island, found our way to 6hore through a narrow nassage in the reef. It was my first experience of a really tropical island, and the strange beauty of the silver beach of coral sand, with its fringe of waving coconut palms, divided my interest .with the crowd of natives that had assembled to meet ns. Whether the meeting was to bo quite friendly didn’t at first seem altogether certain, as every one of the crowd was armed with a club or spear, but as soon ns the lads in our boat were recognised by their friends there was a general

movement towards tho water’s edge, a waving of spears and clubs, and a variety of calls and cries, which, though hardly musical, were evidently meant for welcome. When we had waded ashore our boat was pushed off and lay floating in the smooth sunny water of the lagoon inside the reef—a precaution that was taken against the risk of interference with us when the time came for leaving the island. As soon as wo had set foot on the beach we were surrounded by the crowd, and conducted through the fringe of trees and shrubs that everywhere came nearly to the shore, to an open spaco round which stood a little villago of circular huts with conical roofs, into the largest of which we were led by a tall man, who seemed to bo the chief person of the crowd. We must have spent at least two hours in the conference that took place in the large hut, but it was altogether friendly. The principal men sat in a circle on tho floor around Mr Patteson, who was seated on a small boulder, and talked, while the rest made a fire m the centre of the hut, and proceeded to cook yams in the hot ashes. When they were ready we all took part in eating them in a friendly way, breaking them into pieces, as we had done with roast potatoes when we were boys. Personally, I didn’t find tho yam by any means so nice a vegetable as tho old potato, or even the kumara of New Zealand, but it evidently formed a largo part of the food of the natives, and it must be nourishing, I suppose, as they are a race of big, powerful men.

We spent some time in walking over the higher part of the island, accompanied by practically the wholo population, old and young, and when ive got into our boat, which lay waiting for us in tho lagoon, we took with us two of the scholars we had brought back from New Zealand, who preferred to go on, trusting to Mr Patteson’s promise that he would bring them back. Our experience at the first island was almost exactly repeated at the other, and we took four of our summer scholars at St John’s College with us when wo left the Loyalty Islands, and steered for the southernmost of the 'New Hebrides, where the Presbyterian Mission was already established.

It had been decided that tho mission work of tho southern New Hebrides should be left in the hands of the Presbyterian Mission, so our only object in calling at the island of Tanna was to leave letters and goods at tho mission station. We then turned northward, generally keeping iri sight the mountain tops of. the various islands we passed, till ,at last we reached those that belonged to the new field of the Melanesian Mission. (To be continued.)