CAPTURED BY CANNIBALS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 17

CAPTURED BY CANNIBALS.

Captain Reid, who commanded the Liverpool ship Aigburth, wrecked off New Guinea, where a number of the crew were seized by cannibals, has arrived in Liverpool. Five of the men who got away in one boat were set apart to be eaten. When saved by a neighbouring tribe who attacked the cannibals, the men were bound close to a huge fire, over which a crude gridiron had been fixed.

Captain Reid said that the Aigburth was on a voyage from Newfoundland to> Java when she struck on an unknown reef, and shortly afterwards the crew were compelled to take to the boats. The boat in which he and others were reached Frederick William Land after five days. The other boats also reached there on other days. The fourth boat, however, had not turned up when lie left.

When they landed the natives were very wild, and assumed a threatening} demeanour towards the crew. They came down to the beach in large numbers, looked at himself and crew, touching them and feeling their arms and limbs to find out what sort of condition they were in. The situation was terrible while it lasted, but all the men kept very cool. The rest of the story, told in Captain Reid’s own words, runs :

“I fortunately had with me a gun, and some caps, powder, and shot. I kept eyeing them intently, watching every movement. Then I kept putting something into the gun from time to time, manipulating it in such a manner that the savages soon came to the conclusion that I meant serious business. When they saw what was going on they began to sneak gradually away from us, ond eventually they cleared away. We -were ultimately taken off by the steamer Guthrie, and landed at Sydney, coming home by the Afric. “The savages were in a fearful condition, socially and morally. They were absolutely naked, 'the only ornament they possessed being a bone stuck through their nostrils, giving them a most appalling appearance to a stranger. I think that the appetite of these cannibals for fresh meat was stimulated by the absence of all flesh, either of beast or fowl, which scarcely appear to have any existence at all in the country.”