The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-10-22 00:00:00

FOREIGN MISCELLANY.

MURDER OF AN ENGLISH MIKSION•ET AND HlB
Wire HT SAVAGES.— The Rev. W. Cuthbertaon, agent
and representative of the London Illusionary Society,
supplies the Sydney Herald of the 2lst August with
the following particulars of the barbarous murder by
natives of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, of the Erromange (an
island of the New Hebrides, in the Pacific Ocean), mis-
sionary station :—" Erromanga, 7th June, 1881. Rev.
Sir,—lt is with feelings of deep melancholy that I now
have to communicate to you the distressing intelligence
of the massacre by the natives here of our worthy mis-
sionary and his wife, Mr. and Mrs Gordon. This
mournful event took place on the 20th ultimo, about one
one o'clock in the afternoon, and I proceed to detail to
you the circumstances connected with it. On the after-
noon of the 20th I was in the act of writing a note to
Mr. Gordon, when I was startled by • native (David-
uti), followed by others of the mission boys, rushing
across the river and shouting that the Bunkhill natives
bad killed the ' I immediately armed myself,
and the few foreign natives which I have, and started
in pursuit of the murderers, but unsuccessfully. I
found the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon lying on the
ground hLirribly wangled, Kiel I saw at a glance that
anything in the shape of surgical assistance was out of
the question, as, from the nature of the wounds, death
must have been instantaneous. I went and loeked up
the mission•honse, and set a guard of ten natives, well
armed, to defend the property. I then went and
selected a spot for the grave: it is situated on the
right bank of the river, near the spot where Williams
was killed, and overshadowed by cocoa-nut and banana
trees. In the morning I made two collies, in which the
bodies were
.placed, and at two o'clock we carried there
to the burying-place. Theie, at my request, a native
named 'Matte,' wto hod been for some time at the I
Samoan Institution, and who acted as a teacher under
Mr. Gordon, conducted the services. A hymn
having been sung, lie gave an address, which,
to judge from the effects visibly produced,
mast have been deeply felt' and a prayer
having been offered up to Almighty God, the
bodies were consigned to the earth. It was deeply in-
teresting to me to witness the emotion exhibited by a
native standing next to me, who seemed to be utterly
overcome by grief; yet this very man, in 18 .9, murderva
another of God's labourers,, John Williams. The tears
and lamentations of all present at the interment it was
painful to witness. From the accounta which I have
gathered from the natives you may rely on the correct-
ness of the following description of the murderous
attack: About noon of the 20th, • party of nine Bunk.
hill natives, of whom the chief Love was the leader,
called at the mission-lionse, and inquired for Mr.
Gordon. They were informed that he was working a
little further down the hill, at a house which he was
building as • winter residence. They went towards the
place, but in pawing through • grove near the house,
eight of the men concealed themselves, while the ninth,
named • Narehu-leet,' went further down to inveigle
Mr. Gordon into thatrap thus laid for his destruction.
Mr. Gordon had, unfortunately, sent all his boys away
to gather erase for the roof of the new hoes°, and was
unattended, when Narn•budeet walked up to him, and
asked for calico for himself and the others of the party,
wlei, lie said, were waiting at the mission.house. Mr.
Genlon took up • piece of board, and wrote on it with
piece of charcoal, 'Give these men a yard of cotton
each.' This lie gave to the savage, and told him to
take it to Mrs. Gordon, who would give him what lie
yaw,l. This, however, would not have suited the
intentiens of N iru•bu•leet. He told the missionary
th it 1..V11 wished particularly to see Lim,
n I to get some medicine for '• sick man,
an I that lie bad, therefore, better go up
to his own house. Mr. Gordon, pointing to
a plat* containing some food which Mrs. Gordon had
sent him, said, 'I have not yet eaten, hut never mind,
I can do seas well at the house;' and, wrapping up the
piste in his handkerchief, he started up the
hill, followed by the native. On arrivink at the am-
bush, NariPbudeet buried his tomahawk in Mr. Gor-
don's spine. He immediately fell, uttering a loud cry.
Nuru-bu-leet gave him another stroke on the right aide
of the neck, which silliest severed the head from the
body ; and the others, rushing trona their concealment,
quickly cut their ;our victim to pieces. While this
tragedy was beluk enacted, another native, whose name
was 'Ouben,' ran towards the euisaloo.honse, and Mrs.
Gordon, who !Lad been alarmed by the fiendish yells and
laughter of the savages, had run out, and was standing
near an out-house. She asked Outwits what all that
noise was about. He hurglial and 'Laid, ' Nothing ' • it
I, only tbe boys 'posies themselves.' She said, 'Where
are the boys? and turned rousd. Onben, then, with
the tomahawk, which he carried concealed behiud his
hick, struck her a blow beneath the shoulder-blade ;
and, on her falling on a heap of grass, he nesrly cut the
bead off, and otherwise mutilated her in various parts
of the body. Such was the fate of two of God's most
zealous servants. It is now four years since Mr. Gor-
don and his wife arrived here, viz., since 4th June,
1857, and during this time they have labourecl hard
among the rude and ferocious Erroinangsns with littte
apparent success. Privations of the moist distressing
kind have been cheerfully and uncomplainingly borne,
and the many attempts made against their lives,
although hitherto UIIIIIICMPIIIIIII, have rendered their re-
sidence her. continually full of anxiety and alarm."
PUNISHMENT FOR A GENEROUS IDSA.—Coluplaints
are frequent/y made, says the Paris Siicle, of the
prosaic character of young men in the present day, and
yet their generous outbursts are scsrcely pardoned. A
young man, althoogh provided with the most Batas.
factory certificates, has just been rejected by a college
of Paris, because he took pert in the expedition to
Sicily under Garibaldi. The rector was deaf to the
most urgent entreaties of his mother, saving that he
could not admit • pupil who had served under the
standard of disorder, and that not only the doors of his
trollop, but of every otht r in Paris, would be closed
2161ttlimui. litlia then there is • youth, almost •
placed under ban by the halts:llV. What Is
b. g 4.? pawns Wei I

/ Counernite IN FRANC& —A strange affair is recorded
in the Nantes journals young woman was three
months back found lying, bathed in blood, with a wound
her back, by the roadside, not far from Saint-Fiecre,
in the neighbourhood of that city, and the nook this
statement :—" On the previous slay she and • young
man named Lefort, Is, whom she was engaged to bu
married, left tieint-Fiacre, in which they both resided,
for Nantes, to base their portraits taken. They
returi.ed in the evening, and were on the hetet terms.
On entering a vineyard through which they luul to peas,
the young weinan went on tint. and presently, to her
astonishment, she heart the report of a lire-arm chew
behind her. Turning round KIM perceived Lefort with
two pistols in iii. hand, anti he cried, "One of thaw is
for you, the other for to. !" What can you mean
exclaimed the :irl, Alla seeing that her lover's intoner
was very strange, site turned to run away, lint lie fired
and wounded her in the back. She fell and wax
unable to move, and, all no one heard her cries, slie had
to pass all the night on the spot. As for the loan, who
after firing the pistol took to flight, he was found at
Nantes, and was rrrrr tea.
A Cot:Nis:art:a CoUNTFAIS.—The Tribunal of Cur-
red,ional Police was recently occupied with the trial on
the charge if swindling of a very pretty young female
who, under the n•ine of the Countess its Idery, lately
gained considerable notoriety in certain circles of Paris.
She, it appears. is a married woman name.' Mowry,
and of respectable family ; but wan some time hack con-
demned for adnltery, and !INS aillea led • losese life, not.
only in Paris, but in England and Germany. As shin is of
very ea traysgant liabits,she hail several tinteebeen arrested
for debt at Lmitlon end Frankfort. In April last she
MPS in the debtors' prison of the latter city, lint she
emit-iced to recap° in male attire, and cattle to Paris.
Although's:nasalising au interne of only 5,000 f. a year,
she hired an apartment in the Passage Stir& for 700 f. a
toonth, and lived at the rate of 100,0001. per annum.
This she Mae able to do by noodling ttadesmen in the
false pretext she bore the title of Countess de Illery,
was a Russian of high f ouily, excessively rich, and was,
a married woman, though separated from her husband.
Among tl:e persons victimised by her were two dealers
in lace and linen, named Giorni and Romignol. She, it
appeared, wee acenstnined to drive a dashing equipage,
and a letter from a horse dealer, who Itad let her home
on hire, complaining that she drove an fast that the
animals were injured, was read. A piece of verse,
mblrervied by her toe Russian general, was also reed.
The accused defended bersel with great energy, pro-
testing that she had no intention of committing fraud ;
and lien advocate represented that the tradespeople
whom % ohs lied wronged hid been indemnified. Ttse
tribunal condemned her to one year's imprisonment and
NW. fine ; and the same sentence was pronounced on a
woman named Demenet, whom she called her house-
keeper, having amisted her in liar frauds.—Gahunatti.