The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-03 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

just, since his disease is of a different type altogether.
Then, too, there are considerable variations between
the symptoms exhibited by the afflicted. Some have
sufficient control over their morbid inulinations to re-
frain from drinking for many months at a time. In
the end, however, they invariably succumb to sudden
temptation, and then become as furious as the
worst of their class. But so long as the fit is
off, they are perfectly amenable to reason, and
are ready to adopt any remedy, of however un-
pleasant a nature. A much worse phase of the disease
is E3en in those sufferers who, while ostensibly paying
due deference to advice, drink in secret whenever a
chance presents itself. With these it is impossible to
reason, since they will not admit such covert practices
unless absolutely detected in the fact, a matter of con-
siderable difficulty, owing to the sly stratagems by
which the desired end is compassed. Cunning and
deceit, indeed, form leading characteristics of th e
disease, and it is to be feared that against them super_
vision' even of the closest kind, would be found use-
less. All who have come across cases of the sort will
bear witness that when a dipsomaniac is under the in-
fluence ef his besetting craving, nothing short of abso-
lute incarceration can keep him from its gratification.
If closely watched all day, he will be nearly sure to
break loose at night, or in some other way contrive to
elude the vigilance of his guardians. There are cases
on record, we believe, where dipsomaniacs, after volun-
tarily placing themselves under the personal control of
medical men, jumped out of window and were killed on
the spot, because the locking of the door kept them
from drink. A far worse class, however, is to be found
in those who having lost the last remnants of self-
respect, neither affect concealment of their insensate
craving, nor attempt to resist its influence. For them,
cure is simply hopeless, the only question being
whether they ought not to be confined as dangerous
lunatics. A very important question this, opening
• out a different aspect of the matter. So far, we have
mainly treated the disease from the humane point of
view, with an eye to the protection of the sufferers
against themselves. But society has also its own inte-
rests to look after, apart from such philanthropic con-
siderations. In addition to being possessed by an
insane craving for stimulants, the dipsomaniac's
muddled brains generally contain the germs of some
other madness. This may remain unsuspected, even
by his nearest relations, for years, but, in the esid, it is
pretty nearly certain to develop itself with more or
less alarming consequencess. Brooding incessantly
over the delights of intoxication, suspicious, cunning,
irritable, and half-witted, the dipsomaniac has been
often known to fly into a murderous fury apparently.
without the slightest provocation. This occurs some-
times even when he is abstaining from stimulants, but
more frequently either just at the beginning of a drink-
ing fit or at its close. When the paroxysm
of anger gets hold of him the previously ner-
vous creature becomes a furious madman, capa-
ble of committing even murder without the
slightest compunction. If any deadly weapon
be at hand, he will seize and employ it against the
person who has provoked his wrath; if not, he will
try to wreak his vengeance in some other way. Such
being the case, it is evident that considerations of
public safety would fully justify the adoption of pre-
ventive measures, even if remedies were not demanded
in the best interests of the sufferers themselves. Of
course, the latter consideration possesses more weight
than the former, but it is necessary to include both, so
as to arrive at a general view of the subject. In some
quarters a disposition exists to resist any attempt at
legislation for dipsomaniacs, because they are sup-
posed to do no harm except to themselves and it is
sometimes asked why they should be interfered with
any more than gamblers, habitual drunkards, or other
victims of over-indulgence in vice. When the matter
is placed on this footing, the simple reply is that dip-
somaniacs contain within them the elements of direct
danger to public safety, while the other classes harm
only themselves or their own families.

From a consideration of the foregoing facts, the im-
portance of guarding against empircism when legis-
lating for the disease will become evident. As this
form of insanity develops many phases, so ought
remedial methods to be various in their nature. For
the class of dipsomaniacs who really wish to become
cured, it might be sufficient to give legal validity to
documents signed by themselves by which they agreed
to submit their actions to control during a certain
specified term. With this power in his hands, a
medical man would be in a far better position to work
a permanent cure than at present, when such patients
are almost certain to refuse farther obedience when
the fit returns. The second class, those who feign to
have given up drinking while practising it in secret,
require more stringent restrictions. . . . A confirmed
dipsomaniac will continue drinking, whatever orders
he may receive, so long as he can obtain stimu-
lants by any means in his power, and, being especially
crafty in concealing his insanity, he would have little
difficulty in deceiving publicans. When the disease
has reached this mark the only thing to be done is to
cut off the victim from supplies for a long period, in
the hope that the craving may die out gradually. But
to do this effectually he must be secluded in some in-
stitution where all intercourse with the outer world is
guarded against with the same strictness as in lunatic
asylums. In this way he would be given a chance of
eventual recovery, especially if means were adopted to
divert his mind from the one subject of its contempla-
tion. With regard to the worst class of dipsomaniacs,
those who openly outrage public opinion and show their
insanity without concealment, seclusion is absolutely
called for in the interests of national morality and.
safety. In their case a cure is scarcely to be ex-
pected, the disease being so firmly rooted as to have
become a part of their nature. But society has a right
to protect itself against danger, and these vicious
lunatics are dangerous in the last degree. Legisla-
tion should, therefore provide further rigorous
seclusion from the world in asylums set apart
for declared maniacs of their own sort, where
they could neither harm themselves nor the
general community. Such, then, are some of the con-
siderations to which those who take the subject in
hand must address themselves. Great difficulties will
unquestionably be experienced in legislating for till
disease, owing to its complexity. But the evil of
allowing things to drift on as at present being almost
universally admitted, the discovery of an effectual
remedy cannot be more than a question of time.

The Lancet also writes :

Probably no similar want is felt so strongly among
all classes of society as the need for that prevision for
the restraint of the habitual drunkard which has more
than once seemed almost within reach; but, alas 1 is
now apparently as far off as ever. The cases are of a
character for which the means at present at our dis
posal are entirely inadequate. Friends and physicians
are alike pow niess. Every remedy short of restraint
which has been, and apparently can be, employed—
self-respect,. affection for others, sense of propriety,
every drug in the Pharmacopceia--has failed; and all
through the country, and in every social grade, in
varying proportions, the evil continues. From time to
time the need for a remedy finds direct or indirect ex-
pression, as in a letter which recently appeared in a
contemporary, in which the writer calls urgently for
legislation to meet what he rifhtly regards as a vast
and increasing evil. The manifest and manifold diffi-
culties Which surround the subject, and render its
manipulation difficult, are not insurmountable, and it
is urged that even if the necessary provisions cannot
be secured without some infringement upon recognised
rights and principles, the evil incurred would be trifling
compared with that which is always present and daily
reaching larger proportions, during the timorous
abstinence from action. The subject concerns the
public, and can be only dealt with by them, and we
are glad to observe that there is no disposition on the
part of our lay contemporaries to allow it to sleep upon
the shelf on which our legislators have laid it, and
apparently intend to allow it to remain.

_
southwards, we were opposite the mouth, or rather
the delta with many mouths of the great river
Anibernoh, which rises in the Charles- Louis
Mountains, a splendid range in the interior up-
wards of 16,000 ft. high, and fa'ls into the sea at Cape
D'Urville, to the east of the entrance of Geelvink Bay.
The sea was loaded with drift-wood, and Mr. Moseley
collected from a boat about 50 species of seeds and
seed capsules, which had apparently been drifted from
a considerable distance by the river. On the follow-
ing day all uncertainty as to our destination was at an.
end, and at noon on the 23rd, after a wet, foggy morn-
ing, which up to that time had prevented our seeing
the New Guinea coast, the weather cleared, and the
tops of the fine range of the Cyclops Mountains came
out clear above a low bank of cloud. A. little later
• Mount Bougainville, to the east of the entrance of
Humboldt Bay, was visible, and about four o'clock we
were rapidly approaching Point Cailld and Point
Boupland, two headlands about 8001 t. high, and richly
wooded, which guard the entrance of the bay on the
west and east respectively. Night was falling when
we cast anchor just within the headlands in nineteen
fathoms water. Several canoes came off during the
evening, but the night was dark and we could not get
a good view of the natives, who were very shy and
could not be induced to come on board, although they
came near enough to reach out fish-spears 16ft. to
18ft. long for cigars or anything we chose to fix upon
them.

Next morning, shortly after daybreak, the ship was
surrounded by about 80 canoes, each from 15ft. to 20ft.
long, and with a crew of from four to six, very often
five, men. There were no women or children among
them. The men were unusually good-looking for
Melanesians, and wonderfully picturesque. They seemed
to be, on an average, sft. 41n. in height; they were
sturdy and well filled out, the features tolerably good,
and the expression agreeable, particularly in some of the
younger lads. The nose is rather thick and flat, and
usually unnecessarily distorted by an ornament con-
sisting of a symmetrical pair of boars' tusks lashed
together by their roots and passed through the septum
of the nose, the ends curving upwards or downwards,
acoording to taste. The eyes are dark and good, the
mouth large, and 'the lips rather full. The teeth are
in almost all cases entirely destroyed, and the gums
dyed crimson by the constant chewing of betel and
chinam. The ears are large and rather projecting,
and the lobes are greatly pulled down and
rngthened by large earrings, which are either hoops
of tortoise-shell or rings of boars tusks or of shell.
The hair is frizzled, not woolly, and very thick, and
is usually worn in the shape of a huge round mop,
extending five or six inches from the head all
round. Many have, in addition, a wig strapped
on the front of the head, made of the bristles of the
cassowary. The hair is generally partly bleached by
lime or coloured red with a mixture of lime and
ochre. Almost all were decorated with six or eight
black and white feathers, about the size of goose-
quills, stuck irregularly in the hair, and many
wore coronals of scarlet Hibiscus flowers, or a single
flower above the middle of the forehead. They were
very slightly tattooed, if at all, but the face was fre-
quently smeared with black or red pigment. With
the exception of a few ornaments, the body was en-
tirely naked. The skin was dark brown in the shade,
but in the sunlight the colour warmed up wonder-
fully, and became a rich, not very dark, red-brown.
They wore usually necklaces made of shells and seeds,
variously arranged. and frequently they had suspended j
from the neck a rather handsome breastplate, made of
ranges of boars' tusks fastened together side by side,
and ornamented with the black and scarlet peas of
Abrus preateorius. A tight band of tappa variously
enriched with beads or small shells encircles the
middle of the upper arm on each side, and into this
bracelet they stick, towards the outside of the arm and
a little to the back, large bunches of the fresh green
and white leaves of a very beautiful, narrow-leaved,
variegated Croton. These bunches of leaves look like
large eqaulettes or wings, and contrasted with the
dark skin and the scarlet flowers, they are most effec-
tive. All the natives were well armed with strong
bows of a heavy dark wood, probably a Casuarina,
strung with a rattan, and arrows of cane sft. or 6ft. long,
with long heads of hard wood viciously barbed for a
foot er a foot and a half from the point. In almost
every canoe there were two or three very carefully pre-
pared stone hatchets of different patterns, mounted on
hard-wood handles. The hatchet heads closely re-
semble those found in Denmark and Iceland. They
are made of a hard, close-grained, green stone, which
takes nearly as high a polish as jade. The canoes are
very narrow, scarcely wide enough to let in the legs of
a burly European. As usual, the rowers sit in the
canoe; the outrigger is about sft. off, and a square
raised platform between is occupied by the passengers
and cargo. The canoe has generally a grotesquely.
carved prow. The paddles are of hard wood, leaf
shaped, and usually rather nicely carved.
Humboldt Bay was discovered and named by Du-
mont D'Urville in 1827, and we have no account of its
having been again visited until 1858, by the Dutch
steamer Etna, whose visit gave material for an excel-
lent sketch of the bay and its inhabitants by Otto
Finsch. . . . Early in the morning we weighed and
went on to the anchorage under shelter of the small
island. When the screw began to turn, the savages
thought it was some hostile demonstration, and they
all flew to their bows, and in a moment a hundred
arrows were aimed at the suspected point. When,
however, the ship gathered way and moved steadily-
through the water without paddles or sails their ad-
miration was unbounded, and it was expressed in a
singular and very pleasing way. One of them blew a long
deep note upon a conch, and they all took up the note
with their voices and continued and swelled it, and
then let it die away during the space of a minute or so.
Then the conch note was led by another, and so on.
The canoes, to the number of nearly a hundred, now
formed a picturesque procession round and behind the
ship, and accompanied her to her new anchorage.
The surveyors landed early on a small uninhabited
island to take sights. Their boat was accompanied
and watched by some canoes, but no opposition was made
to their landing. After breakfast Captain Thomson
gave leave to surveyors and naturalists to land on an
uninhabited part of the mainland opposite the ship.
The parties were, of course, to be armed; but the
strictest orders were given not to fire except under cir-
c-nmstancee of extreme urgency and in self-defence.
He and Professor Wyville Thomson then went in the
galley to an island where was a village to ascertain
the temper of the natives and see if it were safe to go
abovt freely. They rowed to a sandy beach, where a
canoe which had been off to the ship had just been
hauled up, and made signs that they wished to land;
but the whole population, consisting chiefly of women
and boys, all armed withbows, turned out with the most
determined demonstration of hostility. The ladies were
by nc means prepossessing, the girls were perfectly naked
and wore no ornaments of any kind; the matrons had
a short kilt or fringe of rough bark-cloth round the
loins. They seemed to be very ready with their
weapons, and as our party had little confidence in
their judgment, they thought discretion the better
part of valour and kept at a safe distance, and after
rowing round the village they returned to the ship, in-
tending to try another " campong " on the mainland in
the afternoon. . . . On returning on board, our party
were met with the somewhat startling news that the
exploring boats had been unable to land, and had been
attacked and plundered by the native canoes. It
seems that both boats had been caught hold of by the
natives, the short paddles of the canoes giving them a
great advantage in hampering the action of the oars.
In the case of the boat with the naturalist party some
of the natives drew their bows and covered our men
with their arrows, while others snatched several
articles which were within reach out of the
boat. They then retired for a moment to ex-
amine their plunder, and the members of the
civilian staff acted very wisely in at once
withdrawing to the ship. All this time an active
barter was going on between the canoes and the ship,
weapons. stone tools, and ornaments being freely
exchanged for all kinds of trade gear. Iron was, how-
ever, the thing to which of all others they attached the
highest value, and for a piece of hoop or a trade knife
they would give almost anything. If one of them got
a trade hatchet all the canoes round united in their
deep musical note of admiration and pleasure. Not,
one, however, could be induced to come on board or to
touch anything in the shape of food. They certainly
regarded us with great distrust; it was evident from
their conduct that they had had some intercourse with
Europeans comparatively lately, and we had reason
to believe from what we had heard in Moluccas
that kidnapping in some form had been going on at this
very place. It was equally evident that their recent
intercourse with Europeans had been very slight,
for with the exception of a few beads on one of their
armlets, which may have come down from the time of
the Etna, we saw no object of European origin. Had
things gone well, we had intended to remain in Hum-
boldt Bay for five days, the time usually occupied in
taking sights; but under existing circumstances Cap-
tain Thomson made up his mind, after careful con-
sideration and consultation, to go on towards Admiralty
Island the same evening. The chief reasons for coming
to this conclusion were that from the hostile attitude
of the natives we could do no work, and although this
might probably have been overcame in a few days, we
were already behind our time and could not afford the

delay. . .
For the next week we were slowly making our way
with light winds and heavy rain, and close, depressing,
equatorial weather past the Schouten Islands and
Hermit Island, towards Admiralty Island, where we
arrived on the 3rd of March. We could not make out
the land from heavy rain and mist till late in the after-
noon, when the weather cleared a little, and we found
ourselves abreast of the long reef and fringe of small
islands at the entrance of a bay indicated on
D'Entrecasteaux' chart. We passed round the end of
the reef and into a fine sheet of water protected by the
reef and outlying islands, where we anchored in 18
fathoms. This anchorage, which was carefully sur-
veyed during the following week, was called Nares
Bay, in compliment to the head of the Arctic Expedi-
tion, our former Captain. We anchored near one of
the islands, and very shortly a number of very
• fine canoes, 301 t. to 40ft. long, and with crews of
from 10 to 16, came -off to the ship. The canoes
were much on the same plan as those at Humboldt
Bay, but more than double the size. The body of
the canoe Is cut out of a single tree, very symmetri-
cally formed, and really in a certain sense a work of
art and one of great patience and labour. The natives
me 'Papuan Melanesians, but as the Admiralty Islands
form the western portion of a continuous chain, includ-
ing New Hanover, new Ireland, and New Britain, it
is probable that they partake more of the character
of the inhabitants of these islands than those of
New Guinea proper. They, however, generally re-
semble the inhabitants of Humboldt Bay; they are of
about the same stature; their colour is a little more
dusky, but that may possibly be due to their making
more general use of black pigment, for we found on
better acquaintance that some of their colour was
apt to come off on the clothes or hands. Their hair
is black and frizzled, and they wear it short and rarely
bleach or dye it. They are quite naked, with the excep-
tion of a very narrow loin-cloth, and often, in lieu of
this, they wear a single shell, plain or elaborately orna-
mented, of the white egg cowry. The hair is sometimes
tied in a knot at the top of the bead by a band of tappa,
and a favourite ornament for the front of the top-knot
is a disk, three inches or so across, cut out of the white
inner substance of the shell of the pearl oyster, which
Ag polished -and -then overlaid with another disk of
very thin tortoiseshell, often cut out into a very
elegant pattern. A similar disk of larger size is worn
suspended from the neck as a breast-plate. The
nose ornaments are long pieces of bone, hung from

a short cross-piece, which passes through the septum
of the nose; -and-the earrings, and the bracelets
which they wear on the upper arm, are rings of
shell, cut from a large turbo. It is singular that
the arms and implements of the Admiralty Islanders
differ completely from those of the Papuans of Hum-
boldt Bay. In Admiralty Island bows are unknown.
The canoes all carried large sheaves of spears, with
heavy heads of obsidian and light shafts, 6ft. to 7ft.
long; they throw these with great force and accuracy,
taking hold of the shaft just below the head, where
the weight of the spear was balanced. They also use
long, sharp knives or daggers of obsidian, which they
stick into an ornamental bracelet of plaited grasses
which they wear on the left upper arm. Almost every
man had over his shoulder a neatly-mounted little
adze, made of a small piece of hoop iron, or frequently
of better and thicker iron than ordinary hoop, with a
bent hard wood handle; a few still carried what must
have preceded the iron adze—an implement of the
same form, but with the cutting part made of a piece
of a thick spiral shell (cerithium), ground down in a
particular way.
On the following morning there was brisk trade going
on between the natives and the ship. One or two of
the natives came on board, though they were still shy.
They are evidently to a certain extent accustomed to
be visited by traders, probably from the Moluccas, for
they had a large quantity of tortoiseshell done up in
packets, and they had a very definite idea of the value
of these, giving so many pieces for a knife and so many
more for a hatchet; their having so much iron also
showed that they came now and then in contact, in-
directly or directly, with Europeans. As in Humboldt
Bay, a small party from the ship went towards a
village on one of the islands to see "how the land lay."
Some native canoes accompanied them, but the natives
made no opposition to their landing; they only tried to
keep them to the sea-beach and hurried them past the
village, at the same time evidently warning the women
to keep out of sight. All our men were armed with re-
volvers, but the natives showed their confidence by
carrying no arms of any kind. It was only afterwards
that we learnt how rapidly, on the slightest misunder-
standing, all our surroundings might bristle with spears.
After walking a little way they came to another
village, and by this time the natives were getting a
little better accustomed to them, and they allowed
them to go about as they chose, except into the houses.
the curiosity of the women also began to overcome
their discretion, and little groups came out from among
the huts. They were generally anything but pleasing,
tall and gaunt, with long pendulous breasts, and their
mouths entirely ruined by betel chewing. Most of
them were slightly tattooed in faint blue lines, and
many had the bust studded with symmetrically
arranged round cicatrices, produced by burning the
spot with a red-hot stone. They wore no clothing,
except two deep fringes of grass or palm leaves, coming
down from the waist before and behind. In the course
of a few days we were quite at home with the natives
and went and came as we pleased. One afternoon they
took us to a small island, where they indicated that we
should get some pigeon-shooting. As we neared the
island, we heard a deep cooing sound, and saw clouds
of birds among the trees and flying to and fro between
the island and the mainland. When we landed the
noise was almost deafening and the place was literally
alive with the beautiful large nutmeg pigeon. We
shot till our guns were too hot to hold, and then
waited till they cooled; and then shot again till all
our cartridges were done; but such wholesale butchery
could scarcely be called sport. Almost every day
afterwards a party went to the island and shot "for
the pot." Unfortunately, however, the pigeons did
not eat so well as they looked—the flesh was dry and
flavourless.

There is a very pretty village on one of the coral
islands on the reef which, having been hitherto nameless
was called by our surveyors D'Entrecasteaux Island.
The village consists of about 30 huts of a low beehive
shape, with a log wall, 4 feet or so high, and a heavy
thatch roof, supported in the centre by a post about 12
feet in height. A good house is about 20 feet long by
12 wide; the floor is partly strewed with palm-leaves,
and the sleeping mats are ranged round, the outer
circle occupied by young men, and the inner by women
and married couples. In the centre of the hut, round •
the middle post, there is an arrangement somewhat
like a large "dumb waiter," several shelves one above
the other, and upon this are disposed all the dishes and
cooking utensils belonging to the establishment,
and sundry fetishes in the shape of strangely-
painted skulls of animals. Some of their food
dishes surprised as greatly. They were large
bowls, often between two and three feet in
diameter, hewn out of a single block of heavy, hard
red wood, like mahogany, very elegantly shaped like a
Roman tazza, with a pair of elaborately carved and
singularly graceful handles. Often there were
elaborately carved designs all over the outside of the
bowl. The jars and cooking dishes, in sunbaked
pottery, are also well designed. . . . There was one
point in connexion with our new friends about which
we could never fully satisfy ourselves. We saw no
trace of graves or of any other mode of bestowing their
dead. We found out their word for " dead ; " they
are very effective pantomimists, and when we inquired
what became of the bodies, they made the most unequi-
vocal signs that they cut them in pieces, boiled them,
and ate them In each village there is a special hut,
not differing greatly from the others in form or
arrangement, but evidently for public use. The
stock of fishingnets is kept in it, and we used to call it
the "Joss-house," from the number of skulls of men
and dugongs and pigs and turtles, and'. the bundles of
human hair and old ornaments stuck about. The
door-posts of one of these houses in a village on
Wild Island are elaborately carved, and represent
in a very gross form the "diagram of the ex-
tremes." -In these houses the bones of men were
mixed quite indiscriminately with those of food
animals. On one oocasion one of the officers, trying
to find out about their mode of disposal of the dead,
after a very effective pantomine of cutting up the
body and cooking and eating it, was shown a lot of
human bones in a pot. Once when several of the
natives were on board they were repeatedly asked by
signs if they would eat us, or if they would eat one
another, and they indicated that they would do either
with the greatest satisfaction; but when asked if they
would eat a dog which happened to pass at the time,
they expressed strong aversion. lam disinclined even
to admit to myself the possibility that these islanders,
who have so many good points about them, should be
addicted to so hideously repulsive a practice; but I
am compelled to admit that from the imperfect evi-
dence which we got on the matter, it looks as if it
might be so. It is singular that they are totally
ignorant of the use of tobacco and spirits.
We steamed out of Nares Harbour on the afternoon
of the 10th of March, intending to call at one of the
more western of the Caroline Islands and at Guam,
and, perhaps, one or two other islands in the Ladrones,
on our way to Japan, but we were so unfortunate in
our winds that we were driven to the west of both
groups and never again saw land until we sighted the
Japanese coast on the 11th of April. The cruise from
Zamboangan was by far the most trying which
we had experienced during the commission. The
weather for the greater part of the time was ex-
cessively sultry and depressing, and as we had
already been about a year in the tropics we were not
well prepared for it, and arrived in Japan, a weary,
washed-out crew