The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-15 00:00:00

.NINE SON

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE.

The following na•rative, relating to Joshua New-
burn, who has recently retur: ed to this country, after
having been captured by the natives of New Zealand,
and after having served for nearly nine years and a half
under the chiefs of various tribes, during which period
he underwent the cruel torture of tattooing, is authen-
tic, and may be depended upon. There is something
so truly extraordinary in the history of this young man's
life, during his nine years and a haif'sresidence in the in-
terior of the island of New Zealand, that a few observa-
tions relating to him cannot fail to prove extremely in-
terestine.

Joshua Newburn is the eldest son of the late
Mr. John Henry Newburn, for many years a free-
man of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths,
in the City of London, and was born in the
parish of St. Luke on the 27th of March, 1817.
His family are still livieg in tact parish in respectable
circumstances. He received a plain education at an
Holton academy (Gloucester House), under a Mr.
Pearce, and was afterwards apprenticed to a gas-fitter
in the city ; but his inclinations being seaward his
father caused his indentures to be cancelled, and on
the 27th of February, 1832, he was articled for the
term of three years to a Captain Plant, master of a
whaler, bound t 3 the Sauth Seas, named the Marquis
of Lansdowne. After a voyage of three months and
fifte:n days from the date of leaving Portsmouth, the
ship reached the flay of Islands on the New Zasland
coast, where she brought up, and young Newborn, who
was then but 15 years of age, having suffered much sick-
ness on board, obtained leave to go ashore to seek me-
dical advice. As there were several canoes manned
with natives around the ship, trading with the crew,
Newburn took the advantage of bargaining with a run-
galeree, or lead boatman, to take him ashore ; but after
they had left the ship, instead of the men rowing into
the mouth of the harbour to the English settlements,
they made away for a sandy beadat some distance
off, and, having dragged him on shore, they stripped
him quite naked, beating him at the same tit ne with
their paddles, till they left him insensible ; th ty then
took to the caaoe and made off. As soon as Ile had
partied), recovered from the effects of th&r violence
be wandered about the island in quest of a human
habitation, desirou*, if possible, of alighting upon
some white man. This he continued to do 'or two
days and nights, making the best of his way through
forests of fern, breast high, which (be being quite be-
reft of clothing), shockingly chafed and lacerated his
bady. On the third :norning, as he sat and©r a tree,
fernisLed with hunger, rind exhausted with fatigue, be
was perceived by two native youths, the sons of a chief
living hard by, who, pitying his condition, conducted
him to the hut of their father, who was lying sick upon
a mat. 52211 g that he (Newburn) was destitute of
clothing, he furnished him with an old pair of carnal a
truusers and a tattered shirt, and having afforded him
such refreshm.tnt as his circumstances would admit a f
he sent him to a neighbouring chief, who, he said, would
use him well,

To follow the life and adventures of this young mats
from that period up to the time of his quitting the
country for England ; to detail the chequered circum-
stances he met with during the nine years and upwar•is
be served with various tribes of t :e island ; to depii:t
the scenes he witnessel, the imminent perils he encoun-
tered, the severe, almost incredible hardships he el i-
dured, the dreadful privations he underwent, and th
miraculous escapes he experienced, would occupy tb
space of a large volume. He is now in London, an
although he speaks his Dative language correctly..
yet it is with difficulty that he at times can finjt
words wherewith to express his ideas. His bodz
is cicatrized in many places from the wounds Int
has from time to time received from the spears and
knives of the natives whilst he was engaged under
different ch:ers, contending with militant tribes ; and his
face has undergone the horrible operation of tattooing,
which gives b:m the appearance of a New Zealand
Chief. Although he is now only in his sth year,
from the acute sufferings he has undergone (having
been at one period exposed for 14 months in the bush),
he appears considerably older, and his constitution
has been so severely shattered, that it is quite impos-
sible that he could have subsisted another year had.
he remained on the island. He sneaks the New Zee-
land language with the utmost fluency, and became-
ultimately so thoroughly initiated into the ways, habits,
and manners of the natives, that they ident fled him
with themselves, and styled him by a term of distinction
" Mootooab," which means " the tattooed spirit." In
de cribing the scenes he witnessed among the tribes he
is exceedingly simple, and imparts what information
may be sought of him in a very clear and artless manner.
He states that the first instance of human butchery
be witnessed in the island was shortly after his arrival.
A canoe tended a crew of natives whilst he was stand-
ing on the beach near a pals, or village, named limo-
zeik a; he perceived two females among them, who were
particularly good looking ; among them was a very
powerfully made man, who held a tomahawk in his
hand, and who followed close upon the heels of the women
as they proceeded on the beach, when he suddenly
stepped before teem and with one blow with his weapon
nearly severed one female's head from her body ; he then
performed the same tragical operation upon the other
female, and left them ree!tering in their blood upon the
beach. As soon as he had sufficiently collected himself
he ran home to the pah, appalled at what he had seen,
and communicated, as well as be could, the eircum•
stance to his chief, fearing that himself and his tribe
might be beset by the party. Upon inquiry, however,
it was discovered that the women were the slaves of a
neighbouring chief, who had given his command that
they should be tomahawked out of his own settlement
for their disobeying his ordsrs with regard to his chil-
dren. He, moreover, states that some time after-
wards, when he was at a pale called " Warakaika," he
bore witness to one of the most revolting acts of
butchery that it could be destined for the human eye to
behold. The chief of the tribe under which he served
had waged war with the chief of another tribe located
in a pah a short distance off them. They sallied forth
just before day-break, armed with muskets, spears, and
tomahawks (for the natives, he says, when they want to
surprise an enemy, consider tais the most seasonable
time, entertaining an idea that sleep lays its hand more
heavily upon the slumberer at that particular period
then any other that is appropriated to repose) ; and
the chief having fired off his musket on their arrival
at the pah, as a signal for the commencement of
hostilities, they all began the war dance, which
was kept up for about two minutes, when they fired
their muskets into the mat-houses of the enemy,
and then teek to their spears and tomahawks, and
after a desperate struggle the pall surrendered, and the
tribe were made prisoners and bound. Then the chief
of the tribe went round to each prisoner and despatched
the whole of them, one after another, by strking them
on the head with his tomahawk. He, moreover, adds
that there were among the number of the captives one
chief of high rank, as also a seer or divine-, and a noted
warrior, who were sill three seated upon a rush mat by
themselves. Tne chief of his tribe advanced towards
them, and with his tomahawk tapped their several heads
and drank the blood as it ran from them. Another
man of his tribe took out the eyes of the wretched vic-
tims and ate them raw, life not being out of the former.
Thy finally cut off their limbs and
ready for the oven. quartered them,
But the most dreadful feature in this act of massacre
was that of a man and woman bound toeether the
former being the sun of the opulent chief
of the h
the latter his wife, who held a child, about nine months
e m
old, in her arms. This young warrior Lad
murdered
with his own hand, several of the tribe to whiela
he
(Newburn) belonged ; and having dragged the woman
after having untied her from her husband, into an ad:
joining
cempaitment, and after having committed the
grossest acts of
.on, vio!ence upon her, they tore the infant
and tukingit up by the legs battered
from her pro'ectl
its head against the sides of the hut. As to the unfor-
tunate husband, they cut slices of flash from his body,
and, thrusting the sane into” his mouth, asked him if it
"was good, and tasted well. He stopped in this place
for two days with his tribe, during which time they
were employed in cooking their enemies, in such a man-
ner as to keep them for some length of time. This
process is performed by
first cutting away all the flash
from the bones, and separating the lean .from the fat ;
,
the fat is fried in earthen vessels to yield a lard ; the
lean is baked in the oven. The latter is then put into
calabashes, and the fat poured over it ; by this means
the meat will keep sound for upwards of 12 months.