Litchfield enquirer., 1831-09-22

MI CT isIands--the captain being aPprehensiVe oi hostiIities, reinforced the hands on shore uII they amounted in number to tweDty-one'-l Res6s were Also sent by him to the othcer cononnanding them, and he was particularly Cautioned to be on his guard, caution, how ever. which he disregarded, for shortly atter the natives made general and succession at- tack on them from the woOd,-two or tne crew that were in the jolly boat had just nme to shove her off. When out of the reach or the arrows. they laid by and took on DoaFo three of the crew that had save0 tnensens in the water. The whale boat despatched by the captain, with ten armed men, on hearing
 the war whoop of the natives, saved two more
 of them--the remainder were all massacreo; witt, the exception of one whose fate we snaH
 hereafter mention.
 Capt. Morrel. with a diminished crew.
 found it impossible to prosecute inc onJsc.s of his voyage. and he therefore detern''oeu W return to MaDl!a, to obtain a retntOrceape"' ! of men. He arrived there on the 25tn June; and having shipped fourteen more men, sa''eu again on the 8th August. On the 1Stn sep; he once moro reached the island where ne nau ! lost so many of his crew, ana Wnlcn' HonI
 that circumstance, he called Massacre ls'auu but he had no sooner come to an ancnoc s""'' l he was attacked. by the natives in the'r ca ! nO@SS UTtSk UTG bGVtu Ah~ , CT, compelled them to retreat. e Shortly afterwards small canoe put OH from the shore, in which to the great JOY or Fall on board the schooner. they found one of their old crew, Leonard Shaw who at the time of the massacre, had hidden himself in the woods and escaped. He had remained concealed fifteen days, stibsisting on only four cocoa nuts when he was discovered by the na- lives, and cruelty wounded. From this man, Capt. Morreii learnco' tnat the skulls of thirteen of his men that were XIII, ed, were hanging at the Ch'e's uoos, anu that few days before his return to the is!anu'
 the natives had consulted together on knhns and eating Shaw himself, hut delayed II m conse0uence of the absence of some Of thelr chiefs. They afterwards sent him on board
 witt, proposals itwas supposed ofa pacific na- ture.
 Shaw, while on this Island. was employed bv the natives in manufacturing knives out of the iron they had obtained from the vessel.
 He was badly treated by them, they giving him hardly enough to live upon. He repre- sents inc whole of the Island as under the sway of one chief, who rules with absolute
 mower: each of the other islands has subor- siinate chief, with many others dependent up- on him.-He says he could discover a. mongst them no traces of religion, no appear ance of any thing like reverence Tor supe- rior power. The chiefs indulge in Po!ygamy' hnt the generality of the men have but one
 wife il1e women are reserved and chaste. their husbands killing them without any scru- ple On the least suspicion ofinfdelity. shaw thinks they kill all the children except those of fhe chief. he having perceived none otner amongst them. Their huts are made of Ramhoes and the leaf of the cocoa-nut trees. on the fruit of which, the bannana and fish,, they entirely snbsist. The islands are entlre-'
 ..-- 6ts AarUA AbausHni iH small clusters on the sea coast for the conven- fence offishing.
 The length of this article warns us to bring it to a close, we therefore conine ourselves to but one other encounter with the natives Capt. Morrill,, in order to protect tho people at work on shore, caused a kind of battery to be constructed on the top of two large trees,a ,a- bout forty feot from the ground, and mounted it with four brass swivels, sixteen of his best men were placed in it with muskets, and pro- visions. but it was hardly completed when the natives came down in large force and attack ed the men below, the fire from the battery, to their great surprise, opened upon them and compelled them to retreat with severe loss.
 We pass over the purchase of the Mas sacre Island from its chief, his death and ma ny other details. No exertions of Capt. Mor- Till could pacify the natives. They c0ntinu- ed to perseyere in their hostilities notwith- | standing the great loss of lives they sustained, and the burning of their huts. and eventually | compelled him te give up the hope of obtain ing cargo of fish from the reef of rocks l which bounds their shores.
 Capt. Morrill, still prosecuted his voyage, and made manysOther important discoveries they are, however, his property, and we therefore abstain from noticing them, in hope | that he will in another day reap the advan- tage from them which during this voyage has been denied him.
 One of the natives from the Massacre Isl- and. and another from another island suLse- quently discovered, have been brought home by Capt. Morrill,. As may be supposed. they | are objects of much curiosity.
 His intention is to return with them to their ] homes, when he hopes that the treatment ! they have received at his hands, will ensure him better reception from their countrymen. and that the knowledge they will have acquir- ed here, will he the means of introducing a. mongst them some ofthe advantages of civi- ation.-Neac- York Courier and Enquirer.
 FATAL DuEL.--The editors of the N. York Journal ofeCommerce have received from correspondent at St. Louis the following let ter, giving an account of a melancholy trans action which took place on the 28th ult.:
 St. Lonss. Aug. 28tk, 1881 1.-The fatal ter minatiOn-Of the controversy between Major Riddle Paysnas asfar raf Hh@ III c A.,n.