The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-06-07
A LONG NIGHT OF AGONY.
The Story of a Horrible Tragedy on One
of the South Sea Islands.
LONDON, Nav 1.-The natives of the

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LONDON, May 14.-The natives of tn
South Sea Islands should either b.
speedily brought under the influence o
Christian civilization or suffer extirpa
ton. The latest case of horror which
reaches US from this section of he worlC
is the massacre of part of a crew belong
ing to Melbourne vessel, the particu
lars of which have been furnished by ;
correspondent of an Australian paper
1t appears that in January the schoon
er Douglas, with a crew of ten white
men, including officers, left Cairns fol
Chilcot Island, lying 200 miles to The
east, to take in load of guano. On the
passage the vessel stopped off 'Drinl
Island and shipped three blacks, who
boarded the Douglas from canoe. Or
arriving at Chilcot, small, detached
uninhabited island, brig belonging &c
the same owners was found there par.
tally loaded. A member of the firm
who had gone out with the schooner de.
cided that, as there was not black labor
enough to screen the guano as rapidly
as desired, he would return with the
brig and fill up her cargo with cedar at
the Daintree. In the presence of the
three blacks shipped at Drink Island,
nearly all the arms belonging to the
schooner were transferred to the brig,
and the latter sailed on the morning OF
the 10Th. The arms, it may be said,
were taken because the Daintree was
known to swarm with treacherous ma
tives, and no one dreamed that the
blacks on the remaining vessel would
undertake the murder of more than
three times their own number. A hut
had been erected on shore for the stor-
age of water and provisions. Early in
the night this hut was occupied by two
white men named Cochrane and McIn-
tosh, and two of the blacks. The blacks
seemed cheerful and happy, and the
whites were under no apprehension of
danger. Watching their opportunity,
the two negroes stealthily approached
their victims and dispatched them with
an instrument known as halifax. Re-
tanning their weapons, the murderers
SWAN off to the vessel. The whites were
all sleeping in fancied security, and not
a soul was on the alert save the third
black, who waited the coming of his
I
fellows. Softly they stole about their
bloody task. Two of the whites were
sleeping on deck, and murderous blows
rendered them incapable of uttering a
sound. Leaving these two men for
dead, the blacks next entered the hold,
and, finding a sailor named Purcell, they
chopped his head, face and arm in a
frightful manner, and cut huge gap
ing cash in his back. They believed
him dead, but subsequently he managed
to crawl through the hold into the af
ter-cabin. The acting second mate,
Deasy by name, who was asleep on the
forecastle, hearing the cutlery made by
Purcell, rushed on deck He lodged
the blow of bloody AK and cried out,
"Captain, the blacks are numbering
us!"
The three murdererS attacked him,
but he managed o Gel away with numer-
Gus flesh wounds and a severe chop on
the arm. Once they had him on his
back, and one tempted 10 chop off his
legs while being held by the other two.
He managed to free himself, and struck
down one of his assailants with small
gridstone lying on the deck. Deasy and
two men then succeeded in reaching the
rigging. The blacks followed, but the
men gained the foreyard and kept them
at bay with blocks cut away with the
mates knife The struggle aroused the
Captain. He started TO 90 on deck, but
as he laid his hand on the top of the
companion it was chopped off with an
AK, and he Immediately retreated to the
cabin. Here he remained with his son,
and was subsequently joined by Purcell
and Shaw, the latter one of the men
first attacked. On lying down to sleep,
Shaw had wrapped rug and thick
bag about his shoulders, and this alone
saved him from immediate death. Ac-
cording to his own story, he awOke in
sort of dream and found himself one
mass of clotted blood from wounds on
the head and arms The men on the
foreyard-the mate so wounded that he
had to be lashed to prevent falling
supposed that all hands, save them
selves, were dead, and did not venture
down. The negroes, not able to attack
them in their position aloft, commenced
a search for the bodies of their victims
and such others as might have evaded
their attacks. The steward had shut
himself up in his galley and
escaped their murderous inten-
tons. Shaw and Purcell, as we have
seen, had crawled away to the cabin
Coming across the body of Troy,
one of the two first struck, they
found him still alive. They then chop
ped his body and Glove his head, till all
life, all semblance even of humanity,
was lost in the horrid butchery.
Trembling in his galley, and momenta-
rily expecting his own fate, the steward
heard the poor victim groan out, "Oh,
God I'm finished now" The wound
ed, mutilated men in the cabin attempt
ed, and vainly so, to load pistol, the
flowing blood clogging the weapon and
so damping the powder that they could
do nothing.
Daylight came at last, and with it
came some hope for the poor bleeding
victims of the murderous fiends, al
though deliyerance was yet to be delay
ed. The situation as the day dawned
was az fo1loyvs. Tho tbraa blood stain