The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1884-09-03
EATING HUMAN FLESH.
Shipwrecks in Which Men Have
Preyed ON Their Fellows.
Hobart Town, the SlOOp Peggy,
the Wreck of the MeduSa

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And the Horrors Which FOl
lowed.
Tho unhappy extremity of can
nibalism to which it is charges
starvation drove the Greely part,
is no new thing in the annals o
suffering. There are scores of sto
ries of shipwreck and of extraordin
ary privation which are meIan
choly accounts of strong men yield
ing to the temptation Of cannibal
ism as final resort to fight of
death. It is noteworthy, however
that in but few instances have facts
verified the charges which morbid
imaginations have hastened to ex-
aggerate and spread. One of the
best authenticated cases is furnish
ed by the records of the colony OF
Hope Town, says the Chicago
Inter Ocean. In 1914, ten years af-
ter the establishment of the colony,
gangs of bushrangers began to ap>
pear. From 1912 to 1927 more
than 120 prisoners escaped from
the chain-gangs at Port Macquarie
and joined the bushrangers. With
few exceptions the whole were
either hung, shot by soldiers, starv-
ed to death, or were killed and
eaten by their comrades.
In 1922 six eonvicts escaped
from Macquarie. OF these, three
returned to Macquarie, two dying
almost Immediately of exhaustion,
but having first told a dreadful tale
of suffering, which the final survi-
vor arrived later on to corroborate.
The latter, whose name was Pierce,
related that after ten days wander
ing in the awful Businesses of Aus
tralian forests, seeing No living
thing but themselves,
RENDERED SAVAGE BY HUNGER,
Greenhill, another of the party,
agreed to kill the third and eat him.
This was done. A few days later
Greenhill, who in the convict settle
ment was regarded as a prisoner of
the most dangerous character, butch
cred another of the party named
Bohemian, and he was eaten. The
third victim was allowed half an
hour to pray, and then underwent
the same dreadful fate. Pierce and
GreeRhill had now become veritable
savages, and, said the two convicts
who afterward returned to the sets
tlement, eyed them with wolfish
glare and quarrelled with each 9TH
er. When three only were left in
the bush, Travers, the weakest, was
soon killed. Pierce and GreenhiIl
had now reached a beautiful coun~
try, abounding with game, but they
had no strength to pursue. They
dragged along, glaring at each oths
er, waiting for an opportunity to
strike. Pierce, remembering that
Greenhill had said he would rather
kill and eat his own father than fast
day, was afraid to take q step in
advance. He kept the solitary ak
at his. head at night, net daring to
sleep. At last Greenhill, either by
accident or fatigue, fell, and instant
ly Pierce sprang upon and dispatch
ed him.
A magazine writer, q few yoars
ago, describes his meeting with a
commen sailor on board a Mediters
ranean bark, who, although young
and strong, had taciturn Dir and
sad demcanor, caused by his
EXTRAORDINARY SUFFERING.
The trading vessel on which he was
had been wrecked on the coast of
New Holland. Five survivors es-
capped in a boat with a trifing store
of provisions and a single keg of
fresh water. This last treasure was
stovc in on landing. Their food was
barely sufficient for one day, and in
four days two of the helpless mari
ners were dead from exhaustion and
hunger, and the third, the black
cook, was ill. That night the thought
of cannibalism came on the strong
est of the two sailors remaining. He
struggled for two hours against the
craving, and ended by creeping
stealthilv toward the body of the
cook, only to see his companion APP
preaching it also. When it seemed
inevitable that one of the two must
perish to preserve the others life,
several natives appeared, and taught
the two gaunt, nearly crazed En-
glishmen how to find an edible grub
in the fallen gum tree. In day or
two one of them died of eating
kind of poisoned fish be had caught
and eaten against the advice Of the
natives. A wreck of his former self.
the sole survivor finally reached a
native settlement and was saved
Lord Byron, whose fancy delight
ed to linger about the morbidly hor-
rible, confessed to frieLd that sew
eral of his most thrilling deserip~
tions of suffering were taken from
Capt. David Henderson's account Of
the distressful voyage of
THE AMERICAN sLoop PEGGY.
This was a story of shipwrcclx,
want, hunger, suffering, and final
yielding of natures net rough to
the horrible craving for cannibai~
ism which, it seems agreed, arises
at certain period Of starvation.
The Peggy sailed from New York
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