Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-01-15
PIJRSUED BY CANNIBALS,

The London Standard prints a remarka'
BILE story of adventure. 1t is letter con-
tanning plant-hunter'S account of his stew.
ardship in New Guinea. He was one of a
party of six sent out by the proprietOrs of a
Melbourn newspaper to explore the interior
of the great island. "In our little schOOn.
err" he says, ''we went upa very large river
one or two miles wide; the captain would
not let us land, as he wished to explore the
river first. This main river turned out to
be an estuary, though not known before.
From it we went up new river, which
was called the Syme, for many miles, pass
ing several mouths of other rivers, all new
to white men, and which were duly named.
We were anXiously looking out for natives
or their villages, but saw none. All the
way up for miles this Syme was affected by
the tides, but when receding we had to use
all our strength to fight against the power
full current to get upward. The naturalist
and were often anxious to get on shore
but no, our captain wanted to get to the top
of the river, or so far as we could, and then
return and begin land explorations. We
went up many miles, until the current was
so strong that we could not get any further.
We could see the banks of the river were
clothed with lofty trees, palms, and in many
instances ferns of large dimensions. There
was one tree q could not tell what it was)
one evening most brilliantly lit up with
fire. -hes-a most wonderful sight.
"On our return" the collector continues,
'down the river toward the mouth Of the
sea, where we intended to begin exploring
inland, we saw a sight that made us shud-
der-a large number of canoes crammed
full of natives, cannibals. These wretches
live further round the coast, and make peri
odical trips down the coast to the more
harmless natives, and clear then out, killing
all before them. They are called the Du-
garra men. They have decimated the coast
tribes almost to a man. (Tc) In some in
stances they take them back and kill and
eat them. Here was dilemma, and the
force of the current was fast taking us into
their midst. We, however, managed to get
our little schooner to the windWard and set
sail, at the same time assisting her with all
our power with the dingy we had. Night
was coming on, SO that we managed to es-
cape through the darkness. The next thing
was what to do. Our captain was sick; he
had been unwell for some days. At last, as
a rllse, we set all sails on the schooner for
up the river and abandoned her, getting
into the dingy and rowing to the side of the
river. Having done this, we sank the dingy
in the mangroves that grew tearfuly, thick.
We hoped they would follow our schooner
and we should escape. We had to leave all
behind except a few odds and ends we
could hurriedly get-a little medicine, our
guns, and some oatmeal and a few biscuits.
We thus started off for the coast to find it
through swamps and nangrove, every
moment expecting the wretches at our feet:
On we went, and at last, weary, made bed
on the ground where best we could. In the
morning we found ourselves on the edge of
a large flat Of cold gray soil, covered with
pitcher plants; but on we went. Then we
came to large creek or river; had to get
through as best we,could-the blazing tropi-
cal sun overhead, the miasmatic steam from