The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-01-31
PURSUED BY CANNIBALS.
A Remarkable Story of Adventure in New
CIuinPa.

A Remarkable Story of Adventure in New |
Guinea.
The London StdRdard prints a letter |
containing a plant-hunter's account of
his stewardship in New Guinea. He !
was one of party of six sent out by the
proprietors of u Melbourne newspaper
to explore the interior of the great
island. ''In our little schooner" he
says, eve went up a 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 anewriver
which was called the Svme, for many
miles, passing 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 powerful
current to get upward. The naturalist
| and | were often anxious to get on shore;
but no, our Captain wanted to gettO the
| top of the river, or as. far as we could,
and then return and begin land eXplo-
ration. 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-hies-a most wonderful sight,
"On our return" the collector con-
tinues, down the river toward the
! mouth of the sea, where we intended to
begin exploring inland, we saw a sight
that made us shudder-a large number
of canoes crammed full of natives, can
nibals. These wretches live further round
the coast, and make periodical trips
down the coast to the more harmless
natives and clear them out. killing all
before them. They are called the
Dugarra men. They have decimated
the coast tribes almost to a man. (Sic).
In some instances they take them back
and kill and eat them. Here was a
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 dngy we had,
? Night was coming on, so that we man
: aged to escape through the darkness.
The next thing was, what to do. Our
] Captain was sick; he had been unwen
] for some days. At last, as ruse, 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 fear
S fully thick. We hoped they would
: follow our schooner and we should es,
j. cape. We had to leave all behind ex
I cept few odds and ends we could
: hurriedly get--a little medicine, oul
: guns, and some oatmeal and a few bis
cults. We thus started off for the coast
to find it through swamps and man
groves, every moment expecting thu
cannibal wretches at our feet. On W,
went, and at last, weary, made be-
on the ground where best we could. II
J. the morning we found ourselves on thu
e edge of large fiat of cold, gray soil
covered with pitcher plants; but on w,
4 went. Then we came to a large creel
or river; had to get through as best W.
Z could-the blazing tropical sun over
u head, the miasmatic steam from tn
{ swamps enveloping us. Some of us be
b gan to feel a touch of the fever; one go
4 light-headed for while. We continued
= for three or four days at this game, ant
), nothing to eat but dry oatmeal. On
), morning we were crossing nativ
> hunting ground, and presently, withou
= warning, spear came whizzing through
= the air and struck one of our men il
. the foot, going clean through boot ant
:. foot We thought our end had come
y and determined to die desperately; bu
= the natives decamped as quickly as W
:, u made up our minds to fight it out, TO
u we could not find one. On we went
y and reached the coast at last"