The Bossier banner., 1885-02-26
PURSUED BY cANNlBALs.
A Remarkable Story of Adventure In New
Guinea.

AS~k~@e~~ AN~NNAS -
Guinea.
The London Standard prints letter
containing plant-hunters account of
his stewardship in New Guinea. He
was one of party of six sent out by the
proprietors of Melbourne newspaper
to explore the interior of the great
island. s'In our little schooner he
says, 1--WE went up 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 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 get to 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
-fies-a most wonderful sight.
s'On our return" the collector con-
tinues, s'down the river toward the
| mouth of the sea, where we intended to
begin exploring inland, we saw 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 al
before them. They are called ths
| Dugarra men. They have decimatet
the coast tribes almost to man. Stc)
In some instances they take them bach
and kill and eat them. Here was 8
dilemma, and the force of the curren
was fast taking us into their midst We
however, managed to get our littl'
| schooner to the windward and set sail
at the same time assisting her with al
our power with the dingy we had
Night was coming on, so that we man
! aged to escape through the darkness
The next thing was, what to do. Gu
Captain was sick; he had been unwel
for some days. At last, as ruse, w
set all sails on the schooner for up tht
river and abandoned her, getting int
the dingy and rowing to the side of tht
river. Having done this, we sank tn
dingy in the mangroves that grew fear
fully thick. We hoped they woul'
follow our schooner and we should es
cape. We had to leave all behind ex
cept few odds and ends we coul'
hurriedly get-a little medicine, on
guns, and some oatmeal and few bis
cults. We thus started off for the coast
to find it through swamps and mar
groves, every moment expecting th
cannibal wretches at our feet. On W
went, and at last, weary, made be
on the ground where best we could. l
the morning we found ourselves on th
edge of large fat of cold. gray sol
covered with pitcher plants; but on W
went. Then we came to a large cree
or river; had to get through as best "
could-the blazing tropical sun owe
head, the miasmatic steam from tt
swamps enveloping us. Some OF us b
gan to feel touch of the fever; one g
fght-headed for while. We continue
!, for three or four days at this game, an
nothing to eat but dry oatmeal. Or
morning we were crossing a nati'
, hunting ground, and presently. witho,
warning, spear came whizzing throue
the air and struck one of our men
the foot, going clean through boot ar
!. foot. We thought our end had com
and determined to die desperately; b
the natives decamped as quickly as v
J made up our minds to fight it out, f
we could not find one. On we wen
> and reached the coast at last.