The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-08-29

About 10 a. IN. the first and tsecond
mates with seven men took the whale
boat and laaded on Dalrymple Island.
Leaving one man in the boat TO keep
her afioat, they proceeded very cat
tiously and after a little prospecting
in their immediate vicinity, and see
ing no natives they placed one man
went to work picking cocoanuts.
Suddenly they heard strange snd
fearful noise, the man on the lookout
raised the cry that the 'niggers Were
coming;" everyone got down from
the cocoanut trees in hurry. One OF
the sailors, a tall Swede, started 20
slide down the tree he was on. IL was
a crooked one, and Wien he had got
as far as the bend he slipped and
dropped to the ground, distance OF
about twenty feet Under other cir
cumstances the fall would have seri-
ously injured If not have killed him,
but he was up again in n second and
fear must have lent him wings, for he
fairly flew to the boat. He distanced
all the others and was the first one
there. The first and second mates
very leisurely brought up the rear, as
if they had not seen anything TO be
afraid of, and after some persuasion
they got the men to 60 back and pick
up their cocoanuts. The captain and
i had been watching them with
glasses from the ship, and when he
observed the commotion ashore he
gave the carpenter the order TO bring
the red-hot poker from the galley TO
fire our guns with-our two guns were
trained on the landing-but he soon
saw that it must have been false
alarm They returned on board about
noon. Mr. Minott brought on board
a skull which probably had in life be-
longed to some important parsonage,
for they had taken the trouble to fill
up the places of teeth missing by
wooden ones made to fit. The lower
Jaw had dropped Off through the pro-
cess of boiling, and that was tied up
through the nostrils with a cocoa fibre
string. The eye sockets were filled
with clay-like putty and bits OF
mother of pearl shell to represent eyes.
After dinner the captain and and a
boats crew of seven men went ashore.
We found the reef extending about
quarter of mile from the land, and
the depth of water at the edge Of the
reef dropped suddenly from three to
nineteen feet. Leaving one man as
boatkeeper, we started TO explore the
island. We were all armed-such
arms as we had-but the captain and
had each a fine navy revolver. The
men were armed with fiint-lock mus
about one mile long and three fourths
of a mile wide; lies about w NV and
l. Sc, and is well covered with trees,
mostly cocoanut and breadfruits; and
has besides thick growth of bushes,
among which we found pathways
leading in all directions.
About the middle of the island we
came upon the remains OF a village of
about twenty huts, one of which was
4 l.. I'll oh he
They are all built with a framework
| of poles and thatched with leaves or
grass, much the same as the Hawai-
| ian native houses are, but their caves
| came quite to the ground, and the
| doorways are in the end.
On our way from the beach 90 the
| interior of the island, we observed un-
| der foot and on all sides of Us human
| skulls and skeletons lying in the
| graEs; but when we came upon the
| village there was a scene of desoIation
| indeed. Scores of bodies were lying
| around aud amongst the huts. The
| captain thought that n war party
| from the mainland of New Guinea
had come OFF to this little island, sur
| prised and killed its inhabitants, and
| carried away captive those they did
| not kill; and this must have occurred
about three months previously. The
4 largest mouse WAS clOefsA III
and in front OF il was a large cocoanut
| tree, and human bones were piled
| around the base to tb-- height Of six
| feet This tree had a cocoaDdt fibre
| string tied around IL, which the cap
| tain said was a taboo mark. We cut
| a hole through one en0 Of this large
| house, and sent one of t.ie men in, but
he came out again in a burry-feeling
| around in the dark, lac had put his
hand on a corpse which still had some
| flesh on il. We cut hole in the other
end To admit the light, and we saw the
| body living on a table or shelf raised
about two feet off the ground. We
also discovered a rude wooden carving
of a human figure about four feet
high, and came TO the conclusion that
the house was the abode of their god.
We brought this on board. The cap
tain and / then started across to the
north side OF the island, and Oh our
way through the bush we saw two
skulls quite different from any others.
there, that might have belonged to
persons of the European race, and
Just before coming out on the beach
we came on body that was lying on
a sort of gridiron, made of green poles
| supported by fOrked sticks driven in
the ground. 1t had been roasted un-
| deIneath, but the upper part was
bleached white by the weather The
captain was standing at the head and
at the feet and / had just called his
attention to the fact that he
had been very careful to i'm
press upon the first and second mates
in the forenoon-the necessity
of all keeping together, and now here
we were separated by the whole width
of the island from the men. Just as /
had done speaking, n bird perched on
a bush behind the captain which /
had been looking at some time, gave
a most urearthly screech, or we'll.
which startled the captain consider
ably. 1t was a very ill favored bird
looked like a cross between an owl and
magpie, and is called by the Aus
, tralians "laughing jackass." This