The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-28
CANNIBALIsM IN AUSTRALIA.
Aw full Fate of the Ehiers Expedition
Lost in 1895.
From the Sydney Telegraph.

/
Lost in 1895.
From the Sydney Telegraph.
When In 1896 the news reached Papua OF
the fearful end Of an expedition that
! starting from the northeast coast, attempt
/ ed to cross the island ana reach the Eng
lish south coast at the mouth of the Moiu-
notu raer, it, created the greatest conster-
nation. as the leader. Otto Ehlers, a spec
ial favorite of the German Emperor was
regarded as a traveller Of considerable ex-
| perience and the difficulties he would have
to meet on his hazardous trip were duly
/ impressed upon him before he started. He
! took no notice, however, of the grim fore
! bodings Of others more acquainted with
! the special terrors of the dark islands in
terror. Only a section of the black car
riers, recruited from New Ireland and New
! Britain, ever accomplished the end of the
/ journey, but as most of the boys spoke ex-
| cellent English, the government of British
| Papua sent the survivors over to the Ger
| man head station in the Astrolabe bay,
and subsequently the Germans were able
| to elicit a very complete and apparently
satisfactory repOr, from the few witnesses
| of one of those fierce and silent tragedies
that no cable reports.
| of those brave pioneers in the service OF
humanity and science. had transpired, no.
body out of a limited circle of interested
! parties would have heard the
/ names of those martyrs. But
sensation resurrccts names. Thanks
| TO the efforts of Judge DR.. Hail.
! imperial chancellor in the Bismarck arch
| ipelago, the mystery of their death has al
/ last been elucidated. Rumors of foul play
bo.1 oil he -;cit 20
trading stations in the north of New Ire
land, but as the accusations were made
! against intmical tribes, and the splteful I'M
! veracity and treacherous ingenuity of the
| Melanesian are well established facts,
! those tales were attributed to intertrioal
! Intrigue, to a spirit of cowardiy revenge.
/ Since then, however, the probability of the
story, together with the unanimous con-
sensus of witnesses, created an agitation
for new trial, which has just been con-
! cluded, and brings to light a terrible tale.
Though the official report on the fate'o
! Ehlers and Plering, the two white men of
the expedition, and the carriers, published
in German papers two years ago, is wful
reading-the utter desolation that engulfed
the party from the very first range, the
continual dreary rain, the furious noun
tain forest, We're gloomy and dishearten-
ing enough-yet later on one by one, other
steps; intangible fiends that no courage
could overcome; starvation disease, fear
and silence! No one who has not felt his
very heart shudder with the touch Of
I daily weekly, monthly silence, silence I'm
broken bar by the sad monotonous drop
of the rain from leaf to leaf, silence
all-pervading and unutterabe that it
seems like a proof of atheism-nobody
without such an experience will under
- ~
life can produce. 1t is death within life.
Add to this the fearful bodily misery
of the men, who hoped against hope from
day to day to see the last mountain chain
that would ALLOW them a look into free
dom and the world the evil skin diseases
that made them hate and loathe their own
bodies the self-reproaches of the nader
for his foolhardy daring, and we have a
picture of Inferno incarnated. For Papua
does not simply coarsely murder-it tor
lures first And then when at last the
great Southern rver-the Mot9-Motu-
the path of relief was struck, just when
! hope began to have a raison d'etre the
two white men died-drowned, as was stat
ed while asleep on the laundering .aft
that was to, carry them seward. The rest
of the expedition, with the exception of
a number of boys said to be pushed Dr
dead from starvation or dysentery man
aged TO get to the coast, and, aided by a
native teacher of the L. NJ. S., were trans
ported to Port Moresby.
Such was the tale. But now It appears
that the history Of that unfortunate ex-
petition had a few more terrible charac-
ters than was at first assumed. Even
now the facts are far from complete. but
they are sufficient 10 prove that cannibal-
ism in us most dreaded form, insurrec-
ton, CHASTITY miserable despair, and muir
der, accompanied the stricken column.
Ehlers' mistakes were many. His judg-
ment was at fault in nearly every particu-
lar regarding. the exigencies Of the march
through that bowling wilderness. Clothed
in luxrrant colors. that petrihed night
mare. He had not sufficient provisions, or
clothes. or tents. lie carried unnecessary
baggage with him, such as bedsteads,
$1,000 in gold, boxes, rifles, etc., while his
carriers had not even a tarpaulin TO pro-
tect their naked. shivering, thorn and
leech torn bodies from the cruelty cold
rain Of the mountains at night. But for
all that. Ehlers was brave man, who
even under the fortunes he personally suf-
fered even tried TO encourage the lost
legion he led. And he deserved better
fate than he struck. Imagination may
easily supply what Is better not written.
The night OF the superior Caucasian intol7
lect aCairst the bestial savagery that
Threatened dany moTf under the incen-
tive OF fierce sunerings. 70 break the weak
bonds ~ soarcey learned authority an
~ last u all ended IN murder, and-welL