Evening star., 1898-05-06
CANNIBALIsM IN AUSTRALIA.
Awful Fate of the Ehlers Expedition
Lost in 1896.


Awful Fate of the Ehlers Expedition
Lost I'm 1896. e.
From the Sydney Telegraph
When in 1895 the news reached Papua of
the fearful end Of an expedition that, start
ing from the northeast coast, attempted to
cross the island and reach the English
south coast at the mouth Of the Motu-Motu
river, 1t created the greatest CONSERVATION,
as the leader, Otto Ehlers, a special favor
ite Of the German emperor, was regarded
as traveller of considerable experience,
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 forebodings of
others more acquainted with the special
terrors of the dark islands interior. Only
a section Of the black carriers, recruited
from New Ireland and New Britain, ever
accomplished the end Of the journey. but
as most of the boys spoke excellent English
the government OF British Papua sent the
surviI ors over to the German head station
In the Astroaabe bay, and subsequently the
Germans were able to elicit a very conf
plete and apparently satisfactory report
from the few witnesses of one OF those
fierce and silent tragedies that no cable re-
ports
If nothing but the unutterable sufferings
of those brave pioneers in the service of
humanity and science had transpired, no
body out Of limited circle of interested
parties would have heard the names Of
names. Thanks to the. efforts Of Judge
DR.. Hahl, imperial chancellor in the
Bismarck archipelago, the mystery Of
their death has at last been elnci-
alive among the natives visiting trad
ing stations in the north Of New Ireland,
but as the accusations were made against
inimical tribes, and the splteful unveracity
and trpacherOnS ingenuity of Mefane-
sian are we'll established facts. those tales
were attributed to intertribal intrigue, to n
spirit of cowardly revenge. Since then,
however, the probability of the story, to-
gether with the unanimous consensus Of
witnesses, created an agitation ter a new
trial, whieh has just been concluded, and
brings to light terrible tale.
Though the official report of the fate of
Ehlers and Plering, the two white men of
the expedition, and the carriers. published
in German papers two years ago, is awful
reading-the utter desolation that ensulfed
the party from the very first range, the
continual dreary rain, the furious noun
tain forest, were gloomy and disheartening
enough-yet later on. one by one, other en-
intangible fiends that courage could
overcome; starvation, disease, fear and si-
lence. No one who has not felt his very
heart shudder with the touch of daily.
weekly. monthly silence, silence unbroken
but by the sad monotonous drop of the
rain from leaf to leaf; silence all-pervad-
ing and unutterable that 1t seems like
proof Of atheism-nobody without such an
experience will understand the sufferings
such an absence Of all 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 freedom and
the world: the evil skin diseases that made
self-reproaches of the leader for his fool
hardy daring, and We have a picture of In
ferno incarnated. For Papua does n IT SIM
ply coarsely murder-it tortures first. And
then when at last the great southern river
the Motu-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 stated, while asleep on
the laundering raft tina. was to carry them
seaward. The rest of the expedition, with
the exception Of number of boys said to
be bushed or dead from starvation or dys-
entery. managed to get to the coast, and
aided by a native teacher of the L. NJ. S.,
were transported to Port Moresby.
Sucn was the tale. But now 1t appears
that the history Of that unfortunate expedi-
ton had a few more terrible characters
than was at first assumed. Even now the
facts are far from complete, but they are
sufficient to prove that cannibalfsm in its
most dreaded form, insurrection, ghastly
miserable despair and murder accompanied
the stricken column. Ehler's mistakes were
many. His judgment was at fault in. near
ly every particular regarding the exigen-
c1eS or the march through that hOwling
wilderness. clothed in luxuriant colors; that
petrified nightmare. He had not sufficient
provisions or clothes or tents. He carried
unnecessary baggage with him, such as
bedsteads. 81 900 in gold boxes, rifles, ETC.,
while his carriers had not even a tarpaulin
to protect their naked, shivering, thorn
and leech-torn bodies from the cruelty cold
rain of the mountains at night. But for all
that, Ehlers was q brave man, who even
under the tortures he personally suffered
tried to encourage the lost legion he led.
And he deserved a better fate than he
struck. Imagination nay easily supply
what is better not written. The fight of
the superior Caucasian intellect against the
bestial savagery that threatened daily more
under the incentive of fierce sufferings, to
break the weak bonds of scarcely learned
authority, till at last it all ended in mur-
der, and-well, other things. Especially the
fact that the expedition was composed Of
natives of different tribes, who in a state
of nature hate each other fiercely (the very
reason that brought these last facts to
lighD, seem to point out horrible state Of
affairs, after the last scrap of flour had
disappeared, and leaves and roots formed
the nourishment of those hopeless savages,
with the hunger, the appetite for human
flesh only half controlled at best of times,
burning in their aching entrails. Such,
then, is the tragedy that the simple news
item concerning the murder Of German