The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-02

Frenchman up like his mates. The three
beachcombers were then thrown into their
boat and word was sent to four other
Penrhyns who were fishing on the other
side to come and row the boat
Toms wife, Sumaria, came running to
Here's house shouting, 20 nga ropa. o
nga ropa, good people, they are killing the
white men for they are taking them away
In the boat" Toms wife, Kokorarid, and
kaitaIs wife all fastened 10 the boat. Here
Sumaria and Kaitars wife had already
cast off the lashings from Toms wrists
ana ankles, when Rapahua aimed a gun
at the women and forced them to desist.
Tom,apparently thinking that they we're to
be set on one of the islets across the la
COON, then babe Kaitars wife to call the
Manahikians to launch his boat This the
Penrhyns prevented with guns and swords.
and, the four rowers by this time having
come across, they pulled the boat out into
the lagoon. Tom was seated on the gun
vale and the other two were lying under
the thwarts. Joe Bird begged his captors
FOR mercy and offered all he had IL only
his life might be spared.
But Tom babe him not to be a child for
II was now too late, and he himself had
brought this fate upon himself and his
companions. At the deepest part of the
lagoon the Penrhyns hove Joe Bird over
board first and he sank right to the bot
tom. Tom was the next to GO and he,
TOO, went down like a stone. But the
Frenchman rose alongside the boat. and
Powhatu cut his head open with a sword.
Then the Frenchman sank to Join his
mates in the quiet depths of the lagoon
NOW that the deed was done the shrewd-
ness and facile invention of the Paumotu
woman, kokorarild, stood the party In
good stead. Left to their own simple de-
vices they would have shared out the goods
of the murdered white men, and their de-
lection would have been certain. She IL
was who set the scene and concocted the
story so well as to deceive Capt. Susten-
ance. She had the boat burned and the
metal work sunk In the lagoon, and the
property of the white men was In like
manner destroyed, all but the single bolt
of cheap cloth distributed to the divers.
That was stroke of genuine art II would
be such natural thing for Joe Bird to
do II he were sailing away that Il carried
proof In itself. The money was almost all
in her possession, but she had a long Sc
rtes of unwritten accounts by which it was
made to seem the wages of the Penrhyn
islanders acquired by her in the way of
trade.
With these confessions set out In full the
original document ends. A careful search
of the record shows no indication that any
attempt was made to punish the murder
ers Three men had died in the early morn
ing in the lagoon of a little visited atoll
in the wild South seas. but they were only
beachcombers, and their loss was not
grievously felt by the world of civilization
they had voluntarily cast off in order to
plunge into the heart of savagery, a wild.
sudden. cruel heart
How such a murder was regarded by a
man who was living the same life and was
exposed to the same chances Is naively
shown In the concluding words of the de-
position of Capt. Sustenance: There did
not appear 10 have been any serious quar-
rel, neither should / judge the natives to
have been much excited / should infer
that IL must have been talked of long be-
fore and probably accelerated by the gun
unhappily discharged over instead of into
the head of Tanglroa