The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1901-02-07
gained the thick bush, where we could

gained the thick bush, where we could
not follow them.
1.-THE prospect of killing and eating
our horses seemed to be their great
temptation. They made constant war
upon our stud for fortnight or three
weeks, and had to patrol the country
daily to keep them from ringing the
horses round with fire.
"The character of the Pacific canoe
men is variously spoken Of, some re-
porting them as good natured and
peaceable, while others say that they
are treacherous and savage. Both speak
the truth from their own experience.
A fellow artist, who generally landed
from a man-ofwars boat, with the
ship In the offing, found them peace
able, but poor Mr.. Strange, the natural
list, was murdered on one of these same
islands.
while we were on board our vessels
they were quite friendly, and even dur
ing my boats voyage Of $50 miles
while we had dashing breeze and the
boat well under command we found
the groups we met with civil enough.
But when we were helplessly becalmed
at the entrance Of the gulf Of Carpen-
TARA and supposed by the natives to
be the unarmed survivors of some YES
sci wrecked In Torres strait we were
deliberately and treacherously attack
ed
I'VE watched the preparations for
nearly an hour through the telescope
and refrained from giving them the
slightest ground even to suspect that
we looked on them otherwise than as
friends. AS soon as they thought they
had us In their power they began to
throw spears at us, so put rifle bull
let through the shoulder of the first
man who threw at us to teach him the
danger of interfering with supposed
helpless boats, but did not fire again.
The wounded man was led on shore by
one Of his mates, and we were not mo-
Tested again.
These people are very capricious.
They have the cunning and the strong
passions Of men, but in reason they are
only children. Life is not held sacred
by them, and when their thirst for
blood Is raised they revel In cruelty"
Before white explorers into the black
mems countries had comprehended in
all its startling details the completely
of nature with her nearest children, the
savages, to STAY civilization and eat it
many an armed white man was slain
by an unarmed black under conditions
which between white and white must
have gone altogether the other way
around. No such accuracy and power
at throwing rocks, for example, are pos
sible to any other than savage. ]. G.
Wood, the explorer, has this to say of
1t from personal observation among the
natives of the south sea islands,
In his wild state the savage never
likes to be without a spear in his hand,
and, as may be expected from man
whose subsistence is almost entirely
due to his skill In the use of weapons,
he Is most accomplished spear throw
er. Indeed as q thrower of missiles in
general the south sea islander stands
without a rival. He can hurl a spear
either with his hand or with the throw
stick can fling his short club with I'M
erring aim, and even should he be de-
pr1ved of these missiles he has singu-
lar faculty Of throwing stones. Many
time before the character Of the ma
tives was known has an armed soldier
met his death at the hand of savage