Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-03-06
TRADING WITH CANNIBALS.
RISKS TAKEN BY WHITE MEN IN
THE SOLOMON ISLANDS.
The Profit Great. but the traders il


and Eaten-A Part of the World
Where Natives Still Practice Can
nibalism.
The Solomon Islands lie east OF
New Guinea The two northern is
lands belong to Germany and the oth-
ers to Great Britain.
Neither country has done anything
to develop them. TIE interior of the
islands is almost unknown. The
reason is that the natives are ex-
tremely hostile, and exploring parties
have never dared to venture far from
the coasts.
The traders take their lives in their
hands and live on the shores of a.
few islands. but rarely venture out
of sight Of the sea. AS SHIPS ap-
proach Bougainville, the largest is
land, they see many miles away the
great Kronprinz Range, extending
through the center and rising to 5000
feet; but though mariners have seen
these mountains for centuries, no
white man has ever visited the range,
because the region between it and
the sea is densely populated by tae
most warlike of savages.
Carl Ribbe, a German naturalist,
has had the courage to spend two
years at trading stations along the
coasts. He has just written book
that bristies with information about
these islands and their inhabitants.
He sketches the land, the people, and
the vegetable and animal life, and
his book, "Zwei Jahre unter den Kan
nibalen der Salomon-Inseln," is espe-
cially timely because so ltJle has
been written about this archipelago.
Ribbe says that there is no more
dangerous trade in the world than
that with the Solomon Islanders. The
traders are liable to be attacked az
any time. Loaded revolvers are al
ways in their belts.
If the trade were not extremely
profitable white men could not be in
duced to live there The natives
gather large quantities of cocoanuts
and are anxious to sell them, though
their commercial instinct does not
keep them from killing the white
trader if they catch him off his guard.
They sell their commodities for a
song in comparison with prices asked
by other Pacific natives who know
the whites better The trader in the
Solomons buys a hundred cocoanuts
for a piece of cloth worth about fiji
teen cents.
The natives are at the same ridicu-
lous disadvantage in exchanging other
commodities, and so the traders CON
tinue business relations that are 50
profitable to them. They dry the
meat of the cocoanut under the trop-
ical sun, turning it into copra which
vessels take away to Europe, where
the oil is expressed for soap making
and other purposes.
1t must be highly exciting to live
in a land where day or night one
may be the target of a spear or a
bullet The reckless traders, find
ing that the natives are almost crazy
for firearms, sell them to every one
who can produce the many thousands
of cocoanuts demanded.
Now and then they are killed by
the very guns they have sold. The
same blacks who traffic peaceably
with the trader in business hours are
likely to Turk around his house III
the darkness in the nope of shoot
ing him while asleep.
Now and then they are caught spy
ing around the houses to find the
exact position of the bed in which
the white man sleeps. They are
likely to mark the outside of the wall
near which the bed stands for the
purpose of killing the trader by shoot
ing through it. At the especially
dangerous stations traders move their
beds every night, or else pile around
them a wall of boxes.
If trader smells smoke during
the night he is very careful about
sticking his head out of the door or
window, for ne has learned that it
is a favorite trick of the blacks to
create a smudge so that the whites
may be tempted out of doors to see
what is burning. On such occasions
they are likely to be killed by their
unseen enemies.
It is remarkable that the traders
1iy ohi1drnr1 tn ithaca
islands. Not few white families are
living along these coasts. The
women and children lead no easy
lives, for they are engaged most of
the day in spreading cocOanut meat
for drying or helping the men folk
in many other ways. Ribbe says not
a white woman there is surpassed
by the men in pluck and courage
Every woman carries a revolver,
for the women are as much in danger
as the men. Now and then they are
confronted with situations which re-
uuire quick thought and action. The
writer gives a number of instances
of the courage vita which the women
and even the little girls meet danger.
One day two traders named Mac
donald of Munia Island, started on a
business trip along the coasts of Bou-
granville, leaving their wives and
daughters in the newly built cabins,
which were not yet provided with
doors or windows. A few nights later
a twelve-year-old girl was awakened
by smoke blowing through the house.
She thought the natives were up
to mischief, and picking up her re-
volver and awakening her ten-year-
old sister, she stole softly to the
doorway. Pushing aside the cloth
that hung before It, the two girls
dimly saw several black figures
crouched a few feet from the house
waiting for some of the inmates to
appear. The elder girl fired the re-
yolver, wounding a black and fright
ening the others away.
The Solomon Islanders not only kill
S+ranuorS brIf also chanrfIl1Iv cot