The Dewsbury Chronicle, and West Riding Advertiser. — 1873-11-08 (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England)

CANNIBALISM IN FIJI.  There seems to be much feasting as well as fighting going on in Fiji, to judge from the following account riven in the Fiji Times of a sharp fight which occurred on the 19th of July, near Na Cala, with the rebel mountaineers, in which two white planters were killed, and four other settlers were wounded. "There were," says the Fiji Times, " several natives killed and wounded on the Government side, and a great number also of the Kai Cobs (the mountaineers). The forces engaged, consisting of whites and natives, displayed considerable pluck in the bloody hand-to-hand contest in which they were engaged, and in such a hot struggle there were many narrow escapes. The forces had to make the attack up a steep hill; awaiting them, the Kai Cobs lay safely ensconced until the troops approached, when a front and flank fire was opened upon them by the mountaineers, and then the opposing forces met in a hand-to-hand encounter, in which bayonets, axes, and clubs did deadly work. The struggle was too hot to last long, however, and the Kai Cobs threw away their weapons and everything they had, and ran for their lives. Two or three whites, with a number of natives, followed them up towards Na Cula, shot several in their chase, and three in the town, which the Kai Cobs set fire to before the Government party reached it. Three natives of the Government force had been shot a day or two before, and taken to this town to be coaked and eaten. Their heads were found stuck upon sticks and their bones placed on the side of the path, in sight of every passer-by. There were hundreds of bones in the town that had been cooked long before. The notorious Rokoquera and his uncle, who, it is said, murdered Mackintosh and Spiers, have been killed and eaten. One of the Na Lotu tribe (friendlies) came across one of those two wounded in the leg, and took sweet revenge for the Na Lotu man who had been driven out of his home some years past by this man and his tribe. Na Lotu spat on his hands and said, You burned my town, did you?' and then made a blow at his head with a battle-axe, and purposely missed his mark. He again spat on his hands. "You killed my people, did vou ?' and he kept on tantalising his victim, until he saw more men coming up, and, for fear of having the pleasure taken out of his hands, chopped ofl the poor wretch's head, then his arms and legs, and cut his body into convenient pieces for carrying away. He took the head to the creek, washed it, and brought it to the camp, that the rest of them should be satisfied as to the identity. Rokoqnera was also cut up into pieces, and brought in. One of the missionaries would have them buried, but at night the pieces were dug up again, and taken, with several other bodies, to a respectable distance  from the whites, and cooked the buola lali (cannibal drum) beaten all the time, inviting those who might feel inclined to come to the feast. It is very evident that the Kai Colona have got such a lesson that they never dreamed of. They have already commenced to quarrel among themselves. Those that had nothing to do with the murder of the Burns family are accusing those that did the deed of bringing all the trouble upon them by murdering the white men."