6 1 o Voyage of the Novara. 



no property over the natural wealth of these islands, and 

 has no right to resist the wishes of the white man ! 



Commander Erskine of H. M. S. Savannah^ mentions a case 

 in which an English merchantman, engaged in the sandal- 

 wood traffic, entered into an engagement to employ his whole 

 crew in assisting one native tribe to overpower its neighbour, 

 in return for which timely assistance certain places were 

 pointed out where the coveted sandal-wood was found in 

 great abundance. A battle took place, and a number of 

 prisoners were carried on board the ship, of whom, during 

 the passage to the sandal-wood-producing islands, several 

 were in the presence of the European crew coolly slaughtered 

 and eaten by their cannibal foes of the Fee-jee Islands! ! 



Davis, whom the natives for distinction's sake called simply 

 'Hhe white man," could not expatiate enough on the cordial- 

 ity and kind treatment he received from the poor inhabitants 

 of Sikayana during his stay. Since April no ship had called 

 at the island, or even been visible from it. He begged the fa- 

 vour of a passage to Sydney, which was readily accorded him 

 on condition he would first repay all his obligations to the na- 

 tives, and that on their side there should be no objections 

 made to his leaving. On our arrival in Sydney we learned 

 that Captain Ross, who had put Davis ashore at Sikayana, had 

 been tried for another still greater atrocity ; he had inflicted 

 Lynch-law, by hanging some of the natives of New Caledonia 

 at his yard-arm. Ross was somewhat later acquitted by the 

 judges at Sydney, but public opinion reversed the verdict. 



