CANNIBALISM. 35 



the natives on the subject of the past history of their island; and I 

 gleaned from them that the enterprising race at present dominant 

 in the Bougainville Straits came originally from the islands immedi- 

 ately to the eastward, using Treasur}'^ as a stepping-stone to the 

 Shortlands and Faro, and ousting or exterminating the bushmen 

 they found in the possession of these islands. 



I will turn for a moment to the subject of slavery in the eastern 

 islands of the group. In Ugi it is the practice of infanticide which 

 has given rise to a slave-commerce regularly conducted with the 

 natives of the intei'ior of St. Christoval. Three-fourths of the men 

 of this island were oi'iginally bought as youths to supply the place 

 of the natural offspring killed in infancy. But such natives when 

 they attain manhood virtually acquire their independence, and their 

 original purchaser has but little control over them. On page 42, I 

 have made further reference to this subject. 



Connected in the manner above shown with the subject of slavery 

 is the practice of cannibalism. The completion of a new tambu- 

 house is frequently celebrated among the St. Christoval natives by 

 a cannibal feast. Residents in that part of the group tell me that 

 if the victim is not procured in a raid amongst the neighbouring 

 tribes of the interior, some man is usually selected from those men 

 in the village who were originally purchased by the chief. The 

 doomed man is not enlightened as to the fate which awaits him, and 

 may, perhaps, have been engaged in the erection of the very building 

 at the completion of which his life is forfeited. The late Mr. Louis 

 Nixon,^ one of those traders whose name should not be forcrotten 

 amongst the pioneers who, in working for themselves, have worked 

 indirectly for the good of their successors in the Solomon Gi'oup, 

 once recounted to me a tragical incident of this kind on the island of 

 Ouadalcanar, of which he was an unwilling spectator. Whilst look- 

 ino- out of the window of his house one afternoon, he observed a 

 native walk up to another standing close to the window and engage 

 him in conversation. A man then stole up unperceived, and raising 

 his heavy club above his head, struck the intended victim lifeless to 

 the ground. Knowing too well the nature and purpose of the deed, 

 Mr. Nixon turned away quite sickened by the sight. 



The natives of the small island of Santa Anna enjoy the reputa- 

 tion of beino- abstainers from human flesh : but, inasmuch, as Mai the 

 war-chief has acquired a considerable fortune, in a native's pomt of 



1 Mr. Xixon died at Santa Anna in the end of 1882. 



