CANNIBALISM. 3J> 



natives -after the repulse of their attack upon the French boats.^ 

 The Shortland natives accredit the Bougainville people who live 

 around the active volcano of Bagaua with the regular practice of 

 cannibalism ; and there can be little doubt that this custom is ex- 

 tensively practised amongst tlie scarcely known bush-tribes in the 

 interior of this laroe island. Of the natives of New Georgia or 

 Rubiana, Captain Cheyne avers that human flesh forms their chief 

 article of diet ; they were in his opinion, when he visited this part 

 of the group in 1844, the most treacherous and bloodthirsty race in 

 the Western Pacific.- These natives have of late years come more 

 under the direct influence of the traders and probably would merit 

 now a better name. 



I will close this chapter with a short account, to some extent 

 recapitulative, of the history of three natives of St. Christoval after 

 they were recruited by the boats of the Fiji labour-vessel " Red- 

 coat" in 1882. It will serve to illustrate some points already 

 alluded to. Amongst the occupants of a tambu-house in which I 

 slept on one occasion in the village of Lawa, in the interior of St. 

 Christoval, were five men who were intending to ofler themselves as 

 recruits to the government-agent of the " Redcoat." Three of these 

 men, one of whom was the chief's son, came under my observation 

 again not many weeks after they had been received on board the 

 labour- vessel. They escaped from the ship at Santa Anna, and seiz- 

 ing a canoe reached the adjoining coast of St. Christoval. Here 

 they were pursued by Mai, in his capacity of purveyor of human 

 flesh to the Cape Surville natives. Two of them were captured; but 

 the third, who was the chief's son, had died at the hands of a local 

 chief, who, wishing to remove the tambu-ban arising from the recent 

 death of his wife, had effected his object by spearing his guest. Mai 

 returned to Santa Anna with his two captives, and immediately 

 became imbued with the idea that he had been insulted by the chief 

 who, in successfully removing the tambu-ban from the shade of his- 

 departed spouse, had deprived him of one of his victims. Then the 

 raid was carried out, which I have already described, as having re- 

 sulted in the slaughter of three women and the chief of Fanarite. 

 Mai now devoted his attention to preparing his two prisoners for 

 the market on the opposite coast, and was thus employed when 

 H.M.S. " Lark " arrived at Port Mary and rescued the prisoners 



1 " Voyage autour du Monde " ; 2nd edit, augment ; vol. ii., Paris, 1772. 



- " A Description of Islands in the Western Pacific Ocean," by A. Cheyne (London, 1852). 



