210 ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS 
sent the boys that we had left in charge of our boat to tell 
us to come quickly. We pulled up to his boat for tidings 
of the struggle, and found that one of the government na- 
tives was on his boat, in a dying condition from the wounds 
he had received. He, too, was suffering from shock. 
“The engine boy on the government boat had been killed ; 
so the recruiter had sent his own engine boy to help the 
bos’n, who was the only one of the crew of the government 
boat left alive, to bring the two white men and the wounded 
natives of the government party away. They had almost 
reached the other boat when we arrived. Thus we were 
soon in possession of the facts. On the government side 
two white men and twelve native policemen and civilians had 
been killed, and five native police and one civilian wounded. 
There is no way by which we can tell how many of the 
bushmen were killed and wounded, for they made off to 
the mountains, taking their dead and wounded with them. 
However, a rumor has reached us that ten of the savages 
were killed and wounded. 
“The two white men were in a shocking condition. Mr. 
Bell, the district officer, had his head smashed with the butt 
of a musket, and Mr. Lillies’ head was almost completely 
severed from the body. We decided to bury the native men 
where they had fallen, but to remove the bodies of the white 
men to an island where some Europeans had been buried 
some years ago, and there give them Christian burial. 
“Mr. Bonard, the recruiter, undertook to sail the govern- 
ment boat with the remnant of the government party to 
Tulagi, and to inform the government there of the trouble. 
We dressed the wounds of the injured natives before they 
left for Tulagi, and then proceeded to the place of burial 
with the bodies of the murdered officers. This we were 
unable to reach until after nightfall. Having there done 
all that remained to be done for these unfortunate men, 
we turned our boat homeward, and after a safe run reached 
home just before midnight. 
