82 Sandal-Wood and its Commercial Importance. 



robbery could not but lead to evil consequences. Before 

 long there was a battle with the natives, who, having no 

 muskets, sustained a loss of twenty- six killed, whilst none 

 of the intruders were wounded. In a subsequent storming of 

 a fort more natives were killed, and the remainder retreated to 

 an island, where they took refuge in a cave. The sandal-wood 

 party, not satisfied with their triumph, pursued them, and 

 finding that firing produced no apparent effect, they piled 

 combustible material before the mouth of the cave, and setting 

 fire to it, smoked the poor natives like rats, until all were 

 suffocated. History repeats itself, for the same horrible scene 

 here enacted by lawless savages was copied two or three years 

 later by an heroic French general in Algeria. 



The Vateans were not long in the strangers' debt, the 

 crews of two English vessels, engaged in the sandal-wood 

 trade, the " Cape Packet " and the " British Sovereign," 

 having been massacred by them a few years afterwards. The 

 " Cape Packet" was betrayed into their hands by a few dis- 

 contented South Sea Islanders on board, whilst the " British 

 Sovereign " had the misfortune to get wrecked, and its com- 

 pany, tormented by hunger and thirst, made for the shore, 

 where all, with the exception of one Englishman and a boy, 

 were clubbed and cooked. There seems to have been no pro- 

 vocation on the part of the strangers, and the sole cause for 

 killing them appears to have been a desire for the bodies and 

 clothes of the unfortunate men. 



But Eromanga and Vate are not the only spots notorious 

 for quarrels between traders and natives of the soil. 

 Nearly every island of the South Pacific where the much- 

 coveted wood is found, has become the theatre of bloodshed 

 and murder. In most cases, it is impossible to say who is to 

 blame. The Christian missionaries, almost invariably taking 

 the side of the natives, lay all the blame upon the traders, 

 whilst the traders attribute every quarrel to the undeniably 

 ferocious disposition of the aborigines. Both sides of looking 

 upon the subject came out in bold relief at Sydney during the 

 trial of Captain Lewis, the superintendent of a sandal-wood 

 establishment at the Isle of Pines, who was accused of killing a 

 native of Mare and wounding others. Mare first became known 

 as a saii(l;il-\vood island in 1841, when a whole boat's crew, 

 supposed to havo belonged to the " Martha," of Sydney, was 

 massacred.* About 1848 the islanders attempted to capture 



* Tho Sandal-wood of Mare may bo identical with that of New Culedonia, 

 lately described l>y Vieillurd under Ilia name of Santalum austro-caledonicum, and 

 named " Tibean" by tbe aborigines of that great island. Macgillivray says, "The 

 Sandal-wood trees of the Fijis, Ancitum, and tho Isle of PineB, constitute three dis- 

 tinct species." 



