Show south sea atrocities the llev lafton Lii awon Akon of melbourne has addressed following communication muni cation to the Melbo melbourne urno daily telegraph in reference to the massacre of tile the crew of the pluto by the natives on an outlying reef of new caledonia soo noo now that another shipwrecked crow crew has been massacred in the south seas our public may perhaps perli peril aps bo be aroused fora day or two to some little languid interest in matters affecting the labor traffic I 1 therefore take the opportunity of bringing under your notice the doings of a vessel which winch I 1 have good reason to believe is a vessel hailing balling from melbourne niel Alel bourrie i the chief actor acao r in the following scene scone is I 1 believes beli bel levea evea even melbourne man I 1 suppress names naino for obvious reasons but chiefly be causo the only evidence at present tal tai stainable tal tai is that of three fijian sailors who were examined separately ratel yb b a thorough fijian ian lan scholar and whose statements fully agreed in all important particulars I 1 give their statement just as one of them gave it excepting that I 1 omit everything which does docs lot bear directly upon n the treatment which the islanders met with at thu tho hands of our countrymen sailing in company with another vessel we came upon two canoes the whites held up pipes and called upon them to come and trade they caine came and one canoe with four persons in it was made fast to the side of the ship the other with three old men in etwas it was not nob fastened wo we bought cocoanuts cocoa nuts and yams bams from them while we were buying the mate mato stepped over overt tile lic side and pressing his liis foot on the canoe banoo overturned it in the nican meanwhile widle our boat was being got ready on the other side and when the canoe was capsized we fijians Fiji ans were ordered into tile the boat A going with us to steer two of the natives were laid hold of by B and handed tp ip the side we then pulled after and caught two more who were running off to land but the canoe with tho the three old men escaped we then sailed away great was tile tiie weeping of the natives next morning wo we found ourselves neara near a very long iong on island and espied a canoe with some twenty people onboard inboard on board let us run them down dowil said the white men but they were too quick for us and escaped to the land when vilen the whites saw that the natives could escape they seized their guns gutis and fired at them on the following morning we were in keld reid kana five ci noes camo came oft to trade bringing sams dortoh es belis bells spears bows and arrows two of them paddled away again to the shore A overturned one of oho the three remaining whereupon those in the other canoes canoe leaped overboard and swam away with the white sailor 0 and mr the owner pulled after them we were a long way from the shore somo HOMO of the natives swam off to seaward others returned and laid hold of the rudder to rest themselves we caught them all none being lost then sailing along the coa coast st we fe fell feli 11 h in 1 w with th another canoe and while we were trading with the people A overturned it this was always his part of the work the owners swam ot off mr ordered us to pursue them which we did we brought them themi all to the tho vessel then we came upon another canoe which we tried to run down the natives dodged us until their strength was go gone ne when they gave in in and we seized them As we proceeded down the coast seven canoes came off to trade with many people on board but we were afraid to do anything because they tiley were too strong for us we gave them a iong long k knife nino nine to go ashore and bring us a pig but they did not return afterwards the canoes came oft off with six men whom we seized as payment for the knife aethen wethen we then went toan to an island called savu where there is a white man living here we anchored and went ashore to his house our white mena men asked him to get them some somo women begot he zot got them two on condition that they should be sent ashore again before nightfall after we were all aboard for the night light the white man called out from the shore begging that the women mie might ht be be sent back for the natives would kill him inthey if they were nob not returned lil uli ill send sene sen them back by and by shouted mr B but when it was quite dark we weighed the tho clia cila chain inso so that its rattling might not be heard and fled away to sea with the tho two girls who were both very young that night here follow details of filthy shameless and db disgusting brutality in the morning tile the girls cried and asked to go back wo we knew they were asking to go back because they pointed to themselves and then to land at Mung gawa a canoe with two men in it came off with flying foxes bones and shells we went with A to meet them got them into our boat and took their canoe in ill tow after towing it a short distance A quietly let go 0 tile the painter the natives cried when they saw their canoe floating away when we were about to put them down tho the hold tho the younger one went quietly but the older refused to go one of the white whito sailors struck him in the face so that blood flowed ho ile was tb then en seized by his hands and feet foot andt ands thrown headlong down below x when A and B were out of the way ahe sailors used to take the two girls there was no concealment when we reached levuka letuka the girls bogged us fillans to take them to ouan our homes ies les 1 I make no comment on this ex hepting to say that it is no worse than many other accounts which have come to my ears this sort of work has been going on for years and in spite of the lew new cruisers it will still go on they may check it but they cannot stop it truly we have cause to be proud of our civilization well might bishop patteson ask who is the civilized man and who the 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