Barton and I returned to Cape Nelson on the 24th of April, and found
all in order; we waited there for the return of the _Merrie England_,
as she was to take Barton and his men away, and bring stores for me.
Day after day, week after week, went by; our supplies of European
food were soon finished: tea, coffee, sugar, meat, biscuits, tobacco,
shot cartridges, all were done; fish and native vegetables, washed
down with cold water, our sole fare; and still, daily, we scanned the
horizon for the hourly expected _Merrie England_, or any vessel from
which we could get stores, but none came: until, on the 14th of June,
the _Merrie England_ put in a belated appearance, and we were told
that the Revs. J. Chalmers and O. F. Tomkins had been murdered in the
Western Division; so we had been left, while she hunted the murderers.
I thought then, as I think now, that however great the excitement might
have been over the murders, still some little thought should have
been given to two isolated officers on the north-east coast and their
possible plight; if a Government vessel were not available, a Mambare
trader might have been instructed to call in at Cape Nelson (several
passed in the distance), instead of our being left, as we were, from
March until June, entirely cut off from the world, newsless and
semi-starved.
Captain Harvey and I had a slight breeze over something or other, I
have forgotten now exactly what it was, on the occasion of this visit;
which resulted in my turning sheep-stealer. The ship had got a pen of
sheep for fresh meat, some half dozen or so, on which I cast a hungry
eye. “Harvey, old chap,” I said, “tell the butcher to kill one of the
muttons, and leave me a joint.” “You did not call me ‘old chap’ this
morning,” said Harvey, “you called me a ‘marine Fenian,’ and said
my voice was worse than that of the wooden bird in a cuckoo clock;
you also said that you were surprised at my being entrusted with the
navigation of anything more valuable than the gaol sanitary punt; there
were several other things you said, including that you would ask the
medical officer at Samarai to examine me for incipient softening of
the brain.” “That was in the heat of argument,” I answered; “you must
remember that you used language that, if I did my duty as a beak, would
be well worth five bob a word to the revenue; but I made allowances,
because I fancied you must have put in some of your early training as
apprentice to a Bargee. How about my mutton?” “You will see,” said
Captain Harvey, and sent for the chief steward. “Thanks, Harvey,”
I said, and waited. “Steward,” said Harvey, on that functionary’s
arrival, “see that no sheep are killed before we are back at Samarai.”
“All right, skipper,” I said, “I will make you sit up for that before
long.” “I don’t think you should have meat,” commented Harvey, “you
have been living too well, and your blood has got heated.”
The ship was to sail at dawn; accordingly I went ashore and called my
constabulary into consultation. “To-night,” I said, “you are to steal a
sheep from the _Merrie England_. Can you grab and lower the brute into
a boat, without making a noise and causing it to baa?” “Very simple to
do,” they said, “but what about the watch on board?” “The constabulary
are all on shore, and wouldn’t tell in any case,” I told them; “and at
anchor, there is only one night watchman on duty; I’ll settle him.”
That night I went off, and remained on board until all the officers had
gone to bed; then I waylaid the night watchman. “Lonely work, yours,”
I said, “come to the saloon and I’ll give you a drink; I’ve got a
bottle down there. My police will look out while you come.” He rose
like a trout at a May fly, and I called out to my corporal, “Corporal,
the watchman goes below with me for a few minutes, you must look out
sharply.” “I understand, sir,” replied that smart non-com. Five minutes
later he came to the saloon, where the watchman was indulging in his
second drink. “The men are getting very sleepy, sir, will you be long?”
I left at once; a shapeless bundle of sail at the bottom of the boat
containing a large fat sheep, with its mouth securely tied, showed how
successful the raid had been.
[Illustration: THE “MERRIE ENGLAND” AT CAPE NELSON]
Captain Harvey had a happy Irish knack of leading me into crime; from
sheep stealing he led me later into body snatching, a still more
heinous offence. Time had elapsed; Oelrichs was my Assistant R.M.,
when the _Merrie England_ one day appeared, and after I had completed
my work in the Governor’s cabin and was leaving, Harvey waylaid me
and wiled me into his cabin; where, after producing vessels of strong
waters and cigars, he mysteriously whispered, “Monckton, I want you
to do me a very great favour.” “Well, what is it?” I asked. “Do you
want me to let you down lightly if you come before me in my official
capacity, or what?” “Well, the fact is,” said Harvey, “I am under
great obligations to a doctor in Brisbane, who has been most good
to my family; he has an ethnological turn of mind, and hankers for the
skull and skeleton of a New Guinea mountaineer, a Doriri for choice.”
“Do you expect me, a senior officer of the Service, apart from my
judicial position, to go out, shoot and stuff a Doriri for your medical
scientific friend?” I asked in surprise; “if so, I must tell you that
I draw the line at homicide, even of Doriri.” “Don’t be a fool,” said
Harvey, “I am serious; you can buy me a skeleton somewhere, I don’t
care how old or decayed.” “I can’t,” I said; “such a request on my part
would, in the first instance, start all sorts of yarns of sorcery; and
secondly, since one trader bought up a lot of skulls and grew orchids
in them like flower pots, afterwards selling them in Europe as sacred
or devil orchids worshipped by Papuans, and another chap cleaned out a
lot of caves of skeletons and sold them to make bone dust for manure,
there has been an Ordinance prohibiting traffic in human remains.”
“There is no question of traffic,” said Harvey, “you must find plenty
of graves in abandoned villages, and can easily dig me up a skeleton.”
“‘Desecration of Sepulchre’ happens to be a penal offence, my dear
Harvey,” I remarked; “I wish the favour you ask did not contain a
considerable risk of free lodging for the pair of us in one of his
Majesty’s houses of entertainment; neither the diet nor the lodging
appeal to me.” “Damn your scruples,” said Harvey. “Museums and savants
always manage to get skeletons; if you were an Irishman, instead of a
cold-blooded Englishman, you would do it for the fun of the thing, not
to speak of obliging a pal.” “Skipper,” I said, “my father came from
Kent, but my mother came from the Curraugh of Kildare, and the Irish
strain is always getting me into trouble, as it will probably do once
more over this night’s work. I will give you your bones; though you
don’t deserve them after your action last year in turning an eminently
respectable magistrate and his police into sheep-stealers. Tell one of
your crew to blow your whistle for my boat, and come ashore with me.”
The night happened to be very dark, wet and windy, and my boat’s crew
had departed for the shelter of the boat shed on shore.
“Where will you get the bones!” asked Harvey. I explained that some
five or six months before, the Collingwood Bay people had found
a Doriri man badly wounded by a wild boar in the forest, and had
brought him to me; he was too far gone to cure, when I got him, and
died without our being able to ascertain his name or village, and his
corpse had been planted in our cemetery. Going ashore, I summoned
Oelrichs and my sergeant, a Kiwai man named Kimai, and explained to
them that I wanted them to go and disinter the Doriri. Oelrichs said
that he did not think that body-snatching, in the middle of the
night, was included in the duties of an Assistant R.M.; and Sergeant
Kimai said that nothing would induce the Western or Eastern men in the
constabulary to go corpse hunting in a cemetery after dark. I persuaded
them into undertaking the job, however; and, accompanied by half a
dozen Northern police, who had no fear of ghost or devil, they departed
on their cheerful quest. Harvey and I waited hours, listening to the
rain and wondering why they did not return; at last, about two in the
morning, I took Harvey back to the ship, fearing that he would be
missed and inquiry made as to what we were up to.
A couple of hours later, alongside came my boat, and a dripping
Oelrichs crawled into Captain Harvey’s cabin, followed by Sergeant
Kimai and a Mambare corporal bearing a very smelly sack. “My God!”
gasped Oelrichs, “give me a drink, and Sergeant Kimai one too; he has
seen seventeen ghosts and quite a score of devils. If it had not been
for the Mambares, I never should have got the corpse.” “What do you
mean, Oelrichs,” I asked, “by keeping me sitting up all night wondering
what had become of you? I did not tell you to picnic all night in the
graveyard, I told you to bring the Doriri.” Oelrichs flung up his
hands and appealed to the universe at large to witness my appalling
ingratitude. “The Kiwai men buried that Doriri,” he said, “and the
sergeant was not there, so no one knew where he was, and the grass had
grown over his grave; we dug up about an acre, and quite six other
corpses, before we found him. The smell nearly killed me, and Kimai saw
spooks all the time.” “You look out that no one discovers this,” I said
to Harvey, “or we shall all be in the devil of a row.” Harvey shoved
the smellful remains into a drawer under his bunk, where he kept them
until he reached Samarai and got the doctor to fix them up in a cask
with disinfectants. He certainly went through a lot for his medical
friend.
But I must return to more serious affairs. I have referred in this
chapter to the reason of the _Merrie England_ remaining away for such
a length of time from Cape Nelson, namely, the murder of the Revs.
Chalmers and Tomkins by natives in the Western Division. The death of
such a well-known pioneer missionary as Chalmers, of course excited
intense interest and sympathy throughout the Empire; much was written
at the time in the Press, missionary publications, and by New Guinea
officials through official channels, but something yet remains to be
said from the point of view of an onlooker, neither swayed by sentiment
nor eager to praise or condemn. Firstly, in order to arrive at a proper
sense of proportion, one must consider the characteristics of the
European actors in the tragedy; the natives we can eliminate, for from
their point of view--as it is from my own--the killing of Chalmers and
the looting of the vessel was no greater crime than would have been the
killing of a wandering trader, at whose hands they had suffered no hurt.
Chalmers, one must remember, was not of the ordinary type of
missionary, but was of the type of a David Livingstone; and, though
belonging to the London Missionary Society, was--like Livingstone--as
much an explorer as a missionary. He was a man of particularly forceful
character, who was inclined to take unnecessary risks, and this trait
had been accentuated by the recent death of his wife; the very boat he
was using on the fateful journey was her last gift to the Mission, or
really to him. Tomkins calls for no remark: a young man, but recently
from a religious training school, always taught to regard Mr. Chalmers
as the wisest and best of men, he was not likely either to understand
the danger of the action they were about to take, or to differ in any
degree from Chalmers’ views. Next we come to the Resident Magistrate
in charge of the Division, who should be, in the first instance,
responsible for the lives of all in his district, missionary, trader
or native. This officer, at the time, was the Hon. C. G. Murray,
who had recently succeeded the experienced Bingham Hely. Murray had
arrived in New Guinea as assistant private secretary to Sir George
Le Hunte, not so very long before; he had then been transferred to
the Government Secretary’s Office as a clerk, and from thence been
promoted to be Resident Magistrate of the Western Division, without
the slightest district or divisional experience, or training of any
description; if Murray had any knowledge of natives, it could only have
been acquired at Eton, the Bachelors’ Club, West End drawing-rooms and
country houses, or by dint of working a typewriter under Mr. Musgrave’s
fostering eye in the Government Secretary Department at Port Moresby,
where an irate washerwoman, demanding payment for an overdue account,
was the most dangerous native likely to be encountered.
Now Mr. Chalmers, before leaving on the journey that was to end in
the death of himself and his young companion, as well as that of
many friendly natives, and was eventually to lead to a great deal of
bloodshed, culminating in the suicide of one of the most promising
officers New Guinea ever possessed--Judge Robinson--had been to Murray
and told him what he proposed doing, and said that “he intended that
it should be his last journey of any importance”; and Murray made no
effort to dissuade him, nor did he, in the absence of dissuasion,
make any effort to secure the safety, by means of his constabulary,
of the Mission party, in admittedly one of the most dangerous parts
of New Guinea. The natives in the vicinity of Cape Blackwood had an
exceedingly bad reputation, of which Murray either was, or should have
been, aware. In the year 1845, they had attacked the boats of H.M.S.
_Fly_, the Cape having been named Blackwood after her captain, and the
Fly River after the ship. The only subsequent occasions upon which they
had been visited were in 1892 and 1898 by Sir William MacGregor, when
his Excellency, skilled as he was in native ways and backed by his
trained men, had but narrowly averted hostilities with them. To the
experienced eye, a number of men embarking in a punt to shoot Niagara
falls, would go to no more certain death than would a few unarmed men
landing, at that time, in any village on Cape Blackwood; and Murray
should have used every means in his power to prevent it. There can be
no two opinions about this.
Chalmers went to Cape Blackwood, and the inevitable result followed. I
now give the exact wording of the official report, first notifying the
tragedy to Headquarters, and sent by Murray’s assistant, Jiear:--
“SIR,
“I have to report that the London Missionary Society’s schooner
_Niue_ returned to Daru late last night from what was intended to
be a trip to Cape Blackwood, and thence along the coast back to
Daru. The captain of the _Niue_ states that on the 8th instant,
while anchored off Risk Point on Goaribari Island, near the mouth
of the River Omati, a party consisting of the Rev. James Chalmers,
Rev. Oliver Tomkins, nine Mission students, natives of various
villages on Kiwai Island, Naragi, the chief of Ipisia, and James
Walker, a half-caste native of Torres Straits, left in their
whaleboat and landed in a small creek near the village on the
island. The landing took place about 7 a.m. on the 8th instant, and
it was the intention of the party to return in about half an hour
to have breakfast.
“The party was totally unarmed. After waiting until about midday
the _Niue_ moved off about half a mile to await the return of the
party.
“The _Niue_ was surrounded here by a large number of canoes, full
of armed natives, who boarded the schooner and took away all the
“trade,” tools, and clothing belonging to the Mission party. The
_Niue_ stayed at this place until the next morning, and then sailed
round the island, but could not see or hear anything of the party,
and so the captain decided to return to Daru to report, taking
seven days to reach here.
“The natives were naked and had on their war paint, and were
yelling the whole of the time the _Niue_ remained in the vicinity.
“The people on the _Niue_ are quite sure that all the party were
murdered.
“The Resident Magistrate is at present away on a trip to the Bamu
River district, and is probably not aware of the occurrence. I am
therefore sending a small cutter with all the available police
and some ex-constables, with the necessary arms and rations; also
a report of the occurrence to him, in case he should see fit to
proceed to the spot before returning to Daru.
“I have, etc.,
“A. H. JIEAR, Subcollector of Customs.”
From this dispatch, three things are clear:--
1. Chalmers, Tomkins, and a considerable number of Christian
natives, were in the hands of the Goaribari.
2. A surmise might be made that they were already murdered, but
there was not a single shred of evidence to that effect.
3. Mr. Jiear clearly expected the Resident Magistrate at once to
proceed to the spot and effect a rescue, if such rescue were
yet possible; and for that purpose had sent additional police
and reservists to strengthen the force that the R.M. then had
with him.
How then would an experienced officer--such as the senior officer in
charge of a Division should be--have reasoned? The answer is plain.
He would have placed himself in the position of a chief of the tribe
holding the captives, and reasoned thus: “We have got a certain number
of a strange tribe in our hands, the vessel in which they came has
escaped, and probably fled back to that tribe with the news; before
we kill our captives, perhaps it would be better to wait a short time
and see what that tribe will do.” Never, in my opinion, was the need
of haste more evident; and how did Murray rise to the occasion? It
must be remembered that Chalmers’ party landed at Goaribari on the 7th
of April; well, on the 22nd of that month, while Murray was in the
Gulf, he was given a circumstantial account of the affair, and at once
started for Daru, which lay in the opposite direction; it is true that
he missed the cutter sent to him by Jiear, with additional police,
but he reached Daru on the 24th of April, when the news was confirmed
by his own assistant, and then wasted precious moments in sending a
report, of which I give the following extracts:--
“On hearing the fuller particulars, and from my knowledge of the
natives near that part, I could no longer believe that any of the party
were alive; and although I should have liked to have at once proceeded
to the spot, it was impossible; the means suitable for the conveyance
of even the small detachment of police under my command being wanting.
“I therefore decided to wait for the return of the _Niue_, or possibly
the arrival of the _Merrie England_, with your Excellency on board, as
it also occurred to me that you would wish to deal with such a grave
matter yourself; besides, all the survivors had departed in the _Niue_,
and thus I was left without a guide.”
And then he continues:--
“I may also mention that this massacre has created the intensest state
of sorrow, excitement, and revenge on the part of the Kiwai Island
natives, both for the death of Messrs. Chalmers and Tomkins, and for
the ten Kiwai boys who were with them. Their great desire was to be
allowed to muster all the large canoes on Kiwai, go to the spot, wipe
out the offending tribes, and bring their heads to Kiwai. I, of course,
informed them that I could not allow such a proceeding, and that the
Government would take care that the offenders were properly punished.”
Murray first shows that he had no means of transport, and then
conclusively proves that he had at his disposal a fleet of canoes,
capable of transporting a regiment from one end of New Guinea to the
other. And yet Murray sat doing nothing until the 26th of April, when
he reported:--
“At 3 p.m. on the 26th of April, the s.s. _Parua_ arrived from Thursday
Island, having on board a detachment of the Royal Australian Artillery
under Lieutenant Brown in connection with the massacre.”
Murray enclosed a copy of the letter brought to him by the soldiers
from the Officer Commanding at Thursday Island, which was as follows:--
“SIR,
“I have the honour to inform you that I have received instructions
from the Artillery Staff Officer in Brisbane to furnish a
detachment consisting of one officer, two non-commissioned
officers, and eight gunners of the Royal Australian Artillery to
leave here by the s.s. _Parua_ at daybreak to-morrow, 25th instant,
to act in defence of the ship, and also protect, if required, the
Resident Magistrate and his followers.
“The detachment will be under the command of Lieut. Brown, Royal
Australian Artillery, and are armed with rifles and 100 rounds per
man. I have instructed Lieut. Brown to report to you on arrival and
to place his detachment at your disposal, and act solely under your
instructions.
“I have, etc.,
“WALTER A. COXEN. Captain, R.A.A.”
Murray now had at his command the strongest fighting force that
any district officer had ever had available in New Guinea: he had
twelve white soldiers, all picked shots; he had eighteen regular
constabulary, well armed, and he could have called up fifty or more
time-expired men of the constabulary, if he had required them; also as
many bowmen as he pleased, the latter in companies under the discipline
and control of village constables and Government chiefs, not a savage
horde, but a controlled force as well armed as the Goaribari. There
was no possible further excuse for delay: Murray’s alleged grounds for
such, namely, weakness of force and lack of transport, had been cut
from under his feet; but the only action taken by him was to steam for
Port Moresby, on the possible chance of finding the _Merrie England_
there, first forwarding this interesting epistle to the Officer
Commanding at Thursday Island:--
“SIR,
“In reply to your letter of the 24th April, I have the honour to
inform you that the _Parua_ arrived to-day at 3 p.m. with the
detachment of the R.A.A. under Lieut. Brown.
“Even with the addition of the native contingent of police
stationed here, I do not consider there would be sufficient force
to cope with the villages concerned, certainly not as effectually
as they should be.
“I have therefore decided to proceed in the _Parua_ to Port
Moresby, collect some more police there, then return to Daru, pick
up my Daru police and interpreters; from Daru proceed to the place
of the massacre.
“I have instructed Lieutenant Brown to this effect.
“I have, etc.,
“C. G. MURRAY, R.M., W.D.”
In this report Murray clearly showed an entire lack of initiative,
judgment, nerve, or grasp of the situation. He was not in command of
a punitive expedition--such could always follow at a later date, if
the worst had happened--but of a force more than sufficient to effect
a rescue, if the missionaries were still alive, or so to overawe the
natives as to prevent their immediate murder. Another most imperative
reason for haste on Murray’s part was that the South-East Monsoon was
due, during which it was impossible for any landing to be effected at
Goaribari; in fact, it did come on while the _Merrie England_ was there
and expedited her departure, gravely endangering a launch and whaleboat
returning from the shore to the ship.
As a matter of fact, it was afterwards ascertained that Chalmers and
his party had been murdered soon after landing, and no action on
Murray’s part, however prompt, could have saved them; but nothing in
Murray’s then knowledge justified him in not taking immediate action to
ascertain whether they were killed or not; and nothing justifies the
Governor in not having called him to account for lack of initiative.
I do not wish to infer in this that Murray was guilty of personal
cowardice, for I knew him well, and he was no coward; but I do think
that the placing of a very young untried man in a responsible position,
and that a position in which he could not obtain the advice of older or
more experienced officers when grave matters affecting human life were
at stake, was a lamentable blunder, which brought about the foregone
and inevitable result. Had Moreton, Hely, or Armit been in charge of
the Western Division, or Sir William MacGregor been Governor of New
Guinea, I feel certain that Chalmers would not have been permitted to
meet his death in such a way.
Murray reached Port Moresby, only to find that the Governor and the
_Merrie England_ had already left for Goaribari, to which point
Sir Francis Winter then instructed him to proceed. The following
telegram from the Lieutenant-Governor of New Guinea to the Governor of
Queensland gives a concise history of the action then taken:--
“S.Y. _Merrie England_, off Cape Blackwood.
“Gulf of Papua, 5th May, 1901.
“_Merrie England_ was starting for Cooktown 27th April in
accordance with my telegram of that date, when London Missionary
Society’s schooner _Niue_ arrived Port Moresby, reporting massacre
of Mission party and looting of the schooner at Goaribari Island,
mouth of Omati River, 12 miles west of Cape Blackwood, Gulf of
Papua, on 8th April, hitherto hardly known and not yet under
Government control, visited by Sir William MacGregor in 1892 and
1898. I should have visited it two months ago if I had not been
called away to North-East by death of Armit, R.M., and murder of
miners on Upper Kumusi, in which case it would probably not have
happened. I left at daylight 28th in _Merrie England_ with _Ruby_
launch in tow, Government party and Rev. Hunt, L.M.S., called at
Hall Sound for additions to party and Rev. Dauncey, L.M.S. Smaller
steamer _Parua_ chartered by Queensland Government joined us off
Orokolo 1st May with Murray, R.M., Western Division and detachment
of R.A. under Lieutenant Brown from Thursday Island _viâ_ Daru
and Port Moresby. Proceeded together to island, arrived noon 2nd
May, _Merrie England_ anchored three and a half miles outside,
and _Parua_ entering channel inside island, low and thick bush,
five miles across. Boats landed at three villages simultaneously,
natives immediately commenced hostilities. We fired on them and
occupied villages, total killed twenty-four and three wounded
as far as is known. No casualties in our party except native
constable on sentry at night slightly wounded by sniping arrow.
Captured one prisoner belonging to neighbouring island. Obtained
names of principal murderers and villages concerned. Mission
party consisting of Chalmers, Tomkins, a native chief of Kiwai
Fly River Estuary and ten Kiwai Mission boys all killed and
eaten and whaleboat broken up at Dopima Island, where massacre
planned. Some articles and pieces of boat recovered, some human
remains not recognizable. After careful consideration I decided
to visit all villages on island and vicinity, reported to be
implicated, burning the large fighting men’s houses but no other
dwelling-houses of women and children. Villages at top of soft mud,
thick impracticable bush and swamp behind, very strong tides. Found
it impossible to get prisoners. Ten villages, nearly all large,
visited by us. Camped night in two of them. Burnt all fighting
men’s houses, except in the prisoner’s village, small, spared on
account of assistance given by him. Some fighting canoes destroyed.
Regret to say at last village visited by one party, wind sprung up
after large house fired and carried flames to several other houses,
purely accidental. Returned to ship evening fourth. South-east
fortunately held off, as coast unapproachable during it. Can do
nothing further until next North-West season, when I shall return.
There will be no further fighting or burning. I am satisfied this
is last massacre of this kind on coast of British New Guinea.
Regret nature of punishment but action absolutely necessary at
once, and best in the end. Further report will follow, but above
contains all material particulars. Please convey my best thanks
to Queensland Government for prompt action in sending _Parua_ and
assistance to Murray, and to Commandant Defence Force my grateful
appreciation of Lieutenant Brown and the men under his command.
_Parua_ leaves this morning fifth for Thursday Island for coal.
Return Port Moresby and send ship Cooktown for stores, and finish
eastern cruise as formerly arranged on her return.
“To his Excellency Lord Lamington, G.C.M.G., Brisbane.”
Then, if we take the following statement made by the only prisoner
taken at the time, we have the whole history of the events which took
place up to the departure of the punitive party from Goaribari on board
the _Merrie England_.
Statement of Kemere of Dubumuba, taken prisoner at Dopima, Goaribari
Island:--
“The name of the village that I was captured in is Dopima. I,
however, belong to Dubumuba, a village on Baiba Bari Island. I,
myself, was not present at the massacre; only the big men of the
village went. I have, however, heard all about it. My father,
Marawa, sent me to Dopima to get a tomahawk to build a canoe. The
name of the village you camped in the first night is Turotere.
The first suggestion for massacring the L.M.S. party came from
Garopo, off whose village, Dopima, the _Niue_ was anchored. Word
was at once sent round that night to villages in the vicinity to
come to help. It is the usual custom for people of surrounding
villages, when a large boat is sighted, to congregate in one place.
The following villages were implicated: Dopima, Turotere, Bai-ia,
Aidio, Eheubi, Goari-ubi, Aimaha, Gewari-Bari, Ubu-Oho, Dubumuba.
The next morning all the canoes went off and persuaded Messrs.
Chalmers and Tomkins and party to come on shore in the whaleboat.
Some of the natives remained to loot the _Niue_. When they got on
shore Messrs. Chalmers and Tomkins and a few boys entered the long
house, the rest of the boys remaining to guard the boat. These
last, however, were also enticed inside the house on pretence of
giving them something to eat. The signal for a general massacre was
given by knocking simultaneously from behind both Messrs. Chalmers
and Tomkins on the head with stone clubs. This was performed in the
case of the former by Iake of Turotere, in that of the latter by
Arau-u of Turotere. Kaiture, of Dopima, then stabbed Mr. Chalmers
in the right side with a cassowary dagger, and then Muroroa cut off
his head. Ema cut off Mr. Tomkins’ head. They both fell senseless
at the first blow of the clubs. Some names of men concerned in the
murder of the rest of the party are: Baibi, Adade, Emai, Utuamu,
and Amuke, all of Dopima; also Wahaga and Ema, both of Turotere.
“All the heads were immediately cut off. We, however, lost one
man, Gahibai, of Dopima. He was running to knock a big man [Note:
this must be Naragi, chief of Ipisia] on the head, when the latter
snatched a stone club from a man standing near, and killed Gahibai.
He (Naragi) was, however, immediately overpowered. The other boys
were too small to make any resistance. In the meantime the people
in canoes left at the _Niue_ had come back after looting her of
all the tomahawks, etc. This party was led by Kautiri, of Dopima.
Finding the party on shore dead, it was determined to go back to
the _Niue_ and kill those on board. However, the _Niue_ got under
way, and left, so they could not accomplish their purpose. I think
the crew of the _Niue_ were frightened at the noise on shore. Then
Pakara, of Aimaha, called out to all the people to come and break
up the boat, which had been taken right inside the creek, it being
high water. This was done, and the pieces were divided amongst
people from the various villages. Pakara is the man who followed
and talked to you in the Aimaha Creek for a long time. Directly
the heads had been cut off the bodies, some men cut the latter up
and handed the pieces over to the women to cook, which they did,
mixing the flesh with sago. They were eaten the same day.
“Gebai has got Mr. Chalmers’ head at Dopima, and Mahikaha has got
Mr. Tomkins’ head at Turotere. The rest of the heads are divided
amongst various individuals. Anybody having a new head would
naturally, on seeing strange people coming to the village, hide
them away in the bush, and leave only the old skulls in the houses.
The same applies to the loot from the _Niue_.
“As regards the skulls in the houses, those having artificial noses
attached to them are of people who have died natural deaths; those
that have no noses attached have been killed.”
“Taken by me
C. G. MURRAY, R.M., W.D.”
Time went on: Murray, who had only taken the billet while he waited
for a more congenial appointment, heard of a private secretaryship in
South Africa and promptly left for there; Jiear, whose sole experience
in handling natives had been gained under Murray, succeeded him as
R.M.; Sir George Le Hunte was appointed Governor of South Australia
and departed; and a young lawyer, Christopher Stansfield Robinson, who
had but recently been appointed Chief Justice in lieu of Sir Francis
Winter, recently resigned, acted as Administrator; it had always been
the custom in New Guinea for the Chief Justice to perform that duty
in the absence of the Lieutenant-Governor, in place--as in most Crown
Colonies--of the Colonial Secretary. Robinson was a young man, for
whom one might reasonably predict a brilliant career. He was the son
of the Venerable Archdeacon Robinson of Brisbane, and therefore his
early training had been hardly that of the swashbuckler he was later
made out to be; but Robinson had not previously been in command of
other men, nor had he any administrative experience. That he was a
humane man was proved by the fact that almost his first work was to
endeavour to improve the conditions under which the European miners
on the gold-fields lived; his second, to prepare Amendments to the
Native Labour Ordinance, with a view to better care being taken of
native indentured labourers; and his third, to endeavour to better the
conditions under which the officers in the Service worked.
At the time Sir George Le Hunte left, the heads of Chalmers and Tomkins
were still in the hands of the Goaribari natives, and some of the
actual murderers were still uncaptured, although the men and their
names were known. It was essential, in Robinson’s opinion, that the
heads should be recovered, and the murderers apprehended and brought to
trial; for, even in the eyes of the natives of the Western Division,
the killing of the Mission party had not been an act of war or revenge,
but patently a cold-blooded treacherous murder of men who were, at the
time, in the position of guests and entitled to the protection of the
very men by whom they were done to death. Robinson decided to go to
Goaribari and get the murderers and heads.
The point of interest now is the composition of his party: firstly,
Robinson himself, Governor of the Possession and in Supreme Command,
but quite inexperienced in the work he was undertaking; next, Jiear,
R.M. of the Division, to whom the Governor would naturally look for
advice and guidance in the matter; but Jiear, as I have already shown,
was also inexperienced, being only a Customs clerk, who had suddenly
found himself in the position of officer in charge of a Division,
after a short training under a man as ignorant as himself. Next we
have Bruce, Commandant of Constabulary, also a recent arrival in
the country, inexperienced in dealing with natives, a soldier pure
and simple, and incompetent to advise as to any action other than a
purely military movement; lastly, Jewell, secretary to Robinson, a
young Englishman recently imported by Sir George Le Hunte, and until
now, engaged in copying letters in the Government Secretary’s Office.
Robinson, Bruce, and Jewell had all arrived in New Guinea at the same
time. There was, therefore, on board the _Merrie England_, from the
Administrator downwards, not one man who had previously been engaged
in similar work to that which they were about to attempt; the ship’s
officers do not count, as they have nothing to do with either the
planning or carrying out of district work.
Robinson told me, when he was with me in the Northern Division, what he
purposed in the way of recovering the heads and arresting the men in
the Western Division; and I expressed a hope that he would take one of
the more experienced officers with him, and volunteered to accompany
him as A.D.C., for I had some leave due to me and was prepared to spend
it in that way. I was, however, at the time very weak from protracted
malaria, work and worry; so his Excellency said, “You are worn out and
need change and rest; take your leave and go south.”
Judge Robinson went to Goaribari in 1903, within a year of his
appointment. Soon after their arrival a number of natives were
induced, by the display and gift of trade goods, to go on board the
_Merrie England_; among them were several of the men who had actually
participated in the murders, and were identified by a Goaribari man,
whom they had brought back with them in the ship. It was decided that,
upon a given signal, these men were to be seized by the constabulary.
This was done: a violent struggle then began on different parts of the
ship’s deck, between the suddenly grabbed men and the police; the other
natives fled over the side into their canoes, and then, in conjunction
with their friends in other canoes, opened arrow fire on the ship, upon
whose deck the struggle was still going on. The constabulary promptly
answered with rifle fire; by whom the first order to fire was given
has never been quite clear. Several natives were hit, others jumped
overboard from their canoes and swam for the shore. Every man on that
ship, with one exception, then lost his head: Robinson grabbed his
rifle and began wildly blazing at every canoe in sight; Jewell saw a
man hit with a bullet, and promptly went into screeching hysteria; what
the R.M. did, Heaven and he alone know; some of the European crew of
the ship took shelter in the chart house and other refuges, and one of
the officers, at least, got his fowling-piece and blazed away. Bruce
alone kept his head, ordered the “cease fire,” and thumped every man
he found firing; but most of the men were out of sight of one another
behind deck houses, etc., and each man imagined that, as long as the
firing continued, a fight was going on and blazed away. As a matter of
fact, I am convinced that the damage done to the Goaribari was very
slight; canoes were emptied, but principally by the men in them diving
over the side and making for the shore. The Governor, at the best, was
a vile shot; the detachment of constabulary on board came from the
Central Division, where, under Captain Barton’s régime, their musketry
practice had become a farce, and Bruce had not had time as yet to get
it up again.
The _Merrie England_ returned to Port Moresby: the European crew, most
of whom had been planted in safe security, described the dreadful
battle in which they had taken part; the constabulary bragged of their
prowess, and the number of Goaribari each individual had shot; many of
the police were related to the tribe from which the Kiwai boys came who
had been murdered with Chalmers, and therefore were only too prone to
magnify their deeds for the benefit of their relations; while Jewell’s
hysteria had evolved at least ten men shot by the Governor, from the
one he had seen struck by a bullet, fired by some hand unknown.
Now appears upon the scene the Rev. Charles Abel of the London
Missionary Society, on his way south to incur the greatest danger he
was ever likely to shove his head into, namely, that of being choked
to death at some suburban muffin worry, or dying from mental strain
induced by the necessity of telling tales of dire peril incurred
in his work, or clergyman’s sore throat from relating stories of
cannibalism and crime. He had not been within hundreds of miles of
Goaribari, but on his way down the Queensland coast he found an
enterprising reporter, and unburdened his soul of a circumstantial tale
of treachery, bloody murder and slaughter, on the part of the Governor
of New Guinea. “Nothing less than a Royal Commission will satisfy the
European population of Port Moresby; their indignation is profound,”
he announced, and quite forgot to say that the European population of
Port Moresby consisted of a handful of public officials, half of whom
were jealous of so young a man as Robinson being put over their heads,
and that the rest of the men were profoundly uninterested in the whole
affair.
It was a dull season at the time for the Australian papers; they had
not had a fight in their Parliaments, or a sensational murder for some
time. Here was a chance of selling their rags! Never mind sacrificing a
good man, on the unsubstantial hearsay statement of an individual whose
living greatly depended upon his power of romancing. The Press fairly
howled for the head of Robinson, as did also certain Australian members
of Parliament; according to them, he was a man to whom the Emperor Nero
or Captain Kidd were as angels in comparison; while happy comparisons
were drawn between the _Merrie England_ and the “blood-drenched
_Carl_, brig,” a notorious and particularly infamous early Australian
“black birder.” The Administration in Australia bowed to the storm,
votes might be at stake, and the announcement was made that a Royal
Commission would be appointed to inquire into the matter, and that
though Robinson would not in the meantime be suspended, he would be
summoned to Sydney, while an Administrator would at once be sent to
succeed him. Practically the attitude of the authorities amounted to
this: “We intend to offer up Robinson as a sacrifice, but we must
give him some form of trial before we judge and immolate him; in the
meantime we will fill his job, in case there should be any doubt as to
our intentions.”
Sir George Le Hunte was then asked to suggest the name of an officer,
then in the Service, suitable as an Administrator; and his Excellency
replied, “Captain Barton.” This was rubbing it into Judge Robinson with
a vengeance; Captain Barton was a junior magistrate, under Robinson
in both his judicial and administrative capacities, and he was now to
regard Barton as his chief. Jewell was transferred to Captain Barton as
private secretary. Robinson had fallen, unheard and untried, from the
highest position in the country to that of a man looked at with eyes
askance by those by whom he had formerly been regarded with awe, and
who now were afraid that they might possibly become involved in his
downfall.
Now, to Robinson there only appeared to be one course left, and he took
it. Every vessel brought fresh gusts of execration against him from
Australia; Bruce alone in Port Moresby sympathized with him; Moreton
and myself, the only two men he could call friends in the Service,
were hundreds of miles away, ignorant of his plight, and in any case
powerless to help; the very native servants at Government House knew
that he was a disgraced man, and that on the morrow the Jack on the
flagstaff would fly in honour of another, while he went in humiliation
to trial and possible dishonour. Whilst all the house was plunged in
sleep, Robinson sat late at night writing an account of his views and
actions, and the troubles of his Administratorship, and concluded by
fully accepting all responsibility for the action taken at Goaribari,
and exonerating all others concerned. He then took his revolver, and
walking out under the flagstaff, there blew out his brains. So died
Christopher Stansfield Robinson, first Australian Administrator of New
Guinea, murdered as clearly as ever a man was murdered, by the lying
sensation-mongers who had hounded him to a suicide’s grave.
The Royal Commission was held, and the officer concerned exonerated
from blame; Robinson had gone to answer for his act and alleged misdeed
at the Highest Court of all, the Court before which his traducers will
some day stand and be judged. The surprised man was the Rev. Charles
Abel; he was proceeding south to give evidence, when he suddenly heard
that the Judge, by whom the Royal Commission was conducted, held
the--to him--extraordinary view, that the evidence of a man who had
been at the time six hundred miles distant from the scene, and only
heard various garbled versions at second, third, fourth and fifth hand,
was not admissible. This was hard luck for Abel! He had made himself
prominent in the limelight as a principal performer on the stage, and
suddenly the stage manager said, “What is that super doing there? Send
him back to his own job of selling programmes!” Robinson, however, had
gone; nothing now could bring him back.
Apart from the loss to the Service caused by Robinson’s death, a very
bad example had been set, and the Service and public had been taught
that clamour, abuse and misrepresentation, if sufficiently persisted
in, could pull down any officer, however highly placed, even to the
King’s Representative; and soon indeed, later, Barton, the Governor;
Ballantine, the Treasurer; and Bruce, the Commandant, all went down
before the same methods.