A sad and recent experience under equally distressing circumstances, is
here told of four sailors, who were adrift for eight days in a dory; one
of whom was partly eaten by a shipmate:
“LOUISBURG, Cape Breton, April 8, 1886—James McDonald of Eastpoint, P.
E. I.; S. McDonald of Broadcove, C. B.; Colon Chisholm of Harbor Bouch,
N. S., and Angus McEchern of Long Point Cape, of the American fishing
schooner Elsie M. Low; March 30 left their vessel in two dories to look
after trawls on the western banks, but a fog set in, and when they were
pulling back for their vessel they got astray. Subsequently calls for
help from one brought the two together again. There being no prospect of
the fog lifting or reply to their oft repeated shouts, they decided to
all get in one dory and make their way toward land. They had neither
food nor water, as they had not expected to be gone long. The second day
the sun came out bright and clear, but no sail was in sight, save the
smoke of one or two steamers on the horizon, the sufferings of the
castaways from thirst were now becoming intense. The succeeding night
was extremely cold and rough and the dory iced up badly, taking all the
exertions of the now weakened men to keep her head to the sea. Some of
them held pieces of ice to their mouths and so endeavored to relieve
their parched throats to a slight extent. Of the succeeding six days’
history it is almost impossible to obtain a correct account, for all
were dazed. The light house keeper at Guyon Island, off Cape Breton,
near Louisburg, observed the dory being feebly pulled toward the light
and assisted the men ashore. His eyes met a ghastly sight. In the bow of
the dory was a lifeless, naked body, that of James McDonald, much
lacerated. One of his arms was hacked off at the elbow, his throat much
torn and pieces cut out of each thigh, while scattered remains of his
arm and flesh and bones, telling the horrible tale of cannibalism, were
in other parts of the boat. The body of the other McDonald was under the
thwarts in the bottom of the boat. The latter was the chief cannibal. He
clamored for his dead comrade’s blood, tore his throat and sucked it,
while the others, worn out, slept, and when they awoke offered them some
of the flesh, which they refused. He then cried for more blood, saying
it tasted like cream, but was unable to extract it from the lifeless
carcass. The next day he became insane, and was with difficulty
restrained from violence by the two remaining comrades until he himself
died on the seventh day. He is a brother of a prominent lawyer of
Halifax. The men rowed in their dory about 90 miles with only the sun
and stars to guide them. One of the two survivors Chisholm is very sick
and may not recover, while McEchern is extremely weak and very reticent.
The light house keeper took the bodies to Louisburg, where a tremendous
sensation was caused among the people of the old French fishing village.
A jury was empaneled and the inquest brought out the above story.”
The earliest references to this subject among the English, are certain
accusations brought against the Saxon conquerors of that country in the
chronicles called the Welsh Triads. In these historical documents it is
alleged that _Ethelfrith_, King of England, encouraged cannibalism at
his court; and that _Gwri_, a truant Welshman, became so enamored of
human flesh that he would eat no other food. It was his custom to have a
male and female “Kymry” killed for his own eating every day, except
Saturday, when he slaughtered two of each, in order to be spared the sin
of breaking the Sabbath.
St. Jerome has the following passage in one of his works: “Cum ipse
adolescentulus in Gallia viderim Attacottos gentem Britannicam, humanis
vesci carnibus; et cum per sylvas porcorum greges, et armentorum
pecudumque reperiant, pastorum nates et feminarum papillas solere
abscindere; et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari.” The quotation
appears in “Gibbons’ Decline and Fall,” and may be rendered: He learned
that the _Attacotti_, the people of the country now called Scotland,
when hunting in the woods, preferred the shepherd to his flocks, and
chose only the most fleshy and delicate parts for eating.
Gibbon, in comparing the people of Scotland with the natives of the
gorilla country, makes what may be considered rather an equivocal
compliment. “If,” says he, “in the neighborhood of the commercial and
literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has already existed, we
may contemplate in the period of Scottish history, the opposite extremes
of savage and civilized life.” There is reason to fear that cannibalism
was not quite extinct in Scotland, even in an age which must be called
civilized.
Andrew Wyntoun has a grisly passage in his Rhyming Chronicle, regarding
a man who lived so brief a time before his own day, that he might easily
have heard of him from surviving contemporaries. It was about the year
1339, when a large part of Scotland, even the best and most fertile, had
been desolated by the armies of Edward III.
“About Perth, there was a countrie
Sae waste, that wonder wes to see;
For intill well-great space thereby,
Wes nother house left, nor herb’ry.
Of deer there was then sic foison[1]
That they wold near come to the town.
Sae great default was near that stead.
That many were in hunger dead.
A carle they said was near ther by,
That wold set settis[2] commonly,
Children and women for to slay,
And swains that he might over-ta:
And ate them all that he get might:
_Chrysten Cleek_ till name be hight.
That sa’ry life continued he,
While waste but folk was the countrie.”
Footnote 1:
Abundance.
Footnote 2:
Traps.
Lindsay of Pitscottie tells a dismal story of a man who lived during the
reign of James II., (about 1460), at a time also within the recollection
of people alive during the epoch of the historian. He says: “About this
time there was are brigand ta’en, with his haill family, who haunted a
place in Angus. This mischievous man had ane execrable fashion, to tak
all young men and children he could steal away quietly, or tak away
without knowledge, and eat them; and the younger they were, esteemed
them the maer tender and delicious. For the whilk cause and dreadful
abuse, he with his wife and bairns were all burned, except ane young
wench of a year old, wha was saved and brought to Dundee, where she was
brought up and fostered; and when she came to woman’s years, she was
condemned and burnt quick for that crime. It is said that when she was
coming to the place of execution, there gathered are huge multitude of
people, and especially women, cursing her that she was so unhappy to
commit so infamous deeds; to whom she turned about with an ireful
countenance, saying, ‘Wherefore chide ye me, as if I had committed ane
unworthy act? Give me credence, and trow me, if ye had experience of
eating men and women’s flesh, ye would think it so delicious that ye
would never forbear it again.’ So, without any sign of repentance, this
unhappy creature died in the sight of the people.”
In the sunny land of Italy, in the year 1519, at the beautiful city of
Milan, a record appears in its annals that a Milanese woman named
Elizabeth had an invincible inclination to human flesh. She enticed
children to her house, where she killed, salted and ate them. Being
discovered, she was broken on the wheel and burnt.
During one of the earlier revolutions in Southern Italy the _Neapolitan
lazaroni_ (whether from hunger or to manifest intense hatred towards
their rulers, as well as to exhibit the wretchedness to which they had
been reduced,) roasted their fellow men in the public streets, and gave
to all who were willing to partake.
At the time when Belisarius was engaged in the Gothic war, a horrible
famine afflicted Italy, and it is the testimony of Procopius that on
this occasion multitudes in the agony of their want sustained life by
eating human flesh.
When Rome was captured by the Goths in the year 410 and the ports
blockaded, there was such a distress among the _Romans_ that human flesh
was publicly sold in the markets; and many mothers were forced to
consume their own children.
It is recorded also that the _Jews_ (having destroyed upwards of two
hundred thousand Romans in the time of Trajan) glutted their rage by
feeding on the bodies of some of the slain.
Glaber chronicles that during the famine of 1033 in France, guests were
sacrificed by _Frenchmen_ who had welcomed them to their hospitality;
children were enticed into secret places and slain, and frequently human
flesh was exposed for sale in the markets. At the same period, a woman
who lived by letting lodgings murdered and ate seventeen strangers who
had made their home beneath her roof. The fact of these enormities
accidentally came to the knowledge of the eighteenth lodger; having
entered her house and anticipating her purpose, to save his own life he
took that of his hostess.