Three hundred and fifty years ago a Spanish ship, coasting in the South Seas, found a large island – the largest in the world – and imagining that there was a resemblance between it and Guinea on the West Coast of Africa, named it Nueva Guinea, or as it is now named, “New Guinea.” It extends for about 1400 miles from east to west, and its breadth at the greatest is 490 miles. It was found to be separated from Australia by a belt of narrow water, and from observations made, it is believed to have been at one time part of that continent. From the deck of the vessel, magnificent mountains could be seen stretching far into the interior, with great rivers, alongside which lay hundreds of miles of fertile country under cultivation. Very little was known of the people who dwelt in this great island, but it was ascertained that they were called Papuans or “frizzly-haired,” and that they were cannibals, killing and eating their fellows. Navigation in Torres Strait was rather difficult and dangerous, and no captain would risk his vessel within twenty miles of its coast. It was rumored that the bloodthirsty natives had made cannibal feasts on more than one shipwrecked crew, and that of three hundred and fifty passengers, mostly Chinese, on board the Saint Paul, which was wrecked on its shores, four only remained, the rest having been clubbed and cooked in twos and threes for breakfast every morning. In a description given of this island, it is said to be “A land of bona-fide cannibals and genuine savages. A land of gold, where a string of beads will buy more than a nugget. A land of splendid mountains, magnificent forests, and mighty rivers, but to us a land of heathen darkness, cruelty, cannibalism, and death.”
It was practically unknown until the pioneers of the Gospel ventured on its shores, taking their lives in their hand, to preach to the dwellers there, the Gospel of God’s great salvation.
The Fiji group of 220 islands in the South Pacific Ocean, about 1175 miles north of Auckland, with coral reefs around them, were found to be also inhabited by cannibals, as were also the New Hebrides and many of the Malanesian and Polynesian Islands. Amid these lovely islands, with their coral reefs, waving palms, growing by the side of calm lagoons, with exquisite flowers trailing from branch to branch breathing rich perfumes, the most revolting scenes of murder and cruelty were of daily occurrence. The sanctity of human life was unknown. The man who murdered most of his fellows, was decorated with the largest number of tattoo marks as a distinction. When the first preachers of the Gospel entered on these islands, they found the state of things among the people, and their manner of life in deepest barbarism. A pioneer missionary has described them as follows:—
The natives of the southeast are a light-colored race, of which the Tahitians, Samoans, and Rarotongians are best known. They are, physically, a very fine race, and in no way flattered by the dressmaker or tailor. They wear no clothes, but have the usual profusion of nose-sticks, earrings, necklaces, feathers, and paint. They chiefly live in lake dwellings, and most of the villages are surrounded by water. In the houses there is no furniture, they sit on the floor and sleep on a plank without a pillow. The women, although not so downtrodden as in many parts of the heathen world, are the burden-bearers, but in doing their work brook no interference from the men, in such matters as the hewing of wood and fetching of water: these they regard as “women’s rights.” Parents care well for their children, often with great affection, and the children, after they are grown up, have a profound reverence for their parents, watching over them in sickness and old age. There was no drunkenness, until the “civilized” white men taught it to the natives, and other vices were very rare and met with speedy punishment wherever this were seen. They cultivate the soil with care, and flowers grow in their gardens in great luxuriance and beauty. The women, in some parts, make pottery vessels, which the men exchange with natives of other parts for sago and other products. They sail in canoes from island to island, and when on voyages of longer distances use lakalois, or large canoes, These consist of four canoes lashed together, with bulwarks made of ripe palm leaves sewn together, fixed with strong mangrove poles, and caulked with dry banana leaves. Masts of mangrove, with large sails of mats sewn together, wrought by ropes made from bark of hibiscus trees, with covered in houses fore and aft, strong enough to withstand a heavy sea. On these, the pottery is packed in banana leaves, and when all is ready, they have a great send-off, with drums beating and songs sung by females dressed up for the occasion in grass petticoats. They ascend the rivers, trade with the natives, sell their wares, and return with loads of sago. At certain seasons the natives dance with hideous masks on, shaped like a fool’s cap, the face representing some animal. The hat is of wicker work, covered with native cloth painted white and red. This dance is in connection with a sacred festival. The natives are very superstitious. Every falling leaf, chirping lizard, and singing bird is an omen of some evil spirit, who is on the way to kill or hunt. They dread ghosts and hobgoblins, and can seldom sleep at nights for fear. Revenge for evil deeds, and dread of punishment haunts them.
Every native goes to bed with his war implements ready, and sleeps warily. A bunch of nuts hangs on the inside of the door of each house, so that its opening will cause a noise and awake the inmates. In the event of war, a shell is sounded, and the whole village or tribe turns out armed and ready for the fight. Savage life is not the happy ideal that certain writers have endeavored to paint it. It is not all the hilarious feast, the noisy dance, the freedom from earthly care. Often a whole community is massacred, parents bereft of all their children, and whole villages scattered to hiding in caves or in large trees, far away from their own.
In New Guinea there are no cattle; pigs are the staple source of flesh food, with sugar cane, okari nut, and smoked kangaroo. Rats and frogs were consumed freely before the entrance of the Gospel, but since then, have disappeared from the daily fare of the people.
In some of the islands, the people are more barbarous than in others. An Englishman detained on one of these islands over forty years ago, describes some painful sights he was compelled to witness, which show how far sunk the natives were, before the Gospel reached them.
A new house was being built for one of the chiefs; and a great merrymaking and playing of tom-toms was going on. Deep holes were dug in the foundation to receive the main posts of the house, and into these holes living men were thrust and compelled to stand with their arms clasped around the post. The earth was then filled in, and the men were buried alive as a sacrifice to the earth spirits. It was said that if these men thus sacrificed their lives, holding the posts of their chief’s house in their right position, the virtue of the sacrifice would propitiate the gods, and they would uphold the house for all time to come.
At the launching of a war canoe, a scarcely less horrible cruelty was practiced. Men laid themselves flat on the ground, and were used as rollers over which the canoe made its passage to the water, crushing them to death as it was dragged along. Before the sails were set and a start made for some distant shore, there was another scene of bloodshed, and the unhappy victims were used as food at great festival in honor of the occasion.
The death of a chief was followed by the strangling of all his wives, his chief servants, and if they survived, his parents. Such was the conditions of these islanders, when the first pioneers of civilization and of the Gospel, set foot upon their shores. In 1770, Captain James Cook sailed around, and in 1845 H.M.S. Fly made some observations, and discovered the Fly River, but the first to penetrate to the interior and get in touch with the natives were not explorers, but pioneers of the Gospel, men sent from God with the good tidings of a heaven-procured and free salvation.
Cannibalism was largely practiced in former times and human flesh was regarded as the chief delicacy. Since the Gospel’s entrance, much of this has been done away, but in certain islands and among certain tribes, it is still carried on in secret. May the light and love of the Gospel soon reach and save the benighted dwellers in these far-off islands, of which it may yet be said, as many years ago was said of Ceylon by the poet Heber—
“Where every prospect pleases,
But only man is vile.”