The Southern Cross got underway early in
the morning to carry on with her cruise, but
when she had got about 2 miles from us
she went on shore on a coral bank our
boats was called away and sent to her
to render any assistance which she would
require, after working all day long taking
out her stores and all heavy gear, and plac-
ing out anchors we manged to get her off
by the evening tide without any material
damage she then came back into harbour
and dropped anchor, we sent our divers
away to examine her bottom and found
it was all right only a strip of copper off
here and there just where she had touched, dur
-ing the day we were invited by the Royal Com-
issioner C. M. Woodford having his wife
& son with him they stayed on board and
lunched with our Captain and on leaving
he was saluted with 7 guns which greatly
frightened the Natives, the natives seems very
much struck with our figure head, which
is a very good representation of a Mohawk
Indian with a Tomahawk in his right
hand and a scalping knife in his left
all ready to strike out at anything, the
natives collected around the bows, talking &
making alls orts of grimaces at it, mak-
ing great fuss of the ship, they brought a
canoe full of long grass which they kept ty-
ing together till they made a line long enough
to take the measurement of the ship. We are
about the biggest and heaviest Man of War
that has been here, so no doubt they are under the
impression of building a War canoe on the same size.
Source http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/anh.1999.26.3.419
Charles Morris Woodford
First Resident Commissioner of british Solomon islands protectorate and important (forgotten) Collector of Natural specimens
born Gravesend Kent 1852, Died Steyning Essex 1927
Hi s collection of Bats is at The Natural Hisory Museum
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London
CM Woodford Journal
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_35/August_1889/Life_in_the_Solomon_Islands
Extract from link mentioning Tomohawk (see diary entry)
From the trading station at Rubiana, which is the center of the head-hunting district, our first visit was to a small island occupied by another trader. This island he is allowed to occupy on sufferance only. It belongs to the natives of Sisieta; they will not sell it, as they use it for their cannibal feasts. I was told that six bodies were eaten here a fortnight before my visit. From here we went to a town called Oneavesi, and thence crossed to the small island of Rubiana proper, where we found nearly all the men away on a head-hunting expedition to the island of Isabel. I here photographed the interior of a tambu house, the post of which was carved to represent a crocodile. Along the rafters was a row of heads. I also took a photograph of a collection of sacred images, near to which was a heap of skulls, upon every one of which I
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_35/August_1889/Life_in_the_Solomon_Islands
Extract from link mentioning Tomohawk (see diary entry)
From the trading station at Rubiana, which is the center of the head-hunting district, our first visit was to a small island occupied by another trader. This island he is allowed to occupy on sufferance only. It belongs to the natives of Sisieta; they will not sell it, as they use it for their cannibal feasts. I was told that six bodies were eaten here a fortnight before my visit. From here we went to a town called Oneavesi, and thence crossed to the small island of Rubiana proper, where we found nearly all the men away on a head-hunting expedition to the island of Isabel. I here photographed the interior of a tambu house, the post of which was carved to represent a crocodile. Along the rafters was a row of heads. I also took a photograph of a collection of sacred images, near to which was a heap of skulls, upon every one of which I
Fig. 1. — Sacred Image at Rubiana.
noticed the mark of the tomahawk.
No comments:
Post a Comment