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• ◇Robinson▲aboriginal context□corridor placeline 63

  "was observed going into Rubiana, and on communicating with her yesterday she proved to be the S.S. / ""Hesketh,"" of Sydney, Mr. J Robinson master, and is to leave for Sydney to-day, so I am sending this / letter by her."

4
the return labour vessel "Empreza," of Queensland, in December last when that vessel called at Upunu.
These seven men are making themselves a nuisance by interfering with the women and also one night
they stole a canoe and went on a hunting expedition to San Cristoval, on which occasion they killed one
man, which may lead to trouble between the two islands. On my telling Mr. Olsen that I was perfectly
willing to take the runaways on board ad put them back on their properisland, I was told that they had
gone to the bush directly "Royalist" was seen, and that there was no chance of catching them, so that all I
could do was to say I would try and call again, and to tell Mr. Olsen to impress upon the Chiefs that
they should not be afraid of seven men, but give them a canoe and make them clear out.
6. I left Upuna on the evening of Sunday, 13th May, and arrived at Ugi the following day.
7. A Mr. Devine is at present in charge of the late Mr. Stephen's property, and in accordance
with your orders I have warned him against selling liquor to men of Her Majesty's ships who might be
sent on shore (Case H). I found the palm leaf roofing over the coal heap in a very dilapidated state, and
from a receipt note left by the "Penguin" last December, there are only 45 tons of coal left. The engineer
in charge of this ship calculated there are 70 tons. The heap is of a very irregular shape, and the amount
in it, therefore, difficult to estimate correctly.
8. I left Ugi at 5 o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, 14th April (the day I arrived there), and
proceeded to Lillihena in Marovo Lagoon for the purpose of inquiring into the case of the murder of the
late Mr. Donald Guy.
9. On my arrival at Lillihena, off which island I anchored at mid-day on 17th April, I found tat
there was then no white man in the Lagoon, most of them being at Rubiana, a place which a native Chief,
Bera by name, informed I could reach by boat in about twelve hours. Having procured a native pilot
I left with the steam cutter and whaler at daylight the following morning, and arrived at Nususongo,
Rubiana, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon of Saturday 19th. I found Mr. Kelly at Nususongo, and he went
with me to where Mr. Charles Atkinson's schooner was laying, and I took down the statement of Mr.
Kelly, Mr. Atkinson, and the native boy Ronsa, concerning the murder of Mr. Donald Guy. Having
luckily succeeded in procuring a few hundred weight of coal, all there was in Rubiana, I left on my return
journey at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Atkinson and the boy Ronsa accompanying me, and arrived
back at the ship at 6 o'clock the following evening. Our coal gave out soon after we got back inside the
Lagoon, so I had to pull on in the whaler and send coal to the steam cutter which consequently did not
arrive on board until the following morning. The natives deceived me greatly as to the distance from Lillihena to Rubiana. We ran about 85 miles going and 75 coming back, Mr. Atkinson being able to take
us a shorter cut from Rubiana into Blanche Channel.
10. Having decided to try and punish the natives of Soy for Mr. Guy's murder, I left at 3 a.m. on
Tuesday, 22nd May, with an armed party of sixty officers and men in the steam and two pulling cutters
for the Soy River, being accompanied by Mr. Atkinson and three natives as guides. The natives proved
themselves absolutely useless, excepting that they knew where the Soy River was, but Mr. Atkinson could
have taken us there. The Soy people's territory is situated in the southernmost corner of the main island
of New Georgia, or Marovo, as shown in Admiralty Chart number 214. They are a purely bush tribe,
and, so far as I can learn, no white men have ever been up the river before, though traders have entered
it. We arrived at the entrance at 9 o'clock (it is almost 18 miles from Lillihena), and, leaving the steam
cutter outside, I went up with the two pulling cutters. We soon came across a tree felled across the river
on purpose to block the passage, and at first I tried to march a small party up through the bush. We
got about a mile to where a small village was, which I burnt and then went back, as the guides declared
they did not know the way any further. I now decided to go on up the river in the ten-oard cutter,
clearing her and hoisting her over the trees. This we did twice, and it was a long and laborious operation.
After getting up the river some 4 miles the water became so shallow that the boat was constantly
grounding. The natives being still quite unable to tell me how far we were from the chief village, and the day
getting on, I decided to turn back, and the party reached the ship at 9 o'clock at night. If we had delayed
returning it would have necessitated camping out, for which no preparation had been made, as we could
not have navigated the first part of the way in the dark. We could hear the natives blowing their war-horns, but did not see any, though I feel sure they were watching us. The part was not fired upon, nor
did we fire. I destroyed in all some dozen houses and two canoe-sheds, but that is no punishment for
such a gross case of murder and piracy as the death of Mr. Guy was, and I shall make further efforts to punish the Soy people at some future date.
11. Leaving Lillihena on the afternoon of Wednesday, 23rd May, I proceeded round to Hathorn
Sound, anchoring there at 8 o'clock the following morning, and in the afternoon I visited Rubiana. I
found Mr. Kelly at Nususongo and three trading schooners. I visited the latter, and gave the owner
copies of the regulations prohibiting the sale of liquor, arms, &c., to natives. Two of the schooners
named "Magie" and "Amelia" belong respectively to the brothers Peter Edmund Prat and John Edmund
Prat, and were flying the French flag. Peter Edmund Prat is the man alluded to in Case E ; the third
schooner was the "William Brooks," of Sydney.
12. Leaving Hathorn Sound on the morning of Friday, 25th May, I proceeded round through
Ferguson Passage to Rendova Harbour, arriving the same evening. The following afternoon a steamer
was observed going into Rubiana, and on communicating with her yesterday she proved to be the S.S.
"Hesketh," of Sydney, Mr. J Robinson master, and is to leave for Sydney to-day, so I am sending this
letter by her.
13. It is my intention to proceed to the Russell Islands this evening, gradually working my way
back to Ugi, about which end of the group I shall remain until the middle of next month, when I shall
leave for Samarai, Port Moresby, New Guinea, and Cairns, arriving at the lastnamed place about the
second week in July.
14. No men-of-war have been met with, but I have heard of a Russian man-of-war, said to be the
"Kreyzer," being at Marau Sound, Guadaleanar, on her way to Japan.
15. The sum of 21s, in trade was given to four native at Lillihena for piloting me to Rubiana and
the Soy River, repayment for which will be applied for the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.
16. The health of the ship's company is good, and the climate has so far been better than I
expected. Although the days are hot and we have had a good deal of rain, the nights are generally cool.
I have, &c.,
JAMES E. GOODRICH,
Commander.
Lieutenant