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.”