"Those of our company who had remained on board, could hardly credit our account of this disgusting fact. They refused to believe that a people who had been so differently described by Captain Cook and Captain Forster could be capable of so degrading a practice, but the most incredulous were soon convinced. I had retained possession of the gnawed bone, and our surgeon at once recognized it as that of a child. To make still more sure of the cannibalism of the natives, I offered it to one of them. He seized it eagerly, and tore the remaining flesh from it with his teeth; after he had done with it, I passed it to another, who still found something upon it to relish."
| Natives of New Caledonia. |
The natives who visited the vessel, committed so many thefts, and became so impudent, that we were forced to drive them away. Upon landing next day, the French found the natives feasting.
They immediately offered a share of their meal to the strangers. It proved to be human flesh recently cooked.
Many of them even came close up to the French and felt the muscles of their arms and legs, uttering the word Karapek, with an expression of admiration and longing which was anything but reassuring.
Many of the officers were assaulted and robbed with the greatest effrontery. There remained no doubt of the intentions of the natives. They even attempted to possess themselves of the hatchets the sailors had brought on shore to cut wood, and were only made to desist by being fired upon.
These constantly recurring hostilities always ended in the repulse of the natives, many of whom were killed or wounded. But in spite of the repulses they met with, they let no favourable opportunity pass of recommencing their attacks.
La Billardière was witness to a fact which has since been frequently observed, but was long disbelieved. He saw the natives eating steatite. This mineral substance serves to deaden the sense of hunger, by filling the stomach and sustaining the viscera of the diaphragm, and although it contains no nourishment whatever, it is useful to them, because they have long periods when food is scarcely procurable, as they bestow very little cultivation upon their land, which is naturally very sterile. Yet, one would scarcely have expected hungry cannibals to resort to such an expedient.
No news of La Perouse had been obtained during the stay in New Caledonia. But M. Jules Garnier states that a tradition exists of the appearance of two large ships, which had sent boats on shore, near the northern extremity of Pine Island.