Wreck

Survivor of “St. Paul”

Wreck Sequel to Rossel Islanders' Massacre of Chinese

following article has been for xcarded by the Rev. W. H. MacFarlane, who, before retiring in 1933, served for 17 years in the Torres Strait Islands as a Church of England missionary. Mr.

MacFarlane, who is now rector at Scots dalc, Tasmania, has compiled from vari ous sources this strange sequel to the ghastly story of Papuan cannibalism in the ’fifties folloxving upon the wreck of the “St. Paul,” as related in the May issue of the “Pacific Islands Monthly."

ICAME across this sequel when search ing through some of the age-scarred re cords of the old settlement of Somerset, on Cape York Peninsula —first formed as a port of refuge for shipwrecked voyagers in the days when the nearest European settlement was about 1000 miles away.

In the handwriting of the then Govern ment Resident, it was told how the pearl ing brig John Bell sailed into Somerset on© day in 1875, having on board a white man whom the crew had found living with the blacks in the vicinity of Cape Sidmouth.

His name was given as Narcisse Peltier, a Frenchman. He had almost forgotten his mother tongue, and his body was marked with lacerations which denoted his tribal degree. For 17 years he had lived with the tribe of blacks into which he had been initiated.

After a while he was able to tell his story. He was one of the company of the French ship St. Paul, which had been wrecked on Rossel Island. A very few of the ship’s company had escaped, and with them he had managed to reach the mainland of Australia. Going ashore for water, he had wandered away from the others, into the bush; and had been left behind. Blacks had found him, had treated him kindly, and he had been one of themselves ever since.

After being looked after at Somerset for some little time, the Frenchman was sent to Brisbane.

At Albury, a couple of years ago, I had opportunity of examining some old files of the Border Post. In the issue of June 9, 1875, were details of the discovery of a white man who had just recently been dis covered amongst Cape York aboriginals.

The following notes, which I extracted may be of interest as supplementing the story previously related.

Narcisse Pierre Pallatier was the son of a shoemaker of Bordeaux, and was cabin boy in the French ship St. Paul bound from China in 1858 with 350 Chinese. The vessel wias wrecked on a ln the Louisiad© Group, and all hands got ashore on an uninhabited island. As the Europeans feared that the Chinese would eat them, they sailed to another Island, where they were attacked by natives, and three men were killed. They then re turned to where they had left the Chinese.

At night they sailed away, hoping to reach Australia. After a journey of 600 miles, with terrible sufferings they landed near Cape Direction. On getting ashore they found a waterhole. The men drank all the water, leaving none for the boy who went off into the bush. Eventually they sailed without him, and a tribe of blacks, following the tracks of the party found him and treated him kindly.

He was discovered by the crew of the John Bell, stark naked and with his body scarified, an ear being ornamented with a piece of wood. He did not want to leave the blacks. At Somerset, where he was taken, he tried to escape; but while there made some clever sketches of Australian animals. After he was taken to Brisbane, a subscription list was opened to enable him to return home.

An earlier issue, May 22, of the same newspaper, records that the mate and crew of the St. Paul had been picked up by the Rose of Denmark, and landed at New Caledonia. The newspaper clipping reprinted in the P.I.M. states that the Prince of Denmark was the rescuing vessel.

Mr. A. R. Broadhurst, of Messrs. Burns Philp and Co. Ltd., Rabaul, New Guinea, married Miss Mavis McLaren, daughter of Captain G. McLaren (formerly in charge of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission at Matupi) at Rabaul on June 8.

Mr. William C. Groves, 8.A., of Kew, Victoria, sailed from Sydney by the Aorangi on June 18 for Hawaii to attend the International Conference on Education and Anthropology, as one of Australia’s representatives. Mr. Groves, who is well known in New Guinea where he has done much anthropological work, expects to return to Sydney in September.