Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/177

Rh go to a wonderful paradise he described to them, where they would all have the most beautiful farms flowing with milk and honey. Having got their money, he looked at a map and thought New Ireland would do as well as any place, chartered two crazy ships, the India and the Genie, placed 300 emigrants—men, women, and children—on each, and sent them off. This was in 1880. They were landed at Cape Breton, in New Ireland, and left there without food, clothes, houses, or arms. Statues of de Ray and of the Virgin were also landed and erected side by side!

Some got away in boats, many died of fever and hunger, and, of course, the natives had a say in matters. The survivors were eventually taken to New Caledonia and later to Australia, where some became farm labourers. A newspaper called La Nouvelle France was published at Marseilles and continued to be issued long after the colony was extinct, always giving glowing details of its progress and riches! The Marquis de Ray was sentenced to some years' imprisonment. (I believe a survivor of this expedition is still resident in New Britain.)

On Bougainville one member of the expedition, an Italian, who became imbecile, lived long with the natives and became a cannibal. He was eventually bought as a native for two tomahawks by the crew of a trading vessel, who thought to sell him for £25 in Queensland, but on finding he was an Italian left him at New Britain. . This did not happen in far back ages, but not very many years ago.

I was sorry when we left Matupi; after some days, and returned to Herbertshöhe, where there was still a heavy swell on and traces everywhere of the great monsoon and the damage it had done. Matupi was so sheltered we had scarcely