DEATH OF A PIONEER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 5, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 23.

DEATH OF A PIONEER.

It seems proved that Rev. James Chalmers and Rev. Oliver Tompkins of the London Missionary Society, together with the men in their party, were killed by New Guinea cannibals in April. A search party sent from Brisbane, Queensland, reports the discovery of the half-eaten remains. It was done by the tribes of the Fly, the largest river in New Guinea,—tribes with whom Dr. Chalmers was well acquainted and whom he had repeatedly overcome by sheer force of personality in circumstances as difficult as the encounter in which he and those with him were slaughtered. He had indeed established, as it appeared, friendly relations with them. Dr. Chalmers had been for more than thirty years a missionary in the South Sea Islands, and he had done more than any other man in the exploration of New Guinea, the largest island in the world, except Greenland. He had surveyed the great mountains from 10,000 to 12,000 feet high, for 200 miles parallel with the south coast, and he had done more than any or all other men to open the way for the now nearly complete knowledge of New Guinea, while his great influence had secured safety to those who came after him, tho it finally failed to save himself. Dr. Chalmers was fully aware of the practise of cannibalism among the natives of the Fly region; in fact, he had been offered a choice cut of human flesh by a chief who was an admirer of him, as the best meat he could give him. He had described these cannibals as “rather a jolly set of fellows.” —Springfield Republican.