The diary of Royal Marine William Cocks

From newspaper clipping inside cover Daily Mail Special  (unknown date).

From newspaper clipping inside cover Daily Mail Special  (unknown date). PLANTING UNION JACKS FOURTEEN ISLANDS AND A VOL CANO FOR THE EMPIRE  News by the Australia Mail tells of the arrival at Sydney of H.M.S. Mohawk, after a wholesale annexation cruise among the Islands of Melanesia. so successful was the trip that any decrease of the empire owing to the ocean's onslaughts on the Kentish cliffs in the past years will be simply recouped by our recent aquisitions in the pacific.  In April last the Mohawk left Sydney under orders t hoist the flag of England on the Santa Cruz, the Swallow, the Reef, and other islands. These group of islands lie 400 or 500 miles east of the Solomons, the home of savage cannibals.  Altogether in Santa Cruz and the other islands the Union Jack was run up on fourteen islands, namely:On Santa Cruz,Utupua,Tinakula, in the Santa Cruz group; Matema, Fenuloa, Lom Lom, Nifiloli, Bangauena, Bamga, Natapa, Pelian. Nukapu, Nalogo, Nupani,Tocupia, in the Reef and Swallow Group.  One of the officers of the Mohawk, in recounting his experiences said, "During the cruise we burnt a couple of villages at Vella La Vella to avenge the outrage on Mr Prat, a British subject. Commander Freeman went ashore had a "palaver" with the chiefs. One notable character, Belungi, was charged with being out headhunting, and from the evi dence it appeared that after  CRUISNG ROUND FOR  some time in search of a white head (they prefer the European) he came up with a canoe laden with eight young native women, who were out  for pleasure. He shot six and took with him. The charge being proved, Belungi was given until the rising of the court for the pro duction of the two missing girls. These he re fused to hand over, so was taken prisoner to new Guinea.  "One of the most interesting features in  connection with our cruise was the visit to Tocupia. This island is without a history. Its people certainly are not kanakas, woollyhaired, or stunted in stature. The whole island, which seems to give colour to the Darwinian idea of a sub merged continent in so far that the formation is mountainous with valleys, and has about 800 people  on it. they are gigantic in stature; one we measured was 6ft 10in., and the women are proportionate. The men have long,straight hair, which they dye a flaxen colour, and which in thick folds hangs over their copper tinted shoulders. The women,on the contrary, have their hair cut short. Strange to say these natives have no weapons of defence at all  A  remarkable law among them is that they marry only once, the superstition being that if a married manor woman dies, no mater how many children there may be, the deceased's spirit has gone  ahead and is waiting for the other half. "During the cruise we annexed a volcano, on which at night, though not very active, one could hear a rumbling noise and see a flame or glare above it. This was in the Santa Cruz Group.