Steam Pinnace 2 CuttersWhaler
& Gig with Captain, Paymaster, Doctor, 1st Lieutt Mr Roberts
with 15 Marines and 50 Blue jacket well armed and
with the 5 barrel Nordenfelt Machine gun went on shore
but before the ship 12 shrapnel shells were fired
into different parts of the bush to scatter the natives if
they was collecting together at all, we landed and advanced
to the first village at a rush, up to the village but as before
it was deserted, but the natives had been down during the night
as we found there was traces of recently burnt fires we pushed
on and visited several smaller villages picking up several
little things belonging to the whitemen, a trunk looking
glass supper box and two large knives and some Sydney
papers, which we took possession of but we could find no
traces of the murderers, and it was not practicable to enter
the bush, we turned back and burnt every village we came
across, the men looting them afterwards, all of us had some
thing or other to bring on board curios, we broke up every-
thing we came across, destroyed their Yam plantations and
cut down all the Coca Nut tress, demolishing the vegeta-
tion round about so that they would have nothing to live
on for sometime Our Chief Carpenters Mate Jack Morris hav-
ing made a Wooden Cross we erected it on the Grave of the
murdered men, we left the villages burning and everyone
returned on board at 6pm, we was the 1st Man of War
there for Seventy Years.
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