voted to the interests of
Nonconformists.

"It is with the deepest regret that we have to call the attention of
our readers and the public [the article ran] to the series of charges
brought by the Revs. Joseph Capper and Evans Jones, the eminent pioneers
of the Nonconformist Eastern Mission, against a gentleman to whom
a considerable amount of honor is just now being given by the Royal
Geographical Society, the Ethnological Institute, the Ornithological
Association, and other secular organizations, on account of his
exploration in the Island of New Guinea. It is scarcely necessary to
say that we allude to Mr. Herbert Courtland. The position which has been
occupied for several years by the two distinguished ministers whose self
sacrifice in endeavoring to spread the Light through the dark places of
the tropical forests of a savage land is well known to the subscribers
to the N. E. M., precludes the possibility of a mistake being made in
this matter, and yet they declare in a letter which we publish this
morning that the manner in which Mr. Courtland pursued his so-called
explorations in the forests which line the banks of the Fly River has
practically made impossible all attempts at mission work in that region.
In several directions it is not denied that Mr. Courtland entered into
friendly relations with some native tribes; but instead of endeavoring
to make the poor benighted creatures acquainted with the Truth, he
actually purchased as slaves over a hundred of them to aid him in
penetrating the Kallolu forest, where, it will be remembered, he
succeeded in shooting the much illustrated meteor-bird, as well
as several other specimens which will delight the members of the
Ornithological Association rather than professing Christians. Our
distinguished correspondents state, and we have no room to doubt their
word, that Mr. Courtland purchased his slaves by a promise to assist
the head man of their tribe against his enemies belonging to another
tribe--a promise which he only too amply fulfilled, the result being an
indiscriminate slaughter of savages who, though avowed cannibals, might
eventually have embraced the truths of Nonconformity. The elephant
rifles of the explorer did their deadly work only too efficiently; but
we trust that, for his own sake, Mr. Courtland will be able to bring
forward trustworthy evidence to rebut the suspicion of his having upon
at least one occasion induced even the friendly natives to believe