se head-hunting pirates,
are as interesting reading as the tales of Rajah Brooke and Stamford
Raffles, and the practical suppression of piracy in the East Indian
Archipelago, but seldom attract more than a few lines of comment in the
public press.

In writing of pirates of the present day, I shall not go beyond my own
beat of the North and South Pacific, and speak only of events within my
own personal knowledge and observation. Before entering into an account
of some of the doings of the New Guinea "Tugeri," or head-hunter
pirates, I shall tell the story of two notable acts of piracy committed
by white men in the South Pacific, less than ten years ago. The English
newspapers gave some attention to one case, for the two principal
criminals concerned were tried at Brest, and the case was known as the
"Rorique tragedy". Much comment was made on the statement that the King
of the Belgians went to France, after the prisoners had been sentenced
to death (they were Belgian), to personally intercede for them. The
French press stigmatised His Majesty's action as a scandal (one journal
suggesting that perhaps the pirates were pretty women in men's garb);
but no doubt King Leopold is a very tender-hearted man, despite the
remarks of unkind English people on the subject of the eccentricities
of the Belgian officers in the Congo Free State--such as cutting off
the hands of a few thousands of stupid negroes who failed to bring
in sufficient rubber. There are even people who openly state that the
Sultan of Turkey dislikes Armenians, and has caused some of them to be
hurt. But I am getting away from my subject The story of the Roriques,
and the tragedy of the _Niuroahiti_ which was the name of the vessel
they seized, is one of the many grisly episodes with which the history
of the South Seas is so prolific. Briefly it is as follows:--

About the end of 1891 the two brothers arrived at Papeite, the capital
of Tahiti, from the Paumotu Group, where, it was subsequently learned,
they had been put on shore by the captain of an island trader, who
strongly suspected them of plotting with the crew to murder him and
seize the ship. Nothing of this incident, however, was known at Tahiti
among the white residents with whom they soon ingratiated themselves;
they were exceedingly agreeable-mannered men, and the elder brother,
who was a remarkably handsome man of about thirty-five, was an excellent
linguist, speaking German, French, Italian, Englis