ptember 3, 1887, says:
"The New Guinea expedition proved abortive, owing to the blundering
shortsightedness of the then Government, for which Lord Derby was
chiefly responsible, but what little foothold we possess in New Guinea,
is certainly due to General MacIver's gallant effort."
Copy of statement made by J. Rintoul Mitchell, June 2, 1887:
"About the latter end of the year 1883, when I was editor-in-chief of
the _Englishman_ in Calcutta, I was told by Captain de Deaux, assistant
secretary in the Foreign Office of the Indian Government, that he
had received a telegram from Lord Derby to the effect that if General
MacIver ventured to land upon the coast of New Guinea it would become
the duty of Lord Ripon, Viceroy, to use the naval forces at his command
for the purpose of deporting General MacI. Sir Aucland Calvin can
certify to this, as it was discussed in the Viceregal Council."
Just after our Civil War MacIver was interested in another expedition
which also failed. Its members called themselves the Knights of Arabia,
and their object was to colonize an island much nearer to our shores
than New Guinea. MacIver, saying that his oath prevented, would never
tell me which island this was, but the reader can choose from
among Cuba, Haiti, and the Hawaiian group. To have taken Cuba, the
"colonizers" would have had to fight not only Spain, but the Cubans
themselves, on whose side they were soon fighting in the Ten Years' War;
so Cuba may be eliminated. And as the expedition was to sail from the
Atlantic side, and not from San Francisco, the island would appear to be
the Black Republic. From the records of the times it would seem that the
greater number of the Knights of Arabia were veterans of the Confederate
army, and there is no question but that they intended to subjugate the
blacks of Haiti and form a republic for white men in which slavery would
be recognized. As one of the leaders of this filibustering expedition,
MacIver was arrested by General Phil Sheridan and for a short time cast
into jail.
This chafed the general's spirit, but he argued philosophically that
imprisonment for filibustering, while irksome, brought with it
no reproach. And, indeed, sometimes the only difference between a
filibuster and a government lies in the fact that the government fights
the gun-boats of only the enemy while a filibuster must dodge the boats
of the enemy and those of his own countrymen. When the United States
went to w
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