The attack on Commodore Goodenough and h…

Colonial engraving of the attack on Commodore James Graham Goodenough (1830 – 1875) and his party in Santa Cruz, Solomon Island.  He  was an officer in the Royal Navy who went to become Commander-in-Chief, Australia Station.  On 12 August 1875 while trying to conciliate natives on Carlisle Bay in the Santa Cruz Islands he and others of his party were wounded by poisoned arrows. He refused ‘to allow a single life to be taken in retaliation’, although some huts were burnt. Tetanus set in and, after gallantly bidding farewell to the ship’s company, Goodenough died on 20 August in the Pearl, 500 miles (805 km) from Sydney.

From the original edition of The Australasian Sketcher.