Note 233 — Chapter II · GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVERY.

In his description of Neu Mecklenburg and neighbouring islands, Parkinson also makes mention of slaves. On the isle of Lir or Lihir, the chief, when about to give a cannibal repast, gathers around him his whole tribe, inclusive of the slaves, who have been captured in war. And on St. John’s Island slaves are said formerly to have been boiled in the hot springs. These short notes do not seem to prove sufficiently the existence of slavery, the less so, as Romilly, in his account of Neu Mecklenburg, has not a word about slaves233.