with which it is carried on. Numbers of these men have quitted their vessels at the conclusion of the voyage, vowing they would never have anything to do with the trade again. Mr. Alfred Davidson, a wellknown planter in Queensland, says on this subject:

"In Brisbane I have been indirectly in com

munication with white sailors who have sailed in these traders, but who refuse, for their own sakes, to go again. They will not give public evidence, but admit the Eadness of the thing, and that I am quite right to oppose it. They say, Well, we were paid.'"

So well is this known, that in many vessels, notoriously on Ross Lewin's ships, native crews are employed, some of whom are as violent, reckless, and cruel as the most abandoned pirate among the whites. Several white men have furnished evidence on the subject; though others were too timid to speak against a system upheld by such strong influences. Mr. Paton, in his letters, says of a man well known to the missionaries in New Hebrides:

Tom, an intelligent white man, living at Port Resolution, Tanna, reported a case of a vessel running down a large canoe at sea, with some eighteen or twenty-four natives in it, and taking all of them prisoners. Another vessel that saw what took place, came up and threatened to fight if they did not share in the prize. For the sake of peace they were divided between them. I forget the names of these vessels."

In November, 1870, Mr. J. C. Williams, the English Consul in the Navigators' Islands, received from Miguel Casal, a Spaniard who had lived in the Gilbert Islands, the following statement, which he embodied in an affidavit and forwarded to the Foreign Office :

"I, Michael Casal, of Spain, temporarily residing at Lavü, being duly sworn, do depose and say that, about sixteen months ago I left this port in the schooner Samoa, for the purpose of trading for Theodore Weber, Esquire, on the islands under the line; that I was stationed at Samana, or Rotebis Island, trading; that during my residence there several vessels came to the islands for the purpose of obtaining labourers; that a barque, said to come from Tahiti (she had no flag`set), sent four boats on shore at a time, manned by eighteen men, all armed with swords, pistols, and rifles; that as

the firing till they landed on the beach; they shot several of the natives, but killed none to my knowledge. The natives went into the big at them while seated in the house; the natives house, when the people in the boats would fire would then make a rush and run out of the

This

house, when some of the boats' crews would run after them and seize and carry them to the boat; they caught three men that day, to my know!edge, and took them off to the ship. barque has been three times to the island while I was there, and tried to entice natives on board by offering them tobacco; when the natives and sink it, then a boat would be lowered and went alongside they would fire into the canoe pick up the people who were swimming in the sea, and take them on board.

"The natives told me that 133 natives had

been stolen off this island; they made me understand the number by counting stones to the number of 133. This barque was a regular slaver."-(Returns, p. 191.)

One of the most terrible pictures that has been drawn of the system is given by a seaman, James Harper, who was in the employ of the Jason, one of the most notorious vessels in the trade. Harper held a certificate of ability and good conduct from the master of the Jason, which he left at the conclusion of the voyage; and he swore his declaration before Mr. W. Brookes, one of the magistrates of Brisbane, on March 16, 1871. The captain of the Jason was convicted of piracy in December last in Sydney, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

"JAMES HARPER, able seaman Was in Juson last trip. The Jason sailed from Maryborough and arrived at Fotuna; from there went to Resolution Bay in Tanna; captain got drunk there; got no men there; went thirty or forty miles from Resolution Bay, but still were on the coast of Tanna; the chief officer went by himself on shore with boat; came back with two natives to look at the vessel; when they came the vessel was ready to go, being under sail; these two natives wanted to go ashore; captain

took them into the cabin to take their attention off; one of them cried and wanted to go ashore; the captain took his revolver; the two natives rushed out of the cabin up on deck, and one jumped overboard and held on to the gunwale of a boat belonging to a schooner, the Margaret Chissell, from Melbourne, which was near us, in the Fiji trade; the captain ran for a musket, and threatened to shoot him if he didn't come on board again; he would not let go the gunwale of the boat, and the mate of the schooner took a sword and made a stab at him; he then did let go, and I threw him the end of a mainsheet, of which he caught hold; but he immediately let go and swam for the shore.

"... Leaving there, went a little further down the coast of the same island, Apii; the mate landed the last native we had to return; I went in my boat with an interpreter towards a fire about three miles off along the beach; a native walked through the water to me, and asked me to take him in the boat as he was not in the place he belonged to; he wanted to come to Queensland, but I was to give his brother the usual price, two tomahawks and one knife; I went to his brother, who was sitting on the beach a short distance off, and gave him the things; I stayed there a little time, and got two more inen; paying for each man two tomahawks and a knife. We then went back to the ship, the boats were hoisted up, and we went round the island that night. Early next morning the cook called me to say that a canoe with natives in it was ahead of us, and coming towards us; muskets were passed up out of the cabin, were loaded and put into one of our boats, which was lowered, and the chief mate and boat's crew went towards the canoe. On reaching the canoe he gave the bow-oarsman his revolver, and the bow-oarsman made the canoe fast to the boat with a rope, and both came alongside the ship. The natives were on their way to an island about four miles off, and they had pigs, cocoanuts, and other things with them; they and their property and the canoe itself were taken on board our ship; the canoe was broken up for firewood, the pigs, &c., taken from them. We went to Vila for wood and water, staying one day, and then sailed for Maryborough, bringing ninety islanders.

"I declare the above statement to be true and

It is on evidence like this that authorities who have inquired into the matter declare that, at the present time, NINETY PER CENT. of the islanders imported into Queensland and Fiji are procured by fraud and violence!

landers are exasperated by seeing their It cannot be supposed, now that the isrelatives and friends carried away, that the crews of these trading vessels perpetrate these atrocities unharmed. Piracy and man-stealing have ever proved a costly process to the men who have engaged in them. Temporary gain in money is ill compensated by the brief life and violent death which not unfrequently follow them. Naturally, therefore, these disasters form ered respecting the kidnapping in Polyan important item in the evidence gathnesia. Mr. Paton, in his letter already quoted, says:

"The Wild Duck on one trip had three white men and two Faté men killed; the La Maria one Faté man; the Spunkie, two Malicolo natives; another vessel, a chief who had been deceived and carried away became desperate, and killed a white man, then leaped overboard and was drowned; another vessel lost a white man. I forget the names of the last two vessels. A vessel cast away at Api is said to have had nine natives killed. Captain Stewart, of a whaler, called at an island in company with a slaver's boat for provisions, when the natives shot arrows at them, and a poisoned one wounded the captain's arm, which was much inflamed when he called at Santo, and death was almost certain."

One tragic case of retribution occurred at the end of December 1870, when the importation was at its height; and the results were the more lamentable, that the Mr. Rae who lost his life was a man who had always dealt kindly with the natives and wished to do them justice.

"The schooner Marion Renny, which has twice before lost the whole or portion of her crew by massacre in the South Seas, left Levuka in November last for a trading voyage among the Line Islands; she was commanded by Mr. Rae, an old Fijian resident and island trader, and partner in the firm of F. W. Hennings and Rae, of Levuka. Mr. Diehl was mate, and she carried a crew of three white men, six Rotumah boys, one Sandwich man, and four Fijians. After visiting several ports in Fiji, the vessel left the group and called at Rotumah, where she stayed several days, and then, (by the natives' account) steered west for six days and anchored at Anouda Island, between Santa Cruz and Banks Group. A message was brought on board that there were plenty of men willing to leave the island. On the following morning

Mr. Rae, four Rotumah boys, and one Sandwich man, went ashore in the long-boat. The Fijians state that, on reaching the shore (a quarter of a mile distant), Rae and the boat's crew went over the sandy hillocks into a scrub, and a number of natives ran down the bank again and pushed off the boat, some of them even going up to their armpits to send her off shore; at the same time an attack was made on those on board by the natives who had come off in the canoes. The crew were totally unprepared. The mate was killed in the deck-house, aud a white man named Bill had his head cut off by an axe, and the others were wounded frightfully. The steward got a loaded gun, and a Fijian and the surviving white man fired all together, but killed nobody. It had the effect of frightening the assailants, who jumped overboard. The rest of the crew tried to weigh the anchor, but were not able, so slipped the cable; the long-boat was hauled up by the natives on shore. The mate, Mr. Diehl, and the white man, Bill, were buried at sea the next day”— (Returns, c. 399, p.

194.)

On the Island of Tahiti, now for thirty years under the French protectorate, there was established some ten years ago a plantation for cotton and coffee, belonging to a company, and placed under the management of Mr. W. Stewart. In 1864, Mr. Stewart was authorized by the Governor to import a thousand Chinese coolies to work the plantation; they were brought from Macao and the neighbourhood, no one has said how. In 1869 the service of some 300 of these coolies would expire, and Mr. Stewart was authorized to introduce Polynesian labourers in their stead. He bought the Moaroa, an old whaler of 300 tons, patched her up, and sent her to the Gilbert Islands to procure the immigrants. Telling the story to Lord Clarendon, Consul Miller thus continues:

"On the 4th of July, whilst off one of the groups called Peru, the Moaroa fell in with the barque Anna, of Melbourne (of 143 tons), having on board 159 Kanakas (as the natives are termed), that she had been three months in collecting from the different islands of the group; and the whole of these Kanakas were shortly afterwards transhipped to the Moaroa.

"A Mr. Latten, said to be also a British subject, and owner of the Anna, went on board of the Moaroa, in charge of his so transferred human freight of 159 natives, who seem to have been originally intended for the Fiji labourmarket, but who were now to be supplied instead, probably with prospects of a higher profit, to the plantation of Atimaono on Tahiti, whither Mr. Latten was to accompany them; the Anna returning to Australia empty.

"Some days after this transaction, about sixty additional Kanakas were got at Hope, or Arurai Island, and sixty-eight more were finally taken

on board by the Moaroa in passing another of the Gilbert Group called Byron's Island, or. Nukunau, on the 16th of July; after which she shaped a course for Tahiti."

The tragedy which ensued is best told in the words of Mr. Steenalt, the mate, a Dane, who was one of the few survivors. After showing how the natives suddenly rose, cut down the captain and supercargo, and shut up the crew below, he continues:

"I was determined to have the ship back again, and determined to blow up the deck amidship, and, in the confusion, to make a rush on deck through the smoke and retake the vessel. We had received from the bark Anna about forty-five canisters of gunpowder half-apound each. I took thirty-four of them, and emptied their contents into an empty butter firkin. . . . After seeing the men secure, and wife and children, I lit the train and dropped at uttering a short prayer for the protection of my the same time down into the lower hold. The explosion was immediate, and I was nearly choked with smoke. Making my way on deck, I was joined by the men, who were there before me, and the interpreter, whose wife liberated him. Not a living Kanaka to be seen on deck; but the sea all round literally covered with black heads making towards the island. My first care was to send two men down the hold to all the lines in which were hanging overboard, guard against fire, and with the others I hauled as the Kanakas, with knives and other weapons, were making for the vessel again. The ship, thank God, was ours again."

After noticing that in the attacks made by the immigrants there were killed three Englishmen and five native sailors, Mr. Consul Miller adds:

ried off. No men have a greater right to speak on the subject than the Presbyterian missionaries. They are thirteen in number; they have under their charge eight principal stations in the chief islands of the group; their supporters have expended £40,000 on the mission, and their present outlay amounts to £4,000 a year. Five missionaries have died in the group, of whom two were killed by the natives, in addition to John Williams, who had preceded them. More than others have they been affected by this traffic. Anything honourable and legitimate they could have effectively aided. Against the drugging, and violence, and murder, they were compelled to lift up their voice. They are their people who have been carried away; it is their mission which has been all but destroyed. It is therefore with sound reason that the Rev. J. Inglis, on behalf of his brethren, addresses to the churches of New South Wales a full statement of their views; and his able letter to the Rev. Dr. Steel deserves the most attentive perusal

of all concerned.

After describing the various methods by which the natives are entrapped, such as direct force, putting them under hatches when visiting a ship, buying them from chiefs, giving them drink, offering them a pleasure trip, exhibiting valuable property, making them delusive promises, and the like, Mr. Inglis thus speaks of the effects of their service on the few who have managed to return from their captivity: —

"In no case has any improvement been witnessed; in no case has any native commenced to plant and cultivate cotton, nor has he introduced any improvement. Instead of being more industrious, they are greatly less so. They return with muskets, ammunition, and tobacco; they have had plenty of work for the last three years, and they think they may now keep holiday, and for a time smoking and shooting become the chief objects of their existence. By and by they awake to a true sense of their position; they find they have no food, their island-habits of industry have been destroyed, their new habits are all foreign to island life, they are not a natural development and an additional source of strength. No; this mode of life is something like a punishment that has been submitted to, and once over, not to be repeated. They feel reluctant to begin the world anew, and generally sink into a lower position than they would have occupied had they remained at home. Some get dissatisfied with their position, or, tired of island-life, perhaps have a quarrel with their friends; and should a labour-seeking vessel appear at this juncture, to show their anger and vex their friends, they will go off again to Queensland or Fiji.” — (Page 17.)

The following is the decided testimony of the Mission to the inability of this serfage-system to Christianize the emigrants who went from home as heathen. This testimony has been given repeatedly in other days and in other lands; here it comes forth again fresh and clear:

"What can natives learn of Christianity in Queensland or Fiji, when there is not a person them any religious instruction that can speak a in either land who would or could impart to single word to them in their own tongue? The same holds good of civilization. You do not civilize a native by teaching him to smoke tobacco; you cannot civilize a native by feeding him on rice; you cannot civilize a native by clothing him in tweeds or doeskin If you wish to civilize a savage, you must begin within. Some eighty years' experience in these seas has fully and clearly proved that, if you wish to civilize savages, you must first Christianize them. And what is more remarkable, while it is impossible to civilize them till you Christianize them, it is easier to Christianize them than It is easier to get them to give up the superstiit is to civilize them after they are Christianized. tions, the cruelties, and the abominations of heathenism, to worship the one true God, to learn to read the Bible, and walk in some goodly measure according to God's laws, than it is to make anything like similar advances in European civilization. But this has been most certainly proved, that whenever you Christianize a savage, you implant within him the germs of civilization, a civilization which grows, and which he never casts off. In these islands, as a general rule, no heathen man, however long he may have been in Queensland, will ever wear European clothing when he returns to his own island; whereas, as a general rule, no Christian man will go without some portion of European clothing, and his progress in Christianity is always followed by a corresponding advance in his civilization." - (Pages 18, 19.)

Apart from the personal and social evils springing from this traffic, Mr. Inglis points out one of its more remote consequences, from which the whole group is now suffering in a most painful degree, the depopulation of the islands:

"The evil to which I refer is the extraordinary and ruinous drain that has been made upon the effective strength of these islands. It is not a drawing away of the surplus labour, it is a draining away of the vital strength of the community. To compare small things with great, it is a drain upon the New Hebrides scarcely less in proportion than the drain which the Franco-Prussian war caused upon the population of Germany; that, however, was but for one year; this is for many. The numbers taken away, in proportion to the population, are enormous. In short, the islands are all but