other become involved in the trade. soon as the boats reached near the reefs they Many respectable seamen, with characters commenced firing on the natives, and continued to lose, have found themselves unexpect the firing till they landed on the beach; they edly engaged in vessels, chartered at Fiji shot several of the natives, but killed none to to get immigrants; and have against their my knowledge. The natives went into the big will been compelled to witness and per- at them while seated in the house; the natives house, when the people in the boats would fire haps share in the violence and the piracy would then make a rush and run out of the with which it is carried on. Numbers of house, when some of the boats' crews would run these men have quitted their vessels at after them and seize and carry them to the boat; the conclusion of the voyage, vowing they they caught three men that day, to my know!would never have anything to do with the edge, and took them off to the ship. This trade again. Mr. Alfred Davidson, a well-barque has been three times to the island while known planter in Queensland, says on this subject:

"In Brisbane I have been indirectly in communication 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 Lavu, 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

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.

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.)

"The natives told me that 133 natives had

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 from the master of the Jason, which he a certificate of ability and good conduct 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 Jason 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.

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:

Mr. Bae, four Rotumah boys, and one Sandwich | on board by the Moaroa in passing another of man, went ashore in the long-boat. The Fijians the Gilbert Group called Byron's Island, or state that, on reaching the shore (a quarter of Nukunau, on the 16th of July; after which she a mile distant), Rae and the boat's crew went shaped a course for Tahiti.” over the andy 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 frigh fully. 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:

"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 ves

sel. 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 : —

"The only intelligence that has since reached Tahiti concerning the fate of these people, is "On the 4th of July, whilst off one of the contained in the enclosed report from the isgroups called Peru, the Moaroa fell in with the lands, published in the Sydney Mail, and statbarque Anna, of Melbourne (of 143 tons),ing that some thirty of them alone reached the 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

shore. So that this calamitous undertaking of the Moaroa to obtain labourers for the plantation of Atimaono would appear to have cost the lives not only of the three above mentioned British subjects, Captain Blackett, Mr. Latten, and second mate Crisp, but likewise the lives of upwards of two hundred and fifty South Sea Islanders.". - (Returns, c. 399, pp. 123, 134, 135).

In the little pamphlet which has just been published by the Presbyterian Mission in the New Hebrides, and which is mentioned at the head of this article, the whole question is treated with great fulness, and the system is exhibited in its ultimate consequences in the islands from which the poor emigrants have been car

ried off. No men have a greater right to The following is the decided testimony speak on the subject than the Presbyterian of the Mission to the inability of this serf missionaries. They are thirteen in num- age-system to Christianize the emigrants ber; they have under their charge eight who went from home as heathen. This principal stations in the chief islands of testimony has been given repeatedly in the group; their supporters have expended other days and in other lands; here it £40,000 on the mission, and their present comes forth again fresh and clear: 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:

"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:

"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 "The evil to which I refer is the extraordistrength. No; this mode of life is something nary and ruinous drain that has been made uplike a punishment that has been submitted to, on the effective strength of these islands. It and once over, not to be repeated. They feel is not a drawing away of the surplus labour, it reluctant to begin the world anew, and general- is a draining away of the vital strength of the ly sink into a lower position than they would community. To compare small things with have occupied had they remained at home. great, it is a drain upon the New Hebrides Some get dissatisfied with their position, or, scarcely less in proportion than the drain which tired of island-life, perhaps have a quarrel with the Franco-Prussian war caused upon the poputheir friends; and should a labour-seeking ves-lation of Germany; that, however, was but for sel appear at this juncture, to show their anger one year; this is for many. The numbers and vex their friends, they will go off again to taken away, in proportion to the population, are Queensland or Fiji.". (Page 17.) enormous. In short, the islands are all but

ruined. Let this system go on unchecked for but | curred, a result of the system, which has a few years, and the natives are doomed; they compelled attention; and has brought down will be exterminated.”. - (Page 30.)

The extent of the evil is appalling. The kidnappers have so hasted to be rich that within five years they have swept all the groups within a short distance. First, the voluntary emigrants from the Loyalty Islands were carried away. Then came the New Hebrides. Then followed the Banks Islands; and during all 1871 they were clearing the Solomon group:

"This is not a question affecting the New Hebrides alone; it is fast affecting every group in Western Polynesia. The New Hebrides are already nearly used up; all the available la bour has been nearly extracted out of them. It is little more than the gleanings that are now left. The planters are now discussing the question of labour. The question of labour is a question of life and death with their system of operations. They must have labour, and where is it to come from? The New Hebrides, the nearest available field to both Fiji and Queensland, are nearly exhausted, and they must extend the area from which labour is to be drawn. In this way, as long as the traffic will pay, one after another, every group of islands between this and China will be subjected to the same

process.

The atrocities now described, including repeated acts of kidnapping, piracy, and murder, and frequently ending in the violent death of the guilty perpetrators of these crimes, have been carried on for more than five years. They have been specially numerous during the years 1870 and 1871. Christian and humane men, both in England and Australia, have cried out against them. The Government has been appealed to; and though the absence of suitable war-steamers on the Australian station, in sufficient numbers, has tied their hands, Lord Clarendon, Lord Granville, and Lord Kimberley, have constantly pressed the importance of the case, and the need of suppressing the traffic, on all whom they could influence. But these moral influences have been exerted in vain. The greed and gain of individuals have been found sufficient to reject all warning and all entreaty, to crush down principle, to fing away scruples, and trample on the liberties and the rights of the unhappy heathen, whom curiosity or desire for trade had led to place themselves within the white man's power. And thus a practical system of slavery has been established in Fiji and Queensland, which has brought the deepest disgrace upon the English

uame.

upon it a storm of indignation, which happily may sweep it entirely away, viz., the massacre of Bishop Patteson. The islands which specially formed the sphere of his devoted labours were all heathen, and were in the immediate neighbourhood of the recruiting-grounds last visited by the English kidnappers. Bishop Patteson was a man of high character and Christian devotedness, and by the Christian workers of all Churches was held in high regard. The son of an honoured English judge, having for his mother a member of the Coleridge family, he was educated at Eton, and took his degree at Balliol College, Oxford. Though offered the valuable living of Honiton, he preferred to give himself to missionary work, and in 1855 accompanied Bishop Selwyn to New Zealand. For five years he was the bishop's constant attendant on his missionary voyages; and then was himself consecrated Bishop of Melanesia, that he might devote himself entirely to the evangelization of its heathen islands. He was well known to the missionaries of the London Missionary Society in the Loyalty group, and to the Presbyterians of the New Hebrides; and was a welcome visitor in their Island homes. With the natives also he was a favourite; and he sought their spiritual welfare with all the zeal of an earnest nature and the resources of a well-stored mind.

He was deeply moved by the unhallowed traffic which so much interfered with his labours. He was aware that his own life and efforts had furnished some of the kidnappers with hints for framing one of their decoys. One of these worthies painted his vessel to resemble the Presbyterian schooner, the Dayspring; dressed one of his men in clerical costume, and had him walk the deck with a book in his hand, as if he were a missionary. Another painted his vessel like the bishop's schooner, the Southern Cross; and when the people came on board and asked for the bishop, he would say, "The bishop has broken his leg," or "is not well; "the natives would be forced into the hold and carried off.

Bishop Patteson had been specially appealed to on the subject of the trade, and two letters exist from him relating to it which are of great value. In the first of these, written to Sir George Bowen, who had been Governor of Queensland, he speaks thus, under date July 4, 1870:

"10. I do not advocate the suppression, but One thing, however, has recently oc- the regulation of this traffic. Deception, inhu

the