SLAVERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 110, 21 March 1864, Page 4

SLAVERS.

I nr. unfortunate children of Africa are generally j ' believed to be the only victims in the dreadful traffic ; where man barters his fellow man ; "but it appears i from recent accounts that the unprotected inhabitants ■ of some of tin; Pacific islands are made to experience | all the violence ami wrong on which tho friends of | the African in this country so often expatiated, and against which the voices of Wilherforce, brougham, and I'owoU liiixton wen: raised with such convincing tore.-, thiit those legal enactments were passed, in virtue of vhii-h tho fitters f;iU from the limbs of the slave tho moment he touches liritish soil. The special outrage to which we allude occurred in SunI day Island and the adjacent isles. In the oarlv part of tile summer of this year, a hark visited two of theM) island:-", tho captain and crew landed, hunted, bayonet in hand, the. inhabitants down to the sea coast. 'I here they seized all tho middle-aged and young men, and torccd them on. board, leaving only the weak and helpless behind. Thu slavor touched ■at several ot the. neighbouring islands, where like I seems were enacted. Tile number of wretched creatures caught in this way must have been verv i great, because it appear* that numbers fell sick from | overcrowding, and the captain of the slaver found i hims"]i obliged to anchor at Sunday island, in order j t<> a'lord these p.my prisoners the indulgence of a little j air and exercise to lv.-ruit tlieir strength sutliciently ; to enable them to reach the market. Three hundred ; sick were landed on Sunday island. Some were not ahe* to stand when they readied tin.' shore, some died ; on the way ir.im tlie ship to the landing plant-, some ; fell exhausted o;> the beach and were drowned bv the : suri washing over them. Others in their craving for t«"d ate anytning that lay within their reach, vii.J.'jii sickness ensued, and numbers died. These were buried in the sand, but the rising waters ; washed away the covering and strewed tiie bodies along tin* beach. The effect of the visit of thisslavcr to Sunday Island is that the island is now uninhabited. 1 lie illness gem-rated bv the advent of i t hose unfort unatc captives proved fatal to the great number ot tliM inhabitants, and those who survived have left the place. j This is really a fearful picture. The slaver of j whose depredations we have received an account is one ot seven, all cruising among thesu islands. Who i can tell the se.lh-rings of the.-e hapless beings ? "Who would wi.-h t.i picture their misery r The last gonuratit'll was scared by descriptions of African man-hunts, tlie miseries ot tin* middle passage, and the crowding and packing in tlie Atlantic transit. The feeling of knirland. once aroused. no sacrifice was deemed too great th.il would tend to abolish slavery. The negroes in the liritish colonies were emancipated, and the slaveholders compensated, tin,- products of slave-labour \\eiv esehewvd by philanthropists, and it must hi: acknowledged that the entire nation was willing to >nhrnit to an additional fax, in justification : o! the great principles of natural libertv. Whether all the measures adopted by the IJritish (Government ; tor the protection of the native African -were the ; wisest that Could have bet'ii put into operation, we i shall not now pause to consider. It. may be that the j very means we took to prevent the slave tratlic ini creased the misery of the captives, as the additional ■ rUk incurred, bv increasing their value, stimulated the cupidity and ingenuity of the dealers, who. in eiiiiti:\iug la>t-sailiiig vessels, li.it less space than beiore tor tlw closely-packed human cargo. Itut eveji though it were true that the result of our efforts was not, what we had hoped, still Kngland can always lay cl iim to tie* merit of having been the- foremost in the protest against slavery. And of the Knglish people ; it can be said that, their eves once opened to the ! I horrors of tlie slave-trade, tliev did not hesitate at , ; personal sacrifice in vindication of the principles they ; asserted. There are many amongst us who will be ! sorry to learn that this surreptitious trade in human ; beings is being carried on in a new region of the ] globe, and who w;ll inquire, where are the markets | tor this merchandise Where no demand is made, ,no supply is oJlered. There are but few markets for | slave-labour. These Vaciiie islands lie off the wos- : tern coast of South America, and if that continent | offer a mail to these slavers, it is evident that tho i facilities tor carrying on the trade are much greater ,in the 1 \teiJic than in the Atlantic. It is movo than j suspceleil that ceri iin nations laying great claims to j hiuh civilisation (France among them) encourage, under a covert form, this hideous traffic. Knglish vessels returning from Australia may leam something i'j this, A\ e look with anxiety for further intelligence.- - J