THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1517, 5 October 1868, Page 4

THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC.

Some time ago, in an article Leaded " Modified Slavery," wo alluded at some length to the nature of tlie traffic carried on very extensively amongst the islands of the Western Pacific, consisting of the kidnapping of their wretched inhabitants, and selling them to the planters in Queensland and other places for a terra of slavery. The following statement published lately in the Brisbane Courier of September sth, testifies to the truth of our previous statements with regard to the iniquitous nature of the trade;— Sir, —The following will show the kind of doings which have been going on without our knowing, and as they illustrate proceedings which our Legislaour ministers of religion, and some of our p incipal men look at, some with their ejes shut, B me with eonnivaneo. and others with avowed approval, I hope you will pardon the trespass upon your valuable spaea by sating tlio case fully. On the 2nd January, 1868, the brig Syren was telegraphed as being in flloreton i uy. Mr. iU'Donald, the heal : h-officor, went on board with a Customhouse officer. . Mr." M'Donald reported hr as having Houth Sea Islanders on board among whom was sioknesa, and adx'ised that tho Government medical officer (Dr. Hobbs) should visit her. Dr. tiohbs visited her, and reported sicknoss of a diarrhoeic .nature on board, ordered the needed medicines, and left, hoping all would ehortly be well. On the second visit of Dr. Hobbs, he found

Bickness more general and spreading, and changed to dysanlary. He reported ths advisability of removing the ialandnrs from the vessel to tho elevated land on Sir.idbroUo Island, ncur the 'ienovolmt .'asylum. Thi3 WHi! dorse ; the islmders were pnr ua:!er tenia, itP'l supplied with.-<uch raedicines and food 33 wirt) Ti?ces*Ary. There was grc-:U mo , :ia!i'3 r among the islanders, as wil ; b j seen from tho following memorandum I saw in tho R:gi-try Wffio* of Duathi and Birtrts :— MkM'l : Death of islanders, 11 from dyen-lery."—(-igned) W. Hcbbs. ijaaka Xaiandera 1 at sea, December, 23, 18R7 i> !> .. lat Heads, January 2, 1867 a a ' .. 4in Moreton Bay i> _ a .. sat Dunwich Mulicolo „ .. 4in iloreton Bay a a .. 2at Quarantine Station. „ „ .. Bat Dunwich Mare. „ .. lat Dunwich. Total ..21 "Signed E. M'Kachebit,master, per H. S. GkeK• fell, agent, February 11, 186-5.

From the dates it appears that one death occurred daily for the last 14 days, and 10 deaths the second 14 days. '

Prom the above memorandum the register death entries havo been mide,- andJi was struck by observing that there was a blank opposite eßch of the twentyfour death entries, in the column allotted for the record of the name and religion of minister performing funeral rites, and of witness of burial. For anything appearing to the contrary, these strangers "died and were buriod"—nobody krows how. * T'iO rfyren does not appear on the Oustom-housa book.; until the 30th January,' 1868, all papers connected with her report, and hsr inward entry bearing this date. Her patera report her as having arrived from the South Mea Islands, with two passengers, in bcllait, and with ninety-one islanders. There is a list of tho islanders' names, and ther are stated to o:ne from «3 follows: —"21 from Mustoff, N.E. islands Bank's Group ; 10 from Bur Bur, IV. isknd Bank's Group; 58 from Talaus, Great Island; 25 from Mallicolo ; 10 from Tana ; 6 from Lefu; and 11 from Mare. This record at ths Custom-house is th? first entry of the Syren's human cargo, and to secure the correctness of tn9 returns of Queensland population, tho4o who died ought to be entered as having arrived; otherwise the entries of deaths will bo unfairly dealt with, as ehowing tho deaths of 24 perjonsjn Queensland of whoso ever having been alive there is no rocord.

The above stitements, facts, and figures, I = can vouch for, having bien courteously permitted, within the List few dij s, to examine the n°cesiary documents at the various Government offices. The correctness, or otherwise, of the following narrative, and thn results of such enquirits, are here given first a3 a fitting preludo to the statement of Ishmael Wil-liam-ion, whose name ar>pear3 in the Brisbane Custom House papers as cook and steward on bonrd the Syrori. It was taken from his own lips by the two persons w;ho witnessed his signature; and I believe them to be quite respectable and trustworthy : " I wa3 cook and steward on board the brig- Svron which sailed from Nevrca-tle, New South'Walesi with coals for ITew Caledonia, about the'month of November, 1867. We sailed to our destination, and discharged our cargo ; after which the Captain called rhtj men aft, and informed them that he irjtended to proceed to some of the other islands, an'd take on boird a cargo of islanders for Queensland.! Having got four of the Sew Caledonian native?, jwa sailed away from that group, keeping t'lwsa natives carc>lly concealed until the pilot had quiitel the vessel:

"Wo then proceeded } to Lefu, and commenced, 'rading with the natives, offering them pipes and tobacco, when a chief and three men'were influenced to come on board, under the improision that in Sydney they would receive from to £3 per month. From here wo proceeded to Tanna, where a chief named Browa came on board, and bargained to procuro men, for wbieh tho captain gave him a m'l.'kot and a pieca of red calico. Tho chief ihen wont ashore, aud brought on board six men-—old and young—ostensibly to show thim the chip ; and when they had been placed in the hold, the captain set sail for another part of tho island, taking Briwn with him to induce the natives to come on boardj But ho was unsuccessful, and in the night the chief took his departure, and returned to his own part of the island.

" We then sailed to en island named Jfa'.lieolo, where we put off a boat to trade with tho' natives, who came swimming out to msct us, bringing plenty of cocoa-nuts with them tied upon sticks iu the water. Somoofthdm cimo on board tile boats, ivh.'le other* came in their canoes to see tiie vessel, numbering twenty-one, many of them bringing their dubs and implements of war with them. They were relieved of these on deck, and taken down to see the mystaries of the hold, when the vessel set;sail, the canoes were cut adrift, and wo b'irj away from the island. The wives of some of iheso men siyam after the ship for more than thre3 miles, crying loudly for the restoration of their husbands. ;

" We then went to Mutlow Islands, where we got a good many natives on board; but, as the Teasel stopped over to tako in wood, tliay all made their eso ipe during the darkness, except two. In the morning the captain called the watch and asked them why they had allowed tho islanders to escape. . L'he men declared that they had not seen one of them go away. For this neglect of duty the captain stopped their coffee for two days, as ho said' he Had lost over £1.00 by it. \ " We then touched at Bnr Bar, where the boat went ashore and brought off nine msn, who | cams to trade; they received jews' harps and red handkerchiefs, and wero secured in the hold while : tjho boat went ashore again. But this second.time it -yras only fortunate enough to get one man, who jumped overb.ard and ewam ashore before thoy could bring him to the vessel. !

" After touching at many other islands, and getting men in tho same way to the number of out hundred and ten, wo called at an island, the name o£ jwh'ch I forget, where we got six men on board out of a'canoe but the chief immediately came off and demanded their liberation. The captain, on seeing the canoes assembling, and the natives armed gathering on the leach, thought it be3t to comply with his demand. However, to chastise them for their opposition, he manned a boat carrying sis muskets and four revolvers, and sent it to chase the natives, who retired to the beach, and drew up some of their canoes ;on the Tho boat's orow then fired into the huts which contained the women, sunk some of the canoes «loner tho'shoro, and then returned fo the ship.

"ftc afterwards called at Mare Island, but the natives here were too much civilized, and could speak English; and consequently it would have been dangerous to attempt kidnapping there. We then sailed for Brisbane. During the first part of our voyage the islanders suffered severely from sea si kness ; the Mallicolo men in particular touched nothing for four days. The oaptain tried to induce thura to eat by standing over them with a thick stick, threatening to thrash them if they refused. Many of them ware attacked with dysentery, and after a passage of Bit days we came into Moreton Bay, where we remained in quarantine for a month, altogether losing by death about twenty-one ,out of the one hundred and ten natives who left the islands with us. " Ishmael WntiAMSoy. " Witnesses to signature s William Castles, David Gray. , ■ "Jimna, August, 1868.'' It only .remains to say that the "Polynesian T<abourers Act" takes no precautions against this style of adding to our Queensland population. It "licenses" vesaels to go far South Sea Islanders. How they ara to be obtained it as!<a no questions about. This is the precise defect which makes the Act illegal, because diametrically opposed to the Imperial Act for the abolition of slavery.—Yours, William Bbookbs. Brisbane, September 2, ] 868.