AUSTRALIAN SLAVE TRADERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 617, 9 December 1863, Page 10 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN SLAVE TRADERS.

(from our meujotjpne correspondent)

Melbourne, !ind December, 18G3,

It appears that the Australian colonies are likely to acquire a most unenviable notoriety in connection with the abominable practice of man-stealing, which has been going on in the South Sea Islands for- some time past, in defiance of every sentiment of humanity and justice and of ail laws both human and divine. Two of the wretches who have taken a leading part in this vile traffic, had been, it seems, domiciled in this city for some time previous to their engaging in it. One of these persons we learn was a man named Byrne, who, after swindling a number of the too-cbnfiding residents of the quiet colony of Natal, came to this colony, and was no less successful.in victimising some of the merchants and tradesmen here.- The other man, who, in accordance with the old saw which tells us that " birds of a feather flock together," associated himself with the first-named worthy in the new slave trade, was an American named Clarke, who, after keeping an hotel in this,cit3', was duly whitewashed by passing through our Insolvent Court. Having obtained a vessel, the partners proceeded to the South Sea Islands and succeeded in kidnapping a cargo of the natives whom they at once" carried off to Pejru and sold as slaves. Byrne dying soon afterwards— in pursuance ob the ' terms of an an agreement whicli had been entered into previous to the voyage—Clarke came in for the whole of the profits of the speculation and these profits were so large as to enable him to settle as a stockholder, or squatter in the neighborhood of Caliao. In addition to the abore story a somewhat similar one in reference to the same shameful trade, and in which the chief actor was an Irishman named M'Grath, the master of a Tasmanian whaler,has been furnished to the Melbourne papers" by a seaman named John Turner, who is at present employed on board the schooner Urania, trading from this port. The following is the version of his narrative published by the Age :— •

"On the 24th of February last he joined the brig Grecian, of Hobart Town, Captain T. M'Grath, to go on a whaling voyage, and to be discharged at New Zealand, or the first Australian colony at which the vessel might call on or after the 20th of May. Instead of directing his attention to whaling, the captain proceeded to the South Sea Islands. On the 17th of May he proposed to the crew that they should enter upon the slave trade as being more profitable. Turner and seven others refused, and on the 20th of the same month, the vessel being off Savage Island, and the articles having expired, the captain ordered them to be put ashore, and left on the rocks. Scarcely had the boat touched the shore when a missionary came, and told them that the natives gave them only five minutes to leave. They told this to the second mate who was in charge of the boat, and he then took them again on board the brioand for doing so was severely reprimanded by the capta:.n, who accused him of being guilty of a breach of orders in not leaving the men on the rocks as he was told to do. On the mate's remonstrating with the captain, the latter asked him with an oath what he had to do with the natives or the men either. The men then asked him to take them to a British port, or to some place where there was a British magistrate, but he answered that he" would do nothing of the kind. He, however, seem* to have relented so far as to take them on board. In 3 week afterwards, on the 27th of May, he aaain sent them ashore, the vessel then being off Tutuila, one of the Navigator group, threatening to shoot them if they refused. At the farther end of this island was the residence of the British consular agent, and the natives being, to a certain extent, friendly, the eight men who were landed, induced them by the payment of fourteen dollars in money and the gift of some clothes, to conduct them overland. On arriving at the town of Leone, they visited the consular agent, Mr Henry Hunkin. They remained there for two days, and received from the agent every kindness that it was in his power to besfow. On the seventeenth day after being landed, and the second after arriving at Leone, they left in a boat provided for them by Mr Hunkin, and proceeded" to Upolu, an island distant about seventy miles where the British consul, Mr M Farlane, resided. They accomplished the distance in two days and a night, having had nothing to eat during the time except a few cocoa nuts, as Mr Hunkin was unable to give them supplies his stores being exhausted. On arriving at Upolu, they received every attention from Mr M'Farlane. After being there for atymt five weeks, five of the m,en shipped cm hoard the 4niorican'whaler Ejesdemona. The other thre.e remained for six weeks longer. Burin"their stay, John Bryan, formerly a shipmate on board the Grecian, also arrived there. Bfe was landed at Lafuea, in Qvolau, one of th,e JPigi inlands, because of his objection,, to be a party to slave tracing, and informed Turner and his mates that, after their leaving, the vessel called at Tonga, The captain there induced large company of thenatives to. come onboard a to trade, and while they were dining on the

'tween decks, closed the batches upon them, men, women, and children, to the number of about 130, and sailed with them for the Peruvian coa3t. At this time the crew consisted of-fifteen persons, consisting of Maories taken oa board at the Chatham Islands—where Turner and the others joineJ the ship—Portuguese, and one Swede. There was also the boy, a'native of Tasmania, of the name of Egan, whom the captain would not allow to leave, though his apprenticeship bad expired, alleging as his reason that he had not his indentures with him. Bryan having obtained employment at Upolu, remained there, and Turner and his mate 3 ultimately obta:ned a passage in the Petrel, schooner, of Sydnej'". Oa their way they called at the Fiji Islands, where the other two left the Petrel, but Turner came with her to Sydney. After being there fiv some time he obtained a passage by the brig Scotia, to Melbourne, and on his arrival shipped on hoard the Urania for Hobart Town. Having arrived at the latter place, he called on the owner of the Grecian with respect to his wages, but was told that the vessel not having been h^ard of since her departure from the Chatham Islands, he could receive no redress. It would thus appear that, in addition to entering the slave trade, the captain has also appropriated the brig. Turner, however, intends, on the return of the Urania to Hobart Town, to take legal steps for the recovery of his claim lor wages, having served the full time for which he signed articles, and the vessel being up to that time, so far as he was aware, legitimately employed.