there went to Resolution Buy 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 swan for the shore. Captain Coath ordered the boat to be lowered, which was done, and I and two others went in it to pick him up, which we did, and he was brought to the vessel. We put him on board; he still sat on deck crying; the captain threatened to shoot him if he jumped overboard again, the vessel sailing away. We then went to a place called Black Beach, for water and wood; we then went to Erromanga, to land returning natives; did land them; and got one fresh native, who came willingly. We then went to Vila, in Sandwich Island, and there we got eight natives to act as our boats' crews, and then to Havana Harbor, and from there to North-West Bay, and landed two returned natives from Maryborough, and obtained about eighteen islanders by barter in usual way. Went to Mow; landed four returning natives; and took on board ten or eleven, who came willingly; tomahawks, etc., being given in exchange for them."

Harper's story is a long one, and gives in abundance similar details. It may be found in full in the Parliamentary Returns, and concludes thus:

.. Leaving there, went a little farther 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 men; 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. 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, cocoa-nuts, 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, etc., 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 correct.

his

"JAMES HARPER, X Able Seaman." mark.

"Signed before me, the 16th day of March, 1871. WM. BROOKES, J. P."

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!

It can not be supposed, now that the islanders are exasperated by seeing their relatives 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

an important item in the evidence gathered respecting the kidnapping in Polynesia. 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 Apii 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, and 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 altogether, 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 neighborhood, 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 laborers 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, while 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 af terward 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 labor-market, 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 returned 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 con

tinues:

"I was determined to have the ship 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 Annie about forty-five canisters of gunpowder half a pound each. I took thirty-four of them, and emptied their contents into an empty butter firkin. After seeing the men secure, and uttering a short prayer for the protection of my wife and children, I lit the train and dropped at 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. Nor a living Kanaka was to be seen on deck; but the sea all round literally covered with black heads making toward the island. My first care was to send two men down the hold to guard against fire, and with the others I hauled all the lines in which were hanging overboard, 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 contained in the inclosed report from the islands, published in the Sydney Mail, and stating that some thirty of them alone reached the shore. So that this calamitous undertaking of the Moaroa to obtain laborers for the plantation of Atimaono would appear to have cost the lives not only of the three above-mention

ed British subjects, Captain Blackett, Mr. Latten, and second mate Crisp, but likewise the lives of upward 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 fullness, and the system is exhibited in its ultimate consequences in the islands from which the poor emigrants have been carried 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 £4000 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. Any thing honorable 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 brethern, 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 a pleasure trip, exhibiting valuable property, making them delusive promises, and the like, Mr. Inglis thus speaks of the effect 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 shoot ing 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 labor-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 in either land who would or could impart to them any religious instruction that can speak a 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 can not civilize a native by feeding him on rice; you can not 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 to civilize them after they are Christianized. It is easier to get them to give up the superstitions, 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 any thing 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 labor, 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 ruined. system go on unchecked for but a few years, and the natives are doomed; they will be exterminated."-(Page 30.)

Let this

The extent of the event 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 labor 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 labor. The question of labor is a question of life and death with their system of operations. They must have labor, 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 labor 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 fling 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 name.

One thing, however, has recently occurred, a result of the system, which has compelled attention; and has brought down upon it a storm of indignation, which happily may sweep it entirely away, namely, the massacre of Bishop Patteson. The islands which specially formed the sphere of his devoted labors were all heathen, and were in the immediate neighborhood of the recruiting-grounds last visited by the English kidnappers. Bishop Patteson was a man of high character and Christian devoted ness, and by the Christian workers of all Churches was held in high regard. The son of an honored 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.

For

Though offered the valuable living of Honiton, he preferred to give himself to missionary work, and in 1855 accompanied Bishop Selwyn to New-Zealand. 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 favorite; 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 labors. 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 the regulation of this traffic. Deception, inhumanity, unjust detention of natives, and violation of agreements are not necessary for the purpose of procuring and maintaining a supply of laborers for the plantations. Even on the ground of mere self-interest it would pay the planters to deal kindly and honestly with their workmen.

"As things now are, it is admitted that this 'system of so-called emigration' is likely to degenerate, and probably has sometimes degenerated into a practice approaching a slave-trade, and perhaps ac