workmen in iron foundries, printing offi-, To the west of Fiji and north-east of ces, and furniture factories, unable to ex- New Caledonia lies a group of important plain things in the Mahrati, Tamil, or Ben- islands, peopled by a peculiar medley of gali languages, at once call the workmen races. This is the great group called the stupid, and explain their meaning by kicks New Hebrides; it consists of eight large and blows. Throughout Polynesia no islands and more than thirty small ones, Englishmen were ever so hard upon the amongst which the island of Ambrym is native races as common sailors and those reckoned one of the most lovely in all the officers who had raised themselves from the South Pacific. The group is so unbefore the mast; and it was a most un- healthy that strangers cannot live in it happy thing that it was precisely into the with comfort. In some strange way unhands of this large class of men that the known to history, the people have been entire immigrant traffic fell, until it has thrown into this group from many quarended in piracy, kidnapping, and murder, ters, and seem to have had no connection and has brought reproach upon the Eng- with one another. No less than twenty lish name throughout the civilized world. separate languages are spoken in the group, and the learning of one of those tongues is no help to the attainment of any other. The whole population numbers about 60,000 people, all belonging to the Papuan branch of the Polynesian tribes. To the north-east of this group lies a small cluster of islands of the same kind called the Banks Islands. To the northwest are the Solomon Archipelago, which curve round westward towards New Britain and New Guinea.

In one or two localities special circumstances were found to favour the wishes of the English planters in leading the natives to emigrate to a foreign soil. In the French settlements under the Governor of New Caledonia, especially in the Loyalty Islands, the hand of the Government has pressed very hard upon the people. On many occasions the religious persecution of the Protestants by the priests and local authorities, heavy taxation, restrictions on personal liberty, and forced labour, It was to the New Hebrides groups that have irritated the people greatly. Was it the recruiting vessels turned for their supto be wondered at that the young and ac- ply of labourers, and for a while the halftive were anxious to get away; and that taught heathen of Tanna, Erromanga, on many occasions they swam after an and Vate (Sandwich Island) were the obEnglish vessel before she could clear the ject of their special efforts. The Christian barrier reefs, and felt glad to be taken on population of the southern island, Aneitboard? Many such wanderers found their yum, would have nothing to do with them. way to Queensland. The people of Niue, As the year 1868 passed away, and the the "Savage Island" of Cook, had for sev-area visited by the recruiting vessels eral generations held no intercourse with widened, rumours became numerous that the outside world; but when they be- all which had been feared in respect to the came Christians, and heard of other lands, ill-treatment of the heathen islanders had a natural reaction from the exclusive sys- been more than realized. Now a missiontem laid their young men open to the same ary or a missionary's wife described in some desire for travel, and many of them found letter to an Australian friend some deed their way to Samoa and the plantations of of violence witnessed with his or her own Tahiti. But this voluntary emigration eyes; then some cook or sailor on board was limited, and was confined to the Chris- one of the vessels gave details of the visits tian islands. In the presence of English which he had paid to the islands, and the missionaries, captains and crews could only seizure of persons which he had seen; or offer various forms of gain to the natives, some Queensland newspaper described the as inducements to leave home. The out-proceedings of the police courts, and cry against Peru made them afraid to showed that in not a few instances immipractise violence or fraud in mission sta- grants preferred to be sent to jail rather tions. They therefore steered their ves- than go back to the masters who flogged sels to another quarter. and starved them.

Evidence was soon offered which none | Levinger was apprehended in Melbourne. could gainsay. Mr. Thurston wrote from They were found guilty of murder, and Fiji to Lord Belmore, the Governor-Gen- were sentenced to imprisonment for life eral of the Australian colonies, that he had with hard labour. Levinger was imprisreceived undeniable testimony that murder oned with hard labour for seven years. had been commited on board one vessel, Owing to the numerous complaints the Young Australian which had recently which began to be made, Commodore visited the northern New Hebrides. The Lambert, who was in command of the statement had been given in writing. Australian station, despatched Captain Two men who had witnessed the atrocity Palmer, in H.M.S. Rosario, to visit the had appeared before him; and as the ship New Hebrides and Fiji, and report upon was then in Sydney, he trusted the Gov- the subject. The results of his inquiry ernment would prosecute. The vessel was were startling, and proved that under the commanded by Captain Ross Howell, and so-called immigration system the worst feaconspicuous among the rougher men on tures of the old slave trade had reapboard were Robert Lennie, a Frenchman, peared. Captain Palmer quitted Sydney and Hugh Levinger, the supercargo. The on March 4, 1869, and spent three months following statement is drawn out by David in executing his commission. Afu, a Christian in Fiji from the lips of the Tanna men, whose words he interpreted. Below the marks which the men made with the pen he writes:

་

He pro

ceeded first to New Caledonia, where he received the complaints of Governor Guillain, with details of the way in which his people had been carried off. He then visited the southern islands of the New Hebrides, and held repeated interviews with the missionaries and with the chiefs, who had many affecting stories to tell of similar wrongs. Thence he proceeded eastward to the Fijis, where he was in constant communication with Mr. Thurston and the planters. He has given a most interesting account of his expedition in the book cited at the head of this article, which is both well written and well illustrated. It is full of details as to persons, dates, and places, and must prove an important authority on the whole question of kidnapping from which it sprang. large portion of the contents of the book occupy a conspicuous place in the Parliamentary returns, as official reports which he rendered to the officer who had commissioned him.

These are their own or true hands with which they made these signs, and when they had made them they said, 'What we have seen and known we tell.' The great ship went to Tanna, and we Tanna natives went on board; then she went to Erromanga, thence to Sandwich, thence to Inea, thence to Api, thence to Pama. When we got there the boat was prepared to go ashore. Bob, the white man, three natives of Erromanga, and three natives of Rotumah pulled towards the shore. They met a canoe belonging to the place with three men on board, one being an elderly man, and two young men. The elderly man was a chief. They were seized by force and thrown into the boat, and taken to the great ship. When on board the ship they wept, and refused to come to Fiji. They did not wish to eat or drink, they wept only. Then said the captain of the ship, Let them be taken down into the hold till Bob comes back again from the land, and decides concerning them.' When they were in the hold they resisted, and threw stones at the black men in the hold, and shot at them with bows and arrows. Then all the black tion: men fled on deck, and only the three Pama men were left in the hold. Then Bob came and tried to speak to them, but they threw stones at him, and he fled on deck. Then was opened a piece of the bulkhead in the captain's end of the ship, and they fired with guns. The old man was first wounded in the thigh, but he bound it up and went on fighting. Then the two young men were shot dead. Then the old man was shot again, and died. Then night was over the land, a lamp was put on its stand, and taken down into the hold, and the dead bodies were lifted up and thrown into the sea." - (Returns, 408, p. 58 )

Happily in this case a conviction was obtained. The captain was apprehended in Sydney, with one of his crew, Rangi;

A

On his return to Sydney, Captain Palmer thus reported on the general ques

2. All the missionaries at Aneiteum, Tanna, Erromanga, and Vate made the same complaints as to the kidnapping of the natives of that group, and the consequent undermining of their influence with the people.

3. Several chiefs complained to me about the way their people had been stolen away, oftentimes by violence, but more frequently by false promises.

"4. In several instances natives have been enticed alongside these slavers by offers of muskets and tobacco, and then forcibly seized by the hair of their head, dragged on board, and their canoes sunk. Three natives that I examined at Ovalau, Fiji, all made the same statement, namely, that they had come on board to sell mats, &c., and get tobacco; that on its getting

jections, and deny that in Queensland any was interested in their people. Mr. native immigrant had ever been ill-treated, Meiklejohn, unhappily for himself, was apor that any complaints had ever been pointed to the Jason, a vessel notorious in made! Reporting on April 6, 1871, Mr. the trade; and the trip from Maryborough Gray, the agent, says: "Up to the present to the New Hebrides and back occupied time about 4,150 islanders have been in- four months, from April to July, 1871. He troduced into Queensland, and not a single thus describes his first experiences, in a complaint has ever yet been made by one letter to the Colonial Secretary of Queensof them, that he has been brought to land dated Sept. 16, 1871. the colony against his will, or that he has been ill-treated on the voyage. They are, as a rule, treated most kindly by their employers; and not one instance has ever come under my notice where an islander has ever been returned to his home without receiving full payment of his wages."

"I may be permitted to say that my undertaking the office of Government Agent on board the Jason was owing to my being wishful to see the South Sea Islands, and to my having always felt an interest in the islanders. What I have witnessed of the Queensland Polynesian trade has convinced me that it is abominably and incurably immoral.

wards were met with sneers."

All Queenslanders are not guilty of this folly, or think they can impose upon the "With reference to the duties devolving upon world. Even their own Parliament, by me as Government Agent, I found a few days special committee, recommended three after sailing that I was regarded and treated as years ago the improvement of the Immi-a spy, and that any remarks I made about the gration Act upon three vital questions. way islanders were obtained or treated afterThe Brisbane people have again and again petitioned and remonstrated. Residents, like the "University man" who published his adventures in the colony, openly speak of the system as one of slavery. And two well-known planters, Messrs. Brookes and Davidson, boldly declare that the authorities break their own regulations, and that an immense amount of evil is being done.

During the last few months the Queensland Government has taken great credit to itself for having appointed agents to accompany the recruiting vessels, in order to see that no improper practices are resorted to. But for three years they refused to adopt this measure, though it was often pressed upon them, and though Lord Granville had offered to select the agents. But what is the actual working even of the agent system; what check does it place

on the whole crime?

Stronger measures were soon resorted to, and the agent found himself in irons among the kidnapped islanders.

"On the 12th of June the captain asked me in the afternoon to take some wine with him, to I would do so, but that I would still do my duty, show him I bore him no animosity. I told him and that he must not be deceived. He said, If I thought you would report me, you would never see Maryborough, as it could be very easy to put you out of the way,' and that I surely would not be so cruel, as it would completely ruin him and his family. I had taken about a wineglassful of wine out of a tumbler, standing at the time in the cabin in front of the captain's berth. I do not recollect leaving the place where I was standing. I seem to recollect being seized and dragged on deck.

"When the Jason returned to Maryborough, ble state, and totally unable to attend to busion the 13th of July, I was in an extremely feeness, having been confined in the ship's hold In October last one of the slavers amongst the islanders, handcuffed, and chained brought forty-four immigrants to one of to a ring-bolt for more than three weeks without the Queensland ports. The captain had bedding. This treatment I received by the orobtained them with great difficulty from ders of the captain, who said I was insane and the Solomon Islands, and his cruise had dangerous. I was delirious for some time, but taken him six months. He had four I attribute my being so to the captain having sailors wounded with poisoned arrows. The drugged me in a glass of wine, on the 12th of Government agent, described as a drunken June. fellow, the man who had been appointed to see that all natives were properly shipped, openly declared to people at the port on his return, that he had shot twenty islanders himself, and the captain many

more !

A still stranger statement comes from a man who volunteered to join one of the recruiting vessels as agent, because he wished to see the South Sea Islands, and

"The shirts provided were of cotton, and not of flannel or wool, as required by the Act. The blankets supplied were of thin, poor quality. or three days' sail of Fairway Buoy, Hervey's The islanders were kept naked until within two Bay, and they suffered much from cold, as it was winter. I believe that nearly every one of them had a cold or a cough when they landed, and that this want of suitable warm clothing was to some degree connected with the great mortality amongst the islanders since their ar

rival. Out of twenty-four taken by the Mary- | results to their friends. But he feels that borough Sugar Company, seven died within the system is becoming unmanageable, and seven weeks."

As the trade was pursued with fresh earnestness, the kidnapping, decoying and forcible seizure of the heathen islanders were resorted to without scruple. In exhibiting these atrocities, it is of the last importance that the facts should be described, as far as possible, in the words of the authorities by whom they have been supplied.

The Presbyterian Mission in the New Hebrides group is in the very midst of the recruiting ground. Naturally the letters of the missionaries became more numerlous, and their complaints more indignant.