THE ISLAND TRADE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 171, 14 June 1872, Page 6

THE ISLAND TRADE.

The following letter signed by Henry Edmonds, mate of the barque Forward, is published in the" 'Sydney Morning Herald:'— In the month of April, 1871, having occasion to fill up fresh water, previous to a long whaling cruise, we proceeded to Havannah Harbor, in the Island of Sandwich —one of the new Hebrides group—for that purpose, and while so engiged two labor(?) vessels arrived and anchored near us. One, a cutter, belonging to some people in Tanna—name unknown—and having four armed Tanna men on board, for the express purpose of "man catching." The other, a schooner, belonging to Tahiti, having on board seventytwo "niggers," and also a French Government official, to see that those " nifgers were properly hired,, well fed, and kindly treated. Whether they were "properly hired" or not, the following account of the capture of thirteen of them, ,by.an actor in the affair, will at once show. X will relate this, as nearly as possible, in —the words of my informant. He is a Frenchman, who had formerly sailed under me as third officer, and through drunkenness and refusal to obey an immediate order on board another ship, was left ashore on the island of Sandwich a short time previous to our arrival there. Hearing that I was chief mate of the whaling barque just come to anchor, he paid me a visit; and when, in conversation, I asked, " What is the matter with your hand ?" '— it was bound up —he replied, " Oli, one of the niggers bit me when I was securing him." " What," said I, "do you take them by force ?" " Oh, any way," said he; "we get them how we can;" arid, pointing to the schooner, he sajd, " I will tell you how we got thirteen of them aboard there. The cutter I belonged to and that schooner were mated in getting niggers outside—that is, when cruising amongst the islandsr-in the proportion of two to the schooner and one to us, as she had two boats and crews to our one. One day .two canoes came off to us, containing thirteen men. for the purpose of trading. We accidently (intentionally) ran them down, and broke their canoes, picking up the men, and, of course, promising to land them. The captain of the schooner then said, 'Look out, boys, and when T hoist a . white flag, secure them.* We then induced six of them to go into the cabin, to see it, and locked them in there; this

done, up went the white flag, and we

rushed on and secured the others, all but one; this man, fightiug desperately, we found it necessary to shoot him twice, each time through the abdomen, he then

fell on deck, as if dead, and was thrown

overboard; the cool water, however, revived him, and he struck out for the shore, bleeding profusely, but swimming strongly; the captain, fearing he might reach the shore even in his wounded state, despatched the hoat and thr«.c men after him, one of them a Maori, who coolly ran his knife into bis breast two or three times, and sank him; the boat then returned to the schooner.. During this time, those in the cabin, finding themselves . entrapped, sought means of egress in vain. They, however, found an American axe and some pieces of spears, bows, and arrows, &c, which had been hung up in the cabin as

curiosities. With the axe they commenced to cut through the deck and break every-! thing about them. The.captain, hearing the noise, opened the door, and rushed into the.cabin, pistil in hand. As he did so, one of the natives struck him in the

forehead with a part of an old spear, in-

flicting a painful wound, which the captain returned by putting a bullet through his jaws, they were then secured and t put in irons, and.arc now on board." Such is the account -given me hy : and

which is here stated without the slightest exaggeration. Hence we arrive at some idea why the chief mate of the Adventurer, Bishop Patteson, and others lately killed, have been sacrificed at islands" perfectly friendly some short time ago. It is not the men engaged in such abominable nefarious practices who have to fear—they go fully armed and prepared. Ifc is the peacrable legitimate trader, and unsuspecting whaleman, seeking recruits at islands, where they have been kindly dealt with by the natives in times past,' who pay the penalty with their lives of the atrocities committed by their civibrethren on tlie untutored savage. Can any thinking man blame the savages for retaliating? I trow not.