SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 190, 18 May 1872, Page 3

SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

The following letter appears in the Sj’dney Morning Herald of the 26th ult.: — In the month of April, 1871, having occasion to fill up fresh water, previous to a long whaling cruise, we proceeded to Havannah Harbour, in the Island of Sandwich— one of the New Hebrides group—for that purpose,and while so engaged two labour (?) 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 expressed purpose of “ man catching.” The other, a fore-and-aft schooner, belonging to Tahiti, having on board seventy-two “niggers.” and also a Flench Government official, t) see that those “niggers” were properly hired, well fed, and kindly treated. Whether they were properly hired ” or not, this account of the affair, will at once show. I will relate this as nearly" as possible, in the words of my informant. He is a Frenchman, who bad 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, “ Oh, one of the niggers bit me when I was securing him.” “ What,” said I, “do you take them by force?” “Oil, any way,” said he; “we get then how we can,” and, pointing to the schooner, he said, “ I will tell you how we got thirteen of them on board there. The cutter I belonged to and that schooner were mated in getting niggers outside—that is, when cruizing amongst the islands 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 accidentally (intentionally) ran them down, and broke their canoes, picking up the men, of course, and promising to land them. The captain of the schooner then said, 1 Look out, boys, and when I 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, fighting 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, howevei, revived him, and he struck out for the shore, bleeding profusely, but swimming strongly ; the captain, fearing he might make the shore even in his wounded state, despatched a boat and three men after him, one of them a Maori, who cooly ran his knife into his 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 everything about them. The captain, hearing the noise, opened the door, and rushed into the cabin, pistol in hand. As he did so, one of the natives struck him on the forehead with a piece of an old spear, inflicting a painful wound, which the captain returned by putting a bullet through his jaws, they were then secured and put in irons, and are now on board.” Such is the account given me by , and which is heie stated without the slightest exaggeration. Hence we arrive at some idea why the chief mate of the Adventurer, Bishop Palteson, and others lately 1 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. It is the peaceful, legitimate trader, and unsuspecting whalemen, 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 civilised (?) brethren on the untutored savage. Can any thinking man blame the savage for retaliating ? I trow not. (Signed) Henry Edmonds, * Mate Barque Forward.