William Henry Giles Kingston

“ They looked so fierce and determined that we expected they would give us more trouble than the inhabitants of Easter Island had done. Two boats well armed were, however, sent on shore to make the attempt. We were to proceed by fair means and to offer them trinkets, knives, and glasses, and handkerchiefs. If they would not be induced to trust us, we were to surround their village, and catch as many alive as we could.
“As we pulled in for the shore, a party of the savages, led by an old chief, came leaping, shouting, and shrieking, and brandishing their spears towards us. ”

“ In the evening a spout was seen in the distance, the boat shoved off, and before nightfall we had the very whale which had attacked us in the morning, fast alongside with tackles hooked on, and the blanket pieces, as we called the blubber, being hoisted on board.
“That trying-out is curious work to those who have never seen it. Along the decks were the huge tripods, with fires blazing under them, and the crew standing round begrimed with smoke and oil, putting in the blubber, while others, as soon as the oil was extracted, were filling the casks and stowing them below. ”

“ We had visited a good many islands in the Pacific, engaged in settling the disputes of the natives or trying to settle them, punishing evil doers, supporting the consuls and missionaries, surveying occasionally hitherto unknown harbours, and endeavouring to make the British flag respected among the dark-skinned inhabitants of those regions.
I with another midshipman and a boat’s crew had landed on a beautiful island of the Western Pacific to bring off a cargo of cocoa-nuts and breadfruit with which the natives had promised to supply us. ”

“ This done, we made all sail, and stood away from the island. When the natives below found themselves entrapped, they, as may be supposed, created a considerable uproar, shouting and shrieking, and demanding to be set at liberty. The hatches, however, being fast closed down, they could not force their way out, and as they were without food or water, and the air was pretty close, we knew that they must soon come to their senses, and therefore took no heed of their cries, though it was necessary, of course, to keep watch over them, lest by chance they might make their way out. ”

“ I shouted to Bill, hoping that he might hear me, and perhaps be able to wade out to my assistance, but no answer came. I might easily have got off by casting the chest and the other articles adrift, but I could not bring myself to do that, not knowing where they and their precious contents might be carried to. At last I thought of mooring the raft, and trying to reach the rock by wading. I had a large axe which would serve as an anchor. I made a rope fast to it, and stuck it securely, as I thought, in a cleft of the coral reef. I then, with the pole in my hand, made my way towards the rock. ”

“ I was nearly dropping back, when I felt a hand seize me, though I could see nothing for the smoke, and I heard Maka’s voice, saying, ‘Come on deck, I will save your life.’ He dragged me up, and I sat down for a moment on the heel of the bowsprit. Smoke was coming up through the hatchways, and flames were already bursting out in the after part of the vessel. The blacks, seized with terror, without stopping to get hold of anything to support themselves, were leaping overboard, and striking out for the far-distant land. ”

“ As soon as the frigate was paid off, after I had had a spree on shore, I determined to make my way to Liverpool and ship on board another trader. I tried to persuade Sambo to accompany me. ‘No, no, Boas, I know when I well off; I serve my time, den bear up for Greenwich, get pension and live like a gentlemen to the end of my days. You knock about de world, get kicked and cuffed and die like a dog.’
“I felt very angry and parted from him, though I could not help thinking that perhaps he was right. ”

“ I am able to corroborate most of his statements, observed my young friend, for we visited many of the places he speaks of, and from the information we received I am convinced that he in no way overdraws the atrocious practices of many of the sandal-wood traders, or fellows engaged in kidnapping the natives of the Pacific Islands. The villainous doings of the African slave trade is an old story and known to all, but as far as I can judge they do not surpass those of the kidnappers of the Pacific at the present day. ”

“ We got a good many people from the Island of Erromanga, where old Sneezer was very useful. The natives, I had heard say, had murdered some missionary fellows—Williams, and Harris, and others—and of course it was but right, the captain observed, that we should punish them, so we need not be in any way particular as to how we got hold of the savages. Old Sneezer used to go on shore in the boat, and talk to them, and persuade them to come off to us, and in this way we got about thirty or so without much difficulty. ”

“ I had by this time become well accustomed to the work, and, though at first it had gone somewhat against me to see the blacks dying by scores during the middle passage, yet now I saw them hove overboard with as little compunction as if they had been so many sheep.
“We had a precious rough crew, about as villainous a set of cut-throats as well could be collected together. It does not do for tender-hearted fellows to sail aboard a slaver. ”

“ We should have sacrificed half our cargo rather than be taken as long as there appeared any probability of the man-of-war heaving-to to pick up the unfortunate wretches, but the breeze falling light, we had an advantage over the heavier vessel, and darkness coming on, we at length lost sight of her. ”

“ Having collected all who could be induced to come on board below, the supercargo slipped up by the fore hatchway, saying that he wished to consult the captain about the price of some of the articles. The vessel, meantime, had been edging off the land. Our guns were loaded, and we had all armed ourselves in case the natives might make any resistance. All being ready, we suddenly clapped the hatches down upon our visitors, and had them prisoners. The people in some of the canoes suspecting that their friends were in danger, attempted to climb up the sides to their assistance. ”

“ A large number of canoes at once paddled off to us, some containing ten, others four or five natives each. The people came on board without hesitation, and while the captain kept them amused, showing some cases which he said contained the presents for the missionary and chiefs, bargaining for the few articles they had brought with them, the boats pushed away rapidly for the shore. A large number of people were collected on the beach, but even when they saw the boats coming, not observing any arms in the hands of the men, they were in no way alarmed. ”

“ The gale at length came to an end. Still we had to keep the pumps going. Our last biscuit was eaten; we had not a drop of water in the casks. Bill, who had been studying the chart, told us that if we would keep up our spirits he hoped in another day or two to make an island to the southward, where we had not before touched. That night, however, there came on a dead calm.
“When the sun rose the next morning the sea was like glass, with not a sign of a breeze.
“When men are starving they will eat anything. We began to stew down our shoes and every bit of leather we could find about the ship. ”

“ The chief, seeing that the captain was in earnest, ordered his people to go and fetch the wood, when the whole neighbourhood had to turn out and cut it. In the course of two or three days it was brought on board.
“Having got the wood we sailed away to another place. These savages are content with curious articles in exchange for their wood. Instead of money the brig had on board a quantity of small white shells, the teeth of sharks and other animals, as also pigs, cats, and goats. So eager are they to possess these animals that they would sometimes give a ton of sandal-wood for a goat or cat. ”

“ We visited for this purpose an island where the natives were friendly with the white men, and enticed a number on board. When we had got them the captain told them that he would give them their liberty if they would go on shore at a place to which he would take them, and cut as much sandal-wood as he wanted. Back we sailed to the island where the sandal-wood grew. We then took them on shore, and landing with a strong party of armed men, guarded them while they cut the wood, which the inhabitants seemed to object to their doing. ”

“ The people are all blacks, a strong, hardy race, and, as Captain Squid remarked to me, more likely to be caught, and when caught better able to work than the brown-skinned natives to the eastward, such as we used to take away to labour in the mines in South America.
“The first place we came to was the Island of Tanna, one of the southernmost of the New Hebrides. We knew that missionaries were there trying to turn the people into Christians—an odd sort of work to my mind for white people to attempt. ”

“ If you were to ask at the Custom House you would hear we were starting on a voyage after cocoa-nut oil and sea slugs, but there’s poor profit in that compared to what we are really after. We do not call ours a slaving voyage, but our intention is to get as many natives as we can stowed away in our hold, by fair means or foul, and to run them across to Brisbane or some other port in Queensland. The order we receive from our owner is to visit the different islands, and to persuade as many natives as we can to come and work for the settlers. ”

“ If they died from hard work that was their look out.
“At length we arrived off Niue, or Savage Island, to which Captain Cook gave that name because the inhabitants were then and for many years afterwards fierce and barbarous in the extreme. Missionaries, both native and English, I had heard say, had gone among them, and the people had all become Christians and civilised. We could see that a well-made road ran round the island, and at intervals there were white-washed cottages, with gardens full of flowers, and neat churches peeping out among the trees. ”

“ If the natives get harder worked than they like when they reach Queensland, that’s no business of ours.’
“To make a long story short, I that evening found myself on board the ‘Pickle,’ schooner of about eighty tons. She hadn’t much room for stowage ’tween decks, but as the passage between Queensland and the islands where she was to get the natives was short, and as I supposed only a few at a time would be taken, I had no scruples on that score. At all events, it could not be anything like the middle passage between Africa and America. ”

“ As sandal-wood was becoming scarce in most of the islands, we took on board, whenever we had the opportunity, as many casks of cocoa-nut oil as we could collect; but pearls were our chief object, and we continued our voyage till we reached the island I mentioned.
“The natives were said to be friendly to white men, and therefore we had no fear of them. They had a few pearls already, which the captain took in exchange for some of the beads, cutlery, looking-glasses, and trinkets we had brought to trade with. ”