The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1867-05-18
Intelligence from Tahiti.
The crueIiles of the Slave Trade on the Island.

The Crueltles Of the Slave Trade on the Island.
The French transport ship Dorado arrived IN
san Francisco recently, from Tahiti, bringing
among her passengers VIM. Poole, a resident OF
I Six Mile Bar, Calayeras county. Cal, who relates
To Us and earnestly indorses the entire truth OF
the statements made below
MIR. Poole went out to Tahiti in December last,
with the intention if the island suited HIM, tn
! acquire lands and become a permanent resident
there. The scenes which he behold, during Il
/ short Soiourn. 50 Mortified and Disguised him that
he sought the first favorable opportunity to return
to California. He states that a large cotton plan
tation is located and cultivated on the coast OF the
island. at Atamona, under the auspices of Il
French incorporated company, of which one VIM.
Stewart is the chief superintendent. Stewart
claims 10 be an Englishman. The plantation Is
about three by four miles in dimensions, and en-
plOys from fifteen hundred To two thousand la
borers, and more, when they can be procured.
Mr.. Poole states that these labOrers are slaves,
in the most deprayed and abject meaning of that
term. They are brought in French ships from
China, the Marquesas, Austral, and the adjoining
South Pacific Islands in chains. On the voyage
they are subjected to the scourge, starvation and
other brutalities, in order To break their spirit,
and render them suitable for the employment to
which they are 10 be assigned. When he was ut
Tahiti, there were some thirteen hundred Chinese.
and between four and five hundred Islander slaves
emplOved by Stewart, whose chief overseer was a
Frenchman named Lea. This Lea is described as
little less than a monster. Mr.. Poole asserts that
he has seen him tie up and fog one of his slaves.
n native woman, who was encieHfe, and was in
formed that ne afterwards exhibited her on the
plantation, in a state of nudity, To expose her
gaping wounds as an example oil terror To the bal
ance of the work hands. Scenes of this kind he
describes a. common. There is No appeal from
the Draconian laws of the plantation. Whatever
barbarity may be ~practiced against the slaves, is
sanctioned and upheld by the bayonets of French
soldiery. Even a white man who expresses indis-
Greet sympathy for the sufferers, lie liable TO he
seized, imprisoned, or otherwise punished, as the
lordly Stewart and his obcdient satellites may
direct.
The slaves are induced TO 20 on board the YES
sells dispatched to the different islands to procure
them by stOol-pigeons, who are sent on shore
finely clad. and exhibiting iewelry about their
persons, as evidence OF the kind treatment they
Will receive If they viii become laborcrs on the
Atamona plantation. y nominal rate of wages is
fixed a. a further induccment, which, when once
pressed into the service, they never receive, IA II
system Of fines and penalties exists. which they
are certain To he held rs mourning, Oh the plea of
a non-pcrformance of their assigned labor. In
this manner they are robbed as well az hopelessly
cnslaved and degraded.
When epidemical diseases visit the plantation,
the poor slaves die by ffties and hundreds. Their
bodies, after death, are thrown To the dogs. In
stances have been known where two field hands
were chained together. If one dropped dead from
exhaustion. or other cause, to save time, the limb
was fettered would be chopped off, and the
body left lying on the spot, or carried to some out
of the way place, and left without attempt at
burial.
Disease has been particularly fatal among the
Chinese slaves, VINO are now greatly Trimmed in
their numbers To supply their place, a French
ship left Tahiti while Mr.. Poole was there, on Il
to the neighboriug islands for another cargo
Of victims.
There are some twenty or thirty Americans at
Tahiti among them Col. Van Dorc, our Consul,
and II Mr.. Foster, who has n large sugar planta-
ton, worked by Chinese and islanders, whom lie
honestly pays for their services.
The outrages spoken of, it is said, are all per-
with the knowledge, if not the consent
Of the French Governor of Tahiti; and if this be
true, the subject is one worthy of protest from all
the Governments of the Christian world. Mr..
Poole says he will stand by their correctness in
every particular, and that the half has not been
sta ted. He brought with him several letters
from Cinnamon ut Tahiti, written in Chinese
characters. These will be translated in Il few
lays, when he promises to furnish them to us for
publication. He says they will set forth some of
the Outrages practiced ON the island from a Chi
point of view.
lit Is announced that the Governor of Tahiti is
soon to- arrive here. When ne comes he may be
,ble TO throw some light on the statements here
made to mitigate their damaging effect, and we
hope he can and will, for humanity = slke.--Iin,es.