The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-08-19

Sunday on board and at once went ashore and spread q repoI,
that the John Williams was the demonstrating ship = from
Tahiti. AT this there was a great stir amongst tne feop'e c ,sI5
find. Other fishing canoes came near enough 10 the So So ~
he spoken TO, and the people in them soon recognIzeu III
countrymen whom we had brought from Nui. Hearing Their
explanation Of the reason Of our visit, they were sPeeuny
deck. We went ashore at 1880 A. NJ. and found the whole
island under arms in consequence Of The report OF .ne nIs
canoe which had gone ashore but explanations were s0o
made, and we were welcomed.
Tahiti appears with reason to be a dreaded
name among these islanders. 1t would seem
that some of the most INSCRIPTIONS among the
man stealers are from thence. We have been in
formed by parties recently residing on the Society
Islands, that the laborers on the plantations
there are brought from the groups to the South
and West, and that it was well understood that
the business was a shameless system OF kidnap-
ping. A native, who was on board the mission
airy vessel on her visit to Francis Island, Colbert
group) and who assisted in stealing over a hum
dred of the poor islanders some two years ago,
gave the following account of the affair, which
agrees with statements previously published:
A vessel which Sunday said was from FIJI, but which l have
heard came from Melbourne via FIJI, called at Onoatoa, and a
great many natives went on board They were well treated,
placed on the deck near to the main hatch, which was un-
The figs amongst the crowd and all were pressing round to get
a share of the spoils. While this was going on, the crew. OF
the vessel stationed themselves on either side of the crowd,
and, upon a signal from the master, closed in upon the poor
unsusPecIing natives. throwing them pelLmel into the hold
the number thus entrapped, but Sunday said he believed there
soon after ran short of provisions, and falling in with a
schooner from Tahiti seeking natives, the kidnapped party r
she was Off Peru (about forty miles distan) the natives began
hand over them. sunday told me, he was ait near the wheel
with the mate when the lighting commenced forward, and that
companion ladder into the hold, and fired a cask Of gunpowder
In Eno dSe iOrT tho hold m Blowing sD up . she aec OK The an nsiI results camn ae Wen Ssl
sides many natives, either fell in the fight, or were killed by
board aud made for the land, which appears to have been three
or four miles distant. The mate, Sunday, and some of the
The history of this man Sunday is inter-
esting. He with others of his eountrymen was
kidnapped from Peru, an island of the Gilbert
group, some three years ago, and taken to Tahiti
to work on a plantation. AS he was a man of
great strength and very brave, he proved a good
tool in the hands of the INSCRIPTIONS men en-
gagged in the nefarious work of d~ecoying the
islanders from their homes. He landed with the
kidnappers on several islands in these seas, and
deliberately hunted down the poor creatures with
whom they met, forcing item on board the slave
vessels. On two islands they shot down some of
the people when they were attempting to escape.
In this way Sunday was employed on two cruises
and he was brought away from Tahiti in August
of last year to go on a third cruise, and help In
procuring men. On the way down from Tahiti,
he disagreed with the captain of the schooner,
and refused to render him help. The cause of
Sundays dissatisfaction was, that none of his
countrymen, whose pretended terms of labor had
expired, were taken in the schooner to be re-
turned IN their home oooordinO IN the DrOmise
made to them. In consequence of his refusal to
assist any further in the business of man-stealing,
Sunday was put on shore by the SLAYER at the
first island that was met, Quiros Island. Here
the missionary vessel called shortly after, and she
being bound to Sundays group, he took passage.
Having become disguised with the treatment he
and his countrymenh had rece. we'd at the hands of
their captors and enslavers, he espoused the mis-
sionary cause, and was mainly Instrumental in
establishing teachers on his own and two other
hitherto unoccupied islands.
Comment is scarcely needed upon the fore
going. They reveal an amount of crime and
barbarity,-of 60 mans inhumanity to man,
that stirs a deeper indignation than even the de-
tails of the wretched coolle trade. For in the
latter traffic, a sembIance of the form of law, be
it ever SO shallow, is presented as an excuse
but the poor islanders, the simple and happy
g children of nature" are pursued and shot like
wild beasts, and dragged from their peaceful
homes to toll and die in strange lands to satisfy
the greed of the g civilized - white man. Do
the cotton and sugar growers of Tahiti ever re-
member that there is an inevitable Nemesis for
all these terrible wrongs? 1t is a fearful thing
to incur the sure vengeance of Heaven.