Connecticut western news., 1873-03-07
The POIynesian Slave Trade.


 Slavery Society gives the following pie ture of the Polynesian slave trade. He says ''I received an application from four natives of one of Banks Islands, north of New Hebrides, to be received names as Umbook al Sto1e-J ohnny, Uin, Mard, and Uaris. The first has a considerable acquaintance with the Samoa dialect. He is the youngest of the party, being, perhaps, about twenty They informed me that their group and it's neighborhood contains, besides others, the following islands, viz Montilap, Amota, Famelap or Murilap, Avab or Away, Santa Marie, Espiritu Santo, Malicolo, Fate and Tana. The name of their own island is Montilap, and of the village to which they belong Ladlap. Their tale Is as follows A two-masted vessel named the Lusene Oucy) cast her anchor off Montilap. Twenty-Five men went off to her to bar ter. They were welcomed on board and treated very kindly, and toward evening they were asked if they would like to sleep on board This offer they gladly accepted, but, to their surprise, the next morning they found the vessel under sail. At this time they found there were on board, besides them selves, thirty-seven natives of Malicolo, but they did not know how they were obtained. The vessel next went to Avab, where she lay off and on, and sent boat on shore to. invite the na- tives on board to trade; none of the boats crew could speak the language of Avab, but they made their desire known by showing fowls, yams, etc., and pointing to the ship. The men focked on board, and twenty-five were made prisoners. The boat then re- turned to shore, where five more were captured and carried off per force, mak- ing total of thirty men from that island. Some of these were tied or put in irons, having manifested disposi- tion to swim ashore. After leaving Avab the vessel fell in with canoe having two natives of Amota in her. These were draggod out of the canoe and taken on board. The canoe was sent adrift. At Murilap the boat land ed, and the crew persuaded woman to come on board to get something to eat. and they seized a man and boy and carried them off by force.
 At Santa Marie, five more men were obtained. They were in three canoes. The boat pursued them they were dragged into the boat, and their canoes turned adrift. The vessel then pro- ceeded to Tana, where the natives stole chest or box belonging to the vessel, and in retaliation for this the crew seized and carried off one native. Thus they had cargo of 1O3 natives of the differ ent islands above named. With these they set sail for Tahiti. They were we'll fed on the passage. One man, however, Q native of Avab, disliked the food, and cried and made much noise. The mate had him tied hands and feet and thrown overheard. Another be- came ill and died ; he, too, was of course thrown overheard. They were taken to cotton plantation at Tahiti. The ves- sel anchored near the house of the own CT of the plantation. It was long way from Papeete. These men remained, they say, working on the plantation twenty months. During that time twenty of their own people died, twenty seven of the Mailolo men, twenty-six of those from Avab, and all the others, except the woman and the native of Tana. Thus eighty-three died at Ia hiti, one on the passage, and one mur- dered, leaving in less than two years, only eighteen survivors ont of the 103. Dysentery was the principal cause of their death. While at Tahiti they say they went to the cotton plantation at A. M., without any breakfast, worked till 12 at noon, and then rested till about 3, but had nothing whatever to eat. From about o'clock they worked again till 6. They then went to their quarters, and had their first and only meal. They were fed on Indian corn and bananas, on alternate evenings. To each man was served out one cob o1 head of corn on the corn days, and the next evening each man received two ol three bananas, and nothing more till the next evening -no rice, no biscuit, no meat or fish. On Sundays they did no work, but had better food. A din ner was given them at noon, consisting of rice and fish, and rice and salt bee on alternate Sundays. They spent most of the day in sleep. No attempt was made to teach them to read nol was any kind of worship conducted Their pay consisted of clothes, at tht rate of about two shillings' worth pe1 month. Those who were idle were pun ished by being tied, hands and feet night and day, for four or five days a a time, with an allowance of only on, meal in two days. Sometimes thei hands were tied around post behind them, and sometimes they were tied be fore them, but in such a way that the, could not lie down, and had to sleep il a sitting posture, reeling to one side O other. The five of their own party wh' survived these twenty months of hard ship, concluded it would be better t die at sea than to continue there an, longer. They, therefore, watched thei opportunity and escaped in boat whicl had been in search of food and was a anchor. There were only ten cocoa nuts in the boat-i. e., two for eacl man. They were two months in com ing from Tahiti to Samoa, which wa the first land they had sighted sine leaving the former place. They wer lying down most of the time, and di
 not feel hungry. The one meal a da
 system seems to have prepared them fo this total abstinence still, it was to
 much for one of them, who died off tn
 southern end of Manua. The othe four were kindly received and cared fo by the christian teachers and people ( the island of Tain, or Manuatele. The
 remained ten months on Manua, an
 then came to Tutuila they were thre months longer with some of the native
 of the east end of the island, and the made the application above referred tc From the above particulars I gathe that 1t is about three years since the
 were deported from their island home
 On, One oft of then sa5 knew ,S good good Bjshop Patts } knew the Undine and the Souther , Cross. I believe the whole of th 5 above account to be strictly true, sine these men seem very careful and pain 3 taking to be correct in their statement , They are very docile and well-behavet