Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1897-10-23
PLEA FOR Can IBAI,S
VIEWS OF AN AMERICAN WHO HAS
CRUlSED M THE SOUTH SEAS.

cRUlSED ~ THE SOUTH SEAS.
He Says the Solomon Islanders Were Sim
pie Folks Who Were Made Ferocious
by the Crueities of Slave Traders Eat
white Men to Avenge Their Wrongs.
An American who Is now in this coun
try, after having spent 80 years Of his life
cruising and trading among the south sea
islands says:
'In 1868 what is known in tho southern
and western archipelago as the labor
traffic was started--that is, in plain words,
the kidnapping or stealing of natives from
unexplored islands, as, for instance, the
Union, Gilbert, E1lice, Banks, Santa Cruz,
New Hebrides and Solomon groups and
from Papua, or New Guinea, and taking
them to work on plantations in the Fiji,
Samoan and Tahiti islands, and later to
Queensland, north Australia At first, as
the Hon. II. H. Romily states, when the
white man was a sort of rara avis and
where the intercourse had been very slight,
the natives were not afraid of them On
the contrary, when they heard that white
mans ship was within reach they would
go miles TO see it, invite the white men to
pay them visits at their own places and
escort them about, without having any
designs on their lives or skulls In nearly
all cases of cannibalisln where whites
have been the victims it has been brought
about by their own folly in willfully ig
noring and abusing native prejudices and
customs and through deceit, treachery and
cruelty. Their vessels recruiting laborers
would heayc to opposite native village,
whcrcupon canoes would come off with
yalns taro, breadfruit eocoanuts, ETC., to
trade
1.-THE natives were enticed ON board,
presents were given them, and they were
asked if they would not like to go and SEQ
the white mans country for one moon or
may be three moons They were made to
understand this by holding up three fingers
and pointing to the sky. Some would
consent. These were placed in the hold Of
the vessel and the matches put down on
them, and the rest in the canoes were or
dered to come aboard or they would be
shot
"a first mate of one of these vessels,
Disguised with the brutal work, deserted
and afterward shipped on my vessel as
mate, and from him and other trustworthy
sources i learned of these things. He said
that the ship he was on took out for bal
last large round stones, which were used
to heaye into the canoes as they came
alongside, breaking large holes in them
and sinking them. Then the poor wretches
were seized and thrown into the hold. The
aged and young boys were picked out and
thrown overheard, to swim ashore if they
were able and the sharks did not eat them.
1t was often pleaded as an excuse that
having no idea of time as we count it, the
natives could not be made to understand
what three years meant. Had they been
told it was for the reaping of three crops
of yams, 80 months, they would have
understood, but, of course, no such ex-
PLANTATION was given them or the traders
plans would have been defeated. On one
Of these expeditions to the Gilbert islands
the shipwas represented to be Bishop Pat
terson's mission vessel, called tho Day
spring, and the supercargo donned the
bishops robes. The unsuspicious natives
were told that they would be taken to Nor
folk island, where a mission station was
established, taught to read and write, and
then returned to their own homes, so that
they could teach their people what had
been taught to them. About so were OBJ
tanned under these false pretenses, carried
to Fiji and sold. Later, when Bishop Pat
terson visited that place, he was cruelty
murdered in revenge for the deceit prac-
ticed on their brethren, nor did the sad
payment end here Commodore Good
enough, who was a true representative of
his name, went down to inquire into the
murder of the bishop and was also killed.
This struck horror and sorrow through
the length and breadth of the south seas,
for there were never two men moro beloved
and mourned for
GAS far back as 1856 the bark Santa
Cruz, sailing under Spanish colors, took
$50 of these savages from the New Heb
rides islands to bring them to work in the
mines in South America. Instead Of beat
ing up in direct course eastward, to avoid
strong currents and easterly winds, they
took a course to catch the southeast trade
winds. Cholera had broken out among
the human cargo and to get rid of them
they We're landed on Raoul or Sunday is
land latitude 20 degrees Is minutes south,
longitude III degrees As minutes west.
This was only a volcanic rock with per-
haps half dozen acres of land fit for cul-
tiyation, and here they were left to die Of
disease and starvation. Doubtless none
would have lived to tell the tale had not a
eouth sea island trader, not slave trader,
with heart in him, seeing smoke and
thinking they had been wrecked, hove to,
and hearing their pitiful tale of abandon
ment, took the 30 that were left Of the $50
and carried them back to their own islands.
How long before this date slave trading
had been carried on ! cannot say, but
from 1856 to 1874 these islands were the
principal shaving grounds of the Pacific,
Since then the British government has
instituted q system Of inspection and SUI
peryision, and supercargoes are placed
aboard all labor trading vessels sailing
under the British flag, or, more properly
speaking, labor agents If any readers are
doubtful of what say, let them read the
work by Hugh Hastings Romily, G.. M. G.,
H NJ. deputy commissioner for the west
ern Pacific, late acting commissioner for
New Guinea with whom was personally
acquaintedD entitled From My Veranda,
in which he gives an account from the re-
port of the royal commission appointed by
the Queensland government to inquire in
to the manner of conducting the labor
traffic.
"In all these nassacres and feasts of hui
man flesh we so frequently read of comes
the payment for the white mans cunning,
deceit and brutality, and the saddest part
of it is that the individually innocent usu-
ally suffer for the guilty. Forty years ago
such thing as hunting the skulls of the
papalagi, or white man, was never heard
of. 1t is not, as many think, that they
prefer the eating Of white flesh. 1 have
often been told by cannibals the reverse.
1t is simply to ayeDge their wrongs -
New York Sun.
The owner Of a drug store in Lamar,
Kan, has pasted u slipof paper on his safe
with the following inscription; "Notice to
the Profesh: This safe is unlocked. but