Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Monday, 12 November 2012
Monday, 5 November 2012
This photo was taken around the Herbert River
I often look at the photographs, like these, taken of the workers, the "kanaka's" and wonder if any of them really understood what was going on..I doubt if they ever saw the result of what was captured on that day ..I find myself studying their fine-looking faces and wonder who they are.
On this day..an article I have copied from Newspaper Archives
Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 5 November 1911
In the South Sea Islands
"Blackbirding" Forty Years Ago
Leaves from a Diary
(By "OW-Tùner.") |
In the early days of Fiji, say
bout forty years ago, there was a
business carried "on in, the South Sea
islands known as "blackbirding." At
.his time there was not so much outcry
against the traffic in natives as
here has been since. The writer was
n Fiji at the time when H.M.S.
3laser, under command of Captain
Malcolm, was told to keep a sharp,
ook-out for men engaged in this
'.rame in natives. The cotton plantations
were then in full swing, and
planters were supposed to be makins;
i very fine thins out of South Sea'
:otton at anything from 2s. to 3s. Gd.
1er lb. That it was a profitable busi
less there was no denying, but there
vas always the risk of the hurri
'anes conting along in January and
??-lowing the whole crop away. These
yclonic bursts came with unerring
-egnlarity, and .the planter who had
dot taken the necessary precautions
jy chaining down his house with
ange cables, stood a good chance of
Ming his home, as well as his crop
'f cotton. -When these heavy blows
truck the plantation they lifted out
bc cotton bushes by the roots, and
t¡e plantation presented a most -desolate
appearance, just as if it had
;een swept by a terrific hail of shot
md shell. ..
But this is a digression. . I was
^ -alking about the "blackbirding,**
.ind thinking'of an incident which
.ms not yet 'appeared in print. A
two-masted .schooner .had just, cornie
inside the reef at Levuka and -dropped
anchoT near what , was known-as
ïhe Reading-room Point. It was
¿ailed so because'-there was a small
Mechanics* Institute there, and later
on this same building was
' used as
'.he house in'which the members of
the Government
'
met' to carry on the
business of the country. This was
the time when Càkabau (pro
nonmced'ThaScambau) was king. Oh
used' for signal ring vessels coming
in or leaving'the 'port The schooner
.which
'
had just arrived was known
ac the Undine, returned after a re-'
I -crniting cruise arnottsthe Solomon
j Islands.' She had jbeen veryv sws*
eessful, and had secured in ali.abont
ISO laborers, for which the captain I
had received £15 a head Crom the
planters at Taviuni and Lomo Xiocno.
It was^ rumoredthat in eötäng these
niggers Captain'Mnir had not been
too paräcnlar. and . that nrany of
them had not £aken a trip in the On
I- dine with their own free Will and
coiuont. It .WM even biiitad that at
one ot the islands of the Solomon >
groop a nmnber. nf natives wwe induced
to come on
- board ostensibly
to have a de^
'
in beads
'
and to
baceo, and while they were below,
deeply . interested in doing a bit "of
trading, the captain quietly set thé
'
mniMrii and-jib,' and before the nig-.
discovered how. they had been
tricked' the Undine was three nales
from land. Some of: them made a
runa on deck, and regardless. of
sharks or the distance from shore
jmnpen over-^he side and made a
bold dash pm hclme. rand freedom.'
Others, not having the prnck, remained
:.onV'.boanl, and were promptly
battened down. - Daring the night
' the men who had-been kidnapped
for it is no «se^ailing it by any
ottte^erm^^-kleked np a jolly row,
and a tree^Bght ensued betw^n them
and some Tanna men "who had; been
leglptaafaely engaged yndffr'the-asnal
fire; years' contract. iThe /Captain,
- fearing 'that 'some- of . his' - haman
cargo* might he "kiiiéd "in thé fight,
and that an killed would mean a loss
of £15 për heád to -him, ' lifted cont«e, . was only to scare I
them, but Unfortunately throe "Tanna,
men vere 'fatally wounded. The
shooting,
"
however, stopped the
trouble for the fright, '.
At dayHght hext inormng the
hatches were lifted, and the scene
presented in ihe hold resembled nô
thlng so moch as a-miniature battlefield.
Three niggeró had been killed
while four Vere in a
outright, while four Vere in a dying
condition, .and about a dozen more
were so bashed about as to require
immediate attention in the, snape of
Splints :ànd bandages. Included
among the crew of the Undine was a
yoong feSow who had commenced a
coarse of stady in Sydney for the
medical profession, bot after putting
in" two Years at the University ~ he
. abandoned the profession, and, at
tracted by the glamor of the Sooth
Sea boom, he Trent dows, to the'islands.
As supercargo on the Undine
he came in very handy to attend to
the vants of the wounded niggers.
He fixed them B up in quite professional
style, and by the . time . the
schooner reached Tarroni all the.
: wounded-men were/fit for engagement.
The dead men were thrown
over the side, abd when the Undine
reached Levuka all traces of the tragedy
had been removed, and the* incidents
of that awful night off the
Solomon Istartds had been' forgotten.
In all pröbabflSty nothing further
would have been heard of the matter
had it not been for the in-feeling
which existed hetween the captain
and his "matt over the bernis to which
? the latter was entitled by agreement,
for every nigger shipped. The mate
claimed his £1 per head on aQ natives
aboard the schooner when the
vessel left the Solomons, but the
captain would only pay for those
landed, and would not pay head
money on those which had been
thrown overboard. The mate contended
that it was not his fault that
the niggers had lost the number of
their jmess, as he had -not shot them,
but the captatn point blank refused
to pay a bonne on the -dead men. The
mate brooded over the skipper's
meanness, and resolved to get even ;
with him when the Undine arrived
at Levuka, and he did, as the sequel
will shew. After the schooner had
dropped anchor the mate asked to
be paid off, pleading that he waa sick
of tho same. The captain waa only
too pleased to fall in wita the «uç
geetLon, and so th« maia loft the
vessel. S marti ng under tho skipper1g
shabby treatment, the mate
went up to the BrtSah OoagnTs
house and gave him a few particu
j lare of the incidents on the voyage
of the Undine from the Islands. In
the meantime, the captain, scenting
trouble with his mate, hurried on
' board in order to clear out of port.
' The Consul had given strict orders
' that the Undine was to be watched,
, and if she made any attempt to leave
her anchorage she was to be stop-
'ped; but how this was to be done
was not quite clear, as there was no.
British iaan-o'-war in harbor at the
. time. With a steady' breeze off the
. time. With a steady' breeze off the
shore the Undine. soonA got under
welsh and through the4 opening in
the reef, and headed "for Kan dava.
As soon -as the Consul '
saw that his
orders had been disobeyed he went
to the flagstaff on the Point, and signailed
the Undine to return to port.
The master of the schooner, read theJ
signals, but took no notice of them.
He was certain the mate had "blown
the gaff" on him, and accordingly -
determined to put as wide a gap, as
possible between -himself ¿nd the
British Consul 'at Levuka. Accbrd
jngly he crowded as much canvas on
the Undine as she could stagger .under.
She responded bravely, and was
cutting out. her
'
ten knots in fine
style when the man at the wheel
called out-"There is another lot of '
signals on the staff, captain/' The
skipper -turned in the direction indicated,
and then dived dawn into the
cabin to get his code book. On returning
to .the deck he noted the
flags on the staff, -and after referring
to his book discovered that the
- message on the staff was not: for1
him,.-but for some vessel, rounding
the Point. Hastily picking up his
binoculars he-saw away to the eastward
a large, vessel coming along-un- ?
der steam. It did not take bim long] '.
to discover^ that the steamer was a
J
man-o'-war, .possibly H.M.S.: Blazer.
\
In this surmise he was 'correct. The
Blazer answered the signals on the
j
Point,, and then headed, for the Uhdinev
She signalled the schooner to
Dorice of the request, hut kept en his
course, Then there, was a puff ot
smoke from the Blazer and a vhis
zing sound as a shot dropped jost
j
ahead of the. schooner. The «kipper j
refused to accept the hint, and so
another shot came across the water,
and this time' it passed fairly high
np, but between the fore and main
masts. By. tbis time the Blaser had
got the range ot the Undine exactly,
and as the schooner still kept oh ber
coarse the next, shot passed right
through the foresail. 'It' then, occurred
to the obstinate Huirthat the
marking was getting too close to be
pleasant, so he called out to his
newly-Bhrpped mate to back the,
main yard and bring ;the schooner
hp in the wind. No sooner was the
üttle craft hove to than à boat :was
seen to be got ready on Üie Blaser,
and as the warship neared the
schooner the. boat was lowered and
headed for the Undine. She was In
charge of . a lieotenant and a jsab
lleotenaht, and" had a. crew of four
bluejackets, with Sour marines. Ás
soon as the officer had stepped on
deck he asked fOr the msster-Cap
tain Hair came forward. , "What ;
ship is this?" Inquired the lieutenship
is Inquired lieutenant.
"The Undine," Teplled
;:
Muir,1
"bound ;fromilieruka to Svgney.*'
Then came the'questioh which Mair
most dreaded, "Where are your
papers?" Qf ..coane, .as^thcflndine
had skipped out of .Levuka without
the -formality of a clearance the captain
had to admit "that he had not
got any. "I most ask you to immediately
return to Levuka,^' said the
officer, firmly, but politely, "and consider
yourself and- ship under arrest,"
At the same time fte aubV
lieutenant : and::, four marines } were
left on board to see that die order
?was carried ont.
It was nearly dusk when the Undine
anchored inside the reef, and
shortly after the Maser' dropped anchor
not far from her. The British
Consul at once proceeded on board
the man-of-war, and after a short
Intel view with the commander a
party of bluejackets and. marines,
?wich an officer in charge, w>are placed
on board the Undine. On the following
Ttrornirig the Consol, with officers
from the- Blazer, made a thorough
examination of the hull of the
schooner, and as she -was in light ballast
trim 'the. inspection was not a
very difficult matter. In the skin of
the hold, on the starboard side, were
fosod four bullets embedded. In reply
to the Consul, Captain Moir explained
that they had been fired into
the hold to frighten the natives when
they "nudämed" one night when' off
the Solomon (SCOUD. The
told Captain Mair that he -woola
have to expfeda that incident when
before the Court in Sydney, and in
the meantime he ovoid consider himself
a prisoner of the Crown. Muir
was fnfacmed that ne could either
proceed to Sidney under escort or
ebie go in the Blaser. He elected to
go to Sydney to stand his trial in
his own little craft,
1
Tlroee -dasB later the Undine put to
sea. In addition to- Captain Muir
. and ids own crew, there were on
board a Bentenant, a navigating-sub
HeotetBsnt. fire bteejaefcets, four
m***n*>a snd the wrJbar, who was
gimen a imnrapn up tb Sydney tn view
of certain tafocmstion be could
give, if retprined, as to the methods
of otil Jilling natrres on contract for
plantation werk. On the Blaser was
the mate who «as on the Undine
wfcea the shooting took place off the
Solomon TritmdB, also the supercargo
who dressed the wounded nativos
after the fight In the hold. The trip
on theschooatfir -ras-an eventful one.
Shortly after dearing the inland of
Kandavu a black sgnafl strack the
little craft when aU her^sail was set,
and it was a near squeak, of her turning
turtle and nobody reaching Sydney.
The moat o' mut, crew were not
ney. moat mut, crew were not
accustomed to BsBng a email craft
like the Undine. They had been
used to a ship with ten or a dosen
men on a yard, so small wonder
they were--taken una wams. A week
hitor, when near Horfofk Island, another
Bonall Struck Oie Undine, and
took both masts out of her by the
board. Thta ww «A nftdrt tinw. All
haste WOP« amaröy nailed, and a lot
of the wceekrum which threatened
to hnedk a. hon In the schooner's I
side was. seeweed and hanlad on
haard, At the same time «une ot Qi«
leese spam and salla were
to mate a 6ea anchor, which kept thc
vessel's head to sea till a jory mast
contd oe rigged and a bit of canvai
spread. Next morning when da}
dawned the Undine presented a pitiable
sight. The sea anchor was
hauled aboard, and after a time two
jury masts were rigged and some
square canvas set. Fortunately, after
this mishap fine weather was es>
. perienced, but the daily progress was
very slow. We had been out now
forty-days from Levuka, when the
discovery was made that the suppl;
of water was running out. Only a
little could be doled out each day tc
make a cup of cocoa night and morning.
The only other stuff on board
which could be utilised to drink wai
some ullaged stout. Muir bad taken
this damaged stout to the Islands tc
trade it with the natives,
'
but they
would not touch it. The 'only pos
sible way in which it could be drunk
was with plenty bf sugar.- Here was
retributive justice if you like. The
very stuff which Muir thought to
pass off on the natives in exchange
for copra, or other -trade, we had to
drink: ourselves. TBút we were glad
bf anything in the shape of liquid
to moisten our lips.
On the'"forty-fifth day out a three
masted schooner bound from Levuka,
to. Sydney hove in sight. Seeing our
battered condition she signalled us,
and after, getting within speaking
distance an .arrangement -was, made
td take "us.ih'tow. The .towing
schooner did very well fdr.'two days,
but on'the third, during some rough
weather the tow-line parted, and we
were .left toourselves again. By this
time'.the .'Undine, .:waa_iiff'.Port Stephens,
andr the /commander' of the
Blazer, getting anxious about, his
prize, came. ont, in search. ,
.He picked,
up the .Undine à little south of
Pori Stephens; and 'towed, her into
Sydney. .,' "V- ,¿>.,
",,A : month later .Mair's trial took
place, and the evidence against him
was
.so'" overwhelming
'
that the jury
found him guilty without even leav
ing the bot -
- At, this ,tàme,, when
there, was . such a howl in the press
about "blackbirdiBg," it was thought
about "blackbirdiBg," it was thought
that the prisoner would have .got
life, bat- the judge sentenced him -to
15 years' pena)., servitude.
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