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.