The Call Of The South Part 8

"Thou hast seen many things in thy time, Kala-hoi."

"Nay, friend. Not such things as thou hast seen--such as the sun at midnight, of which thou hast told me, and which had any man but thou said it, I would have cried 'Liar!'"

Marsh laughed--"Yet 'tis true, old Kala-hoi. I have seen the sun at midnight, many, many times."

"Aye. Thou sayest, and I believe. Now, let me uncover my oven so that we may eat. 'Tis a fine fat mullet."

After we had eaten, the kindly old man brought us a bowl of water in which to lave our hands, and then a spotless white towel, for he had a.s.sociated much with Europeans in his younger days and had adopted many of their customs. On Sundays he always wore to church coat, trousers, shirt, collar and necktie and boots (minus socks) and covered his bald pate with a wide hat or _fala_ leaf. Moreover, he was a deacon.

Presently we heard voices, and a party of young people of both s.e.xes appeared. They had been bathing in the stream and were now returning to the village. In most of them I recognised "customers" of mine during the day--they were carrying baskets and bundles containing the goods bought from the ship. They all sat down around us, began to make cigarettes of strong twist tobacco, roll it in strips of dried banana leaf, and gossip. Then Kala-hoi--although he was a deacon--asked the girls if they would make us a bowl of kava. They were only too pleased, and so Kala-hoi again rose, went to his house and brought out a root of kava, the kava-bowl and some gourds of water, and gave them to the giggling maidens who, securing a mat for themselves, withdrew a little distance and proceeded to make the drink, the young men attending upon them to-cut the kava into thin, flaky strips, and leaving us three to ourselves. Night had come, and the bay was very quiet. Here and there on the opposite side lights began to gleam through the lines of palms on the beach from isolated native houses, as the people ate their evening meal by the bright flame of a pile of coco-nut sh.e.l.ls or a lamp of coco-nut oil.

Marsh wanted the old man to talk.

"How long since is it that thy wife and sons died, Kala-hoi?"

The old man placed his brown, shapely hand on the seaman's knee, and answered softly:--

"'Tis twenty years".

"They died together, did they not?"

"Nay--not together, but on the same day. Thou hast heard something of it?"

"Only something. And if it doth not hurt thee to speak of it, I should like to know how such a great misfortune came to thee."

The net-maker looked into the white man's face, and read sympathy in his eyes.

"Friend, this was the way of it. Because of my usefulness to him as an interpreter of English, Taula, chief of Samatau, gave me his niece, Moe, in marriage. She was a strong girl, and handsome, but had a sharp tongue. Yet she loved me, and I loved her.

"We were happy. We lived at the town of Tufu on the _itu papa_"

(iron-bound coast) "of Savai'i. Moe bore me boy twins. They grew up strong, hardy and courageous, though, like their mother, they were quick-tempered, and resented reproof, even from me, their father. And often they quarrelled and fought.

"When they were become sixteen years of age, they were tatooed in the Samoan fashion, and that cost me much in money and presents. But Tui, who was the elder by a little while, was jealous that his brother Galu had been tatooed first. And yet the two loved each other--as I will show thee.

"One day my wife and the two boys went into the mountains to get wild bananas. They cut three heavy bunches and were returning home, when Galu and Tui began to quarrel, on the steep mountain path. They came to blows, and their mother, in trying to separate them, lost her footing and fell far below on to a bed of lava. She died quickly.

"The two boys descended and held her dead body in their arms for a long while, and wept together over her face. Then they carried her down the mountain side into the village, and said to the people:--

"'We, Tui and Galu, have killed our mother through our quarrelling. Tell our father Kala-hoi, that we fear to meet him, and now go to expiate our crime.'

"They ran away swiftly; they climbed the mountain side, and, with arms around each other, sprang over the cliff from which their mother had fallen. And when I, and many others with me, found them, they were both dead."

"Thou hast had a bitter sorrow, Kala-hoi." "Aye, a bitter sorrow. But yet in my dreams I see them all. And sometimes, even in my work, as I make my nets, I hear the boys' voices, quarrelling, and my wife saying, 'Be still, ye boys, lest I call thy father to chastise thee both '."

As the girls brought us the kava Marsh put his hand on the old, smooth, brown pate, and saw that the eyes of the net-maker were filled with tears.

CHAPTER XI ~ THE KANAKA LABOUR TRADE IN THE PACIFIC

The _fiat_ has gone forth from the Australian Commonwealth, and the Kanaka labour trade, as far as the Australian Colonies are concerned, has ceased to exist. For, during the month of November, 1906, the Queensland Government began to deport to their various islands in the Solomon and New Hebrides Groups, the last of the Melanesian native labourers employed on the Queensland sugar plantations.

The Kanaka labour traffic, generally termed "black-birding," began about 1863, when sugar and cotton planters found that natives of the South Sea Islands could be secured at a much less cost than Chinese or Indian coolies. The genesis of the traffic was a tragedy, and filled the world with horror.

Three armed Peruvian ships, manned by gangs of cut-throats, appeared in the South Pacific, and seized over four hundred unfortunate natives in the old African slave-trading fashion, and carried them away to work the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands. Not a score of them returned to their island homes--the rest perished under the lash and brutality of their cruel taskmasters.

Towards 1870 the demand for South Sea Islanders became very great. They were wanted in the Sandwich Islands, in Tahiti and Samoa; for, naturally enough, with their ample food supply, the natives of these islands do not like plantation work, or if employed demand a high rate of pay.

Then, too, the Queensland and Fijian sugar planters joined in the quest, and at one time there were over fifty vessels engaged in securing Kanakas from the Gilbert Islands, the Solomon and New Hebrides Groups, and the great islands near New Guinea.

At that time there was no Government supervision of the traffic. Any irresponsible person could fit out a ship, and bring a cargo of human beings into port--obtained by means fair or foul--and no questions were asked.

Very soon came the news of the infamous story of the brig _Carl_ and her fiendish owner, a Dr. Murray, who with half a dozen other scoundrels committed the most awful crimes--shooting down in cold blood scores of natives who refused to be coerced into "recruiting". Some of these ruffians went to the scaffold or to long terms of imprisonment; and from that time the British Government in a maundering way set to work to effect some sort of supervision of the British ships employed in the "blackbirding" trade.

A fleet of five small gunboats (sailing vessels) were built in Sydney, and were ordered to "overhaul and inspect every blackbirder," and ascertain if the "blackbirds" were really willing recruits, or had been deported against their will, and were "to be sold as slaves". And many atrocious deeds came to light, with the result, as far as Queensland was concerned, that every labour ship had to carry a Government agent, who was supposed to see that no abuses occurred. Some of these Government agents were conscientious men, and did their duty well; others were mere tools of the greedy planters, and lent themselves to all sorts of villainies to obtain "recruits" and get an _in camera_ bonus of twenty pounds for every native they could entice on board.

Owing to my knowledge of Polynesian and Melane-sian dialects, I was frequently employed as "recruiter" on many "blackbirders"--French vessels from Noumea in New Caledonia, Hawaiian vessels from Honolulu, and German and English vessels sailing from Samoa and Fiji, and in no instance did I ever have any serious trouble with my "blackbirds" after they were once on board the ship of which I was "recruiter".

Let me now describe an ordinary cruise of a "blackbirder" vessel--an honest ship with an honest skipper and crew, and, above all, a straight "recruiter"--a man who takes his life in his hands when he steps out, unarmed, from his boat, and seeks for "recruits" from a crowd of the wildest savages imaginable.

Labour ships carry a double crew--one to work the ship, the other to man the boats, of which there are usually four on ordinary-sized vessels.

They are whale-boats, specially adapted for surf work. The boats' crews are invariably natives--Rotumah men, Samoans, or Savage Islanders. The ship's working crew also are in most cases natives, and the captain and officers are, of course, white men.

The 'tween decks are fitted to accommodate so many "blackbirds," and, at the present day, British labour ships are models of cleanliness, for the Government supervision is very rigid; but in former days the hold of a "blackbirder" often presented a horrid spectacle--the unfortunate "recruits" being packed so closely together, and at night time the odour from their steaming bodies was absolutely revolting as it ascended from the open hatch, over which stood two sentries on the alert; for sometimes the "blackbirds" would rise and attempt to murder the ship's company. In many cases they did so successfully--especially when the "blackbirds" came from the same island, or group of islands, and spoke the same language. When there were, say, a hundred or two hundred "recruits" from various islands, dissimilar in their language and customs, there was no fear of such an event, and the captain and officers and "recruiter" went to sleep with a feeling of security.

Let us now suppose that a "blackbirder" (obnoxious name to many recruiters) from Samoa, Fiji, or Queensland, has reached one of the New Hebrides, or Solomon Islands. Possibly she may anchor--if there is an anchorage; but most likely she will "lie off and on," and send away her boats to the various villages.

On one occasion I "worked" the entire length of one side of the great island of San Cristoval, visiting nearly every village from Cape Recherche to Cape Surville. This took nearly three weeks, the ship following the boats along the coast. We would leave the ship at daylight, and pull in sh.o.r.e, landing wherever we saw a smoke signal, or a village. When I had engaged, say, half a dozen recruits, I would send them off on board, and continue on my way. At sunset I would return on board, the boats would be hoisted up, and the ship either anchor, or heave-to for the night. On this particular trip the boats were only twice fired at, but no one man of my crews was. .h.i.t.

The boats are known as "landing" and "covering" boats. The former is in command of an officer and the recruiter, carries five hands (all armed) and also the boxes of "trade" goods to be exhibited to the natives as specimens of the rest of the goods on board, or perhaps some will be immediately handed over as an "advance" to any native willing to recruit as a labourer in Queensland or elsewhere for three years, at the magnificent wage of six pounds per annum, generally paid in rubbishing articles, worth about thirty shillings.

The "covering" boat is in charge of an officer, or reliable seaman. She follows the "landing" boat at a short distance, and her duty is to cover her retreat if the natives should attack the landing boat by at once opening fire, and giving those in that boat a chance of pushing off and getting out of danger, and also she sometimes receives on board the "recruits" as they are engaged by the recruiter--if the latter has not been knocked on the head or speared.

On nearing the beach, where the natives are waiting, the officer in the landing-boat swings her round with his steer oar, and the crew back her in, stern first, on to the beach. The recruiter then steps out, and the crew carry the trade chests on sh.o.r.e; then the boat pushes off a little, just enough to keep afloat, and obtrusive natives, who may mean treachery, are not allowed to come too near the oars, or take hold of the gunwale, Meanwhile the covering boat has drawn in close to the first boat, and the crew, with their hands on their rifles, keep a keen watch on the landing boat and the wretched recruiter.

The recruiter, if he is a wise man, will not display any arms openly. To do so makes the savage natives either sulky or afraid, and I never let them see mine, which I, however, always kept handy in a harmless-looking canvas bag, which also contained some tobacco, cut up in small pieces, to throw to the women and children--to put them in a good temper.

The recruiter opens his trade box, and then asks if there is any man or woman who desires to become rich in three years by working on a plantation in Fiji, Queensland, or Samoa.

If he can speak the language, and does not lose his nerve by being surrounded by hundreds of ferocious and armed savages, and knowing that at any instant he may be cut down from behind by a tomahawk, or speared, or clubbed, he will get along all right, and soon find men willing to recruit Especially is this so if he is a man personally known to the natives, and has a good reputation for treating his "blackbirds" well on board the ship. The ship and her captain, too, enter largely into the matter of a native making up his mind to "recruit," or refuse to do so.

Sometimes there may be among the crowd of natives several who have already been to Queensland, or elsewhere, and desire to return. These may be desirable recruits, or, on the other hand, may be the reverse, and have bad records. I usually tried to shunt these fellows from again recruiting, as they often made mischief on board, would plan to capture the ship, and such other diversions, but I always found them useful as touts in gaining me new recruits, by offering these scamps a suitable present for each man they brought me.

I always made it a practice never to recruit a married man, unless his wife--or an alleged wife--came with him, nor would I take them if they had young children--who would simply be made slaves of in their absence.

It required the utmost tact and discretion to get at the truth in many cases, and very often on going on board after a day of toil and danger I would be sound asleep, when a young couple would swim off--lovers who had eloped--and beg me to take them away in the ship. This I would never do until I had seen the local chief, and was a.s.sured that no objection would be made to their leaving.

(When I was recruiting "black labour" for the French and German planters in Samoa and Tahiti, I was, of course, sailing in ships of those nationalities, and had no worrying Government agent to hara.s.s and hinder me by his interference, for only ships under British colours were compelled to carry "Government agents".)

But I must return to the recruiter standing on the beach, surrounded by a crowd of savages, exercising his patience and brains.