“I decided to make the trip in the vessel. So we cruised about among the New Hebrides and Solomon Islands, and picked up, recruited, borrowed and stole fifty-two natives, who were kept in the hold and never allowed on deck only for a few hours each day during the time we lay off Townsville awaiting inspection by the sugar planters. Then we kept a strict watch over them you may be sure lest any of them should attempt to escape by jumping overboard and swimming ashore. We fed them up, too, and when several planters came on board, they soon engaged the Kanakas, as they were all big, fine, strapping fellows. We got ten pounds for them, this sum being paid as advance money for their passage.
“I would never have anything to do with blackbird catching again,” he continued. “It is a foul, horrible, hellish trade, and the work done on some of those crafts that trade with the Fiji Islands and New Guinea, in the labour trade, is, to say the best about it, hellish.”
“No,” I remarked, as Captain Brown finished his story, “I should think not. I wonder if you ever ventured near again?”
“Not until now,” he replied, “I left the vessel at Brisbane and got a berth in a Sydney collier as mate, I made several trips in her along the coast, and when the diggings opened in Victoria the skipper left to try his luck, so I was given command. We made several very good trips to New Zealand and back, and I put by a bit of money. Then the Palmer diggings opened, and here we are now bound for the Solomon Islands again, but not blackbird catching, not if I know it. I hope we shall not have any trouble with the natives, however. Look here, Mr. Farrar, I think we had better see what firearms we can muster, and have them ready for use.”
I thought so, too, and on examining our stock found that we had two rifles, six muskets, four revolvers, one brass cannon on deck, and plenty of ammunition.
The weather was lovely as we sailed through the passage between the Bonvouloir Isles and the Island of Aignan. The natives of these islands are cannibals, and both fierce and cruel; this spot is dreaded by sailors, as many vessels have been wrecked, and both the living and the dead eaten, so we kept both a good distance off the shore, in case we got becalmed, and a good look-out for visitors. When we were passing Aignan Island, Tombaa came aft, and told me not to go too close in shore.
“By and bye, wind no more, plenty bad black fellow come off in canoe, and make fight white fellow too muchee, no belong longa time, ship go all the same here, black fellow come plenty—much corrobboree—by-en-by white fellow no more. Black fellow eat em white fellow allee samee banana.”
“All right, Tombaa, we’ll keep a bit further out. But I don’t think the wind will die away before sunset.”
“Me watchee allee same you,” said Tombaa, as he walked forward.
We had a spanking breeze, and the little “Pelew” was racing along in fine style. The sky was clear as a bell and the sea nearly smooth with just a gentle ripple on the surface. We were sheltered by the island, as we sailed along under the lee.