From the law there is but little redress, for, when one imprisons servants for punishment, the time, I was told, counts in the period of their servitude. And if one takes the law into his own hand, by striking the natives, a severe pecuniary penalty is, very properly, always inflicted.
During my stay at Mauritius, my attention was called to the following gross outrage committed under the British flag by an inhuman monster, who, calling himself an Englishman, proceeds to distant parts of the world, and, seizing unoffending natives in the most open manner, sells them from under the British ensign into the most hopeless slavery.
In the month of August, 1857, the British barque “Sutton,” of Sydney, New South Wales, under the command of Captain Joseph Wilson, called at Byron Island, one of the King Mill group in the Pacific, and engaged William Ferrier, an Englishman, who, with his family, had resided on that island for more than sixteen years, as an interpreter, for the purpose, as Captain Wilson stated, of enabling the barque “Sutton” to obtain a cargo of cocoa-nuts from the neighbouring islands.
With Ferrier six of the natives of Byron Island were embarked on board the “Sutton,” who formed the crew of his canoe; and the barque bore away in search of cocoa-nuts—Captain Wilson agreeing to reland Ferrier and his crew of natives on Byron Island as soon as he had effected his object at the neighbouring islands.
At Perouse and Clarke Islands, Captain Wilson, with the assistance of the interpreter Ferrier, induced sixty-five male natives to ship themselves on board the “Sutton,” for the purpose of gathering cocoa-nuts, and with the understanding that when he had accomplished this object the natives would be relanded on the respective islands to which they belonged.
The King Mill group of islands are much frequented by whalers, more especially those under the American flag. The natives are very peaceably inclined towards Europeans; and these whaling vessels derive great benefit from their crews being refreshed at these islands with supplies of vegetables, fruit, &c., so necessary to prevent the fearful havoc at times made among the men by the attacks of scurvy to which they are subject, from their voyages being sometimes protracted even beyond three years. It is, therefore, the policy of all shipmasters to treat the natives on these islands with kindness, and hence the outrage which I am now relating assumes even a more serious aspect than when merely viewing it in an anti-slavery light.
Captain Joseph Wilson had heard of free labourers being in great demand at the French island of Réunion; and, as the means by which this description of labour was supplied from the province of Mozambique was notorious, being styled everywhere “The French Slave-trade from Africa,” he thought he would try his hand at it, and hit upon the above mode of obtaining the raw material cheap. The reader will observe that he did not overcrowd the ship—he only took sixty-five of the natives on board, for the purpose of selling them; and to obtain a good price he was determined to have them in good condition, and therefore gave them ample space during their confinement on the long voyage he contemplated.
Having obtained his living cargo, he turned his face to the west in search of a good market, and day and night the British barque “Sutton,” with her cargo of slaves, was urged, under a press of canvas, to the desired haven.
Captain Joseph Wilson, commanding the “Sutton,” was a bold man, for the first land he made was the island of Mauritius; and he stood boldly for the principal harbour in the island, viz., Port Louis; arrived off which he hove-to, and waited for the shades of evening. I carefully searched the list of all vessels boarded by the authorities of Port Louis in the month of November, 1857, when the “Sutton” was off the harbour, but her name does not appear in the list, showing that she did not come sufficiently near to the entrance of the harbour to be visited by the boarding officer. During the night on which the “Sutton” was hove-to off Port Louis, Captain Wilson communicated with a mercantile house in that town; and at dawn, the following day, he stood away for the neighbouring French island of Réunion.