"At the foot of the cabin-stairs they are met by half a dozen sailors, who put pistols to their heads, threaten to kill them if they make the least outcry, tie their hands, and pass them along into the hold through a hole which has been cut from the cabin for that purpose. When a batch has been thus disposed of another is allowed to descend, and in a little while the hold is full; fifty or more natives have been made prisoners, and meantime the strange missionary has returned from shore, the canoes are cut adrift or sunk by dropping pieces of iron into them, and the pretended missionary ship sails away with a cargo of slaves for the Queensland or Feejee market."
"And was this really done by Englishmen?" one of the youths asked.
"Yes, not only once, but several times," the Doctor answered; "and of the men thus stolen from their homes very few ever found their way back again. If you wish more information on this point, read 'Kidnapping in the South Seas,' by Captain Palmer, and 'The Cruise of the Rosario,' by Captain Markham, both of the Royal Navy. These gentlemen were sent to cruise in Polynesian waters to suppress the slave-trade; and though they made several captures, they did not find themselves supported by the colonial courts. 'In two glaring instances,' says Captain Markham, 'when slavers were seized and sent to Sydney for adjudication they were acquitted, and their captors were themselves condemned in heavy damages for detention and injury done to those vessels.'
FIRING DOWN THE HATCHWAY.
"A notorious case," continued the Doctor, "was that of the slaver Carl, which has figured prominently in the newspapers and official documents. This vessel left Melbourne in June, 1871, for a cruise among the South Sea Islands, with the object of procuring laborers. Dr. James Patrick Murray was on board as a passenger and part owner of the vessel, which was commanded by Joseph Armstrong. They tried to obtain laborers at the New Hebrides Islands by legitimate methods but failed, and then they resorted unsuccessfully to the 'missionary trick.'
"After this the party captured the natives by upsetting or destroying their canoes. According to Dr. Murray's account, given on the trial of Armstrong and one of the crew, the captain and crew used to smash the canoes by dropping pig-iron or stones into them, and the passengers in their own boat picked the natives out of the water, sometimes stunning them with clubs or slung-shot if they were troublesome.
