Y^S, but in That Period They Swept Away Thousands Ajl Its Coasts And
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CHAPTER XXI SLAVE RAIDERS OF PERU Forced from ^eir homes, a melancholy train, To traverse climes beyond the western main. Amongst the most ruthless and rapacious o£ the blackbirders were those who supplied labourers for the guano fields, the plantations, and the mines of Peru. It is true that their raids lasted only a very few y^s, but in that period they swept away thousands of the inhabitants of the eastern islands, very few of whom ever returned. Thus of 200 natives taken from Savage Island in one raid only one ever saw his home again. After Vasco Nunez de Balboa reached the "South Panama in 15135 and took possession of aJl its coasts and islands for Spain, the Spaniards soon occupied the western coasts of the two Americas, from California to the island of Chiloe, They also crossed the Pacific to the Philippines and made that ocean almost a Spanish lake. It was not, however, tin long after Spanish rule in South America had ceased that the slavers from Peru began to raid the Pacific Islands. About i860 a tremendous demand for the guano of the islands off the coast of Peru sprang up with new developments in the agriculture SLAVE RAIDERS OF PERU 251 of Europe. In Peru, as in Fiji, Queensland, and Tahiti, cotton plantations sprang up or expanded in the early sixties when the Civil War stopped the export of cotton from the Southern States of America. Mining also was active in Peru at this period} and sugar plantations flourished on the coast. The exploiters of these sources of wealth looked round for cheap labour and fpund some of it in the islands of the Pacific. Whole fleets of blackbirders were sent out. Beginning with Easter Island these slavers swept away the able-bodied men, and some of the women as well. They raided the Gambier group, the. Pau- motus, the Line Islands, Savage Island and a whole series of atolls and scattered islets. Something like 10,000 islanders were carried away, of whom all but a small fraction died in captivity. This Peruvian blackbirding came to an end in a few years for two reasons. One was that the islanders did not make good slaves. The natives kidnapped by the Peruvians were almost all Polynesians and Micronesians. They often refused to work and, at best, were not good labourers. Besides, they died like flies. The other reason was that France and Great Britain joined in putting pressure on Peru. This was in 1863, and it brought about an official ban on blackbirding. The French, too, made it hot for the blackbirders whom they caught making raids on the islands to the east of Tahiti which were under the protection of France. Altogether the game ceased to be worth the candle. 252 SLAVERS OF THE SOUTH SEAS A contempoiu^ account of the Peruvian raids is given by a missionary', the Rev. H. Gee, writing from Upolu, Samoa, in 1863. He mentions reports that the Peruvians had set themselves the task of collecting 10,000 slaves from the islands of the Pacific. An American who professed to be the super ego of one of the slavers had offered foreigners living on the islands ten dollars a head for every native that they would persuade to go on board his v^sel. At Mahi the raiders had made a clean sweep C) of every male adult on the island. The first Peruv- vessel to visit the island made a display of attrac tive goods and the crew induced the natives who flo(Aed on board to go into the hold to see more articles. When the natives went below they were shut up. The chief, who remained on deck, went to^ the hatch to call to his people to come up. He was tripped up and thrown down into the hold. This raid left only two men on the island and they were kidnapped by another raider. At Fakaofo, on the island of Tokelau, the people were assembled in front of the teacher's house j the raiders then picked out forty men and took them on board the slaver. These blackbirders were armed with guns and cutlasses and they drove the men along with the flats of their cutlasses. This slaver put in at Tutuila, Samoa, for water. When the Samoans found that this was a slave—ship, thev seized the water-casks. The captain of the slaver released six of the Tokelau men, apparently as a kind of ransom for his casks. Then, becoming alarmed, he sailed away leaving the casks behind. SLAVE RAIDERS OF PERU 253 Of these six men three died soon after landing and three were sent to Apia, where Gee saw them. One was a brother of the chief of Fakaofo, another his son and the third another native of Fakaofo. They said that there were only seven men left at Fakaofo. The slaver had 300 men, collected from various islands. The captain wished to secure more, although those on board had. very little water and their food ration was one ancient coco-nut to each two men every other day. Of 200 islanders carried off in one of these blackbirding raids on Niue, only one, apparently, ever returned from the slave fields of Peru. This slaver was commanded by an American, who adopted the trick of coaxing the natives on board, inducing them to go down into the hold and then clapping the hatches on them. The chief Fata-a-Iki, a bold and dashing man, gathered a large number of men to gether and led them in canoes to attempt to rescue their kinsmen. The crew of the slaver fired on them, killing one and wounding another. This disorgan ized the natives and the slavers then put overboard a boat and manned it. The boat's crew chased the canoes and tried to kidnap their occupants. The canoe in which was Fata-a-Iki was hard- pressed by the. blackbirders. A large, fat man who was one of the canoe's crew suggested that they should stop and pray for help. "Paddle hard and let us get ashore," said Fata-a-Iki, "then you may pray to your heart's content." The next day an Irish seaman from the black- birder came to the mission house on Niue and asked 254 SLAVERS OF THE SOUTH SEAS for medicine, which was given to him. Fata-a-Ild urged that this seaman should be seized and held as a hostage until the kidnapped natives were freed. Lawes the missionary opposed this, holding that the captain of the slaver would simply leave the Irish man behind. So the seaman was allowed to go. Disease quickly broke out on board the crowded slaver and some of the natives died and were thrown overboard. The slaver put into Denham Bay, on Sunday Island in the Kermadecs, and landed the Savage Islanders, most of whom died there. The few survivors were taken to Callao and sold as slaves. Three years later an American whaler with a number of Aitutaki Islanders in the crew touched at Callao. Two of the Niue men were then there. They decided to make a bid for freedom and told their plight to the Aitutaki whalemen. The Aitutaki men spoke to the captain of the whaler, who agreed to take the Niue men. It was arranged that the two Niue men should be waiting at a certain point on the shore on a given night. The whaler's boat would pick them up and the vessel would sail at once. When the time for action came the heart of one of the Niue men failed him. It seemed to him that he could not escape the Peruvian guards and he de clined to make the attempt. The other went to the rendezvous, and made good his escape. He was afraid to return to Niue lest his father should hold him responsible for the fate of his brother who had remained in Peru. So he left the whaler at Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands where he settled down and married. Years later he finally returned to Niue. SLAVE RAIDERS OF PERU 255 The mysterious Easter Island suffered most from the Peruvian raids. In earlier days the island had suffered from the kidnapping raids of sealers and whalers who carried off men and women to form sealing gangs on desolate isles or to work on the whaling vessels. These losses, however, were small when compared to the results of the organized slav ing of the Peruvians. In 1862 Easter Island had a population estimated at 3000. The slavers carrle in force with several ships, and landed with boatloads of trinkets and gifts with which they strewed the shore at Hanga Roa. The islanders were wary. They kept up on the hills. But the bait proved too alluring for a few daring spirits. These came down to the shore and gathered armfuls of glittering baubles—^beads,' gaily-coloured handkerchiefs, and other attractive artides. As nothing happened to them, by degrees others followed, till most of the inhabitants of the island were gathered to see what the white men had brought and to seize what they could of his bounty. More trinkets were thrown to them and the scramble waxed fast and furious. The men threw down their war-clubs and spears that they might join in the rush to gather up the presents. While this was going on the blackbirders, strongly armed, were closing in from all sides on the milling mob. When the natives realizied that they were being trapped and tried to escape to the hills a thousand of them were seized.