220 THE QUEENSLAND LABOR TRADE. 
much persuasion. Many causes may be at work to induce them to do so, 
é. g., sickness in the island, quarrels, love of excitement, the spirit of enter- 
prise, but if they knew what they were taken for I don’t think they would go.” 
The premium offered by the planters, £10 to £12 per head, was 
quite sufficient to tempt some shipmasters to obtain colored labor by 
foul means, if fair proved impossible. Accordingly in 1869 and 1870 
we begin to read of wholesale kidnapping and of outrageous acts of 
violence. ‘Two cases were reported and the captains of naval vessels 
seized the schooners Daphne and Challenge on charges of slavery. 
However, their zeal for righteousness cost them dearly; the courts 
acquitted the accused, and the naval commanders were indicted by 
the owners of the vessels for detention and unlawful seizure, and a bill 
of £900 for damages was sent to one of them. It is recorded of the 
Challenge that she decoyed natives of the Torres Islands into the hold 
by means of gifts, beads, and trinkets; then the hatches were put on 
and a boat placed over the hatchway. ‘The natives began to cut a 
hole in the ship’s side and eventually were allowed to jump overboard 
when the ship was 7 miles off the shore. Later on, the schooner 
Helen was boarded by officers and was found to have no clearance and 
no license, but the fear of the courts had made the naval captains 
careful and, though the illegality was plain, all that was done was to 
make the master of the Helen sign a statement of the illegality of the 
proceedings and then the vessel was allowed to proceed. At Vanua 
Lava, in the Banks Group, two natives were knocked down into the 
hold and were carried to Fiji, and the captain was convicted on a 
charge of assault and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, but the 
charge of slavery failed. 
The most notorious case, however, was that of the brig Car/, which 
left Melbourne in 1871 to recruit for Fiji. When in the New Hebrides 
she was overhauled by H. M. S. Rosario and everything seemed to 
be quite in order and all straightforward, whereas an awful tragedy 
had happened on her a few days previously. In addition to the 
English crew there were a number of “‘ passengers”’ on board, and one 
of these, a Melbourne doctor, was part owner of the ship. At Paama 
they dressed up one man as a missionary and endeavored to obtain 
recruits on the plea that they represented the Bishop. As canoes came 
round the ship the captain and crew threw pig iron into them and sank 
them; then the “passengers”’ lowered the boats and picked up the 
struggling natives; those who resisted were hit with clubs or with pieces 
of iron. In other places they lowered a boat on top of the canoes and 
sank them and then picked up the swimmers. ‘The slaves were all 
stowed under hatches and an armed guard placed over them. The 
murder-lust seems to have maddened the white men and (inflamed 
probably with drink) they imagined that the slaves were about to 
mutiny and overpower them. Someone fired a shot at the crowd 
