think I have read about that somewhere," remarked Harry. "You send
small ships out among the islands to pick up the men, and the business
is called 'black-birding,' is it not?"

"Yes, that is the name of it, or rather used to be," was the reply.
"Black-birding," along in the seventies, was an outrageous piece of
business no better than slave-stealing on the coast of Africa. In fact,
it was slave-stealing and nothing else. A schooner would appear off an
island, drop anchor and wait for the natives to come out in their
canoes, which they were sure to do. Then forty or fifty of them would be
enticed on board, and perhaps invited one by one into the cabin, whence
a door had been cut through into the hold. They were shoved along one by
one until a sufficient number had been obtained and imprisoned below,
and then the schooner set sail and left the island.

"Sometimes one of the officers was dressed up like a clergyman, with a
white necktie, broad-brimmed hat, and blue spectacles, and wrapped in a
long black cloak. He carried a large book under his arm, and was a very
good counterfeit of a missionary. He was rowed to the shore, where he
would inform the natives that their old friend, Rev. Dr. Williams, was
on board the vessel and would like to see them, and he would very much
like some fresh fruit. He explained the doctor's failure to come on
shore by saying that he had fallen on deck and broken his leg the day
before, and was then confined to his cabin.

"The natives would hasten to gather a large supply of fruit and take it
on board the schooner. Their fruit was piled on deck, and one by one
they were taken below, ostensibly to see their disabled friend, but
really to shove them forward into the hold in the manner I have
described. When a sufficient number had been entrapped the schooner
sailed away, and there was little probability that the deceived natives
would ever see their island again.

"That was the method formerly in vogue for supplying labor to the sugar
plantations in Queensland. The matter became so notorious that the
government investigated it and put a stop to 'black-birding.' At present
the business of obtaining men from the Pacific Islands is fairly well
conducted. On every ship that goes out for that purpose there is a
government officer whose duty it is to see that no deception or trickery
is practised, and that the contracts with the natives are fully
understood on both sides before they are signed.