Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/70

44 beginning almost of a new country up here, and I am glad to see it in its early days, for how different it will be thirty or forty years hence! The natives of New Guinea are Papuans, Polynesians, and Malays. You can trace a connection from Northern Australia right up to Japan, the races having had some commingling, no doubt, for centuries. These Straits are eighty miles wide and full of islands, therefore some of the natives must have found their way across.

In the early days of New Guinea much harm was done by the disgraceful traffic in the labour supply for Queensland. This was a scandal for known to every one. In 1883 there were 648 natives kidnapped and taken to Queensland. The most notorious ships engaged in this traffic were the Lizzie, Ceara, Hopeful, Sybil, Forest King, and Heath. They visited New Guinea coasts and islands, the Solomon Isles, and many South Sea Isles, enticed natives on board, detained them, pretended to engage them for three years—and the natives never understanding what it meant—and took them off to practically sell them to the Queenslanders who pretended to believe it was all right. The poor wretches coming on board these ships to trade were thrown under hatches, and those in the canoes threatened with death if they did not come on board. A Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into it at last. Two notorious fiends were M‘Neill and Williams, of the Hopeful. They seized natives everywhere and burnt their villages. Once M‘Neill having fired at and killed a native, others jumped into the sea and were pursued. Williams overtaking one in the water near the shore, got hold of him by the hair, bent back his head, and cut his throat. A boy being of no use to them, they tied a couple of cocoanuts under his arms, as floats, and threw