Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/137

Rh "Please tell us something about the labor-vessels and the labor-trade," said Frank. "I have read about them, and we heard them mentioned in Tahiti and Honolulu, and would like to know more about them."

"It is quite a long story," was the reply, "but I'll try to give it to you briefly. You remember that in the Hawaiian and Society islands it was necessary to import foreign labor for the plantations, the natives being too indolent, or not sufficiently numerous, for the wants of the planters. "Well, the same state of affairs prevailed, and still prevails, in the Samoa, Feejee, Tonga, and other groups, where cotton and sugar plantations have been established, and also in Queensland, in Australia.

"Well, the demand naturally led to an effort to supply the want. Labor-vessels went among the islands and groups farther to the west, especially among the Solomon and New Hebrides islands, to hire men to work on the plantations where they were needed.

"Nearly all of these vessels were English, either from the ports of Australia or hailing from Feejee, Samoa, or Tahiti. Occasionally an American captain went into the labor traffic, and there was now and then a French or German vessel engaged in it.