Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/223

 slavery and to the slave-trade forever! Who are those who stand in the places of the heroes of the past, and fear to speak out the  national watchword, "England and Liberty"? Is there no national honor left? Is England to be cowed by any and every opposing nation, while she herself descends to imbue her hands in the shed blood of the accursed slave traffic? Rise up, ye spirits of the departed, and weep for your sons! Lament, ye sages, for England is once more a slave-holding nation!

The reasons which have led to this are the desire of aspiring subjects to possess large estates, and the difficulty of making those estates pay, except by working them by labor at a price low  enough to allow competition with similar estates and industries in  other countries.

A company wants two hundred men. It opens relations with the chief and government, and the two hundred men, as slaves,  have to go, leaving wives and homes, whether they will it or no.

Slaves? Yes; the people are slaves. Lest the white man should put upon them they are not allowed to work of their own free will.

Who are these savages, and of what use in the world, lazy dogs, and cumberers of the ground?



I will only add that it is sad to think that in so lovely a part of God’s creation, in this enlightened nineteenth century, there should  exist anything so vile, putting it in its true light, as a South Sea  English slave-trade, a traffic which is more infamous than any  African slave-trade. And this traffic, this "trade in human beings," is carried on by civilized Englishmen! May God save the queen!

The survey completed, we took leave of the Fiji group on August 11th. Our hearts were sad as we thought of the fate of Lieutenant Underwood and Midshipman