Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/144

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120
THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN AUSTRALASIA.

their aim. At daylight all appeared to be quiet, and so the hatches were opened and those who were alive were invited to come up. About five came up without help; there were eight or nine seriously wounded,
A WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.
sixteen badly wounded, and about fifty dead. The dead and the sixteen badly wounded were immediately thrown over-board; the ship was out of sight of land at the time, and therefore it was impossible that any of the wounded could have reached the shore.

"The blood was removed from the hold, all traces of the affair were effaced, and when the Carl was overhauled by the Rosario shortly afterwards there was nothing suspicious in her appearance, and she was allowed to proceed on her voyage.

"The captain and one of the crew were condemned to death, but the sentence was afterwards commuted to imprisonment. Murray was allowed to be one of the witnesses for the prosecution, and so escaped punishment. Others of the party on board said Murray was the ringleader in the whole business, and that he sang 'Marching through Georgia' while firing at the poor natives in the hold. They further said that he selected those who were the least wounded when the remainder were thrown overboard, and he used to read prayers to the crew and then give the order to go and smash the canoes of the natives."[1]

"And all this happened in 1871," said Frank, "and was done by Englishmen and under the English flag!"

"Yes," replied the Doctor; "and until the outrages became so notorious that the attention of the civilized world was drawn towards them, many official Englishmen in the British colonies were very lukewarm on the subject, and evidently did not wish to impede the progress of the cotton and sugar industries by interfering with the business of procuring laborers. Let me give an instance of this:

"Captain Palmer, the predecessor of Captain Markham in command of the Rosario, seized the schooner Daphne, of forty-eight tons burden, fitted up exactly like an African slaver, and with one hundred natives


  1. This account is abridged from "The Cruise of the Rosario," by Captain A. H. Markham, R. N.