on board. They were entirely naked, had not even mats to sleep on, and the hold of the schooner resembled a pigpen more than anything else.
"The Daphne had a license to carry fifty native 'passengers,' but it made no mention of Feejee, where she was seized, and whither she had taken her cargo for sale. The natives were landed at Levuka, Feejee, and placed under the care of the British consul, and the Daphne was sent to Sydney for adjudication. The Chief-justice of New South Wales, Sir Alfred Stephen, decided in the Daphne's favor in the following 
INDIAN GIRL HOUSE-SERVANT IN FEEJEE.words, which I will read from Captain Palmer's Book, 'Kidnapping in the South Seas:'
"'… It will not be enough to show that artifice has been used, or even falsehood told, to induce the natives to enter into the agreements or contracts mentioned, if they really did enter into the contracts.
"'The morality of the proceeding cannot be taken into consideration in determining the question raised here. The captor will have substantially to prove that the natives were going to be passed into a state of real slavery by those who had taken them on board the Daphne, or were to be put into a state really amounting to slavery, and in violation of the agreement and against their will.'
"The Daphne was released, and Captain Palmer was compelled to pay the expenses of the trial, amounting to nearly $900. This money was afterwards refunded to him by Her Majesty's Government, which approved his action in seizing the schooner and placed his name on the list for promotion."
"How do the colonies obtain their laborers at present?" Fred asked.
"They get them from the islands in legitimate ways, as I before told you, and they also import Chinese and Indian coolies. The supply of Polynesian labor is not equal to the demand, and in the last few years, especially in Feejee, there has been a large importation of coolies from India. We will learn something about them when we visit the Feejee Islands."
