"The white men on board know that if once the `blackbirds'
burst the hatches . . . they would soon master the ship."
<hw>Black-birding</hw>, <i>n</i>. kidnapping natives of South
Sea islands for service in Queensland plantations.
1871. `Narrative of the Voyage of the Brig Carl' [pamphlet]:
"All the three methods, however, of obtaining labour in the
South Seas--that which was just and useful, that which was of
suspicious character, and that which was nothing, more or less,
than robbery and murder--were in use the same time, and all
three went by the same general slang term of `blackbirding,' or
`blackbird catching.'"
1872. Rev. H. S. Fagan, `The Dark Blue' (Magazine), June,
p. 437:
"Well, you see how it is that C is not safe, even though he is
a missionary bishop, after A has made the name of missionary an
offence by his ingenious mode of `black-birding.'"
1892. Gilbert Parker, `Round the Compass in Australia,' p. 78:
"In the early days of sugar-planting there may have been
black-birding, but it was confined to a very few, and it is
done away with altogether now."
<hw>Black-birding</hw>, <i>adj</i>.