Explore "The Call of the South" by Louis Becke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A few years ago I was written to by an English lady, living in the Midlands, asking me if I could assist her nephew -- a young man of three and twenty years of age -- towards obtaining a berth as Government agent or as "recruiter" on a Queensland vessel employed in the Kanaka labour trade.
"I am told that it is a very gentlemanly employment, that many of those engaged in it are, or have been, naval officers and have a recognised status in society. Also that the work is really nothing -- merely the supervision of coloured men going to the Queensland plantations. The climate is, I am told, delightful, and would suit Walter, whose lungs, as you know, are weak. Is the salary large? " etc.