CAPTAIN BEN PEESE
For the next few weeks we cruised about among the islands of the
Kingsmill and Gilbert groups, collectively known as the Line Islands.
The most southerly of them is Arurai or Hope Island, in the latitude
2.41 S., longitude 177 E.--the most northerly, Makin or Butaritu, in
latitude 3.20, 45 N.
We did good business generally going through this group, and steady
going trade it was, varied only by the mad drunken bouts and wild dances
which took place when we were at anchor--these last beyond description.
Just then I was badly hurt fishing on shore one day. It was peculiarly a
South Sea accident. I was standing on a jutting ledge of coral, holding
my rod, when it suddenly broke off, allowing me to fall downwards on
sharp edges, where I was terribly cut about the legs and body. The green
or live coral has the property of making a festering wound whenever it
pierces the true skin, and for weeks, with my unhealed wounds, I was
nearly mad with pain. The Captain did all he could for me, having a
netted hammock slung on deck, where I could see all that was going on.
One day in a fit of pain I fell out and nearly cracked my skull. All the
native girls on board were most kind and patient in nursing me. So the
Captain said the least I could do was to marry one, if only out of
gratitude and to brush away the flies.
Whatever some people might call these poor girls they had at least one
virtue, which, like charity, covereth a multitude of sins. Pity for any
one in bodily pain they possessed in the highest degree. Many an hour
did they sit beside me, bathing my aching head with a sponge and salt
water--this last the universal and infallible cure.
* * * * *
We called at Peru or Francis Island, where we obtained nine
natives--five men and four young women. The islanders here are rude and
insulting to all strangers not carrying arms, and almost as threatening
as those of Taputana. I was, however, too ill to go on shore here.
After a two months' cruise through this group we bore away for Strong's
Island, distant some five hundred miles. We had favourable winds, and
the brig's speed was something wonderful. In thirty-eight hours we had
covered a distance of four hundred and ninety miles, when the lofty
hills of this gem of the North Pacific, covered with brightest verdure,
gladdened our eyes after the long, low-lying chains of islets and atolls
of the Marshall and Kingsmill groups.
The brave "north-east trade" that had borne us so gallantly along died
away to a zephyr as we drew near the land, and saw once more the huge
rollers thundering on the weather point of the island.
Calling first at Chabral harbour we did a little trading, and then
sailed down the coast close to the shore--so deep runs the water--till
we reached Utwé.
Here we found three American whalers put in for food and water. Hayston
seemed anxious to get away, so, after exchanging courtesies with the
skippers, we ran round to Coquille harbour, where we lay several days
trading and painting ship. We cleared the harbour at daylight, with the
sea as smooth as glass and wind so light that the _Leonora_ could
scarcely stem the strong easterly current. Still keeping a north-west
course, we sailed away over the summer sea while scarce a ripple broke
its glassy surface, until we sighted Pingelap or M'Askill's, a hundred
and fifty miles from Strong's Island.
These were discovered by Captain Musgrave, of the American whaler _Sugar
Cane_, in 1793. They are densely covered with cocoa-palms, and though
wholly of coral formation, are a good height above sea-level.
The Captain had a trader here named Sam Biggs--a weak-kneed,
gin-drinking cockney. How ever such a character could have found his way
to these almost unknown islands passed my comprehension! We ran in close
to the village--so near that, the wind being light, we nearly drifted
onto the beach, and lowered the starboard quarter boat to tow out again.
Whilst waiting for the trader I had a good look at the village, which I
was surprised to hear contained 500 inhabitants. As, however, these
islands--there are three of them, Takai, Tugula, and Pingelap--are
wondrous fertile, they support their populations easily.
Presently the trader came off in a canoe, and, shambling along the deck,
went down below to give in his report. He said that things were very
bad. A few months back the American missionary brig _Morning Star_ had
called and prevailed on the king to allow two teachers to be landed.
After making presents to the chiefs and principal men, they had got
their promise to accept Christianity and to send the white man Biggs
about his business. They had also told the natives that Captain Hayston
was coming with the intention of carrying them off in bondage to work on
the plantations in Samoa. Also that Mr. Morland, the chief missionary,
was now in Honolulu, begging for a man-of-war to come to Pingelap and
fight Captain Hayston's ship with his big guns and sink her.
All South Sea islanders are easily influenced. In a few hours after the
teachers landed the whole village declared for Christianity, burned
their idols, and renounced the devil and all his works, _i.e._ Captain
Hayston and the brig _Leonora_.
The Captain's face darkened as he listened; then he asked the trader
what he had done in the matter. The man, blinking his watery eyes, said
he had done nothing; that he was afraid the natives would kill him, and
asked to be taken away.
Jumping up from the table, Hayston grasped him by the collar, and asked
me to look at him and say what he should do with such a white-livered
hound, who would let one of the finest islands in the Pacific be handed
over to the sanctimonious pack on board the _Morning Star_, and let the
best trading station he, Hayston, owned be ruined?
I suggested that he should be detained on board till we met the _Morning
Star_, and then be given to Mr. Morland to keep.
"By ----! just the thing! but just let me tell you, you drunken hound,
that when I picked you up a starving beach-comber in Ponapé, I thought
you had at least enough sense to know that I am not a man to be trifled
with. I was the first man to place a trader on Pingelap. I overcame the
natives' hostility, and made this one of the safest islands in the group
for whaleships to call at. Now I have lost a thousand dollars by your
cowardice. So take this to remember it by."
Then, holding him by one hand, he shook him like a rag, finally slinging
him up the companion way, and telling the men to tie him up.
"Lower away the longboat," he roared, "I'll teach the Pingelap gentry
how to dance." I went with him, as I wanted to get some bananas and
young cocoa-nuts. In five minutes we drew up on the beach.
The head-men of the island now came forward to meet the Captain, and to
express their pleasure at seeing him. But he was not to be mollified,
and sternly bade them follow him to the largest house in the town where
he would talk to them.
The boy Sunday, who was a native of Pingelap, came with us to act as
interpreter. Behind the crowd of natives were the two Hawaiian teachers,
dressed in white linen shirts and drill trousers. They had their wives
with them, dressed in mixed European and native costume.
None of us had arms, nor did we think them necessary. Hitherto these
people had been slavish admirers of Hayston, and he assured me that he
would reassert his former influence over them in ten minutes. The crowd
swarmed into the council-house and sat down on their mats. The Captain
remained standing.
His grand, imposing form, as he stood in the centre of the house and
held up his hands for silence, seemed to awe them as would a demi-god,
and murmurs of applause broke from them involuntarily.
"Tell them, Sunday," he said, fixing his piercing blue eyes on the
cowering forms of the two missionary teachers, "that I have come to talk
peace, not to fight. Ask them who it was years ago, when the hurricane
came and destroyed their houses and plantations--when their little ones
were crying with hunger--that brought them to his ship and fed them?
Have they forgotten who it was that carried them to Ponapé, and there
let them live on his land and fed them on his food till they grew tired
of the strange land, and then brought them back to their homes again?"
Sunday translated, and the silence was unbroken till the Captain
resumed, "Did not the men of Pingelap say then that no man should be
more to them than me--that no one else should place a white man here?
And now a strange ship comes, and the men of Pingelap have turned their
faces from me?"
A scene of wild excitement followed, the greater number crowding round
the Captain, while with outstretched hands and bent heads they signified
respect.
The two teachers were walking quickly away with their wives, when the
Captain called them back, and in a pleasant voice invited them to come
on board and see if there was anything there that they would like their
wives to have for a present.
Before returning on board Sunday told the Captain that the chiefs and
people desired to express their sorrow at receiving the missionaries,
and that they would be glad if he took them away. Since the visit of the
_Morning Star_ an epidemic had broken out resembling measles, which had
already carried off fifty or sixty of them. Already their superstitious
fears led them to regard the sickness as a punishment for having broken
their treaty with Hayston. So they offered us six young women as a
present; also ten large turtles, and humbly begged him to allow his
trader to remain.
The Captain made answer that he did not want six young women--there were
plenty on board already; but he would take two, with the ten turtles,
and ten thousand cocoa-nuts. The said presents were then cheerfully
handed over; the two girls and the turtles going off in the Captain's
boat, while the cocoa-nuts were formed into a raft and floated alongside
the ship.
While these weighty matters were being arranged I walked round to the
weather side of the island with Sunday, who wanted to show me a pool in
which the natives kept some captive turtle. On our way we came across
some young boys and girls catching fish with a seine. They brought us
some and lit a fire. We stayed about an hour with them, having great fun
bathing in the surf.
Happening to look out to sea, I saw a big ship coming round the point
under easy sail; from her rig and the number of boats she carried I knew
her at once to be a whaler. We ran ashore and dressed, and as two of the
children offered to show us a short cut through the forest to the
village, we ran all the way and got opposite the brig just in time to
see the Captain leaving her side to board the whaler. I hailed the brig,
and they sent me the dingey, in which I followed Hayston. She proved to
be the _Josephine_, just out from Honolulu--a clean ship, not having
taken a fish. The captain was a queer-looking old fellow dressed like a
fisherman. He received us with civility, yet looked at the Captain
curiously. His crew were all under arms. Each man had a musket, a lance,
or a whaling spade--these two last very formidable weapons--in his hand.
Captain Long was candid, and admitted that as soon as he sighted our
brig he had armed his men, for the wind was so light that he would have
no chance of getting away. Hayston laughingly asked him if he thought
the brig was a pirate.
The whaler replied, "Why, certainly. Old Morland and Captain Melton told
me two years ago that you sailed a brig with a crew of darned cut-throat
niggers, and would take a ship if you wanted her, so I made up my mind
to have a bit of shootin' if you boarded us."
"Well, Captain Long," said Hayston, in his easy, pleasant way, "come
over to my little vessel and see the pirate at home."
The invitation was accepted, and as we pulled over amicably, the skipper
cast an admiring glance at the graceful _Leonora_ as she floated o'er
the still, untroubled deep. As we stepped over the ship's side we were
met by Bill Hicks, the second mate, whose savage countenance was
illumined by a broad smile as he silently pointed to the queer
entertainment before us.
"Great ancestral ghosts! d'ye carry a troupe of ackeribats aboard this
hyar brig?" quoth the skipper, pointing to four undraped figures
capering about in the mad abandonment of a Hawaiian national dance.
The mate explained briefly that he had given the native teachers grog,
after which nothing would satisfy them but to show the crew how they
used to dance in Lakaina in the good old days. Their wives were also
exhilarated, and having thrown off their European clothes, were dancing
with more vigour than decorum to the music of an accordion and a violin.
The Hope Island girl, Nellie, was seated in a boat we carried on deck
playing the accordion, and with her were the rest of the girls laughing
and clapping their hands at the antics of the dancers. The stalwart
Portuguese, Antonio, was perched on the water-tank with his fiddle, and
the rest of the crew who were not at work getting the cocoa-nuts on
board were standing around encouraging the quartette by shouts and
admiring remarks.
As the whaling skipper gazed with astonishment at the sight, Hayston
said, "Ay, there you see the Honolulu native teacher in his true
colours. His Christianity is like ours--no better, no worse--to be put
on and off like a garment. Once give a Sandwich Island missionary a
taste of grog and his true instincts appear in spite of himself. There
is _nothing_ either of those men would not do now for a dollar; and yet
in a day or two they will put on their white shirts, and begin to preach
again to these natives who are better men than themselves."
* * * * *
We went below, and after a glass of wine or two the skipper was about to
leave, after promising to sell us some bolts of canvas, when the Chinese
steward announced that they were fighting on deck. We ran up and saw
Antonio and boy George struggling with knives in their hands. The
Captain caught Antonio a crack on the head, which sent him down very
decisively, and then pitched George roughly into the boat with the
girls, telling them to stop their infernal din. The two teachers' wives
were then placed in old Mary's care below, and told to lie down and
sleep.
* * * * *
The two Pingelap girls who came on board were very young, and seemed
frightened at their surroundings, wailing and moaning with fear, so
Hayston gave them trinkets and sent them back to the chiefs, getting two
immense turtles in exchange.
The wind now died away. All night the brig lay drifting on the glassy
sea. At breakfast-time we were almost alongside of the whaler, and the
two crews were exchanging sailors' courtesies when five or six whales
hove in sight.
All was changed in a moment. Four boats were lowered as if by magic from
the whaler, and the crews were pulling like demons for the huge prizes.
The whales were travelling as quickly as the boats, but towards the
ships, and in another quarter of an hour three of the boats got fast,
the fourth boat also, but had to cut away again.
Our crew cheered the boats, and as there was no wind for the vessel to
work up to the dead whales which were being towed up, I took the brig's
longboat and six men to help the boats to get the whales alongside.
A breeze sprung up at noon, so after bidding good-bye to the whaler, we
stood away for Ponapé, making W.N.W. We were ten days out from Pingelap
before we sighted Ponapé's cloud-capped peaks. The wind was very light
for the whole way, the brig having barely steerage way on her. Hayston
was anxious to reach the island, for there he expected to meet his
partner, the notorious Captain Ben Peese.
Here he told me that if things went well with them they would make a
fortune in a few years; that he had bought Peese's schooner and sent him
to Hong Kong with a load of oil to sell, arranging to meet him in
Jakoits harbour in Ponapé on a day named. They were then to proceed to
Providence Island, which was a dense grove of cocoa-nut trees. He was
sanguine of filling two hundred and fifty casks now in the brig's hold
with oil when we reached there.
Twenty miles from shore we spoke an American whaleship from New London.
She was "trying out," and signalled to send a boat. The Captain, taking
me with him, went on board, when we were met by a pleasant, white-haired
old man, Captain Allan.
His first words were, "Well, Captain Hayston, I have bad news. Peese has
turned against you. He returned to Ponapé from China a week ago, and
cleared out your two stations of everything of value. He had a big
schooner called the _Vittoria_, and after gutting the stations, he told
the chiefs at Kiti harbour that you had sent him for the cattle running
there. He took them all away--thirty-six head."
The Captain said nothing. Turning away he looked at the brig, as if in
thought, then asked Allan if he knew where Peese had gone.
"To Manila; Peese has made friends there, and engaged with the
Governor-General of the Philippines to supply the garrison with forty
head of cattle. I knew the cattle were yours, and warned the chiefs not
to let Peese take them away. But he threatened them with a visit from a
Spanish man-of-war, and Miller backed him up. He had a strong party with
him to enforce his demands."
"Thank you, Allan!" Hayston said very deliberately and calmly; "I was
half afraid something like this would happen, but I thought the man I
took out of the slums of Shanghai and helped like a brother was the last
person to have robbed me. It has shown me the folly of trusting any one.
You are busy, Allan! so will leave you."
Bidding adieu to the good skipper we stepped into our boat. Hayston was
silent for ten minutes. Then he put his hand on my knee, and looking
into my face with the expression I had never seen him wear since he
fought the trader at Drummond Island, said, "Hilary! did you ever know
me to say I would do a thing and not do it?"
"No! but I have often wished you would _not_ keep your word so strictly.
Some day you will regret it."
"Perhaps so. But listen to me. This man--this Peese--I found in Shanghai
years ago, ill and starving. There was something in his face which
roused my interest; I took him on board my vessel and treated him as a
brother. I was then high in favour with the Chinese authorities. Not as
I am now--hunted from port to port--forced to take up this island life
and associate with ruffians who would shoot and rob me if they did not
fear me. I went to a mandarin--a man who knew the stuff I was made of,
and what I had done in the Chinese service--and asked for preferment for
Peese. It was done. In a week he was put in command of a transport, and
with his commission in his hand he came aboard my ship and swore he
would never forget who it was that had saved him. He spoke but the bare
truth, for I tell you this man was dying--dying of starvation. Well! it
was he who led me afterwards, by his insidious advice and by collusion
with Portuguese collie merchants, into risky dealings. At first all went
well. We so used our positions in the Imperial service that we made over
fifteen thousand dollars in three months, exclusive of the money used in
bribing Chinese officials. The end came by and by, when I nearly lost my
head in rescuing Peese from a gunboat in which he lay a prisoner. Anyhow
I lost my rank, and the Viceroy issued a proclamation in the usual
flowing language, depriving me of all honours previously conferred. We
escaped, it is true, but China was closed to me for ever. Since then I
have stood to Peese faithfully. Now, you see the result. He is a d--d
clever fellow, and a good sailor, no doubt of that. But mind me when I
say that I'll find him, if I beggar myself to do it. And when I find
him, he dies!"
I said nothing. He could not well let such treachery and ingratitude
pass, and Peese would deserve his fate. However, they never met. Peese,
like Hayston, appeared to have his hand against every man, as every man
had his hand against Peese.
He met his fate after this fashion:--
A daring act of piracy--seizing a Spanish revenue vessel under the very
guns of a fort--and working her out to sea with sweeps, outlawed him.
Caught at one of his old haunts in the Pelew Islands, he was heavily
ironed and put on board the cruiser _Hernandez Pizarro_, for conveyance
to Manila, to await trial.
One day he begged the officers of the corvette to allow him on deck as
the heat was stifling. He was brought up and his leg-irons widened so
that he could walk. Peese was always an exceedingly polite man. He
thanked the officers for their courtesy, and begged for a cigar.
This was given him, and he slowly walked the decks, dragging his
clanking chains, but apparently enjoying the flavour of his cigar.
Standing against a gun, he took a last look at the blue cloudless sky
above him, and then quietly dropped overboard. The weight of his irons,
of course, sank him "deeper than plummet lies".... So, and in such
manner, was the appropriate and befitting ending of Benjamin Peese,
master mariner--"_Requiescat in pace!_"
* * * * *