MURDER AND SHIPWRECK
We found the island in a state of excitement. Two whaleships had
arrived, bringing half a dozen white men, and who had a retinue of
nearly a hundred natives from Ocean and Pleasant Islands. The white men
had to leave Pleasant Island on account of a general engagement which
had taken place; had fled to the ships for safety, taking with them
their native wives, families, and adherents.
The other men were from Ocean Island, a famine having set in from
drought in that lovely isle. They had also taken passage with their
native following, to seek a more temporarily favoured spot. The
fertility of Kusaie (Strong's Island) had decided them to remain.
Strange characters, in truth, were these same traders, now all quartered
at Chabral harbour! They were not without means, and so far had
conducted themselves decently. But their retinue of savage warriors had
struck terror into the hearts of the milder natives of Kusaie.
Let me draw from the life one of the patriarchs of the movement, on the
occasion of his embarkation.
Ocean Island, lat. 0° 50´ south, long. 168° east.
A fantastic, lonely, forbidding-looking spot. Circular in form, with
rounded summit, and a cruel upheaved coral coast, split up into ravines
running deep into the land. Here and there, on ledges overlooking the
sea, are perched tiny villages, inhabited by as fierce and intractable a
race of Malayo-Polynesians as ever lacerated each other's bodies with
sharks'-tooth daggers, after the mad drunkenness produced by sour toddy.
* * * * *
Mister Robert Ridley, aged seventy, sitting on a case in his house, on
the south-west point of Paanopa, as its people call Ocean Island, with a
bottle of "square face" before him, from which he refreshes himself,
without the intervention of a glass, is one of the few successful
deserters from the convict army of New South Wales. At the present
moment he is an ill-used man. For seven years he has been the boss white
man of Paanopa, ever since he left the neighbouring Naura or Pleasant
Island, after seeing his comrades fall in the ranks one by one, slain by
bullet or the scarce less deadly drink demon. Now, solitary and
saturnine, he has to bow to Fate and quit his equatorial cave of
Adullam, because a mysterious Providence has afflicted his island with a
drought.
From out the open door he sees the _Josephine_, of New Bedford, Captain
Jos Long, awaiting the four whaleboats now on the little beach below his
house, which are engaged in conveying on board his household goods and
chattels, his wives and his children, with _their_ children, and a dusky
retinue of blood-relations and retainers; for the drought had made food
scarce. Blood had been shed over the ownership of certain cocoa-nut
trees; and old Bob Ridley has decided to bid farewell to his island, and
to make for Ponapé in the Carolines. So the old man sits alone and
awaits a call from the last boat. Perhaps he feels unusual emotion
stirring him, as the faint murmur of voices ascends from the beach. He
would be alone for awhile to conjure up strange memories of the past, or
because the gin bottle is but half emptied.
* * * * *
"The _Josephine_, of New Bedford!" he mutters, as a grim smile passes
over his bronzed, sin-wrinkled countenance; "why, _t'other one_ was from
New Bedford too. This one's larger--a six-boat ship--and carries a big
afterguard. Still the job could be done agin. But--what's the good now!
If Joe, the Portuguese, was here with me I'd say it _could_ be done."
Another gulp at the "square face." "Damn it! I'm an old fool. There's
too many of these here cussed blubber-hunting Yankees about now. Say we
took the ship, we'd never get away with her. Please God, I'll go to
Ponapé and live like a d--d gentleman. There's some of the old crowd
there now, and I a'n't so old yet."
And here, maybe, the old renegade falls a thinking afresh of "the other
one" from New Bedford, that made this very island on the evening of the
3rd of December 1852.
Out nearly two years, and working up from the Line Islands towards
Honolulu, the skipper had tried to make Pleasant Island, to get a
boat-load of pigs for his crew, but light winds and strong currents had
drifted him away, till, at dawn, he saw the rounded summits of Ocean
Island pencilled faintly against the horizon, and stood away for it. "We
can get a few boat-loads of pigs and 'punkins' there, anyhow," he said
to the mate.
The mate had been there before, and didn't like going again. That was in
1850. Sixteen white men lived there then, ten of whom were runaway
convicts from Sydney or Norfolk Island. He told his captain that they
were part of a gang of twenty-seven who had at various times been landed
from whalers at Pleasant Island in 1845. They had separated--some going
away in the _Sallie_ whaler, and others finding their way to Ocean
Island. Now, the _Sallie was never heard of again_, the mate remarked.
The captain of the _Inga_ looked grave, but he had set his heart upon
the pigs and "punkins." So at dusk the brig hove to, close to the
south-west point, and as no boats came off the skipper went ashore.
* * * * *
There were nearly a thousand people on Ocean Island then, and he felt a
trifle queer as the boat was rushed by the wild, long-haired crowd, and
carried bodily on shore.
Through the gathering darkness he saw the forms of white men trying to
push their way through the yellow crowd of excited natives. Presently a
voice called out, "Don't be scared, mister! Let the niggers have their
way and carry up the boat."
He let them have their way, and after being glared at by the red light
of cocoa-nut torches borne by the women, he was conducted to one of
three houses occupied by the six gentlemen who had arranged to leave the
continent of Australia without beat of drum.
Bob Ridley's house was the scene of rude and reckless revelry that
night. A jar of the _Inga's_ rum had been sent for, and seated around on
the boxes that lined the side of the room the six convicts drank the raw
spirit like milk, and plied the captain for news of the outer world two
years old. Surrounding the house was a throng of eager, curious natives,
no longer noisy, but strangely silent as their rolling, gleaming eyes
gloated over the stone jar on the table. Presently a native, called
"Jack" by his white fellow residents, comes to the door and makes a
quick sign to Bob and a man named Brady, who rose and followed him into
a shed used as a cook-house. Jack's story is soon told. He had been to
the brig. She had thirty-two hands, but three men were sick. A strict
watch was kept by the mate, not more than ten natives were allowed on
board at once. In the port bow boats and the starboard quarter boats
hanging on the davits there were two sailors armed with muskets.
Another of the white men now slunk into the cook-house where the three
talked earnestly. Then Brady went back and told the captain that the
brig was getting into the set of the outer currents, and would be out of
sight of land by daylight unless he made sail and worked in close again.
Upon which the captain shook hands all around, and was escorted to his
boat, promising to be back at daylight and get his load of "punkins."
Brady and two others went with the captain for company, and on the way
out one of his new friends--a tall, ghastly creature, eternally twisting
his long fingers and squirting tobacco juice from his evil-seeming
mouth--told the captain that he "orter let his men take a run ashore to
get some cocoa-nuts and have a skylark." When they got aboard the
captain told the mate to take the sentries out of the boats, to make
sail, and run in close out of the currents, as it was all right. The
captain and the guests went below to open another jar, while the mate
and cooper roused up the hands who were lying about yarning and smoking,
and told them to make sail. In the house ashore Bob Ridley with his two
companions and Jack were planning _how the job was to be done_.
Two boats came ashore at daylight, and in addition to the crews there
were ten or a dozen liberty men who had leave till noon to have a run
about the island. The captain still bent on his "punkins," took a
boat-steerer and two other hands to put the coveted vegetables into bags
and carry them down to the boats. The pumpkins, Ridley said, grew on his
own land quite close; the men could pick them off the vines, and the
natives carry them down. So they set off up the hill until the pumpkin
patch was reached. Here old Bob suddenly felt ill, and thought he would
go back to take a swig at the rum jar and return, but if the captain
wanted a good view from the top of the island Jack would show him round.
So leaving the men to bag the pumpkins, the skipper and Jack climbed the
path winding through the cocoa-nuts to the top of the hill. The sun was
hot already, and the captain thirsty. Jack, out of his hospitable heart,
suggested a drink. There were plenty of cocoa-nuts around growing on
short, stumpy trees, a couple of which he twisted off, and without
husking one with his teeth, as is often done, cut a hole in the green
husk and presented it to the skipper to drink from. The nut was a heavy
one; taking it in both hands the doomed sailor raised it to his lips and
threw back his head. That was his last sight of the summer sky that has
smiled down on so many a deed of blood and rapine. For Jack at that
moment lifted his right arm and drove the knife to the hilt through his
heart.
* * * * *
As Jack hurried back to be in good time for the "grand coup"--the
cutting off of the brig--he saw that the boat-steerer and his two hands
_had finished gathering the pumpkins_. Two bags were filled and tied,
while beside them were the three bodies of the gatherers, each decently
covered with a spreading cocoa-nut branch. The ten "liberty men" had
been induced by a bevy of laughing island nymphs to accompany them along
the ledge of the steep coast cliff to a place where, as Jack had told
them, they would find plenty of nuts--a species of almond peculiar to
Ocean and Pleasant Islands. Half-an-hour's walk took them out of sight
and hearing of the _Inga_, and then the "liberty men" saw that the girls
had somehow dropped behind, and were running with trembling feet into
the maze of the undergrowth. The startled men found themselves in an
amphitheatre of jagged rough coral boulders, covered over with a dense
verdure of creepers, when suddenly Brady and fifty other devils swept
down upon them without a cry. It was soon over. Then the blood-stained
mob hurried back to the little beach.
* * * * *
The mate of the _Inga_ was a raw-boned Yankee from Martha's Vineyard.
Fearless, and yet watchful, he had struck the tall renegade as "a chap
as was agoin' to give them trouble if they didn't stiffen him fust in
the cabin." It was then noon, and as eight bells struck the crew began
to get dinner. The mate, before he went below, took a look at the shore
and fancied he saw the boat shoving off with the captain.
"Yes," chimed in Wilkins, one of the guests, "that's him; he's got a
boat-load, and all the canoes comin' off 's a lot of our own niggers
bringin' off cocoa-nuts."
"Then let's get dinner right away," answered the mate, who knew the
captain would make sail as soon as ever he found his "punkins" safe
aboard.
Had he known that the captain was lying staring up at the sun on the
hilltop among the dwarf palms, he might even then have made a fight of
it, short of half the crew as he was.
It was not to be.
They went below--he and his guests, the third mate and the carpenter;
the cooper was left in charge of the ship.
* * * * *
The boats and canoes came alongside at once, pulling hard. Suddenly the
cooper heard a cry from a man in the waist of the ship that chilled his
blood, while over the bulwarks swarmed the copper-skinned crowd, knife
and club in hand. As he rushed to the companion, the tall renegade
looked up and saw the time had come.
Then began the butchery. The ship's officers rushed on deck, leaving
behind only the negro steward and a boy with the three convicts. Two
shots were fired in the cabin, after which the three demons hurried up
to join in the melée. In ten minutes there was not a man of the crew
alive, except the cooper in the maintop, with a bloody whale-spade in
his fast relaxing grasp. Brady and Bob were agreed "to give the old cove
a chance to get eat up by the sharks," and ironically advised him to
take a header and swim ashore. But the cooper, with his feet dangling
over the futtocks and his head sunk on his chest, made no sign. He fell
back as a streak of red ran slowly between the planking of the maintop
and trickled down the mast to the deck.
* * * * *
It was a disappointment when the white murderers gathered in the cabin
to find so small a quantity of rum in the _Inga's_ lazarette. But they
were consoled by two bags of Mexican dollars--"Money for the punkins,"
grinned Brady, which would buy them twice as much as they wanted when
next ship came along. And then as the principal business was over, the
harmony began, and amidst rum and unholy jesting, a division of the
effects in the cabins was made, while unto Jack and his myrmidons were
abandoned all and sundry that could be found for'ard.
When the heavy-laden boats had been sent again and again to the shore, a
fire was lighted in the cabin by the tall renegade, and the white men
pushed off. But it suddenly occurred to Messrs. Ridley and Brady that
"such a hell of a blaze might be seen by some other blubber-hunters a
long way on a dark night," so the boat was put back and the brig
hurriedly scuttled. And you can drop a lead line close to the edge of
the reef anywhere about Ocean Island, and get no soundings at forty
fathoms.
* * * * *
Soon after we anchored an urgent message was sent to the Captain by King
Tokusar and Queen Sê, imploring him to come ashore and advise them. The
Captain had of late seemed averse to going anywhere without my company,
and asked me to come with him. So, getting into the whaleboat, we were
pulled on shore, landing at a massively-built stone wharf which formed
part of the royal premises.
I may here mention that the headquarters of the American Mission had
been at Kusaie for many years. The people were all Christians, and to a
certain degree educated. Their island took rank, therefore, as the most
successful result of missionary enterprise in the North Pacific.
A native college had been built, to which were brought from outlying
islands those natives who were destined for the ministry. However, about
a year previously the Board of Mission had changed their headquarters to
Ebon, an island of the Marshall group, leaving but one native missionary
on Kusaie in charge of the flock. His name was Likiak Sâ. There are
coloured Chadbands as well as white ones; and for pure, unmitigated
hypocrisy the European professor would have had but little show in a
prize contest.
The head of the American Mission, Mr. Morland, had built himself an
exceedingly comfortable stone house in Lêlé. As he was away at present
in the brig _Morning Star_, his residence was occupied by his
fellow-worker, Likiak Sâ, his wife, and an exceedingly pretty girl named
Kitty of Ebon, who acted as housekeeper to Mr. and Mrs. Morland when at
home.
The missionaries had tried hard to prevent the people of Kusaie from
selling produce to the whaleships, alleging that their visits were
fruitful of harm. The old king, however, whose power had declined
sensibly since the arrival of the missionaries, withstood their orders;
and finally insisted upon the privilege of permitting them to visit the
island, and to purchase the pigs, poultry, and fruit from the islanders
which would otherwise lie useless on their hands.
This King Tokusar was a curious compound of shrewdness, generosity,
cant, and immorality, each alternately gaining the upper hand.
On entering the "palace," which was exceedingly well furnished, we found
him seated in an armchair in his reception room. He was dressed in a
black frock-coat and white duck trousers: the latter somewhat of a
military cut, falling over patent leather shoes. On one side of the
chair, lying on its broad arm, was a ponderous copy of the Scriptures in
the Kusaie dialect. On the other arm was placed one of the long clay
pipes known as churchwardens.
Behind him, with her much bejewelled fingers clasping the back of her
consort's chair, was Queen Sê, a pretty little woman, with a pleasant,
animated expression of countenance. Further inside the apartment were
the queen's female attendants, sitting in the ungraceful manner peculiar
to the Pingelap and Kusaie women.
The king looked worn and ill, as he croaked out, "How you do, Captain? I
glad to see you again. I thank God he bin good to you--give you good
voyage. How much oil you bin buy at Ponapé?"
Shaking hands warmly with the king, Hayston introduced me in form, and
then to Her Majesty, who smiled graciously, tossing back her wavy black
hair, so as to show her massive gold ear-rings. Chairs were brought,
when a truly amusing conversation took place.
_King._--"Well, Captain! you d--d clever man. I want you give me advice.
You see--all these men come to Kusaie. Well--me afraid, take my island
altogether. What you think?"
_Captain._--"Oh no, king! I'll see they do you no harm. I think some of
them go away in the _Leonora_."
_King._--(Much doubting) "Oh! thank you. I no want too many white men
here--no Christians like Kusaie men. No believe God, no Jesus Christ."
(Then with sudden change of tone) "I say, Capt'n Hayston, one of you men
no pay my people when you here last--no pay anybody."
_Captain._--"Very bad man, king, how much he cheat people out of?"
_King._--(With inquiring look at queen) "Oh! about three dollars."
_Captain._--"I'll attend to it, king--I'll see it paid."
_King._--"Thank you, Capt'n. What you say this young gentleman's name?"
_Captain._--"His name is Hilary Telfer."
_King._--"You like Strong's Island, young gentleman? Pretty girl, eh?
Same as Captain?" Here he gave a wheezing laugh, and clapped his hands
on the Captain's knees.
I told him I thought the Strong Island girls very pretty. The queen
communicated this to the attendants. After which I was the recipient of
various nods and winks and wreathed smiles.
An enormous roasted hog was then carried in by two of the king's cooks,
after which a number of servitors appeared carrying taro, yams, and
other vegetables--again yet more, bearing quantities of fish. We seated
ourselves at a small table--the Captain opposite the king, while the
lively little queen and I were _vis-a-vis_.
"Make up to her," whispered the Captain, "flatter her to the masthead if
you wish to be in clover for the rest of your stay. Never mind old
Tokusar."
Acting on this hint I got on famously with her South Sea majesty,
discovering in due course that she was a really clever little woman, as
well as an outrageous flirt.
Presently the boats came ashore again, and the steward was ushered in,
carrying a large box.
"King!" said the Captain, "I know you are sick, and need something to
make you strong. Pray accept a small present from my table." The
present consisted of two bottles of brandy, with the same quantity of
gin, and a dozen of beer.
"Oh! thank you, Capt'n--you really very kind. By George! I like you too
much."
The queen cast a reproachful glance at Hayston. I could see she did not
appreciate the gift. Her lord soon had a bottle of brandy opened, out of
which he poured himself an able seaman's dose. The Captain took a
little, and I--for once in my life--shared a bottle of Tennant's bitter
beer with a real queen.
The king rose up, with a broad smile illumining his wrinkled face, and
said, with his glass to his lips, "Capt'n, and Capt'n's friend, I glad
to see you." Presently, however, with a scared face, he said something
to his consort at which she seemed disconcerted, and then told us they
had forgotten to say grace.
This, in a solemn manner, Hayston requested me to do, and, as I was
bending my head and muttering the half-forgotten formula, the king
leaned over and whispered to him, "I say, Capt'n, how many labour boys
you want take away in brig?"
This made me collapse entirely, and I indulged in a hearty laugh. The
Captain and the queen followed suit, and, at some distance, the king's
cackling merriment.
It certainly was a jolly dinner. The king was growing madder ever
minute, alternately quoting Scripture and swearing atrociously. After
which he told me that he liked to be good friends with Mr. Morland, and
that he had given up all his bad habits. But, changing his mood again,
he confided to me that he wished he was young again, and concluded by
expressing a decided opinion as to the beauty of Kitty of Ebon, Mrs.
Morland's housekeeper.
The queen now rose from the table and asked me to smoke a cigar. She
produced a work-box in which were cigarettes and some Manila cheroots.
Most graciously she lighted one for me.
The king was now more than half-seas over. He laughed hilariously at the
Captain's stories, and, with some double-barrelled oaths, announced his
determination to return to the worship of the heathen gods and to
increase the number of his wives.
Queen Sê smiled, and blowing out the smoke from between her pouting red
lips, said, "Hear the old fool talk!"
* * * * *
That night there was high revel on board the _Leonora_ after we had
taken our farewell of the king and queen.
Hayston decided to take advantage of the land breeze, and so get away to
South harbour at once, as we had business to do there. Chabral harbour
was a difficult place to get out of, though easy enough to get into.
The trade winds blow steadily here for seven months out of the twelve.
Now, though the largest ship afloat may run in easily through the deep
and narrow passage, there is not room enough to beat out against the
north-east wind. Neither can she tow out, as there is always a heavy
swell rolling in through the passage, wind or no wind. Kedging out is
also simply impossible, owing to the extraordinary depth of water.
In 1836, the _Falcon_ of London, a whaleship, lay in Chabral harbour for
120 days. She had ventured in for wood and water. On making a fifth
attempt to tow out with her five boats, she touched and went to pieces
on the reef.
Hayston, however, had run in, knowing that at this season of the
year--from January to March--the winds were variable, a land breeze
generally springing up at dusk.
I stated that there was revelry on board the brig that night. The fact
was that the Captain, in the presence of the king, queen, and myself,
had made agreement with the refugee traders to take them to whatever
island they preferred. The king was strongly averse to their retinue of
excitable natives being domiciled among the peaceful Kusaie people.
Inspired with courage by the presence of Hayston, he had told the
traders that he wished them to vacate Lêlé. If they did arrange to leave
in the _Leonora_, he told them that they could establish themselves at
Utwé (South harbour), and there remain until they got away in a passing
whaler or China-bound ship.
After conferring with Hayston, most of the traders decided to take his
offer of conveying them and their following to Ujilong (Providence
Island), which was his own property, and there enter into engagement
with him to make oil for five years. Two others agreed to proceed to the
sparsely populated but beautiful Eniwetok (or Brown's group), where were
vast quantities of cocoa-nuts, and only thirty natives. These two men
had a following of thirty Ocean islanders, and were in high delight at
the prospect of having an island to themselves and securing a fortune
after a few years of oil-making.
As the merry clink of the windlass pauls echoed amidst the verdurous
glens and crags of the mountains that surround Lêlé, the traders, with
their wives, families, and followers, pulled off in their whaleboats and
came aboard.
What a picture did the brig make as she spread her snowy canvas to the
land-breeze! Laden with the perfume of a thousand flowers, cooled by its
passage through the primeval forest, it swept us along towards the
passage, upon the right steering through which so much depended. The
traders had half a dozen whaleboats; these, with two belonging to the
_Leonora_, were towing astern, with a native in each.
The passage, as I have said before, was deep but narrow. As the traders
gazed on either side and watched the immense green rollers dashing with
resistless force past the brig's side, they looked apprehensively at
the Captain and then at their boats astern.
Right in the centre an enormous billow came careering along at the speed
of an express train. Though it had no "breaking curl" on its towering
crest, I instinctively placed my hands in the starboard boat davits,
expecting to see the vast volume of water sweep our decks. Some of the
traders sprang into the main rigging just as the brig lifted to the sea,
to plunge downward with a swift and graceful motion, never losing her
way for a moment. No man of our crew took the least notice. They knew
what the brig could do, they knew the Captain, and no more anticipated a
disaster than a mutiny.
We made open water safely. Then the Captain descended from the
fore-yard, whence he had been conning the ship. "Well, gentlemen," he
said, "here we are, all on board the _Leonora_! I hope you think well of
her."
The traders emphatically asserted that she was a wonder. Then, as we did
not intend to enter Utwé harbour till the morning, we shortened sail.
The brig was placed under her topsails only, and we glided slowly and
smoothly down the coast. Still the reef surge was thundering on the
starboard hand.
The light of the native villages--for the sudden night of the tropics
was upon us--glimmered through the groves of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit
trees that fringed the snowy beaches. A shadowy, dreamy landscape,
blurred and indistinct at times, while ever and anon the back-borne
spume of the breakers fell in rain-mist over all, as they reared and
raved, only to dash themselves in mad turmoil on the javelins of jagged
coral.
It was a strange scene. Yet stranger still were the dramatis
personæ--the wild band of traders that clustered around the giant form
of the Captain, as he lay smoking his cigar on the skylight, in friendly
converse with all.
Foremost in position and seniority comes old Harry Terry, a stalwart,
grizzled veteran, brown-cheeked and bright-eyed still. Full of yarns of
his cruise with Captain Waldegrave of H.M. _Seringapatan_, and Captain
Thomas Thompson in the _Talbot_ frigate, on the coast of South America.
Clear and honest is his eye, yet he has a worn and saddened look, as
from a sorrow, long past, half-forgotten, yet never to be wholly erased
from memory's tablet. A deserter--of course. Yet had he a true Briton's
love for the flag which he had once sailed and fought under. By his side
stand four stalwart half-caste sons, hearkening with glistening eyes to
the Captain's tales of lands they had never seen, scarcely heard of,--of
polar bears, icebergs, dog sledges, Esquimaux, reindeer, far amid the
solitudes of the frozen North.
Close by old Harry sits a tall, red-bearded man, with a look of latent
humour in his countenance, which proclaims his nationality even if the
richness of his brogue were not in evidence. This is Pleasant Island
Bill, a merry good-for-nothing, with a warm heart and unlimited capacity
for whisky. In his belt he carries--perhaps from force of habit--a heavy
navy revolver, before which many a fierce Pleasant islander has gone
down in the bloody émeutes so common in that wild spot. Behind Bill is
his wife Tiaro--a fair-skinned native of Taputanea (Drummond's Island).
She is certainly the "savage woman" of the poet's fancy--handsome
withal, as, with her hand on her husband's shoulder, she gazes
admiringly at the herculean figure of the far-famed Rover of the South
Seas, the dreaded Captain of the _Leonora_. Near to or behind Tiaro are
the other traders' wives, with their wild-eyed, graceful children.
Beside me, sitting upon a bundle of sleeping mats, is a bronzed and
handsome young fellow, Charlie Wilder by name, a veritable Adonis of the
South Seas. With clear-cut features and bright brown curling locks,
contrasting well with a dark, drooping moustache, he lolls languidly on
the mats, gazing dreamily at times at the animated forms and faces
around him. He was the ideal sea rover--much untrammelled by the canons
of more civilised life. To each of his four young wives he appeared
equally devoted. Though a _blasé_, exquisite in manner, he was a man who
simply laughed at wounds and death. A dangerous antagonist, too, as some
of his fellow-traders had good reason to know.
There was yet another trader--a tall young American, who had run away at
Pleasant Island from the whaleship _Seagull_--a difference of opinion
with the captain having resulted in Seth's being put in irons.
Besides Dick Mills the boat-steerer, who had deserted also from a
whaler, there was another well-known trader, a true type of the old-time
escaped convict. Burnt browner than a coffee berry is old Bob Ridley,
scarred, weather-beaten, and, in accordance with the fashion of runaway
sailors in the early days, tattooed like a Marquesas islander. Very
"dour" and dangerous was this veteran--thinking no more of settling a
difference with his ever-ready revolver than of filling his ancient clay
pipe. He had with him two sons and three daughters, all married save the
youngest girl. Sons and daughters alike had intermarried with natives,
and the old man himself--his first wife being dead--had possessed
himself of a girl of tender years but unyielding character. A native of
Rapa-nui or Easter Island, she possessed in a high degree the personal
beauty for which her race is famed throughout Polynesia. The old trader,
it seems, had lately visited Tahiti, and there had dropped across the
beautiful Lalia, and rescued her from the streets of Papeite. When he
returned to Pleasant Island she accompanied him. She was a clever
damsel, and having once been an inmate of the military camp at Tahiti,
gave herself great airs over her step-children, though she was the
junior of the youngest girl. Amongst other accomplishments Lalia
could swear fluently both in French and English, having besides a
thorough command of whaleship oaths which, I may observe, are unique in
their way, and never seen in print.
Singing and dancing were kept up until the galley fire was lit and
coffee served out. Then as the tropic sea-mist was dispelled by the
first sun rays, we saw, at no great distance, the verdurous hills that
enclose with emerald walls the harbour of Utwé. Far back, yet seeming
but a cable's length from the brig, rose the rugged coast, two thousand
feet in air, of Mount Crozier.
The inner shore of the harbour, sheltered by the reef from the fury of
the terrific rollers, is surrounded by a broad belt of darkest green
mangroves and hibiscus, forming a dense barrier, monotonous in
colouring, but blending harmoniously with sea and sky. A well-nigh
impassable forest coloured the landscape from sea to mountain top. Only
near the shore were groves of cocoa-palms waving their plumy banners to
the soft trade breezes. Interspersed at intervals one descried
plantations of bananas and sugar-cane, yams and taro. The humidity of
the climate shows itself in the surpassing richness of the vegetation.
Mountain torrents foam and "rivulets dance their wayward round" in many
a sequestered glen. Cane thickets springing densely from the deep
alluvial mould form a safe retreat for the wild boar, while the stately
purple plumaged pigeons preen themselves in the green gloom of this
paradisal wild.
The Captain walked the quarter-deck, giving orders to make sail on the
brig, glancing in a half amused, yet contemptuous manner at the
recumbent figures of the traders who, overcome by their potations, lay
slumbering on the deck.
Utwé is but a small harbour, so that the Captain felt vexed when
daylight broke and revealed four whalers lying at anchor in the little
port, allowing us no room. But one of them had his canvas loosed, and
we caught the strains of "Shenandoah" as the crew lifted the anchor. We
backed our main-yard and lay to, while she sailed out. A fine sight it
was, as the whaler stood out through the narrow passage! The huge
rollers dashing swiftly past her weather-beaten sides, made her roll so
heavily that the boats on the davits nearly touched the water with their
keels. She came close under our stern. Her captain stood up in one of
the boats and took off his hat.
"How air you, Capt'n?" he drawled; "that's a beautiful brig of yours.
I've heard a deal of the _Leonora_ and Captain Hayston. I'm real sorry I
hav'n't time to board you and have a chat. There's another
blubber-hunter coming out after me, so you'd better wait awhile."
Hayston answered him politely, and the _Marathon_ soon ran round the lee
side of the island. In a quarter of an hour she was followed by another
ship, after which we filled again and ran in, anchoring between the
mangroves and the _Europa_ and _St. George_, New Bedford whaleships.
Our first care was to land the cattle, and here the traders and whalers
were treated to a lively scene. The mate Jansen, of whom I have before
spoken, had been knocked off duty by the Captain, who told him that he
was no seaman, and a cowardly dog besides, as he was always ready to ill
treat the native crew, but would not stand up to him.
An incident, in which I was an actor, goes to show the savage nature of
the brute. One day, during our stay at Ponapé, I happened to require a
pair of steelyards that lay in his cabin; on going for them he used
insulting language, and dared me to enter. He was lying in his bunk, and
his bloodshot eyes glared with rage as he took a pistol from under his
pillow. Keeping one eye on the pistol I went in and took the steelyards.
He leaped out, and a struggle began. We fell on the deck--his whole
weight upon me--but I managed to get hold of the pistol, which I threw
overboard. As he freed himself and rose, he gave me a savage kick on
the knee which lamed me for a week. But I drew back and landed him a
left-hander, which catching him fair in the face, sent him down
senseless, while a stream of blood poured from his mouth and ears.
"Malie! malie!" shouted Black Johnny in Samoan (the equivalent to
"_habet_"), and the crew took up the cry in tones of deep approval.
We never spoke again after this encounter.
However, just before we made ready to land the cattle, he came aft and
begged the Captain to reinstate him.
"Mr. Jansen!" said Hayston, "I cannot permit you to resume duty as mate
of this brig. I have given the position to Fiji Bill, as you are not fit
for it. However, I will see how you behave for the future, and may give
you another chance. Go on deck and assist to get these cattle into the
water."
The traders and whalers were watching the operation with great interest.
The longboat, in charge of Fiji Billy, was ready to tow the cattle on
shore as soon as they were lowered into the water. The first beast was
swung safely out of the main hold and over the side, when the tackle
parted aloft and the animal plunged into the sea, just missing the boat.
For a moment there was silence. We all ran to the side, where we saw the
bullock reappear and strike bravely out for the mangroves, which he
reached in safety.
The Captain walked slowly over to Jansen, who was engaged in bullying
the boatswain.
"Who rigged that tackle?" he asked in his most unruffled tones; but I
could see the colour mounting to his forehead, as the laughter of the
whaling crews fell upon his ear.
"I did," growled Jansen (edging towards his cabin, in which he always
kept loaded firearms), his sullen face showing fear and hatred
combined.
"Keep to the deck, sir," broke forth the Captain, who had foreseen this
movement; the harsh, severe tones I knew foretold disaster. "D--n you,
sir, you are neither good enough for an officer nor man before the mast.
There is not a kanaka on board this brig but could have rigged that
tackle in a seaman-like manner. Boy George, or even one of the girls,
could have made a better fist of it. You have disgraced the brig in the
presence of other ships. Go to your bunk till after breakfast."
And now Jansen brought immediate punishment on himself. With one hand on
the door of the deckhouse, he turned round and muttered, "Why didn't you
let the women do it, then?"
The next moment both men were struggling fiercely on the deck,--Jansen
making frantic efforts to fire a pistol he had concealed in the bosom of
his shirt; but the hand which held it was gripped by the Captain, and
the muzzle pointed upwards.
Jansen was an extremely powerful man, and, amid the babel of tongues
that were let loose, I heard one trader say, "By ----! he's got the best
of the Captain."
But I noticed that while Jansen was almost spent, and was breathing
stertorously, the Captain had not yet put forth the tremendous strength
which, on sea or shore, I never saw equalled. He was still holding
Jansen's hand with a vice-like grasp, when the pistol fell to the deck.
Suddenly freeing himself, he stepped back and dealt two blows with
wonderful quickness on the mate's face, cutting his forehead and cheek
to the bone. The man staggered wildly--his features streaming with
blood--then fell senseless against one of the crew, who darted aside and
let him drop on the deck. A murmur of applause, mingled with cries of
pity from the women, arose from the spectators, while the whaler crews
rent the air with cheers for "Bully Hayston."
The Captain drew forth his handkerchief, with which he removed a slight
stain upon his face, then said in a mild and pleasant voice, as if
nothing had occurred, "Steward! bring me a glass of water. Bill (to the
Fijian) get these other beasts up and put them ashore. Antonio! get
Jansen's traps together, and put them and him into the boat. The man
that points a pistol at me on board of this brig only does it once. As I
don't wish to hurt him again, I must get rid of him."
The cattle were soon landed and eating their fill on the rich tract of
littoral between Utwé and Coquille.
That day I bought various articles of trade--including ten tons of yams
for Arrecifos. The Captain never interfered with my dealings with the
natives; so when Likiak Sâ the missionary went to him, and in a whining
tone complained of my paying them in trade, he got the following answer:
"Don't want your people to be paid in trade, don't you? Precisely so!
you white chokered schemer--you whited sepulchre! you want to see these
hard-working slaves of natives paid in cash, so that you and your
brethren may rob the poor devils of every dollar for church tithes. The
supercargo has my fullest confidence, and will not rob any native of a
cent. Go and talk to him."
The missionary came to the trade-room, where I was selling pigeon shot
and powder to a man named Sree, and said that he wished the natives paid
in cash. Every Strong's islander can speak English. So I turned to those
present and asked if I had suggested their taking trade instead of
dollars. On receiving this answer in the negative I told him to clear
out. He disregarded me, upon which I assisted him to leave the cabin,
while Lalia and Kitty covered him with flour from the pantry.
This provided me with a persistent and bitter enemy.
About six o'clock the Captain went below, but rather hastily returned,
casting an anxious look to seaward. "The glass is falling fast," he
said, "I can't make it out. I have never known it to blow hard here at
this time of year. Still it is banking up to the westward."
He hailed the whaleships, and saw that they had also noticed the glass
falling. In a few minutes the two captains boarded us to have a
consultation. The heavy, lowering cloud to seaward had deepened in
gloom, and the three captains gazed anxiously at it.
"Gentlemen!" said Hayston, "we are in a bad place if it comes on to
blow. The land-breeze has died away, and that it is going to blow from
the sou'-west I am convinced. We cannot tow out in the face of such a
swell, even if we had daylight to try it. To beat out by night would be
madness."
The faces of the Yankee skippers lengthened visibly as they begged
Hayston to make a suggestion.
"Well," he said at length, "your ships may ride out a blow, for you've
room to swing in, and if you send down your light spars and be quick
about it, and your cables don't part, you'll see daylight. But with me
it is different. I cannot give the brig a fathom more cable; there are
coral boulders all around us, and the first one she touches will knock a
hole in her bottom. But now every man must look to himself. I have two
hundred people on board, and my decks are lumbered up with them. Adios!
gentlemen, go on board and get your spars down for God's sake."
Then the Captain turned all his attention to getting the brig ready for
the storm that was even then close upon us. In the shortest time our
royal and topgallant yards were down, the decks cleared of lumber, the
native passengers sent below, and five fathoms of cable hove in. Hayston
knew the brig would swing round with her head to the passage as soon as
the gale struck her, and unless he hove in cable, must strike on one of
the boulders he had spoken of.
As yet there was not a breath of air, for after the last whisper of the
land-breeze had died away, the atmosphere became surcharged with
electricity, and the rollers commenced to sound a ceaseless thunder, as
they dashed themselves upon the reef, such as I had never heard before.
A pall of darkness settled over us, and though the whaleships were so
near that the voices of their crews sounded strange and ghostlike in our
ears, we could see nothing except the dull glow of the lamps alight in
the cabins--showing through the ports.
Then we heard the voice of Captain Grant of the _St. George_, "Stand by,
Captain Hayston, it's coming along as solid as a wall."
A fierce gust whistled through the cordage, and then a great white cloud
of rain, salt spume, and spray enveloped the brig, as with a shrill,
humming drone, like a thousand bagpipes in full blast, the full force of
the gale struck us. The brig heeled over, then swung quickly round to
her anchor, while the crew, every man at his station, sought through the
inky blackness that followed the rain squall to see how the whaleships
fared.
But now the darkness deepened, if such were possible. No star shone
through the funereal gloom; while the enormous rollers, impelled by the
increasing force of the wind, swept in quickest succession through the
narrow passage. The three ships rolled heavily.
"Harry!" called out the Captain to the oldest trader, "take your boats
and land as many of the people as you can. The sea is getting up
fast--in half-an-hour it will be breaking aboard the brig."
The traders' boats were made fast to the ship's stern, except two on
deck.
These were now hauled alongside, and old Harry, with his four stalwart
sons--splendid fellows they were physically--manned one, and taking
about fifty of their followers, who sprang over the side and were
hauled into the boat, the sons gave a wild shout and disappeared into
the darkness.
The other boat was equally lucky in not being stove in. Pleasant Island
Bill was in charge, and in a lull of the wind I heard him call out to
those on deck to throw the women overboard and he would pick them up.
Five or six of them leaped overboard and, swimming like otters, gained
the boat; many others naturally held back. Standing on the deck clinging
to the Captain's knees were the two children, Toby and Kitty. Seizing
Kitty in his arms the Captain tossed her into the black waters close to
the boat, where one of the crew caught her by the hair and pulled her
in. Toby gave a yell of alarm and tried to dart below, but I caught him
and slung him over after Kitty. Bill nearly missed catching him as he
rose to the surface, but he was taken in. Then the boat headed for the
shore, now only discernible by the white line of foam breaking; into the
mangroves.
And now our troubles recommenced. The waters of the harbour, generally
placid as a mill-pond, were now running mountains high, so quickly had
the sea got up. The Captain, who was standing at the stern sounding, and
apparently as cool as if he were trout fishing, beckoned me to him, and
placing his mouth to my ear, shouted--
"Four fathoms under our stern--little enough if the sea gets worse. But
if the wind hauls another point we'll touch that big coral mushroom on
the port quarter, and then it's good-bye to the _Leonora_!"
The words had hardly left his lips when a strange and awful lull of the
wind occurred, rendering more intense the enshrouding darkness, more
dread and distinct the seething wash and roar of the seas that broke on
the weather reef.
The Captain sprang into the main rigging and held up his hand to feel
if the wind was coming from a new quarter. For some minutes the brig
rolled so madly that it was all he could do to hold on.
Then his strong, fearless voice sounded out: "Men! who will man a boat
to take a line to the _Europa_? If I can get a hawser to the whaler to
keep the brig's stern from this boulder under our port quarter, it may
save the ship. If not, we must strike. There's a lull now, and a boat
could get away."
After a momentary hesitation, Antonio the Portuguese, Johnny Tilton, and
two natives volunteered.
"Good lads!" cried the Captain; "stand by, men, to lower away the
whaleboat." In a few minutes she was in the water, and a whale-line made
fast to a stout hawser was coiled away in the bow, as with an
encouraging cheer from those on deck, the men gave way, and passing
under our stern made for the _Europa_.
After twenty minutes of anxiety, for we could see nothing, nor tell
whether the boat had reached the _Europa_ safely or been stove in
alongside, we saw her dart past the stern again, and Antonio called out,
"All right, Captain, heave away on the hawser, the end's fast to the
_Europa_."
"Well done, lads!" cried the Captain; "but stay where you are, and I'll
get some more women on shore."
The strange lull still continued, but a lurid glare showed me the glass
still falling steadily; when I told the Captain this he sighed, for he
knew that our best chance of safety was gone. But he was a man of
action.
"Go below, Hilary!" he said quietly, "and get all the papers, letters,
and articles of value together--I'll send them on shore with the women."
In the cabin were eight or ten women; they gazed at me with
terror-stricken faces. "On deck, Mary!" I said. "On deck all of you!
there's a boat alongside, and some of you can get ashore."
Five of them, with old Mary, at once left the cabin, and I heard their
wild cries and screams of alarm as they were seized by the Captain and
crew, and thrown overboard to be picked up by the boat.
Lalia and the others remained in the cabin, clinging to each other
and sobbing with fear.
I picked up a heavy trade chest, and laying mats and rugs along the
bottom and sides, stowed into it the chronometers, a couple of sextants,
charts, and what gold and silver coin was in the Captain's secretary;
also as many Winchester carbines and cartridges as it would hold.
"Here, girls! help me carry this on deck," I said in Samoan to Lalia,
who understood the language. We dragged the heavy box on deck, and, by
wonderful good luck, it was lowered into the boat, which was now under
the ship's quarter, and in imminent danger of being stove in.
The Captain desired me to go ashore in the longboat and take charge of
the boat. I was just about to jump when the brig gave a fearful plunge,
and before she could recover, a heavy roller crashed over the waist and
nearly smothered me. By clinging to the iron boat davits near me, I
managed to save myself from being carried overboard with the debris of
spars and timber that swept aft. When I regained my breath I could see
nothing of the boat. She had, however, been swept ashore, and all in her
landed safely except Bill, who was knocked overboard, but washed up into
the mangroves.
I felt the Captain's hand on my shoulder, as he asked me if I thought
the boat had gone under.
"I think not, or we should have heard some of them calling out; they can
all swim."
"Well, perhaps so," he replied, "but I fear not. I don't care a cent
about the loss of the dollars, but Bill is a good fellow."
Lalia had clung to the davits with me when the sea struck us, and was
now almost exhausted. So with the Captain's help I carried her below
into the now deserted cabin, for the other women were gone; had, I
supposed, been washed overboard, for they were standing with us when we
lowered the chest.
The Captain then hastened on deck, telling me that the wind was coming
away from the south. He had scarcely left me when I heard the dismal
drone of the gale again, and his voice shouting to the carpenter to
stand by and cut away the masts, for the seas were now breaking clean
over the bows, and sweeping along the decks with resistless force.
Being almost hove short, the ship could not rise quickly enough to the
seas, and was besides rolling so much that she threatened to turn turtle
every minute. It was impossible for any one to cross the deck, so madly
was the brig rolling, and so fiercely were the seas sweeping her decks
in quick succession; and so for a while all hands waited till a better
chance offered to cut away.
In the mean time I had dragged out another trade chest, and first
securing my own papers and placing them in the bottom, I filled it with
such articles as I thought would prove valuable if we did not save the
ship.
Lalia rendered me great assistance now. I filled a wineglass of
brandy from the decanter, and made her drink it, for her teeth were
chattering, and her lips blue with cold and terror combined.
Together we managed to get the chest half-way up the companion, when
another plunge made me slip, and the heavy box jammed the girl's feet
against the side of the companion lining. I called loudly for help, as I
could not extricate her from under the box. Fortunately, four native
seamen heard me, and lifted the chest off her legs.
Then I heard the Captain's voice calling out, "Well done, boys! Rotumah
men, brave fellows, in a boat!"
Carrying the girl below again, I dropped her in the steward's cabin,
told her to stay there till I came back, and ran on deck.
The Captain met me, and, pointing to a dark, indistinct mass, rising and
falling near the ship's stern, said, "There's real grit for you!"
It was one of the trader's whaleboats, manned by four Rotumah men and a
native of Danger Island. Two of these brave fellows had been washed
ashore in the second sea that had struck us, and with three others, who
had reached the mangroves in another boat, had put out again to return
to the brig and save their shipmates.
The Captain now called out to those who were left on board, and told
them that there was a chance of some of them getting ashore, by jumping
over as the boat approached and getting into her. As for himself, if
three or four good men would stand by him, he would attempt to cut away
the masts, and perhaps save the ship as the hawser was made fast to the
_Europa_.
It was a new one, and might not part; but if it did, nothing could help
the brig from sticking on the detached coral boulders that lay so close
under the stern.
Seizing her child in her arms, a powerfully-built Ocean Island woman
sprang into the seething foam-caldron, and disregarding our cries to
make for the boat, struck out for the nearest point of the mangroves.
Next morning the child was found unharmed on a small beach, more than a
mile away, and the body of the mother lying dead beside her, with a
fearful gash on her temple and one foot missing,--the poor babe gazing
at the cold face, and wondering why she did not wake when she called to
her. Then others followed the women, some getting into the boat, and
others letting the sea take them in the direction of the shore.
"Where is the second mate?" shouted the Captain to the coxswain of the
rescuing boat.
"On shore with the traders, sir; all the boats but one are stove in on
the beach, and he can't get out again."
"All right, lads, don't attempt to come out again; but wait a minute."
Then turning to me, "You must go ashore now in this boat. She has not
many in her; and if her head is kept right into the break between the
mountains she'll run up into the mangroves."
But I said I would take my chance with the ship. I was a good swimmer,
and in that time of danger, even despair, I could not leave the Captain.
He pressed my hand silently, then called out, "All right, men, give way,
the supercargo stays with me and the ship"; one dash of the oars, a
wailing cry, a shout which out-toned it, and the boat disappeared, as if
swallowed up by the darkness or the deep.
We were not clustered together aft. Those of the crew that had stood by
the ship were hanging on to the main rigging. The Captain, who had
hitherto intended cutting away both masts at once, told me he fancied
the ship was straining and plunging less, and that he would only cut
away as a last resource.
Suddenly he bent his glance at the hawser that was made fast to the
_Europa_, and then pointed over to the seething water under our stern. I
saw we were almost over a huge coral boulder, which every now and then
showed itself bare.
"By ----! those fellows on board the _Europa_ are paying out the hawser.
We were fifty feet from that rock when the hawser was made fast and had
a strain on it, and now it's right under her stern. Can any of you see
the whaler's cabin lights?"
The men looked through the blinding mists of spray that flew in our
faces, and stung like whip-lashes when the brig was lifted high on a
towering sea. The hawser tightened like an iron bar, but suddenly fell
as if it had parted or been cast off.
"The cursed dogs!" said the Captain, opening and shutting his hands
spasmodically, "they are paying out, and letting us go to the devil!"
And now a tremendous sea swept along and broke just as it reached
abreast the mainmast. We felt the brig strike. Sea after sea tumbled in
over the bulwarks, and a solid sheet of water broke over us in the main
rigging, sweeping three or four men overboard.
When I cleared my throat of the water I had swallowed, I saw the Captain
with a rifle in his hand, and then followed the flash as he fired in the
direction of the _Europa_.
"Captain," I cried, "what good will that do? She may be ashore herself
in as bad a fix as we are."
He pushed me aside as I placed my hand on his arm. "Stand clear, Hilary!
I tell you these cowardly hounds are deliberately wrecking me. That ship
is in a safe place, and could ride out a heavier gale than this."
"Captain," I began, when another sea lifted the brig's bow high in the
air; then, with a dull crash, we struck stern on, and I saw the hawser
had either parted or been cut away. The rudder had been torn from the
stern-post, and ripped its way through the timbers with a fearful
tearing sound. Again the Captain's face showed itself to me almost as
white as the hell of boiling foam around us.
"My ship is dearer to me than my life!" he said, as he cast the rifle
from him and stood gazing out into the howling storm, amid which all the
voices of earth and air seemed to be contending.
Suddenly, with a pang of pity, I remembered that Lalia was in the
steward's cabin. I dashed down below. Already the water was running into
the hold, and as I gained the cabin the ship once more struck violently
under my feet.
"Lalia! Lalia!" I called, "come with me. Can you walk?"
The girl was sitting up in the bunk, her hair unloosed, her eyes dilated
with terror, as she gazed into the dimly-lighted cabin, and saw the
water washing around it.
She could hardly stand with the pain in her bruised feet, but I lifted
her out. Then she tore off her dress, stripped to the waist, and, hand
in hand, we succeeded in gaining the companion-way just as a torrent of
water filled the cabin and put out the lamps.
I felt the Captain's hand grasp me round the waist as we stumbled out on
deck, and heard him say, "Hold on to me, Hilary! hold on like grim
death, my girl!" as we were swept along by a sea against the bulwarks on
the starboard side.
Some of the men had clung to a boat that we carried on top of the
deck-house, which had been washed over the side. They had no oars, but
the backwater from the reef dashed her up against the ship, and I have
an indistinct remembrance of the Captain dragging us along with him, and
attempting to lift the girl up, when a towering wave struck us right
amidships and drove us all over together on top of the boat, which was
already stove in.
I should have gone under then but for Lalia, for I had got a blow on
the side from a piece of wreckage. Anyhow, what followed I cannot
remember, for when I came to my senses it was daylight, and I was lying
under some cocoa-nut trees with Lalia, and one of Harry Skilling's
native retainers named Karta, bathing my back with fresh water.
* * * * *
My first inquiry was for the Captain, and I was relieved to hear from
Lalia that he was visible at that moment, directing the crew to save
wreckage from the brig. The two whaleships had ridden out the gale in
safety, and the _Europa_ was already under weigh. I thought it just as
well it was so, for Hayston would, I am sure, have attempted to seize
her.
Lalia told me that we clung to the boat till she struck a coral rock
and went to pieces. Then every one was separated. She had been seized by
Karta, and, still keeping hold of me, the three of us had come ashore
together. She said also that my back was badly cut with the coral. The
poor girl had a terrible gash on her arm, and this she had neglected to
attend to me. I had a deep wound on my face, which caused me great pain,
as a piece of tough coral had broken off in it.
Lalia was almost nude, and I had only the remnants of a pair of duck
trousers. We did not feel cold, however, as the storm had ceased, and
the sun was now shining brightly. The wind had gone down, and the
harbour was nearly as smooth as a mountain lake. The only visible sign
of the disaster of the night was the maintopmast of the _Leonora_,
showing where she had gone down.
From the bank of mangroves on which we were located there was no access
to the village of Utwé, where the rest of the ship's company were. Deep
channels separated the two portions of the harbour. Karta was about to
swim over to tell the Captain where I was, when Lalia caught him by
the arm and pointed to the water. I have read a good many tall yarns
about sharks, but never till now could I believe in their being as
numerous as a shoal of minnows.
The channels were simply alive with the brutes dashing to and fro,
lashing the water into foam, and contesting with each other for dark
objects floating near the surface. I shuddered instinctively, but
Lalia laughed, and explained that the dead bodies were those of pigs
washed overboard from the brig.
Presently the tall figure of Karta attracted the notice of some of the
people on the other side, and Lalia said the "ariki vaka" was coming
over to us in one of the traders' whaleboats.
The Captain sprang out of the boat, and seeing me lying down with my
head in the girl's lap thought I was dead.
"My dear boy," he said, taking both my hands and pressing them, "are you
badly hurt?"
I showed him my back, and said I felt most pain in my side, and
whereupon I suffered ten excruciating pains in one as he extracted the
piece of flat coral from my face. He then called one of the boat's crew,
and told him to take off his shirt, one sleeve of which he tore off and
bound up Lalia's arm. He then gave her the mutilated garment to cover
her bare body, saying in his old cheerful manner that her husband was
all right, and was out searching the beaches for her. She made a gesture
of indifference, and then fainted away. As soon as she revived she was
lifted into the boat, and we pushed off for the village.
The Captain kept pressing my hand all the way over, and told me that
since daylight he had been looking among the wreckage coming ashore and
searching the beach for me, when some one saw our three figures in the
cocoa-nut grove, and said two were white. Hayston knew this must be
Lalia and myself, as she had a very fair skin. He was sincerely
pleased at my escape, and no words need express my relief at his safety.
He took us forthwith to one of the villagers' houses, and told the
people to attend to us, and see that we wanted for nothing. He further
insisted that I should not attempt to render him any assistance until I
was perfectly recovered. I could only nod acquiescence, as my side was
paining me terribly.
A warm grasp of my hand and a kind look to Lalia and he was gone.
One of the Kusaie women in the house told us that a message had gone up
to the king, and that a native doctor named Srulik would soon come down
and cure my back with leaves in the island fashion. She also informed
Lalia that her husband had gone away in a canoe to look for her
body, with two natives, but that he had come across a case of gin, and
was now dead drunk on the opposite side of Utwé. It is hardly to be
expected that a young girl could feel love for a man of her husband's
years; but tears of humiliation coursed down her cheeks when the woman
added that he had already asked an Ocean Island girl to be wife to him.
About four o'clock in the afternoon messengers arrived from Lêlé with a
message of regret from the king to Captain Hayston, and an invitation
for me to Chabral harbour, so that I could get better quickly; and he
could send his own boat for me. But I did not want to be separated from
the Captain, and said I would come and visit him when I got permission.
Queen Sê sent me a large basket of cooked pigeons and fruit. Taking out
a few for myself and Lalia, I sent the rest to the Captain, who was
glad of them for his weary and hungry men.
For the next few days I suffered fearfully with the pain in my side, and
though the Captain visited me twice a day, and tried all he could to
cheer me up, I fell into a hopeless state of despondency. All the time
Lalia had remained in the house, her husband, not having finished the
case of gin, never coming near her. Her stepsons and daughters disliked
her, and therefore avoided the house where we were staying.
The Captain told me that her arm was cut to the bone, and that the trade
chest that had fallen against her had injured one foot badly. Never as
long as I live shall I forget the unwearied attention and kindness which
the poor girl showed me during our stay in the village. Though lame, and
with only the use of one arm, she never left my side, and strove by
every means in her power to allay the agony I endured--answering to my
petulance and irritability only with smiles and kind words.
The Captain told me that he had saved a good many articles from the
wreck; that the big trade chest had come ashore, and that the money and
firearms were in a safe place. A quantity of liquor had also been saved,
and already some fierce fights had taken place, but the traders had in
most instances behaved well, and assisted him to maintain order. He told
me also that Lalia's husband had taken away a lot of liquor into the
impassable forest that lines the north side of Utwé, and, with two of
his sons and several women, was having a big carouse.
"The virtuous and Christian Strong's islanders had," he said, "stolen
about a thousand dollars' worth of trade that had been washed ashore.
But," he added quietly, "I'll talk to them like a father as soon as I
get a house built, and knock the devil out of those Pleasant islanders
besides. They seem disposed to cut all our throats."
A couple of days after this, Hayston came to me with a letter from
Lalia's husband, which he handed to me. I don't know whether
amusement or indignation predominated as I read it, written as it was on
a piece of account paper.
STRONG'S ISLAND, _March 11th_.
Supercargo _Leonora_ Brig.
DEAR FRIEND.--I heer my wife have took up with you, and say she
do'ent want anny mo-ar truck with her lawful husban. Captin
Hayston say No, but she must be cotton strong to you, not to
come to me when I look for her neerly one week amung two thousan
sharks, as I can prove, but I bare you no ill-wil, for I got
anuther wife, but you must give me the three rings she ware, and
I warn you I'm not responsble.--I remane, your true and sincere
friend.
_P.S._--Lal can read as well as me, and you can let her read
this. She is a good girl, and I bear no ill-wil.
The Captain laughed when I read out this precious document, and told me
not to take matters so seriously. He then sat down and chatted for
half-an-hour, saying that as soon as he had finished saving the
wreckage, he had called the traders together, and laid certain proposals
before them to which they had agreed.
These were that the traders and their followers would consider
themselves under his direction, in which case he would engage to provide
food for them during their stay on the island. They were not to have any
commercial dealings with the people of Strong's Island, and their
natives were to assist the crew of the _Leonora_ in erecting houses for
their joint accommodation. After which he would endeavour to charter a
vessel, probably a passing whaleship, to take the whole lot of us to
Providence Island. Should no vessel call in six months' time, he would
take a boat's crew and make for Millé Lagoon, six hundred miles distant.
If the ketch I had brought down from Samoa was still afloat, he would
bring her back, and take the people in detachments to Providence Island.
He feared, however, that no more whalers would be calling in for ten
months, as the _St. George_ and _Europa_ were the last of the fleet
which was making, viâ Japan, for the Siberian coast, "right whaling."
He left us then, saying he had established a little republic on the
narrow strip of land that lay on the sea-side of Utwé village.
Then I gave Lalia the letter I had received from her reprobate
husband. She read it in silence and returned it to me, but I could see
that the heartless old scoundrel's words had wounded her deeply. She
took off some rings from her fingers, and sent them to the Captain to
hand to the old man. "Do you think," she said, "that I can ever get back
to Rapa-nui?" (Easter Island.)
Her father, she went on to say, was dead, and her mother had been among
those unfortunate people who in 1866 were seized by three Peruvian
slavers and taken to work the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands.
She, when about fourteen, had married one of the captains of one of the
ships owned by the great firm of Brander of Tahiti. The tales she told
me of his brutality and ill-usage during his drunken fits of passion
moved me to sincere pity. The unmitigated rascal deliberately sold his
child wife to an American (or a man who called himself one), and by him
she was taken to San Francisco and delivered into yet more hopeless
slavery. Here she made the acquaintance of a Tahitian half-caste. She
and this girl succeeded in escaping and paying their passages to Tahiti,
where they landed penniless and starving.
* * * * *
From Tahiti she was taken by her present husband.