A KING AND QUEEN
On the next day I walked to the new village in course of formation, when
I received from whites and natives alike a most flattering reception.
Outside of the sandy spit a solid sea-wall of coral had been built, the
ground had been levelled, and an enormous dwelling-house erected. This
was the work of the Ocean and Pleasant islanders. It was the Captain's
house, and from a hole in the gable floated the starry banner of the
great Republic. This flag had been the joint work of Nellie and Mila. It
was composed of strips of white calico, navy blue and Turkey red. At the
further end of the sea-wall stood the traders' houses; opposite the
captains' were those of their people. Every one seemed busy, and the
greatest animation pervaded the scene, while a number of Strong's
islanders, squatted down in front of the big house, surveyed the
operations with dismay. They dreaded, and with good reason, the fierce
and intractable natives of Pleasant Island, who would have been only too
pleased to have cut their throats and taken possession of their
beautiful home altogether.
I was received by the Captain at the door of his house, and although the
girls had frequently been to visit me, and bring fruit and fish from the
Captain when I was sick, I was made as much of as if I had been dead and
buried and come to life again. The Captain's merry blue eyes looked
searchingly into mine, as I seated myself in an easy chair, "You see
what it is to be _l'ami du maison_."
I acknowledged the compliment, and then turned to shake hands with
little Toby, who with a number of other children were being entertained
by a sort of pig and yam tea-party by the Captain, each youngster having
in his hand a junk of yam and piece of pork.
Those of the crew who were in the vicinity now came in, and I had quite
a levee. Black Johnny nearly wrung my hand off. I was glad to see the
Captain looking so bright, and evidently on such good terms with those
around him. I could not but be struck with the way in which the traders,
resolute and determined men themselves, deferred to his slightest wish.
For a few minutes he walked up and down the long matted floor,
apparently lost in thought, while I sat and talked with the
light-hearted, merry creatures around me. Suddenly stopping, he came up,
and placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Hilary! I like this island so well, that as Henry the Fifth said in
France, when the French queen asked him how he liked her country: I mean
to keep it."
"Captain," I said, startled and alarmed, "are you serious?"
"Yes and no! If I cannot get a ship to take us to Providence Island
within six months I will upset the missionaries' apple-cart and take
possession of the island. If a ship does call here, and I can charter
her, I am bound in honour to fulfil my promise to these traders."
"Captain," I said, "there are two hundred and fifty men on Strong's
Island; surely you would not dispossess them? Besides, they will fight."
"So much the better," he said, with a smile of contempt, "once let a
quarrel break out between them and these Ocean and Pleasant islanders,
and every native of Kusaie will have his throat cut in twenty-four
hours."
I turned the subject, for I saw by his stern expression that he meant
what he said, and that any trifling incident would perhaps bring matters
to an issue.
Presently he began again. "Yes, these Pleasant islanders, who two weeks
ago were all attached to these traders, are now heart and soul devoted
to me. They know I am a better man, according to their ideas, than all
the traders put together, and if I stepped out of the house now and told
them I would lead them, they would follow me and burn old Tokusar's town
over his head, cut off a passing ship, or do any other devilry such as
their bloody instincts revel in."
I tried to turn his thoughts into another channel, and succeeded so far
that when I rose to return he was laughing and joking in his usual
manner. He pointed out to me a separate part of the house, and told me
that as soon as I liked to take possession he would be glad to see me in
it.
I explained to him that for the present I had better remain in the
native house, as the king daily sent me food, and considered me his
guest. In this he concurred, as he said if the king took a liking to a
white man he would live in clover. He advised me to go and see him as
soon as I was strong, or else his dignity would be touched. Also that I
would find it well to keep good friends with Queen Sê.
When I returned to the native house, however, I felt "sick unto death,"
and cast myself down on the mats in despair. The hurt I had received in
the side seemed to have also affected my chest, as I could hardly
breathe without suffering agonies. Happily I became unconscious; when I
opened my eyes I found the Captain beside my mat, and during the whole
night he remained with me and encouraged my sinking spirits. When
daylight came he examined me carefully, after which he told me, that
from the darkening colour of my skin, and the agony I felt from the
slightest pressure, he thought I had received internal injury. He
therefore insisted upon my coming over to his village, so that I might
be under his immediate control. To this I consented at last, although
young Harry (as we called Harry Waters) was eager that I should come and
live with him on the north side of Utwé, where Hayston had formed a
sub-station to make oil and given him charge.
I liked Harry very much; he was the only one of the traders whose age
approached my own. His bearing and behaviour, too, contrasted favourably
with those of his drunken and dissolute colleagues. However, I had to
decline his kind offer, although, to my amusement, he emphatically
asserted that I would be no trouble to him, as he had four wives, and
Rosa, the youngest of them, was a clever nurse. I paid the Strong
islanders who had attended on me, and then inquired of Lalia what she
intended to do? She had, of course, no money to pay the people for
keeping her, and the old custom of extending hospitality to strangers
had naturally died out since the coming of the missionaries.
I had no other way of showing my gratitude than by offering her money.
This she refused, but said she would be glad to get some clothes or
material to make them. I gave a native money, and sent him up to Lêlé,
where he bought several dresses from Kitty of Ebon, and as she was the
same height and figure as Lalia, they fitted her capitally.
A couple of days after I had taken up my quarters with the Captain she
came to see me, and say good-bye. She told me she was going to live at a
village near Lêlé, and teach the Strong's Island women hat-making, at
which she was clever. She would stay there till she got tired of it. I
was sincerely sorry, and was not ashamed to show it, "being weak from my
wound," and hardly able to refrain from tears. I felt quite pleased when
the Captain came up and shook her little hand warmly, telling her that
she really ought not to leave us. "Mind, Lalia, come to me if you are
in any trouble, and I will see you righted," he said in parting.
"I know that, Captain! very well," she answered, looking up with a
strange, sorrowful look in her large bright eyes, "but I must go now."
Whereupon she walked slowly down the beach, and getting into a canoe
with two Kusaie women, waved her hand and was soon out of sight.
I recovered slowly, but after a while was able to get about and to take
an inventory of the property saved, while the Captain amused himself by
overlooking the building of a large oil-store. He had demanded an
immediate payment of two hundred and fifty thousand cocoa-nuts from the
king, as part indemnity for the property stolen by the natives from the
wreck. The king dared not refuse, and now a huge pile of cocoa-nuts was
accumulating near the oil-shed, where the Pleasant islanders were daily
scraping the nuts and making oil. A number of butts had come ashore,
which were utilised for the oil, so that the village had already gained
a settled look. About this time the Captain gave way to occasional
bursts of passion, inflicting severe beatings upon two of the traders,
who had got drunk and were careering about with rifles in their hands,
threatening to shoot any one that interfered with them.
He also accused old Harry Terry of plotting with the king, and a violent
scene ensued. Some of the natives still sided with their old master, and
with knives and shark-tooth daggers surrounded him, uttering cries of
defiance at the Captain.
I was in the big house when the row commenced, and saw the excited
savages running up to where the Captain and old Harry stood. An
encounter seemed imminent.
Boy George, with Nellie and the other women, now rushed in and demanded
of me to give them the Winchester and Snider rifles, which stood ready
loaded in a corner of the house. But, knowing that the Captain was ready
to assert his authority without arms, I refused, and locking them up in
a trade chest sat down upon it. I knew that the first shot would be
followed by a scene of bloodshed and murder. George was persistent,
saying the Captain would be killed, but changed his tone when he walked
in unharmed, but with his fingers bleeding. Harry had given in when he
saw the Captain dart in amongst the natives surrounding him, and knock
two of the ringleaders down, but denied that he had been plotting to
usurp Hayston's authority. A hollow reconciliation then took place, but
there was bad blood between them from that time. He told me that I had
done wisely in locking up the arms, and gave me the key to keep, as I
had, he confessed, shown more prudence than himself. Then he sat down
and began to sing like a schoolboy on a holiday.
One day we took the boat and went up a creek flowing into the harbour.
We were the only men, as the crew consisted of Ocean Island women and
some of the girls from the brig.
We were going to land them across the creek, where they intended to
construct a fish weir, as the harbour was a bad place to fish in on
account of the swarms of fierce and daring sharks.
Among the girls in the boat were two from Ocean Island, being of the
party landed from the whaleships at Chabral harbour. One of these was
the new wife of the old convict trader. She had come down on a visit,
and kept us amused with her descriptions of the orgies and drunken
freaks of the fierce old man, whose conduct had frightened--no easy
matter--all who came into contact with him.
As we crossed over the in-shore reef and got into the channel of the
creek, I saw a canoe with three figures in it ahead of us, and told the
Captain that I thought I recognised Lalia. He said it was hardly
possible, as she lived six miles away on the coast, and was not likely
to come down here. At this mention of Lalia her successor looked
frightened, and said she would like to go back, but was overruled by
the others, who laughed at her fears. After rowing up the creek as far
as the boat would go, the girls got out, and the Captain and I took our
rifles and started up a spur in the mountain on the chance of getting a
shot at the wild pigs.
We struck into the dense woodland, and in a few minutes the voices of
the laughing girls sounded subdued and far away. The gloom of the
primeval forest seemed to be deepened by the vast structure and domelike
tops of the mighty trees, whose thick branches formed an almost perfect
canopy, while underneath our footsteps fell soundless on the thick
carpet of rotting leaves.
Here the Captain and I took different routes, agreeing to meet on the
summit of the spur. As I walked along the silence that enshrouded all
things seemed to weigh heavily; the darkening gloom of the forest began
to fill me with childish fancies and misgivings. My nerves became strung
to such a pitch that the harsh croak of some brooding frigate bird, or
the sudden booming note of a wood pigeon, set my heart bumping against
my ribs with that strange, undefined feeling which, if it be not
premonition, is nearly akin to it.
I had ascended half-way to the spur when I heard a shot.
Its prolonged and tumultuous echoes startled the denizens of the forest,
winged and quadrupedal, and as they died away a wild chorus of shrieks
and growls seemed to electrify me into life. Waiting till silence
resumed sway I called aloud to the Captain. Far down below I heard his
answering call. Then he queried, "Have you shot anything?"
"No, I have not fired."
"Quick," he shouted, "come down--there's mischief among the women."
Rushing down the leaf-strewn spur I soon joined him. We ran together
till we reached the boat. There a tragedy had been enacted. The girls
were huddled up in the boat, which was drifting about from bank to bank.
As we dashed through the scrub they pointed to a patch of green-sward
amongst the cocoa-nut trees, saying, "She is killed."
There, lying on her face quite dead, was the Ocean Island girl with a
bullet through her breast. The ball had passed completely through her
body, and though her limbs were still quivering with muscular action,
she must have died in a few seconds after she was struck.
The girls told us that while they were making the weir she had gone up
to a pool of fresh water among the rocks to look for fresh-water
shrimps. A few minutes after they heard a shot; she staggered forward
and fell on her face dead.
The Captain and I looked at one another. Each read the thoughts that
passed through the other's mind--Lalia had fired the shot! But,
calling the women out of the boat, the Captain sternly forbade them to
mention Lalia's name in connection with the matter, and said that
they must all keep silence. A grave was hastily dug in the soft alluvial
of the shadowy forest glade, where the body of the poor girl, wrapped in
garments of her companions, was hastily buried.
I did not understand the meaning of the secrecy which was evidently
considered necessary, until the Captain told me that as the girl was in
his charge at the time of her death, he would be held responsible, and
that the uncertain temper of her countrymen might at any time cause an
outbreak.
We returned to the boat, and the women, as we neared the village, were
instructed by the Captain to answer all inquiries for the dead girl by
saying she had disappeared. Her countrymen took her departure very
quietly, and came to the conclusion that the evil spirits of the
mountain had carried her away, and their superstition forbade search.
* * * * *
I cannot, even after the time that has elapsed, recall without a pang of
regret the total change in the Captain's demeanour and conduct at this
time. Some demon appeared to have taken possession of him. His terrific
bursts of violence drove every soul away at times, none daring to
venture near him until he had cooled down except myself, to whom he
never addressed a harsh or angry word. One day he declared that the men
of the _Leonora_ and some of the Pleasant islanders were concocting a
meeting, and I was sickened and horrified at seeing three of each lashed
to cocoa-nut trees, while the huge figure of Antonio, the black
Portuguese, towered above the crowd as he flogged them. The Captain
stood by with a pistol in each hand as, with a countenance blanched and
disturbed with passion, he ordered Antonio to lay it on well.
I went into the house and, sitting down, tried to think out a course for
myself. The Captain came in after a while and, drawing a seat to the
window, gazed moodily out upon the sparkling, breeze-rippled sea. Then I
knew that the dark hour had passed, and that he would listen to reason.
"Captain," I said, "I can stay here no longer with you. I am sick of
seeing men flogged till their backs are like raw meat, even though they
are mutinous. If I thought any words of mine would do good, I would
earnestly beg of you to adopt milder measures. Every day that passes you
run the gauntlet, so to speak, of these men's deadly hatred, I know; for
how can I avoid hearing the mutterings and seeing the fierce glances of
the people--that you are surrounded with foes, and that any moment may
be your last."
He placed his hand on my shoulder in his old way. "True, my lad, true;
but if they are dangerous to meddle with, so am I. The white men, young
Harry excepted, would gladly see me lying out there on the sand with a
bullet hole in my skull; but, by ----, I'll shoot every mother's son of
them if I detect any treachery.... And so you wish to leave me?"
I considered a moment and then answered, "Sorry am I to say it, but I
do."
"Come out to the beach, my lad, and talk to me there. This house is
stifling; another month of this life would send me mad."
We walked along the weather side for about a mile, then seating
ourselves on a huge flat rock, watched the rollers tumbling in over the
reef and hissing along the sand at our feet. Hayston then spoke freely
to me of his troubles, his hopes, and disappointments, begging me to
remain with him--going, indeed, the length of a half promise to use
gentler methods of correction in future.
I yielded for a time, but after another week the fights and floggings,
followed by threats of vengeance, commenced anew. Two incidents also,
following close upon one another, led me to sever my connection with the
Captain finally, though in a friendly spirit.
The first was an attack single-handed upon the Kusaie village of Utwé,
driving the men before him like a flock of sheep. Some who ventured to
resist were felled by blows of his fist. Then he picked out half a dozen
of the youngest women, and drove them to the men's quarters, telling
them to keep them till the husbands and families ransomed them.
This was all because he had been told that Likiak Sâ had been to the
village, and urged the natives to remove to Lêlé, where a man-of-war was
expected to arrive from Honolulu, and that Hayston dared not follow them
there.
The next matter that went wrong was that he desired me to bring the
trade books, and go over the various traders' accounts with him.
One of these books was missing, although I remembered placing the whole
bundle in the big chest with the charts and chronometers. He declared
that the loss of this book, with some important accounts of his trading
stations in the Line and Marshall Islands, rendered the others
valueless.
I felt aggrieved at the imputation of carelessness, and having never
since first I knew him felt any fear of expressing myself clearly, told
him that he must have lost it, or it would have been with the others.
Starting from his seat with his face livid with rage, he passionately
denied having lost it. Then he strode into his room, and with savage
oaths drove out the women, cursing them as the cause of the brig's loss
and all his misfortunes.
The next moment he appeared with his arms full of chronometers, and,
standing in the doorway, tore the costly instruments from their cases
and dashed them to pieces on the coral flagstones at his feet. Then,
swearing he would fire the station and roast every one in it, with his
hands beating and clutching at the air, his face working with passion,
he walked, staggering like a drunken man, to the beach, and threw
himself down on a boulder.
Three hours after, taking little Kitty and Toby with me, I found him
still there, resting his head on his hand and gazing out upon the sea.
"Captain," I said, "I have come to say farewell."
He slowly raised his head, and with sorrow depicted on his countenance,
gave me his hand.
I pressed it and turned away. I packed up my belongings, and then
calling to Nellie, told her to give the Captain a note which I left on
his table, and with a handshake to each of the wondering girls, made my
way through the village, and thence to the bank of a lagoon that runs
parallel to the southern coast of Strong's Island. I knew that I could
walk to Coquille harbour in about a day, and thither I decided to go,
as at the village of Mout dwelt a man named Kusis, who had several
times pressed me to visit him.
* * * * *
It was a bright moonlight night, so that I had no difficulty in making
my way along the lonely coast. The lagoon, solemnly still and
silver-gleaming, lay between me and the mainland. The narrow strip on
the ocean side was not more than half a mile wide; on the lagoon border
was a thicket well-nigh impassable.
The mood of melancholy that impressed me at parting with a man to whom,
in spite of his faults, I was sincerely attached, weighed heavily. The
deep silence of the night, unbroken save by the murmuring plumes of the
cocoa-nut palms as they swayed to the breath of the trade-wind, and the
ceaseless plaints of the unresting surge, completed the feeling of
loneliness and desolation.
At length I reached the end of the narrow spit that ran parallel to the
lofty mainland, and found that I had to cross over the reef that
connected it to the main, this reef forming the southern end of the
lagoon.
The country was entirely new to me, but once I gained the white beach
that fringed the leeside of the island, I knew that I need only follow
it along till I reached the village of Mout, about four miles distant
from the end of the lagoon. I hung my bundle across my Winchester and
commenced the crossing. The tide was out and the reef bare, but here and
there were deep pools through which I had to pick my steps carefully,
being confused besides by the lines of dazzling moon-rays.
When nearly across, and walking up to my waist through a channel that
led between the coral patches, I saw a strange, dark shape moving
quickly towards me. "A shark!" I thought, but the next minute the black
mass darted past me at an angle, when I saw it was an innocent turtle
that was doubtless more frightened than I. After this adventure I gained
the white beach, which lay shining like a silver girdle under the
moon-rays, and flung myself down on the safe yielding sand. The spot was
silent as the grave. The murmurous rhythm of the surf sounded miles
distant, and but rose to the faintest lulling sound, as I made a pillow
of my worldly goods and sank into dreamless sleep.
It was the earliest dawn when the chill breath of the land-breeze
touched my cheek, and sent a shiver through my somewhat exhausted frame.
I arose, and looking round found that I was not wholly alone: several
huge turtles had been keeping me company during the night, having come
ashore to lay their eggs. As soon as I stood up they scrambled and
floundered away in dire fright. I felt badly in need of a smoke, but
having no matches, decided to eat something instead. I had not far to
seek for a breakfast. Picking up a couple of sprouting cocoa-nuts from
the ground, I husked them by beating them against a tree-trunk, and made
a much needed meal from the sweet kernels.
Although I was still far from well, and the pain in my side had returned
with tenfold vigour, I felt a new-born elasticity of spirit. The glow of
the tropic sun lighted up the slumberous main spread out in azure
vastness before me.
Shouldering my bundle and rifle, my sole worldly possessions, except
utterly valueless money and papers in the Captain's care, I descended to
the beach and walked along in the hard sand. At about six o'clock I came
abreast of two lovely verdure-clad islets, rising from the shallow
waters which lay between the outer reefs and the mainland, and I knew I
must be near Mout.
Then I saw a canoe shoot out from the land about a quarter of a mile
distant, with the native in it standing up poling it along. The next
bend of the beach brought me in full view of the picturesque village. A
loud cry of wonder greeted me. The next moment I was surrounded by
smiling villagers. I felt a thrill of pride at the thought that of all
those who had been cast away in the _Leonora_, none would have been
welcomed so warmly as I was now by those simple, kind-hearted people.
"Kusis' friend, Kusis' friend has come!" the men called aloud. Crowding
around, and taking my rifle and bundle from me, I was escorted to the
farther end of the village, where out of a pretty little house embowered
in a grove of palms, a man sprang out and fairly hugged me.
This was Kusis, in whose frank and open countenance nothing but joyous
welcome and boundless hospitality could be read. Taking me by the hand,
he led me inside. My cares were over for the present, evidently.
Words of mine can but faintly describe the generosity and kindness of
these people to me during my lengthened sojourn among them. The memory
of the peaceful days which I passed in that unknown, lovely village can
never be effaced.
Kusis, it seems, had often been to see me when I lay sick at Utwé, and
was unconscious of his presence. The Captain and Lalia had told me of
how he would come softly into the house, bringing a present of fruit or
fish for "the sick white boy," as he called me. He would sit by my side
and gaze anxiously at me for hours at a time, always questioning the
Captain concerning me. When I got better I had long chats with him, and
to his inexpressible delight, gave him a shot gun which I had bought
from the carpenter for a pound of tobacco. He had no shot, but he told
me he could make some from strips of lead, and as there was plenty of
that from the wreckage that came ashore, the Captain gave him as much as
he could carry in the canoe, besides a large tin of powder and plenty
of caps.
He was a tall, large-framed man for a Strong's islander--magnificently
built, and with a heart in proportion. His wife Tulpé, and his only
daughter, a little girl named Kinie, made up the family. He evidently
wished to complete it by making me his son, for his sole aim in life
seemed to be to keep me with him.
Unlike the people of Utwé, the villagers of Mout were utterly
unsophisticated, besides being free from the cant and hypocrisy that
nearly always attaches to the native character when they profess
Christianity. No doubt this was the result of their village being so
distant from Lêlé, where the natives were for ever chanting psalms and
hymns, and keeping the letter of the law, while at the same time they
departed as widely from the spirit as their heathen forefathers had ever
done.
After a while I received a letter from Captain Hayston, and with it a
large parcel. The letter ran as follows:--
MY DEAR BOY.--Have you entirely deserted me? I hope not. Come
and see me again, even if you only stop a day: I miss you
greatly, and the evenings are very dull without you to talk to.
I gave that fellow Miles, the boatswain, a bad beating, and he
has cleared out to the mountains with the Pleasant islanders.
Had you been here you would have got him off. As it is, I have
lost three men. Accept the things I send. (The hat was made for
you by a friend.) They will do for presents for your Kusaie
friends. Let me know when you can come up, and I will send the
whaleboat.--Yours sincerely,
W. H. HAYSTON.
I sent back my thanks, saying that I would come and see him, but should
come overland, as the messenger was returning in a canoe. Kusis put in
two turtle as "present for Captin."
I opened the parcel, which I found contained all sorts of articles
likely to be useful to me, with ten pounds of tobacco, and a bag of
small scarlet and white beads, the delight of a Strong's Island girl's
heart. Rolled up in a native sash was a beautifully-made Panama hat.
This latter was a gift from Lalia, and at once excited the admiration
of Kusis and Tulpé, when they examined its texture. The childish delight
of Kinie, when I gave her the beads, gave me the greatest pleasure, and
although her father and mother looked with glistening eyes at the other
articles which I wished them to take, they firmly refused the offered
gifts, Kusis only taking a few sticks of tobacco, and his wife a silk
handkerchief with some needles and thread.
I was rapidly regaining my strength, now felt in much higher spirits as
I accompanied Kusis on his shooting and fishing trips, returning home to
the bright faces and welcoming smiles of his wife and daughter. After
another week Kusis and I set out to visit the Captain, who, though I was
thoroughly happy and contented with my new friends, was never absent
from my thoughts. He received us with unaffected pleasure, and, calling
his steward and making us sit down to lunch, he gave me an account of
what had been doing since I had left.
The village had now a settled appearance, and the people were all busy
making oil, another two hundred and fifty thousand cocoa-nuts having
been paid by the king. The Captain asked me if there were not a vast
quantity of cocoa-nuts at Coquille harbour, and on my assenting, said he
would send a gang of Pleasant islanders under Fiji Bill and Antonio to
live there, and collect the third part of the indemnity--another two
hundred and fifty thousand cocoa-nuts.
This I begged him not to do, pointing out the injustice of such an
action, inasmuch as the people of Coquille had no hand in stealing the
property from the brig, and it would be cruel to make them pay for the
misdoings of others. I told him also that at Coquille were situated the
largest taro and yam plantations, with the best turtle fisheries, that I
was sure the natives would destroy the plantations and abandon the
villages if they had the savage Pleasant islanders quartered upon them.
Besides, we might have to remain another eight or nine months on the
island before the whaling fleet called here again, and that it was
absolutely indispensable that he should be able to command a supply of
food to subsist nearly a hundred and fifty people.
Kusis, who was seated on the mats near us, eagerly watched the Captain.
At length a look of content overspread his face as the Captain said he
would not touch the cocoa-nuts in Coquille harbour. To Kusis he said,
"Tell your people to have no fear as long as the king continues to pay
up, but once let me see any 'soldiering,' or desire to avoid paying the
fine, I'll strip the island from Mount Crozier to the reef."
Then we strolled to and fro on the Plaza, as we called the local
esplanade in front of the big house, and the Captain told me to come and
look at his turtle pond, in which were a number of green turtle, and
also the two hawkbills sent by Kusis.
I found that several of the traders had now openly broken with him, and
leaving their native following, had retired to Lêlé, where they were
under the protection of the king. The number of girls in the big house
had now increased to nine or ten. At the time of my visit some were
engaged in weaving an immense mat to cover the whole floor, others were
drying and picking tobacco leaves for making cigars. Two of the new
arrivals, I could see, were native girls. I asked the Captain what they
were doing there. He answered somewhat testily, "Did I think they came
to teach Sunday-school?"
I remained that night, and we spent a merry evening. In the morning,
after a breakfast of turtle eggs and roast pig, Kusis and I prepared to
return.
The Captain urged me to go by way of Chabral harbour, and pay my
promised visit to the king.
"In that case I might let him know how his Majesty was taking matters."
Kusis also urged me to see the king, who was anxious that I should spend
a week with him.
We got a canoe to carry us across to the north arm of the harbour, where
I remained an hour or two with young Harry, who had established quite a
small village.
When we entered the fence surrounding his place, we found him lying in a
hammock, slung between two pandanus-trees, smoking his morning pipe, and
having his hair combed by two pretty little witches named Rosa and
Taloe.
This was Harry's idea of island luxury. He always alleged that sleeping
gave him a headache, and that having his hair brushed drove it away,
particularly if the combing was performed by the soft hands of one of
his four houris.
He sprang up and welcomed me heartily, urging me to stay all night. But
I was anxious to get on. However, I said I should be glad to see him at
Mout, when he could bring his family with him, and give them a week's
feast on pork and turtle.
Harry presently took me into a small room, saying, "Look here!" The
place was closely packed with liquor in small kegs. These had been
washed ashore, and he had found them, only a few days since, high up in
the mangroves. The Captain told him to store it, as it was dangerous
stuff to bring to Utwé. The Pleasant islanders are very fond of liquor,
after imbibing which they always want to fight and kill some one, and
generally do.
We had a glass of grog together, after which I said good-bye to the
good-natured, handsome young trader and his wives, whom he used to call
the "Three Graces, with another thrown in."
Kusis and I reached the south side of Chabral harbour about sunset. I
was freshly enchanted with the loveliness of the scene, accustomed as I
had become to this paradisal quarter of the globe. The trade-wind had
died away, the transparent waters of the harbour reflected in their blue
depths the tall shadows of the towering mountains that overhung the
harbour on three sides.
A canoe put across from the king's wharf when I fired a shot to attract
attention. So wonderfully clear was the atmosphere, so unbroken the
silence of the lonely bay, that the quick "tweep, tweep" of the paddle,
as it struck the water, reached our ears as distinctly as if the canoe
was but a few yards distant, instead of nearly half a mile.
The old king received me graciously, but soon commenced a string of
complaints, interlarded with Scripture quotations rounded off by quaint
oaths. He feared the Captain greatly, and yet was anxious to keep up his
authority. Then, with every grievance that was laid before me, he drank
a stiff glass of grog to wash it down with, and insisted on my keeping
him company.
Queen Sê now came in, saying in her prettiest English, "Oh! you naughty
boy! Why you no come see king, see _me_? Long time promise, but never
come out. How you bad pain side? How many Strong's Island girl Captain
got now? I never see man like that. Debil, I believe. You got any wife
yet?"
I told the queen I was still unmarried, and thought I should remain so.
"Oh! no, you say so now. By and by get like Captain. But don't you steal
girl like him. You come to me! I pick you out nice girl. Cook, sew, make
pyjamas; very pretty face too."
By this time old Tokusar was asleep, with his head on the table, his
inevitable Bible open at the Psalms of David (printed in the Kusaie
dialect) in the leaf of his armchair, and the half-emptied gin bottle
encircled by his left arm.
Queen Sê was a tiny little creature--very good-looking, even at this
time of her life--being about five-and-twenty, which is considered the
_passée_ period in Polynesia. She was extremely vain, but had a quick
perception of humour. She and the Captain always got on famously
together.
Drawing our chairs up to a side table, she brought me a number of bound
volumes of _Leslie's Illustrated Paper_, sent to her by the queen of
Hawaii.
While I looked at the pictures she plied me with questions, principally
at random, about Captain Hayston, who, I was not long in discovering,
had been a former admirer. Going into a side room, she unlocked a small
box, and brought me out a photo of a gentleman wearing a post-captain's
uniform in her Britannic Majesty's navy. "What do you think of him?" she
asked. "Very, oh! very handsome man--that Captain Damer. Oh! that long
time ago. I love him; he love me too"--and then, pointing to poor old
Tokusar, "King know all about it. He don't like me to talk about Captain
Damer. But, oh! such handsome man! He tell me I loveliest girl in all
the world. What you think yourself? What Captain tell you; he think me
pretty too?"
Her Majesty was an expert angler for flattery. I was not indisposed to
humour a pretty woman, and a queen, and was evidently rising in her
estimation. I resolved to turn my good fortune to account, by inducing
her to effect a reconciliation between the king and the Captain, who
wanted the king to visit him at Utwé, to see the wonderful change he had
effected there. He felt certain that, when the king saw the magnitude of
the station, knowing that it must, sooner or later, come into his
possession when he, Hayston, left the island, he would forgive all that
had passed.
Once the subject was broached I became an ardent advocate for the
Captain, and told the queen how anxious he was to be on good terms with
the king again. In fact, so eloquent did I become, partly through the
potency of the schnapps of which I had partaken, that I represented the
Captain as devoured with grief at losing the king's and her friendship.
The queen listened gravely, and then extending her shapely hand, caught
me by the ear, and laughed, "Oh! you bad boy! Captain Hayston think
Tokusar old fool; told _me_ so plenty time. Well, never mind, I try make
everything all right."
The queen, as beseemed her, had a number of young women with her,
sitting round the sides of the great room. Some were making the girdles
that the Kusaie natives of both sexes wear round the waist under their
other garments. They are woven on an ingeniously constructed loom, the
banana fibres which form the material being stained in various bright
colours. These girls were sitting in the manner peculiar to the Strong's
Island women, with their eyes cast down--it being considered a boldness
to look at either the king or queen. When speaking to either their eyes
were always bent on the ground.
The king, being carefully placed on a cane lounge, a meal was brought
in. Both Kusis and I were presented with food enough to last for a
month. As the queen bade me good-night she passed her arm round me, and
tenderly inquired, "How my poor side feel?" adding that I was a very
good boy, because I was kind to Strong's Island man. She also informed
me that I could kiss her, which I did. Then putting the post-captain's
photo in her bosom she went to bed, finally telling me that she "will
make king friend once more with Captain."
* * * * *
For the next six months I lived with the kind-hearted Kusis, his wife,
and little daughter. Except for an occasional visit to the Captain or
the king, nothing disturbed the pleasing monotony of my existence.
Why Kusis should have taken such a violent and wholly unreasonable
attachment to me is a mystery I never could unravel. Yet such is island
life. And how strange it is, and hard of comprehension! Women take their
fancies here, as in other worlds (surely this is a world in itself,
distinct, mystic, unreal), but the extraordinary point in the social
system is, that men will, as a matter of mere caprice, conceive the most
ardent friendship for an utter stranger. In pursuance of which passion
they will entertain him for any time which he likes to stay; will guide,
help, and defend him, risking, and indeed sacrificing their lives for
him in the most reckless and devoted manner. Such was the deep and
sudden affection of Kusis for me. How he acquired it I don't in the
least know. All my personal property seemed to be mixed up with his. As
the weather was not favourable for attention to detail, I preferred to
leave things as they were. My life at this time was chiefly uneventful.
Yet it was not always so. I was fishing one day near the end of the
lagoon which extends from Utwé to the lee side of the island. After I
had anchored my canoe a very strange incident indeed occurred.
The sun had just set, and I had cast out my hooks, and was able to fill
my pipe, when I saw two boatsful of Pleasant islanders land on the
narrow fringe of the north side of the lagoon. There were about twenty
men and seven or eight women. I saw that they had with them a small keg,
doubtless one of the kegs of rum which had been washed ashore, and which
they had discovered in the mangroves. A fire was lit. The women began to
sing and the men to dance; and as the fiery spirit was passed round in
cocoa-nut shells to the men--for the women touched none--a wild orgie
began.
Suddenly bright flashes appeared from out the darkness in the
surrounding grove, and the reverberating echoes of gun-shots pealed over
the water, and ran far back, from mountain, crag, and cave.
Three of the dancers fell, either killed or wounded. Then the dark forms
of their previously unseen enemies appeared through the firelight. The
white shells worn in strings round their necks told me that they were
Ocean islanders, between whom and the Pleasant islanders feuds were of
common occurrence. Then began a bloody hand-to-hand fight, the twilight
silence being broken by yells of rage and screams of mortal agony. When
the Ocean islanders were beaten off seven or eight bodies lay motionless
on the ground.
I quietly pulled up the anchor, and let the canoe drift towards the
mainland. I did not care about visiting the scene of the fight as I had
no arms with me, and learnt by experience the folly of meddling with the
Pleasant islanders when they were sober. When they were drunk I knew
that they would as soon cut my throat as not.
I mentioned this matter to the Captain on my next visit. He told me with
a grim smile that he knew there had been a fight up the lagoon; so much
the better, as he found the Pleasant islanders harder to manage every
day, and the sooner their number was reduced the better.
One day, when Kusis and I were coming across the lagoon with some
pigeons I had shot, we met the Pingelap girl, Peloa, paddling a canoe
furiously, her plump face showing great excitement. "She had been sent
for us," she said, "by the Captain. There was a sail in sight. I was to
hasten back to Mout, where I would find a boat outside the reef which
he had sent down for me. I was to try and board the ship, in case he
could not do so from Utwé, and tell the master that a shipwrecked crew
were on the island."
Peloa hauled her canoe up on a little beach, and got in with us. We
three then paddled along till we got abreast of the two islets near
Mout. We then saw a whaleboat coming round the point with a lug sail.
She soon ran in for me, and I found she was manned by Pleasant
islanders, who told me that the ship was coming round the point, about
three miles off the land.
There was a strong breeze, and we slipped through the water at a great
rate so as to meet the ship. As soon as we cleared the point I saw her
coming down before the wind about two miles distant.
She was a large ship, and was running straight for us with her yards
squared. At first I thought she had seen us, but she kept steadily on
her course. Then I saw her take in her light sails and heave to.
Standing up in the boat, I could distinguish a whaleboat under a fore
and aft sail close to her. Behind this boat were two others, which, from
their black paint and peculiarly-cut sails, I knew to be those the
Captain had at Utwé.
The ship lay to till the first whaleboat boarded her, and then, to my
great surprise, the yards were swung round, the light sails again set,
and she stood on her course, but kept the wind more on her quarter so as
to make the most of the breeze.
By this time I had got almost within hailing distance of the ship. She
was deep in the water, and was, I supposed, some coal-laden ship bound
from New South Wales to China, which had taken the outside or easier
route to her destination. When the whaleboat lowered her sail and ran
alongside, I saw that she was the king's new boat, and contained but two
men. These, my crew said, looked like the two deserters from the _St.
George_. As soon as they got on board the boat was hoisted in without
delay, and, as I have said, the ship kept on her course.
It was of no use attempting to overtake her, as she was travelling now
about twelve knots, so I signalled for the other two boats, and they ran
down after us till we got under the lee of the land again in smooth
water.
The men in these boats told me the following tale:--About daylight that
morning the king's whaleboat, which was anchored in Utwé harbour, was
found to be missing. The two deserters from the _St. George_ were also
gone. Captain Hayston instantly offered to send his boat in pursuit of
the runaways, and curiously, just as they were being launched, there
came a cry of "Sail ho." The Captain then saw the ship a long way off,
and told the crews to try and board her, and get her to run in close to
the land, and that he would then come off himself. In the mean time he
manned one of the trader's whaleboats with a native crew, and sent her
round to Coquille to pick me up, as he fancied the ship would be easier
boarded from there than from Utwé. The three boats left together, two
standing right out to sea, and the other running down the coast to pick
me up.
When the two boats were within three miles of the ship, they noticed the
fore and aft sail of the king's whaleboat showing up now and then as she
rose and sunk again in the heavy swell, and noticed that she was also
heading to meet the ship. The rest I had observed myself.
I suspected something from the manner of the coxswain in charge of the
king's two boats, but did not question him, and telling him to give the
Captain full particulars of our endeavour to board the ship, I got
ashore in a smooth part of the reef, and walked back to Mout, where I
found the villagers in a great state of excitement, under the impression
that I had gone away in the ship.
Hayston afterwards admitted that he had supplied the deserters with
sextant, compass, and chart, had also given them provisions, and fifty
dollars in money. They promised him to make straight for Ponapé, and
wait there till some Californian ship called, which they would endeavour
to charter, on the part of Hayston, to beat up to Strong's Island, and
take us all away to Providence Island. Barney was a good navigator, and
could he only have kept fairly sober would have long since had a ship of
his own. He eagerly accepted the Captain's offer, and the next morning
the crew of the king's whaleboat found she had disappeared; then
followed the strange series of events by which Barney and his mate got
on board the ship and evaded pursuit.
Barney was a highly intelligent individual, as the sequel will show, and
was capable of making a rapid calculation of probabilities. He
afterwards visited Samoa, and gave this account of his escape.
He said that when the Captain provided him with "a jewel of a
whaleboat," he honestly intended to fulfil his promises. He lost some
time in trying to persuade a native girl named Luta to share his
fortunes, but she was afraid of a long voyage in a small boat. His
pleadings, moreover, were cut short by the Captain, who told him to
hurry up, and get out of the harbour before daylight.
As soon, then, as Barney sighted the ship a plan suggested itself to
him. Once on deck he introduced himself to the Captain as "Captain
Casey," and said, "For heaven's sake, sir, don't delay another moment.
There are two boat-loads of bloody, cut-throat pirates coming after me,
and they mane to take the ship! Have you never heard of 'Bully
Hayston'?"
The skipper _had_ heard of him,--things true, and untrue likewise. Then
Barney told him a tale of how the _Leonora_ had been wrecked on the
island, and that ever since the fierce Captain and crew had planned to
cut off the first ship that touched at the island--that he (Barney) and
his mate had owned a small trading cutter, which Hayston had seized two
days ago--but that he had managed to escape with one of his men, and
thanked God that he was able to reach the ship in time, and save every
one's throat from being cut.
The ship's captain took all this in; Barney's boat was hoisted in, and
the ship kept away. The two boats, with their crews of excited natives
yelling and shouting, gave colour to Barney's narrative, and when he
pointed to my boat, and said, "Holy saints! there's another of the
villains coming out under the lee side with a boat-load of pirates too,"
the captain's funk was complete. He landed Barney and his companion at
Ponapé, and, purely out of compassion, bought the king's whaleboat and
her contents for a hundred dollars, so that Mr. Barney landed there with
a hundred and fifty dollars in his pocket, and got a free passage later
on to Manila as a distressed American seaman.
The Captain took matters philosophically when the boats returned, saying
that he never had expected to see Barney again. After which he resumed
his oil-making and the government of his "kingdom by the sea" as usual.
As for me, my life was a quiet, deeply enjoyable one. I began at times
to doubt whether I should ever wish to change it. But against this phase
of lotus-eating contentment arose from time to time a haunting dread,
lest by evil chance I should ever sink down into the position of those
renegades from civilisation, whom I had known, in the strange world of
"The Islands," and as often pitied or despised. In this Robinson Crusoe
existence I even felt a mild interest in the three cattle that we had
landed at Utwé.
They had found their way over to the lee side of the island, and made
their way along the beach to Mout.
One day little Kinie met them, and, with hair flying loose and eyes
dilated in an agony of terror, fled wildly home. She explained to me
incoherently "that she had met three huge pigs, with, long teeth
growing out of their heads and eyes as big as cocoa-nuts."
Kusis and I, with some natives, went out and found them walking slowly
along the beach. At the sound of my voice they stopped and let me come
up to them, smelling me all over. I had only a mat round my waist, for
my European clothes were only worn on great occasions; but they
evidently knew me for a different being to those around them. We drove
them to a rich piece of meadow land, where they remained during the rest
of my stay on the island--fat, quiet, and contented.
* * * * *
Early one morning I made ready for a start back to Coquille harbour, and
found Kusis awaiting me in the king's courtyard.
Shortly after the queen came out and told me that I must wait for
breakfast, or the king would be offended. Old Tokusar then appeared,
none the worse for the night's potations, and we sat down to a very good
breakfast.
He told me that he had intended to go and see the Captain's village at
Utwé, but that Likiak Sâ, had dissuaded him by telling him that Hayston
would seize and imprison him.
I assured the king that this was a pure invention, upon which both he
and the queen said they would take my word before that of Likiak Sâ, and
from the kindness of the king and his subjects at Chabral harbour, I
felt certain that my intercession with Hayston on behalf of the villages
at Coquille had placed me high in their regard.
The queen pointed to a pile of beautiful mats, quantities of cooked
fowls, pigeons, pork, fish, and fruit, which were being carried in and
deposited in the courtyard, telling me that they were presents from the
king and herself, and would be taken down to Mout for me by native
carriers.
As I was bidding my royal friends good-bye, promising to come and see
them whenever I got tired of Mout, Kitty of Ebon came in, and quite
bore out the description Hayston had given me of her remarkable beauty.
She seemed a very intelligent girl, and was much admired by the king,
who kept nudging me, and saying in his wheezy, croaking voice, "Um, ah!
What you tink girl like that?"
He then fell into moody silence, upon which Queen Sê gave him a scornful
glance, exclaiming, "For shame! old man like you, sick all the time,
look so much at young girl like Kitty Ebon! Captain Hayston teach you
all that."
I learnt from Kitty that Lalia was then at her house on a visit, and,
telling the king and queen of her kindness to me when I was ill at Utwé,
said I should like to go and see her, as Kitty's house lay in the
direction Kusis and I were taking. The queen generously gave me a small
work-box, with the necessary fittings, which she said I could give to
Lalia. It was quite a handsome affair, and had been given to the
queen by a ship captain; but she had never used it. Shaking hands with
Tokusar and Queen Sê, we set out on our journey, Kusis leading the way,
Kitty of Ebon and I following, and the carriers in the rear.
Kitty was very lively, and startlingly simple in manner. She made me
laugh at her description of the flirtations of Captain Hayston and the
queen when he had visited Strong's Island three years before in company
with Captain Ben Peese. For a missionary's housekeeper Kitty of Ebon was
something unique, and her lively sallies kept me amused in her excellent
English all the way. I was pleased to see Lalia, who was looking as
beautiful as ever. Indeed, it was hard to say which was the handsomer,
she or the hostess.
I gave her the work-box, which seemed to please her very much. Then
Kitty proposed a game of cards, saying it was all right, as we need not
play for money, and no one would tell Mr. Morland. But I had to decline,
and, saying good-bye to them with some regrets, I rejoined Kusis, much
wondering inwardly whether Lalia, with her sad, bright eyes, soft
voice, and gentle manner, could really have been the perpetrator of the
cruel deed in the mountain forest of Utwé.