OCEANIC CRUISING
The Solomon group is divided into German and British Solomons, but
the British section, about twenty-five large and small islands,
being the more interesting, we did not bother to look much into the
German section.
The large islands of Guadalcanar, Malaita, San Christoval, and
Ysabel are as yet entirely unexplored in the interior. In none of
these islands has anyone been back more than a few miles from the
coast.
On the island of Guadalcanar, an island eighty miles long and forty
miles wide, are half a dozen plantations and a trading and mission
station, in which probably twenty-five persons live. Their homes are
well guarded and stockaded, but even with the most rigid
precautions, a white man is set down as missing at frequent
intervals. Only a few months ago, I received a letter from a friend
in the Solomons, telling of the massacre of a trader at a station
where the _Snark_ once anchored.
After our cruise in the western islands, the _Snark_ dropped anchor
at the largest plantation in the Solomons, called Penduffryn, on the
island of Guadalcanar, owned and managed by two Englishmen, George
Darbishire and Thomas Harding.
As Mrs. London was not feeling well when we anchored here, she was
left at the plantation, while Jack and I and the two Kanakas and two
Japs took the _Snark_ over to the island of Tulagi, twenty-five
miles away. The engine ran all the way. We made the twenty-five
miles in three hours, dropping anchor at Tulagi late in the evening.
Jack and I went up the side of an old extinct volcano to the house
of the Governor of the British Solomons. The Governor was away, but
the Assistant Governor received us, and promptly fined Jack £5 for
not getting pratique papers here first. Otherwise we were treated
hospitably. Late that night Jack set out in a whale-boat for
Penduffryn, leaving the rest of us to get the boat cleaned with the
help of the Governor's native recruits. For one week, twenty native
divers scraped the _Snark's_ keel with cocoanut husks, and in
company with a government engineer, I took the _Snark_ on short
cruises, testing the engines, and after everything had been
thoroughly overhauled, I took the _Snark_ back across the straits of
Penduffryn, and went ashore to find a regular reunion of white men.
There were traders old and young, _beche-de-mer_ fishermen, old
beach-combers and blackbirders. All were delighted to hear that
visitors were at Penduffryn. For one week, this largest group of
white men that ever gathered on the island of Guadalcanar made
things hum with good time. Everyone was so happy--and we acted like
children. We had big card games and even a masquerade ball.
Darbishire, who was always the life of the plantation, dressed as an
English lady, and I was his partner to the dance. The music did not
amount to much, but Mrs. London's Hawaiian _ukelele_ made enough for
us to dance by. The merrymaking lasted several days, until it ended
by all present agreeing to take the Oriental dope called _hashish_.
Darbishire was the first to partake. After he had passed under the
influence, we decorated him with parts of Mrs. London's clothes, and
I did a little artistic work with water-colours. For several days he
went around the house in a half-dazed state, and would at times drop
dead asleep while standing on his feet. One after another took this
_hashish_, until the night Jack took it. He went clear off his head,
acted so wild that Mrs. London was frightened; and no one else would
take it. Next night was to have been my turn.
At Penduffryn they have seven native boys trained to cook and do the
housework, so it was very little that the white people had to do.
During the day I usually worked aboard the _Snark_, rowing ashore at
night for late dinner. And then I was busy a good deal of the time
with my photographic work.
I seldom moved about at night, alone. The natives were pretty
restless just then at Lunga, a station fourteen miles below here:
eight blacks from Malaita working at the station ran away to the
bush, and threatened to get some white heads, then, stealing a
boat, to go back to Malaita. One day, at Penduffryn, a lot of powder
and cartridges was found in a hut belonging to a native. The man was
taken to the house and handcuffed, and all the recruits were called
in from work. Then Mr. Harding told them that the man was going to
be sent to the Governor, who would sentence him to three years hard,
unpaid labour. Until a boat left, no one was to speak to him. But
the next morning, when his handcuffs were taken off, the culprit
bolted, and thereafter made his appearance among the other natives
at night, inciting them to kill every white man at Penduffryn.
After the loot was found, a search was made of all the houses, and
two fellows were found to have spears. Again all the men were called
from work, and before them all these two fellows were forced to
strip their _lava-lavas_; and Mr. Darbishire, with a big boor-hide
whip, gave them the worst licking I ever saw anyone get. He made
deep cuts in their hide, from which the blood spurted. It nearly
made me sick, but I knew the whipping was necessary; for it is
solely by intimidation that the white man rules in the Solomons.
[Illustration: ARTIFICIAL ISLAND, OFF MALAITA, SOLOMON GROUP]
Meanwhile, things were going badly with the _Snark_ crew.
Henry and Tehei were down with island fever. Nakata had caught
_ngari-ngari_, or scratch-scratch. Jack had terrible yaws, and I had
equally terrible yaws. We, too, took occasional spells of fever.
Dosings of quinine and applications of corrosive sublimate and
blue vitriol were daily occurrences. The blue vitriol drove me
nearly crazy--Jack called it horse doctoring; but it was the best
that I could do. Henry developed _bukua_ on his face; Tehei fainted
several times, and wept and prayed; all this made us the most
invalided crew ever seen in the South Seas. This much I learned,
however, from our tribulations: anyone coming to the Solomons should
first purchase a barrel of quinine for the fever and a barrel of
corrosive sublimate for the yaws, and leave an order for more to
follow.
I was looking forward to getting out of this particular part of the
world. It was too wild and raw, too full of sickness and sudden
death. How I longed for a real bed, with sheets, in a place where it
was not too hot to sleep! The rain pretty near drove us out of the
_Snark_. We had awning all over the deck, and side curtains, but the
tropical showers that blew up in a minute and swept away the next
were fast and furious while they lasted. No matter how well the
canvas was set, the rain got through and pushed below to our bunks.
But I determined that in Australia I would get two large ventilators
for my room. Then no rain could bother me, for the hatch would be
shut. Also, I was thinking seriously of fitting up my bunk with
sheets. If the _Snark_ was to be home to me for several years to
come, I might as well arrange for comfort.
Because of Henry's and Tehei's sickness, Jack thought it best to get
a white man to look after things, so he hired a German named Harry
Jacobsen; a man who had been mate of the _Minota_, a recruiting
schooner that had gone ashore on Malaita and been looted by the
savage islanders. The _Minota_ had been recovered, but just now was
not putting out, so Jack was able to get Mr. Jacobsen without much
trouble. Our machinery had gone wrong, and we had to wait at
Penduffryn until fresh parts came from Sydney, Australia. It was
during this wait that the _Minota_ was fitted out for another
recruiting trip to Malaita. Captain Jansen and Mr. Jacobsen invited
Jack and Mrs. London to go along on this blackbirding cruise; so I
was left in charge of the _Snark_.
Soon afterward, only twenty-five miles away, the _Minota_ grounded
on the Mallua Reef, close to the cannibal island of Malaita. Soon
they were surrounded by scores of man-eaters in canoes. Of course,
Jack and all the rest were well armed, but the savages were so
numerous and so treacherous that a day-and-night watch had to be
kept against a surprise and a terrible death. They sent up rockets,
which, as a matter of fact, I saw; but I had no idea that it was the
_Minota_ which was in trouble. I thought some other vessel was on
the rocks. Anyway, I was quite unable to go to their help, with my
engines out of order. Their safety during the time taken to re-float
the _Minota_ was really owing to the efforts of a missionary--one
of the few missionaries in the Solomons who had any influence with
the cannibals. He got his mission-boys to form a guard for
passengers and crew, and thus averted the peril. Poor fellow! he was
killed soon after.
In addition to the yaws and the fever, a new trouble came into the
life of the _Snark_ family. Jack's hands had begun to swell up, turn
very sore, and peel skin. The nails were very hard and thick, and
had to be filed. And it was the same with his feet. Nothing like it
had ever been heard of before. The traders and beach-combers could
diagnose yaws and fever, but not this. Both Jack and Mrs. London
were considerably alarmed at this strange manifestation. "It is
plain we are not wanted in the South Seas," Jack said, more than
once. "California is the place for me."
"And me for Kansas," I assured him.
Wada and Nakata began to dilate upon the virtues of Japan, while
Henry and Tehei were praying day and night that they might get back
safely to the Society Islands.
After we had lain at Penduffryn a time, Mr. London decided that we
would make a visit to the fabled Ontong Java islands that the
traders were telling us so much about. They were situated about two
hundred miles away from the Solomons, and their exact location was
not known. The people were said to be of a queer race, and as we
were out to see the unusual, we set sail from Penduffryn, and after
two days' beating up the Invincible Straits, we anchored at the
island of Ysabel, and lay there seventeen days, trading and hunting
wild game. Here Wada, the cook, went clean out of his head, and
running away, went to live in a village of coast natives; and we
were compelled to sail off without him. Jack promised Nakata a new
suit of clothes if he would do the cooking until we reached a port
where we could get a new cook. Nakata tried to hold his own job and
the cook's job, but got sick, and then Tehei and Henry and I took
turn-about getting meals. When we sailed away from Ysabel, we were
forced to cut loose our big eight-hundred-pound anchor, for it had
gotten caught in the coral reefs so tightly that it was impossible
for us to get it out.
Ontong Java is about two hundred miles to the west of Ysabel. Now
and then a trading vessel comes here, and once a year a steamer
collects the annual output of copra. I suppose the steamer knows the
position. Certainly it is never gotten from the chart.
The first day out of Ysabel we had fine weather, but the next day
the sea got rough, and for six days it rained and blew as it only
can in the tropics; and to add to our discomfort, Tehei got
blackwater fever and lay down on deck fully decided to die. Nakata
was still sick, and to cap matters he got a second dose of ptomaine
poisoning. Mrs. London and Jack came down with fever, and their yaws
grew worse. Henry's _bukua_ continued to bother him. And I daily
writhed in the agony of alternate washes of blue vitriol and
corrosive sublimate. We were so sick and miserable that very little
attention was paid to the navigating, and for several days we sailed
in a half-hearted way, looking for the islands. One day, Jack's
observations indicated that we were inside the lagoon, and next day
we had sailed clear past the islands. But one morning Henry called
all hands on deck to see the cocoanut trees just visible above the
horizon. We sailed up the coast of small islands, some of them only
large enough for one cocoanut tree, and the greatest no larger than
an ordinary city block. These thirty-nine islands circled around a
lagoon ten miles wide. Not one of these islands was over two feet
above the water-line, and absolutely the only vegetation was the
thickly growing cocoanut trees.
While looking for an opening between the little islands, a canoe
with two occupants paddled off from one of the islands and we let
them aboard. It was certainly a surprise to see Polynesians again,
instead of the little woolly-headed negroids of the Solomons. These
men were big, brown-skined, straight-haired fellows--that is, their
hair would have been straight, had they ever combed it. As they came
over the rail, Henry spoke to them in his own tongue; and what was
our amazement to hear them answer him. And then Tehei decided that
he wouldn't die, and started talking to them.
Our surprise will be appreciated when I say that these people's
rightful home was five thousand miles to the eastward. They did not
know that there were any others in this part of the world who could
speak their language. They piloted us inside the lagoon, and then to
our further surprise we saw a white man's frame house on the beach
of the largest island. When we dropped anchor, this man came aboard,
and a happy man he was that day. For it was a lonesome time he had,
with a sight of white people only once a year, when the steamer came
after his copra.
He was a Dutchman, and had lived here so long that he had almost
forgotten how to speak English. We came ashore with him, and went
directly to his home. While we were there a small boy brought up a
tiny shark's jaw and presented it to Jack with the king's
compliments. As we had bought these small jaws for a half-stick of
tobacco, Jack was disgusted and started to throw it away, but I
asked for it and he gave it to me.
Then we were taken to see the king, who was squatting on a mat in
the centre of a large grass house, his half-dozen wives seated
around him. We shook hands, and with the trader as interpreter Jack
made the king a present of coloured calico and some tobacco, and
then told the king that he must give us a hundred cocoanuts in
return. The old king started to say no, until Jack made as if to
take back his presents, when the king hastily ordered the cocoanuts
to be sent aboard. We went on through the village and came to the
graveyard, and it was the most remarkable graveyard I have ever
seen. The graves lay so close together that there was scarcely room
for a tombstone. The tombstones were straight slabs of granite, with
no writing, but some of them had queer heads attached. There were no
mounds over the graves--they sparkled with pure white sand, beaten
flat; and all the graves were levelled off the same way, until they
appeared like a long, paved sidewalk. At the outer edge of the
graveyard were three wooden crosses that marked the graves of the
former wives of the Dutch trader. He pointed to the three graves
with pride, and later on he showed us his three living wives. He
informed us that if one of them didn't make copra better he might
find it necessary to make a cross for her--and I believe he meant
it. For he was very brutal. A fine handsome young fellow had
attached himself to our party wherever we went, and once the
Dutchman gave him a crushing blow with his fist, apparently without
reason. After that, Obi held aloof.
On going back to the trader's house, we noticed a Solomon Islander
working around the place. When we asked why this native should be so
far away from home, we learned that he had been recruited about five
years before to work on a plantation for the trading company, and
had been put at this lagoon to prevent his getting way. Those who
have read Jack London's story, "Mauki," will understand, for this
native was the original of that interesting character.
We lay at this lagoon for nearly a week. I got a great deal of fine
coral in all colours of the rainbow, but it all faded white, except
the red, which was so brittle that it broke to pieces. I saw trees
of coral twenty feet high, and wonderful gardens of it, through
which parrot-coloured fish swam in and out.
After piling our cockpit full of green cocoanuts that the king's
subjects had selected for us, we had prepared to leave, when word
came to us that across the lagoon were two missionaries, a Samoan
and a Tonga Islander, who wanted to see us. The Dutchman had been
careful not to tell us of them, for a very good reason.
Why the Dutchman did not want us to know of these missionaries,
perhaps the most remarkable in the world, we soon learned after we
had left this lagoon and stumbled on to another.
Two years before the time we were at Ontong Java, the mission-ship
_Southern Cross_ had steamed into this harbour with two
missionaries, one of them from Samoa, the other from the Tonga
Islands. These two men tried hard to land, but the natives said no,
that their idols were good enough for them and they had no desire to
change--if the white men wanted to land there would be no
resistance, but no dark-skinned natives were going to be allowed to
tell them about new gods.
The _Southern Cross_ could not afford to remain long at this place,
for it kept them moving to make their rounds twice a year, so the
two missionaries were left with fifty days' food and water in an
open boat. Then for fifty days these missionaires tried to land, but
were met with spears at the beach; and when the food and water was
all gone, the Dutch trader took pity on them, and told the king that
he had received a message from the great white master, saying that
if the men were not allowed to land they would send schooners and
kill everyone on the islands.
The king then allowed the trader to take the men in his house and
nurse them; and after they returned to health they built neat grass
houses and tried to work among the islanders, but their work went
slowly and it was not until the Dutch trader killed one of his wives
and the missionaries proved it on him that they gained any hold.
Then the missionaries started a crusade against the trader, but the
natives did not have the courage to deport him, and it got so warm
for the missionaries that they were notified to leave the largest
island and never return. Then these missionaries went to live on
another island, and for years they never saw any civilised people,
for the trader took good care that no vessels ever anchored across
the lagoon. When we of the _Snark_ sailed over to them, they cried,
they were so glad to see white people. We gave them potatoes and
tinned goods, and promised to report them at the government station
when we got back to the Solomons.
We then sailed out of the lagoon and headed west with a large crowd
of natives following in canoes. We were clear of the islands by
sundown, and Jack set the course for another lagoon that was
reported to be some two hundred miles farther west, and the watches
were set with confidence of a perfect night's rest. Just enough wind
was blowing to keep the sails full, and there was scarcely a ripple
on the water. Wada and Tehei kept their watch; then I was called on
deck, and was lazily smoking and steering at the wheel. Everyone
else was asleep on deck and I was only enough awake to keep the
_Snark's_ head on the course, when I heard a slight rustling on the
water ahead, which increased in volume until it rose into the
unmistakable roar of a reef. Hastily bringing the vessel up into the
wind, I roused all hands and after a good look at the reef, Jack
ordered the _Snark_ about, and until morning we beat back and forth.
When daylight came we were in sight of another small lagoon that
looked like Ontong Java in miniature. We had no trouble getting
inside the reef, and sailed five miles across the lagoon to the
largest island, and dropped anchor. In no time at all our decks were
crowded with big, brown Polynesians, who, while they seemed healthy
fellows, appeared absolutely devoid of intellect.
We tried hard to get some spears, but the natives refused to sell,
no matter what we offered. There were about fifty of them: soon they
began chanting a weird kind of song. We found that this was in
honour of their king, who was on his way out to us.
[Illustration: "PENDUFFRYN," THE LARGEST COCOANUT PLANTATION IN THE
WORLD. ISLAND OF GUADALCANAR, SOLOMON ISLANDS. MRS. THOMAS HARDING
AND PLANTATION LABORERS]
Shortly a canoe finer than the rest came alongside, and the old
bewhiskered king, a fine old chap with nose-rings and ear-rings,
came over the rail. We received a shock, for his body was covered
with tattooed designs of guns. The old fellow ordered the natives to
the stern of the boat, and, advancing, made us a speech of welcome.
We tried to get his King-spear, a beautifully carved weapon,
designed to catch a victim going or coming, but he would not part
with it. Of course, we were expected to make the king a present. It
had been a joke with us about the useless things that kings and
chiefs had been giving us; so more in the spirit of a jest than
anything else, Mrs. London gave this king an old night-gown of hers.
He seemed so vastly pleased that Mrs. London put it on him. That did
the trick: he was so delighted that he at once gave us his
King-spear; and for days we saw him running about the island in the
night-gown, the proudest man in the world, and certainly the
best-dressed native for miles around.
With the idea of showing us what a great and lordly king he was, he
invited us ashore, and parading us through the village, he called
all his subjects together and made a speech to them. I don't know
what he said, but they were highly pleased; and that night a dance
was given for us. We noticed the same people we had seen in the
afternoon; and next day, on going to some of the close-by islands,
we found them uninhabited, and gradually it dawned upon us that the
first group of people we had seen were the sole inhabitants of the
Tasman Lagoon. On counting them, we found fifty-nine men and
forty-eight women, and only one baby. It was easy to see the finish
of these people. They had married and intermarried until every
solitary native was closely related to every other native; and
should they continue to intermarry so closely, should there be no
infusion of fresh blood, their race must become thoroughly idiotic,
and soon go down to death.
I believe the most peculiar trait of these people was their idol or
devil-devil worship. They had no good god, but believed that if they
kept their devil-devil in good humour, everything would be well, and
that if the devil-devil should get angry, they would have floods and
diseases and everything in general would go to ruin. To keep the
devil-devil in good humour, they had built large houses with fresh
mats for him to sleep on; and every boat or house that was built
must first be passed on by their wooden devil-devil, and by certain
signs they could tell whether he was pleased or not. One of these
devils I sent back to America, and I still have it.
At this island, we found another of those queer graveyards that we
had seen in Ontong Java. There were hundreds and hundreds of these
strange graves, which proved that the reefs comprising this lagoon
had once been well inhabited.
We collected several of their peculiar grass dresses at this place.
I secured one just before it was finished.
There are dozens of islands in the Solomon group where few white men
have ever been seen in the interior, and there are islands where a
white man has never been seen at all. We made a call at one of these
places--quite an accidental call. We were caught in the tail end of
a hurricane and were blown about for a time, not knowing in the
least where we were. Then there came a sudden calm, and we found
ourselves near a little group of islands. Presently, the natives
came out in canoes to see us. They were quite naked, and had
straight hair standing out in huge masses around their heads. When
they saw us, they were the most amazed people in the world. They
felt our white skins, and rubbed them, to see if the colour would
come off. Everything was bewildering to them. Once we thought that
they were getting dangerous, and I presented my revolver at one of
them. The man coolly took it by the muzzle, thinking it was a toy
meant as a present. As with all the other savages, they were
delighted with the mechanical toys we showed them. A Jack-in-the-box
would keep a huge chief happy for hours. One of them found an old
file, and thought it the greatest treasure in the world.
They left us rather suddenly. It was my fault. Thinking to amuse
them, I started the dynamo with which we lighted the boat, and gave
one of them a shock. He yelled, jabbered something to the others,
and at once they all sprang overboard and swam ashore. They didn't
stop for their canoes, which we were obliged to cut adrift.
At night, a lot of them stood on the beach looking at us. We turned
the searchlight on them, and as it swept along the shore, they
shrieked and fled. Nor did they stop until they had reached the
other end of the island, two miles away.
That particular island was not marked on our chart, nor was it on
the latest and best charts that I later consulted at Sydney. Until
we went to the place, the people believed that their little speck of
an island, hundreds of miles from any other land, was the whole
world. They knew nothing of tobacco or gin, which are so dear to
other South Sea Islanders. And I have little doubt that there are
many other islands hereabouts, where the natives believe themselves
the only human beings in existence.
Strangely enough, the natives were never frightened or annoyed when
I took photographs. They did not understand what it was all about,
and they didn't care. But when I developed the plates and showed
them their own pictures, they were delighted. In many places, they
had never seen a picture before. There was one old chief whose
photograph I took. When I showed him a print, he at once sent
messengers to all the islands round, and the people trooped in to
see the wonder. I suppose they're still admiring it, if they haven't
worn it out with admiration.
We made fast time back to the Solomons. We spent several days
beating through the Manning Straits between the islands of Ysabel
and Choiseul. The tides ran so strong here that it was all we could
do to get through, and in many places we would pass clusters of
little islands so slowly that the natives in canoes would surround
us, and try to get aboard, but these woolly-headed people were so
savage-looking that we did not care to allow them on our deck.
In this strait we passed queer little islands built upon reefs out
from the main islands. These little handmade islands were inhabited
as thickly as the people could stick on them, by coast natives that
had been driven off the larger islands by the bush men coming down
to the salt-water villages; and when the coast natives were forced
to retreat, there was no place for them to go except to the reefs,
so gradually there sprang up a reef-dwelling people who are never
allowed to land on the mainland. As the bush boys are afraid of the
water, they never attempt to make canoes, and the reef natives
control the water so effectively that the bush men dare not even
fish in the salt water; and as the reef natives cannot produce
enough cocoanuts and fruit to keep them in a variety of foods, the
two tribes compromise by allowing their women to come together on
the beach, where fish are traded for fruits and nuts. Men never
dare come to the market-place where this trading is effected.
During the hurricane a few years ago, several of these islands were
destroyed, and for several weeks the inhabitants were paddling among
the different islands looking for a safe place to land. Some landed
at hostile places and were killed. Others started new villages in
uninhabited places; and some were unfortunate enough to land near
plantations, and were forced into service. The traders were only too
glad to get new recruits without the expense of blackbirding them.
As we passed out of the Manning Straits, we sailed past part of the
German Solomons. On clear days we could see patrols of war canoes
paddling up and down the coasts of the different islands, and often
would pass close to small canoes on fishing trips. We let some of
the natives come aboard the _Snark_ and traded for the fish they
carried. I believe that was one of the most interesting experiences
that fell to me in the South Seas--to see these different people in
their canoes, and now and then to stop to trade with them or to make
photographs.
We dropped anchor for two days at an island north of Guadalcanar,
where we knew there was a plantation. We were treated hospitably by
Mr. Nichols, the owner of the plantation. And here we discovered
another interesting bit of history in regard to Henry, our
Polynesian sailor. Some years before, Mr. Nichols had managed a
pearling station on Christmas Island, and Henry was his chief diver.
He had found a pearl that was worth a large sum of money, and when
he turned it over to Mr. Nichols, he and Nichols were attacked by
the other pearl divers and the pearl was stolen. The natives took it
to Papeete, Tahiti, where they sold it for half its value. Mr.
Nichols asked as a favour that Henry might stay ashore a couple of
days with him; and then the two got together like a couple of old
soldiers talking over the war.
It was early in the morning that we slid out of the island, on the
most perfect day possible. We pushed down the coast of Guadalcanar,
the awnings set and the engines running smoothly. Not a bit of wind
was stirring. As we three white people were now in an awful state
with yaws, and Jack's mysterious sickness was growing worse all the
time, it was decided that we should get back to Penduffryn by the
time the steamer arrived, so that we could get our wounds doctored.
The blue vitriol washes were driving us to distraction, but thus
only could we keep the disease from spreading.
Finally, after being away two months, we dropped anchor again at
Penduffryn. On going ashore, we found the traders organising to make
a trip into the interior of the island, to make moving pictures
among the real cannibals. Mr. Harding had been trying for several
years to get enough persons together to make this expedition. Here,
too, another surprise awaited us. It was Wada, our cook, who had
deserted us at Ysabel, now miraculously returned. He seemed to have
recovered his reason, so Jack put him once more into the galley of
the _Snark_.
The three moving picture men had been sent from Paris by Pathé
Frêres, famous the world over, to make pictures of the reception of
the American fleet in Sydney. Having finished the fleet pictures, it
was up to them to bring back some good cinematographic records of
the Solomon Islands cannibals. For the first week they were kept
busy at Penduffryn, unpacking and setting up their machines. Then
all three, not being used to the damp climate, had fallen sick with
island fever, and so could not make their inland trip until they had
recovered. Meanwhile, their chemicals, which had been thoughtlessly
unpacked, rapidly deteriorated in the tropical atmosphere; and there
was no place to buy chemicals short of Australia. However, the
chemicals used on moving pictures are the same as those used on
ordinary films, so I was able to supply sufficient material to last
them until they got back to Australia. Harding and Darbishire made
preparations for the trip, and were as enthusiastic as children. For
when white men exist for years on a plantation without associating
with others of their race, they are apt to run wild when they come
in contact with a bunch of good fellows.
[Illustration: MAKING COPRA AT "PENDUFFRYN," SOLOMON ISLANDS]
We went up the Balesuna River six miles to a village, named
Charley after a native who had once worked on the Penduffryn
plantation. This was the first time a white man had ever set foot in
the interior of the island of Guadalcanar. We were gone some time,
and secured some very unique and interesting pictures.
By this time, our yaws and Jack's undiagnosed illness were so bad
that we were anxiously waiting for the steamer. The doctors of
Australia were our only hope. Henry, Tehei, and the two Japs had
practically recovered from their ailments, but we white people found
life in the Solomons more trying every day. The two Tahitians and
Wada were to take charge of the _Snark_ and lie at Aola,
Guadalcanar, until we could resume the voyage, which we hoped would
be before long. On Tuesday, November 3, the steamship _Makambo_
dropped anchor at Penduffryn, and lay all day discharging cargo and
taking on copra and ivory-nuts. That evening, Jack gave a big
champagne dinner to the Penduffrynites; then we went aboard, to sail
next morning, but the anchor-chain got foul, and we did not get away
until Wednesday noon. We went to Neil Island, where we anchored for
the night, and then to Aola, where the _Snark_ was lying. Thursday
noon we steamed out of the Solomons.
It seemed good to be on a large vessel like the _Makambo_ after
being so long on the _Snark_. She seemed as steady as a house, and I
couldn't understand why only a few persons came to meals. Had they
been on the tiny _Snark_, doing a corkscrew twist out in the sea, I
could have understood readily. The _Makambo_ seemed like a very big
ship to me after our own boat; but the truth is, she was one of the
smallest ships in the South Sea trade. I had a deck-cabin with a
fine room-mate--a doctor from New Guinea. Only one thing about him
was unpleasant--his delirium tremens. He had them two days. All
night he caught snakes and cockroaches; and whenever he missed a
large snake, he woke me up to catch it for him. Oh, it was lovely
for a sick man! Jack and Mrs. London had the captain's room on the
bridge, so that they could keep up with their work.
On Tuesday, November 10, we sighted land, and for the rest of the
day steamed off shore. How good it seemed to see real land
again--not cocoanut trees that just lifted out of the water, but
real land! I felt so good that I had to practise a new profession of
mine upon some of the passengers. While at Penduffryn, I had learned
much. One day Mr. Harding told us of a black boy of his that could
make fire. We asked for a demonstration. The black came up with two
pieces of dry driftwood, and in less than one minute had made fire,
sufficient to start up a cook-stove. Well, it looked so easy that I
bet Jack that I could do it inside half an hour; but when the bet
was made, they all told me that it was impossible for a white man to
do it. Jack said he had never seen a black do it before, and that he
had always regarded it as a myth in story-books. Anyway, I set to
work, and at the end of the half-hour I did not even have a smoke
started; so I lost the bet. But I was not discouraged. I kept at it,
and went among the blacks. They taught me the trick, and still I
could not do it; but after working at it for several days, I learned
to do it quicker than even the blacks could do it. After that, it
was so easy! I brought two pieces of wood along, and on the day we
sighted land, I made a bet with one of the passengers that I could
make fire, and I won in a walk. Then I bet him ten shillings that he
could not do it in half an hour--and of course, I won.
It was on Sunday, November 15, 1908, that we approached Sydney. We
got off the heads at ten in the morning, and for two hours steamed
up what is supposed to be the finest harbour in the world.
Certainly, I saw more big steamers and large full-rigged ships at
anchor and in the docks than I ever saw in the New York or the San
Francisco harbours. It all seemed American, what of the great
sign-boards on every side, and it got more American as we went
along. I could hardly restrain my impatience to get ashore.
Australia at last! Not under the exact circumstances we had planned,
but Australia at last. Our hearts were very light as the _Makambo's_
anchor rumbled down in Sydney Harbor, and we found ourselves once
more in civilisation.