The day following our arrival in Samarai, loud yells of “Sail Ho!” from
every native in the island announced that the _Merrie England_ was
returning from the Mambare River, where the Lieut.-Governor had been
occupied in punishing the native murderers of a man named Clarke, the
leader of a prospecting party in search of gold; and in establishing
at that point, for the protection of future prospectors, a police
post under the gallant but ill-fated John Green. Clarke’s murder was
destined, though no one realized it at the time, to be the beginning of
a long period of bloodshed and anarchy in the Northern Division--then
still a portion of the Eastern Division. These events, however, belong
to a later date and chapter.
On her voyage south from the Mambare, the _Merrie England_ had waited
at the mouth of the Musa River, while Sir William MacGregor traversed
and mapped that stream. Whilst so engaged, accompanied by but one
officer and a single boat’s crew of native police, His Excellency
discovered a war party of north-east coast natives returning from a
cannibal feast, with their canoes loaded with dismembered human bodies.
Descending the river, Sir William collected his native police and,
attacking the raiders, dealt out condign and summary justice, which
resulted in the tribes of the lower Musa dwelling for many a year in a
security to which several generations had been strangers.
Some little time after the ship had cast anchor, my friend and myself
received a message that Sir William was disengaged; whereupon we went
on board to meet, for the first time, the strongest man it has ever
been my fate to look upon. Short, square, slightly bald, speaking with
a strong Scotch accent, showing signs of overwork and the ravages of
malaria, there was nothing in the first appearance of the man to stamp
him as being out of the ordinary, but I had not been three minutes in
his cabin before I realized that I was in the presence of a master
of men--a Cromwell, a Drake, a Cæsar or Napoleon--his keen grey eyes
looking clean through me, and knew that I was being summed and weighed.
Once, and only once in my life, have I felt that a man was my master in
every way, a person to be blindly obeyed and one who must be right and
infallible, and that was when I met Sir William MacGregor.
Years afterwards, in conversation with a man who had held high command,
who had distinguished himself and been much decorated for services
in Britain’s little wars, I described the impression that MacGregor
had made upon me, the sort of overwhelming sense of inferiority he,
unconsciously to himself, made one feel, and was told that my friend
had experienced a like impression when meeting Cecil Rhodes.
The story of how Sir William MacGregor came to be appointed to New
Guinea was to me rather an interesting one, as showing the result, in
the history of a country, of a fortunate accident. It was related to me
by Bishop Stone-Wigg, to whom it had been told by the man responsible
for the appointment, either Sir Samuel Griffiths, Sir Hugh Nelson,
or Sir Thomas McIlwraith, which of the three I have now forgotten.
Sir William, at the time Doctor MacGregor, was attending, as the
representative of Fiji, one of the earlier conferences regarding the
proposed Federation of Australasia; he had already made his mark by
work performed in connection with the suppression of the revolt among
the hill tribes of that Crown Colony. At the conference, amongst other
questions, New Guinea came up for discussion, whereupon MacGregor
remarked: “There is the last country remaining, in which the Englishman
can show what can be done by just native policy.” The remark struck
the attention of one of the delegates, by whom the mental note was
made, “If Queensland ever has a say in the affairs of New Guinea, and
I have a say in the affairs of Queensland, you shall be the man for
New Guinea.” When later, New Guinea was declared a British Possession,
Queensland had a very large say in the matter, and the man who had made
the mental note happening to be Premier, he caused the appointment of
Administrator to be offered to MacGregor, by whom it was accepted.
Of Sir William, a story told me by himself will illustrate his
determination of character, even at an early age, though not related
with that intention.
MacGregor, when completing his training at a Scotch University, found
his money becoming exhausted; no time could he spare from his studies
in which to earn any, even were the opportunity there. Something
had to be done, so MacGregor called his old Scotch landlady into
consultation as to ways and means. “Well, Mr. MacGregor, how much a
week can you find?” “Half a crown.” “Well, I can do it for that.” And
this is how she did it. MacGregor had a bowl of porridge for breakfast,
nothing else; two fresh herrings or one red one, the cost of the fresh
ones being identical with the cured one, for dinner; and a bowl of
porridge again for supper. Thus he completed his course and took the
gold medal of his year.
[Illustration:
_Photo Boulton & Groves_
THE RIGHT HONBLE. SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR, P.C., G.C.M.G., C.B., ETC.,
ETC., ETC.
_From the portrait by James Quinn, R. A., exhibited at the Royal
Academy, 1915_]
This thoroughness and grim determination MacGregor still carried
into his work; for instance, it was necessary for him, unless he was
prepared to have a trained surveyor always with him on his expeditions,
to have a knowledge of astronomy and surveying. This he took up
with his usual vigour, and I once witnessed a little incident which
showed, not only how perfect Sir William had made himself in the
subject, but also his unbounded confidence in himself. We were lying
off a small island about which a doubt existed as to whether it was
within the waters of Queensland or New Guinea. The commander of the
_Merrie England_, together with the navigating officer, took a set of
stellar observations; the chief Government surveyor, together with an
assistant surveyor, took a second set; and Sir William took a third.
The ship’s party and the surveyors arrived at one result, Sir William
at a slightly different one; an ordinary man would have decided that
four highly competent professional men must be right and he wrong;
not so, however, MacGregor. “Ye are both wrong,” was his remark, when
their results were handed to him by the commander and surveyor. They
demurred, pointing out that their observations tallied. “Do it again,
ye don’t agree with mine;” and sure enough Sir William proved right and
they wrong.
My part in this had been to hold a bull’s-eye lantern for Sir William
to the arc of his theodolite, and to endeavour to attain the immobility
of a bronze statue while being devoured by gnats and mosquitoes.
Therefore later I sought Stuart Russell, the chief surveyor, with the
intention of working off a little of the irritation of the bites by
japing at him. “What sort of surveyors do you and Commander Curtis
think yourselves? Got to have a bally amateur to help you, eh?” “Shut
up, Monckton,” said Stuart Russell, “we are surveyors of ordinary
ability, Sir William is of more than that.”
The same sort of thing occurred with Sir William in languages; he
spoke Italian to Giulianetti, poor Giulianetti later murdered at
Mekeo; German to Kowold, poor Kowold, too, later killed by a dynamite
explosion on the Musa River; and French to the members of the Sacred
Heart Mission. I believe if a Russian or a Japanese had turned up, Sir
William would have addressed him in his own language. Ross-Johnston, at
one time private secretary to Sir William, once wailed to me about the
standard of erudition Sir William expected in a man’s knowledge of a
foreign language. Ross-Johnston had been educated in Germany and knew
German, as he thought, as well as his own mother tongue. Sir William
while reading some abstruse German book, struck a passage the meaning
of which was to him somewhat obscure; he referred to Ross-Johnston,
who, far from being able to explain the passage, could not make
sense of the chapter. Whereupon Sir William remarked that he thought
Ross-Johnston professed to know German. Ross-Johnston, feeling somewhat
injured, took the book to Kowold, who was a German. Kowold gave one
look at it, then exclaimed, “Phew! I can’t understand that, it’s
written by a scientist for scientists!”
One little story about MacGregor, a story I have always loved, was
that on one occasion while sitting in Legislative Council some member,
bolder than usual, asked, “What happens, your Excellency, should
Council differ with your views?” “Man,” replied Sir William, “the
result would be the same.” But I digress, as Bullen remarks, and shall
return from stories about MacGregor to his cabin and my own affairs.
Sir William told my friend and myself, that for two reasons he could
not offer either of us employment in his service. Firstly, that the
amount of money at his disposal, £12,000 per annum, did not permit
of fresh appointments until vacancies occurred; secondly, that his
officers must be conversant with native customs and ways of thought,
which experience we were entirely lacking. His Excellency, however,
told us that he had just received word of the discovery of gold upon
Woodlark Island, to which place the ship would at once proceed, and
that we might go in her; an offer we gladly accepted.
Then for the first time I met Mr. F. P. Winter, afterwards Sir Francis
Winter, Chief Magistrate of the Possession; the Hon. M. H. Moreton,
Resident Magistrate of the Eastern Division; Cameron, Chief Government
Surveyor; Mervyn Jones, Commander of the _Merrie England_; and
Meredith, head gaoler.
Winter had been a law officer in the service of Fiji, and upon the
appointment of Sir William MacGregor to New Guinea, had been chosen
by him as his Chief Justice and general right-hand man; the wisdom of
which choice later years amply showed. Widely read, a profound thinker,
possessed of a singular charm of manner, simple and unaffected to a
degree, Winter was a man that fascinated every one with whom he came in
contact. I don’t think he ever said an unkind word or did a mean action
in his life. Every officer in the Service, then and later, took his
troubles to him, and every unfortunate out of the Service appealed to
his purse.
Moreton, a younger brother of the present Earl of Ducie, had begun
life in the Seaforth Highlanders; plucky, hard working, and the best
of good fellows, he was fated to work on in New Guinea till, with his
constitution shattered, an Australian Government chucked him out to
make room for a younger man; shortly after which he died.
Cameron, the surveyor, was another good man, and wholly wrapped up
in his work. Of Cameron it was said, that he imagined that surveyors
were not for the purpose of surveying the earth, but that the earth
was created solely for them to survey. He, good chap, was luckier than
Moreton, for his fate was to die in harness; he being found sitting
dead in his chair, pen in hand, with a half-written dispatch in front
of him.
Mervyn Jones was a particularly smart seaman and navigator; educated at
Eton for other things, the sea had, however, exercised an irresistible
fascination for him; being too old for the Navy, he had worked up into
the Naval Reserve through the Merchant Service, and thus had come out
to command the _Merrie England_. The charts of the Coral Sea owe much
to his labour, and to that also of his two officers, Rothwell and
Taylor. All these officers were destined later to share a more or less
common fate: Jones died of a combination of lungs and malaria, Taylor
of malaria at sea, whilst Rothwell was invalided out of the service.
Meredith was taking a gang of native convicts down to Sudest Island;
they had been lent by the New Guinea Government to assist in making a
road to a gold reef discovered there which was now being opened by an
Australian company. It was here that he and many of his charges left
their bones.
Not far from Sudest lies Rossel Island, a wooded hilly land, inhabited
by a small dark-skinned people differing in language and customs
from all other Papuans. Personally I do not believe they have any
affinity with Papuans, either by descent or in other ways, whatever
views ethnologists may hold. The Rossel Islanders have among their
songs several Chinese chants, the origin of which is explained in this
way. In September, 1858, the ship _St. Paul_, bound from China to
the Australian gold-fields, and carrying some three hundred Chinese
coolies, was wrecked on an outlying sand-bank of Rossel. The European
officers and crew took to the boats and made their way to Queensland,
the Chinamen being left to shift for themselves. Thus abandoned to
their fate, the Chinamen were discovered by the islanders, and were
by them liberally supplied with food and water; when well fattened
they were removed in canoes to the main island, in lots of five and
ten, and there killed and eaten. The Chinamen, when removed, were
under the impression that they were merely taken in small numbers as
the native canoes could only carry a few passengers at a time, being
ignorant of the distance of the sea journey. As they left their awful
sand-bank in the canoes, they sang pæans and chants of joy, which the
quick-eared natives picked up and incorporated in their songs. In
1859 but one solitary Chinaman remained of the three hundred, and he,
fortunate man, was taken off Rossel by a passing French steamer and
landed in Australia, where history or scandal says he later pursued
the occupation of sly grog seller at a Victorian gold rush, and
being convicted thereof, was later pardoned in consideration of his
sufferings and being the sole survivor of three hundred.
From Sudest the _Merrie England_ went on to Woodlark Island, from
whence the discovery of gold had been reported by a couple of traders,
Lobb and Ede. These two men were a very good example of the old
gold-field’s practice of “dividing mates.” Lobb was professional gold
or other mineral prospector, who had sought for gold in any land where
it was likely to occur; when successful, his gains, however great, soon
slipped away; when unsuccessful, he depended on a “mate” to finance
and feed him, in diggers’ language, “grub stake” him, until such time
as his unerring instinct should again locate a fresh find. Ede was a
New Guinea trader owning a cocoanut plantation on the Laughlan Isles,
together with a small vessel. Ede landed Lobb on Woodlark with a number
of reliable natives, and, keeping him going with tools, provisions,
etc., at last had his reward by word from Lobb of the discovery of
payable gold. Thereupon they had reported their discovery and applied
for a reward claim to the Administration, together with the request
that the island should be proclaimed a gold-field; and at the same time
had informed their trader friends, some twenty in all, of what was to
be gained at the island.
Lobb and Ede, with their twenty friends, formed the European population
of the island when the _Merrie England_ arrived there; with the
exception of Lobb, there was not an experienced miner in the lot. The
twenty were a curious collection of men: an ex-Captain in Les Chasseurs
D’Afrique, whom later on I got to know very well, but who, poor chap,
was always most unjustly suspected by the diggers of being an escapee
from the French convict establishment at New Caledonia, merely because
he was a Frenchman; an unfrocked priest, who by the way was a most
plausible and finished scoundrel; and the son of the Premier of one of
the Australian colonies; these now, with Ede and myself, constitute
the sole survivors of the men who heard Sir William declare the island
a gold-field. Here it was that an ex-British resident, and the son of
a famous Irish Churchman, jostled shoulders with men whose real names
were only known to the police in the various countries from which they
hailed. “Jimmy from Heaven,” an angelic person, who was once sentenced
to be hanged for murder and, the rope breaking, gained a reprieve and
pardon, hence his sobriquet; “Greasy Bill”; “Bill the Boozer”; “French
Pete”; and “The Dove,” a most truculent scoundrel; the names they
answered to sufficiently explain the men.
All nationalities and all shades of character, from good to damned bad,
they however all held two virtues in common: a dauntless courage and a
large charity to the unfortunate; traits which will perhaps stand them
in better stead in the bourne to which they have gone than they did in
New Guinea.