At the Trobriands we sighted our missing _Ada_ at anchor and, upon the
_Mizpah_ running alongside, discovered that she was full of native
women. At first ugly looks and hands upon knives were the reception
accorded by the deserters, but that was soon altered by my New Guinea
boys. The divers and tenders expected bribes, argument, and persuasion
to be used in order to induce them to return to their work, the sort
of thing they had been accustomed to in the Torres Straits; instead
of which, they got a curt order to get into the hold, and the next
minute found their toes being smashed and their heads bumped by the
brass-heeled butts of heavy Snider carbines. The New Guinea boys had
always been rather despised by the Malays, and therefore were only
too glad to get a little of their own back when opportunity offered.
Spitting, cursing, and threatening, the Malays were all bumped below,
and the hatches clapped on.
The next operation on the part of my crew was to throw all the women
overboard, and let them swim ashore as best they were able. I may
remark that all the Trobriand women could swim like fishes. A nice
state we found the _Ada_ in: stores, coats, spare gear, everything
portable and of any value had been given to the women, not even the
cooking utensils were left. If we had not arrived when we did, even her
sails would have been cut up and disposed of. After viewing our damage
and loss, Billy and I held a parley with our men under hatches, and
found the Malay dignity was hurt by the treatment our boys had accorded
them; the result was, they said they had no intention of resuming duty.
I plainly saw that if I gave in to the brutes I should be utterly
undone, and my quest would become quite hopeless; at the same time,
without them I could do nothing. Billy now suggested that if I could
depend on my New Guinea boys, the best thing we could do was to lie at
anchor where we were, and trade for pearls and bêche-de-mer; in the
meanwhile keeping our mutineers confined, until in a more reasonable
frame of mind. This policy I adopted. Putting a couple of my boys on
the _Ada_, we hauled her up and made her fast to the _Mizpah_, leaving
her recalcitrant inhabitants still under hatches with neither food nor
water.
For twenty-four hours I kept the Malays below; and then, outside the
sand-bank forming the harbour, we sighted Moreton’s patrol schooner,
the _Siai_, signalling to me to come out. Whereupon we moved the _Ada_
from alongside the _Mizpah_ to alongside the _Curlew_. The clatter and
row made by this operation excited the curiosity of our prisoners, who,
questioning the boys on deck, were told that the _Siai_ was in sight,
and that the _Mizpah_ was going off to ask that they be taken and tried
as pirates or ship-stealers. Awful howls and yells then came from the
hold begging for an interview with me. Upon my going to the hatch and
ordering the removal of one plank in order that the imprisoned men
might talk to me, frenzied petitions for mercy were put up, accompanied
by all sorts of strange oaths that, if forgiven, they would be good and
faithful men in the future. Billy said, “Let ’em off, they will be all
right in the future, and we can’t afford to have them jugged; also we
can’t keep ’em below with a Government ship in sight or we shall get
into trouble.” I therefore accepted their promises of good behaviour;
at the same time I pointed out how magnanimous I was, and ordered them
to disperse to their several vessels.
Then I went out in the _Mizpah_ to the _Siai_, where I found Moreton,
R.M., and Judge Winter. The latter had come down to try a white man for
murder. Moreton explained to me that there was a lot of sickness in
Samarai gaol, beri beri and dysentery, and he wished to fill the _Siai_
with yams. As her draught would not permit her to approach closely to
the anchorage, he wanted me to act as tender with the _Mizpah_, and
load the _Siai_. I jumped at the offer; my whole expenses at this time
amounted to £5 a day, and, as Moreton offered me that sum, I was glad
for a few days to leave my Malays and the conversation of Billy, for
the cabin of the _Siai_ and the company of Moreton and Winter. While
the _Mizpah_ was running yams to the _Siai_, she was steered by one or
other of the Malay tenders, and the Judge complimented me upon their
polite manners and civility. I grinned an internal grin as I told him
they were really not bad people if treated in the right way.
The Trobriands are a great yam-growing district, the yams grown there
running up to 150 lbs. in weight. Throughout New Guinea, the group was
famous for three things: the cowardice of the men, the immorality--or
rather I should put it the total unmorality--of the women, and the
quality of its yams. The islands are all perfectly flat and the soil
consists of decomposing coral and humus, and is wonderfully rich. One
of the staple foods of the islanders consisted of the oyster contained
in a small pearl shell, found in great quantities on the mud banks
lying in the vicinity of the group, the oyster being termed by the
natives “Lapi.” Out of this pearl shell, which, by the way, they opened
by throwing it upon the fire, they obtained a large quantity of pearls
which they sold to wandering traders; the shell, which would have
otherwise have had a very considerable market value, being utterly
ruined by the action of the fire.
Here I made the acquaintance of the Rev. ---- Fellows of the Wesleyan
Methodist Mission; a fine type of man who, with his equally devoted
wife, was endeavouring to stay, with, as I could see, little hope of
success, the rapid deterioration of the islanders. Mr. Fellows and I
gave one another a mutual surprise, I think. I had mentally pictured
him as a measly, psalm-singing hypocrite, using religion as a cloak
for money-getting; he, I think, had assumed that all traders were
drunken, debauched, pyjama-clad ruffians, whose main object in life
was to destroy Mission work. Instead of which I found a splendid man,
struggling under enormous difficulties, and at great personal sacrifice
preaching to the natives a gospel of work and clean living. And he,
for his part, discovered that a trader might be a clean-shaved person,
who could employ his spare time quite happily in gossiping with the
missionary and his wife about people and things far removed from New
Guinea.
By the way, some time later Mr. Fellows got me into trouble with Sir
William MacGregor, though quite unintentionally. I had relieved Moreton
as Resident Magistrate at Samarai, and amongst the correspondence to be
dealt with, were a host of complaints from Fellows about robberies by
the natives from the Mission House, assaults upon Mission servants and
natives, and threats of violence against himself. Moreton said, “Get
down and settle this business as soon as you can, Monckton; you may
have to burn some powder, but make Fellows safe, for he is a real good
chap, as you know.” I went to the Trobriands as soon as I conveniently
could; and after seeing Mr. Fellows and questioning the village
constable, I came to the conclusion that a certain old chief, living
some miles inland, was at the bottom of the trouble. Marching inland
I collared him with several of his satellites, and hauled him to the
coast. On being brought before my court the old chief fully confessed,
informed me of all the men engaged in the various outrages, sent for
them, and begged for mercy; promising amendment and good behaviour in
future if forgiven. He then begged Mr. Fellows to intercede with me
for them, which Mr. Fellows did. At his request, after I had convicted
the men, I discharged them to their homes. About a month later I met
Sir William MacGregor and, in the course of conversation about the
Trobriands, told him what I had done in the matter of the offences
against Mr. Fellows. His Excellency said, “You are like all young
magistrates, a fool. Can you not see that, by your action in this case,
you have given the natives the impression that the Mission can summon
the Government forces, have people sent to gaol, and then have them
released? Never in future allow any one to interfere with a sentence
once passed; the Crown alone can pardon, you cannot, neither can the
Mission.” A remark which I never forgot, and which stood me in good
stead in after years.
The greater number of the pearls found at the Trobriand Islands are
of a very pale golden or straw colour; and for this reason, though of
perfect lustre, are not considered equal to those obtained from the
larger mother-of-pearl shell found in the China or Torres Straits, or
from Ceylon and West Australia. A certain proportion of the Trobriand
pearls are, however, of the purest white colour; and these, if perfect
in shape and lustre, are the equals of any pearls in the world. Some
few black pearls are found in these islands, but not in any great
number. There is a common and erroneous impression amongst people, only
acquainted with pearls in jewellers’ shops, that black pearls possess
a greater value than others. This is not the case. The most valuable
pearls are those of a pure white, and perfectly round in shape,
suitable for stringing as a necklace; the next a pure white pear-shaped
pearl, sufficiently large to be used as a pendant or ear-drop; then
come the button-shaped pearls, that is, pearls perfectly round with the
exception of a slight flattening on one side, which can be concealed by
setting in a bracelet, pin or ring. Black pearls in all these shapes
are worth less than the corresponding shapes in white.
Pearls of a freak or fanciful and irregular shape, or fastened together
in clusters, possess no commercial value; though in odd cases I have
known enormous prices paid for them for sentimental reasons. For
instance, a pearl-fisher in Torres Straits found a cluster of small
and medium sized pearls in the shape of an almost perfect cross.
This cluster, after passing through the hands of several dealers,
was eventually sold, I was told, to some wealthy Roman Catholics for
presentation to the Pope, the sum paid being £10,000; and the actual
value of the pearls composing it, if separate and perfect, would
certainly not have been £10. Pearls are sometimes found attached to
the pearl shell, or bubbles of the pearly lining of the shell are
blown out in such a way as to resemble pearls; these pearls are known
as blisters, and are sawn out by the trader and sold for the making
of brooches and the cheaper forms of jewellery. When mounted they are
frequently passed off to the uninitiated as the real thing.
Large quantities of what are called seed pearls are found in nearly
all the different varieties of pearl shell. They are about the size of
small shot, and of irregular shape but good colour and lustre; these
are mainly sold by the ounce or pound at the rate of from £2 10s.
to £3 per ounce. Some of this seed goes to Paris, where it is used,
I am told, by milliners for ornamenting ladies’ dresses; but by far
the greater proportion goes to China, for what purpose I know not.
The largest, most valuable and perfect pearls go to either Russia or
America, those people valuing pearls apparently more than other races,
and being prepared to pay more for really perfect specimens. Pink
pearls occur very rarely, in fact I have never seen one. They are so
rare as to have no fixed commercial value, though pearl-fishers say
that, when any are found, the Indian Rajahs are always willing to pay
enormous prices for them.
The greater portion of black pearls come from the black-lipped variety
of shell, a much smaller shell than gold-lipped or mother-of-pearl.
The latter shell averages about the size of a large dinner plate, and
varies in colour from a pure white at the hinges to a golden colour
at the lips. Gold-lip is only obtained in deep water and by means
of diving dress; black-lip in shallow water and by naked natives,
skin-divers as they are called. Black-lip is of much less value than
gold, but, for some reason unknown to me, always jumps tremendously in
price during periods of Court Mourning. Gold-lip is subject to attack
by a worm, which sometimes bores holes all through the outer covering
of the pearly part of the shell.
I believe that the same worm also attacks the spear of the great
swordfish. For once, when sailing from the island of St. Aignan to
Sudest in a whaleboat in very calm weather, I noticed a swordfish
behaving in a most extraordinary manner. It was travelling at great
speed on the surface of the water, sometimes straight forward,
sometimes in circles, whilst at intervals it was leaping from the water
and whirling rapidly round. I could see no sign of an enemy, but I
could plainly see that the fish was in great agony. At last it leapt
half a dozen times from the water to a great height, falling each time
with a resounding splash, until at last its antics became feebler and
it turned on its side and slowly sank. I caused the whaleboat to follow
it for some distance, and could see through the clear water the almost
dead fish drifting with no sign of external injury about its body
anywhere.
My boys then told me that the swordfish frequently behaved in this
manner, went “Kava Kava” or mad, and then died. They gave the cause
as being a “small snake,” that is, a worm, which bored up through
its sword into the bone of the skull and thence into the brain. This
explanation accounted to me for the numerous well-authenticated cases
of swordfish charging and breaking off their swords in ships’ hulls.
I myself have seen the broken sword fast in the solid keel of a big
sailing canoe; and natives have told me instances of the sword being
driven through a canoe’s planking, and the fish being secured by first
lashing the sword fast with cords and then spearing the fish. They too
believed that the fish did not attack from malice prepense, but as
an accident when driven mad and blind by pain. I have never heard of
the swordfish, or its big cousin the sawfish, attacking naked men or
clothed diver; though I fail to see how they could withstand or escape
from the charge of either. Natives of fishing tribes are not in the
least afraid of the swordfish, but they are to a certain extent of the
sawfish. The latter has a shorter, broader, and altogether stronger
beak than the former, blunt at the point instead of sharp, and studded
down each side by villainous sharp and bony teeth. Its pleasing custom
is to charge amongst a shoal of fish and frantically thrash from side
to side among them with its beak, gathering up the slain and wounded
at its leisure afterwards. This charming habit on its part sometimes
leads it to follow a shoal of fish into the fishermen’s nets, where,
getting its beak entangled, it will tear everything to pieces unless
soon speared. The spearing of it is a work of difficulty and danger, as
one blow from the violently thrashing beak will disembowel a man, or
inflict wounds of a most ghastly nature.
On the same boat trip when I made the acquaintance of the swordfish
with worm in his head, I also fell in with a most extraordinary fishing
rat. We had landed and camped for the night upon a small coral island
surrounded by submerged coral boulders and, but for a few stunted
trees, bare of all vegetation. Shortly after dark I was disturbed
by rats crawling over me, and at last in disgust went and slept in
the whaleboat. In the morning I landed again and, while my boys were
preparing breakfast, walked to the other side of the island; then
sitting down I began my ante-breakfast pipe, whilst I pondered what on
earth the rats on the island could find to live upon, as food there was
apparently none. While sitting quietly there, I noticed some rats going
down to the edge of the reef--lank, hungry-looking brutes they were,
with pink naked tails. I stopped on the point of throwing lumps of
coral at them, out of curiosity to see what the vermin meant to do at
the sea. Rat after rat picked a flattish lump of coral, squatted on the
edge and dangled his tail in the water; suddenly one rat gave a violent
leap of about a yard, and as he landed, I saw a crab clinging to his
tail. Turning round, the rat grabbed the crab and devoured it, and then
returned to his stone; the while the other rats were repeating the same
performance. What on earth those rats did for fresh water, though, I
don’t know, as there was none on the island that I could see.