The Honourable Captain Stanley W------ believed in flogging, and during
the three years' cruise of the frigate in the South Pacific he had taken
several opportunities of expressing this belief upon the bluejackets of
his ship by practical illustrations of his hobby. He was, however--in
his own opinion--a most humane man, and was always ready to give a dozen
less if Dr. Cartwright suggested, for instance, that Jenkins or Jones
hadn't quite got over his last tricing up, and could hardly stand
another dozen so soon. And the chaplain of the frigate, when dining with
the Honourable Stanley, would often sigh and shake his head and agree
with the captain that the proposed abolition of flogging in the British
Navy would do much to destroy its discipline and loosen the feelings of
personal attachment between officers and men, and then murmur something
complimentary about his Majesty's ship _Pleiades_ being one of the very
few ships in the Service whose captain still maintained so ancient and
honoured a custom, the discontinuance of which could only be advocated
by common, illiterate persons--such as the blue-jackets themselves.
*****
The frigate was on her way from Valparaiso to Sydney--it was in the days
of Governor Bligh--and for nearly three weeks had been passing amongst
the low-lying coral islands of the Paumotu or Low Archipelago, when
one afternoon in May, 182- she lay becalmed off the little island of
Vairaatea. The sea was as smooth as glass, and only the gentlest ocean
swell rose and fell over the flat surface of the coral reef. In those
days almost nothing was known of the people of the Paumotu Group except
that they were a fierce and warlike race and excessively shy of white
strangers. Standing on his quarter-deck Captain W------ could with
his glass see that there were but a few houses on the island--perhaps
ten--and as the frigate had been nearly six weeks out from Valparaiso,
and officers in the navy did not live as luxuriously then as now, he
decided to send a boat ashore and buy some turtle from the natives.
“If you can buy a few thousand cocoanuts as well, do so, Mr. T.,” said
the captain, “and I'll send another boat later on.”
*****
The boat's crew was well armed, and in command of the second lieutenant.
Among them was a man named Hallam, a boatswain's mate, a dark-faced,
surly brute of about fifty. He was hated by nearly every one on board,
but as he was a splendid seaman and rigidly exact in the performance of
his duties, he was an especial favourite of the captain's, who was never
tired of extolling his abilities and sobriety, and holding him up as an
example of a British seaman: and Hallam, like his captain, was a firm
believer in the cat.
On pulling in to the beach about a dozen light-skinned natives met them.
They were all armed with clubs and spears, but at a sign from one
who seemed to be their chief they laid them down All--the chief as
well--were naked, save for a girdle of long grass round their loins.
Their leader advanced to Lieutenant T------ as he stepped out of the
boat, and holding out his hand said, “Good mornin' What you want?”
Pleased at finding a man who spoke English, the lieutenant told him he
had come to buy some turtle and get a boatload of young cocoanuts, and
showed him the tobacco and knives intended for payment.
The chiefs eyes glistened at the tobacco; the others, who did not know
its use, turned away in indifference, but eagerly handled the knives.
*****
All this time the chiefs eyes kept wandering to the face of Hallam,
the boatswain's mate, whose every movement he followed with a curious,
wistful expression. Suddenly he turned to the lieutenant and said, in
curious broken English, that cocoanuts were easily to be obtained, but
turtle were more difficult; yet if the ship would wait he would promise
to get them as many as were wanted by daylight next morning.
“All right,” said Lieutenant T------, “bear a hand with the cocoanuts
now, and I'll tell the captain what you say;” and then to Hallam, “If
this calm keeps up, Hallam, I'm afraid the ship will either have to
anchor or tow off the land--she's drifting in fast.”
In an hour the boat was filled with cocoanuts, and Lieutenant T------
sent her off to the ship with a note to the captain, remaining himself
with Hallam, another leading seaman named Lacy, and five bluejackets.
Presently the chief, in his strange, halting English, asked the officer
to come to his house and sit down and rest while his wife prepared food
for him. And as they walked the native's eyes still sought the face of
Hallam the boatswain.
His wife was a slender, graceful girl, and her modest, gentle demeanour
as she waited upon her husband himself impressed the lieutenant
considerably.
“Where did you learn to speak English?” the officer asked his host after
they had finished.
He answered slowly, “I been sailor man American whaleship two year;” and
then, pointing to a roll of soft mats, said, “You like sleep, you sleep.
Me like go talk your sailor man.”
*****
Hallam, morose and gloomy, had left the others, and was sitting under
the shade of a _toa_-tree, when he heard the sound of a footstep, and
looking up saw the dark-brown, muscular figure of the native chief
beside him.
“Well,” he said, surlily, “what the h---- do you want?”
The man made him no answer--only looked at him with a strange, eager
light of expectancy in his eyes, and his lips twitched nervously, but no
sound issued from them. For a moment the rude, scowling face of the old
seaman seemed to daunt him. Then, with a curious choking sound in his
throat, he sprang forward and touched the other man on the arm.
“_Father!_ Don't you know me?”
With trembling hands and blanched face the old man rose to his feet, and
in a hoarse whisper there escaped from his lips a name that he had
long years ago cursed and forgotten. His hands opened and shut again
convulsively, and then his savage, vindictive nature asserted itself
again as he found his voice, and with the rasping accents of passion
poured out curses upon the brown, half-naked man that stood before him.
Then he turned to go. But the other man put out a detaining hand.
*****
“It is as you say. I am a disgraced man. But you haven't heard why I
deserted from the _Tagus_. Listen while I tell you. I was flogged. I was
only a boy, and it broke my heart.”
“Curse you, you chicken-hearted sweep! I've laid the cat on the back of
many a better man than myself, and none of 'em ever disgraced themselves
by runnin' away and turnin' into a nigger, like you!”