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diff --git a/35431-h/35431-h.htm b/35431-h/35431-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5cdc0ee --- /dev/null +++ b/35431-h/35431-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14471 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Modern Buccaneer, by Rolf Boldrewood. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +ul { list-style-type: none; } + +ul.TOC { + position: relative; + left: -3%; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + width: 50%; +} + +li.chapter { + margin-top: 1.5em; + text-align: center; +} + +span.ralign { /* use absolute positioning to move page# right */ + position: absolute; + right: 0; /* right edge against container's right edge */ + top: auto; /* vertical align to original text baseline */ +} + +hr { + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +hr.cb { width: 75%; } +hr.tb { width: 40%; } + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.dedication { margin: 2em 25% 2em 25%; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} +em.antiqua { font-style: italic; } + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-style: italic;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Correspondence */ + +.letter-heading { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 1em; +} +.letter-address { + text-align: center; + margin-left: 60%; +} +.letter-signature { + text-align: center; + margin-left: 70%; +} +.letter-rank { + text-align: center; + margin-right: 70%; +} + +.smaller { font-size: smaller; } + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +a,img { border: none; text-decoration: none; } + +ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + +.tnote { width: 40em; + border: 1px dashed #808080; + background-color: #f6f6f6; + text-align: justify; + padding: 0.5em; + margin: 80px auto 80px auto; +} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Modern Buccaneer, by Rolf Boldrewood + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Modern Buccaneer + +Author: Rolf Boldrewood + +Release Date: February 28, 2011 [EBook #35431] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN BUCCANEER *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Erica Pfister-Altschul and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<div class="dedication"> +<h1>A MODERN BUCCANEER</h1> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter dedication" style="width: 100px;"> +<img src="images/mmco-logo.png" width="100" height="27" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="dedication"> +<p>I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. Louis +Becke, author of <i>By Reef and Palm</i>, as to the South Sea +Island portion of <i>A Modern Buccaneer</i>, with the exception +of the chapter headed "Poisoned Arrows," which is +founded upon the diary of a Whaling Cruise by my late father.</p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/map-1200.png"><img src="images/map-600.png" width="600" height="473" alt="" title="" /></a> +<span class="caption"><i>Boldrewood's "Modern Buccaneer"</i><br /> +<i>Walker & Boutall sc.</i></span> +</div> + + +<hr class="cb" /> + +<h1>A MODERN BUCCANEER</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>ROLF BOLDREWOOD</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF 'ROBBERY UNDER ARMS'</h4> + +<h4><em class="antiqua">London</em></h4> + +<h4>MACMILLAN AND CO.<br /> +<span class="smaller">AND NEW YORK</span><br /> +1894</h4> + +<h5><i>All rights reserved</i></h5> + +<h4>COPYRIGHT<br /> +1894<br /> +<span class="smaller">BY</span><br /> +MACMILLAN AND CO.</h4> + +<h5><i>First Edition (3 Vols.) April 1894<br /> +Second Edition (1 Vol.) October 1894</i></h5> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<ul class="TOC"> +<li><span class="ralign">PAGE</span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">My First Voyage</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">William Henry Hayston</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">In Samoa</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Samoa to Millé</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">The Brig Leonora</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Captain Ben Peese</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Cruising among the Carolines</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Poisoned Arrows</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Halcyon Days</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Murder and Shipwreck</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">A King and Queen</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">"My Lords of the Admiralty"</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">H.M.S. Rosario</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Norfolk Island—Arcadia</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">Epithalamium</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">A Swim for Life</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></span></li> +<li class="chapter"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></li> +<li> + <span class="smcap">"Our Jack's come Home to-day"</span> + <span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></span></li> +</ul> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="A_MODERN_BUCCANEER" id="A_MODERN_BUCCANEER"></a>A MODERN BUCCANEER</h2> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h2>MY FIRST VOYAGE</h2> + + +<p>Born near Sydney harbour, nursery of the seamen of the +South, I could swim almost as soon as I could walk, and +sail a boat at an age when most children are forbidden to +go near the water. We came of a salt-water stock. My +father had been a sea-captain for the greater part of his +life, after a youth spent in every kind of craft, from a +cutter to a man-of-war. No part of the habitable globe +was unfamiliar to him: from India to the Pole, from Russia +to the Brazils, from the China Sea to the Bight of +Benin—every harbour was a home.</p> + +<p>He had nursed one crew frost-bitten in Archangel, when +the blankets had to be cut up for mittens; had watched by +the beds of another, decimated by yellow fever in Jamaica; +had marked up the "death's-head and cross-bones" in the +margin of the log-book, to denote the loss by tetanus of the +wounded by poisoned arrows on Bougainville Island; and +had fought hand to hand with the stubborn Maories of +Taranaki. Wounds and death, privation and pestilence, +wrecks and tempests were with him household words, close +comrades. What were they but symbols, nature-pictures, +the cards dealt by fate? You lost the stake or rose a +winner. Men who had played the game of life all round +knew this. He accepted fortune, fair or foul, as he did the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +weather—a favour or a force of nature to be enjoyed or +defied. But to be commented upon, much less complained +of? Hardly. And as fate had willed it, the worn though +unwearied sea-king had seen fit to heave anchor, so to +speak, and moor his vessels—for he owned more than one—in +this the fairest haven of the southern main. Once before +in youth had he seen and never forgotten the frowning +headlands, beyond which lay so peerless a harbour, such +wealth of anchorage, so mild a clime, so boundless an extent +of virgin soil; from which he, "a picked man of countries," +even then prophesied wealth, population, and empire +in the future.</p> + +<p>Here, then, a generation later, he brought his newly-wedded +wife. Here was I, Hilary Telfer, destined to see +the light.</p> + +<p>From the mid-city street of Sydney is but a stone's throw +to the wharves and quays, magnificent water-ways in which +those ocean palaces of the present day, the liners of the +P. and O. and the Orient, lie moored, and but a plank divides +the impatient passenger from the busy mart. Not that +such stately ships were visitors in my school-boy days. +Sydney was then a grass-grown, quiet seaport, boasting +some fifty thousand inhabitants, with a fleet of vessels +small in size and of humble tonnage.</p> + +<p>But, though unpretending of aspect, to the eager-hearted, +imaginative school-boy they were rich as Spanish galleons. +For were they not laden with uncounted treasure, +weighed down with wealth beyond the fabled hoards of +the pirates of the Spanish Main, upon whose dark deeds +and desperate adventures I had so greedily feasted?</p> + +<p>Each vessel that swept through the Heads at midnight, +or marked the white-walled mansions and pine-crowned +promontories rise faintly out of the pearl-hued dawn, was +for me a volume filled with romance and mystery. Sat +there not on the forecastle of that South Sea whaler, silent, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +scornful, imperturbable, the young Maori chief, nursing in +his breast the deep revenge for a hasty blow, which on the +return voyage to New Zealand and the home of his tribe +was to take the form of a massacre of the whole ship's +company?</p> + +<p>Yes, captain and officers, passengers and crew, every +man on that ship paid the death penalty for the mate's +hard word and blow. The insult to a Rangatira must be +wiped out in blood.</p> + +<p>The trader of the South Sea Islands was a marine marvel +which I was never weary of studying.</p> + +<p>I generally managed to make friends with one or other +of the crew, who permitted me to explore the lower deck +and feed my fancy upon the treasures from that paradise +with which the voyager from an enchanted ocean had surely +freighted his vessel. Strange bows and arrows—the latter +poison-tipped, as I was always assured, perhaps as a precautionary +measure—piles of shaddocks, tons of bananas, +idols, skulls, spears, clubs, woven cloth of curious fabric, +an endless store of unfamiliar foreign commodities.</p> + +<p>Among the crew were always a few half-castes mingled +with the grizzled, weather-beaten British sea-dogs. Perhaps +a boat's crew of the islanders themselves, born sailors, +and as much at home in water as on land.</p> + +<p>Seldom did I leave, however unwillingly, the deck of +one of these fairy barques, without registering a vow that +the year in which I left school should see me a gay sailor-boy, +bound on my first voyage in search of dangerous adventures +and that splendidly untrammelled career which +was so surely to result in fortune and distinction.</p> + +<p>Then the whaleships! In that old time, Sydney harbour +was rarely without a score or more of them. In their way +they were portents and wonders of the deep. Fortune +failed them at times. The second year might find them +far from full of the high-priced whale-oil. The capricious +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +cetacean was not to be depended upon in migration from +one "whaling ground" to another. Sometimes a "favourite" +ship—lucky in spite of everything—would come +flaunting in after an absence of merely eleven or twelve +months—such were the <i>Florentia</i> and the <i>Proteus</i>—full to +the hatches, while three long years would have elapsed +before her consort, sailing on the same day and fitted up +much in the same way, would crawl sadly into Snail's or +Neutral Bay, battered and tempest-tossed, but three-quarter +full even then, a mark for the rough wit of the port, to pay +off an impoverished crew and confront unsmiling or incredulous +owners.</p> + +<p>Every kind of disaster would have befallen her. When +she got fast to a ninety-barrel whale, her boats would be +stoven in. When all was well, no cheery shout of "There +she spouts!" would be heard for days. Savage islanders +would attack her doggedly, and hardly be beaten off. +Every kind of evil omen would be justified, until the crew +came to believe that they were sailing with an Australian +Vanderdecken, and would never see a port again.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The grudging childish years had rolled by, and now I was +seventeen years of age—fitted, as I fully believed, to begin +the battle of life in earnest, and ardent for the fray. As +to my personal qualifications for a life on the ocean wave, +and well I knew no other would have contented me, let the +reader judge. At the age when tall lads are often found +to have out-grown their strength, I had attained the fullest +stature of manhood; wide-chested and muscular, constant +exercise with oar and sail had developed my frame and +toughened my sinews, until I held myself, with some reason, +to be a match in strength and activity for most men I +was likely to meet.</p> + +<p>In the rowing contests to which Australians of the shore +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +have always been devoted, more particularly the privileged +citizens of Sydney, I had always taken a leading part. +More than once, in a hard-fought finish, had I been lifted +out fainting or insensible.</p> + +<p>My curling fair hair and blue eyes bore token of our +Norse blood and Anglo-Norman descent. The family held +a tradition that our surname came from Taillefer, the +warrior minstrel who rode in the forefront of Duke William's +army at Hastings. Strangely, too, a passionate +love of song had always clung to the race. "Sir Hilary +charged at Agincourt," as saith the ballad. Roving and +adventure ran in the blood for generations uncounted.</p> + +<p>For all that trouble arose when I announced my resolve. +My schoolmates had settled down in the offices of merchants, +bankers, and lawyers, why could not I do the same? +My mother's tears fell fast as she tried in vain to dissuade +me from my resolution. My father was neutral. He knew +well the intensity of the feeling. "If born in a boy," he +said, "as it was in me, it is his fate—nothing on earth can +turn him from it; if you stop him you will make a bad landsman +and spoil a good sailor. Let him go! he must take +his chance like another man. God is above the wave as +over the earth. If it be his fate, the perils of the deep +will be no more than the breezes of the bay."</p> + +<p>It was decided at length that I should be allowed to go +on my way. To the islands of the South Pacific my heart +pointed as truly as ever did compass needle to the North.</p> + +<p>I had read every book that had ever been written about +them, from Captain Cook's <i>Voyages</i> to <i>The Mutiny of the +Bounty</i>. In my dreams how many times had I seen the +purple mountains, the green glow of the fairy woodlands, +had bathed in the crystal streams, and heard the endless +surf music on the encircling reef, cheered the canoes loaded +with fruit racing for their market in the crimson flush of +the paradisal morn, or lingered amidst the Aidenns of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +charmed main, where the flower-crowned children of nature—maidens +beauteous as angels—roamed in careless happiness +and joyous freedom! It was an entrancing picture.</p> + +<p>Why should I stay in this prosaic land, where men wore +the hideous costume of their forefathers, and women, false +to all canons of art, still clung to their outworn garb?</p> + +<p>What did I care for the sheep and cattle, the tending of +which enriched my compatriots?</p> + +<p>A world of romance, mystery, and adventure lay open and +inviting. The die was cast. The spell of the sea was upon +me.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My father's accumulations had amounted to a reasonable +capital, as things went in those Arcadian non-speculative +days. He was not altogether without a commercial faculty, +which had enabled him to make prudent investments +in city and suburban lands. These the steadily improving +markets were destined to turn into value as yet undreamed +of.</p> + +<p>It was not thought befitting that I should ship as an +apprentice or foremost hand, though I was perfectly willing, +even eager, for a start in any way. A more suitable +style of equipment was arranged. An agreement was entered +into with the owner of a vessel bound for San Francisco +viâ Honolulu, by which a proportion of the cargo was +purchased in my name, and I was, after some discussion, +duly installed as supercargo. It may be thought that I was +too young for such a responsible post. But I was old for +my age. I had a man's courage and ambition. I had +studied navigation to some purpose; could "hand reef and +steer," and in the management of a boat, or acquaintance +with every rope, sail, and spar on board of a vessel, I held +myself, if not an A. B., fully qualified for that rank and +position.</p> + +<p>Words would fail to describe my joy and exultation when +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +I found myself at length on blue water, in a vessel which +I might fairly describe as "our little craft," bound for foreign +parts and strange cities. I speedily made the acquaintance +of the crew—a strangely assembled lot, mostly +shady as to character and reckless as to speech, but without +exception true "sailor men." At that time of day, +employment on the high seas was neither so easy to obtain +nor so well paid as at present. The jolly tars of the period +were therefore less independent and inclined to cavil at +minor discomforts. Once shipped, they worked with a +will, and but little fault could be found with their courage +or seamanship.</p> + +<p>Among other joys and delights which I promised myself, +had been a closer acquaintance with the life and times of +a picturesque and romantic personage, known and feared, +if all tales were true, throughout the South Seas. This +was the famous, the celebrated Captain Hayston, whose +name was indeed a spell to conjure with from New Zealand +to the Line Islands.</p> + +<p>Much that could excite a boyish imagination had been +related to me concerning him. One man professing an intimate +knowledge had described him as "a real pirate." +Could higher praise be awarded? I put together all the +tales I had heard about him—his great stature and vast +strength, his reckless courage, his hair-breadth escapes, +his wonderful brig,—cousin german, no doubt, to the +"long low wicked-looking craft" in the pages of <i>Tom +Cringle's Log</i>, and other veracious historiettes, "nourishing +a youth sublime," in the long bright summer days of old; +those days when we fished and bathed, ate oysters, and read +alternately from early morn till the lighthouse on the +South Head flashed out! My heroes had been difficult to +find hitherto; they had mostly eluded my grasp. But this +one was real and tangible. He would be fully up to description. +His splendid scorn of law and order, mercy or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +moderation, his unquestioned control over mutinous crews +and fierce islanders, illumined by occasional homicides and +abductions, all these splendours and glories so stirred my +blood, that I felt, if I could only once behold my boyhood's +idol, I should not have lived in vain. Among the crew, +fortunately for me as I then thought, was a sailor who had +actually known in the flesh the idol of my daydreams.</p> + +<p>"And it's the great Captain Hayston you'd like to hear +about," said Dan Daly, as we sat together in the foc'sle +head of the old barque <i>Clarkstone</i>, before we made Honolulu. +Dan had been a South Sea beach-comber and whaler; +moreover, had been marooned, according to his own account, +escaping only by a miracle; a trader's head-man—once, +indeed, more than half-killed by a rush of natives on the +station. With every kind of dangerous experience short +of death and burial he was familiar. On which account I +regarded him with a fine boyish admiration. What a night +was it, superbly beautiful, when I hung upon his words, +as we sat together gazing over the moonlit water! We had +changed our course owing to some dispute about food between +captain and crew, and were now heading for the +island of Rurutu, where fresh provisions were attainable. +As I listened spellbound and entranced, the barque's bows +slowly rose and fell, the wavering moonlight streamed down +upon the deck, the sails, the black masses of cordage, while +ghostly shadows moved rhythmically, in answering measure +to every motion of the vessel.</p> + +<p>"You must know," said Dan, in grave commencement, +"it's nigh upon five years ago, when I woke up one morning +in the 'Calaboose' as they call the 'lock-up' in Papiete, +with a broken head. It's the port of the island of +Tahiti. I was one of the hands of the American brig +<i>Cherokee</i>, and we'd put in there on our way to San Francisco +from Sydney. The skipper had given us liberty, so we +went ashore and began drinking and having some fun. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +There was some wahines in it, in coorse—that's whats +they call the women in thim parts. Somehow or other +I got a knock on the head, and remimbered nothing more +until I woke up in the 'Calaboose,' where I was charged +with batin' a native till he was nigh dead. To make a +long story short, I got six months 'hard,' and the ship +sailed away without me.</p> + +<p>"When I'd served my time, I walks into the American +Consulate and asks for a passage to California.</p> + +<p>"'Clear out,' says the Consul, 'you red-headed varmint, +I have nothing to say to you, after beating an inoffensive +native in the manner you did.'</p> + +<p>"'By the powers,' says I to myself, 'you're a big blackguard, +Dan Daly, when you've had a taste of liquor, but if +I remimber batin' any man black, white, or whitey-brown, +may I be keel-hauled. Howsomdever, that says nothing, +the next thing's a new ship.'</p> + +<p>"So I steps down to the wharf and aboord a smart-looking +schooner that belonged to Carl Brander, a big merchant in +Tahiti, as rich as the Emperor of China, they used to say. +The mate was aboord. 'Do you want any hands?' says I.</p> + +<p>"'We do,' says he. 'You've a taking colour of hair for +this trade, my lad.'</p> + +<p>"'How's that?'</p> + +<p>"'Why, the girls down at Rimitara and Rurutu will just +make love to you in a body. Red hair's the making of a +man in thim parts.'</p> + +<p>"Upon this I signed articles for six months in the +schooner, and next day we sailed for a place called Bora-bora +in the north-west. We didn't stay there long, but +got under weigh for Rurutu next day. We weren't hardly +clear of Bora-bora when we sights a brigantine away to +windward and bearing down on us before the wind. As +soon as she got close enough, she signalled that she wanted +to send a boat aboard, so we hove to and waited.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +"Our skipper had a look at the man who was steering +the boat, whin he turns as pale as a sheet, and says he +to the mate, 'It's that devil Hayston! and that's the brigantine +he and Captain Ben Peese ran away with from +Panama.'</p> + +<p>"However, up alongside came the boat, and as fine a +looking man as ever I set eyes on steps aboord amongst us.</p> + +<p>"'How do ye do, Captain?' says he. 'Where from and +whither bound?'</p> + +<p>"The skipper was in a blue funk, I could see, for this +Bully Hayston had a terrible bad name, so he answers him +quite polite and civil.</p> + +<p>"'Can you spare me half a coil of two-inch Manilla?' +asks the stranger, 'and I'll pay you your own price?'</p> + +<p>"The skipper got him the rope, the strange captain pays +for it, and they goes below for a glass of grog. In half an +hour, up on deck they comes again, our skipper half-seas +over and laughing fit to kill himself.</p> + +<p>"'By George!' says he, 'you're the drollest card I ever +came across. D—n me! if I wouldn't like to take a trip +with you myself!' and with that he struggles to the skylight +and falls in a heap across it.</p> + +<p>"'Who's the mate of this schooner?' sings out Hayston, +in such a changed voice that it made me jump.</p> + +<p>"'I am!' said the mate, who was standing in the waist.</p> + +<p>"'Then where's that Mangareva girl of yours? Come, +look lively! I know all about her from that fellow there,' +pointing to the skipper.</p> + +<p>"The mate had a young slip of a girl on board. She +belonged to an island called Mangareva, and was as pretty +a creature, with her big soft eyes and long curling hair, as +ever I'd seen in my life. The mate just trated her the +same as he would the finest lady, and was going to marry +her at the next island where there was a missionary. When +he heard who the strange captain was, he'd planted her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +down in the hold and covered her up with mats. He was +a fine manly young chap, and as soon as he saw Hayston +meant to take 'Taloo,' that was her name, he pulls out a +pistol and says, 'Down in the hold, Captain Hayston! and +as long as God gives me breath you'll never lay a finger on +her. I'll put a bullet through her head rather than see her +fall into the hands of a man like you.' The strange captain +just gives a laugh and pulls his long moustache. Then +he walks up to the mate and slaps him on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"'You've got the right grit in you,' says he. 'I'd like +to have a man like you on board my ship;' and the next +second he gripped the pistol out of the mate's hand and +sent it spinning along the deck. The mate fought like a +tiger, but he was a child in the other man's grasp. All +the time Hayston kept up that devilish laugh of his. Then, +as he saw me and Tom Lynch coming to help the mate, he +says something in a foreign lingo, and the boat's crew +jumps on board amongst us, every one of them with a +pistol. But for all that they seems a decent lot of chaps.</p> + +<p>"Hayston still held the mate by his wrists, laughing in +his face as if he was having the finest fun in the world, +when up comes Taloo out of the hold by way of the foc'sle +bulk-head, with her long hair hanging over her shoulders, +and the tears streaming down her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"She flings herself down at the Captain's feet, and clasps +her arms round his knees.</p> + +<p>"'No, no! no kill Ted!' she kept on crying, just about +all the English she knew.</p> + +<p>"'You pretty little thing,' says he, 'I wouldn't hurt your +Ted for the world.' Then he lets go the mate and takes +her hand and shakes it.</p> + +<p>"'What's your name, my man?'</p> + +<p>"'Ted Bannington!' says the mate.</p> + +<p>"'Well, Ted Bannington, look here; if you'd showed +any funk I'd have taken the girl in spite of you and your +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +whole ship's company. If a man don't think a woman +good enough to fight for, he deserves to lose her if a better +man comes along.'</p> + +<p>"Taloo put out one little hand, the other hand and arm +was round the mate's neck, shaking like a leaf too.</p> + +<p>"'I'm so sorry if I've hurt your wrists,' says he to the +mate, most polite. Then he gave some orders to the boat's +crew, who pulled away to the brigantine. After they had +gone he walked aft with the mate, the two chatting like the +best friends in the world, and I'll be hanged if that same +mate wasn't laughing fit to split at some of the yarns the +other chap was spinning, sitting on the skylight, with the +Captain lying at their feet as drunk as Davy's sow.</p> + +<p>"Presently the boat comes alongside agin, and a chap +walks aft and gives the strange captain a parcel.</p> + +<p>"'You'll please accept this as a friendly gift from Bully +Hayston,' says he to the mate; and then he takes a ten-dollar +piece out of his pocket and gives it to Taloo. 'Drill +a hole in it, and hang it round the neck of your first child +for luck.'</p> + +<p>"He shakes hands with her and the mate, jumps into +the boat, and steers for the brigantine. In another ten +minutes she squared away and stood to the south-east.</p> + +<p>"'Come here, Dan,' says the mate to me; 'see what he's +given me!' 'Twas a beautiful chronometer bran new, in a +splendid case. The mate said he'd never seen one like it +before.</p> + +<p>"Well, that was the first time I ever seen Bully Hayston, +though I did a few times afterwards, and the brigantine +too.</p> + +<p>"They do say he's a thundering scoundrel, but a +pleasanter-spoken gentleman I never met in my life."</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h2>WILLIAM HENRY HAYSTON</h2> + + +<p>These were the first particulars I ever heard of the man +who had afterwards so great an influence upon my destiny +that no incident of my sojourn with him will ever be forgotten. +A man with whom I went into the jaws of death +and returned unhurt. A man who, no matter what his +faults may have been, possessed qualities which, had they +been devoted to higher aims in life, might have rendered +him the hero of a nation.</p> + +<p>Our Captain's altercation with the crew nearly blossomed +into a mutiny. This was compromised, however, one of +the conditions of peace being that we should touch at +Rurutu, one of the five islands forming the Tubuai group. +This we accordingly did, and, steering for San Francisco, +experienced no further adventures until we sighted the +Golden Gate. When our cargo was sold I left the ship.</p> + +<p>My occupation being from this time gone, I used to stroll +down to the wharf from my lodgings in Harvard Street to +look at the foreign vessels. Wandering aimlessly, I one +day made the acquaintance of a "hard-shell down-easter," +with the truly American name of Slocum, master of a +venerable-looking rate called the <i>Constitution</i>. He himself +was a dried-up specimen of the old style of Yankee +captain, with a face that resembled in colour a brown +painted oilskin, and hands like an albatross's feet. He +had been running for a number of years to Tahiti, taking +out timber and returning with island produce.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +Not being a proud man, he permitted me to stand drinks +for him in a well-known liquor saloon in Third Street, where +we had long yarns over his trading adventures in the +Pacific.</p> + +<p>One Sunday morning, I remember it as if yesterday, we +were sitting in a private room off the bar. Slocum was +advising me to come with him on his next trip and share +the luxuries of the <i>Constitution's</i> table, for which he asked +the modest sum of a hundred dollars to Tahiti and back, +when we heard some one enter and address the bar-keeper. +"Great Scott!" came the reply, "it's Captain Hayston! +How air you, Captain, and whar d'ye come from?"</p> + +<p>"I've come to try and find Ben Peese. We're going to +form a new station at Arrecifu. He left me at Yap in the +Carolines to come here and buy a schooner with a light +draught; but he never turned up; I'm afraid that after he +left Yap he met with some accident."</p> + +<p>The moment Slocum heard the stranger's voice his face +underwent a marvellous change. All his assurance seemed +to have left him. He whispered to me, "That's Bully +Hayston! I guess I'll lie low till he clears out. I don't +want to be seen with him, as it'll sorter damage my character. +Besides, he's such a vi'lent critter."</p> + +<p>The next moment we heard the new-comer say to the +barman,—</p> + +<p>"Say, Fred, I've been down to that old schooner the +<i>Constitution</i>, but couldn't find Slocum aboard. They told +me he often came here to get a cheap drink. I want him +to take a letter to Tahiti. Do you know where he is?"</p> + +<p>Slocum saw it was of no use attempting to "lie low," so +with a nervous hand he opened the door.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>I've knocked about the world a good deal since I sat in +the little back parlour in Third Street, Frisco, but neither +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +before nor since I left Strong's Island have I seen such +a splendid specimen of humanity as the man who then +entered.</p> + +<p>Much that I am about to relate I learned during my later +experience.</p> + +<p>William Henry Hayston was born in one of the Western +States of America, and received his education at Norfolk, +Virginia. As his first appointment he obtained a cadetship +in the United States Revenue Service, subsequently +retiring to become captain of one of the large lake steamers.</p> + +<p>In '55 he joined the navy, serving with great gallantry +under Admiral Farragut. The reported reason of his leaving +the service was a disagreement with Captain Carroll, +afterwards commander of the rebel cruiser <i>Shenandoah</i>. +So bitter was their feud, that years afterwards, when that +vessel was in the South Pacific, her commander made no +secret of his ardent wish to meet Hayston and settle accounts +with him, even to the death.</p> + +<p>Hayston was a giant in stature: six feet four in height, +with a chest that measured, from shoulder to shoulder, +forty-nine inches; and there was nothing clumsy about +him, as his many antagonists could testify. His strength +was enormous, and he was proud of it. But, apart from +his magnificent physique, Hayston was one of the most +remarkably handsome men about this time that I have ever +seen. His hair fell in clusters across his forehead, above +laughing eyes of the brightest blue; his nose was a bold +aquiline; a well-cut, full-lipped mouth that could set like +fate was covered by a huge moustache. A Vandyke beard +completed the <i>tout ensemble</i> of a visage which, once seen, +was rarely forgotten by friend or foe. Taking him altogether, +what with face, figure, and manner, he had a personal +magnetism only too fatally attractive, as many a +man—ay, and woman too—knew to their cost. He was +my beau ideal of a naval officer—bold and masterful, yet +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +soft and pleasant-voiced withal when he chose to conciliate. +His sole disfigurement—not wholly so, perhaps, in the eye +of his admirers—was a sabre cut which extended from the +right temple to his ear.</p> + +<p>For his character, the one controlling influence in his +life was an ungovernable temper. It was utterly beyond +his mastery. Let any one offend him, and though he might +have been smiling the instant before, the blue eyes would +suddenly turn almost black, his face become a deep purple. +Then it was time for friend or foe to beware. For I never +saw the man that could stand up to him. Strangely +enough, I have sometimes seen him go laughing through a +fight until he had finished his man. At other times his +cyclone of a mood would discharge itself without warning +or restraint. It was probably this appalling temper that +gained him a character for being bloodthirsty; for, once +roused, nothing could stop him. Yet I do him the justice +to say that I never once witnessed an act of deliberate +cruelty at his hands. In the islands he was surrounded by +a strange collection of the greatest scoundrels unhung. +There, of necessity, his rule was one of "blood and iron."</p> + +<p>And now for his pleasing traits. He was one of the +most fascinating companions possible. He possessed a +splendid baritone voice and affected the songs of Schumann +and the German composers. He was an accomplished +musician, playing on the pianoforte, violin, and, in default +of a better instrument, even on the accordion. He spoke +German, French, and Spanish, as well as the island languages, +fluently. Generous to a fault, in spite of repeated +lessons, he would insist on trusting again and again those +in whom he believed. But once convinced that he had +been falsely dealt with, the culprit would have fared nearly +as well in the jaws of a tiger. He was utterly without fear, +under any and all circumstances, even the most desperate, +and was naturally a hater of every phase of meanness or +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +cowardice. But one more trait, and my sketch is complete. +He had a fatal weakness where the fairer sex was concerned. +To one of them he owed his first war with society. To the +consequences of that false step might have been traced the +reckless career which dishonoured his manhood and led to +the final catastrophe.</p> + +<p>"Come, gentlemen!" he said on entering—in so pleasant +and kindly a tone, that I felt drawn towards him at once, +"let us sit down and have a drink together."</p> + +<p>We went back to the room, Slocum, I could see, feeling +intensely uncomfortable, fidgeting and twisting. As we +sat down I took a good look at the man of whom I had +heard so much. Heard of his daring deeds in the China +seas; of a wild career in the Pacific Islands; of his bold +defiance of law and order; besides strange tales of mysterious +cruises in the north-west among the Caroline and +Pellew Islands.</p> + +<p>"And how air yer, Captain?" said Slocum with forced +hilarity.</p> + +<p>"I'm devilish glad to see <i>you</i>," replied Hayston; "what +about that barque of mine you stripped down at the Marshalls, +you porpoise-hided skunk?"</p> + +<p>"True as gospel, Captain, I didn't know she was yours. +There was a trader at Arnu, you know the man, an Italian +critter, but they call him George Brown, and he says to +me, 'Captain Slocum,' says he, 'there's a big lump of a +timber-ship cast away on one of them reefs near Alluk, and +if you can get up to her you'll make a powerful haul. She's +new coppered, and hasn't broke up yet.' So I gave him +fifty dollars, and promised him four hundred and fifty more +if his news was reliable; if that ain't the solid facts of the +case I hope I may be paralysed."</p> + +<p>"Oh! so it was George who put you on to take my property, +was it? and he my trader too; well, Slocum, I can't +blame you. But now I'll tell you my '<i>facts</i>': that barque +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +was wrecked; the skipper and crew were picked up by Ben +Peese and taken to China. He bought the barque for me +for four hundred dollars, and I beat up to Arnu, and asked +George if he would get me fifty Arnu natives to go with +me to the wreck and either try and float it or strip her. +The d—d Marcaroni-eating sweep promised to get me the +men in a week or two, so I squared away for Madura, +where I had two traders. Bad weather came on, and when +I got back to Arnu, the fellow told me that a big canoe had +come down from the Radacks and reported that the barque +had gone to pieces. The infernal scoundrel! Had I +known that he had put you on to her I'd have taken it out +of his hide. Who is this young gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"A friend of mine, Captain, thinking of takin' a voyage +with me for recruitin' of his health," and the lantern-jawed +Slocum introduced us.</p> + +<p>Drawing his seat up to me, Hayston placed his hand on +my shoulder, and said with a laugh, looking intensely at +Slocum, who was nervously twisting his fingers, "Oh! a +recruitin' of his health, is he? or rather recruitin' of your +pocket? I'm glad I dropped in on you and made his +acquaintance. I could tell him a few droll stories about +the pious Slocum."</p> + +<p>Slocum said nothing, but laughed in a sickly way.</p> + +<p>Leaning forward with a smiling face, he said, "What did +you clear out of my barque, you good Slocum?"</p> + +<p>"Nigh on a thousand dollars."</p> + +<p>"You know you lie, Slocum! you must have done better +than that."</p> + +<p>"I kin show my receipts if you come aboard," he answered +in shaky tones.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll take your word, you sanctimonious old shark, +and five hundred dollars for my share."</p> + +<p>"Why, sartin, Captain! that's fair and square," said the +other, as his sallow face lighted up, "I'll give you the +dollars to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +"Right you are. Come to the Lick house at ten o'clock. +Say, my pious friend, what would our good Father Damien +think if I told him that pretty story about the six Solomon +Island people you picked up at sea, and sold to a sugar +planter?"</p> + +<p>The trader's visage turned green, as with a deprecating +gesture towards me he seemed to implore Hayston's +silence.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! don't get scared. Business matters, my lad," +he said, turning to me his merry blue eyes, and patting me +on the back. "Where are you staying here?"</p> + +<p>I told him. Then as we were rising to go, speaking to +me, and looking Slocum in the face, he said, "Don't have +any truck with Master Slocum, he'll skin you of every dollar +you've got, and like as not turn you adrift at some place +you can't get away from. Isn't that so, my saintly +friend?"</p> + +<p>Slocum flinched like a whipped hound, but said nothing. +Then, shaking hands with me, and saying if ever I came to +the Pacific and dropped across him or Captain Ben Peese I +should meet a hearty welcome, he strode out, with the +shambling figure of the down-easter under his lee.</p> + +<p>That was the last I saw of the two captains for many a +long day, for a few days later the <i>Constitution</i> cleared out +for Tahiti, and I couldn't learn anything more about Hayston. +Whether he was then in command of a vessel, or +had merely come up as passenger in some other ship, I +could not ascertain. All the bar-keeper knew about him +was that he was a gentleman with plenty of money and a +h—l of a temper, if anybody bothered him with questions.</p> + +<p>Little I thought at the time that we were fated to meet +again, or that where we once more forgathered would be +under the tropic sun of Polynesia.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h2>IN SAMOA</h2> + + +<p>From what I have said about Hayston, it will readily be +understood that every tale relating to him was strangely +exciting to my boyish mind. For me he was the incarnation +of all that was utterly reckless, possibly wicked, and +of course, as such, possessed a fascination that a better +man would have failed to inspire.</p> + +<p>My hero, however, had disappeared, and with him all +zest seemed to have gone out of life at Frisco. So after +mooning about for a few weeks I resolved on returning to +Sydney.</p> + +<p>My friends on the Pacific slope did their best to dissuade +me, trying to instil the idea into my head that I was cut +out for a merchant prince by disposition and intellect. But +I heeded not the voice of the charmer. The only walk in +life for which I felt myself thoroughly fitted was that of +an armed cruiser through the South Sea Islands. All +other vocations were tame and colourless in comparison. I +could fancy myself parading the deck of my vessel, pistol +at belt, dagger in sheath, a band of cut-throats trembling +at my glance, and a bevy of dark-skinned princesses ready +to die for me at a moment's notice, or to keep the flies +from bothering, whichever I preferred.</p> + +<p>I may state "right here," as the Yankees have it, that I +did not become a "free trader," though at one time I had a +close shave of being run up to the yardarm of a British man-of-war +in that identical capacity. But this came later on.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +I returned, therefore, to my native Sydney in due course +of time, and as a wholesome corrective after my somewhat +erratic experiences, was placed by my father in a merchant's +office. But the colourless monotony became absolutely +killing. It was awful to be stuck there, adding up columns +of pounds, shillings, and pence, and writing business letters, +while there was stabbing, shooting, and all sorts of +wild excitement going on "away down in the islands."</p> + +<p>It was about this time that I made the acquaintance of +certain South Sea Islanders belonging to whalers or trading +vessels. With one of them, named George, a native +of Raratonga, I became intimate. He impressed me with +his intelligence, and amused me with his descriptions of +island life. He had just returned from a whaling voyage +in the barque <i>Adventurer</i> belonging to the well-known firm +of Robert Towns & Company.</p> + +<p>So when George, having been paid off in Sydney with a +handsome cheque, confided to me that he intended going +back to the Navigators' Islands, where he had previously +spent some years, in order to open a small trading station, +my unrest returned. He had a hundred pounds which he +wished to invest in trade-goods, so I took him round the +Sydney firms and saw him fairly dealt with. A week afterwards +he sailed to Samoa viâ Tonga, in the <i>Taoji Vuna</i>, a +schooner belonging to King George of that ilk.</p> + +<p>Before he left he told me that two of his countrymen +were trading for Captain Hayston—one at Marhiki, and +one at Fakaofo, in the Union group. Both had made +money, and he believed that Captain Hayston had fixed +upon Apia, the chief port of Samoa, as his head-quarters.</p> + +<p>Need I say that this information interested me greatly, +and I asked George no end of questions. But the schooner +was just leaving the wharf in tow of a tug, and my dark-skinned +friend having shipped as an A. B., was no longer +of the "leisure classes." So, grasping my hand, and tell +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>ing +me where to hear of him if I ever came to Samoa, we +parted.</p> + +<p>Before going further let me explain the nature of a Polynesian +trader's mission.</p> + +<p>On the greater number of the islands white men are resident, +who act as agents for a firm of merchants, for masters +of vessels, or on their own account. In some cases a piece +of ground is rented from the king or chief whereon to make +the trading station. In others the rulers are paid a protection +fee. Then, if a trader is murdered, his principal can +claim blood for blood. This, however, is rarely resorted +to. A trader once settled on his station proceeds to obtain +cocoa-nuts from the natives, for which he pays in dollars +or "trade." He further employs them to scrape the fruit +into troughs exposed to the sun, by which process the cocoa-nut +oil is extracted. Of late years "copra" has taken the +place of the oil. This material—the dried kernel of the +nut—has become far more valuable; for when crushed by +powerful machinery the refuse is pressed into oil-cake, and +proved to be excellent food for cattle.</p> + +<p>To be a good trader requires pluck, tact, and business +capacity. Many traders meet their death for want of one +or other of these attributes. All through the South Seas, +more especially in the Line Islands, are to be found the +most reckless desperadoes living. Their uncontrolled passions +lead them to commit acts which the natives naturally +resent; the usual result being that if the trader fails to kill +or terrorise them, they do society a kindness by ridding it +of him. Then comes the not infrequent shelling of a native +village by an avenging man-of-war. And thus civilisation +keeps ever moving onwards.</p> + +<p>The traders were making fortunes in the South Seas at +that time, according to George. I returned to business +with a mind full of projects. The glamour of the sea, +the magic attraction of blue water, was again upon me; I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +was powerless to resist. My father smiled. My mother +and sisters wept afresh. I bowed myself, nevertheless, to +my fate. In a fortnight I bade my relations farewell—all +unworthy as I felt myself of their affection. Inwardly +exultant, though decently uncheerful, I took passage a +fortnight later in a barque trading to the Friendly and +Navigators' Islands. She was called the <i>Rotumah</i>, belonging +to Messrs. M'Donald, Smith, & Company, of Hunter +Street, Sydney. Her captain was a Canadian named Robertson, +of great experience in the island trade.</p> + +<p>There were two other passengers—a lady going to join +her brother who was in business at Nukulofa, in Tonga, +and a fine old French priest whom we were taking to +Samoa. The latter was very kind to me, and during our +passage through the Friendly Islands I was frequently the +guest of his brother missionaries at their various stations +in the groups.</p> + +<p>How shall I describe my feelings, landed at last among +the charmed isles of the South, where I had come to stay, +I told myself? Generally speaking, how often is there a +savour of disappointment, of anticipation unrealised, when +the wish is achieved! But the reality here was beyond the +most brilliant mental pictures ever painted. All things +were fresh and novel; the coral reefs skirting the island +shore upon which the surf broke ceaselessly with sullen +roar; cocoa-palms bowed with their feathery crests above +a vegetation richly verdurous. The browns and yellows +of the native villages, so rich in tone, so foreign of aspect, +excited my unaccustomed vision. Graceful figures, warm +and dusky of colouring, passed to and fro. The groves of +broad leafed bananas; the group of white mission houses; +the balmy, sensuous air; the transparent water, in which +the very fish were strange in form and hue,—all things +soever, land and water, sea and sky, seemed to cry aloud +to my eager, wondering soul, "Hither, oh fortunate youth, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +hast thou come to a world new, perfect, and complete in +itself—to a land of Nature's fondness and profuse luxuriance, +to that Aïdenn, long lost, mysteriously concealed for +ages from all mankind."</p> + +<p>At the Marist Mission at Tongatabu I was received most +kindly by the venerable Father Chevron, the head of the +Church in Tonga. His had been a life truly remarkable. +For fifty years he had laboured unceasingly among the savage +races of Polynesia, had had hairbreadth escapes, and +passed through deadliest perils. Like many of his colleagues +he was unknown to fame, dying a few years later, +beloved and respected by all, yet comparatively "unhonoured +and unsung." During the whole course of my experiences +in the Pacific I have never heard the roughest trader +speak an ill word of the Marist Brothers. Their lives of +ceaseless toil and honourable poverty tell their own tale. +The Roman Catholic Church may well feel proud of these +her most devoted servants.</p> + +<p>One morning Captain Robertson joined me; the Father +seemed pleased to see him. On my mentioning how kindly +they had treated me, a stranger and a Protestant, he +replied,—</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, my lad; they are different from most of the +missionaries in Tonga, anyway, as many a shipwrecked +sailor has found. If a ship were cast away, and the crew +hadn't a biscuit apiece to keep them from starving, they +wouldn't get so much as a piece of yam from some of the +reverend gentlemen."</p> + +<p>I asked Father Chevron if he knew Captain Peese and +Captain Hayston.</p> + +<p>"Yes! I am acquainted with both; of the latter I can +only say that when I met him here I forgot all the bad reports +I had heard about him. He cannot be the man he is +reputed to be."</p> + +<p>I was sorry to part with the good Father when the time +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +came to leave. But a native messenger arrived next day with +a note from the captain, who intended sailing at daylight.</p> + +<p>So I said farewell and went on board.</p> + +<p>We called at Hapai and Vavau, the two other ports of +the Friendly Islands, sighting the peak of Upolu, in the +Navigators', three days after leaving the latter place.</p> + +<p>We rounded the south-east point of Upolu next day, +running in so close to the shore that we could see the natives +walking on the beaches. Saw a whaleboat, manned by +islanders and steered by a white man, shoot through an +opening in the reef opposite Flupata. For him we tarried +not, in spite of a signal, running in as we were with the +wind dead aft, and at four o'clock in the afternoon anchored +in Apia harbour, opposite the American consulate.</p> + +<p>The scenery around Apia harbour is beauteous beyond +description. Spacious bays unfold themselves as you approach, +each revealing the silvery white-sanded beach +fringed with cocoa-palms; stretching afar towards the hills +lies undulating forest land chequered with the white houses +of the planters. The harbour itself consists of a horseshoe +bay, extending from Matautu to Mullinu Point. +Fronting the passage a mountain rears its summit cloud-enwrapped +and half-hidden, narrow paths wind through deep +gorges, amid which you catch here and there the sheen of a +mountain-torrent. On the south the land heads in a graceful +sweep to leeward, until lost in the all-enveloping sea-mists +of the tropics, while the straggling town, white-walled, +reed-roofed, peeps through a dark-green grove of +the bananas and cocoa-palms which fringe the beach.</p> + +<p>At this precise period I paid but little attention to the +beauties of Apia, for in a canoe paddled by a Samoan boy +sat my friend George. I hailed him; what a look of joy +and surprise rippled over his dark countenance as he recognised +me! With a few strokes of the paddle the canoe shot +alongside and he sprang on deck.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +"I knew you would come," he said; "I boarded every +ship that put in here since I landed. Going to live here?"</p> + +<p>"I think so, George! I have some money and trade with +me; if I get a chance I'll start somewhere in Samoa."</p> + +<p>He was delighted, and said I would make plenty of +money by and by. He wouldn't hear of my going to an +hotel. I must come with him. He had a Samoan wife at +Lellepa, a village about a mile from Apia on the Matautu +side.</p> + +<p>It was dark when we landed. As we walked towards his +home George pointed out a house standing back from the +beach, which, he said, belonged to Captain Hayston.</p> + +<p>That personage had just left Samoa, and was now cruising +in the Line Islands, where he had a number of traders. +He was expected back in two months. A short time before +I arrived, the American gunboat <i>Narraganset</i> had suddenly +put in an appearance in Apia where Hayston's brig +was lying. Her anchor had barely sounded bottom, before +an armed boat's crew left her side, boarded, took Hayston +prisoner, and kept possession of the <i>Leonora</i>.</p> + +<p>There was wild excitement that day in Apia. Many of +the residents had a strong liking for Hayston and expressed +sympathy for him. Others, particularly the German +element, were jubilant, and expressed a hope that he +would be taken to America in irons.</p> + +<p>The captain of the <i>Narraganset</i> then notified his seizure +to the foreign consuls, and solicited evidence regarding +alleged acts of piracy and kidnapping. During this time +Hayston was, so the Americans stated, in close confinement +on board the man-of-war, but it was the general opinion +that he was treated more as a guest than a prisoner. The +trial came on at the stated time, but resulted in his acquittal. +Either the witnesses were unreliable or afraid of +vengeance, for nothing of a criminal nature could be elicited +from them. Hayston was then conducted back to his brig, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +and in half-an-hour he had "dressed ship" in honour of the +event. The next act was to give his crew liberty—when +those bright particular stars sallied forth on shore, all more +or less drunk, in company with the blue jackets from the +man-of-war, and immediately set about "painting the town +red," and looking for the witnesses who had testified +against their commander. On the next night Hayston +gave a ball to the officers, and, doubtless, from that time +felt his position secure, as far as danger from warships of +his own country was concerned.</p> + +<p>All this was told to me by George as we walked along the +track to his house, where we arrived just in time for a good +supper. The place was better built than the ordinary native +houses. The floor was covered with handsome clean mats +on which, on the far end of the room, his wife and two +daughters by a former marriage were sitting. They seemed +so delighted at the idea of having me to live with them, +that in a few minutes I felt quite at home. The evening +meal was ready on the mats; the smell of roast pork and +bread-fruit whetted my appetite amazingly; nor was it +appeased until George and his wife had helped me to food +enough to satisfy a boarding-school.</p> + +<p>After supper the family gathered round the lamp which +was placed in the middle of the room. There they went +through the evening prayers; a hymn was sung, after which +a chapter was read from a Samoan Testament, followed by +a prayer from the master of the house.</p> + +<p>I found that the custom of morning and evening prayers +was never neglected in any Samoan household; for, whether +the Samoans are really religious or no, they keep up a +better semblance of it than many who have whiter skins.</p> + +<p>That night George, who by the way was called Tuluia by +his wife and daughters, made plans for our future. As we +sat talking the others retired to a far corner, where they +sat watching us, their big dark eyes dilated with interest. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +We agreed to buy a boat between us and make trading trips +to the windward port as far as Aleipata. Then after smoking +a number of "salui" or native cigarettes, we turned in.</p> + +<p>All next day we were incommoded by crowds of inquisitive +visitors, who came to have a look at me and learn why +I had come to Samoa—George having told them merely +that I was his "uo," or friend, treated most of them with +scant courtesy, explaining that the natives about Apia are +thorough loafers and beggars, and warning me not to sell +any of them my "trade" unless I received cash in return. +In the afternoon I landed my effects, but could scarcely get +into the house for the crowds.</p> + +<p>George's wife, it appeared, had been so indiscreet as to +tell some of her relations that I had rifles for sale; as a +consequence there were fully a hundred men eager to see +them. Some had money, others wanted credit, others +desired loose powder, and kept pointing to a shed close by, +saying, "Panla pana fanua" (powder for the cannon). I +discovered that under the shed lay a big gun which Patiole +and Asi, two chiefs, had bought from Captain Hayston for +six hundred dollars, but had run out of ammunition.</p> + +<p>I had no powder to sell, but George found me a cash +buyer for one of my Winchesters at seventy-five dollars. +I could have sold the other three for sixty dollars each, but +he advised me to keep them in order to get a better price +up the coast. It was just on the eve of the second native +war, so the Samoans were buying arms in large quantities. +From some Californians' trading vessels they had brought +about three hundred breech-loaders, and Hayston had sold +them the cannon aforesaid, which he had brought from +China in the <i>Leonora</i>.</p> + +<p>The chief, Malietoa, had an idea of carrying the war +into the enemy's country. His plan was to charter a vessel, +and take five hundred men to Tuvali, the largest island in +the group. Hayston had met a deputation of chiefs, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +told them that for a thousand dollars he would land that +number of Malietoa's warriors in any part of the group. +Moreover, if they gave him ten dollars for every shot fired, +he would land them under cover of four guns. But they +were not to bring their arms, and were to arrange to have +taumualuas, or native boats, to meet the brig off the +coast and put them on board. This, he explained, was +necessary to prevent the vessel being seized if they met a +man-of-war, and so getting him into serious trouble.</p> + +<p>The chiefs took this proposition in eagerly at first, but, +on thinking it over, suspicions arose as to their reaching +their destination safely; and, finally, after the usual +amount of fawning and flattering, in which every Samoan +is an adept, they told Hayston that they could not raise +sufficient money, and so the matter ended.</p> + +<p>The following months of my sojourn in Samoa passed +quickly. George and I bought a cutter in which we made +several trips to the windward villages, whence we ran down +to the little island of Manono, situated between Upolu and +Savaii. There we did a good business, selling our trade +for cash to the people of Manono, and buying a cargo of +yams to take to Apia, to sell to the natives there, who were +short of food owing to the outbreak of hostilities.</p> + +<p>On our way up we took advantage of a westerly wind, +and made the passage inside the reef, calling at the villages +of Multifanna and Saleimoa—visiting even places with +only a few houses nestling amongst the cocoa-palms.</p> + +<p>We left Saleimoa at dusk, and although we were deeply +laden, we made good way. Whilst at the village I heard +that a large Norwegian ship laden with guano had put into +Apia, having sprung a leak and run short of provisions; +also that there was not a yam to be had in the place. Our +informant was a deserter from a man-of-war, living at +Saleimoa. He had been tattooed, and was a thorough +Samoan in appearance, but was anxious to get a passage to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +New Britain, being afraid to remain longer in his present +quarters. He was known as "Flash Jack," and was held +to be a desperate character. After a few drinks he became +communicative, telling me certain things which he had +better have kept to himself. He informed me that he +intended to ship with Hayston, whose brig was expected +daily with a hundred recruits for Goddeffroy and Sons' +plantations. He advised me to keep my yams until the +<i>Leonora's</i> cargo of "boys" arrived, as the Germans would +pay me my own price for them, being short of food for +their plantation labourers. In another few minutes Jack +was drunk, and wanted to fight us, when two of his wives +came on board, and after beating him with pieces of wood, +carried him on shore and laid him in his bunk.</p> + +<p>I determined, however, to take his advice about the +yams, and was cogitating as to the price I should ask for +them, when George, who was steering, called my attention +to two "taumualuas" full of men, paddling quickly in from +sea through an opening in the reef.</p> + +<p>Not apprehending danger we kept on. Our boat was +well known along the coast by the Tua Massaga or Malietoa +faction, and we merely supposed that these boats were +coming down from Apia to the leeward ports. It was a +clear night; George called out the usual Samoan greeting, +used when canoes meet at night. The next moment we saw +them stop paddling, when, without a word of warning, we +received a volley, the bullets striking the cutter in at least +twenty places. How we escaped is a mystery. George +got a cut on the shoulder from a piece of our saucepan, +which was lying against the mast. It flew to pieces when +struck, and I thought a shell had exploded.</p> + +<p>Flinging ourselves flat on the deck, George called out to +the canoes, which were now paddling quickly after us, and +told them who we were, at the same time lowering our jib +and foresail. The taumualuas dashed up, one on each side. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +Luckily some of the warriors instantly recognised us. They +expressed great sorrow, and explained that they had mistaken +us for a boat bringing up a war party from Savaii.</p> + +<p>Every man was armed with a rifle, mostly modelled on +the German needle-gun, and as they were all in full fighting +costume they had a striking and picturesque effect. After +mutual expressions of regard and a general consumption of +cigarettes, we gave them a bottle of grog to keep out the +cold night air, sold them some cartridges from my own +private stock, and with many a vociferous "To Fa," we +sailed away, and left them in the passage waiting for the +expected invaders.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h2>SAMOA TO MILLÉ</h2> + + +<p>Just as we parted from our warlike friends who had so +nearly put an end to our cruises, one of the chiefs sang out +that a large brig, painted white, was out at sea beating up +to Apia. Turning his information over in my mind, the +conviction grew upon me that she must be Hayston's vessel, +the <i>Leonora</i>. It proved to be correct, for as we ran past +Mulinu Point we saw her entering the passage leading to +the harbour. She was about a mile distant from us, but I +could see that she was a beautifully-built vessel, and could +well believe the tales of her extraordinary speed. The +Norwegian guano-man, an immense ship, the <i>Otto and +Antoine</i>, was lying in the roadstead, and as the <i>Leonora</i> +came to her moorings, we ran up between the two vessels +and dropped anchor.</p> + +<p>During the next few minutes I received no less than +three different offers for our sixteen tons of yams. These +I declined, and after waiting till I perceived that most of +the shore visitors had left the brig, I took our dingey and +pulled aboard.</p> + +<p>Captain Hayston was below, and the Chinese steward +conducted me into his presence. He looked at me steadily +for a moment, as if trying to recall where he had seen me +before, and then after my few words of explanation, gave +me a hearty welcome to the South Seas.</p> + +<p>Having told him how I came to visit Samoa, I offered +him my yams, which he gladly purchased, paying me a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +good price for them in United States gold coin. This transaction +being concluded, he asked me to meet him next +day, when we could have a good long chat, at the same +time desiring me to keep secret the fact of our previous +meeting. What his reasons were I never knew; but as he +seemed anxious on this matter, I told him that I had seldom +mentioned the circumstance, and to no one in Samoa, +with the exception of my mate Tuluia. I had indeed made +few other acquaintances.</p> + +<p>Although I should much have liked to have had a look +round the brig, I could see the Captain wished to get on +shore, so after shaking hands with him I returned to our +cutter, where, in a few minutes, the brig's longboat came +alongside, and we set to work getting out the yams. Hayston +paid me without demanding to have them weighed, +and George's dark face was wreathed in smiles when I +showed him the money. He explained that two tons were +very bad, and had they been seen by a purchaser would +have been rejected.</p> + +<p>Although only a Kanaka, George possessed true commercial +instincts, and I felt sure he would grow rich.</p> + +<p>The native war was now at its height, and the lines of +the hostile party were so close to Matautu, the eastern part +of Apia, that bullets were whistling over our heads all day +long. The yam season being over, and the copra trade at +a standstill, we gave up the cutter and settled for a while +on shore. It was during this period that I was a constant +visitor at the house of Mr. Lewis, the American Consul, +where I generally found Hayston in company with Captain +Edward Hamilton, the pilot, and another American, a +whisky-loving, kava-drinking old salt, brimful of fun and +good humour. He had been twenty years in Samoa, and +was one of the best linguists I ever met with; was known +to every native in the group, and had been several trips +with Hayston to the north-west islands. He followed no +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +known occupation, but devoted his time to idling and +attending native dances.</p> + +<p>Many a merry evening we spent together while the +<i>Leonora</i> was recruiting, and I began to think Hayston was +the most entertaining man I had ever met. He made no +secret of some of his exploits, and in particular referred to +the way in which he had beaten a certain German firm in +the way of business, even breaking up their stations in the +Line Islands. At that time these merchants had acquired +a bad name for the underhand manner in which they had +treated English and American traders; and for any man to +gain an advantage over them was looked upon as a meritorious +action.</p> + +<p>By many people who cherished animosity against Hayston +I had been led at first to look upon him as a thorough-going +pirate and a bloodthirsty ruffian. Yet here I found +him, if not respected, at least deemed a fit associate for +respectable men. Moreover, his word was considered as +good security in business as another man's bond. I well +remember the days when he used to visit me at Leliepa, +and we amused ourselves with pistol practice. He was a +wonderful shot, and his skill excited the loud applause of +the native chiefs. One fat old fellow, known as Pulumakau +(the bullock), begged him to spend a day now and then +in the lines with the native forces, and exercise his skill +upon the enemy.</p> + +<p>One day he took me on board with him in order to show +me over the brig. He intended to leave in a few days, and +I remarked, as we were pulled on board, that I should +dearly like to have a trip with him some day.</p> + +<p>He was silent for a minute, and then replied, "No! I +shall be glad enough of your company as my guest, as I +have taken a fancy to you; but it will be better for you to +keep clear of me."</p> + +<p>When we got on board I was struck with the beautiful +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +order in which the vessel was kept, aloft and below; there +was not a rope yarn out of place. Descending to the cabin +I found it splendidly furnished for a vessel of her size.</p> + +<p>The <i>Leonora</i> was 250 tons register, and had been built +for the opium trade. During her career in Chinese seas +she acquired the reputation of being the fastest vessel on +the coast. She then carried eight guns. She had been +several times attacked by pirates, who were invariably +beaten off with loss. At the time of my visit she carried +but one gun, which stood on the main deck, Hayston having +sold two others of the same calibre to the natives. But +for this, as far as I could see, she had a most peaceful +appearance.</p> + +<p>On the main deck, just abaft the foc'sle, was a deckhouse +divided into compartments, forming the cook's galley +and boats' crews' quarters, together with those belonging +to the first and second mates. On the top of the house a +whale-boat was carried, leaving room for two sentries to +keep guard, a precaution which I afterwards found was, on +certain occasions, highly necessary for the vessel's safety. +The foc'sle was large, for she carried between twenty-five +and thirty men. The thing that struck me most, however, +was the bulkhead, which was loop-holed for rifles, so that +if any disturbance took place in the forehold, which was +sometimes filled with Kanaka labourers, the rebels could be +shot down with ease and accuracy.</p> + +<p>The most noticeable things about the gear were the topsails +she carried, Cunningham's patent, in which there +were no reef points. The topsail yards revolved, so that +you could reef as much as you liked, and all the work could +be done from the main deck by the down haul. Many captains +dislike this patent, but it behaved splendidly on the +<i>Leonora</i> for all that.</p> + +<p>The crew, or most of them, were ashore, and only the +second mate, the Chinese carpenter, the steward, and ship's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +boys were on board. The mate was a muscular Fijian half-caste +named Bill Hicks, known as a fighting man all over +Polynesia. A native girl, called Liva, was sitting on the +main hatch making a bowl of kava.</p> + +<p>"Halloa! Liva," said the Captain, as we passed along the +deck, "I thought you were married to one of the Dutch +clerks at Goddeffroy's?"</p> + +<p>"Avoe, lava, alii." "Quite true, Captain, but I've come +to stay with Bill for a week."</p> + +<p>The Captain and second mate laughed, and next day I +learned that Bill had gone to the clerk's house at Matafele, +the German quarter of the town, and though there were +other Germans present, told Liva to pack up her clothes and +come with him. She, nothing loth, did as he told her, and +the Germans, seeing mischief in the half-caste's eye, +offered no opposition.</p> + +<p>The departure of the <i>Leonora</i> took place a few days afterwards, +and I accepted the position of supercargo in a ketch +which the junior partner of one of the principal firms in +Samoa wished to send to the Marshalls to be sold. I +expressed my doubts of her sea-worthiness for so long a +voyage. However, he said there was no danger, as it would +be a fine weather passage all the way through, adding that +the king of Arnu, or Arrowsmith's Island, had commissioned +Captain Hayston to buy a vessel for him in Samoa.</p> + +<p>I thought his proposition over, and next day stated my +willingness to undertake the venture, the owners promising +to put the vessel in repair as soon as possible. She was +hauled up to the beach in front of the British consulate, +where for the next few weeks carpenters were at work, +patching up and covering her rotten bottom with a thick +coating of chunam. Notwithstanding these precautions no +one except old Tapoleni, the Dutch skipper, could be induced +to take charge of her.</p> + +<p>During the time she was on the beach I made a trip to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +the beautiful village of Tiavea, doing a week's trading and +pigeon shooting. On my return I found the town in a high +state of excitement owing to a succession of daring robberies +of the various stores. Strong suspicions were entertained +with respect to a herculean American negro, known +as Black Tom, who kept an extremely disorderly hotel +where seamen were known to be enticed and robbed.</p> + +<p>The old vessel was launched at last, and, to the manifest +surprise of everybody, refrained from springing a leak. +Things might easily have been worse; for what with the +great age of her timber and the thickness of her hull the +carpenters were barely able to make the copper hold.</p> + +<p>Next day we took in our stores. I was surprised at the +casks of beef, tins of biscuits, and quantities of other provisions +put on board, and thought the owners extremely +liberal. This favourable state of feeling lasted till we +were well at sea, when I discovered all the beef to be bad, +and the remainder of the stores unfit for any well-brought-up +pig. When everything was aboard the owners gave me +the following document:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Apia</span>, <i>3rd December, 187_</i>. +</div> + +<p>Dear Sir,—You will proceed to Millé, Mulgrave Island, for the +purpose of selling the ketch <i>E. A. Wilson</i>. You will find Captain +Hayston there waiting for you; so you will please consult with him, +as he is acquainted with the parties who wish to purchase her. Try +to obtain oil and copra to the amount of £500 for the vessel. Ship +whatever produce you may get on board the <i>Leonora</i>, and get Captain +Hayston to sign bills of lading. Do not sell the chronometer unless +you get a good price for it. Sell the few things you take to the best +advantage; none of the Samoans are to remain, but must come back +to Apia. Have the ketch painted on your arrival at Millé. Wishing +you a prosperous and speedy voyage.—We are, etc.,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">Bascom & Co.</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>I quote this letter <i>in extenso</i>, for later on it plays an important +part in my narrative. Having carefully read it +Mr. Bascom shook hands with me, wished me a pleasant +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +voyage, and departed. I went aboard, the vessel being +already hove short, and, as I thought, only waiting my +arrival to sail.</p> + +<p>Things looked much otherwise as I stepped on deck. +The skipper was drunk and helpless. The decks were +thronged with shore natives—men and women nearly all +crying and half drunk, bidding farewell to one or other of +the crew.</p> + +<p>The mate, Jim Knowles, was a Tongan half-caste, who +was afterwards hanged in Fiji for shooting Larsen, one of +the Messrs. Goddeffroy's captains, dead on his own ship. +He was the only sober man on board. He told me that one +of Tapoleni's friends had come on board, and that she had +been stowed away by that worthy, who swore that he would +not leave her behind. To this Maa Maa I had a particular +aversion, and always hated to see her come on board. She +was ugly enough in all conscience, and had always been +said to be the cause of quarrels and fights whenever the +skipper took her on a trip. Taking Knowles with me, we +lugged her on deck screaming and biting. As she refused +to get into a canoe, Knowles threw her overboard, where +some sympathising friends picked her up.</p> + +<p>Just as this incident terminated I received a note from +the owners, telling me to delay the vessel's departure for +half-an-hour. Wondering what was in the wind, I set +about restoring order. I found a lot of liquor in the foc'sle, +which I took aft and locked up. Then with Knowles' aid +I succeeded in clearing the decks of the women and shore +loafers, who were lying about in all stages of intoxication.</p> + +<p>At eleven o'clock we saw two boats pulling off from the +shore, and noticed armed Samoans among the crews. As +they came alongside I saw seated in one of them the figures +of Black Tom and his son Johnny, both heavily ironed. +In the stern sat his Samoan wife, a woman named Musia. +A number of white residents were in charge of the lot, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +and I was informed that at an impromptu mass meeting, +held that morning, it had been decided to expatriate Tom +and his family for the good of the country; they had seized +this favourable opportunity of carrying their resolution +into effect.</p> + +<p>This was a pretty state of affairs. I need scarcely explain +my indignation at having two such characters as Black +Tom and his son foisted on me as passengers. I was about +to get into a boat and let them carry their own prisoners +away, when I was told that I could land him and his family +at the first land we made. This would be Quiros Island, +bearing N.N.W. from Apia.</p> + +<p>"All right, gentlemen," I replied, "and as everybody +here happens to be drunk, I'll feel obliged if you will be +good enough to lift the anchor and let us get away."</p> + +<p>Tom and his family were accordingly put in the hold, +and the new-comers having got the anchor up bade me +farewell, chuckling at having rid themselves of Black Tom +so cleverly. Whereupon they got into the boats and pulled +ashore.</p> + +<p>It was blowing stiffly as we ran through the passage, and +certainly we presented a pretty spectacle, with our running +gear all in disorder, and the crew drunk in the lee scuppers. +I had the keys of the prisoners' irons, so giving the +tiller to Knowles, I went below and liberated them.</p> + +<p>"Tom," I said, "my instructions are to keep you in irons +till we made the first land. Now, I've got nothing against +you, but I don't want your company, and I consider I was +served a shabby trick when they put you on board. I +mean to be even with them. They said the first land. +Now, I'll stand on this tack till midnight; then I'll put +about and land you on the coast."</p> + +<p>The negro's bloodshot eyes showed blind fury when I +first approached him, but his look softened as I spoke. He +laughed, evidently enjoying my suggestion.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +"Thank you, sir, for taking the bracelets off us, but I +don't care about landing in Samoa again, and I'll face the +voyage with you. You're the first man that's spoke a kind +word to me since I was rushed and tied in my own house—treated +like a wild beast, and, by ——! I'll do any mortal +thing in this world for you."</p> + +<p>He then begged me not to land him at Quiros, but to let +him remain on board until we met Captain Hayston who, +he was sure, would give him a trading station. I promised +him this, and in return, being a splendid cook, he provided +me during the remainder of the voyage with all sorts +of sea delicacies.</p> + +<p>I will not speak of the dangers of that wearisome voyage; +the drunkenness that I tried in vain to suppress; the +erratic course we made to our destination. The skipper +sobered up every two or three days, took the sun, worked +out the ship's position, and let me steer any course I liked. +Then he would fly to his bottle of "square-face," until I +thought it necessary to rouse him again in order to ascertain +our whereabouts. At last, after a forty-two days' +passage, we sighted the low-lying coral islands enclosing +the spacious lagoon of Millé.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h2>THE BRIG LEONORA</h2> + + +<p>The island of Millé is situated in the Radac or eastern +portion of the Marshall group, discovered by a captain of +that name in 1788. On the charts it bears the name of the +Mulgrave Lagoon, and the reason is not far to seek. For +the most part the islands of Polynesia are of volcanic origin, +whilst the lagoons, which sometimes pass for islands, +are exclusively of coral formation. The minute insects +which form them build their submarine wall in a circle, +which growing for ages, until it rises at low water above +sea-level, gradually collects sand and debris, when it decomposes +and becomes a solid. Then comes a day when +wandering cocoa-nuts float to it and take up their abode on +its shores. Gradually a ring of land is formed, varying in +width, covered with a wreath of palms, sheltering within +its circumference a peaceful sea, into which access is attainable +by scattered channels only.</p> + +<p>The spot we had reached was of this description.</p> + +<p>Day was breaking when we first sighted the tops of the +cocoa-palms, and putting the ketch dead before the wind +we ran down to the passage. On going aloft I was glad to +see the spars of a vessel showing about three miles distant. +As none of the crew had ever visited the place before, we +lay to and fired a gun. In about half-an-hour we saw a +boat pulling towards us, with a tall man standing up steering. +It was Hayston. Jumping aboard he shook me +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +warmly by the hand, and said, "So you see we've met +again! What sort of passage did you have?"</p> + +<p>I recounted our misfortunes, adding the information that +the ketch leaked terribly.</p> + +<p>"Oh! that's just like Bascom," he remarked. "He told +me that he'd send her down as sound as a bell. I never +had a chance of looking at her when she was on the beach +at Apia, and I certainly thought he would act squarely +with me. But we'll talk business by and by."</p> + +<p>He now took command of the ketch, and brought us into +the lagoon, where we dropped anchor in ten fathoms alongside +the brig. I then formally handed over my vessel to +him, and wished the king of Arnu joy of his bargain. +After receiving full particulars of the voyage, he called the +skipper aft.</p> + +<p>"Well, Captain Westendorf," he said, "you have most +fortunately reached here safely, but more through good +luck than good management. I know you to be an experienced +and capable navigator, so that had you attended to +your duty you would have made Millé ten or fifteen days, +earlier. Now, you can go ashore and live with my trader +till you get a passage back to Samoa, for I'll be hanged if +I take you back. As for your crew, I don't want them +either; you can take them with you or turn them adrift. +The ketch I intend to leave here until I return from Ascension; +but mark this—<i>and you know me</i>—don't attempt to +board her during my absence; good day!"</p> + +<p>I felt sorry at seeing the good-natured "Tapoleni" so +humiliated; for with the exception of that one failing +which has obscured brighter intellects, and which was the +cause of all his troubles, he was a thoroughly honest old +fellow.</p> + +<p>Black Tom and his wife elected to remain at Millé until +they found a suitable island on which to open a trading +station. They parted from me with many professions of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +gratitude which I think were sincere. He afterwards became +a wealthy man—such are fortune's vagaries in the +islands; his son Johnny earnestly begged me to intercede +with Captain Hayston on his account, and not to leave him +on shore at Millé. I made the request, and the Captain +told him to come aboard the <i>Leonora</i>.</p> + +<p>During the afternoon Hayston and I went over the ketch +in order to inspect the stores, gear, etc., when he asked +me, now that my responsibility had ended, what were my +intentions as to future movements? I told him I proposed +to charter a native canoe for Arnu, there to await a passing +vessel and a passage to Samoa. From this course, however, +he dissuaded me, pointing out that I might have to +stay there six months. He then offered me the position of +supercargo on his brig at a fair salary, pressing for an +immediate answer.</p> + +<p>Thinking it better to be earning money than leading a +life of idleness among the natives, I consented. "I accept +your offer, Captain," I said; "but there is one thing I wish +you to understand, I am coming with you, not for the sake +of the pay, but because I don't want to loaf about the Marshall +group like a beach-comber, and, moreover, I should +like to visit the Carolines. I don't particularly want to +return to Samoa, and if I see a place I like I'll start trading. +Now, I am willing to do duty as supercargo, even +without pay, but I won't lend a hand in any transaction +that I don't like the look of. So at our first difference you +can set me ashore."</p> + +<p>Hayston looked me straight in the face and held out his +hand—"Well, now, that's a fair deal. I give you my +word that I won't ask you to join in anything doubtful. +The traders round here are the greatest scoundrels unhung, +and I have to treat them as they treat me. My books are +in a bad state, and you'll find work enough putting them +straight; but I'll be glad of your company aboard, even if +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +you never do a hand's turn." So the bargain was closed. +I got my chest from the hold and sent it aboard the brig; +the steward receiving instructions that I was to occupy the +port side of the cabin. At dusk Hayston gave some of +the crew liberty, and sent the rest with the mates to haul +the ketch in and beach her as the tide was full. While he +stood watching her from the brig's deck, he suddenly remarked +that they were making a mess of it, and calling two +boys to bring the dingey alongside, he was pulled into the +shore.</p> + +<p>There was a number of young women on board, natives +of the Kingsmill group, good-looking, but wild in appearance. +I was on deck and they were below, where I heard +them laughing and talking, and saw they were seated on +the lounge that ran round the cabin. They all seemed +very merry over a game, much like "knucklebones," which +they were playing with shells. A large canoe was bearing +down on us from one of the islands in the lagoon, and just +as she ran up in the wind ahead of us, allowing the topsail +to drift down alongside, I heard a man's voice mingling +with the girls'.</p> + +<p>I was going forward to have a close look at the canoe, +when I saw the Captain close alongside in the dingey. He +had sailed out to the brig, having let the two boys remain +on shore to assist at the ketch. Just as he stepped over +the sail, the owner of the voice I had heard ran out of the +cabin. Hayston gripped him by the arm, and I heard him +sing out, "What, would you knife me?" The next minute +the man was seized in the powerful arms, lifted high above +his head, and then dashed upon the deck, where he lay +perfectly still.</p> + +<p>The Captain disappeared in the cabin, and running up I +lifted the man's head. His back and neck seemed broken, +and though I called loudly no one came from below. There +were a lot of Arunai natives in the hold sleeping and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +smoking, but they took no notice of my calls, which, as I +didn't know a word of their language, did not surprise me. +The canoe had now come alongside, and the Captain reappeared +upon deck. The chief seemed pleased to see him, +and then a lot of natives clambered on board and carried +the wounded man aboard their barque.</p> + +<p>Having given them eight or ten pounds of tobacco, Hayston +told them, partly in English and partly in the Millé +dialect, that the man was shamming dead, and if he woke +up on board they could chuck him overboard and let him +swim. Then they hoisted sail again and stood away.</p> + +<p>I felt horrified, for, although the Captain was certainly +justified in defending himself from a man armed with a +knife, I was shocked at witnessing the result. He, however, +insisted that the fellow was only "foxing," and so the +matter ended. When the boats returned from the ketch, +I heard the women remark to the sailors that Siāké (Jack) +had run away in a canoe, because "Kaptin" had beat him.</p> + +<p>At daylight next morning we got under weigh, and I was +astonished at the manner in which Hayston handled the +brig through the narrow passage. After accomplishing this +feat, we bore away for Ujillong, and the steward called us +to breakfast.</p> + +<p>Our destination was the almost unknown chain of coral +islets forming Ujillong or Providence Island. Some fifteen +months previously, Hayston had discovered a passage +through the reef there, and sailed his brig in. He was +delighted with the security afforded by the magnificent +lagoon inside. The islets were covered with cocoa-nuts, and +he at once decided upon forming a principal trading station +there, making it a centre from whence he could work the +islands in the North Pacific. There were only thirty natives +on the whole lagoon, and with these he succeeded in establishing +friendly relations, setting them to work in erecting +dwelling-houses and oil-sheds.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +We left in charge two white men named Jerry Jackson +and Whistling Bill, together with a number of Line Island +natives who were to assist in making oil. Hayston told me +he intended to settle there himself and cruise among the +Carolines and Marshalls, whilst Captain Peese, his colleague, +would run a small vessel to China, making Ujillong +his headquarters. On this occasion he expected to find that +a large quantity of oil had been made in his absence, and +was anxious to get there as quickly as possible.</p> + +<p>During the day I had leisure to observe the crew, and +considering that none of them were white men, the way in +which the brig was worked was simply admirable. They +treated the officers with great freedom of manner, but before +the Captain they seemed absolutely to cower. There being +some thirty of them they were by no means over-worked. +They were allowed as much liquor as they chose to buy at +a dollar a bottle for gin, beer at fifty cents, and rum at a +dollar. With such license one would naturally think that +insubordination would be rife. It was not so. But though +they never broke out at sea, when once the brig anchored +they became fiends incarnate. Gambling and drinking then +commenced. The sounds of oaths, yells, and blows floated +up from the foc'sle, mingling with the screams of the +women, and the night was made horrible with their din.</p> + +<p>Individual members of the crew of this strange vessel I +shall describe later on—for the present <i>place aux dames</i>! +Every officer had a native wife, and the Chinese carpenter +two. Most of these women were natives of Arurai or Hope +Island, one of the Kingsmill group. They were darker in +complexion than the other Polynesians, and prone to violent +jealousy of their protectors. It was by no means uncommon +to see two of these girls fighting like demons on the main +deck with their national weapons, wooden daggers set round +with shark's teeth, while blood poured in streams from their +lacerated limbs and bodies. There were several girls from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +Ocean and Pleasant Island, near the equator. Very good-looking +were these last, and fair as to complexion. The +principal belle, whose name was Nellie, was a very handsome +half-caste—a native of Hope Island. Her father, a +deserter from a whaler, had acquired such influence with +the natives that they made him a war chief. He led them +when they cut off an American whaler and killed the whole +crew. Discarding civilised clothing, he became a native in +all but colour, and finally met his death in a skirmish with +a hostile tribe. This girl was his daughter, and had been +given as a present to Hayston by the king of Arurai. Along +with her beauty she had a violent and dangerous temper, +and was never backward in using her knife on any woman +that provoked her.</p> + +<p>We had merely dropped Millé astern of us, when Hayston +changed his mind about going to Arurai, and bore away to +Pleasant Island. He told me that he had forgotten a +promise made to the traders there to bring them supplies, +but that he would call at Providence on our way back from +the Carolines.</p> + +<p>Pleasant Island (or Naura) is generally considered one of +the Gilbert group, although it is far to the leeward, and the +natives, together with those of Ocean Island (or Paanup), +consider themselves a distinct people. The former island +is in latitude 0.25 S., longitude 167.5 E., and the latter in +latitude 0.505, longitude 169.30 E.</p> + +<p>"We've got a bully breeze," said the Captain; "and there +is a straight run of five hundred miles before we sight the +cocoa-nuts on Pleasant Island. I'll show you what the +<i>Leonora</i> can do."</p> + +<p>Our course was something about S.W. by W., the wind +increasing in strength as we put the helm up for Pleasant +Island, and during the afternoon, so quickly was the brig +slipping through the water, that Hayston said we should +do the distance—four hundred and ninety-five miles—in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +forty-eight hours. I was astonished at the rate we travelled, +and the Captain himself seemed pleased. Calling +the hands aft, he gave them a glass of grog all round, and +told the women to go on the main deck and dance. This +created considerable amusement, for as the brig was running +dead before the wind, and occasionally giving rolls, the +dancers losing their balance got some heavy falls into the +scuppers, while the others laughed and enjoyed their misfortunes.</p> + +<p>We ran up under the leeside of the island just forty-four +hours after leaving Millé, a trifle over eleven knots an hour. +In a few minutes we were boarded by the traders, of whom +there were six. They were certainly a rough lot. As each +man lived under the protection of a particular chief, the +island being divided into six districts, there was the keenest +business rivalry among them.</p> + +<p>Hayston called them down below, when they were soon +pretty well drunk.</p> + +<p>They had plenty of dollars, and bought largely of arms +and ammunition. I was employed, with the second mate, +in getting up the guns, principally Snider rifles, from the +lazarette. I called to them, one by one, to come and pick +what they wanted; however they seemed quite satisfied to +let me give them what I liked.</p> + +<p>The brig was standing off and on, close into the land, in +charge of the boatswain, the mate being ill; Hayston was +singing "The Zouave," and the traders were applauding +uproariously, whilst two were dancing with Nellie and Sara, +shouting and yelling like lunatics. The only one that was +sober was a fine young fellow who seemed ill, and was supported +by a native. This young fellow paid me for the +arms bought by his comrades, saying, "They're all drunk +now, and as I don't go in for that kind of thing myself, +they've got me to do this business for them." The man +who was dancing with Sara had a bag of dollars in his hand, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +and as he waltzed round the cabin he kept swinging it +about and striking the woodwork of the cabin.</p> + +<p>Carl, the sick man, called out to him, "I say, Ned, let me +have that money now, I'm settling up for you." Swinging +the bag of dollars round, Ned sent it full at liberty, and +struck Carl in the chest, knocking him down. I picked him +up, and thought by the pallor of his face that he was either +killed or seriously injured.</p> + +<p>The native who was with him called to some of his comrades, +and a young woman came down and took his head in +her lap, while I got a decanter of water. After a while he +came round, and told me he was not much hurt, but that the +bag of money was heavy and had bruised his chest greatly.</p> + +<p>"You dog," he said, getting up and walking over to the +other man, who was now sitting at the table talking to the +Captain, "as sure as my name's Carl I'll make you suffer +for this."</p> + +<p>"Come, come," said Hayston, "it was only Ned's rough +play. I don't think he meant to hurt you. Besides, I don't +want to see white men fighting on board my ship."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Captain," said he, pulling off his shirt, "look +at my body, and tell me if Ned thought me a fit subject for +a joke."</p> + +<p>It makes me shudder now. There was an awful gash on +his back, extending from his right shoulder to below the +ribs on the right side. It was roughly sewn up here and +there, and seemed to be healing, but the blow on the chest +had made it bleed anew; a dark stream was soaking down +his leg to the ground.</p> + +<p>"By heaven! that is a terrible cut," said the Captain; +"how in thunder did you get mauled like that?"</p> + +<p>Carl, who was still very faint, told us that some time ago +he had a fight with a native, and licked him. One night, +as he was lying face downward on his mat, this man crept +into his hut and struck him with a shark tooth sword. His +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +native wife, who was coming into the house at the time, +carrying two shells of toddy, dropped them, and flinging her +arms round the man's legs, tripped him up, and held him, +while Carl, all smothered in blood, shot him dead with his +revolver.</p> + +<p>"Ned!" said the Captain gravely, when Carl's tale was +told, "did you know this young fellow had this gash in his +back when you hove the bag at him?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I did! why, d—n him, can't he take a joke? +Naura's a rough shop for a man that can't stand a bit of +fun."</p> + +<p>"Put up your hands, you cowardly dog!" said the Captain, +and in an instant the drunken traders cleared a space. +"I'll teach you to hurt a wounded man."</p> + +<p>Ned was as big a man as the Captain, and seemed to be +the leading spirit of the gang. But the other traders, +though armed with navy revolvers and derringers, did not +seem inclined to interfere.</p> + +<p>At the first round the big trader went down like a bullock, +and lay on the cabin floor apparently lifeless. Hayston was +like a mad animal when he tried to get him up, and the +man fell helpless. Picking him up in his arms like a child, +he carried him on deck, the rest of us following.</p> + +<p>"Here! Naura men, where's Ned's boat?" he called out.</p> + +<p>It was towing astern, and some one having hauled it up, +Hayston dropped the man into it like a log of wood.</p> + +<p>Then his good temper returned instantly, and he paid +Carl every attention, insisting on dressing his wound. We +remained out by Pleasant Island all day, and shipped a lot +of oil, for which Hayston paid the traders in arms and +ammunition; we then stood away for Ocean Island.</p> + +<p>I learned that Carl had been a petty officer on board the +U.S. cruiser <i>Wish-ton-wish</i>, but had deserted and made his +way to Pleasant Island. He seemed superior to his companions +in every way, and I was glad to be able to give him +some books.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +He told me that he belonged to the New England States, +but that he could never return, and would put a bullet +through his head rather than be taken back a disgraced +man. I bade him farewell with regret, and learned two +years afterwards that, a month after I saw him, he had +blown his brains out, as the U.S. corvette <i>Rowena</i> touched +at the island. Poor Carl! How many a tale of wasted life, +of reckless deeds, and early death, could every island of the +South Sea tell.</p> + +<p>Although Hayston was an utterly reckless man in most +matters, he was by no means foolhardy where the lives of +others were concerned. During the time we spent at Pleasant +Island every precaution was taken against a surprise.</p> + +<p>All the crew carried revolvers, and two men were posted +in the fore and main-tops armed with Winchesters. The +natives of this island had cut off many ships in past years, +and were now so well armed and determined that the utmost +caution was needed.</p> + +<p>It was here that I met an American named Maule—about +as hard a specimen of an old style South Sea trader +as one could fall across. He was extremely anxious that +I should purchase two native girls from him. They were +under his charge. It seems their father had been killed, +and his own wife objected to their presence in his house.</p> + +<p>I told him that I was supercargo, and therefore could not +speculate on my own account. Besides, that sort of traffic +was entirely out of my line. If he had curios, weapons, or +Naura gods, I would deal, but there I drew the line.</p> + +<p>"Well, blame my cats! if you ain't too disgustin' partickler! +Want to stuff yer cabin with kyurosities and +graven images, instead of dellikit young women. Now, +lookee hyar—jest you take them two gals o' mine for thirty +dollars, and you'll jest double your money from king Abinoka. +He's jest mad after Naura girls, and buys 'em up by +the dozen."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +Finding that I wouldn't invest, he tried the Captain, +telling him that the girls were anxious to get away from +Pleasant Island, as their father was dead, and having no +brothers, they could not get food enough from the people. +His wife was jealous too, and had beaten them.</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" said the Captain, "bring them aboard, and +I'll give them a passage somewhere. I suppose by and by +you'll tell some man-of-war captain that I stole them." So +the trader sent them on board, and received in exchange +some boats' gear and a keg of molasses.</p> + +<p>The girls went aft, and remained with the others in the +cabin for a few days. When we sighted Ocean Island, +Hayston called me on deck, and said, "Come and see a bit +of fun."</p> + +<p>Old Mary was told to bring up her flock. The two Pleasant +Island girls came up with the rest. They were about +fourteen and fifteen years of age, and, from their close similarity, +probably the children of the same mother—a somewhat +unusual thing in the Gilbert group. They seemed +frightened at being called up, and clung closely to Sara and +Nellie. Their hair, Pleasant Island fashion, hung down +straight upon their backs, and was carefully oiled and +combed. A girdle of Pandanus leaf was their only garment. +Speaking kindly to them, the Captain asked them if they +would like to go ashore there and live. I give the conversation.</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"Well, will you go ashore here?"</p> + +<p><i>Girls.</i>—"Are there plenty of cocoa-nuts and fish?"</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"Pretty fair; but there are not always plenty."</p> + +<p><i>Girls.</i>—"What chiefs will take us and give us food?"</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"I don't know—there are more women there +than men. All the young men have gone away in whaleships."</p> + +<p><i>Girls.</i>—"That's bad; the Ocean Island women will soon +kill us strangers."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +<i>Captain.</i>—"Most likely. Would you like to stay on the +ship if I get you husbands?"</p> + +<p><i>Girls.</i>—"Yes! where are they?"</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"Boatswain, send Sunday and boy George +here."</p> + +<p>These were two boys who had been sailing with Hayston +for some years. Both were about sixteen. Of George I +will speak later on. Having come aft, the Captain, addressing +them, said he was pleased at their steadiness, and as a +reward for their good conduct, he had at great expense procured +them wives, whom he hoped they would treat well. +His speech was a humorous one, and the crew standing +round grinned approvingly—Sunday and boy George being, +apparently, looked upon as lucky youths, for the girls were +undeniably good-looking. In fact, I never saw an ill-looking +Pleasant islander.</p> + +<p>"Now, Terau and N'jilong, you must draw lots for first +pick. Carpenter, bring me two splinters of wood."</p> + +<p>They were instructed by the other native girls how to +draw lots, the result being that Terau picked boy George, +and her sister took Sunday.</p> + +<p>"Steward!" commanded Hayston, "bring up a couple of +bottles of grog. And you, Sunday and boy George! before +you begin your married life just listen to me! Call all +hands aft!"</p> + +<p>The crew came aft, and the Captain, who now seemed +quite serious, said, "Now, boys, I have given these girls to +Sunday and boy George. Don't let me hear of any one +attempting to interfere with them, and if one of you puts +his head into the boys' house while the girls are there alone, +I'll make it warm for him. There's a couple of bottles of +grog for the watch to drink their healths, and the steward +has two more for the watch below. For'ard now, and you, +boys, go and ask the supercargo for some cloth to rig your +girls out with."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +The <i>Leonora</i> was certainly a very sociable and domesticated +ship.</p> + +<p>We lay off and on at Ocean Island for a day or two, and +engaged twenty-seven natives to proceed to Ponapé (Ascension +Island) to work for Cappelle and Milne, a German +firm. Then we made an easterly course to Taputanea (or +Drummond Island), one of the Gilbert group, where Hayston +had a trader.</p> + +<p>The Drummond islanders are notorious throughout the +Pacific for treachery and ferocity. They frequently cut off +vessels, and murder all hands, being led on these occasions +by renegade white men. When Commodore White's ships +visited this spot in 1842 they murdered one of his seamen. +A fight ensued, in which many were killed, and the town of +Utiroa was laid in ashes. But the lesson had no great +effect, and Hayston told me that they would not hesitate to +attempt the capture of any vessel that could not make a +good resistance.</p> + +<p>We sighted the island at night-time, and lay off Utiroa +till daylight. Then after putting the brig in a state of +defence, and giving the command to the Fiji half-caste, +Bill, telling him also to shoot a certain native if he saw +him come alongside, Hayston had the longboat and whaleboat +lowered.</p> + +<p>Into the former he put a great quantity of trade, principally +gin, rum, and firearms, giving me charge of the latter +to cover him. I had six men with me, each armed with a +Vetterlich rifle, and I carried my own Winchester—eighteen +shot. Hayston gave me full instructions how to act +if he was attacked; then we made for the town of Utiroa, +the boats keeping alongside of each other. As we were +pulling Hayston told me that he wished to get ashore +before the canoes left, in order to interview his trader Jim +in the presence of the people. This fellow, it appeared, +was a fighting man who had great influence over the +Drum<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>mond +Island natives, with whom bloodshed and murder +were acts of everyday occurrence. He always aided them +in their tribal fights, and evinced a partiality for taking life +that had won their warmest admiration. Hayston had +brought him from Ponapé, where he was the terror of the +white men, swaggering about the ports of the island, and +using his pistol on any one that resented his conduct. But +he was a good trader for all that, and had been placed in +this trust because no other man could be found willing to +risk his life among such a treacherous race.</p> + +<p>Jim had not been installed a week at Utiroa, when a +chief named Tabirau gave him one of his daughters for a +wife, and was paid for her in trade according to custom. +Shortly afterwards the girl ran home again, saying that the +white man had beaten her for spoiling a razor.</p> + +<p>Jim took his rifle, went to his father-in-law's house, and +demanded the girl back. A number of natives followed up, +anticipating that he would be killed, for Tabirau was a +chief of note, not averse to the extermination of white men. +As they expected, he refused to give up the girl unless Jim +paid more trade, alleging that one of the muskets paid for +her was no good. Without a moment's hesitation the +trader shot him through the body, killing him instantly, +and then clubbed the girl to death with the butt end of his +rifle.</p> + +<p>Instead of being murdered by the natives for this atrocious +deed, he was looked upon as a hero, and all Tabirau's +land, canoes, and property were made over to him. The +people of Utiroa elected him to be their commercial ruler, +refusing to sell oil or produce to any ship without his +advice or consent. For a while his conduct had quite satisfied +Hayston, until he learned that Jim had sold a lot of his +oil to a Californian trader, boasting, besides, that Hayston +dared not bring him to task for it.</p> + +<p>It was now the Captain's intention to assert his authority, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +and break the trader's power over the natives. For this +purpose he determined to meet him on shore, and let the +natives see which was the better man.</p> + +<p>As we approached the beach we saw fully five hundred +natives assembled; all were armed, and many dressed in +their thick armour of fibre, and wearing helmets of the +skin of the porcupine fish. There was great excitement +among them, though many of them seemed glad to see +Hayston, calling out "Tiaka po, Kaptin" (How do you do). +The main body, however, seemed ready to dispute our landing.</p> + +<p>"Keep close up!" the Captain called out to me, "and +don't let any of them see your arms, but be ready to drop it +into them the first shot that is fired. But, for God's sake, +don't miss. That villain Jim, you see, isn't here, though; +those fellows mean mischief. However, land I must, and +will." He then told the crew to run the boat on the beach, +and standing up in the stern, called out to natives that he +knew, pretending to see nothing unusual in their manner. +At the moment that he stepped on the beach the whole body +of natives formed in solid line in front of him, while hundreds +of rifle muzzles were almost thrust in his face. He +looked steadily at them, and commenced to talk with his +hands in his trousers' pocket.</p> + +<p>I forgot my instructions, and my crew seemed equally +excited at the Captain's danger, for, without being told, they +ran the whaleboat ashore and we all jumped out. The men +in the other boat were standing up rifle in hand, and they +followed us.</p> + +<p>The Captain was speaking calmly to the natives, when he +turned and saw me. "For God's sake, go back to the +boats," he said, in a quiet tone; then raising his hand +threateningly and roaring like a lion, he repeated the order +in the Drummond Island dialect. I understood this hint, +so we ran back, but kept our arms ready. Hayston's order +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +to me seemed to have a good effect, for the fierce looks of +the natives relaxed, and soon afterwards he called out that +it was all right, and told me to give him two muskets and +a box of tobacco out of the longboat. This was a present +for two of the principal chiefs, who now shook hands with +him, saying that Jim was in his house, and had told them +that if Captain Hayston put his foot inside he would shoot +him. Our former opponents seemed pretty equally divided +in their opinions. Half of them were eager to see the fight +between Jim and the Captain, and the others were ready to +massacre the whole of us if but a single act of hostility was +committed on either side.</p> + +<p>Hayston ordered me then to come with him, and asked +the natives' permission to allow me to bring my Winchester, +as I was frightened of them. The boats were shoved out, +the crew being told to jump ashore if they heard any firing, +and fight their way to Jim's house. As I joined the Captain +on the beach he told me that the natives thought he +meant to kill Jim, and that they had felt him all over to +see if he had concealed any arms, but that they seemed +satisfied when they found none. I was astonished at his +recklessness in not bringing weapons, and as we were +escorted along the road by the natives, I told him that I had +a derringer hidden among some tobacco in a canvas bag +slung round my waist.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" he said. "It will never do to see you give it +to me now. Besides, I don't want any shooting if I can +help it. There are many of these natives who will be glad +to see Jim's power broken, and I want to get my hands on +him before he puts a bullet into me. The rest is easy +enough. If you see him taking a shot at me before I come +up to him, you can use that rifle; but don't kill him if you +can help it, and don't be alarmed about yourself. Take +hold of this old nigger's hand who is walking beside you +and you'll be all right. Just keep laughing and talking."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +After a long walk we got up to the trader's house, and +here the natives made a halt. I was beginning to feel +horribly scared, and wished we were on board the brig +again. Presently we were told that Jim was inside, and +would not come out because he was sick. Walking steadily +forward the Captain advanced to within a few feet of the +house, and called out, "Well, this is a nice sort of welcome, +Jim! Come out and show yourself."</p> + +<p>The door opened, and I could see that the place was filled +with natives, all of whom carried guns and seemed much +excited.</p> + +<p>Then Jim made his appearance and walked slowly up to +the Captain. He was a tall man, dressed in pyjamas, with +two navy revolvers in his belt. With his heavy red moustache +and bloodshot eyes, he looked his character well—that +of an unscrupulous and remorseless ruffian. Hayston +had seated himself on a fallen cocoa-nut tree with his hands +full of papers.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do, Jim?" he said, extending his hand to the +trader and rising as he spoke. The moment the trader's +hand touched his, he seized him by the throat and shook +him like a dog shaking a rat; then spun him round violently +and threw him against the stern of a canoe, where he +lay half stunned. The natives gave a roar, but the Captain +held up his hands—the tide seemed to turn at once in our +favour, and one man went up to the trader, took away his +pistols, and gave them to Hayston. The Captain addressed +the principal chiefs, whom he told that Jim had robbed +him, and that after he had made presents to the people, he +intended to take the rest of the trade away.</p> + +<p>We were moving into the house to take possession, when +the trader, who had now recovered himself, got up and addressed +the natives. I did not understand what he said, but +Hayston evidently did. The effect of Jim's harangue was +to render the natives undecided as to what course to adopt. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +One man, who spoke good English and had a rifle with a +sword bayonet attached, said it did not matter if any one +was killed, but they thought their white man did not have +fair play.</p> + +<p>"Jim," said the Captain, in his smoothest tones, "you say +you can whip any man in the Pacific in four rounds. Well! +now you have an opportunity to prove your words. If you +are a better man than I am, I will let you keep what trade +you have got, and shake hands afterwards."</p> + +<p>Jim stripped to the waist, and called for one of his +women to bring him a pair of "taka" or "cinnet" sandals, +as he was barefooted.</p> + +<p>He was shaking with rage and excitement, while Hayston +showed no concern whatever. From the jump the trader +forced the fighting, but in less time than I describe it, both +of his eyes were nearly closed, and he had a terrific cut on +his cheekbone. Some women then ran in and begged the +Captain to desist. I believe he could have killed his man in +another five minutes. He asked Jim if he was satisfied and +would shake hands. But the trader would not answer, and +then the Captain's face grew dark. Seizing him again by +the throat he nearly strangled him, his eyes protruding horribly +as he worked his arms in the air. When he let him +go he fell like a log. "Carry him down to the boats and +make him fast," he said to the interpreter.</p> + +<p>We entered his house unmolested, and I took an inventory +of his goods. There was very little trade left, but the +natives said he had a lot of money given him by the skipper +of the Californian vessel. This we found in a large soup +and bouilli tin in his chest. It amounted to nearly seven +hundred dollars, mostly in U.S. half-dollar coins.</p> + +<p>The natives begged the Captain not to close the station +up; if Jim was going away, they wished some one in his +place. He said he would consider their wish after he got +on board; but they must first help him to raft off twenty +casks of oil that were lying in Jim's oil-shed<ins title="Transcriber's Note: added .">.</ins></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +We got off to the boats at last. The old man still kept +hold of my left hand. This, the Captain had told me, he +had done to protect me if any fighting took place; that if +fighting had resulted I would not have been killed, but +would have been regarded as the old man's prize. The +natives launched their canoes and followed the boats in +swarms when we set sail for the brig. As soon as we got +alongside, Hayston asked the second mate if the native he +had spoken of had shown up.</p> + +<p>"No," said Bill; "he's gone away to Samoa, so they say +here."</p> + +<p>Hayston seemed pleased at this news, telling me that this +man was a special enemy of his, into whom he meant to put +a bullet if he could drop across him. As he was gone away +he was saved an unpleasant task. Jim was taken for'ard, +and the carpenter was ordered to put him in irons; thereupon +he sulkily explained that he didn't intend to turn +rusty.</p> + +<p>"All right, then, Jim," replied the Captain. "I'm glad +we're going to be friends again. But you can go ashore at +Makin and stay there."</p> + +<p>He then called for a man among his crew to take Jim's +place on shore. After some hesitation a sturdy Rotumah +native said he didn't mind, if the Captain gave him a wife. +He couldn't speak the language, and if he took a Taputana +woman she might plot to kill him and he be none the wiser.</p> + +<p>"Boys!" called out the Captain, "is any one of you +willing to give Willie his wife? I'll make it up to him. +Besides, there'll be plenty more going through the Marshall +group."</p> + +<p>No one appeared struck with the idea. So the Captain +called Sunday aft, and held brief conversation with him, +after which the boy went into the deckhouse and brought +out his wife and N'jilong. The poor girl shed a few tears +at first and clung to Sunday's neck, but he finally induced +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +her to go with Willie. She had come aboard almost naked, +but went away with a well-filled chest and any amount of +finery.</p> + +<p>She parted from her sister in an apathetic manner, but +her tears began to flow afresh when Sunday turned coolly +from her and pursued his duties on the deck. Savage +though she might be, she felt the parting from the hardened +young wretch whom she had come to look on as her partner. +However she lost nothing by the change. Her new husband +was a steady, good fellow who treated her kindly. Years +afterwards I met them both on one of the Ellice Islands and +received a warm welcome. Willie had legally married her +in Fiji, and they seemed a most affectionate couple, with +children in whom their chief pride in life was centred.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h2>CAPTAIN BEN PEESE</h2> + + +<p>For the next few weeks we cruised about among the +islands of the Kingsmill and Gilbert groups, collectively +known as the Line Islands. The most southerly of them +is Arurai or Hope Island, in the latitude 2.41 S., longitude +177 E.—the most northerly, Makin or Butaritu, in latitude +3.20, 45 N.</p> + +<p>We did good business generally going through this group, +and steady going trade it was, varied only by the mad +drunken bouts and wild dances which took place when we +were at anchor—these last beyond description.</p> + +<p>Just then I was badly hurt fishing on shore one day. It +was peculiarly a South Sea accident. I was standing on a +jutting ledge of coral, holding my rod, when it suddenly +broke off, allowing me to fall downwards on sharp edges, +where I was terribly cut about the legs and body. The +green or live coral has the property of making a festering +wound whenever it pierces the true skin, and for weeks, +with my unhealed wounds, I was nearly mad with pain. +The Captain did all he could for me, having a netted hammock +slung on deck, where I could see all that was going on. +One day in a fit of pain I fell out and nearly cracked my +skull. All the native girls on board were most kind and +patient in nursing me. So the Captain said the least I +could do was to marry one, if only out of gratitude and to +brush away the flies.</p> + +<p>Whatever some people might call these poor girls they +had at least one virtue, which, like charity, covereth a +mul<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>titude +of sins. Pity for any one in bodily pain they possessed +in the highest degree. Many an hour did they sit +beside me, bathing my aching head with a sponge and salt +water—this last the universal and infallible cure.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>We called at Peru or Francis Island, where we obtained +nine natives—five men and four young women. The +islanders here are rude and insulting to all strangers not +carrying arms, and almost as threatening as those of Taputana. +I was, however, too ill to go on shore here.</p> + +<p>After a two months' cruise through this group we bore +away for Strong's Island, distant some five hundred miles. +We had favourable winds, and the brig's speed was something +wonderful. In thirty-eight hours we had covered a +distance of four hundred and ninety miles, when the lofty +hills of this gem of the North Pacific, covered with brightest +verdure, gladdened our eyes after the long, low-lying chains +of islets and atolls of the Marshall and Kingsmill groups.</p> + +<p>The brave "north-east trade" that had borne us so gallantly +along died away to a zephyr as we drew near the +land, and saw once more the huge rollers thundering on the +weather point of the island.</p> + +<p>Calling first at Chabral harbour we did a little trading, +and then sailed down the coast close to the shore—so deep +runs the water—till we reached Utwé.</p> + +<p>Here we found three American whalers put in for food +and water. Hayston seemed anxious to get away, so, after +exchanging courtesies with the skippers, we ran round to +Coquille harbour, where we lay several days trading and +painting ship. We cleared the harbour at daylight, with +the sea as smooth as glass and wind so light that the +<i>Leonora</i> could scarcely stem the strong easterly current. +Still keeping a north-west course, we sailed away over the +summer sea while scarce a ripple broke its glassy surface, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +until we sighted Pingelap or M'Askill's, a hundred and +fifty miles from Strong's Island.</p> + +<p>These were discovered by Captain Musgrave, of the +American whaler <i>Sugar Cane</i>, in 1793. They are densely +covered with cocoa-palms, and though wholly of coral +formation, are a good height above sea-level.</p> + +<p>The Captain had a trader here named Sam Biggs—a +weak-kneed, gin-drinking cockney. How ever such a character +could have found his way to these almost unknown +islands passed my comprehension! We ran in close to the +village—so near that, the wind being light, we nearly +drifted onto the beach, and lowered the starboard quarter +boat to tow out again.</p> + +<p>Whilst waiting for the trader I had a good look at the +village, which I was surprised to hear contained 500 inhabitants. +As, however, these islands—there are three of +them, Takai, Tugula, and Pingelap—are wondrous fertile, +they support their populations easily.</p> + +<p>Presently the trader came off in a canoe, and, shambling +along the deck, went down below to give in his report. He +said that things were very bad. A few months back the +American missionary brig <i>Morning Star</i> had called and +prevailed on the king to allow two teachers to be landed. +After making presents to the chiefs and principal men, +they had got their promise to accept Christianity and to +send the white man Biggs about his business. They had +also told the natives that Captain Hayston was coming +with the intention of carrying them off in bondage to work +on the plantations in Samoa. Also that Mr. Morland, the +chief missionary, was now in Honolulu, begging for a man-of-war +to come to Pingelap and fight Captain Hayston's +ship with his big guns and sink her.</p> + +<p>All South Sea islanders are easily influenced. In a few +hours after the teachers landed the whole village declared +for Christianity, burned their idols, and renounced the devil +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +and all his works, <i>i.e.</i> Captain Hayston and the brig +<i>Leonora</i>.</p> + +<p>The Captain's face darkened as he listened; then he asked +the trader what he had done in the matter. The man, +blinking his watery eyes, said he had done nothing; that he +was afraid the natives would kill him, and asked to be +taken away.</p> + +<p>Jumping up from the table, Hayston grasped him by the +collar, and asked me to look at him and say what he should +do with such a white-livered hound, who would let one of +the finest islands in the Pacific be handed over to the sanctimonious +pack on board the <i>Morning Star</i>, and let the best +trading station he, Hayston, owned be ruined?</p> + +<p>I suggested that he should be detained on board till we +met the <i>Morning Star</i>, and then be given to Mr. Morland to +keep.</p> + +<p>"By ——! just the thing! but just let me tell you, you +drunken hound, that when I picked you up a starving beach-comber +in Ponapé, I thought you had at least enough sense +to know that I am not a man to be trifled with. I was the +first man to place a trader on Pingelap. I overcame the +natives' hostility, and made this one of the safest islands +in the group for whaleships to call at. Now I have lost +a thousand dollars by your cowardice. So take this to +remember it by."</p> + +<p>Then, holding him by one hand, he shook him like a rag, +finally slinging him up the companion way, and telling the +men to tie him up.</p> + +<p>"Lower away the longboat," he roared, "I'll teach the +Pingelap gentry how to dance." I went with him, as I +wanted to get some bananas and young cocoa-nuts. In five +minutes we drew up on the beach.</p> + +<p>The head-men of the island now came forward to meet +the Captain, and to express their pleasure at seeing him. +But he was not to be mollified, and sternly bade them follow +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +him to the largest house in the town where he would talk to +them.</p> + +<p>The boy Sunday, who was a native of Pingelap, came +with us to act as interpreter. Behind the crowd of natives +were the two Hawaiian teachers, dressed in white linen +shirts and drill trousers. They had their wives with them, +dressed in mixed European and native costume.</p> + +<p>None of us had arms, nor did we think them necessary. +Hitherto these people had been slavish admirers of Hayston, +and he assured me that he would reassert his former influence +over them in ten minutes. The crowd swarmed into +the council-house and sat down on their mats. The Captain +remained standing.</p> + +<p>His grand, imposing form, as he stood in the centre of +the house and held up his hands for silence, seemed to awe +them as would a demi-god, and murmurs of applause broke +from them involuntarily.</p> + +<p>"Tell them, Sunday," he said, fixing his piercing blue +eyes on the cowering forms of the two missionary teachers, +"that I have come to talk peace, not to fight. Ask them +who it was years ago, when the hurricane came and destroyed +their houses and plantations—when their little +ones were crying with hunger—that brought them to his +ship and fed them? Have they forgotten who it was that +carried them to Ponapé, and there let them live on his land +and fed them on his food till they grew tired of the strange +land, and then brought them back to their homes again?"</p> + +<p>Sunday translated, and the silence was unbroken till the +Captain resumed, "Did not the men of Pingelap say then +that no man should be more to them than me—that no one +else should place a white man here? And now a strange +ship comes, and the men of Pingelap have turned their +faces from me?"</p> + +<p>A scene of wild excitement followed, the greater number +crowding round the Captain, while with outstretched hands +and bent heads they signified respect.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +The two teachers were walking quickly away with their +wives, when the Captain called them back, and in a pleasant +voice invited them to come on board and see if there was +anything there that they would like their wives to have for +a present.</p> + +<p>Before returning on board Sunday told the Captain that +the chiefs and people desired to express their sorrow at +receiving the missionaries, and that they would be glad if +he took them away. Since the visit of the <i>Morning Star</i> +an epidemic had broken out resembling measles, which had +already carried off fifty or sixty of them. Already their +superstitious fears led them to regard the sickness as a +punishment for having broken their treaty with Hayston. +So they offered us six young women as a present; also +ten large turtles, and humbly begged him to allow his +trader to remain.</p> + +<p>The Captain made answer that he did not want six young +women—there were plenty on board already; but he would +take two, with the ten turtles, and ten thousand cocoa-nuts. +The said presents were then cheerfully handed over; the +two girls and the turtles going off in the Captain's boat, +while the cocoa-nuts were formed into a raft and floated +alongside the ship.</p> + +<p>While these weighty matters were being arranged I +walked round to the weather side of the island with Sunday, +who wanted to show me a pool in which the natives +kept some captive turtle. On our way we came across some +young boys and girls catching fish with a seine. They +brought us some and lit a fire. We stayed about an hour +with them, having great fun bathing in the surf.</p> + +<p>Happening to look out to sea, I saw a big ship coming +round the point under easy sail; from her rig and the number +of boats she carried I knew her at once to be a whaler. +We ran ashore and dressed, and as two of the children +offered to show us a short cut through the forest to the +vil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>lage, +we ran all the way and got opposite the brig just in +time to see the Captain leaving her side to board the whaler. +I hailed the brig, and they sent me the dingey, in which I +followed Hayston. She proved to be the <i>Josephine</i>, just out +from Honolulu—a clean ship, not having taken a fish. +The captain was a queer-looking old fellow dressed like a +fisherman. He received us with civility, yet looked at the +Captain curiously. His crew were all under arms. Each +man had a musket, a lance, or a whaling spade—these two +last very formidable weapons—in his hand.</p> + +<p>Captain Long was candid, and admitted that as soon as +he sighted our brig he had armed his men, for the wind +was so light that he would have no chance of getting away. +Hayston laughingly asked him if he thought the brig was a +pirate.</p> + +<p>The whaler replied, "Why, certainly. Old Morland and +Captain Melton told me two years ago that you sailed a +brig with a crew of darned cut-throat niggers, and would +take a ship if you wanted her, so I made up my mind to +have a bit of shootin' if you boarded us."</p> + +<p>"Well, Captain Long," said Hayston, in his easy, pleasant +way, "come over to my little vessel and see the pirate +at home."</p> + +<p>The invitation was accepted, and as we pulled over amicably, +the skipper cast an admiring glance at the graceful +<i>Leonora</i> as she floated o'er the still, untroubled deep. As +we stepped over the ship's side we were met by Bill Hicks, +the second mate, whose savage countenance was illumined +by a broad smile as he silently pointed to the queer entertainment +before us.</p> + +<p>"Great ancestral ghosts! d'ye carry a troupe of ackeribats +aboard this hyar brig?" quoth the skipper, pointing +to four undraped figures capering about in the mad abandonment +of a Hawaiian national dance.</p> + +<p>The mate explained briefly that he had given the native +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +teachers grog, after which nothing would satisfy them but +to show the crew how they used to dance in Lakaina in +the good old days. Their wives were also exhilarated, and +having thrown off their European clothes, were dancing with +more vigour than decorum to the music of an accordion and +a violin. The Hope Island girl, Nellie, was seated in a +boat we carried on deck playing the accordion, and +with her were the rest of the girls laughing and clapping +their hands at the antics of the dancers. The stalwart +Portuguese, Antonio, was perched on the water-tank +with his fiddle, and the rest of the crew who were not +at work getting the cocoa-nuts on board were standing +around encouraging the quartette by shouts and admiring +remarks.</p> + +<p>As the whaling skipper gazed with astonishment at the +sight, Hayston said, "Ay, there you see the Honolulu +native teacher in his true colours. His Christianity is like +ours—no better, no worse—to be put on and off like a +garment. Once give a Sandwich Island missionary a taste +of grog and his true instincts appear in spite of himself. +There is <i>nothing</i> either of those men would not do now for a +dollar; and yet in a day or two they will put on their white +shirts, and begin to preach again to these natives who are +better men than themselves."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>We went below, and after a glass of wine or two the +skipper was about to leave, after promising to sell us some +bolts of canvas, when the Chinese steward announced that +they were fighting on deck. We ran up and saw Antonio +and boy George struggling with knives in their hands. +The Captain caught Antonio a crack on the head, which +sent him down very decisively, and then pitched George +roughly into the boat with the girls, telling them to stop +their infernal din. The two teachers' wives were then +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +placed in old Mary's care below, and told to lie down and +sleep.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The two Pingelap girls who came on board were very +young, and seemed frightened at their surroundings, wailing +and moaning with fear, so Hayston gave them trinkets +and sent them back to the chiefs, getting two immense +turtles in exchange.</p> + +<p>The wind now died away. All night the brig lay drifting +on the glassy sea. At breakfast-time we were almost +alongside of the whaler, and the two crews were exchanging +sailors' courtesies when five or six whales hove in sight.</p> + +<p>All was changed in a moment. Four boats were lowered +as if by magic from the whaler, and the crews were pulling +like demons for the huge prizes.</p> + +<p>The whales were travelling as quickly as the boats, but +towards the ships, and in another quarter of an hour three +of the boats got fast, the fourth boat also, but had to cut +away again.</p> + +<p>Our crew cheered the boats, and as there was no wind for +the vessel to work up to the dead whales which were being +towed up, I took the brig's longboat and six men to help +the boats to get the whales alongside.</p> + +<p>A breeze sprung up at noon, so after bidding good-bye to +the whaler, we stood away for Ponapé, making W.N.W. +We were ten days out from Pingelap before we sighted +Ponapé's cloud-capped peaks. The wind was very light for +the whole way, the brig having barely steerage way on her. +Hayston was anxious to reach the island, for there he expected +to meet his partner, the notorious Captain Ben +Peese.</p> + +<p>Here he told me that if things went well with them they +would make a fortune in a few years; that he had bought +Peese's schooner and sent him to Hong Kong with a load +of oil to sell, arranging to meet him in Jakoits harbour in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +Ponapé on a day named. They were then to proceed to +Providence Island, which was a dense grove of cocoa-nut +trees. He was sanguine of filling two hundred and fifty +casks now in the brig's hold with oil when we reached +there.</p> + +<p>Twenty miles from shore we spoke an American whaleship +from New London. She was "trying out," and signalled +to send a boat. The Captain, taking me with him, +went on board, when we were met by a pleasant, white-haired +old man, Captain Allan.</p> + +<p>His first words were, "Well, Captain Hayston, I have +bad news. Peese has turned against you. He returned to +Ponapé from China a week ago, and cleared out your two +stations of everything of value. He had a big schooner +called the <i>Vittoria</i>, and after gutting the stations, he told +the chiefs at Kiti harbour that you had sent him for the +cattle running there. He took them all away—thirty-six +head."</p> + +<p>The Captain said nothing. Turning away he looked at +the brig, as if in thought, then asked Allan if he knew +where Peese had gone.</p> + +<p>"To Manila; Peese has made friends there, and engaged +with the Governor-General of the Philippines to supply +the garrison with forty head of cattle. I knew the cattle +were yours, and warned the chiefs not to let Peese take +them away. But he threatened them with a visit from a +Spanish man-of-war, and Miller backed him up. He had a +strong party with him to enforce his demands."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Allan!" Hayston said very deliberately +and calmly; "I was half afraid something like this would +happen, but I thought the man I took out of the slums of +Shanghai and helped like a brother was the last person to +have robbed me. It has shown me the folly of trusting +any one. You are busy, Allan! so will leave you."</p> + +<p>Bidding adieu to the good skipper we stepped into our +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +boat. Hayston was silent for ten minutes. Then he put +his hand on my knee, and looking into my face with the +expression I had never seen him wear since he fought the +trader at Drummond Island, said, "Hilary! did you ever +know me to say I would do a thing and not do it?"</p> + +<p>"No! but I have often wished you would <i>not</i> keep your +word so strictly. Some day you will regret it."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so. But listen to me. This man—this Peese—I +found in Shanghai years ago, ill and starving. There +was something in his face which roused my interest; I took +him on board my vessel and treated him as a brother. I +was then high in favour with the Chinese authorities. Not +as I am now—hunted from port to port—forced to take +up this island life and associate with ruffians who would +shoot and rob me if they did not fear me. I went to a +mandarin—a man who knew the stuff I was made of, and +what I had done in the Chinese service—and asked for +preferment for Peese. It was done. In a week he was +put in command of a transport, and with his commission +in his hand he came aboard my ship and swore he would +never forget who it was that had saved him. He spoke +but the bare truth, for I tell you this man was dying—dying +of starvation. Well! it was he who led me afterwards, +by his insidious advice and by collusion with Portuguese +collie merchants, into risky dealings. At first all +went well. We so used our positions in the Imperial service +that we made over fifteen thousand dollars in three +months, exclusive of the money used in bribing Chinese +officials. The end came by and by, when I nearly lost my +head in rescuing Peese from a gunboat in which he lay a +prisoner. Anyhow I lost my rank, and the Viceroy issued +a proclamation in the usual flowing language, depriving me +of all honours previously conferred. We escaped, it is +true, but China was closed to me for ever. Since then I +have stood to Peese faithfully. Now, you see the result. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +He is a d—d clever fellow, and a good sailor, no doubt +of that. But mind me when I say that I'll find him, if I +beggar myself to do it. And when I find him, he dies!"</p> + +<p>I said nothing. He could not well let such treachery +and ingratitude pass, and Peese would deserve his fate. +However, they never met. Peese, like Hayston, appeared +to have his hand against every man, as every man had his +hand against Peese.</p> + +<p>He met his fate after this fashion:—</p> + +<p>A daring act of piracy—seizing a Spanish revenue vessel +under the very guns of a fort—and working her out to +sea with sweeps, outlawed him. Caught at one of his old +haunts in the Pelew Islands, he was heavily ironed and +put on board the cruiser <i>Hernandez Pizarro</i>, for conveyance +to Manila, to await trial.</p> + +<p>One day he begged the officers of the corvette to allow +him on deck as the heat was stifling. He was brought up +and his leg-irons widened so that he could walk. Peese +was always an exceedingly polite man. He thanked the +officers for their courtesy, and begged for a cigar.</p> + +<p>This was given him, and he slowly walked the decks, +dragging his clanking chains, but apparently enjoying the +flavour of his cigar. Standing against a gun, he took a +last look at the blue cloudless sky above him, and then +quietly dropped overboard. The weight of his irons, of +course, sank him "deeper than plummet lies".... So, +and in such manner, was the appropriate and befitting ending +of Benjamin Peese, master mariner—"<i>Requiescat in +pace!</i>"</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h2>CRUISING AMONG THE CAROLINES</h2> + + +<p>Our first port of call at Ponapé was Jakoits harbour. It +was here we were to land some Line Islanders we had +brought from various places in the Gilbert group. Hayston +had brought them to the order of the firm of Johann Guldenstern +and Sons of Hamburg, whose agents and managers +at Ponapé were Messrs. Capelle and Milne. Their trading +stations were at Jakoits Islands, where resided the manager +of the business. The senior partner of the firm—a burly, +bullying Scot—had for some time been carrying on a +rather heated correspondence with Hayston, whom he had +accused of kidnapping the firm's traders. He had not +as yet encountered the Captain, but had told various whaling +skippers and others that if half a dozen good men +would back him up, he would seize Hayston, and keep +him prisoner till H.M. warships <i>Tuscarora</i> or <i>Jamestown</i> +turned up.</p> + +<p>Occasionally Hayston had by letter warned him to beware, +as he was not a man to be trifled with. Talk and +threats are easy when the enemy is distant; so Miller, during +his cruisings in the schooner <i>Matauta</i>, would exhibit to +various traders the particular pistol he intended to use on +Hayston. Representing a powerful firm, he had almost +unlimited influence in Ponapé. Hayston told me that he +believed Peese would never have dared to have looted his +trading stations and taken his cattle if Miller had not sided +with him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +"Now," said the Captain, as we were slowly sailing into +Jakoits, "I'm in a bit of a fix. I must let Miller come +aboard and treat him civilly for a bit, or he will pretend +he knows nothing of this consignment of natives I have for +him. He lies easily, and may declare that he has received +no instructions from Kleber, the manager at Samoa, to +receive these niggers from me, much less pay for them. +But once I have the cash in hand, or his firm's draft, I +mean to bring him up with a round turn."</p> + +<p>We dropped anchor in the lovely harbour, almost underneath +the precipitous Jakoits Islands, on which were the +trading stations. There were five whalers lying at anchor, +having run in according to custom to get wood, water, and +other necessaries. One of these was a brig, the <i>Rameses</i> +of Honolulu. Dismantled and deserted-looking—in a +little secluded cove—she had not a soul on board but the +captain, and he was mad. Of him and his vessel later on.</p> + +<p>A Yankee beach-comber of a pilot, named Joe Kelman, +met us as we came in; not that his services were required, +but evidently for his own gratification, as he was bursting +with news. As he pulled alongside the Captain told me +that he was a creature of Miller's, and a thundering scoundrel +on his own account as well. But he would settle it +with him and his principal also in a few days.</p> + +<p>With a countenance expressive of the deepest sorrow the +beach-comber, as he sent glass after glass of grog down his +throat, told his doleful tale—how Peese had come with +a crew of murdering Spaniards, and played h—l with the +"Capting's" property; stole every hoof of his cattle, but +four which were now running at Kiti harbour; how Capting +Miller had been real cut up at seeing Peese acting so +piratical, and said that though he and Captain Hayston +was sorter enemies, he thought Peese was "blamed downright +ongrateful," etc.</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Joe," answered the Captain with the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +pleasantest laugh, "that's only a stroke of bad luck for me. +I bear Captain Miller no ill will from the letters he has +written me, and for this part—we are both hot-tempered +men, and may have felt ourselves injured by each other's +acts—as he tried to save my property, I shall be glad to +meet him and thank him personally."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's suthinlike," said the beach-comber, "I'd +be real sorry to see two such fine lookin' men shootin' bullets +into each other. Besides, pore Miller's sick. Guess +I'll cut ashore now, Captain. Kin I take any message?"</p> + +<p>Hayston said he would give him a few lines, and, sitting +down, wrote a short but polite note to Miller, stating that +he had a number of labourers for him, which he would be +glad to have inspected and landed. He regretted his illness, +but would come ashore as soon as he (Miller) was well +enough to receive him.</p> + +<p>The beach-comber took the letter and went ashore. Hayston +turned to me with a laugh: "Do you see that? The +gin-drinking scoundrel is playing pilot-fish. He has come +to learn if I suspect anything of the game his master is +playing. Here's a canoe; you'll see I'll get the truth out +of these natives."</p> + +<p>The canoe was paddled by a very old man and a boy. +There were also a lot of young girls. The Captain declined +to entertain visitors at present, there being too much work +to do, and cross-examined the old man as to Miller and his +men. He said there were no white men now at Jakoits; +furthermore, that when the <i>Leonora</i> was sighted, Miller +had gone off to the four whaleships and had a long talk +with the captains. He had taken two guns from the <i>Seabreeze</i>, +and loaded them as soon as he got ashore. The +natives were told there were going to be a big fight; that +Captain Miller had got sixty natives in his house, and the +two guns placed in front of the landing-place. Hayston +gave the old man a present, and suggested that he should +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +dispose of his cargo to one of the whaleships. The old +fellow shook his head sadly, saying he had come too +late.</p> + +<p>Turning to me, the Captain said, "There's news for you; +Miller must have thought I meant to go for him as soon as +we met, and has his people ready to give me a warm reception. +If I had not these Kanakas on board I'd give him +as much fighting as he cares for, and put a firestick in his +station to finish up with." A few minutes later we saw a +boat put off from Jakoits with a big burly man sitting in +the stern. At the same time one of the whalers' boats came +aboard, in which were the four captains. He greeted them +warmly, and we all trooped below.</p> + +<p>One of them, a wizened little man with a wonderful +vocabulary of curses, said, looking at the others: "Well, +gentlemen, before we accept Captain Hayston's hospitality +we ought to tell him that we lent Captain Miller two guns +to sink this brig with."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Hayston, standing at the head of his +table, with his hands resting upon it, "I know all about +that, but you are none the less welcome. Miller will be +here in a few minutes, and I must beg of you not to let +him know that I have been informed of the warm reception +he had prepared for me. Besides, they tell me he is ill."</p> + +<p>"Oh, h—l! Ill! That's curious; he was in powerful +good health an hour or two ago," and the skippers looked +at each other and winked. Presently we returned to the +deck, just as the bluff personage of whom we were talking +clambered up the ship's side and came aft.</p> + +<p>The whaling captains and I watched the meeting with +intense interest. Miller was evidently ill at ease, but +seeing Hayston walking towards him with outstretched +hand and a smile on his face, he made a great effort at self-command, +and shook hands vigorously.</p> + +<p>"Well, we've met at last, Captain Hayston, and ye see +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +I'm no feared to come aboard and speak up till ye like a +man."</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," replied Hayston, grasping his hand with +a prolonged shake, "I was just telling these gentlemen how +I regretted to hear of your illness, for, although we have +carried on such a paper warfare, I'm convinced that we +only need to meet to become good friends."</p> + +<p>Here one of the American captains came up, and, looking +the new-comer straight in the face, said, "Well, I <i>am</i> +surprised at meeting you here. Reckon you can sick and +well quicker'n any man I ever come across."</p> + +<p>No notice was taken by Miller of this and other sarcastic +remarks while he hurried on his business with Hayston. +Much grog was drunk, and then the Captain passed the +word for all hands to muster on deck—the crew to starboard, +the Kanaka passengers on the port side.</p> + +<p>The "labour" was then inspected, and passed by their +new proprietor, who, now very jovial and unsteady on his +pins, took them on shore without delay. He returned +shortly and paid for them in cash. Next morning several +traders came on board, and any amount of beach-combers, +for Ponapé is their paradise. Mr. Miller came with an +invitation to visit him on shore. Having business to +attend to I stayed on board, promising to follow later on. +As Hayston was leaving the brig, Miller said, in presence +of the traders,—</p> + +<p>"Eh, Captain Hayston, but ye're no siccan a terrible +crater as they mak' ye oot. Man, I hae my doots if ye +could pommel me so sevairly as ye've inseenuated."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Miller," said the Captain, stopping dead, and taking +him by the shoulder, "you are now on board my ship, +and I will say nothing further than that if you have any +doubt on the subject I am perfectly willing, as soon as we +reach your station, to convince you that you are mistaken."</p> + +<p>The traders, who had hitherto backed up their colleague, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +applauded loudly, evidently expecting Miller to take up +the challenge. He, however, preferred to treat it as a joke. +I knew that the Captain was labouring under suppressed +wrath because he was so cool and polite. I knew, by the +ring in his voice, that he meant mischief, and at any +moment looked to see the hot blood surging to his brow, +and his fierce nature assert itself.</p> + +<p>About an hour later the mate of one of the whaleships +came on board to have dinner with me, and told me that +Hayston had given Miller a terrible thrashing in his own +house, in the presence of his backers and the American +captains. It seems that Hayston led the conversation up +to Captain Peese's recent visit, and then suddenly asked +Miller if he had not told the natives that Captain Peese +must take the cattle, and that he (Hayston) dared not show +up in Ponapé again, or else he would long since have appeared +on the scene.</p> + +<p>Possibly Miller thought his only chance was to brazen it +out, for, though he had a following of the lowest roughs +and beach-combers, who were at that moment loafing about +his house and grounds, and Hayston was unarmed, he +could see by the coolness of the American captains that he +could not count on their support. At last he said, with a +forced laugh,—</p> + +<p>"Come, let us have nae mair fule's talk. We can be +good friends pairsonally, if we would fain cut each other's +throats in business. I'll make no secret of it, I did say so, +and thocht I was playing a good joke on ye."</p> + +<p>"So that's your idea of a joke, is it," said Hayston, +grimly, "but now I must have mine, and as it takes a +surgical operation to get one into a Scotchman's brain, I'll +begin at once."</p> + +<p>He gave Miller a fearful knocking about there and then. +The captains picked him up senseless, with a head considerably +altered for the worse. After which Hayston washed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +his hands, and went on board one of the whaleships to +dinner.</p> + +<p>He then sent for the chiefs of the various districts, telling +them to meet him at Miller and Lapelle's station on a +certain day and hour. When they were all assembled, he +induced Miller to say that he sincerely regretted having +told them such lies, as he knew the cattle did belong to +Captain Hayston. Finally they shook hands, and swore to +be friends in future; Hayston, in a tone of solicitude, +informing him that he would send him some arnica, as his +head appeared very bad still. The parting scene must have +been truly ludicrous. Shaking him warmly by the hand, +Hayston said, "Good-bye, old fellow; we've settled our little +difficulty, and will be better friends in future. If I've +lost cattle, I've gained a friend." Begging the favour of a +kiss from the women present he then departed, full of +honours and dignities; and in another hour we were sailing +round the coast to Metalauia harbour.</p> + +<p>Here we bought a quantity of hawkbill turtle shell. +While it was being got on board, the Captain and I spent +two days on shore exploring the mysterious ruins and +ancient fortifications which render the island so deeply +interesting; wonderful in size, Cyclopean in structure. +It is a long-buried secret by whom and for what purpose +they were erected. None remain to tell. "Their memorial +is perished with them."</p> + +<p>In one of the smaller islands on which those ruins are +situated, Hayston told me that a Captain Williams, in +1836, had found over £10,000 worth of treasure. He himself +believed that there were rich deposits in other localities +not far distant.</p> + +<p>To this end we explored a series of deathly cold dungeons, +but found nothing except a heavy disc of a metal +resembling copper several feet under ground.</p> + +<p>This was lying with its face to the stone wall of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +subterranean chamber—had lain there probably for centuries.</p> + +<p>Its weight was nearly that of fifty pounds. It had three +holes in the centre. We could form no idea as to its probable +use or meaning. I was unwilling to part with it, however, +and taking it on board, put it in my cabin.</p> + +<p>While we were at Metalauia, Joe Keogh came on board, +bringing with him three native girls from the Andema +group, a cluster of large coral islands near the mainland, +belonging to the three chiefs of the Kité district. He +had gone forward, when the Captain saw him and called +him aft.</p> + +<p>He at once accused Joe of being treacherous, telling him +that the whaling captains had given him a written statement +to the effect that he had taken a letter from Miller +to the Mortlock group, where an American cruiser was +surveying, asking the captain if he would take Hayston to +California, as he (Miller) and Keogh would engage to entice +him ashore and capture him if the cruiser was close at hand.</p> + +<p>Not being able to deny the charge, Keogh was badly +beaten, and sent away without the girls, who were taken +aft. Like the Ponapé natives, they were very light-coloured, +wearing a quantity of feather head-dress and other +native finery. They agreed to remain on board during the +cruise through the Caroline group, and were then to be +landed at their own islands.</p> + +<p>They were then sent to keep the steward company in the +cabin, and put to making hats and mats, in which they +excelled. At Kité harbour we took on board the bull and +three cows which Peese had not succeeded in catching. On +returning to Jakoits harbour in a fortnight's time, I was +told that I might take up my quarters on shore, while the +cabin was redecorated. I therefore got a canoe and two +natives, with which I amused myself with visiting the +native village and pigeon-shooting.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +One day I fell across a deserted whaling brig. Her crew +had run away, and the ship having contracted debts, was +seized by Miller and Lapelle. The captain alone was left. +He was now ship-keeper, and his troubles had so preyed +on his mind that he had become insane.</p> + +<p>I watched him. It was a strange and weird spectacle; +there lay the vessel, silent, solitary—"a painted ship upon +a painted ocean."</p> + +<p>Her brooding inmate would sometimes pace the deck for +hours with his arms folded; then would throw himself +into a cane lounge, and fixing his eyes upon the sky, mutter +and talk to himself.</p> + +<p>At other times he would imagine that the ship was surrounded +by whales, and rush wildly about the decks, calling +on the officers to lower the boats. Not succeeding, he +would in despair peer down the dark, deserted foc'sle, begging +the crew to be men, and get out the boats.</p> + +<p>We cruised now for some weeks to and fro among the +lovely islands of the Caroline group, trading in turtle shell, +of which we bought great quantities. What a halcyon time +it was! There was a luxurious sense of dreamy repose, +which seemed unreal from its very completeness.</p> + +<p>The gliding barque, the summer sea, the lulling breeze, +the careless, joyous children of nature among whom we +lived,—all were fairy-like in combination.</p> + +<p>When one thought of the hard and anxious toilers of +civilisation, from whom we had come out, I could fancy +that we had reached the lotus-land of the ancients, and +could well imagine a fixed unwillingness to return to a less +idyllic life. Hayston was apparently in no hurry.</p> + +<p>At any particular island that pleased him he would lie at +anchor for days. Then we would explore the wondrous +woods, and have glorious shooting trips on shore.</p> + +<p>We met some truly strange and original characters in +these waters—white men as well as natives. The former, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +often men of birth and culture, were completely lost to the +world, to their former friends and kinsfolk.</p> + +<p>Return? not they! Why should they go back? Here they +had all things which are wont to satisfy man here below. +A paradise of Eden-like beauty, amid which they wandered +day by day all unheeding of the morrow; food, houses, +honours, wives, friends, kinsfolk, all provided for them in +unstinted abundance, and certain continuity, by the guileless +denizens of these fairy isles amid this charmed main. +Why—why, indeed, should they leave the land of magical +delights for the cold climate and still more glacial moral +atmosphere of their native land, miscalled home?</p> + +<p>Then, perhaps, in the former life beyond these crystal +seas—where the boom of the surf upon the reef is not +heard, and the whispering palm leaves never talk at midnight—some +imprudence, some mistake at cards may have +occurred, who knows! These things happen so easily.</p> + +<p>The temptation of a moment—a lack of resolve at the +fateful crisis—and they are so deadly difficult of reparation. +Difficult—nay impossible.</p> + +<p>Where, then, can mortal find such an asylum for weary +body and restless soul as this land of Lethe? Where life is +one long dream of bliss, and where death comes as a lingering +friend rather than a swift executioner.</p> + +<p>It added materially to my enjoyment of the whole adventure, +that wherever we went we were always honoured +personages, favoured guests. Everywhere the people had +the greatest admiration for Hayston's personal qualities—his +strength, his fearlessness, his prompt determination in +the face of danger and difficulty. That his word was +invariably law to them was fully evident.</p> + +<p>One day, however, as a kind of drawback to all these +satisfactions, I suddenly noticed that the girl Terau, who +had been given to boy George, appeared to be very ill, if +not dying. That young savage had obtained permission +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +from the Captain to keep her on board, although she was +most anxious to get ashore at Ponapé.</p> + +<p>She would often get into one of the boats and sit there all +day—sad and silent—knitting a head-dress from the fibres +of the banana plant. Not being able to talk to her myself, +I got a native of Ocean Island, whose dialect resembled her +own, to ask her if she was ill.</p> + +<p>The girl made no answer. She covered her face with her +hands. I then saw that every movement of her body gave +her pain. At length she murmured something to the Ocean +islander, slowly took from her shoulders the mat which +covered them, and looking at me, said, "Teorti fra mati +Terau" (George has nearly killed Terau). I was horrified +to see that the poor girl's back was cut and swelled dreadfully. +Her side, also, she said, was very bad, and it hurt +her to breathe.</p> + +<p>We lifted her carefully out of the boat, and carried her +between us to the skylight, where we placed her in a comfortable +position.</p> + +<p>I found the Captain lying down, and asked him to come +on deck, where, lifting the mat from the girl's bruised +shoulders, I showed him the terrible state she was in.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to allow such brutality to be practised on +a poor girl? Why, I believe she is dying!"</p> + +<p>He said nothing, except "Come below." Sitting down at +the table, he said, "I will not punish that boy. But I +would be glad if you will see him, and induce him to treat +the girl kindly."</p> + +<p>I called George, who was in the deck-house playing cards, +and asked him what he would take for Terau.</p> + +<p>The lad thought for a moment, and asked me if the Captain +had told me to come to him about her?</p> + +<p>I said, "Yes! he had." But that I wanted him either to +give or sell me the girl, adding that he had better be quick +about it, as Terau seemed sinking fast.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +"Oh! if that is so, you give me what you like for her. +Don't want no dead girls 'bout me."</p> + +<p>I called up three of the crew as witnesses, whereupon +George sold me the victim of his brutality for ten dollars +and a German concertina.</p> + +<p>"Now, George," I said, "I am going to put Terau ashore, +and if you touch her again, or even speak to her, I'll knock +your infernal soul out of your black body."</p> + +<p>He grinned, and replied that he was only too glad to get +rid of her; and returning into the deck-house, began at once +to play on the concertina.</p> + +<p>A few days after this transaction we touched at Ngatik +or Los Valientes Island, and I was pleased to find here a +trader whose wife was a native of Pleasant Island.</p> + +<p>I asked them if they would like to have Terau to live +with them, and the wife at once expressed her willingness +as well as joy at seeing one of her own countrywomen.</p> + +<p>Returning on board, I inquired of Terau if she would not +like to go ashore and live with these people, who would +treat her kindly. During my ownership she had regained +her strength in great degree, Nellie having agreed to attend +on her, and the Chinese steward saw that she had nourishing +food.</p> + +<p>She preferred to go ashore, being still afraid of George's +ill-treatment; I did not tell her of the trader's wife being +a countrywoman, trusting it would prove a joyful surprise. +I was not mistaken. The two women rushed into each +other's arms, and wept in their impulsive fashion. I felt +certain that here poor Terau would receive kind treatment.</p> + +<p>Before returning on board the trader told me that Terau +had related her story to them, and that the Ngatik women, +who were in the house, told her to make the white man who +had been so kind to her "the present of poverty." This +ceremonial consisted in her cutting off her hair close to the +head, and, together with an empty cocoa-nut shell and a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +small fish, offering it to me. The trader said this was to +express her gratitude—the empty shell and small fish +signifying poverty, while the gift of hair denoted that she +was a bondswoman to me for life.</p> + +<p>I felt sorry that the poor child should have cut off her +beautiful hair, which was tied round the centre with a band +of pandanus leaf, and put in my hand; but I felt a glow of +pleasure at being able to place her with people who would +be good to her; and thanking her for the gift, to which she +added a thick plate of turtle shell, I said farewell, and +returned to the brig.</p> + +<p>The Captain called me below, and shook my hand.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad," he said, "that poor girl has left the ship; +but I must repay you the money you gave George for her."</p> + +<p>This I refused to take. I felt well repaid by the unmistakable +gratitude Terau had evinced towards me from the +moment the Ocean islander and I had carried her pain-racked +form below.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2>POISONED ARROWS</h2> + + +<p>The weather had changed, and been cloudy and dull for +several days. We were all rather in the doldrums too. +We had been bearing eastward on the line. Suddenly Hayston +said, "Suppose we put in at Santa Cruz. We want +the water casks filled. I'm not very fond of the island, for +all its name. Sacred names and bloodshed often go together +with Spaniards. However, I know the harbour well, and +the yams are first-rate." So at daylight we bore up, at +eight bells we entered the heads with both anchors bent +to the chains, and at noon were beating up the harbour. +By two o'clock we cast anchor in thirty fathoms. Out +came the canoes, and we soon began trading with the +natives.</p> + +<p>We kept pretty strict watch, however. The men, to my +fancy, had a sullen expression, and the women, though not +bad-looking, seemed as if it cost them an effort to look +pleasant.</p> + +<p>Our girls wouldn't have anything to say to them. Hope +Island Nellie, in particular, said she'd like to shoot half of +them; that they'd killed a cousin of hers, who was only +scratched with a poisoned arrow, and that it was one of the +Captain's mad tricks to go there at all.</p> + +<p>However, Hayston, as usual, was spurred on by opposition +to have his own way, and to do even more than he +originally intended. He told me afterwards that he only +wanted to get some yams in the harbour, and that the water +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +would have held out longer—until we got to a known safe +island.</p> + +<p>So on Sunday we sent two boats on shore, and got the +casks filled with water immediately. Our provisions were +taken out and examined. Trading with the natives went +on merrily.</p> + +<p>On Monday the weather was fine. We got a couple of +rafts out with water, and laid in yams enough to last for +the rest of our cruise. Hayston laughed, and said there +was nothing like showing natives that you were not afraid +of them. "Eh, Nellie? What you think now?"</p> + +<p>"Think Captain big fool," said Nellie, who was in a bad +temper that morning. "Ha! you see boat crew; by God! +man wounded—I see them carry him along."</p> + +<p>Sure enough, we could see the two boats' crews coming +down to the beach. They were carrying one man, while +two supported another, who seemed hardly able to walk. +"Get out the boats!" roared Hayston. "I'll teach the +scoundrels to touch a crew of mine."</p> + +<p>All was now bustle and commotion. Every man on the +ship that could be spared, and Hope Island Nellie to boot, +who had begged to be allowed to go with the attacking +party, and whose ruffled temper was restored to equanimity +by the chance of having a shot at her foes, and avenging +her cousin's death. We left a boat's crew watch, and made +for the shore, Nellie sitting in the bow of the Captain's +boat with a Winchester rifle across her knees, and her eyes +sparkling with a light I had never seen in a woman's face +before. It was the light of battle come down through the +veins of chiefs and warriors of her people for centuries +uncounted.</p> + +<p>We left a couple of men in each boat, telling them to +keep on and off until we returned; the wounded men were +carefully laid on mats in one of their own boats; and forth +we went—a light-hearted storming party, and attacked the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +town of the treacherous devils. Hayston was in a frightful +rage, cursing himself one moment for relaxing his usual +caution, and devoting the Santa Cruz natives in the next +to all the fiends of hell for their infernal causeless treachery. +He raged up again and again to the cluster of huts, thickly +built together with palisades here and there, which made excellent +cover for shooting from, backed up by the green wall +of the primeval forest. I could not but admire him as he +stood there—grand, colossal, fearless, as though he bore a +charmed life, while the deadly quivering arrows flew thick, +and more than one man was hit severely. Only that our fire +was quick and deadly with the terrible Winchester repeaters, +and that the savages—bold at first—were mowed down +so quickly that they had to retreat to a distance which rendered +their arrows powerless, we should have had a muster +roll with gaps in it of some seriousness. Hayston was a +splendid rifle shot, and for quick loading and firing had few +equals. Every native that showed himself within range +went down ere he could fit an arrow to his bowstring. +And there was Hope Island Nellie by his side, firing nearly +as fast, and laughing like a child at play whenever one of +her shots told.</p> + +<p>Then the arrows grew fewer. Just before they ceased I +had fired at a tall native who had been conspicuous through +the fight. He fell on his face. Nellie gave a shout, and +loaded her own rifle on the chance of another shot, straining +her bright and eager eyes to see if another lurking form +was near enough for danger. Well for me was it that she +did so! Staggering to his feet, a wounded native fitted an +arrow to his bow, and sent it straight for my breast before I +could raise my gun to my shoulder. Nellie made a snap +shot at him, and, either from exhaustion or the effect of her +bullet, he fell prone and motionless.</p> + +<p>I felt a scratch on my arm—bare to the shoulder—as if +a forest twig had raised the skin. "Look!" said Nellie, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +and her face changed. As she spoke, she passed her finger +over the place, and showed it bloodstained. "The crawling +brute's arrow hit you there. Let me suck the poison. If +you don't"—as I made a gesture of dissent—"you die, +twel' days."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool!" said Hayston. "You're a dead man +if you don't. As it is, you must run your chance. Some +of these fellows will lose the number of their mess, I'm +sorry to say."</p> + +<p>So the girl, who had been but the moment before thirsting +for blood, and firing into the mob of half-frightened, +yet ferocious savages, pressed her soft lips on my arm, like +a young mother soothing a babe, and with all womanly +tenderness bound up the injured place, which had now +begun to smart, and, to my excited imagination, commenced +to throb from wrist to shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Strange child, isn't she?" laughed Hayston. "If she'd +only been born white, and been to boarding-school down +east, what a sensation she'd have created in a ball-room!"</p> + +<p>"Better as she is, perhaps," said I. "She has lived her +life with few limitations, and enjoyed most of it."</p> + +<p>The excited crew rushed in and finished every wounded +man in a position to show fight. Nellie did not join in +this, but stood leaning on her rifle—<i>la belle sauvage</i>, if ever +there was one—brave, beautiful, with a new expression +like that of a roused lioness on her parted lips and blazing +eyes.</p> + +<p>As for Hayston, he was a fatalist by constitution and +theory. "A man must die when his time comes," he had +often said to me. "Until the hour of fate he cannot die. +Why, then, should he waste his emotions by giving way to +the meanest of all attributes—personal fear?"</p> + +<p>He had none, at any rate. He would have walked up to +the block without haste or reluctance, had beheading been +the fashionable mode of execution in his day, chaffed his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +executioner, and with a bow and a smile for the handsomest +woman among the spectators, quitted with easy +grace a world which had afforded him a fair share of its +rarest possessions.</p> + +<p>By his order the town was fired and quickly reduced to +ashes, thus destroying a number of articles—mats, utensils, +wearing apparel, weapons, etc.—which, requiring, as +they do, considerable skill and expenditure of time, are +regarded as valuable effects by all savages.</p> + +<p>The attack had been early in the day. We cut down as +many cocoa-nut trees as we could, and finally departed for +the ship, towing out with us a small fleet of canoes, to be +broken up when we got to the brig. The sick men were +sent below, and such remedies as we knew of were applied. +They were—all but one—silent and downhearted. They +knew by experience the sure and deadly effect of the +poison manufactured among the Line Islands. Subtle and +penetrating! But little hope of recovery remains.</p> + +<p>About four o'clock next morning we began to heave at +the windlass, and got under weigh at eight. The wind was +light and variable, and our progress slow. As we got +abreast of the hostile village we gave them a broadside. +But the sullen devils of Santa Cruz were not cowed yet. +A second fleet of canoes swarmed around the ship. They +made signals of submission and a desire to trade, but when +they got near enough sent a cloud of arrows at the ship, +many of which stuck quivering in the masts, though luckily +no one was hit. Their yells and screams of wrath were like +the tumult of a hive of demons. We were luckily well +prepared, and we let them have the carronades over and +over again, sinking a dozen of their canoes, and doing good +execution among the crews when their black heads popped +up like corks as they swam for the nearest canoes. While +this took place we unbent the starboard chain, stowed it +and the anchor, and clearing the heads, bade adieu to the +inhospitable isle.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +On the next day all hands were engaged in cleaning our +armoury, which it certainly appeared necessary to keep in +good order. Hope Island Nellie polished her Winchester +rifle till it shone again, besides showing an acquaintance +with the machinery of the lock and repeating gear was +nothing new to her.</p> + +<p>"You ought to make a notch in the stock for every man +you kill, Nellie," said Hayston, as we were lying on the +deck in the afternoon, while the <i>Leonora</i> was gliding on +her course like the fair ocean bird that she was.</p> + +<p>Nellie frowned. "No like that talk," she answered. +"Might have to put 'nother notch yet for Nellie—who +knows?"</p> + +<p>"Who knows, indeed, Nellie?" answered the Captain. +"None of us can foresee our fate," he added with a tinge +of sadness, which so often mingled with his apparently +most careless moments. "We don't even know who's going +to die from those arrow scratches yet."</p> + +<p>Here the girl looked over at me. "How you feel, +Hil'ree?" she said, as her voice softened and lost its +jesting tone.</p> + +<p>"Feel good," I said, "think getting better."</p> + +<p>"You no know," she answered gravely. "You wait." +And she began to count. She went over the fingers of her +small, delicately-formed left hand,—wonderful in shape +are the hands and feet of some of these Island girls,—and +after counting from little finger to thumb <i>twice</i>, touched +the two first fingers, and looked up. "How many?" she +asked.</p> + +<p>"Twelve," I said; I had followed the counts with care, +you may be sure.</p> + +<p>"Twel' day, you see," she said; "perhaps you all right—perhaps"—and +here she gave a faint but accurate limitation +of the dreadful shudder which precedes the unspeakable +agonies of tetanus.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +"Nellie's right," said Hayston; "keep up your spirits, +for you won't know till then whether you're to go to sleep +in your hammock in blue water or not."</p> + +<p>This was a cheerful prospect, but I had come through +many perils, and missed the grim veteran by so many close +shaves, that I had grown to be something of a fatalist like +Hayston.</p> + +<p>"Well! if I go under it won't be your fault, Nellie! So, +Captain, remember I make over to her all the stuff in my +trade chest. Send any letters and papers to the address +you know in Sydney, and a bank draft for what you will +find in the dollar bag. Nellie will have some good dresses +anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Dress be hanged!" quoth Nellie, who was emphatic in +her language sometimes. "You go home to mother yet;" +and she arose and left hurriedly. Poor Nellie!</p> + +<p>In that day when we and others who have sinned, after +fullest knowledge of good and evil "know the right and yet +the wrong pursue," shall be arraigned for deeds done in the +flesh, will the same doom be meted out to this frank, untaught +child of Nature and her sisters? I trow not. I +must say that for a day or two before the fated twelfth +which Nellie so stoutly insisted upon, I felt slightly anxious. +What an end to all one's hopes, longings, and glorious +imaginings, to be racked with tortures indescribable +before dying like a poisoned hound, all because of the +instinctive, senseless act of a stupid savage!</p> + +<p>To die young, too, with the world but opening before +me! Life with its thousand possibilities just unrolled! +One's friends, too,—the weeping mother and sisters, whose +grief would never wholly abate this side of time; the old +man's fixed expression of sorrow. These thoughts passed +through my brain, with others arising from and mingled +with them, as I left my hammock early on the twelfth day. +I dressed quickly, and going on deck, that daily miracle +occurred—"the glorious sun uprist."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +The dawnlight now began to infuse the pearly rim, which, +imperceptibly separating from the azure grey horizon, +deepened as it touched the edge of the vast ocean plain. +Faintly glimmering, how magically it transformed from a +dim, neutral-tinted waste to an opaline clarity of hue—a +fuller crimson. Then the wondrous golden globe heaved +itself over the edge of our water-world all silently, and the +day, the 19th of October, began its course.</p> + +<p>Should I live to see its close?</p> + +<p>How strange if all this time the subtle poison should +have lurked in one's veins until the exact moment, when, +like a modern engine of devilry—an infernal machine with +a clock and apparatus—set to strike and detonate at a +given and calculated hour, the death-stroke should sound!</p> + +<p>We had breakfasted, and were lying on the deck chatting +and reading, as the <i>Leonora</i> glided over the heaving bosom +of the main—the sun shining—the seabirds sailing +athwart our course with outstretched, moveless wings—the +sparkling waters reflecting a thousand prismatic colours, +as the brig swiftly sped along her course—all nature gaily +bright, joyous, and unheeding. Suddenly one of the +wounded men, Henry Stephens by name, raised himself +from his mat with a cry so wild and unearthly that half +the crew and people started to their feet.</p> + +<p>"My God!" he exclaimed, as he sank down again upon +his mat, "I'm a dead man—those infernal arrows."</p> + +<p>"Poor Harry!" said Nellie, who by this time was bending +over him, "don't give in—by and by better—you get +down to bunk. Carry him down, you boys!"</p> + +<p>Two of the crew lifted the poor fellow, who even as they +raised him had another fearful paroxysm, drawing his +frame together almost double, so that the men could scarcely +retain their hold.</p> + +<p>"Carry him gently, boys!" said Hayston; "go to the steward +for some brandy and laudanum, that will ease the pain."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +"And is there no cure—no means of stopping this awful +agony?"</p> + +<p>"Not when tetanus once sets in," said Hayston; "it's +not the first case I've seen."</p> + +<p>The other man was quite a young fellow, and famed +among us for his entire want of fear upon each and every +occasion. He laughed and joked the whole time of the fight +with the Santa Cruz islanders, said that every bullet had +its billet, and that his time had not come. "He believed," +he said, "also that half the talk about death by poisoned +arrows was fancy. Men got nervous, and frightened themselves +to death." He was not one of that sort anyhow. He +had laughed and joked with both of us, and even now, when +poor Harry Stephens was carried below, and we could hear +his cries as the increasing torture of the paroxysms overcame +his courage and self-control, he joked still.</p> + +<p>The day was a sad one. Still the brig glided on through +the azure waveless deep—still the tropic birds hung +motionless above us—still the breeze whispered through +our swelling sails, until the soft, brief twilight of the +tropic eve stole upon us, and the stars trembled one by one +in the dusky azure, so soon to be "thick inlaid with patines +of bright gold."</p> + +<p>"Reckon I've euchred the bloodthirsty niggers this +time," said Dick, with a careless laugh, lighting his pipe +as he spoke. "This is 'Twelfth night.' That's the end of +the time the cussed poison takes to ripen, isn't it, Nellie?" +he laughed. "It regular puts me in mind of old Christmas +days in England, and us schoolboys counting the days after +the New Year! What a jolly time it was! Won't I be +glad to see the snow, and the bare hedges, and the holly +berries, and the village church again? Dashed if I don't +stay there next time I get a chance, and cut this darned +slaving, privateering life. I'll—oh! my God—ah—a—h!"</p> + +<p>His voice, in spite of all his efforts, rose from a startled +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +cry to a long piercing shriek, such as it curdled our blood +to hear.</p> + +<p>Hayston came up from the cabin, followed by Nellie and +the other girls. All crowded round him in silence. They +knew well at the first cry he was a doomed man.</p> + +<p>"Carry him down, lads!" he said, as he laid his hand +on his forehead and passed it quietly over his clustering +hair—"poor Dick! poor fellow!" At this moment another +frightful spasm shook the seaman's frame, and scarcely +could the men who had lifted him from the deck on which +he had been lying control his tortured limbs. As they +reached the lower deck another terrible cry reached our +ears, while the continuous groaning of the poor fellow first +attacked made a ghastly and awful accompaniment to the +screams of the latest victim.</p> + +<p>As for me, I walked forward and sat as near as I could +get to the <i>Leonora's</i> bows, where I lit my pipe and awaited +the moment in which only too probably my own summons +would come in a like pang of excruciating agony. The +gleaming phosphorescent wavelets of that calm sea fell in +broken fire from the vessel's side, while the hissing, splashing +sound deadened the recurring shrieks of the doomed +sufferers, and soothed my excited nerves.</p> + +<p>Now that death was so near, in such a truly awful shape, +I began seriously to reflect upon the imprudence, nay, more, +the inexcusable folly of continuing a life exposed to such +terrible hazards.</p> + +<p>If my life was spared I would resolve, like poor Dick, +to stay at home in future. The resolution might avail me +as little as it had done in his case.</p> + +<p>As I sat hour after hour gazing into the endless shadow +and gleam of the great deep, a strange feeling of peace and +resignation seemed to pass suddenly over my troubled +spirit. I felt almost tempted to plunge beneath the calm +bosom of the main, and so end for aye the doubt, the fear, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +the rapture, and despair of this mysterious human life. +All suddenly the moon rose, sending before her a brilliant +pathway, adown which, in my excited imagination, angels +might glide, bearing messages of pardon or reprieve. A +distinct sensation of hope arose in my mind. A dark form +glided to my side, and seated itself on the rail.</p> + +<p>"You hear eight bell?" she said. "Listen now, you all +right—no more poison—he go away." She held my hand—the +pulse was steady and regular. In spite of my efforts +at calmness and self-control, I was sensible of a strange +exaltation of spirit. The heaven above, the sea below, +seemed animate with messengers of pardon and peace. +Even poor Nellie, the untaught child of a lonely isle, +"placed far amid the melancholy main," seemed transformed +into a celestial visitant, and her large, dark eyes +glowed in the light of the mystic moon rays.</p> + +<p>"You well, man Hil'ree!" she said in the foc'sle vernacular. +"No more go maté. Nellie so much glad," and +here her soft low tones were so instinct with deepest human +feeling that I took her in my arms and folded her in a warm +embrace.</p> + +<p>"How's poor Dick?" I asked, as we walked aft to where +Hayston and the rest of the cabin party were seated.</p> + +<p>"Poor Dick dead!" she said; "just die before me come +up."</p> + +<p>The people we had brought for the big firm, mostly Line +Island natives, were quiet and easily controlled. Hayston +now and then executed orders of this sort, though he would +have scorned the idea of turning the <i>Leonora</i> into a labour +vessel. He was naturally too humane to permit any ill-treatment +of the recruits, and having his crew under full +control, always made matters as pleasant for these dark-skinned +"passengers" as possible.</p> + +<p>But there were voyages of very different kind,—voyages +when the recruiting agents were thoroughly unscrupulous, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +caring only for the numbers—by fair means or foul—to +be made up. Sometimes dark deeds were done. Blood +was shed like water; partly from the fierce, intractable +nature of the islanders—sometimes in pure self-defence. +But "strange things happen at sea." One labour cruise of +which Hayston told me—he heard it from an English +trader who saw the affair—was much of that complexion. +We had plenty of time for telling stories in the long calm +days which sometimes ran into weeks. And this was one +of them.</p> + +<p>One day a white painted schooner, with gaff-headed +mainsail, and flying the German flag, anchored off Kabakada, +a populous village on the north coast of New Britain. +She was on a labour cruise for the German plantations in +Samoa.</p> + +<p>Not being able to secure her full complement of "boys" +in the New Hebrides and Solomon groups, she had come +northward to fill up with recruits from the naked savages +of the northern coast of New Britain.</p> + +<p>In those days the German flag had not been formally +hoisted over New Britain and New Ireland, and apart from +the German trading station at Matupi in Blanche Bay, +which faces the scarred and blackened sides of a smouldering +volcano springing abruptly from the deep waters of the +bay, the trading stations were few and far between.</p> + +<p>At Kabakada, where the vessel had anchored, there were +two traders. One was a noisy, vociferous German, who +had once kept a liquor saloon in Honolulu, but, moved by +tales of easily accumulated wealth in New Britain, he had +sold his business, and settled at his present location among +a horde of the most treacherous natives in the South Seas. +His rude good nature had been his safety; for although, +through ignorance of the native character, he was continually +placing his life in danger, he was quick to make +amends, and being of a generous disposition and a man of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +means, enjoyed a prestige among the natives possessed by +no other white man.</p> + +<p>His colleague—or rather his opponent, for they traded +for opposition firms—was a small, dark Frenchman, an +ex-bugler of the Chasseurs d'Afrique, who had spent some +years of enforced retirement at New Caledonia. His advent +to New Britain had been made in the most private +manner, and his reminiscences of the voyage from the convict +colony with his four companions were not of a cheerful +nature.</p> + +<p>Ten miles away, at the head of a narrow bay that split +the forest-clad mountains like a Norwegian fiord, lived +another trader, an English seaman. He had been on the +island about two years, and was well-nigh sickened of it. +Frequently recurring attacks of the deadly malarial fever +had weakened and depressed him, and he longed to return +to the open, breezy islands of eastern Polynesia, where he +had no need to start from his sleep at night, and, rifle in +hand, peer out into the darkness at the slightest noise.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The labour schooner anchored about a mile from the +German trader's house, and about two hours afterwards the +boat of the Englishman was seen pulling round Cape Luen, +and making for Charlie's station. This was because all +three traders, being on friendly terms, it would have been +considered "playing it low down" for any one of them to +have boarded the schooner alone.</p> + +<p>The day was swelteringly hot, and the sea between the +gloomy outlines of Mau Island and the long, curving, palm-shaded +beaches of New Britain shore was throwing off great +clouds of hot, steamy mist. As the Englishman's boat was +about half-way between the steep-wooded point of Cape +Luen and Kabakada, she altered her course and ran into +the beach, where, surrounded by a cluster of native huts, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +was the station of Pierre. This was to save the little +Frenchman the trouble of launching his clumsy boat. +Pierre, dressed in white pyjamas, with a heavy Lefaucheux +revolver in his belt and a Snider rifle in his hand, came +out of his house. Addressing his two wives in emphatic +language, and warning them to fire off guns if anything +happened during his absence on board the schooner, he +swaggered down the beach and into the boat.</p> + +<p>"How are you, Pierre?" said the Englishman, languidly. +"I knew you and Hans Muller would expect me to board +the schooner with you, or else I wouldn't have come. Curse +the place, the people, the climate, and everything!"</p> + +<p>The little Frenchman grinned, "Yes, it ees ver' hot; but +nevare mind. Ven ve get to de 'ouse of de German we +shall drink some gin and feel bettare. Last veek he buy +four case of gin from a valeship, and now le bon Dieu send +this schooner, from vich we shall get more."</p> + +<p>"What a drunken little beast you are!" said the Englishman, +sourly. "But after all, I suppose you enjoy life more +than I do. I'd drink gin like water if I thought it would +kill me quick enough."</p> + +<p>"My friend, it is but the fevare that now talks in you. +See me! I am happy. I drink, I smoke, I laugh. I have +two wife to make my café and look aftare my house. Some +day I walk in the bush, then, whouff, a spear go through +me, and my two wife will weep ven they see me cut up for +<i>rosbif</i>, and perhaps eat a piece themselves."</p> + +<p>The Englishman laughed. The picture Pierre drew was +likely to be a true one in one respect. Not a mile from +the spot where the boat was at that moment were the +graves of a trading captain, his mate, and two seamen, who +had been slaughtered by the natives under circumstances of +the most abominable treachery. And right before them, +on the white beach of Mau Island, a whaler's boat's crew +had been speared while filling their water casks, the natives +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +who surrounded them appearing to be animated by the +greatest friendliness.</p> + +<p>Such incidents were common enough in those days among +the islands to the westward of New Guinea, and the people +of New Britain were no worse than those of other islands. +They were simply treacherous, cowardly savages, and though +occasionally indulging in cannibalistic feasts upon the +bodies of people of their own race, they never killed white +men for that purpose. Many a white man has been speared +or shot there, but their bodies were spared that atrocity—so +in that respect Pierre did his young wives an injustice. +They would, if occasion needed it, readily poison him, or +steal his cartridges and leave him to be slaughtered without +the chance of making resistance, but they wouldn't eat him.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>"It's the <i>Samoa</i>," said the German, as he shook hands +with us. "And the skipper is a d—d Dutchman, but a +good sort" (having once sailed in a Yankee timber ship, +trading between Sydney and the Pacific slope, Hans was +now an American), "and as soon as it gets a bit cool, we'll +go off. I know the recruiter, he's a chap with one arm."</p> + +<p>"What?" said the Englishman, "you don't mean Captain +Kyte, do you?"</p> + +<p>"That's the man. He's a terror. Guldensterns pay +him $200 a month regular to recruit for them, and he gets +a bonus of $10 each for every nigger as well. We must +try and get him a few here to fill up."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> can," said the Englishman, "but I won't. I'm not +going to tout for an infernal Dutch black-birder."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>As soon as a breeze set in the three traders sailed off. +The schooner was a fine lump of a vessel of about 190 tons +register, and her decks were crowded with male and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +female recruits from the Solomon group. There were +about fifty in all—thirty-five or forty men and about a +dozen women.</p> + +<p>The captain of the schooner and his "recruiter," Captain +Kyte, received the traders with great cordiality. In a few +minutes the table was covered with bottles of beer, kummel, +and other liquor, and Hans was asserting with great +vehemence his ability to procure another thirty "boys."</p> + +<p>Kyte, a thin man, with deep-set grey eyes, and a skin +tanned by twenty years' wanderings in the South Seas, +listened quietly to the trader's vapourings, and then said, +"All right, Hans! I think, though, we can leave it till to-morrow, +and if you can manage to get me twenty 'boys,' +I'll give you five dollars a head for them, cash."</p> + +<p>The traders remained on board for an hour or two, and +in the meanwhile the captain of the schooner sent a boat +ashore to fill water casks from the creek near the trader's +house. Six natives got in—four of whom were seamen +from the schooner and two Solomon Island recruits; these +two recruits led to all the subsequent trouble.</p> + +<p>Kyte was a wonderfully entertaining man, and although +his one arm was against him (he had lost the other one by +the bursting of a shell), he contrived to shoot very straight, +and could hold his own anywhere.</p> + +<p>He was full of cynical humour, and the Englishman, +though suffering from latent fever, could not but be amused +at the disrespectful manner in which the American spoke +of his employers. The German firm which in a small way +was the H.E.I.C. of the Pacific; indeed, their actions in +many respects, when conducting trading arrangements with +the island chiefs, were very similar to those of the Great +East India Company—they always had an armed force to +back them up.</p> + +<p>"I should think you have natives enough on board as it +is, Captain Kyte," the Englishman was saying, "without +taking any more."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +"Well, so I have in one way. But these d—d greedy +Dutchmen (looking the captain and mate of the schooner +full in the face) like to see me come into Apia harbour with +about 180 or 200 on board. The schooner is only fit to +carry about ninety. Of course the more I have the more +dollars I get. But it's mighty risky work, I can tell you. +I've got nearly sixty Solomon boys on board now, and I +could have filled down there, but came up along here instead. +You see, when we've got two or three different +mobs on board from islands widely apart they can't concoct +any general scheme of treachery, and I can always +play one crowd off against the other. Now, these Solomon +Island niggers know me well, and they wouldn't try any +cutting off business away up here—it's too far from home. +But I wouldn't trust them when we are beating back through +the Solomons on our way to Samoa—that's the time I've +got a pull on them, by having New Britain niggers on +board."</p> + +<p>"You don't let your crew carry arms on board, I see," +said the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't. There's no necessity for it, I reckon. If +we were anywhere about the Solomon Islands, and had a +lot of recruits on board, I take d—d good care that every +man is armed then. But here, in New Britain, we could +safely give every rifle in the ship to the 'recruits' themselves, +and seeing armed men about them always irritates +them. As a matter of fact, these 'boys' now on board +would fight like h—l for us if the New Britain niggers +tried to take the ship. Some men, however," and his eyes +rested on Pierre, Hans, and the captain, "like to carry a +small-arms factory slung around 'em. Have another drink, +gentlemen? Hallo, what the h—l is that?" and he was +off up on deck, the other four white men after him.</p> + +<p>The watering party had come back, but the two Solomon +islanders (the recruits) lay in the bottom of the boat, both +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +dead, and with broken spears sticking all over their bodies. +The rest of the crew were wounded—one badly.</p> + +<p>In two minutes Captain Kyte had the story. They were +just filling the last cask when they were rushed, and the +two Solomon islanders speared and clubbed to death. The +rage of the attackers seemed specially directed against the +two recruits, and the crew—who were natives of Likaiana +(Stewart's Island)—said that after the first volley of +spears no attempt was made to prevent their escape.</p> + +<p>The face of Captain Kyte had undergone a curious +change. It had turned to a dull leaden white, and his +dark grey eyes had a spark of fire in them as he turned to +the captain of the schooner.</p> + +<p>"What business had you, you blundering, dunder-headed, +Dutch swab, to let two of my recruits go ashore in that +boat? Haven't you got enough sense to know that it was +certain death for them. Two of my best men, too. Bougainville +boys. By ——! you'd better jump overboard. +You're no more fit for a labour schooner than I am to teach +dancing in a ladies' school."</p> + +<p>The captain made no answer. He was clearly in fault. +As it was, no one of the boat's crew were killed, but that +was merely because their European clothing showed them +to be seamen. The matter was more serious for Kyte than +any one else on board. The countrymen of the murdered +boys looked upon him as the man chiefly responsible. He +knew only one way of placating them—by paying some +of the dead boys' relations a heavy indemnity, and immediately +began a consultation with five Solomon islanders who +came from the same island.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>In the mean time the three traders returned to the shore, +and Hans, with his usual thick-headedness, immediately +"put his foot in it," by demanding a heavy compensation +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +from the chief of the village for the killing of the two +men.</p> + +<p>The chief argued, very reasonably from his point of view, +that the matter didn't concern him.</p> + +<p>"I don't care what you think," wrathfully answered the +little trader, "I want fifty coils, of fifty fathoms each, of +<i>dewarra</i>. If I don't get it"—here he touched his revolver.</p> + +<p>Now, dewarra is the native money of New Britain; it is +formed of very small white shells of the cowrie species, +perforated with two small holes at each end, and threaded +upon thin strips of cane or the stalk of the cocoa-nut leaf. +A coil of dewarras would be worth in European money, or +its trade equivalent, about fifty dollars.</p> + +<p>The chief wasn't long in giving his answer. His lips, +stained a hideous red by the betel nut juice, opened in a +derisive smile and revealed his blackened teeth.</p> + +<p>"He will fight," he answered.</p> + +<p>"You've done it now, Hans," said the Englishman, "you +might as well pack up and clear out in the schooner. You +have no more sense than a hog. By the time I get back to +my station I'll find it burnt and all my trade gone. However, +I don't care much; but I hope to see you get wiped +out first. You deserve it."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>All that night the native village was in a state of turmoil, +and when daylight came it was deserted by the inhabitants, +who had retreated to their bush-houses; the French trader, +who had walked along the beach to his station, returned at +daylight and reported that not a native was in his town, +even his two wives had gone. Nothing, however, of his +trade had been touched.</p> + +<p>"That's a good sign for you," said the Englishman. "If +I were you, Pierre, I would go quietly back, and start mending +your fence or painting your boat as if nothing had +happened. They won't meddle with you."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +But this was strongly objected to by his fellow-trader, +and just then a strange sound reached them,—the wild cries +and howls of chorus, in a tongue unknown to the three men. +It came from the sea, and going to the door they saw the +schooner's two whaleboats, packed as full of natives as they +could carry, close in to the shore. Instead of oars they +were propelled by canoe paddles, and at each stroke the +native rowers fairly made the boats leap and surge like +steam launches in a sea-way. But the most noticeable +thing to the eyes of the traders was the glitter of rifle +barrels that appeared between the double row of paddlers. +In another five minutes the leading boat was close enough +for the traders to see that the paddlers who lined the gunwales +from stem to stern had their faces daubed with red +and blue, and their fighting ornaments on. In the body of +the boats, crouching on their hams, with elbows on knees, +and upright rifles, were the others, packed as tightly as +sardines.</p> + +<p>"Mein Gott!" gasped Muller, "they have killed all +hands on the schooner and are coming for us. Look at the +rifles." He dashed into his trade-room and brought out +about half a dozen Sniders, and an Epsom salts box full of +cartridges. "Come on, boys, load up as quick as you can."</p> + +<p>"You thundering ass," said the Englishman, "look again; +can't you see Kyte's in one boat steering?"</p> + +<p>In another minute, with a roar from the excited savages, +the first boat surged up on the beach, and a huge, light-skinned +savage seized Kyte in his arms as if he were a child +and placed him on the land. Then every man leaped out and +stood, rifle in hand, waiting for the other boat. Again the +same fierce cry as the second boat touched the shore; then +silence, as they watched with dilated eyes and gleaming +teeth the movements of the white man.</p> + +<p>For one moment he stood facing them with outstretched +hand uplifted in warning to check their eager rush. Then +he turned to the traders—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +"The devils have broken loose. Have you fellows any +of your own natives that you don't want to get hurt? If +so, get them inside the house, and look mighty smart +about it."</p> + +<p>"There's not a native on the beach," said the German, +"every mother's son of them has cleared into the bush, +except this man's boat's crew," pointing to the English +trader; "they're in the house all right. But look out, +Captain Kyte, those fellows in the bush mean fight. There's +two thousand people in this village, and many of them have +rifles—Sniders—and plenty cartridges. I know, because +it was I who sold them."</p> + +<p>Kyte smiled grimly. There was a steely glitter of suppressed +excitement in his keen grey eyes. Then he again +held up his hand to his followers—</p> + +<p>"Blood for blood, my children. But heed well my words—kill +not the women and children; now, go!"</p> + +<p>Like bloodhounds slipped from the leash, the brown +bodies and gleaming rifle barrels went by the white men +in one wild rush, and passed away out of sight into the +comparatively open forest that touched the edge of the +trader's clearing.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>"There they go," said Kyte quietly, as he sat down on the +edge of the trader's verandah and lit a cigar, "and they'll +give those smart niggers of yours a dressing down that will +keep them quiet for the next five years (he was right, they +did). Well, I had to let them have their own way. They +told me that if I didn't let them have revenge for the two +men that I would be unlucky before I got to Samoa,—a +polite way of saying that they would seize the schooner and +cut our throats on the way up. So to save unpleasantness, +I gave each man a Snider and twenty-five cartridges, and +told them to shoot as many <i>pigs and fowls</i> as they liked. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +You should have heard the beggars laugh. By the way, I +hope they do shoot some, we want pork badly."</p> + +<p>"Hallo, they've got to Tubarigan's, the chief's bush-house, +and fired it!" said Muller.</p> + +<p>A column of black smoke arose from the side of the +mountain, and in another second or two loud yells and cries +of defiance mingled with the thundering reports of the +Sniders and the crackling of the flames.</p> + +<p>The little Frenchman and Muller played nervously with +their rifles for a moment or two; then meeting the answering +look in each other's eyes, they dashed into the trees and +up the jungle-clad mountain side in the direction of the +smoke and fighting.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The native houses in New Britain are built of cane, neatly +lashed together with coir cinnet, and the roofs thatched with +broad-leaved grass or sugar-cane leaves. They burn well, +and as the cane swells to the heat each joint bursts with a +crack like a pistol shot.</p> + +<p>"Look now," said Kyte to his companion, pointing along +the tops of the hills. Clouds of black smoke and sheets of +flame were everywhere visible, and amidst the continuous +roar of the flames, the crackling of the burning cane-work +of the native houses, and the incessant reports of the +Sniders, came savage shouts and yells from the raiders, and +answering cries of defiance from the New Britain men, who +retreated slowly to the grassy hills of the interior, whence +they watched the total destruction of some four or five of +their villages. These bush-houses are constructed with +great care and skill by the natives, and are generally only +a short distance from the main village on the beach; every +bush-house stands surrounded by a growth of carefully-tended +crotons of extraordinary beauty and great variety of +colour, and in the immediate vicinity is the owner's plantation +of yams, taro, sugar-cane, bananas, and betel nuts.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +In the course of an hour or two the Solomon islanders +ceased firing, and then the two white men, looking out on +the beach, saw a number of the beaten villagers fleeing +down to the shore, about half a mile away, and endeavouring +to launch canoes.</p> + +<p>"By ——!" exclaimed Kyte, "my fellows have outflanked +them, and are driving them down to the beach. I +might get some after all for the schooner. Will you lend +me your boat's crew to head them off? They are going to +try and get to Mau Island."</p> + +<p>"No," said the Englishman, "I won't. If Pierre and the +German are such idiots as to go shooting niggers in another +man's quarrel, that's no reason why I should take a hand +in it."</p> + +<p>Kyte nodded good-humouredly, and seemed to abandon +the idea; but he went into the house after a while, and +came out again with a long Snider in his hand.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the Solomon islanders began to return +in parties of two or three, then came the two white men, +excited and panting with the lust of killing.</p> + +<p>Kyte held a whispered consultation with one of his +"boys,"—a huge fellow, whose body was reeking with perspiration +and blood from the scratches received in the +thorny depths of the jungle,—and then pointed to the +beach where four or five white-painted canoes had been +launched, and were making for an opening in the reef. To +reach this opening they would have to pass in front of the +trader's house, for which they now headed.</p> + +<p>Kyte waited a moment or two till the leading canoe was +within four or five hundred yards, then he raised his rifle, +and placing it across the stump of his left arm, fired. The +ball plumped directly amidships, and two of the paddlers +fell. The rest threw away their paddles and spears, and +swam to the other canoes.</p> + +<p>"Now we've got them," said Kyte, and taking about +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +twenty of his boys, he manned his two boats and pulled +out, intercepting the canoes before they could get through +the reef into the open.</p> + +<p>Then commenced an exciting chase. The refugees swam +and dived about in the shallow water like frightened fish, +but their pursuers were better men at that game than they, +and of superior physique. In twenty minutes they were all +captured, except one, who sprang over the edge of the reef +into deep water and was shot swimming.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>There were about five-and-twenty prisoners, and when +they were brought back in the boats and taken on board the +schooner it was found that the chief was among them. It +may have occurred to him in the plantation life of the after +time that he had better have stayed quiet. The Englishman, +disgusted with the whole affair, went off with the +other white men, leaving his boat's crew for safety in the +trader's house, for had the Solomon islanders seen them +they would have made quick work of them, or else Kyte, to +save their lives, would have offered to take them as recruits.</p> + +<p>The two other traders decided to leave in the schooner. +They had made the locality too warm for themselves, and +urged the Englishman to follow their example.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "I've been a good while here now, and +I've never shot a nigger yet for the fun of the thing. I'll +take my chance with them for a bit longer. The chances +are you fellows will get your throats cut before I do."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>However, the schooner arrived safely at Samoa with her +live cargo, but Kyte reported to his owners that it would +not be advisable to recruit in New Britain for a year or two.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h2>HALCYON DAYS</h2> + + +<p>We were now bound for Arrecifos Island, Hayston's +central station, but had first to call at Pingelap and Strong's +Island, where we were to land our cattle and ship a few +tuns of oil.</p> + +<p>Nine days after leaving Ponapé, as the sun broke through +the tropic haze, the lookout reported smoke in sight. The +Captain and I at once went aloft, and with our glasses made +out a steamer a long distance off.</p> + +<p>Hayston said he thought it was the <i>Resacca</i>, an American +cruiser. Possibly she might overhaul us and take us into +Ponapé. Unless the breeze freshened we could not get +away from her.</p> + +<p>We were heading N.N.E. close hauled, and the steamer +appeared to be making for Ponapé. She was sure to see us +within an hour unless she changed her course.</p> + +<p>The <i>Leonora</i> was kept away a couple of points, but the +wind was light, and we were only travelling about four +knots.</p> + +<p>At breakfast time we could see the man-of-war's spars +from the deck, and the breeze was dying away. The Captain +and I went on the foreyard and watched her.</p> + +<p>She had not as yet changed her course, but apparently +did not seem anxious to overtake us.</p> + +<p>At length Hayston said with a laugh, as he took a long +look at her, "All right, keep full, and by (to the man at the +wheel) ——, brace up the yards again, she doesn't want to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +stop us. It's that old Spanish gunboat from Manila, a +'side wheeler.' I was told she was coming down to Ponapé +from Guam to look after some escaped Tagalau prisoners. +She'd never catch us if she wanted to with anything like a +breeze."</p> + +<p>That night the Captain seemed greatly relieved. He told +me that it would prove a bad business for him if an American +cruiser took him; and although he did not anticipate +meeting with one in these parts, he gave me full instructions +how to act in the event of his seizure. He placed in +my charge two bags of gold coin of two thousand dollars +each, and a draft for a thousand dollars on Goddefroys' in +Samoa.</p> + +<p>After which he declared that the ship was getting dull +lately, and ordered the steward's boy to beat the gong and +call out the girls for a dance.</p> + +<p>For the next hour or two wild merriment prevailed. Antonio, +the Portuguese, with his violin, and the Captain with +his flute, furnished the music, while half a dozen of the +girls were soon dancing with some of the picturesque ruffians +of the foc'sle.</p> + +<p>For days and days we had scarcely shifted tack or sheet, +so gentle and steady was the wind that filled our sails; but +the easterly equatorial counter current that prevails in these +calm seas was sweeping us steadily on towards Strong's +Island at the rate of two or three knots an hour.</p> + +<p>On some days we would lower a floating target and practise +with the long gun carried amidships, on others the Captain +and I would pass away an hour or two shooting at +bottles with our rifles or revolvers.</p> + +<p>Hayston was a splendid shot, and loud were the exclamations +from the crew when he made an especially clever +shot; at other times he would sit on the skylight, and with +the girls around him, sewing or card-playing, tell me anecdotes +of his career when in the service of the Chinese Government.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +There were on board two children, a boy and girl—Toby +and Kitty—natives of Arurai or Hope Island. They were +the Captain's particular pets, in right of which he allowed +them full liberty to tease any one on the ship.</p> + +<p>He was strongly attached to these children, and often +told me that he intended to provide for them.</p> + +<p>Their father, who was one of his boat's crew, had fallen +at his side when the natives of the island had boarded the +vessel. On his next cruise he called at Arurai and took +them on board, the head chief freely giving his permission +to adopt them. I mention this boy and girl more particularly, +because the American missionaries had often stated +in the Honolulu journals "that Hayston had kidnapped +them after having killed their father."</p> + +<p>His story was that on his first visit to the Pelew Islands +with Captain Peese, the vessel they owned, a small brigantine, +was attacked by the natives in the most daring manner, +although the boarding nettings were up and every preparation +made to repel them.</p> + +<p>He had with him ten seamen—mostly Japanese. Captain +Peese was acting as first mate. An intelligent writer +has described these Pelew islanders, the countrymen of the +young Prince Lee Boo, whose death in England caused +genuine sorrow, as "delicate in their sentiments, friendly +in their disposition, and, in short, a people that do honour +to the human race."</p> + +<p>The Captain's description of the undaunted manner in +which fifty of these noble islanders climbed up the side of +the brigantine, and slashed away at the nettings with their +heavy swords, was truly graphic. Stripped to the waist +they fought gallantly and unflinchingly, though twelve of +their number had been killed by the fire of musketry from +the brigantine. One of them had seized Captain Peese by +his beard, and, dragging him to the side, stabbed him in the +neck, and threw him into the prahu alongside, where his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +head would have soon left his body, when Hayston and a +Japanese sailor dashed over after him, and killed the two +natives that were holding him down, while another was +about to decapitate him. At this stage three of the brigantine's +crew lay dead and nearly all were wounded, Hayston +having a fearful slash on the thigh.</p> + +<p>There were seventeen islanders killed and many badly +wounded before they gave up the attempt to cut off the +vessel.</p> + +<p>The father of Kitty and Toby was the steward. He had +been fighting all through like a demon, having for his weapon +a carpenter's squaring axe. He had cut one islander down +with a fearful blow on the shoulder, which severed the arm, +the limb falling on the deck, when he was attacked by three +others. One of these was shot by a Japanese sailor, and +another knocked down by the Captain, when the poor +steward was thrust through from behind and died in a few +minutes.</p> + +<p>The Captain spoke highly of the courage and intelligence +of the Pelew islanders, and said that the cause of the attack +upon the vessel was that, being under the Portuguese +flag—the brigantine was owned by merchants in Macao—the +natives had sought to avenge the bombardment of one +of their principal towns by two Portuguese gunboats a year +previously.</p> + +<p>Hayston afterwards established friendly relations with +these very people who had attacked him, and six months +afterwards slept ashore at their village alone and unarmed.</p> + +<p>From that day his perfect safety was assured. He succeeded +in gaining the friendship of the principal chiefs by +selling them a hundred breech-loading rifles and ten thousand +cartridges, giving them two years' time to pay for them. +He also gave nearly a thousand dollars' worth of powder and +cartridges to the relatives of the men killed in attempting +to cut off the brigantine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +Such was one of the many romantic incidents in Hayston's +career in the wild islands still further to the north-west. +That he was a man of lion-like courage and marvellous +resolution under the most desperate circumstances was +known to all who ever sailed with him. Had not his recklessness +and uncontrollable passions hurried him on to the +commission of deeds that darkened for ever his good name, +his splendid qualities would have earned him fame and fortune +in any of those national enterprises which have in all +ages transformed the adventurer into the hero.</p> + +<p>One day, while we sat talking together, gazing upon the +unruffled deep,—he had been explaining the theory of the +ocean currents, as well as the electrical phenomena of the +Caroline group, where thunder may be heard perhaps six +times a year, and lightning seen not once,—I unthinkingly +asked him why he did not commit his observations to paper, +as I felt sure that the large amount of facts relating to the +meteorology of the Pacific, of which he was possessed, would +be most valuable, and as such secure fitting recognition by +the scientific world.</p> + +<p>He smiled bitterly, then answered, "Hilary, my boy, it is +too late. I am an outlaw in fact, if not in name. The +world's doors are closed, and society has turned its back on +me. Out of ten professed friends nine are false, and would +betray me to-morrow. When I think of what I once was, +what I might have been, and to what I have now fallen, I +am weary of existence. So I take the world as it comes, +with neither hope nor fear for the morrow, knowing that if +I do not make blue shark's meat, I am doomed to leave my +bones on some coral islet."</p> + +<p>And thus the days wore on. We still drifted under cloudless +skies, over the unfretted surface of the blue Pacific, +the brig's sails ever and anon swelling out in answer to the +faint, mysterious breeze-whispers, to fall languidly back +against her spars and cordage.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +Passing the Nuknor or Monteverde Islands, discovered +by Don Juan Monteverde in 1806, in the Spanish frigate +<i>La Pala</i>, we sailed onward with the gentle N.E. trades to +Overluk, and then to Losap. Like the people of Nuknor, +the Losap islanders were a splendid race and most hospitable. +Then we made the Mortlock group, once so dreaded +by whaleships. These fierce and warlike islanders made +most determined efforts to cut off the whaleships <i>Dolly +Primrose</i> and <i>Heavenly City</i>. To us, however, they were +most amiable in demeanour, and loud cries of welcome +greeted the Captain from the crowd of canoes which +swarmed around the brig.</p> + +<p>Then commenced one of the reckless orgies with which +the brig's crew were familiar. Glad to escape the scene, I +left the brig and wandered about in the silent depths of +the island forest.</p> + +<p>The Captain here, as elsewhere, was evidently regarded +as a visitor of immense importance, for as I passed through +the thickly populated villages the people were cooking vast +quantities of pigs, poultry, and pigeons.</p> + +<p>The women and girls were decorating their persons with +wreaths of flowers, and the warriors making preparations +for a big dance to take place at night. I had brought my +gun with me, and shot some of the magnificent pigeons +which throng the island woods, which I presented to the +native girls, a merry group of whom followed me with +offerings of cocoa-nuts, and a native dish made of baked +bananas, flavoured with the juice of the sugar-cane.</p> + +<p>I could not have eaten a fiftieth part of what was +offered, but as declining would have been regarded as a +rudeness, I begged them to take it to the chief's house +for me.</p> + +<p>On my return a singular and characteristic scene presented +itself. I could not help smiling as I thought what +a shock it would have given many of my steady-going +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +friends and relatives in Sydney, most of whom, if untravelled, +resemble nothing so much as the inhabitants of English +country towns, and are equally apt to be displeased +at any departure from the British standard of manners +and morals.</p> + +<p>The Captain was seated on a mat in the great council-house +of the tribe, talking business with a white-headed +warrior, whom he introduced as the king of the Mortlock +group. The women had decorated the Captain's neck and +broad breast with wreaths—two girls were seated a little +farther off, binding into his hat the tail-feathers of the +tropic bird. He seemed in a merry mood, and whispering +something to the old man, pointed to me.</p> + +<p>In a moment a dozen young girls bounded up, and with +laughing eyes and lips, commenced to circle around me in +a measure, the native name of which means "a dance for +a husband."</p> + +<p>They formed a pretty enough picture, with their waving +arms and flowing flower-crowned hair. I plead guilty to +applauding vociferously, and rewarding them with a quantity +of the small red beads which the Mortlock girls sew +into their head-dresses.</p> + +<p>Thus, with but slight variations, our life flowed, if monotonously, +pleasantly, even luxuriously on—as we sailed to +and fro amid these charmed isles, from Namoluk to Truk, +thence to the wondrously beautiful Royalist Islands, inhabited +by a wild vigorous race. They also made much of us +and gave dances and games in honour of our visit.</p> + +<p>And still we sailed and sailed. Days passed, and weeks. +Still glided we over the summer sea—still gazed we at +a cloudless sky—still felt we the languorous, sighing +breath of the soft South Pacific winds.</p> + +<p>Day by day the same flock of predatory frigate birds +skimmed and swept o'er the glittering ocean plain, while +high overhead the wandering tropic birds hung motionless, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +with their scarlet tail-feathers floating like lance pennons +in relief against the bright blue heavens.</p> + +<p>Now, the Captain had all a true seaman's dislike to seeing +a sea-bird shot. One day, off Ocean Island, Jansen, +the mate, came out of the cabin with a long, smooth bore, +which he proceeded to load with buck shot, glancing the +while at two graceful tropic birds, which, with snow-white +wings outspread, were poised in air directly over the deck, +apparently looking down with wondering eye at the scene +below.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to shoot, Jansen?" inquired the +Captain, in a mild voice.</p> + +<p>The mate pointed to the birds, and remarked that his +girl wanted the feathers for a head-dress. He was bringing +the gun to his shoulder, when a quick "Put down that +musket," nearly caused him to drop it.</p> + +<p>"Jansen!" said the Captain, "please to remember this,—never +let me see you or any other man shoot a sea-bird +from the deck of this ship. Your girl can live without the +feathers, I presume, and what is more to the point, I <i>forbid</i> +you to do it."</p> + +<p>The mate growled something in an undertone, and was +turning away to his cabin, when Hayston sprang upon him +like a panther, and seizing him by the throat, held him +before him.</p> + +<p>"By ——! Jansen," he said, "don't tempt me too far. +I told you as civilly as possible not to shoot the birds—yet +you turn away and mutter mutinously before my men. +Listen to me! though you are no seaman, and a thorough +'soldier,' I treat you well for peace' sake. But once give +me a sidelook, and as sure as God made me, I'll trice you +up to the mainmast, and let a nigger flog you."</p> + +<p>He released his hold of the mate's throat after this warning. +The cowed bully staggered off towards his cabin. +After which the Captain's mood changed with customary +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +suddenness; he came aft, and began a game with Kitty and +her brother—apparently having forgotten the very existence +of Jansen.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The calm, bright weather still prevailed—the light air +hardly filling our sails—the current doing all the work. +When one afternoon, taking a look from aloft, I descried +the loom of Kusaie or Strong's Island, on the farthest +horizon.</p> + +<p>"Land ho!" The watch below, just turning out, take +up the cry as it goes from mouth to mouth on deck. Some +of them gaze longingly, making calculations as to the +amount of liberty they are likely to get, as well as the +work that lies before them.</p> + +<p>Early next morning we had drifted twenty miles nearer, +whereupon the Captain decided to run round to the weather +side of the island first, and interview the king, before going +to <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'Utwe'">Utwé</ins> +or South harbour, where we proposed to do the +most of our trading.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, after breakfast, a serious disturbance arose +between the Chinese carpenter and Bill Hicks, the fierce +Fijian half-caste, who was second mate. The carpenter's +provisional spouse was a handsome young woman from the +Gilbert group, who rejoiced in the name of Ni-a-bon (Shades +of Night). Of her, the carpenter, a tall, powerfully-built +Chinaman, who had sailed for years with Hayston in the +China Seas, was intensely jealous. So cunning, however, +was she in evading suspicion, that though every one on +board was aware of the state of affairs, her lawful protector +suspected nothing.</p> + +<p>However, on this particular morning, Nellie, the Hope +Island girl, being reproved by the second mate for throwing +pine apple and banana peel into the ship's dingey, flew +into a violent rage, and told the carpenter that the second +mate was stealing Ni-a-bon—and, moreover, had persuaded +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +her to put something into his, the carpenter's, food, to make +him "go maté," <i>i.e.</i> sicken and die.</p> + +<p>Seizing an axe, the Chinaman sallied on deck, and commenced +to exact satisfaction by aiming a blow at Ni-a-bon, +who was playing cards with the other girls. The girl +Mila averted the blow, and the whole pack fled shrieking +to the Captain, who at once called upon Bill for explanation.</p> + +<p>He did not deny the impeachment, and offered to fight +the carpenter for Ni-a-bon. The Captain decided this to be +eminently right and proper; but thought the carpenter was +hardly a match for the mate with fists. Bill promptly suggested +knives. This seemed to choke off the carpenter, as, +amid howls from the women, he stepped back into his +cabin, only to reappear in the doorway with a rifle, and to +send a bullet at the mate's head, which missed him.</p> + +<p>"At him, Billy," cried the Captain, "give him a good +licking—but <i>don't hurt his arms</i>; there's a lot of work to +be done to the bulwarks when we get the anchor down +again."</p> + +<p>The second mate at once seized the carpenter, and dragging +him out of his cabin, in a few minutes had so knocked +his features about that he was hardly recognisable.</p> + +<p>Ni-a-bon was then called up before the Captain and questioned +as to her preference, when, with many smiles and +twisting about of her hands, she confessed to an ardent +attachment to the herculean Bill.</p> + +<p>The Captain told Bill that he would have to pay the +carpenter for damages, which he assessed at ten dollars, the +amount being given, not for personal injury, but for the loss +sustained by his annexation of the fascinating Ni-a-bon.</p> + +<p>At sunset we once more were off Chabral harbour, where +we ran in and anchored—<i>within fifty yards</i> of the king's +house.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h2>MURDER AND SHIPWRECK</h2> + + +<p>We found the island in a state of excitement. Two +whaleships had arrived, bringing half a dozen white men, +and who had a retinue of nearly a hundred natives from +Ocean and Pleasant Islands. The white men had to leave +Pleasant Island on account of a general engagement which +had taken place; had fled to the ships for safety, taking +with them their native wives, families, and adherents.</p> + +<p>The other men were from Ocean Island, a famine having +set in from drought in that lovely isle. They had also +taken passage with their native following, to seek a more +temporarily favoured spot. The fertility of Kusaie (Strong's +Island) had decided them to remain.</p> + +<p>Strange characters, in truth, were these same traders, +now all quartered at Chabral harbour! They were not +without means, and so far had conducted themselves decently. +But their retinue of savage warriors had struck +terror into the hearts of the milder natives of Kusaie.</p> + +<p>Let me draw from the life one of the patriarchs of the +movement, on the occasion of his embarkation.</p> + +<p>Ocean Island, lat. 0° 50′ south, long. 168° east.</p> + +<p>A fantastic, lonely, forbidding-looking spot. Circular in +form, with rounded summit, and a cruel upheaved coral +coast, split up into ravines running deep into the land. +Here and there, on ledges overlooking the sea, are perched +tiny villages, inhabited by as fierce and intractable a race +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +of Malayo-Polynesians as ever lacerated each other's bodies +with sharks'-tooth daggers, after the mad drunkenness produced +by sour toddy.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Mister Robert Ridley, aged seventy, sitting on a case in +his house, on the south-west point of Paanopa, as its people +call Ocean Island, with a bottle of "square face" before +him, from which he refreshes himself, without the intervention +of a glass, is one of the few successful deserters +from the convict army of New South Wales. At the present +moment he is an ill-used man. For seven years he has +been the boss white man of Paanopa, ever since he left +the neighbouring Naura or Pleasant Island, after seeing +his comrades fall in the ranks one by one, slain by bullet +or the scarce less deadly drink demon. Now, solitary and +saturnine, he has to bow to Fate and quit his equatorial +cave of Adullam, because a mysterious Providence has +afflicted his island with a drought.</p> + +<p>From out the open door he sees the <i>Josephine</i>, of New Bedford, +Captain Jos Long, awaiting the four whaleboats now +on the little beach below his house, which are engaged in +conveying on board his household goods and chattels, his +wives and his children, with <i>their</i> children, and a dusky +retinue of blood-relations and retainers; for the drought +had made food scarce. Blood had been shed over the +ownership of certain cocoa-nut trees; and old Bob Ridley +has decided to bid farewell to his island, and to make for +Ponapé in the Carolines. So the old man sits alone and +awaits a call from the last boat. Perhaps he feels unusual +emotion stirring him, as the faint murmur of voices ascends +from the beach. He would be alone for awhile to conjure +up strange memories of the past, or because the gin bottle +is but half emptied.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +"The <i>Josephine</i>, of New Bedford!" he mutters, as a +grim smile passes over his bronzed, sin-wrinkled countenance; +"why, <i>t'other one</i> was from New Bedford too. This +one's larger—a six-boat ship—and carries a big afterguard. +Still the job could be done agin. But—what's +the good now! If Joe, the Portuguese, was here with me +I'd say it <i>could</i> be done." Another gulp at the "square +face." "Damn it! I'm an old fool. There's too many +of these here cussed blubber-hunting Yankees about now. +Say we took the ship, we'd never get away with her. +Please God, I'll go to Ponapé and live like a d—d gentleman. +There's some of the old crowd there now, and I +a'n't so old yet."</p> + +<p>And here, maybe, the old renegade falls a thinking +afresh of "the other one" from New Bedford, that made +this very island on the evening of the 3rd of December +1852.</p> + +<p>Out nearly two years, and working up from the Line +Islands towards Honolulu, the skipper had tried to make +Pleasant Island, to get a boat-load of pigs for his crew, but +light winds and strong currents had drifted him away, till, +at dawn, he saw the rounded summits of Ocean Island pencilled +faintly against the horizon, and stood away for it. +"We can get a few boat-loads of pigs and 'punkins' there, +anyhow," he said to the mate.</p> + +<p>The mate had been there before, and didn't like going +again. That was in 1850. Sixteen white men lived there +then, ten of whom were runaway convicts from Sydney +or Norfolk Island. He told his captain that they were +part of a gang of twenty-seven who had at various times +been landed from whalers at Pleasant Island in 1845. +They had separated—some going away in the <i>Sallie</i> +whaler, and others finding their way to Ocean Island. +Now, the <i>Sallie was never heard of again</i>, the mate remarked. +The captain of the <i>Inga</i> looked grave, but he had set his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +heart upon the pigs and "punkins." So at dusk the brig +hove to, close to the south-west point, and as no boats +came off the skipper went ashore.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>There were nearly a thousand people on Ocean Island +then, and he felt a trifle queer as the boat was rushed +by the wild, long-haired crowd, and carried bodily on +shore.</p> + +<p>Through the gathering darkness he saw the forms of +white men trying to push their way through the yellow +crowd of excited natives. Presently a voice called out, +"Don't be scared, mister! Let the niggers have their way +and carry up the boat."</p> + +<p>He let them have their way, and after being glared at by +the red light of cocoa-nut torches borne by the women, he +was conducted to one of three houses occupied by the six +gentlemen who had arranged to leave the continent of +Australia without beat of drum.</p> + +<p>Bob Ridley's house was the scene of rude and reckless +revelry that night. A jar of the <i>Inga's</i> rum had been sent +for, and seated around on the boxes that lined the side +of the room the six convicts drank the raw spirit like milk, +and plied the captain for news of the outer world two years +old. Surrounding the house was a throng of eager, curious +natives, no longer noisy, but strangely silent as their rolling, +gleaming eyes gloated over the stone jar on the table. +Presently a native, called "Jack" by his white fellow residents, +comes to the door and makes a quick sign to Bob +and a man named Brady, who rose and followed him into +a shed used as a cook-house. Jack's story is soon told. +He had been to the brig. She had thirty-two hands, but +three men were sick. A strict watch was kept by the +mate, not more than ten natives were allowed on board at +once. In the port bow boats and the starboard quarter +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +boats hanging on the davits there were two sailors armed +with muskets.</p> + +<p>Another of the white men now slunk into the cook-house +where the three talked earnestly. Then Brady went back +and told the captain that the brig was getting into the set +of the outer currents, and would be out of sight of land by +daylight unless he made sail and worked in close again. +Upon which the captain shook hands all around, and was +escorted to his boat, promising to be back at daylight and +get his load of "punkins."</p> + +<p>Brady and two others went with the captain for company, +and on the way out one of his new friends—a tall, +ghastly creature, eternally twisting his long fingers and +squirting tobacco juice from his evil-seeming mouth—told +the captain that he "orter let his men take a run ashore to +get some cocoa-nuts and have a skylark." When they got +aboard the captain told the mate to take the sentries out of +the boats, to make sail, and run in close out of the currents, +as it was all right. The captain and the guests went below +to open another jar, while the mate and cooper roused up the +hands who were lying about yarning and smoking, and told +them to make sail. In the house ashore Bob Ridley with +his two companions and Jack were planning <i>how the job +was to be done</i>.</p> + +<p>Two boats came ashore at daylight, and in addition to +the crews there were ten or a dozen liberty men who had +leave till noon to have a run about the island. The captain +still bent on his "punkins," took a boat-steerer and +two other hands to put the coveted vegetables into bags +and carry them down to the boats. The pumpkins, Ridley +said, grew on his own land quite close; the men could pick +them off the vines, and the natives carry them down. So +they set off up the hill until the pumpkin patch was +reached. Here old Bob suddenly felt ill, and thought he +would go back to take a swig at the rum jar and return, but +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +if the captain wanted a good view from the top of the +island Jack would show him round. So leaving the men +to bag the pumpkins, the skipper and Jack climbed the +path winding through the cocoa-nuts to the top of the hill. +The sun was hot already, and the captain thirsty. Jack, +out of his hospitable heart, suggested a drink. There were +plenty of cocoa-nuts around growing on short, stumpy +trees, a couple of which he twisted off, and without husking +one with his teeth, as is often done, cut a hole in the +green husk and presented it to the skipper to drink from. +The nut was a heavy one; taking it in both hands the +doomed sailor raised it to his lips and threw back his head. +That was his last sight of the summer sky that has smiled +down on so many a deed of blood and rapine. For Jack +at that moment lifted his right arm and drove the knife to +the hilt through his heart.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>As Jack hurried back to be in good time for the "grand +coup"—the cutting off of the brig—he saw that the boat-steerer +and his two hands <i>had finished gathering the pumpkins</i>. +Two bags were filled and tied, while beside them +were the three bodies of the gatherers, each decently covered +with a spreading cocoa-nut branch. The ten "liberty +men" had been induced by a bevy of laughing island nymphs +to accompany them along the ledge of the steep coast cliff +to a place where, as Jack had told them, they would find +plenty of nuts—a species of almond peculiar to Ocean and +Pleasant Islands. Half-an-hour's walk took them out of +sight and hearing of the <i>Inga</i>, and then the "liberty men" +saw that the girls had somehow dropped behind, and were +running with trembling feet into the maze of the undergrowth. +The startled men found themselves in an amphitheatre +of jagged rough coral boulders, covered over with +a dense verdure of creepers, when suddenly Brady and fifty +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +other devils swept down upon them without a cry. It was +soon over. Then the blood-stained mob hurried back to the +little beach.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The mate of the <i>Inga</i> was a raw-boned Yankee from +Martha's Vineyard. Fearless, and yet watchful, he had +struck the tall renegade as "a chap as was agoin' to give +them trouble if they didn't stiffen him fust in the cabin." +It was then noon, and as eight bells struck the crew began +to get dinner. The mate, before he went below, took a look +at the shore and fancied he saw the boat shoving off with +the captain.</p> + +<p>"Yes," chimed in Wilkins, one of the guests, "that's him; +he's got a boat-load, and all the canoes comin' off 's a lot of +our own niggers bringin' off cocoa-nuts."</p> + +<p>"Then let's get dinner right away," answered the mate, +who knew the captain would make sail as soon as ever he +found his "punkins" safe aboard.</p> + +<p>Had he known that the captain was lying staring up at +the sun on the hilltop among the dwarf palms, he might +even then have made a fight of it, short of half the crew +as he was.</p> + +<p>It was not to be.</p> + +<p>They went below—he and his guests, the third mate and +the carpenter; the cooper was left in charge of the ship.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The boats and canoes came alongside at once, pulling +hard. Suddenly the cooper heard a cry from a man in the +waist of the ship that chilled his blood, while over the bulwarks +swarmed the copper-skinned crowd, knife and club in +hand. As he rushed to the companion, the tall renegade +looked up and saw the time had come.</p> + +<p>Then began the butchery. The ship's officers rushed on +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +deck, leaving behind only the negro steward and a boy with +the three convicts. Two shots were fired in the cabin, after +which the three demons hurried up to join in the melée. +In ten minutes there was not a man of the crew alive, except +the cooper in the maintop, with a bloody whale-spade +in his fast relaxing grasp. Brady and Bob were agreed "to +give the old cove a chance to get eat up by the sharks," and +ironically advised him to take a header and swim ashore. +But the cooper, with his feet dangling over the futtocks +and his head sunk on his chest, made no sign. He fell back +as a streak of red ran slowly between the planking of the +maintop and trickled down the mast to the deck.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was a disappointment when the white murderers gathered +in the cabin to find so small a quantity of rum in the +<i>Inga's</i> lazarette. But they were consoled by two bags of +Mexican dollars—"Money for the punkins," grinned Brady, +which would buy them twice as much as they wanted when +next ship came along. And then as the principal business +was over, the harmony began, and amidst rum and unholy +jesting, a division of the effects in the cabins was made, +while unto Jack and his myrmidons were abandoned all +and sundry that could be found <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'for'rard'">for'ard</ins>.</p> + +<p>When the heavy-laden boats had been sent again and +again to the shore, a fire was lighted in the cabin by the tall +renegade, and the white men pushed off. But it suddenly +occurred to Messrs. Ridley and Brady that "such a hell of a +blaze might be seen by some other blubber-hunters a long +way on a dark night," so the boat was put back and the brig +hurriedly scuttled. And you can drop a lead line close to +the edge of the reef anywhere about Ocean Island, and get +no soundings at forty fathoms.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +Soon after we anchored an urgent message was sent to +the Captain by King Tokusar and Queen Sê, imploring him +to come ashore and advise them. The Captain had of late +seemed averse to going anywhere without my company, and +asked me to come with him. So, getting into the whaleboat, +we were pulled on shore, landing at a massively-built +stone wharf which formed part of the royal premises.</p> + +<p>I may here mention that the headquarters of the American +Mission had been at Kusaie for many years. The people +were all Christians, and to a certain degree educated. +Their island took rank, therefore, as the most successful +result of missionary enterprise in the North Pacific.</p> + +<p>A native college had been built, to which were brought +from outlying islands those natives who were destined for +the ministry. However, about a year previously the Board +of Mission had changed their headquarters to Ebon, an +island of the Marshall group, leaving but one native missionary +on Kusaie in charge of the flock. His name was +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'Liliak Sa'">Likiak Sâ</ins>. +There are coloured Chadbands as well as white +ones; and for pure, unmitigated hypocrisy the European +professor would have had but little show in a prize contest.</p> + +<p>The head of the American Mission, Mr. Morland, had +built himself an exceedingly comfortable stone house in +Lêlé. As he was away at present in the brig <i>Morning Star</i>, +his residence was occupied by his fellow-worker, +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'Liliak Sa'">Likiak Sâ</ins>, +his wife, and an exceedingly pretty girl named Kitty of +Ebon, who acted as housekeeper to Mr. and Mrs. Morland +when at home.</p> + +<p>The missionaries had tried hard to prevent the people of +Kusaie from selling produce to the whaleships, alleging that +their visits were fruitful of harm. The old king, however, +whose power had declined sensibly since the arrival of the +missionaries, withstood their orders; and finally insisted +upon the privilege of permitting them to visit the island, +and to purchase the pigs, poultry, and fruit from the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +islanders which would otherwise lie useless on their +hands.</p> + +<p>This King Tokusar was a curious compound of shrewdness, +generosity, cant, and immorality, each alternately +gaining the upper hand.</p> + +<p>On entering the "palace," which was exceedingly well +furnished, we found him seated in an armchair in his reception +room. He was dressed in a black frock-coat and white +duck trousers: the latter somewhat of a military cut, falling +over patent leather shoes. On one side of the chair, lying +on its broad arm, was a ponderous copy of the Scriptures in +the Kusaie dialect. On the other arm was placed one of +the long clay pipes known as churchwardens.</p> + +<p>Behind him, with her much bejewelled fingers clasping +the back of her consort's chair, was Queen Sê, a pretty little +woman, with a pleasant, animated expression of countenance. +Further inside the apartment were the queen's +female attendants, sitting in the ungraceful manner peculiar +to the Pingelap and Kusaie women.</p> + +<p>The king looked worn and ill, as he croaked out, "How +you do, Captain? I glad to see you again. I thank God +he bin good to you—give you good voyage. How much +oil you bin buy at Ponapé?"</p> + +<p>Shaking hands warmly with the king, Hayston introduced +me in form, and then to Her Majesty, who smiled graciously, +tossing back her wavy black hair, so as to show her massive +gold ear-rings. Chairs were brought, when a truly amusing +conversation took place.</p> + +<p><i>King.</i>—"Well, Captain! you d—d clever man. I want +you give me advice. You see—all these men come to +Kusaie. Well—me afraid, take my island altogether. +What you think?"</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"Oh no, king! I'll see they do you no harm. +I think some of them go away in the <i>Leonora</i>."</p> + +<p><i>King.</i>—(Much doubting) "Oh! thank you. I no want +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +too many white men here—no Christians like Kusaie men. +No believe God, no Jesus Christ." (Then with sudden +change of tone) "I say, Capt'n Hayston, one of you men +no pay my people when you here last—no pay anybody."</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"Very bad man, king, how much he cheat +people out of?"</p> + +<p><i>King.</i>—(With inquiring look at queen) "Oh! about three +dollars."</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"I'll attend to it, king—I'll see it paid."</p> + +<p><i>King.</i>—"Thank you, Capt'n. What you say this young +gentleman's name?"</p> + +<p><i>Captain.</i>—"His name is Hilary Telfer."</p> + +<p><i>King.</i>—"You like Strong's Island, young gentleman? +Pretty girl, eh? Same as Captain?" Here he gave a wheezing +laugh, and clapped his hands on the Captain's knees.</p> + +<p>I told him I thought the Strong Island girls very pretty. +The queen communicated this to the attendants. After +which I was the recipient of various nods and winks and +wreathed smiles.</p> + +<p>An enormous roasted hog was then carried in by two of the +king's cooks, after which a number of servitors appeared +carrying taro, yams, and other vegetables—again yet more, +bearing quantities of fish. We seated ourselves at a small +table—the Captain opposite the king, while the lively little +queen and I were <i>vis-a-vis</i>.</p> + +<p>"Make up to her," whispered the Captain, "flatter her to +the masthead if you wish to be in clover for the rest of your +stay. Never mind old Tokusar."</p> + +<p>Acting on this hint I got on famously with her South Sea +majesty, discovering in due course that she was a really +clever little woman, as well as an outrageous flirt.</p> + +<p>Presently the boats came ashore again, and the steward +was ushered in, carrying a large box.</p> + +<p>"King!" said the Captain, "I know you are sick, and +need something to make you strong. Pray accept a small +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +present from my table." The present consisted of two +bottles of brandy, with the same quantity of gin, and a +dozen of beer.</p> + +<p>"Oh! thank you, Capt'n—you really very kind. By +George! I like you too much."</p> + +<p>The queen cast a reproachful glance at Hayston. I could +see she did not appreciate the gift. Her lord soon had a +bottle of brandy opened, out of which he poured himself an +able seaman's dose. The Captain took a little, and I—for +once in my life—shared a bottle of Tennant's bitter beer +with a real queen.</p> + +<p>The king rose up, with a broad smile illumining his +wrinkled face, and said, with his glass to his lips, "Capt'n, +and Capt'n's friend, I glad to see you." Presently, however, +with a scared face, he said something to his consort at +which she seemed disconcerted, and then told us they had +forgotten to say grace.</p> + +<p>This, in a solemn manner, Hayston requested me to do, +and, as I was bending my head and muttering the half-forgotten +formula, the king leaned over and whispered to +him, "I say, Capt'n, how many labour boys you want take +away in brig?"</p> + +<p>This made me collapse entirely, and I indulged in a +hearty laugh. The Captain and the queen followed suit, +and, at some distance, the king's cackling merriment.</p> + +<p>It certainly was a jolly dinner. The king was growing +madder ever minute, alternately quoting Scripture and +swearing atrociously. After which he told me that he +liked to be good friends with Mr. Morland, and that he had +given up all his bad habits. But, changing his mood again, +he confided to me that he wished he was young again, and +concluded by expressing a decided opinion as to the beauty +of Kitty of Ebon, Mrs. Morland's housekeeper.</p> + +<p>The queen now rose from the table and asked me to +smoke a cigar. She produced a work-box in which were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +cigarettes and some Manila cheroots. Most graciously she +lighted one for me.</p> + +<p>The king was now more than half-seas over. He laughed +hilariously at the Captain's stories, and, with some double-barrelled +oaths, announced his determination to return to +the worship of the heathen gods and to increase the number +of his wives.</p> + +<p>Queen Sê smiled, and blowing out the smoke from +between her pouting red lips, said, "Hear the old fool +talk!"</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>That night there was high revel on board the <i>Leonora</i> +after we had taken our farewell of the king and queen.</p> + +<p>Hayston decided to take advantage of the land breeze, +and so get away to South harbour at once, as we had business +to do there. Chabral harbour was a difficult place to +get out of, though easy enough to get into.</p> + +<p>The trade winds blow steadily here for seven months out +of the twelve. Now, though the largest ship afloat may +run in easily through the deep and narrow passage, there is +not room enough to beat out against the north-east wind. +Neither can she tow out, as there is always a heavy swell +rolling in through the passage, wind or no wind. Kedging +out is also simply impossible, owing to the extraordinary +depth of water.</p> + +<p>In 1836, the <i>Falcon</i> of London, a whaleship, lay in Chabral +harbour for 120 days. She had ventured in for wood and +water. On making a fifth attempt to tow out with her five +boats, she touched and went to pieces on the reef.</p> + +<p>Hayston, however, had run in, knowing that at this +season of the year—from January to March—the winds +were variable, a land breeze generally springing up at dusk.</p> + +<p>I stated that there was revelry on board the brig that +night. The fact was that the Captain, in the presence of +the king, queen, and myself, had made agreement with the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +refugee traders to take them to whatever island they preferred. +The king was strongly averse to their retinue of +excitable natives being domiciled among the peaceful Kusaie +people. Inspired with courage by the presence of Hayston, +he had told the traders that he wished them to vacate Lêlé. +If they did arrange to leave in the <i>Leonora</i>, he told them +that they could establish themselves at Utwé (South harbour), +and there remain until they got away in a passing +whaler or China-bound ship.</p> + +<p>After conferring with Hayston, most of the traders +decided to take his offer of conveying them and their following +to Ujilong (Providence Island), which was his own +property, and there enter into engagement with him to +make oil for five years. Two others agreed to proceed to +the sparsely populated but beautiful Eniwetok (or Brown's +group), where were vast quantities of cocoa-nuts, and only +thirty natives. These two men had a following of thirty +Ocean islanders, and were in high delight at the prospect +of having an island to themselves and securing a fortune +after a few years of oil-making.</p> + +<p>As the merry clink of the windlass pauls echoed amidst +the verdurous glens and crags of the mountains that surround +Lêlé, the traders, with their wives, families, and +followers, pulled off in their whaleboats and came aboard.</p> + +<p>What a picture did the brig make as she spread her +snowy canvas to the land-breeze! Laden with the perfume +of a thousand flowers, cooled by its passage through the +primeval forest, it swept us along towards the passage, +upon the right steering through which so much depended. +The traders had half a dozen whaleboats; these, with two +belonging to the <i>Leonora</i>, were towing astern, with a native +in each.</p> + +<p>The passage, as I have said before, was deep but narrow. +As the traders gazed on either side and watched the immense +green rollers dashing with resistless force past the brig's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +side, they looked apprehensively at the Captain and then at +their boats astern.</p> + +<p>Right in the centre an enormous billow came careering +along at the speed of an express train. Though it had no +"breaking curl" on its towering crest, I instinctively placed +my hands in the starboard boat davits, expecting to see the +vast volume of water sweep our decks. Some of the traders +sprang into the main rigging just as the brig lifted to the +sea, to plunge downward with a swift and graceful motion, +never losing her way for a moment. No man of our crew +took the least notice. They knew what the brig could do, +they knew the Captain, and no more anticipated a disaster +than a mutiny.</p> + +<p>We made open water safely. Then the Captain descended +from the fore-yard, whence he had been conning the ship. +"Well, gentlemen," he said, "here we are, all on board the +<i>Leonora</i>! I hope you think well of her."</p> + +<p>The traders emphatically asserted that she was a wonder. +Then, as we did not intend to enter Utwé harbour till the +morning, we shortened sail. The brig was placed under +her topsails only, and we glided slowly and smoothly down +the coast. Still the reef surge was thundering on the starboard +hand.</p> + +<p>The light of the native villages—for the sudden night +of the tropics was upon us—glimmered through the groves +of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit trees that fringed the snowy +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'beeches'">beaches</ins>. +A shadowy, dreamy landscape, blurred and indistinct +at times, while ever and anon the back-borne spume +of the breakers fell in rain-mist over all, as they reared +and raved, only to dash themselves in mad turmoil on the +javelins of jagged coral.</p> + +<p>It was a strange scene. Yet stranger still were the +dramatis personæ—the wild band of traders that clustered +around the giant form of the Captain, as he lay smoking +his cigar on the skylight, in friendly converse with all.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +Foremost in position and seniority comes old Harry +Terry, a stalwart, grizzled veteran, brown-cheeked and +bright-eyed still. Full of yarns of his cruise with Captain +Waldegrave of H.M. <i>Seringapatan</i>, and Captain Thomas +Thompson in the <i>Talbot</i> frigate, on the coast of South +America. Clear and honest is his eye, yet he has a worn +and saddened look, as from a sorrow, long past, half-forgotten, +yet never to be wholly erased from memory's +tablet. A deserter—of course. Yet had he a true Briton's +love for the flag which he had once sailed and fought under. +By his side stand four stalwart half-caste sons, hearkening +with glistening eyes to the Captain's tales of lands they had +never seen, scarcely heard of,—of polar bears, icebergs, +dog sledges, Esquimaux, reindeer, far amid the solitudes of +the frozen North.</p> + +<p>Close by old Harry sits a tall, red-bearded man, with a +look of latent humour in his countenance, which proclaims +his nationality even if the richness of his brogue were not +in evidence. This is Pleasant Island Bill, a merry good-for-nothing, +with a warm heart and unlimited capacity for +whisky. In his belt he carries—perhaps from force of +habit—a heavy navy revolver, before which many a fierce +Pleasant islander has gone down in the bloody émeutes so +common in that wild spot. Behind Bill is his wife Tiaro—a +fair-skinned native of Taputanea (Drummond's Island). +She is certainly the "savage woman" of the poet's fancy—handsome +withal, as, with her hand on her husband's +shoulder, she gazes admiringly at the herculean figure of +the far-famed Rover of the South Seas, the dreaded Captain +of the <i>Leonora</i>. Near to or behind Tiaro are the other +traders' wives, with their wild-eyed, graceful children.</p> + +<p>Beside me, sitting upon a bundle of sleeping mats, is a +bronzed and handsome young fellow, Charlie Wilder by +name, a veritable Adonis of the South Seas. With clear-cut +features and bright brown curling locks, contrasting +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +well with a dark, drooping moustache, he lolls languidly on +the mats, gazing dreamily at times at the animated forms +and faces around him. He was the ideal sea rover—much +untrammelled by the canons of more civilised life. To +each of his four young wives he appeared equally devoted. +Though a <i>blasé</i>, exquisite in manner, he was a man who +simply laughed at wounds and death. A dangerous antagonist, +too, as some of his fellow-traders had good reason to +know.</p> + +<p>There was yet another trader—a tall young American, +who had run away at Pleasant Island from the whaleship +<i>Seagull</i>—a difference of opinion with the captain having +resulted in Seth's being put in irons.</p> + +<p>Besides Dick Mills the boat-steerer, who had deserted +also from a whaler, there was another well-known trader, +a true type of the old-time escaped convict. Burnt browner +than a coffee berry is old Bob Ridley, scarred, weather-beaten, +and, in accordance with the fashion of runaway +sailors in the early days, tattooed like a Marquesas islander. +Very "dour" and dangerous was this veteran—thinking +no more of settling a difference with his ever-ready revolver +than of filling his ancient clay pipe. He had with him +two sons and three daughters, all married save the youngest +girl. Sons and daughters alike had intermarried with +natives, and the old man himself—his first wife being +dead—had possessed himself of a girl of tender years but +unyielding character. A native of Rapa-nui or Easter +Island, she possessed in a high degree the personal beauty +for which her race is famed throughout Polynesia. The +old trader, it seems, had lately visited Tahiti, and there +had dropped across the beautiful Lālia, and rescued her +from the streets of Papeite. When he returned to Pleasant +Island she accompanied him. She was a clever damsel, and +having once been an inmate of the military camp at Tahiti, +gave herself great airs over her step-children, though she +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +was the junior of the youngest girl. Amongst other accomplishments +Lālia could swear fluently both in French and +English, having besides a thorough command of whaleship +oaths which, I may observe, are unique in their way, and +never seen in print.</p> + +<p>Singing and dancing were kept up until the galley fire +was lit and coffee served out. Then as the tropic sea-mist +was dispelled by the first sun rays, we saw, at no great +distance, the verdurous hills that enclose with emerald walls +the harbour of Utwé. Far back, yet seeming but a cable's +length from the brig, rose the rugged coast, two thousand +feet in air, of Mount Crozier.</p> + +<p>The inner shore of the harbour, sheltered by the reef from +the fury of the terrific rollers, is surrounded by a broad belt +of darkest green mangroves and hibiscus, forming a dense +barrier, monotonous in colouring, but blending harmoniously +with sea and sky. A well-nigh impassable forest +coloured the landscape from sea to mountain top. Only +near the shore were groves of cocoa-palms waving their +plumy banners to the soft trade breezes. Interspersed at +intervals one descried plantations of bananas and sugar-cane, +yams and taro. The humidity of the climate shows +itself in the surpassing richness of the vegetation. Mountain +torrents foam and "rivulets dance their wayward +round" in many a sequestered glen. Cane thickets springing +densely from the deep alluvial mould form a safe retreat +for the wild boar, while the stately purple plumaged pigeons +preen themselves in the green gloom of this paradisal wild.</p> + +<p>The Captain walked the quarter-deck, giving orders to +make sail on the brig, glancing in a half amused, yet contemptuous +manner at the recumbent figures of the traders +who, overcome by their potations, lay slumbering on the deck.</p> + +<p>Utwé is but a small harbour, so that the Captain felt vexed +when daylight broke and revealed four whalers lying at +anchor in the little port, allowing us no room. But one of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +them had his canvas loosed, and we caught the strains of +"Shenandoah" as the crew lifted the anchor. We backed +our main-yard and lay to, while she sailed out. A fine sight +it was, as the whaler stood out through the narrow passage! +The huge rollers dashing swiftly past her weather-beaten +sides, made her roll so heavily that the boats on the davits +nearly touched the water with their keels. She came close +under our stern. Her captain stood up in one of the boats +and took off his hat.</p> + +<p>"How air you, Capt'n?" he drawled; "that's a beautiful +brig of yours. I've heard a deal of the <i>Leonora</i> and Captain +Hayston. I'm real sorry I hav'n't time to board you +and have a chat. There's another blubber-hunter coming +out after me, so you'd better wait awhile."</p> + +<p>Hayston answered him politely, and the <i>Marathon</i> soon +ran round the lee side of the island. In a quarter of an +hour she was followed by another ship, after which we filled +again and ran in, anchoring between the mangroves and the +<i>Europa</i> and <i>St. George</i>, New Bedford whaleships.</p> + +<p>Our first care was to land the cattle, and here the traders +and whalers were treated to a lively scene. The mate +Jansen, of whom I have before spoken, had been knocked +off duty by the Captain, who told him that he was no seaman, +and a cowardly dog besides, as he was always ready to +ill treat the native crew, but would not stand up to him.</p> + +<p>An incident, in which I was an actor, goes to show the +savage nature of the brute. One day, during our stay at +Ponapé, I happened to require a pair of steelyards that lay +in his cabin; on going for them he used insulting language, +and dared me to enter. He was lying in his bunk, and his +bloodshot eyes glared with rage as he took a pistol from +under his pillow. Keeping one eye on the pistol I went in +and took the steelyards. He leaped out, and a struggle +began. We fell on the deck—his whole weight upon me—but +I managed to get hold of the pistol, which I threw +over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>board. +As he freed himself and rose, he gave me a savage +kick on the knee which lamed me for a week. But I drew +back and landed him a left-hander, which catching him fair +in the face, sent him down senseless, while a stream of +blood poured from his mouth and ears.</p> + +<p>"Malie! malie!" shouted Black Johnny in Samoan (the +equivalent to "<i>habet</i>"), and the crew took up the cry in +tones of deep approval.</p> + +<p>We never spoke again after this encounter.</p> + +<p>However, just before we made ready to land the cattle, +he came aft and begged the Captain to reinstate him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jansen!" said Hayston, "I cannot permit you to +resume duty as mate of this brig. I have given the position +to Fiji Bill, as you are not fit for it. However, I will see +how you behave for the future, and may give you another +chance. Go on deck and assist to get these cattle into the +water."</p> + +<p>The traders and whalers were watching the operation +with great interest. The longboat, in charge of Fiji Billy, +was ready to tow the cattle on shore as soon as they were +lowered into the water. The first beast was swung safely +out of the main hold and over the side, when the tackle +parted aloft and the animal plunged into the sea, just missing +the boat. For a moment there was silence. We all ran +to the side, where we saw the bullock reappear and strike +bravely out for the mangroves, which he reached in safety.</p> + +<p>The Captain walked slowly over to Jansen, who was +engaged in bullying the boatswain.</p> + +<p>"Who rigged that tackle?" he asked in his most unruffled +tones; but I could see the colour mounting to his +forehead, as the laughter of the whaling crews fell upon +his ear.</p> + +<p>"I did," growled Jansen (edging towards his cabin, in +which he always kept loaded firearms), his sullen face +showing fear and hatred combined.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +"Keep to the deck, sir," broke forth the Captain, who +had foreseen this movement; the harsh, severe tones I +knew foretold disaster. "D—n you, sir, you are neither +good enough for an officer nor man before the mast. There +is not a kanaka on board this brig but could have rigged +that tackle in a seaman-like manner. Boy George, or even +one of the girls, could have made a better fist of it. You +have disgraced the brig in the presence of other ships. Go +to your bunk till after breakfast."</p> + +<p>And now Jansen brought immediate punishment on himself. +With one hand on the door of the deckhouse, he +turned round and muttered, "Why didn't you let the +women do it, then?"</p> + +<p>The next moment both men were struggling fiercely on +the deck,—Jansen making frantic efforts to fire a pistol he +had concealed in the bosom of his shirt; but the hand +which held it was gripped by the Captain, and the muzzle +pointed upwards.</p> + +<p>Jansen was an extremely powerful man, and, amid the +babel of tongues that were let loose, I heard one trader +say, "By ——! he's got the best of the Captain."</p> + +<p>But I noticed that while Jansen was almost spent, and +was breathing stertorously, the Captain had not yet put +forth the tremendous strength which, on sea or shore, I +never saw equalled. He was still holding Jansen's hand +with a vice-like grasp, when the pistol fell to the deck. +Suddenly freeing himself, he stepped back and dealt two +blows with wonderful quickness on the mate's face, cutting +his forehead and cheek to the bone. The man staggered +wildly—his features streaming with blood—then fell +senseless against one of the crew, who darted aside and let +him drop on the deck. A murmur of applause, mingled +with cries of pity from the women, arose from the spectators, +while the whaler crews rent the air with cheers for +"Bully Hayston."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +The Captain drew forth his handkerchief, with which he +removed a slight stain upon his face, then said in a mild +and pleasant voice, as if nothing had occurred, "Steward! +bring me a glass of water. Bill (to the Fijian) get these +other beasts up and put them ashore. Antonio! get Jansen's +traps together, and put them and him into the boat. +The man that points a pistol at me on board of this brig +only does it once. As I don't wish to hurt him again, I +must get rid of him."</p> + +<p>The cattle were soon landed and eating their fill on the +rich tract of littoral between Utwé and Coquille.</p> + +<p>That day I bought various articles of trade—including +ten tons of yams for Arrecifos. The Captain never interfered +with my dealings with the natives; so when +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'Liliak Sa'">Likiak Sâ</ins> +the missionary went to him, and in a whining tone complained +of my paying them in trade, he got the following +answer: "Don't want your people to be paid in trade, don't +you? Precisely so! you white chokered schemer—you +whited sepulchre! you want to see these hard-working +slaves of natives paid in cash, so that you and your brethren +may rob the poor devils of every dollar for church +tithes. The supercargo has my fullest confidence, and will +not rob any native of a cent. Go and talk to him."</p> + +<p>The missionary came to the trade-room, where I was selling +pigeon shot and powder to a man named Sree, and said +that he wished the natives paid in cash. Every Strong's +islander can speak English. So I turned to those present +and asked if I had suggested their taking trade instead of +dollars. On receiving this answer in the negative I told +him to clear out. He disregarded me, upon which I assisted +him to leave the cabin, while Lālia and Kitty covered him +with flour from the pantry.</p> + +<p>This provided me with a persistent and bitter enemy.</p> + +<p>About six o'clock the Captain went below, but rather +hastily returned, casting an anxious look to seaward. "The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +glass is falling fast," he said, "I can't make it out. I have +never known it to blow hard here at this time of year. +Still it is banking up to the westward."</p> + +<p>He hailed the whaleships, and saw that they had also +noticed the glass falling. In a few minutes the two captains +boarded us to have a consultation. The heavy, lowering +cloud to seaward had deepened in gloom, and the three +captains gazed anxiously at it.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen!" said Hayston, "we are in a bad place if +it comes on to blow. The land-breeze has died away, and +that it is going to blow from the sou'-west I am convinced. +We cannot tow out in the face of such a swell, even if +we had daylight to try it. To beat out by night would be +madness."</p> + +<p>The faces of the Yankee skippers lengthened visibly as +they begged Hayston to make a suggestion.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said at length, "your ships may ride out a +blow, for you've room to swing in, and if you send down +your light spars and be quick about it, and your cables +don't part, you'll see daylight. But with me it is different. +I cannot give the brig a fathom more cable; there +are coral boulders all around us, and the first one she +touches will knock a hole in her bottom. But now every +man must look to himself. I have two hundred people on +board, and my decks are lumbered up with them. Adios! +gentlemen, go on board and get your spars down for God's +sake."</p> + +<p>Then the Captain turned all his attention to getting the +brig ready for the storm that was even then close upon us. +In the shortest time our royal and topgallant yards were +down, the decks cleared of lumber, the native passengers +sent below, and five fathoms of cable hove in. Hayston +knew the brig would swing round with her head to the passage +as soon as the gale struck her, and unless he hove in +cable, must strike on one of the boulders he had spoken of.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +As yet there was not a breath of air, for after the last +whisper of the land-breeze had died away, the atmosphere +became surcharged with electricity, and the rollers commenced +to sound a ceaseless thunder, as they dashed themselves +upon the reef, such as I had never heard before. A +pall of darkness settled over us, and though the whaleships +were so near that the voices of their crews sounded +strange and ghostlike in our ears, we could see nothing +except the dull glow of the lamps alight in the cabins—showing +through the ports.</p> + +<p>Then we heard the voice of Captain Grant of the <i>St. +George</i>, "Stand by, Captain Hayston, it's coming along as +solid as a wall."</p> + +<p>A fierce gust whistled through the cordage, and then a +great white cloud of rain, salt spume, and spray enveloped +the brig, as with a shrill, humming drone, like a thousand +bagpipes in full blast, the full force of the gale struck us. +The brig heeled over, then swung quickly round to her +anchor, while the crew, every man at his station, sought +through the inky blackness that followed the rain squall to +see how the whaleships fared.</p> + +<p>But now the darkness deepened, if such were possible. +No star shone through the funereal gloom; while the enormous +rollers, impelled by the increasing force of the wind, +swept in quickest succession through the narrow passage. +The three ships rolled heavily.</p> + +<p>"Harry!" called out the Captain to the oldest trader, +"take your boats and land as many of the people as you +can. The sea is getting up fast—in half-an-hour it will +be breaking aboard the brig."</p> + +<p>The traders' boats were made fast to the ship's stern, +except two on deck.</p> + +<p>These were now hauled alongside, and old Harry, with +his four stalwart sons—splendid fellows they were physically—manned +one, and taking about fifty of their +follow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>ers, +who sprang over the side and were hauled into the boat, +the sons gave a wild shout and disappeared into the darkness.</p> + +<p>The other boat was equally lucky in not being stove in. +Pleasant Island Bill was in charge, and in a lull of the +wind I heard him call out to those on deck to throw the +women overboard and he would pick them up.</p> + +<p>Five or six of them leaped overboard and, swimming like +otters, gained the boat; many others naturally held back. +Standing on the deck clinging to the Captain's knees were +the two children, Toby and Kitty. Seizing Kitty in his +arms the Captain tossed her into the black waters close to +the boat, where one of the crew caught her by the hair and +pulled her in. Toby gave a yell of alarm and tried to dart +below, but I caught him and slung him over after Kitty. +Bill nearly missed catching him as he rose to the surface, +but he was taken in. Then the boat headed for the shore, +now only discernible by the white line of foam breaking; +into the mangroves.</p> + +<p>And now our troubles recommenced. The waters of the +harbour, generally placid as a mill-pond, were now running +mountains high, so quickly had the sea got up. The Captain, +who was standing at the stern sounding, and apparently +as cool as if he were trout fishing, beckoned me to +him, and placing his mouth to my ear, shouted—</p> + +<p>"Four fathoms under our stern—little enough if the sea +gets worse. But if the wind hauls another point we'll +touch that big coral mushroom on the port quarter, and then +it's good-bye to the <i>Leonora</i>!"</p> + +<p>The words had hardly left his lips when a strange and +awful lull of the wind occurred, rendering more intense the +enshrouding darkness, more dread and distinct the seething +wash and roar of the seas that broke on the weather +reef.</p> + +<p>The Captain sprang into the main rigging and held up +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +his hand to feel if the wind was coming from a new quarter. +For some minutes the brig rolled so madly that it was +all he could do to hold on.</p> + +<p>Then his strong, fearless voice sounded out: "Men! +who will man a boat to take a line to the <i>Europa</i>? If I +can get a hawser to the whaler to keep the brig's stern from +this boulder under our port quarter, it may save the ship. +If not, we must strike. There's a lull now, and a boat +could get away."</p> + +<p>After a momentary hesitation, Antonio the Portuguese, +Johnny Tilton, and two natives volunteered.</p> + +<p>"Good lads!" cried the Captain; "stand by, men, to +lower away the whaleboat." In a few minutes she was in +the water, and a whale-line made fast to a stout hawser +was coiled away in the bow, as with an encouraging cheer +from those on deck, the men gave way, and passing under +our stern made for the <i>Europa</i>.</p> + +<p>After twenty minutes of anxiety, for we could see nothing, +nor tell whether the boat had reached the <i>Europa</i> +safely or been stove in alongside, we saw her dart past the +stern again, and Antonio called out, "All right, Captain, +heave away on the hawser, the end's fast to the <i>Europa</i>."</p> + +<p>"Well done, lads!" cried the Captain; "but stay where +you are, and I'll get some more women on shore."</p> + +<p>The strange lull still continued, but a lurid glare showed +me the glass still falling steadily; when I told the Captain +this he sighed, for he knew that our best chance of safety +was gone. But he was a man of action.</p> + +<p>"Go below, Hilary!" he said quietly, "and get all the +papers, letters, and articles of value together—I'll send +them on shore with the women."</p> + +<p>In the cabin were eight or ten women; they gazed at me +with terror-stricken faces. "On deck, Mary!" I said. +"On deck all of you! there's a boat alongside, and some of +you can get ashore."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +Five of them, with old Mary, at once left the cabin, and +I heard their wild cries and screams of alarm as they were +seized by the Captain and crew, and thrown overboard to +be picked up by the boat.</p> + +<p>Lālia and the others remained in the cabin, clinging to +each other and sobbing with fear.</p> + +<p>I picked up a heavy trade chest, and laying mats and +rugs along the bottom and sides, stowed into it the chronometers, +a couple of sextants, charts, and what gold and +silver coin was in the Captain's secretary; also as many +Winchester carbines and cartridges as it would hold.</p> + +<p>"Here, girls! help me carry this on deck," I said in +Samoan to Lālia, who understood the language. We +dragged the heavy box on deck, and, by wonderful good +luck, it was lowered into the boat, which was now under +the ship's quarter, and in imminent danger of being +stove in.</p> + +<p>The Captain desired me to go ashore in the longboat and +take charge of the boat. I was just about to jump when +the brig gave a fearful plunge, and before she could recover, +a heavy roller crashed over the waist and nearly +smothered me. By clinging to the iron boat davits near +me, I managed to save myself from being carried overboard +with the debris of spars and timber that swept aft. +When I regained my breath I could see nothing of the boat. +She had, however, been swept ashore, and all in her landed +safely except Bill, who was knocked overboard, but washed +up into the mangroves.</p> + +<p>I felt the Captain's hand on my shoulder, as he asked +me if I thought the boat had gone under.</p> + +<p>"I think not, or we should have heard some of them +calling out; they can all swim."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps so," he replied, "but I fear not. I +don't care a cent about the loss of the dollars, but Bill is a +good fellow."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +Lālia had clung to the davits with me when the sea +struck us, and was now almost exhausted. So with the +Captain's help I carried her below into the now deserted +cabin, for the other women were gone; had, I supposed, +been washed overboard, for they were standing with us +when we lowered the chest.</p> + +<p>The Captain then hastened on deck, telling me that the +wind was coming away from the south. He had scarcely +left me when I heard the dismal drone of the gale again, +and his voice shouting to the carpenter to stand by and cut +away the masts, for the seas were now breaking clean over +the bows, and sweeping along the decks with resistless force.</p> + +<p>Being almost hove short, the ship could not rise quickly +enough to the seas, and was besides rolling so much that she +threatened to turn turtle every minute. It was impossible +for any one to cross the deck, so madly was the brig rolling, +and so fiercely were the seas sweeping her decks in +quick succession; and so for a while all hands waited till a +better chance offered to cut away.</p> + +<p>In the mean time I had dragged out another trade chest, +and first securing my own papers and placing them in the +bottom, I filled it with such articles as I thought would +prove valuable if we did not save the ship.</p> + +<p>Lālia rendered me great assistance now. I filled a wineglass +of brandy from the decanter, and made her drink it, +for her teeth were chattering, and her lips blue with cold +and terror combined.</p> + +<p>Together we managed to get the chest half-way up the +companion, when another plunge made me slip, and the +heavy box jammed the girl's feet against the side of +the companion lining. I called loudly for help, as I could +not extricate her from under the box. Fortunately, four +native seamen heard me, and lifted the chest off her legs.</p> + +<p>Then I heard the Captain's voice calling out, "Well +done, boys! Rotumah men, brave fellows, in a boat!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +Carrying the girl below again, I dropped her in the steward's +cabin, told her to stay there till I came back, and ran +on deck.</p> + +<p>The Captain met me, and, pointing to a dark, indistinct +mass, rising and falling near the ship's stern, said, "There's +real grit for you!"</p> + +<p>It was one of the trader's whaleboats, manned by four +Rotumah men and a native of Danger Island. Two of +these brave fellows had been washed ashore in the second +sea that had struck us, and with three others, who had +reached the mangroves in another boat, had put out again +to return to the brig and save their shipmates.</p> + +<p>The Captain now called out to those who were left on +board, and told them that there was a chance of some of +them getting ashore, by jumping over as the boat approached +and getting into her. As for himself, if three or four good +men would stand by him, he would attempt to cut away the +masts, and perhaps save the ship as the hawser was made +fast to the <i>Europa</i>.</p> + +<p>It was a new one, and might not part; but if it did, +nothing could help the brig from sticking on the detached +coral boulders that lay so close under the stern.</p> + +<p>Seizing her child in her arms, a powerfully-built Ocean +Island woman sprang into the seething foam-caldron, and +disregarding our cries to make for the boat, struck out for +the nearest point of the mangroves. Next morning the +child was found unharmed on a small beach, more than a +mile away, and the body of the mother lying dead beside +her, with a fearful gash on her temple and one foot missing,—the +poor babe gazing at the cold face, and wondering +why she did not wake when she called to her. Then others +followed the women, some getting into the boat, and others +letting the sea take them in the direction of the shore.</p> + +<p>"Where is the second mate?" shouted the Captain to the +coxswain of the rescuing boat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +"On shore with the traders, sir; all the boats but one +are stove in on the beach, and he can't get out again."</p> + +<p>"All right, lads, don't attempt to come out again; but +wait a minute." Then turning to me, "You must go +ashore now in this boat. She has not many in her; and if +her head is kept right into the break between the mountains +she'll run up into the mangroves."</p> + +<p>But I said I would take my chance with the ship. I was +a good swimmer, and in that time of danger, even despair, +I could not leave the Captain.</p> + +<p>He pressed my hand silently, then called out, "All right, +men, give way, the supercargo stays with me and the ship"; +one dash of the oars, a wailing cry, a shout which out-toned +it, and the boat disappeared, as if swallowed up by +the darkness or the deep.</p> + +<p>We were not clustered together aft. Those of the crew +that had stood by the ship were hanging on to the main +rigging. The Captain, who had hitherto intended cutting +away both masts at once, told me he fancied the ship was +straining and plunging less, and that he would only cut +away as a last resource.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he bent his glance at the hawser that was made +fast to the <i>Europa</i>, and then pointed over to the seething +water under our stern. I saw we were almost over a huge +coral boulder, which every now and then showed itself bare.</p> + +<p>"By ——! those fellows on board the <i>Europa</i> are paying +out the hawser. We were fifty feet from that rock when +the hawser was made fast and had a strain on it, and now +it's right under her stern. Can any of you see the whaler's +cabin lights?"</p> + +<p>The men looked through the blinding mists of spray that +flew in our faces, and stung like whip-lashes when the brig +was lifted high on a towering sea. The hawser tightened +like an iron bar, but suddenly fell as if it had parted or +been cast off.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +"The cursed dogs!" said the Captain, opening and shutting +his hands spasmodically, "they are paying out, and +letting us go to the devil!"</p> + +<p>And now a tremendous sea swept along and broke just as +it reached abreast the mainmast. We felt the brig strike. +Sea after sea tumbled in over the bulwarks, and a solid +sheet of water broke over us in the main rigging, sweeping +three or four men overboard.</p> + +<p>When I cleared my throat of the water I had swallowed, +I saw the Captain with a rifle in his hand, and then followed +the flash as he fired in the direction of the <i>Europa</i>.</p> + +<p>"Captain," I cried, "what good will that do? She may +be ashore herself in as bad a fix as we are."</p> + +<p>He pushed me aside as I placed my hand on his arm. +"Stand clear, Hilary! I tell you these cowardly hounds +are deliberately wrecking me. That ship is in a safe place, +and could ride out a heavier gale than this."</p> + +<p>"Captain," I began, when another sea lifted the brig's +bow high in the air; then, with a dull crash, we struck +stern on, and I saw the hawser had either parted or been +cut away. The rudder had been torn from the stern-post, +and ripped its way through the timbers with a fearful tearing +sound. Again the Captain's face showed itself to me +almost as white as the hell of boiling foam around us.</p> + +<p>"My ship is dearer to me than my life!" he said, as he +cast the rifle from him and stood gazing out into the howling +storm, amid which all the voices of earth and air seemed +to be contending.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, with a pang of pity, I remembered that Lālia +was in the steward's cabin. I dashed down below. Already +the water was running into the hold, and as I gained +the cabin the ship once more struck violently under my +feet.</p> + +<p>"Lālia! Lālia!" I called, "come with me. Can you +walk?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +The girl was sitting up in the bunk, her hair unloosed, +her eyes dilated with terror, as she gazed into the dimly-lighted +cabin, and saw the water washing around it.</p> + +<p>She could hardly stand with the pain in her bruised feet, +but I lifted her out. Then she tore off her dress, stripped +to the waist, and, hand in hand, we succeeded in gaining +the companion-way just as a torrent of water filled the +cabin and put out the lamps.</p> + +<p>I felt the Captain's hand grasp me round the waist as we +stumbled out on deck, and heard him say, "Hold on to me, +Hilary! hold on like grim death, my girl!" as we were +swept along by a sea against the bulwarks on the starboard +side.</p> + +<p>Some of the men had clung to a boat that we carried on +top of the deck-house, which had been washed over the +side. They had no oars, but the backwater from the reef +dashed her up against the ship, and I have an indistinct +remembrance of the Captain dragging us along with him, +and attempting to lift the girl up, when a towering wave +struck us right amidships and drove us all over together +on top of the boat, which was already stove in.</p> + +<p>I should have gone under then but for Lālia, for I had +got a blow on the side from a piece of wreckage. Anyhow, +what followed I cannot remember, for when I came +to my senses it was daylight, and I was lying under some +cocoa-nut trees with Lālia, and one of Harry Skilling's +native retainers named Karta, bathing my back with fresh +water.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>My first inquiry was for the Captain, and I was relieved +to hear from Lālia that he was visible at that moment, +directing the crew to save wreckage from the brig. The +two whaleships had ridden out the gale in safety, and the +<i>Europa</i> was already under weigh. I thought it just as well +it was so, for Hayston would, I am sure, have attempted +to seize her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +Lālia told me that we clung to the boat till she struck a +coral rock and went to pieces. Then every one was separated. +She had been seized by Karta, and, still keeping +hold of me, the three of us had come ashore together. She +said also that my back was badly cut with the coral. The +poor girl had a terrible gash on her arm, and this she had +neglected to attend to me. I had a deep wound on my face, +which caused me great pain, as a piece of tough coral had +broken off in it.</p> + +<p>Lālia was almost nude, and I had only the remnants of +a pair of duck trousers. We did not feel cold, however, as +the storm had ceased, and the sun was now shining brightly. +The wind had gone down, and the harbour was nearly as +smooth as a mountain lake. The only visible sign of the +disaster of the night was the maintopmast of the <i>Leonora</i>, +showing where she had gone down.</p> + +<p>From the bank of mangroves on which we were located +there was no access to the village of Utwé, where the rest +of the ship's company were. Deep channels separated the +two portions of the harbour. Karta was about to swim +over to tell the Captain where I was, when Lālia caught +him by the arm and pointed to the water. I have read a +good many tall yarns about sharks, but never till now +could I believe in their being as numerous as a shoal of +minnows.</p> + +<p>The channels were simply alive with the brutes dashing +to and fro, lashing the water into foam, and contesting +with each other for dark objects floating near the surface. +I shuddered instinctively, but Lālia laughed, and explained +that the dead bodies were those of pigs washed overboard +from the brig.</p> + +<p>Presently the tall figure of Karta attracted the notice of +some of the people on the other side, and Lālia said the +"ariki vaka" was coming over to us in one of the traders' +whaleboats.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +The Captain sprang out of the boat, and seeing me lying +down with my head in the girl's lap thought I was dead.</p> + +<p>"My dear boy," he said, taking both my hands and pressing +them, "are you badly hurt?"</p> + +<p>I showed him my back, and said I felt most pain in my +side, and whereupon I suffered ten excruciating pains in +one as he extracted the piece of flat coral from my face. +He then called one of the boat's crew, and told him to take +off his shirt, one sleeve of which he tore off and bound up +Lālia's arm. He then gave her the mutilated garment to +cover her bare body, saying in his old cheerful manner that +her husband was all right, and was out searching the +beaches for her. She made a gesture of indifference, and +then fainted away. As soon as she revived she was lifted +into the boat, and we pushed off for the village.</p> + +<p>The Captain kept pressing my hand all the way over, and +told me that since daylight he had been looking among the +wreckage coming ashore and searching the beach for me, +when some one saw our three figures in the cocoa-nut grove, +and said two were white. Hayston knew this must be +Lālia and myself, as she had a very fair skin. He was +sincerely pleased at my escape, and no words need express +my relief at his safety.</p> + +<p>He took us forthwith to one of the villagers' houses, and +told the people to attend to us, and see that we wanted for +nothing. He further insisted that I should not attempt to +render him any assistance until I was perfectly recovered. +I could only nod acquiescence, as my side was paining me +terribly.</p> + +<p>A warm grasp of my hand and a kind look to Lālia and +he was gone.</p> + +<p>One of the Kusaie women in the house told us that a +message had gone up to the king, and that a native doctor +named Srulik would soon come down and cure my back with +leaves in the island fashion. She also informed Lālia that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +her husband had gone away in a canoe to look for her +body, with two natives, but that he had come across a case +of gin, and was now dead drunk on the opposite side of +Utwé. It is hardly to be expected that a young girl could +feel love for a man of her husband's years; but tears of +humiliation coursed down her cheeks when the woman +added that he had already asked an Ocean Island girl to be +wife to him.</p> + +<p>About four o'clock in the afternoon messengers arrived +from Lêlé with a message of regret from the king to Captain +Hayston, and an invitation for me to Chabral harbour, +so that I could get better quickly; and he could send his +own boat for me. But I did not want to be separated from +the Captain, and said I would come and visit him when I +got permission.</p> + +<p>Queen Sê sent me a large basket of cooked pigeons and +fruit. Taking out a few for myself and Lālia, I sent the +rest to the Captain, who was glad of them for his weary +and hungry men.</p> + +<p>For the next few days I suffered fearfully with the pain +in my side, and though the Captain visited me twice a day, +and tried all he could to cheer me up, I fell into a hopeless +state of despondency. All the time Lālia had remained in +the house, her husband, not having finished the case of +gin, never coming near her. Her stepsons and daughters +disliked her, and therefore avoided the house where we +were staying.</p> + +<p>The Captain told me that her arm was cut to the bone, +and that the trade chest that had fallen against her had injured +one foot badly. Never as long as I live shall I forget +the unwearied attention and kindness which the poor girl +showed me during our stay in the village. Though lame, +and with only the use of one arm, she never left my side, +and strove by every means in her power to allay the agony +I endured—answering to my petulance and irritability +only with smiles and kind words.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +The Captain told me that he had saved a good many articles +from the wreck; that the big trade chest had come +ashore, and that the money and firearms were in a safe +place. A quantity of liquor had also been saved, and +already some fierce fights had taken place, but the traders +had in most instances behaved well, and assisted him to +maintain order. He told me also that Lālia's husband had +taken away a lot of liquor into the impassable forest that +lines the north side of Utwé, and, with two of his sons and +several women, was having a big carouse.</p> + +<p>"The virtuous and Christian Strong's islanders had," he +said, "stolen about a thousand dollars' worth of trade that +had been washed ashore. But," he added quietly, "I'll +talk to them like a father as soon as I get a house built, +and knock the devil out of those Pleasant islanders besides. +They seem disposed to cut all our throats."</p> + +<p>A couple of days after this, Hayston came to me with a +letter from Lālia's husband, which he handed to me. I +don't know whether amusement or indignation predominated +as I read it, written as it was on a piece of account +paper.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Strong's Island</span>, <i>March 11th</i>. +</div> + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Supercargo <i>Leonora</i> Brig. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend.</span>—I heer my wife have took up with you, and say +she do'ent want anny mo-ar truck with her lawful husban. Captin +Hayston say No, but she must be cotton strong to you, not to come +to me when I look for her neerly one week amung two thousan sharks, +as I can prove, but I bare you no ill-wil, for I got anuther wife, but +you must give me the three rings she ware, and I warn you I'm not +responsble.—I remane, your true and sincere friend.</p> + +<p><i>P.S.</i>—Lal can read as well as me, and you can let her read this. +She is a good girl, and I bear no ill-wil.</p> +</div> + +<p>The Captain laughed when I read out this precious document, +and told me not to take matters so seriously. He +then sat down and chatted for half-an-hour, saying that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +as soon as he had finished saving the wreckage, he had +called the traders together, and laid certain proposals before +them to which they had agreed.</p> + +<p>These were that the traders and their followers would +consider themselves under his direction, in which case he +would engage to provide food for them during their stay +on the island. They were not to have any commercial +dealings with the people of Strong's Island, and their +natives were to assist the crew of the <i>Leonora</i> in erecting +houses for their joint accommodation. After which he +would endeavour to charter a vessel, probably a passing +whaleship, to take the whole lot of us to Providence Island. +Should no vessel call in six months' time, he would take a +boat's crew and make for Millé Lagoon, six hundred miles +distant. If the ketch I had brought down from Samoa was +still afloat, he would bring her back, and take the people in +detachments to Providence Island. He feared, however, +that no more whalers would be calling in for ten months, +as the <i>St. George</i> and <i>Europa</i> were the last of the fleet +which was making, viâ Japan, for the Siberian coast, +"right whaling."</p> + +<p>He left us then, saying he had established a little republic +on the narrow strip of land that lay on the sea-side of +Utwé village.</p> + +<p>Then I gave Lālia the letter I had received from her +reprobate husband. She read it in silence and returned it +to me, but I could see that the heartless old scoundrel's +words had wounded her deeply. She took off some rings +from her fingers, and sent them to the Captain to hand to +the old man. "Do you think," she said, "that I can ever +get back to Rapa-nui?" (Easter Island.)</p> + +<p>Her father, she went on to say, was dead, and her mother +had been among those unfortunate people who in 1866 were +seized by three Peruvian slavers and taken to work the +guano deposits on the Chincha Islands. She, when about +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +fourteen, had married one of the captains of one of the +ships owned by the great firm of Brander of Tahiti. The +tales she told me of his brutality and ill-usage during his +drunken fits of passion moved me to sincere pity. The +unmitigated rascal deliberately sold his child wife to an +American (or a man who called himself one), and by him +she was taken to San Francisco and delivered into yet more +hopeless slavery. Here she made the acquaintance of a +Tahitian half-caste. She and this girl succeeded in escaping +and paying their passages to Tahiti, where they landed +penniless and starving.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>From Tahiti she was taken by her present husband.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h2>A KING AND QUEEN</h2> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>l'ami du maison</i>."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Captain," I said, startled and alarmed, "are you serious?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Captain," I said, "there are two hundred and fifty men +on Strong's Island; surely you would not dispossess them? +Besides, they will fight."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I turned the subject, for I saw by his stern expression +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +that he meant what he said, and that any trifling incident +would perhaps bring matters to an issue.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 Lālia 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.</p> + +<p>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 Lālia, they fitted her capitally.</p> + +<p>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, Lālia, come to me if +you are in any trouble, and I will see you righted," he said +in parting.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +Lālia. 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 Lālia her successor looked +frightened, and said she would like to go back, but was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I had ascended half-way to the spur when I heard a shot.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have not fired."</p> + +<p>"Quick," he shouted, "come down—there's mischief +among the women."</p> + +<p>Rushing down the leaf-strewn spur I soon joined him. +We ran together till we reached the boat. There a tragedy +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Captain and I looked at one another. Each read the +thoughts that passed through the other's mind—Lālia had +fired the shot! But, calling the women out of the boat, the +Captain sternly forbade them to mention Lālia'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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +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 <i>Leonora</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +mother's son of them if I detect any treachery.... And +so you wish to leave me?"</p> + +<p>I considered a moment and then answered, "Sorry am I +to say it, but I do."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One of these books was missing, although I remembered +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Captain," I said, "I have come to say farewell."</p> + +<p>He slowly raised his head, and with sorrow depicted on +his countenance, gave me his hand.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +thither I decided to go, as at the village of Moūt dwelt a +man named Kusis, who had several times pressed me to +visit him.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Moūt, 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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'turtle'">turtles</ins> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Moūt.</p> + +<p>Then I saw a canoe shoot out from the land about a +quar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>ter +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 <i>Leonora</i>, +none would have been welcomed so warmly as I was now +by those simple, kind-hearted people.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Kusis, it seems, had often been to see me when I lay +sick at Utwé, and was unconscious of his presence. The +Captain and Lālia 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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +the canoe, besides a large tin of powder and plenty of +caps.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Unlike the people of Utwé, the villagers of Moūt 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.</p> + +<p>After a while I received a letter from Captain Hayston, +and with it a large parcel. The letter ran as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Boy.</span>—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,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature"> + <span class="smcap">W. H. Hayston.</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I opened the parcel, which I found contained all sorts of +articles likely to be useful to me, with ten pounds of +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>bacco, +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 Lālia, and at once excited the admiration +of Kusis and <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'Tulpe'">Tulpé</ins>, +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>I remained that night, and we spent a merry evening. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +In the morning, after a breakfast of turtle eggs and roast +pig, Kusis and I prepared to return.</p> + +<p>The Captain urged me to go by way of Chabral harbour, +and pay my promised visit to the king.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Moūt, when he could +bring his family with him, and give them a week's feast +on pork and turtle.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Queen Sê now came in, saying in her prettiest English, +"Oh! you naughty boy! Why you no come see king, see +<i>me</i>? 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?"</p> + +<p>I told the queen I was still unmarried, and thought I +should remain so.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>By this time old Tokusar was asleep, with his head on +the table, his inevitable Bible open at the Psalms of David +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +(printed in the Kusaie dialect) in the leaf of his armchair, +and the half-emptied gin bottle encircled by his left arm.</p> + +<p>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 <i>passée</i> period in Polynesia. She +was extremely vain, but had a quick perception of humour. +She and the Captain always got on famously together.</p> + +<p>Drawing our chairs up to a side table, she brought me +a number of bound volumes of <i>Leslie's Illustrated Paper</i>, +sent to her by the queen of Hawaii.</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>me</i> so plenty time. Well, never mind, I try make +everything all right."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +to the men—for the women touched none—a wild orgie +began.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Moūt, 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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +Utwé, and tell the master that a shipwrecked crew were +on the island."</p> + +<p>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 Moūt. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>St. George</i>. 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.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>St. George</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Moūt, where I found the +villagers in a great state of excitement, under the impression +that I had gone away in the ship.</p> + +<p>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 +prom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>ised +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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'?"</p> + +<p>The skipper <i>had</i> heard of him,—things true, and untrue +likewise. Then Barney told him a tale of how the <i>Leonora</i> +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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They had found their way over to the lee side of the +island, and made their way along the beach to Moūt.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +huge pigs, with, long teeth growing out of their heads and +eyes as big as cocoa-nuts."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Early one morning I made ready for a start back to Coquille +harbour, and found Kusis awaiting me in the king's +courtyard.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 Moūt for me by native carriers.</p> + +<p>As I was bidding my royal friends good-bye, promising +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +to come and see them whenever I got tired of Moūt, 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?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>I learnt from Kitty that Lālia 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 +Lālia. 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.</p> + +<p>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 Lālia, who was looking as beautiful as +ever. Indeed, it was hard to say which was the handsomer, +she or the hostess.</p> + +<p>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-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>bye +to them with some regrets, I rejoined Kusis, much +wondering inwardly whether Lālia, 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.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h2>"MY LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY"</h2> + + +<p>In October I received another letter from the Captain, +asking me to meet him in Chabral harbour. He had become +so tired of waiting for a ship that he had decided to start +in a boat for Millé. He had effected a reconciliation with +the king, and was paying him a friendly visit. He meant +to arrange with him regarding the people and the management +of the station at Utwé during his absence.</p> + +<p>I left Moūt at daylight, and, as I said good-bye to Tulpé +and the little daughter, how little I thought that I should +never cross their hospitable threshold again!</p> + +<p>Kusis came with me, and we took the route by the +weather side of the island, reaching Lêlé in the afternoon. +On my way to the king's house we came across a number of +women catching shrimps in the rivulet that runs into +Chabral harbour, and among them were Kitty of Ebon and +Lālia.</p> + +<p>These two called to us to stop, as they had news for me. +Coming out of the water, they threw off their wet clothes +and put on dry ones. Then the four of us sat down on a +low coral wall under the shade of some trees.</p> + +<p>Kitty of Ebon began the conversation by saying that the +Captain had arrived the night before, and had a long talk +with the king, whom he told that he was going to try and +reach Millé in the largest of the ship's boats, though he +would have to contend against the north-east trades the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +whole way. He wished the king to become responsible +for the management and safety of the station of Utwé.</p> + +<p>This the king didn't see his way to do, as he could never +control the Pleasant islanders. The remaining white men +at Chabral harbour would regain their control over them as +soon as Hayston had left; that it was not wise of the Captain +to attempt to reach Millé.</p> + +<p>He also showed great fear of being punished if the Captain +came back and found his station pillaged.</p> + +<p>Kitty of Ebon, who was present at the interview, further +narrated that the king, finding that Hayston was bent on +setting out for Millé, made another proposal to the Captain, +who had accepted it on the condition that I would concur. +This was that all the oil, boats, and stores, with the women, +should be conveyed to Chabral harbour and put under the +king's protection, who professed then to be anxious that I +should come and live with him in case the traders made an +attack on him, and tried to seize the property or carry off +the women.</p> + +<p>Both Kitty and Lālia urged me not to do this, for, they +said, "as soon as the Captain goes away there will be fighting +here; the king is weak, and the traders do not fear +him. Besides, they are plotting with Likiak Sâ, the missionary, +who has promised them to win the king over. +They say that you and Black Johnny are the only two men +that will stand by the Captain's property when guns and +knives are out, as young Harry is to stay at Utwé till the +Captain returns."</p> + +<p>I inquired of the girls what the traders proposed doing +with me?</p> + +<p>"Shoot you, Black Johnny, and young Harry. Then, +when the Captain is once away, they will be strong enough, +and the king will not interfere with them."</p> + +<p>Lālia then told me that one of the trader's wives had told +her that they had arranged to have us three shot by some +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +of their natives as soon as the Captain had left for Millé. +The girls again urged me not to comply with the king's +request, and to dissuade Hayston from his intended voyage. +Indeed, they tried to prevent me from going to the +king at all, Kitty urging me to come to her house, and +write a letter to the Captain asking him to meet me +there.</p> + +<p>The thought of the Captain being a victim, as well as +myself and young Harry, to such treachery decided me in +an instant, and breaking away from the women, Kusis and +I soon reached the king's house.</p> + +<p>The traders who were living at Chabral kept carefully +within doors. When I reached the courtyard of the king's +house I found no one there but His Majesty and Likiak Sâ +engaged in earnest conversation. The native missionary +glanced uneasily at me, and I at once opened out on him by +calling him a treacherous dog, striking him at the same +time, and threatening him with the Captain's vengeance. +He picked himself up and left.</p> + +<p>"Where is the Captain?" I said to the king.</p> + +<p>"In my oil-shed," he answered in a troubled voice.</p> + +<p>But I said nothing to him, and, finding Hayston, shortly +made him acquainted with what I had learnt from Kitty of +Ebon. His face darkened as he strode off to the king.</p> + +<p>At that moment the natives called out that there was a +vessel in sight, upon which he turned back, and together we +walked to the beach in time to see a fine fore and aft +schooner sailing in, which Hayston declared was the +<i>Matautu</i>, belonging to Captain Warner.</p> + +<p>"He would never have ventured in if he knew I was +here," quoth the Captain grimly; "and if I had a few of +my boys he'd never go out again, unless the schooner had a +new master."</p> + +<p>I reasoned with him against the folly of such an action, +when he said that he would use fair means at first, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +would try and charter the <i>Matautu</i>. He then went to +the king, and I could see meant mischief. I was glad +to notice the traders getting into canoes and making for +the schooner, where they no doubt thought they would +be safe, as Hayston had only two native boys with him, +and would hardly attempt to tackle the schooner single-handed.</p> + +<p>Likiak Sâ was again with the king when we returned. +However, he ran away at once, narrowly missing a chair +which the Captain threw at him. Old Tokusar seemed +scared, as he watched the Captain's darkening face. He +inquired in a shaking voice, "Why you so much angry?"</p> + +<p>"Because," answered the Captain, "the men who have +been living on my food have been plotting against me, and +that scheming missionary is at the bottom of it; but look +you, King Tokusar, and mark my words well! If I suspect +you, too, I will burn your house and town, and drown you +like a rat in your own turtle pond!"</p> + +<p>"Captain," I said, "what folly! You are here almost +alone, and all but in the power of your enemies. Return to +the boats and get back to Utwé."</p> + +<p>He calmed down almost immediately, and said he would +see Captain Warner. He asked me to come with him. I +mentioned the fact of the traders being on board the ship, +and urged him to be cautious.</p> + +<p>We got in the boats, and pulled towards the schooner. +Before we were half-way across the Captain laughed contemptuously, +and pointed to the traders, who were already +leaving the schooner's side in canoes, and making rapidly +for the western side of the harbour.</p> + +<p>Captain Warner seemed under great excitement when +we stepped on deck, but the cordial manner of Hayston's +greeting at once reassured him, so that we were received +most politely and asked below.</p> + +<p>Captain Warner seemed so intensely amiable that I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +could hardly help laughing, and as he kept his glass constantly +filled, or rather emptied, his amiability increased +proportionately.</p> + +<p>In the course of conversation a discussion arose as to +some business transactions with Hayston while we were at +Ponapé, and the skipper laughingly remarked that he had +over-reached him in the matter. The Captain, who was +now perfectly calm, gave a pleasantly-worded denial, and +said, "No, Captain Warner, I think my supercargo must +have got to windward of <i>you</i> there."</p> + +<p>A quarrel ensued forthwith. The burly skipper became +offensive, and it ended in our agreeing to meet with pistols +on the beach at daylight next morning.</p> + +<p>However, at dawn the <i>Matautu</i> had towed out with the +first breath of the land-breeze, and was already outside +the passage standing to the westward. So the duel did not +come off. I honestly think the skipper was not afraid, +but I suspect he decided not to risk another encounter with +Hayston, and so thought discretion was the better part of +valour.</p> + +<p>Next day we again heard the stirring cry of "Sail ho!" +The new arrival was the <i>Morning Star</i> from Honolulu, +from which about ten o'clock landed the Rev. Mr. Morland—a +portly, white bearded old gentleman, who at once +made his way to his residence, while the Captain and I +returned to South harbour. Kusis went home, with a +promise from me to follow him next day, the honest fellow +begging me to delay as little as possible.</p> + +<p>It was dark when we started, and a fierce black squall +struck us just after we got out of the passage, nearly capsizing +the boat. The Captain thought we had better return, +but I was anxious to get back to Moūt, and said I was sure +the squall would not last. So we reefed the sail and dashed +out to sea close-hauled, for the squall came from the westward, +and was dead against us. However, the wind +con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>tinued +to increase, and the little boat shipped two or three +heavy seas. So we agreed to turn back.</p> + +<p>We went about in a lull, and had made the entrance to +the passage, as we thought, when the Captain called out, +"Look out! here comes a sea!"</p> + +<p>Looking back, I saw a huge black roller almost on top of +us. The next minute I felt we had touched. I shouted, +"By Jove! we're not in the passage at all—it's only a +creek in the reef. Jump out, quick!"</p> + +<p>We all sprang out of the boat on to the jagged coral, then +the waves, poised high in air, dashed down upon us, and +we were all washed clear over into a pool of smooth water. +The boat was capsized, and with broken masts and oars +gone, was swept in far ahead of us, till she disappeared in +the darkness. We clung to the reef as best we could, and +succeeded in reaching a coral "mushroom" that was just +a wash. "We'll be all right here," said the Captain, in his +cool, cheerful way; "are you boys all right?"—the two +native boys were, like ourselves, cut about the arms and +legs by the coral. But they thought nothing of that. +What they dreaded were the <i>sharks</i>!</p> + +<p>Fortunately the tide was falling, and the coral knoll was +gradually showing more of its surface above the water. +Otherwise none of us would have reached the shore; for +in these deep water passages the sharks literally swarm.</p> + +<p>A sea occasionally broke close to us, but not with sufficient +force to wash any of us away. Suddenly the Captain +said, "Boys, I see some people fishing ashore with torches," +and he gave a resounding hail. An answer came back, and, +what was more to the purpose, a canoe, in which we were +rescued from our precarious position and taken ashore. +The boat was searched for, and found drifting out to sea. +But as long as I live I shall never forget the horrible feeling +of standing on that coral knoll, in the wave-washed +darkness, knowing that if we were once dislodged there was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +no chance of escaping the sharks. We were all good swimmers, +but the Kusaie natives told us that the passage of +Chabral harbour was swarming with the dreaded reef-shark, +that seeks its prey, chiefly turtle, in the foam and swirl of +the breakers on the reef. We slept that night in a native +house, some distance from the village of Lêlé, and at daylight +proceeded along the beach to the king's house. The +old king did not appear; the queen was very hospitable to +us, but seemed nervous and constrained in her manner to +the Captain. Once when I was standing apart from him, +she said in a low tone that I had better return to Moūt, +where I would be safe, adding, "Don't stay along with Captain. +Man-of-war come from Honolulu to take him away. +By and by I tell him."</p> + +<p>I afterwards regretted that I did not attach more importance +to her warning, and tell the Captain; subsequent +events showed that both the king and queen had been informed +by Mr. Morland of the impending arrival of a man-of-war, +which had been searching for Hayston for months +previously. Later in the day, while the Captain was +superintending repairs to the boat, Mr. Morland and the +native colleague were announced. The white missionary +requested to see the Captain. I may mention, that during +our cruise to the north-west in the <i>Leonora</i> we had occasionally +met with the missionary brig, <i>Morning Star</i>, and +had been visited by Mr. Morland once or twice.</p> + +<p>On this occasion he met us with the usual smile and outstretched +hand.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Captain Hayston? I am glad—very +glad to see you, and yet sorry; for you have my sincere +sympathy for the loss of your beautiful vessel."</p> + +<p>"Morland!" came the quick reply, "you know you are +lying most infernally. You are no more pleased to see me +than I am to see you. Our interests are too antagonistic for +us to take kindly to each other. So let us at least be candid!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +"Oh! Captain Hayston!" rejoined Mr. Morland, "you +terribly unkind man! Why must you hate the poor parson +so? Oh! my friend, my countryman, let us shake hands +as fellow-Christians should do when they meet in these +lonely, beautiful spots of God's bright universe!"</p> + +<p>Hayston smiled, but if he had but known that Mr. Morland +was, even then, anxiously looking for the tall spars +of one of Her Majesty's warships, and had actually been in +communication with her captain a few days previously, he +would possibly have half-strangled his pleasant-mannered +visitor then and there.</p> + +<p>After a short chat the missionary returned to the king's +house with the Captain, while I busied myself with the +repairs of the boat, when the startling cry of "Sail ho!" +rang through the quiet village. I ran up to the king's +house, and found the Captain in the courtyard playing a +game of dominoes with Queen Sê.</p> + +<p>The missionary and Likiak Sâ were just coming out from +an interview with the king. The air of exultation on their +faces as they saw the natives hurrying to and fro at the +cry of "Sail ho!" struck me at once.</p> + +<p>The Captain sprang up at once, and said, "Let us take the +boat and go out to her, she may want a pilot"; and we +walked through the house to the stone wharf that abutted +on one side of the king's establishment. We jumped into +the boat, and with a crew of four natives pulled quickly +out of the passage. On gaining the open we could see no +sail, and concluded that the ship must be coming round the +north-eastern side of the island, where she had been sighted +by the natives. We then set sail, and commenced beating +to windward, and about half-an-hour afterwards, as the +little boat rode on the swell, we got a sight of the lofty +masts and square yards of a man-of-war under steam, as +she rounded the high land on the north-east side of the +island<ins title="Transcriber's Note: added missing .">.</ins></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +With a sudden exclamation the Captain stood up and +gazed at the steamer. He then seated himself and seemed +lost in thought. The great vessel came steadily on, then +altered her course by a couple of points, and steered in the +direction of the passage. I could see that she was under a +full head of steam, and was travelling at a great rate. A +volume of thick smoke was issuing from the yellow funnel, +and as there is always a heavy sea off the windward side of +Strong's Island she rolled tremendously, the water pouring +from her black painted sides in sheets.</p> + +<p>The Captain watched her intently. "That's a man-of-war, +Hilary! and a Britisher too," he said. "Though she +may be an American—the <i>Portsmouth</i> or the <i>Jamestown</i>; +I can't tell with that smoke blowing ahead of her. If she's +an American cruiser, she'll take me prisoner right enough. +It's no use attempting to escape now. It's too late; I must +take my chance. In that case you must get away to Utwé +as quick as possible, and do the best you can with the +station and the people. You know where the money is +stowed away, and what to do with it if we are fated not to +meet again."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>As he said these words the smoke cleared away from the +cruiser, and we had a splendid view of her as she rose +majestically to a heavy sea, and fell gracefully into the +trough again. "A Britisher, by ——!" exclaimed the +Captain, "and a beauty too; give way, my lads, she's +stopped her engines. Let us get aboard, and I'll soon learn +what's in store for me."</p> + +<p>In order that it may be understood what reason the Captain +had for these strong suspicions of arrest and imprisonment, +I will here make quotation from the <i>Queensland +Government Gazette</i>, an official journal of severely correct +character, which, like "the <i>Apparatus</i>, cannot lie."</p> + + +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Colonial Secretary's Office,</span><br /> + <span class="smcap">Brisbane</span>, <i>20th August 1875</i>. +</div> + +<p>His Excellency directs the subjoined circular despatch received +from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, together with the enclosed +correspondence with the Board of Admiralty, respecting the +proceedings in the South Seas of W. H. Hayston, a United States' +subject, and master of the American brig <i>Leonora</i>, to be published +in the <i>Gazette</i> for general information.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">A. Macalister.</span> +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + The Admiralty to the Colonial Office. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Admiralty</span>, <i>12th January 1875</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I am commanded by the my Lords Commissioners of the +Admiralty to transmit herewith, for the information of the Earl of +Carnarvon, a letter and its enclosures from Commodore Goodenough, +Senior Naval Officer of the Australasian Station, reporting the proceedings +of W. H. Hayston, a citizen of the United States, and master +of the late American brig <i>Leonora</i>. It is requested that these +papers be returned in order that they may be sent to the Foreign +Office.—I am, etc.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">Robert Hall</span>. +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + The Under Secretary of State,<br />Colonial Office. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Admiral Cochrane to the Admiralty. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <i>Repulse</i> <span class="smcap">at Callao</span>, <i>28th February 1875</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I have the honour to forward for the information of their +Lordships a copy of correspondence which I have received from +Commodore Goodenough, commanding the Australian Station.</p> + +<p>2. The correspondence has reference to the very irregular conduct +of a master of a trading brig lately wrecked. The master is believed +to be an American.</p> + +<p>3. Commodore Goodenough requested that the documents containing +evidence tending to substantiate the charges against the said master +should be forwarded to the American admiral commanding the +North Pacific Station. The islands where the occurrences referred to +took place are not included in the Pacific Station.—I am, etc.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">A. A. Cochrane.</span> +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + Rear Admiral and Commander-in-Chief. +</div> + +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></div> + + +<div class="letter-address center"> + H.M.S. <i>Repulse</i>,<br /> + <span class="smcap">Callao</span>, <i>28th February 1875</i>.<br /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I have the honour to forward for your perusal copies of correspondence +I have received from Commodore Goodenough in command +of H.M. ships on the Australian Station, relative to the highly +irregular proceedings of a master of a vessel trading among the South +Sea Islands. He is believed to be an American citizen.</p> + +<p>I should be much gratified if circumstances enable you to cause +inquiry into the subject of the charges enumerated.—I have, etc.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">A. A. Cochrane.</span> +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + Rear Admiral and Commander-in-Chief. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Circular. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Downing Street</span>, <i>13th May 1875</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I have the honour to transmit to you copies of a correspondence +with the Board of Admiralty respecting the proceedings in the +South Seas of W. H. Hayston, a United States' subject, and master of +the late American brig <i>Leonora</i>. In connection with the lawless conduct +of Hayston, as reported in the papers now transmitted, I beg to +refer you to my predecessor's Circular Despatch of 22nd December +1875, relating to the proceedings in the case of the <i>Atlantic</i>, and I +desire to express my entire concurrence in the hope expressed by +Lord Kimberley, that no opportunity may be lost of bringing the man +to trial.—I have, etc.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">Carnarvon.</span> +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + To the Officer administering the<br />Government of Queensland. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> +Proceedings of H.M.S. <i>Rosario</i> in the South Sea Islands. Criminal +acts of Mr. W. H. Hayston, master of the brig <i>Leonora</i>. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + H.M.S. <i>Pearl</i>, <i>16th November 1874</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I have the honour to enclose for the information of the +Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a Report and various papers +furnished to me by Commander Dupont of H.M.S. <i>Rosario</i>, concerning +a Mr. William H. Hayston, master of the late American brig +<i>Leonora</i>.</p> + +<p>2. This Mr. Hayston has long been known among the Pacific +Islands as a collector of produce, and has the reputation of +defraud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>ing +natives and lifting produce collected by other traders. He has +been spoken of in correspondence between this and the Chinese Station +as "the notorious Captain Hayston," but hitherto no evidence on +which he could be convicted of any piratical act has been brought +before me.</p> + +<p>3. It seemed possible that Commander Dupont, while cruising in +H.M.S. <i>Rosario</i> among the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, and watching +the labour traffic, might be able to gather some evidence which would +enable him to detain this person, who is doing much harm among +the islands. A copy of my orders to Commander Dupont is enclosed.</p> + +<p>4. Commander Dupont seems only to have obtained the evidence +which he desired against Hayston after he had learned of his escape, +and he is satisfied from inspection of Hayston's papers that he is an +American citizen.</p> + +<p>5. Commander Dupont brought away with him from Strong's +Island the crew of Hayston's vessel, the <i>Leonora</i>, which was wrecked +there in March last, and also one Hilary Telfer, who had proceeded +from Samoa to Millé as supercargo of a vessel called the <i>E. A. Wilson</i>, +and belonging to the sons and daughters of Mr. Wilson, H.M. Consul +from Samoa.</p> + +<p>6. This Mr. Telfer carried with him from Samoa orders from +Mr. Wilson to put the <i>E. A. Wilson</i> and the cargo into Hayston's +hands to be sold, and in course of business appears to have become so +mixed up in Hayston's affairs, that the latter made him his agent and +entrusted him with letters to all his subordinate agents, informing +them that he had been seized by the <i>Rosario</i> for conveyance to +Sydney.</p> + +<p>7. I was in Samoa in H.M.S. <i>Pearl</i> in November 1873. The +ketch <i>E. A. Wilson</i> was then there under repairs. Mr. S. D. Wilson +told me nothing of his intentions regarding the vessel, but gave me +to understand that Mr. Hayston was a great rascal, who had cleverly +outwitted all inquiries. He offered to obtain evidence from a half-caste, +and at my desire took the statements (which proved valueless) +on oath. Yet on December 3, 1873, he enters into communication +with this man, against whom he had pretended to give me information.</p> + +<p>8. I consider the whole affair as most unsatisfactory, even regarding +Mr. Wilson as a trader. In the position of Her Majesty's Acting +Consul, I consider that he has been guilty of improper behaviour, rendering +him unworthy to occupy such a position. The desirability of +appointing a non-trading Consul in Samoa has already been pointed +out by both myself and my predecessor on this Station.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +9. The papers I enclose concerning Hayston will illustrate the life +of a modern South-Sea filibuster.—I have the honour to be, your +obedient servant,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">James G. Goodenough,</span><br /> + Captain and Commodore, 2nd Class,<br /> + Commanding Australian Station.<br /> +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + To the Secretary. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Enclosure No. 2. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + H.M.S. <i>Rosario</i>,<br /> + <span class="smcap">At Sea</span>, Lat. 2° 26′ N., Long. 167° 19′ E.,<br /> + <i>10th October 1874</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—With reference to Mr. Hayston, master of the American +brig <i>Leonora</i>, I beg to forward the following statement of facts relative +to him that I have been able to collect among the different islands +visited during my present cruise:—</p> + +<p>1. There can be no doubt but that Mr. Hayston is a shrewd, unprincipled +man, who has committed acts of violence towards the +natives, and been guilty of unjustifiable acts towards other persons. +Yet, so greatly has his name got to be feared, by both natives and +white men on the islands, that, though it was evident that at nearly +all the islands I visited he was well known, it was impossible to find +out much about him.</p> + +<p>2. With respect to Mr. Dunn's business, what evidence I could get +was mainly in Hayston's favour, and tended to show that Dunn's +agents had sold the trade to Hayston instead of his taking it. This is +certainly the case as regards an Englishman named George Winchcombe, +whom I found living on Nukufutau, one of the Ellice group. +He himself stated to me that he left Sydney with Dunn, in the understanding +that he was to be found at a station on one of the islands. +He complained that Dunn treated him badly on board, and eventually +sent him on shore on the island of Apaiari (Gilbert group) to collect +trade. He was dissatisfied with his life, much in dread of the natives, +and on Hayston's coming there in the beginning of 1873, he begged +him to take him off the island, and offered to sell him all the trade he +had collected. Hayston accordingly took him. At another island, +Tarawa, the only white resident had heard that some trade had been +removed by Hayston, but was not on the island at the time. At other +islands I heard things relative to Dunn's property, but could get +nothing but hearsay evidence. I could not find a single individual, +either white or native, who could furnish me with any positive evidence +or proof against Hayston.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +On entering Chabral harbour (Strong's Island) Mr. Hayston, as +I have reported in my letter of proceedings, came out to meet the +ship in a boat. He told that his vessel had been wrecked in South +harbour of the island on the 15th of March this year, since which date +he had been living on shore collecting oil.</p> + +<p>Mr. Morland, an American missionary, who had just arrived from +Ebon Island, and numerous white men—the late crew of the <i>Leonora</i>—were +also there. A schooner under the German flag, Mr. Miller +an Englishman master, lay in the harbour. I commenced making +inquiries as quietly as possible about Hayston, but here, as at other +places, I met with disinclination from all traders to tell me anything +they might know; Mr. Miller, though hinting that Hayston had +robbed him not long since, would at first say nothing, nor was it till +after considerable persuasion and the delay of some days that I got +the enclosed statement, with the various witnesses in the matter, +from him.</p> + +<p>But as he was sailing under German colours, I could not believe +my duty was to do more than receive the statements and forward it +through you to the German Consul in Sydney.</p> + +<p>Hayston, apprised by some of the crew of the inquiries that had +been made, left the island in a boat on the night of the 27th. His +design was, I believe, either to make the island of Ascension or that +of Pingelap. At their own request, and also considering it a good +thing for the island to be rid of them, I took five of the crew of the +<i>Leonora</i> on board for passage to Sydney, and also one other person +who had been a passenger on board, and also, from what I could hear, +a great friend of Hayston. This Hilary Telfer was the person who +had been sent by Mr. Wilson, British Consul at Samoa, as supercargo +of the ketch that I met at Millé, but leaving his charge there, had +gone to sea with Hayston and been with him since January. I deemed +it advisable that he should be removed, there being no chance of his +getting back to Millé from Strong's Island, and also because the chief +particularly desired his removal, as being likely to stir up trouble in +the island. These six persons are now on board.</p> + +<p>I visited Mr. Hayston's residence at South harbour; he had made +a regular settlement of it, and had collected a large quantity of oil. +No less than five young women were living in his house, who had all +with one exception been living on board the <i>Leonora</i>. That vessel +was sunk in fourteen fathoms, her topmast head a few feet above +water.</p> + +<p>The first mate I left on the island, recommending him to take +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +charge of Hayston's property. The second mate, William Hicks, ran +away into the bush and couldn't be found, otherwise I should have +taken him to Sydney with the others. Thinking the case over quietly +afterwards, I cannot see how I could have arrested Hayston. It is, +therefore, with great regret that I am obliged to report my failure to +collect sufficient evidence against him to warrant my doing so. The +case of Mr. Dunn must have failed from want of such evidence.—I +have, etc., etc.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">A. E. Dupont</span>,<br /> + Commander. +</div> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + To Commodore J. G. Goodenough,<br />H.M.S. <i>Pearl</i>. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> +Enclosure No. 13. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> +<span class="smcap">Messrs. Miller and Warne to Mr. Hilary Telfer, Supercargo.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—You will proceed from hence to Millé, Mulgrave Island, +for the purpose of selling the ketch <i>A.E.W.</i> You will find Captain +Hayston there waiting for you, so you will please consult with him, as +he is acquainted with the people who wish to purchase the ketch. +Try to obtain oil or copra to the amount of £500 for her. Ship whatever +produce you may get on board the <i>Leonora</i>, and get Captain +Hayston to sign bills of lading. Do not sell the chronometer unless +you get a good price for it. Sell the few things you take to the best +advantage. None of the Samoans are to remain, but to come back to +Apia. Have the ketch painted at Millé.—Wishing you a prosperous +and speedy voyage, we are, etc.,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">Miller and Warne.</span><br /> +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Enclosure No. 15. +</div> + +<p>Know all men by these presents that I, William Henry Hayston, +Master mariner, now residing on Strong's Island, in the North Pacific +Ocean, have made, constituted, and appointed Hilary Telfer, of Sydney, +New South Wales, at present residing on this island of Kusaie +(or Strong's Island), to be my true and lawful agent for me, and, in +my place and stead, to enter into and take possession of my station +situated at Maloe, near the village of Utwé, South harbour, on the +above-named island. Also all my oil, casks, tobacco, and other trade +which may be on said station. Also boats, canoe, pigs, fowls, possessions—all +and everything, whether of value or not, together with my +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +furniture and private effects, and to take full charge of all my business +on the above-named island during my trip to the eastward.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">W. H. Hayston</span>,<br /> + <span class="smaller">In the presence of the undersigned witness,<br /> + this 19th August 1874.</span> +</div> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">Charles Roberts</span>. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Enclosure No. 16. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Memorandum of Instructions for Mr. Hilary Telfer.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—As I am about to leave Strong's Island, and have given you +power to act on my behalf, I wish you to close up all my affairs in the +best manner you can. You will look after the property I leave behind, +and dispose of it to the best advantage. Out of the remainder of the +oil you can pay yourself for the chronometer, and Mr. Harry Skillings +for the trade I had from him. Sell the balance, including the large +cargo-boat, as soon as an opportunity offers. Anything left over you +can give to the people that have been kind to you, and the natives. +Out of the proceeds of the sale you can pay for the passage of my +natives to Samoa, if they want to go there. If not, see them back on +their own island, or on some of the Kingsmill group, that they may +get with their own country people.</p> + +<p>My native boy Toby I wish you to take to Samoa, and look after +him as well as you can; also Kitty, as they have no father or mother. +Both were given to me by the king of Hope Island. The stores I left +behind are for you and the natives to live on till you can get away. +Be careful of the little trade I leave you, as the Strong's islanders +want payment for everything you get of them to eat. You will also +bear in mind that the king owes me 12,100 cocoa-nuts, the balance of +the 48,000 that he agreed to pay me for the property stolen by the +Strong's islanders at the time of the loss of the brig.</p> + +<p>I write an accompanying letter to each of my agents. You will +have to settle with them by their own accounts, as my trade-book was +lost, as you know. The balance, after paying for your own passage +and expense, you can hand over to my agent at Samoa.—Wishing +you a safe arrival there and every success, I remain, yours in good +faith,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">W. H. Hayston.</span> +</div> + + +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></div> + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + Circular. +</div> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Downing Street</span>, <i>31st May 1875</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—With reference to my circular despatch of 13th instant, I +have the honour to transmit to you the accompanying copy of a note +addressed by the Duc de Decazes to Her Majesty's Minister at Paris, +in consequence of the communication on the subject of the lawless +proceedings of W. H. Hayston in the South Seas, which the Earl of +Derby caused to be made to the French Government, also those of +Germany and the United States.—I am, etc.,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">Carnarvon.</span> +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + The Officer Administering<br />the Government of Queensland. +</div> + + +<div class="letter-heading center"> + <span class="smcap">The Duc de Decazes to Mr. Adams.</span> +</div> + +<p>(Copy.)</p> + +<div class="letter-address center"> + <span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>le 10 mai 1875</i>. +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. le Ministre</span>,—J'ai porté à la connaissance de mon collègue +les informations que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de me transmettre, +relativement à un personnage dangereux, du nom de Hayston, qui se +serait signalé par de nombreux actes de déprédation dans les Iles de +l'Océanie. M. l'Amiral de Montaigne répondant à ma communication +m'annonce qu'il signalera par le premier <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'courier'">courrier</ins> +cet individu au Commandant en Chef de notre division navale dans l'Océan Pacifique. +Il adressera en outre à M. l'Amiral Rebout les instructions nécessaires +pour que ce <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'filibustier'">flibustier</ins> +Psoit surveillé de près et mis, le cas +échéant, hors d'état de poursuivre son industrie criminelle.—Agréez, +etc.,</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + (Signed) <span class="smcap">Duc de Decazes.</span> +</div> + +<div class="letter-rank center smaller"> + M. Adams. +</div> + +</div> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h2>H.M.S. ROSARIO</h2> + + +<p>As we pulled up alongside we saw her bulwarks forward +crowded with the blue-jackets. The Captain's quick eye, +which nothing escaped, detected among them the bronzed +faces of Dan Gardiner and another trader whom he had +left at Providence Island.</p> + +<p>"She's come to take me, sure enough," he said to me. +"The moment I looked at those two fellows they dropped +back out of sight. Never mind, come aboard and I'll see +it through."</p> + +<p>As soon as we gained the deck he advanced towards a +group of officers standing on the quarter-deck, and, raising +his hat, said, "Good morning, gentlemen. I am Captain +Hayston of the brig <i>Leonora</i>, cast away on this island in +the earlier part of the year."</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence; then a tall man, the +captain of the cruiser, stepped out from the others, surveyed +Hayston from head to foot, and said, "Oh, ah, indeed! +then you are the very man I am looking for. This +is Her Majesty's ship <i>Rosario</i>, and you are a prisoner, Mr. +Hayston!"</p> + +<p>Hayston simply bowed and said nothing, retiring to the +port side, where he was placed under the charge of the +sergeant-major of marines, who, as also all others on board, +looked with intense curiosity at the man of whose doings +they had heard so much in their cruises in the Pacific +Ocean.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +The man-of-war captain then demanded my name, after +which I was considerably staggered by the announcement +that he had instructions to apprehend me on the charge of +stealing the ketch <i>E. A. Wilson</i>, the property of Messrs. +Miller and Warne of Samoa.</p> + +<p>Hayston at once came forward, and, addressing the captain, +said that I had simply brought that vessel to him at +Millé, and could produce written instructions from the +owners to hand the vessel over to him. To this no answer +was returned, and silence was maintained, for the <i>Rosario</i> +was now entering the passage, and so interested was I at +the novel surroundings of a man-of-war under steam, and +so lost in admiration of the perfect discipline on board, +that for the time being I forgot that the Captain of the +<i>Leonora</i> was a prisoner, and that I was also apprehended +on a serious charge.</p> + +<p>Slowly and gracefully the great ship steamed through the +passage, and brought up within a cable's length of the +king's wharf, where the anchor plunged below to its +resting-place on the coral bottom. No sooner had the +man-of-war come to anchor than Mr. Morland and the +native missionary, who followed him like a shadow, came +on board, and were received by Her Majesty's representative. +A consultation took place, after which I was separated +from my companion, and, without being able to +exchange a word of farewell, was hurried down to the gun-room. +As I placed my foot on the ladder leading to the +"'tween decks" I turned. He waved his hand to me in +farewell. <i>We never met again!</i></p> + +<p>While I was detained in the gun-room a midshipman +told me that Captain Hayston had been permitted to go on +shore, under the charge of an officer, to collect his personal +effects and write letters, as he had been informed that I +would not be permitted to have any further communication +with him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +The midshipman said that Mr. Morland had seemed surprised +at Captain Hayston's not being put in irons, and +was at that moment collecting evidence in order to formulate +a series of charges against him before the captain of +the <i>Rosario</i>. My informant added, "If Captain Hayston +is such a blood-thirsty ruffian as he is described to be he +certainly shows no indication of it."</p> + +<p>Several of the warrant officers now gathered around and +pressed me with questions concerning Hayston. One of +them jocularly inquired where the Captain's harem was +located, adding that it was a pity to separate him from +them, and that there was plenty of room on board the +<i>Rosario</i> for ladies.</p> + +<p>I was burning with anxiety to know on what particular +charge Hayston had been arrested, and how the captain of +the <i>Rosario</i> had heard of the loss of the <i>Leonora</i>. They +told me then that the <i>Rosario</i> had been searching for Hayston +for some time, under instructions from the Commodore +of the Australian Station, to whom representations had +been made concerning alleged depredations committed by +him (Hayston) in the Line Islands. The <i>Rosario</i> had +visited a number of islands, and endeavoured to obtain +evidence against Hayston, but that it had resulted in a failure, +nearly every one, when it came to the point, declining +to make any statement against him. The captain of the +man-of-war then decided to proceed to Arrecifos, or Providence +Island, which he knew to be one of Hayston's depôts. +On arrival he learned from the two white men there that +so long an interval had passed since his last visit that they +fancied that the <i>Leonora</i> had been lost.</p> + +<p>These two men were taken on board, and the <i>Rosario</i> +made for Strong's Island. When within 400 miles she met +the little <i>Matautu</i>, who signalled a wish to speak. As soon +as Captain Warner boarded the man-of-war he informed +the commander of the loss of the <i>Leonora</i>, and of Hayston's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +presence on the island. He also handed in several written +charges made by himself against Hayston, and, as well as +I can remember from what I was told, was about to return +to his schooner when the <i>Morning Star</i> hove in sight.</p> + +<p>On board of the missionary brig was Mr. Morland, and a +consultation then took place between the two captains and +this gentleman, who was, of course, delighted to hear of +the loss of the <i>Leonora</i>, and that Captain Hayston was to +be taken prisoner.</p> + +<p>The <i>Matautu</i> then bore away on her course, and the +<i>Morning Star</i>, after landing Mr. Morland at the weather +side of the island, went on her way, leaving him ashore, +perfectly assured of his own safety and the immediate +presence of the <i>Rosario</i> in Chabral harbour.</p> + +<p>I could now understand the hints given me by the queen, +as well as the expression of triumph on the faces of the +missionaries as they returned from their interview with the +king.</p> + +<p>Presently an officer came down and asked me if I wished +to obtain my effects from the shore. I at once sent a message +to Kusis to bring me a small chest, in which were my +worldly goods, as well as my power of attorney and letters +of instructions from former employers in Samoa. I was +going to make inquiries about Hayston, when the officer +requested me kindly enough not to ask him questions, as he +could give me no information. He told me, however, that +the captain of the <i>Rosario</i> was at that moment engaged in +hearing charges against Hayston made by the king, Mr. +Morland, and two or three of the traders from Pleasant +Island. Also that some of the crew of the <i>Leonora</i> had +been induced to come forward and make statements. I also +learned that Hayston had been taken to South harbour in +charge of an officer, for what purpose I could never learn, +unless it was to give him an opportunity of escaping, as he +could easily have written his letters in the king's house.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +Two of the boats' crews were piped away, and I was told +by an old quarter-master, with a humorous grin, that some +of the officers had gone away in the boats to South harbour +to have a look at the "pirate's village, and bring away the +unfortunate female captives." All this time I was kept in +close confinement, and the time passed wearily away. I +was growing tired of the ceaseless questions from every one +that came near me about Hayston, the <i>Leonora</i>, and our +voyage from the Carolines till the brig was cast away.</p> + +<p>At night, however, the boats returned, and after the crews +had been piped down to supper the good old sergeant-major +of marines, suspecting the anxiety I was in as to Hayston's +movements, startled me by telling me that he had escaped +from custody when at South Island harbour.</p> + +<p>He told me that as soon as the boat reached the village +they found the place in a state of wildest confusion. A +messenger had come down along the coast and told the +Captain's people that a man-of-war was at Lêlé, and that +Captain Hayston had been taken prisoner, put in irons, and +was to be shot or hanged at once. A number of Strong's +Island natives followed the man-of-war boats down from +Chabral harbour, and these at once attempted to rush and +ransack the station, which they were only prevented from +doing by the presence of the blue-jackets.</p> + +<p>Hayston was escorted to his station, where he was at once +surrounded by the girls belonging to the house and many +others, among them being the carpenter's, steward's, boatswain's, +and Antonio's wives—all clinging to him and +impeding his movements.</p> + +<p>Calling them all together, with such others of the natives +as had not fled from the village at the sight of the blue-jackets, +he told them that they need not be under any alarm, +that he was going away in the man-of-war, and might not +return for a long time—perhaps many moons, but that the +supercargo, Hilary Telfer, would be with them shortly, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +and they must be guided by him. Of course the Captain +never for a minute imagined that I was then under the +closest surveillance, and therefore would be utterly powerless +to carry out his promises made to them.</p> + +<p>He then quietly seated himself, and wrote a quantity of +letters to his agents in the different islands in the Line and +Marshall groups. These letters he directed and enclosed +to me, together with a power of attorney which he had +previously drawn up, and a letter of instructions—all of +which he laid on the table.</p> + +<p>He then told his captors that he was ready to return with +them, when (according to the statement made by the marines +on their return to Lêlé) he suddenly exerted his vast +strength, and knocking several of them down, sprang into +the sea and gained the mangroves on the opposite side of +the harbour.</p> + +<p>On my inquiring from the marine officer why he had not +been pursued, that gentleman winked at me, and replied, +"No orders, my boy, no orders; besides he swam like a +beaver, and to search the mangroves for one man would take +a month of Sundays." Thinking the matter over, I came +to the conclusion that for some reason I could not fathom, +the captain of the man-of-war was not particularly anxious +to keep Hayston a prisoner, though I had heard him declare +to Mr. Morland that the naval authorities would at last rid +the Pacific of this man, who was a source of terror and +dread from New Zealand to the China Seas.</p> + +<p>When the boats returned from Utwé they brought up the +man Jansen, whom Hayston had beaten and disgraced. He +called himself, and was recognised by the captain of the +<i>Rosario</i> as the chief officer of the <i>Leonora</i>, although he had +long since lost his position on account of his rascally conduct. +He seemed brimful of evidence as to Hayston's +misdeeds, and I was afterwards informed that when brought +into the ward-room of the man-of-war the officers expected +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +to have some thrilling stories of rapine and bloodshed. +However, they were disappointed, as his evidence was little +more than confirmatory of that of Captain Warner of the +<i>Matautu</i>, in reference to the taking of some gear from the +brig <i>Kamehameha the Fourth</i>.</p> + +<p>Mr. Morland and Likiak Sâ appeared to be the leading +spirits in obtaining charges against the absent Hayston, +for the commander of the man-of-war was strictly neutral, +and certainly not furiously indignant at his escape. They +succeeded in obtaining his approval of the appointment of +Jansen to take charge of the people and the station, under +the supervision of King Tokusar, at Utwé. It was at this +juncture that the letters written by Hayston to his agents, as +well as the power of attorney and letters of instruction to +me, were produced by Mr. Morland. How they came to be +in that gentleman's hands I do not know. A rough draft +was made by him for the king's perusal, he said, and the +originals were then brought to me by one of the lieutenants, +who also handed me a bundle of papers which he said had +been brought on board by a native.</p> + +<p>These papers were my power of attorney, to hand over +the ketch <i>E. A. Wilson</i> to Captain Hayston, and also a letter +of instructions in reference to the crew—copies of which +the reader has already seen. Feeling confident that I had +but to show these documents to Commander Dupont to +insure an interview and my instant release, I requested to +be ushered into the autocrat's presence. The Reverend +Mr. Morland was present, and greeted me with such a smile +of active benevolence that I longed to kick him.</p> + +<p>When I presented the letter to Captain Dupont I was +considerably surprised when he denounced them as forgeries, +calling me at the same time a d—d piratical scoundrel +and accomplished young villain, adding that my cruel +behaviour in aiding and abetting Hayston in his villainies +made him regret that he could not run me up to the +yard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>arm +as a warning. He finished this tirade by tearing up +my papers and throwing them at me. Calling the sergeant +of marines, he ordered me put in irons, from which, however, +I was released before the <i>Rosario</i> put to sea.</p> + +<p>Early next morning, much to my relief, there appeared +on board the black shining face of Johnny Tilton, the young +negro, who among others of the crew had been brought away +from Utwé, in one of the man-of-war boats. Johnny, with +his shipmates, was taken below and examined by the captain +and Mr. Morland. But as there was nothing against +him personally or the Fijian half-caste Bill, they were +permitted to return ashore. Before leaving, Johnny requested +to be allowed to see me, which was granted.</p> + +<p>The moment I saw his face I knew he had something of +importance to tell me, for looking at the marine standing +sentry over me, he said in Samoan, "Le—alu uā sola i +te po" (the Captain escaped in the night).</p> + +<p>"Yes!" I replied, "I know that already."</p> + +<p>"Ah! but I mean that he has taken the small boat and +gone away altogether. Listen, I'll tell you all about it. +After the man-of-war boats had gone away from Utwé, and +the Captain had escaped into the mangroves, a number of +the Strong's islanders came down and said they were going +to loot the place. Then the king sent down word that the +captain of the man-of-war had declared that the station now +belonged to him (the king), and that he could do what he +liked with the place. The king forbade any of the people +to go into the Captain's house till Jansen came down with +Likiak Sâ, as these two had been appointed by the king and +Mr. Morland to take charge. Well, there was a lot of us +ran away into the mountains at the very first when we +heard the Captain was taken prisoner. Bill Hicks and I +were among them, also boy George and Sunday. Before we +left I went to the Captain's house and told the girls that +we were running away, and our wives were coming with us, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +and asked them what they intended to do. Old Mary said +she would wait and see first if it were true about the Captain +being taken prisoner.</p> + +<p>"All the young women, too, though they were very frightened, +said they would stay. I got Hope Island Nellie to give +me three Winchester rifles and a bag of cartridges from the +back of the big house. I cut a hole through the side of the +Captain's sleeping-place, and Nellie passed the rifles out to +me quietly. I told Nellie that we were going to hide in the +mountains till we saw whether the man-of-war wanted to +catch us as well as the Captain. If not we would return to +Utwé.</p> + +<p>"I took the rifles and wrapped them up in a long mat, +and went down to the lagoon, where I found a canoe and +took it. Bill and the others were waiting for me; they told +me that the man-of-war boats were coming into the harbour, +and that the Captain was in one of them; we watched them +carefully and saw them go out of the harbour. Then Bill +began to talk against the Captain, and said he would be +glad if he were shot. He asked me if I was willing to +make a dash into the village and help him to bring away +Nellie and Sara, as if the Captain was taken away in the +man-of-war he was going to have them for himself.</p> + +<p>"I told him that until Captain Hayston was taken away +or dead that I intended to stick to him. So we nearly had +a fight over it. Then Bill said all of a sudden that he +intended to have Sara and Nellie, right or wrong. And as +he had nothing to fear from the man-of-war, he would try +if he couldn't fool the captain, and pretend he could tell +him all about Captain Hayston robbing Captain Daly's +station on the Line Islands.</p> + +<p>"I told him I was not going to turn dog on the Captain, +and he might do his dirty work himself.</p> + +<p>"So off he went, and we saw him cross over in a canoe to +young Harry's place, and knew he was going along the beach +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +to Chabral harbour. Then I talked to the others, and asked +them what we ought to do, for I was afraid we would not +see the Captain any more. Boy George laughed, and said +he didn't care, but he meant to be beforehand with Bill and +run off with Sara; that if I had any sense I would run off +with Nellie, and let the other girls go adrift. He said we +could easily live in the mountains till the man-of-war was +gone, and then go back to Utwé. But I said I wouldn't do +that, and that they would find that Sara would fight like a +wild cat if boy George or any one else tried to take her +away.</p> + +<p>"Boy George then said if she wouldn't come he would +put a bullet through her, and take Mila or Nellie instead. +So then we had a row; he called me a black thief and said +I could go to h—l. He and the others cleared out and left +me alone.</p> + +<p>"It was then very dark, and as everything seemed quiet, +I walked across the coral and got into the house on the point +where some Strong's Island people live, the one you were +brought to when you were washed ashore. The man and +his wife Nadup were frightened at first; but they were good +to me, and gave me food, and then they told me Jansen was +in charge of the station; that the Pleasant islanders were +fled into the bush, and that the girls in the big house had +run away when they saw him coming to them, drunk, with a +loaded rifle in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Only Nellie and little Kitty and Toby stayed behind. +Nellie had a Winchester rifle and pointed it at Jansen, who +was afraid to come into the house. Then she, Kitty, and +the little boy collected as many of the Captain's things as +they could carry, and taking a canoe, put out to sea, intending +to paddle round to Moūt, where they thought they +would find you, who would tell them all about the Captain, +and whether he was killed or not.</p> + +<p>"But, after they had gone four or five miles, the outrigger +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +came off and the canoe capsized. They swam ashore and +then walked back to Utwé, where they were told by some +natives that you were also a prisoner on board the man-of-war. +And the last that had been seen of Nellie, Kitty, +and the boy, was that they started to walk to Chabral harbour +to try and see the captain of the man-of-war, as they +were afraid that Jansen would kill them.</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Black Johnny, "when I heard that +you were also a prisoner I thought I would run away into +the bush again, as I knew Jansen would put a bullet into +me whenever he saw me if I did not get first shot. Just as +I was thinking very hard what I should do, I heard some +one walking on the broken coral outside the house. I knew +the footstep; it was the Captain! I crept outside, and saw +him standing up leaning against a stone wall. He had two +pistols in his sash and a Winchester rifle in his hand. He +seemed to be considering. I whistled softly, and then +spoke. He shook hands with me, and then raised his rifle +and pointed it at the head of the Strong's islander, who, +with his wife Nadup, had followed me. They ran outside +and threw themselves on the ground, and grovelled in the +way they do to old Tokusar, and swore they would not tell +that the Captain had come back.</p> + +<p>"We then had a hasty talk, and I told him about you +being a prisoner. But he said you would soon be set free +again and would return to Utwé, and I must stick to you +and help to keep order; that after the man-of-war had gone +he would come back again. When I told him that the +station was broken up, and that Jansen was in charge of +thirty Strong's islanders, and that the girls had run away, +he said it was a bad case, and, picking up his rifle, he asked +me where Jansen was sleeping. I saw what he meant to +do, and begged him to let things be as they were, and not +kill Jansen while the man-of-war was here.</p> + +<p>"So he thought awhile, and then said if he could find a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +boat he would get away, as he didn't think the man-of-war +would follow him. By and by he would come back again, +when he hoped to find you and me here all safe.</p> + +<p>"The Strong's Island women then told us that the dingey +had been brought down from Chabral harbour by Jansen, +and was then lying outside the coral at anchor. 'She'll +do,' said the Captain; 'lend me a hand, and we'll bring +her ashore.' But I made him lie quiet while I went for +her; and I can tell you I was in a terrible funk all the +time about sharks as soon as I began to swim out. Anyway +I brought her in all right; and then the man and his +wife brought a lot of cocoa-nuts and cooked food, and put +it into the boat. I gave the Captain all the cartridges I +had. He told me that he got the pistols from the place in +the bush that you know of, and the rifle from young Harry, +and that everything else there was all right."</p> + +<p>By this I knew that Hayston had visited a place in the +bush where he had secreted his bags of money, besides +firearms and ammunition.</p> + +<p>Going on with his talk the young negro said, "When +everything was ready the Captain told me he meant to sail +round the lee side of the island, and hide the boat in the +mangroves till the man-of-war had gone, and then he would +return and wipe out Jansen and the traders.</p> + +<p>"He told me, though (for he felt sure of your being set +free again), that if it so happened that he did not return +in ten days you would know that he had cleared out towards +the north-west, and would try to reach the Pelew Islands. +He said if he reached there he would soon get a vessel, as +there were always plenty of small Spanish schooners about +those islands, and he could easily put his hand on one or +two people in the Pelews who would help him to take one. +I asked him what we should do if, when we came back to +Utwé, you found that Jansen was too strong for us? He +said we should make no attempt to take forcible possession, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +but go and live with your people at Moūt. That as soon +as the girls knew where we were they would be certain to +come to us with little Kitty and Toby. That we must wait +till he returned, as he would never desert us.</p> + +<p>"Then," said Johnny, whose glistening eyes showed how +deeply attached he was to his Captain, "the poor fellow! +he shook hands with me, and said I was made of the right +stuff, and that the Almighty made a mistake when he gave +me a black skin. Then, telling me to keep a stout heart, +he got in and hoisted the sail. It was very dark, but there +was a good land-breeze, and he sailed the dingey right +along the edge of the reef till he came to the passage, and +disappeared in the darkness. I ran across the strip of land +on the sea-side of the lagoon and waited till I saw him +pass.</p> + +<p>"In about half-an-hour I saw the little boat sailing along +close into the shore, just outside of the breakers, rising and +falling like a sea-gull on the top of the heavy seas. I could +see the Captain's figure in the stern, and every moment +expected to see her lifted high up on a roller and dashed +on the reef. But though I shouted to him to keep farther +out, the white figure in the stern never moved, and my +voice was lost in the roaring of the surf.</p> + +<p>"Then, as I saw him still keeping steady to the southward, +just clear of the last sweep of the seas before they +curled and broke on the reef, I remembered that only a few +cables' lengths from the breakers there was always a strong +current setting to the north, and that with a light breeze the +boat would never stem it. That was why he hugged the +shore so closely. At last, as I kept running through +the undergrowth following the boat, I came to that place +where there is a thick cane scrub. When I got through it +he was nearly out of sight, and I sat on a boulder and +watched the sail gradually covered up by the night."</p> + +<p>Such, in effect, was the young negro's story. I could +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +not help being affected by his evident sorrow, and told +him that I feared there was no chance of me at least ever +seeing the Captain again. Then, when the time came to +part, I shook his hand warmly, and advised him to sever +his connection with the <i>Leonora's</i> crew; also to go and see +the king, who would not, at any rate, object to his remaining +on the island to follow out the Captain's wishes as +far as lay in his power.</p> + +<p>Soon after Black Johnny had bid me good-bye young +Harry came to say farewell, and with him Kusis and his +family, and Lālia.</p> + +<p>Harry told me that he saw the Captain after his escape, +and urged him not to think of returning to Utwé just then, +as Jansen had a strong force of natives with him, and +would certainly try to take or shoot him. But he was +determined to find out how matters stood, and bidding +Harry good-bye, set out across the mangrove swamp that +lined the shore from Harry's station to the village at Utwé. +He gave him the Winchester and cartridges, and the Captain +assured him that he would not fire a shot except in +self-defence.</p> + +<p>I told Harry what I had learned from the young negro +about the Captain's final movements, and that I was being +taken away as a prisoner. He seemed very bitter against +the other traders, whom he spoke of as trembling like +whipped hounds before the Captain's frown when he was +free, and who now, when he was a ruined and broken man, +were loud in their threats and vapourings.</p> + +<p>He also told me that he had received a letter from the +king and Mr. Morland, commanding him to deliver up to +Jansen all oil, casks, boats, and other property in his possession +belonging to Captain Hayston, and threatening him +with deportation from the island if he refused. To this he +sent a written reply to the effect, that unless the king and +Mr. Morland could back up their demand by a boat's crew +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +from the man-of-war, he would shoot the first man who +stepped inside his fence.</p> + +<p>They then appealed to Commander Dupont, who told +them that as young Harry was an American citizen, he +could not force him to give up the property, but advised +the king and Mr. Morland to take the law into their own +hands.</p> + +<p>Young Harry then armed his wives and native servants +with rifles, and telling them to make short work of any one +attempting to seize Captain Hayston's property, set out for +Chabral harbour to interview the king. He told me that +when he reached the king's house he found there the other +traders, Mr. Morland, and the commander of the man-of-war. +On the latter gentleman inquiring who he was, and +what he wanted, Harry answered him very concisely by +furnishing his name and nationality. He then stated that +he had not come to see him (Commander Dupont), but the +king, of whom he wished to ask by what right he dared to +send him a letter threatening him with deportation from +the island unless he consented to give up Captain Hayston's +property. He warned him to be careful how he interfered +with an American citizen, as there was an American +cruiser now in the Caroline Islands. He (the king) +would find he had made a serious mistake if he committed +any outrage upon a citizen of the United States.</p> + +<p>"You should have seen the look in the British officer's +face," said Harry, "when I stepped up to the old king, and +nearly touching his face with my hand, said, 'and I warn +you, king, that the captain of an American cruiser will +listen to the tale and redress the wrongs of the honest +American citizen. He would think little of knocking your +town about your ears.'"</p> + +<p>The old king never spoke, but glanced first towards the +British officer and then to the missionary, but as neither +of them offered suggestions, the poor old fellow could only +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +mutter something to the effect that he was like a little fish +in a pool, afraid of the sea because of the bigger fish, and +afraid to stay lest the frigate birds should seize him. +Young Harry quite enjoyed relating the scene to me, and +said that as he was going away the king held out his hand +and inquired in a shaky voice, "I say, Harry, what you +tink, what you do? Suppose Captain Hayston come back, +what become of King Tokusar? Oh! by God! now I be +'fraid every day; think I hear Captain Hayston speak me; +make noise like bullock; I think better be poor native, no +more king."</p> + +<p>Harry refused to advise the king, and then taking a good +look at the white men present, said, "Well, good-bye, +King Tokusar! I am going back to my station—the station +I am minding for Captain Hayston. I have six men +and four women all armed, and the American flag on a pole +in front of my door; and the first man that attempts to do +me any mischief, white, black, or yellow, <i>I'll shoot him</i>. +You can ask the white men from Pleasant Island if I am +not a man of my word. They know me."</p> + +<p>Harry then got into his boat and pulled on board the +man-of-war, where the first lieutenant very kindly allowed +him to see me. I felt sincere regret at parting with Harry, +telling him to beware of the other traders. I repeated +what had been told me by Kitty of Ebon and Lālia. He +laughed, and said he was always prepared, and meant to +do justice to the trust reposed in him by Captain Hayston. +"I'm the wrong man," he said on leaving, "to abandon any +station and property left in my charge." Then, with oft-repeated +wishes that we might meet again, after hearing of +the Captain's safety we parted.</p> + +<p>Then came again good simple Kusis and his people with +Lālia. She had in charge little Kitty and Toby. Poor +Toby clung to my legs and sobbed as if his heart was +breaking, when I told him that I did not know when the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +Captain would come back again. If no one else loved his +master Toby did, and I tried in vain to assuage his grief. +I was glad to hear from Lālia that she was going to young +Harry's place with the two children. There I knew they +would be well treated and cared for.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said she, pointing to the little fellow, "the +Captain had two good friends besides yourself, young +Harry, and the nigger Johnny, but this little fellow has +never ceased crying for 'Captin' since he left the village +in South harbour. Never mind, little Toby, we will wait +and the 'Captin' will be sure to come;" and then she +stooped down, and tried by kissing and coaxing to prevent +him from giving utterance to his doleful wails and sobs of +grief.</p> + +<p>Lālia told me, as with glistening eyes and trembling +hands we said farewell, that her one hope now was to be +able to get back to her distant home on Easter Island, that +Captain Hayston would return with a ship; and, if he +went towards Samoa or Tahiti, take her with him for that +portion of the many thousand miles that lay between +Strong's Island and her native land. That he would do +this she felt confident. "For," she said, "he once told +me that he would stand by me if I was in trouble—it was +when we were all washed ashore together—you remember? +<i>and he never breaks his word</i>."</p> + +<p>Whatever Lālia's past life had been, I could never help +admiring her many noble traits of character. I owed her +life-long gratitude for her heroic self-sacrifice on the fateful +night of the wreck of the <i>Leonora</i>; by me, at least, she +will never be forgotten. Poor Lālia! Brave, loving, lovely +child of the charmed isles of the southern main! reckless +alike in love and hate, who shall judge? who condemn +thee? Not I!</p> + +<p>Kusis, Tulpé, and Kinie clung to me as if they could not +bear to say farewell. I see before me often the honest, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +kindly countenance of Kusis as, with his hand clasped in +mine, he looked trustfully into my face and made me promise +that some day I would return and live with him once +more. And so freshly at that time came the remembrance +of the happy days I had passed in his quiet home, dreaming +the hours away within sight of the heaving bosom of +the blue, boundless Pacific Ocean, so deliciously restful +after the stormy life of the <i>Leonora</i> and her wild commander, +that I believe I really intended to return to +Strong's Island some day; but, as we used to say at Sydney +college, "<i>Dîs aliter visum</i>."</p> + +<p>Queen Sê sent me a letter as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,—Kitty Ebon send Lālia to see you. We all very +sorry, but must not say so, because Mr. Morland very strong man +now. Where you think Captain Hayston go in little boat? I 'fraid +he die in boat. I very sorry for Captain—very kind man—but bad +man to natives sometimes.</p> + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">Queen Sê</span>. +</div> +</div> + +<p>Enclosed were these pencilled lines from Kitty of +Ebon:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>,—All the people from Moūt been to Mr. Morland +to ask why you are in prison, and he says you will be hung for +stealing a ship. We all very sorry, all Moūt people love you very +much—and me too. Good-bye, dear friend, come back to Kusis and +Moūt people, for I don't think you be hanged in Fiji.—Your sincere +friend,</p> + + +<div class="letter-signature center"> + <span class="smcap">Catherine Ebon</span>. +</div> +</div> + +<p>But when the light-hearted blue-jackets manned the capstan +and merrily footed it round to lively music, and the +great steamer's head was pointed to the passage, my +thoughts were far away, where in fancy I discerned a tiny +boat breasting the vast ocean swell, while sitting aft with +his face turned to the westward, his strong brown hand on +the tiller, was the once dreaded Captain of the <i>Leonora</i>; +the lawless rover of the South Seas; the man whose name +was known and feared from the South Pole to Japan, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +yet through all, my true friend and most indulgent commander. +With all his faults, our constant association had +enabled me to appreciate his many noble qualities and fine +natural impulses. And as the black hull of the <i>Rosario</i> +rose and fell to the sea, her funnel the while pouring forth +volumes of sable smoke, the island gradually sunk astern, +but the memories connected with it and Captain Hayston +will abide with me for ever.</p> + +<p>Harry Skillings I never saw again, but heard that he +went to Truk in the North-west Carolines. Black Johnny +was murdered in New Britain. The other Harry with his +native wife fell victims to the treacherous savages of the +Solomon Islands. Jansen died a few years since on Providence +Island. Some of the other traders and members of +the crew I have heard of from time to time, scattered far and +wide over the Isles of the Pacific. Lālia died in Honolulu +about five years since, constant in her attempts to reach +her distant home on Easter Island.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h2>NORFOLK ISLAND—ARCADIA</h2> + + +<p>And now, my innocence and lack of complicity in Hayston's +irregularities having been established, a revulsion of +feeling took place in the minds of the captain and officers +of the <i>Rosario</i> with regard to me.</p> + +<p>After the fullest explanations furnished by the traders +and others, backed up by the manifest sympathy and good-will +of the inhabitants of Strong Island, it became apparent +that some sort of reparation was due to me. This took the +form of a courteous invitation to accept a passage to Sydney +in H.M.S. <i>Rosario</i>, and to join the officers' mess on the +voyage. "I'm afraid that we acted hastily in your case, +Mr. Telfer!" said Captain Dupont. "You have been thoroughly +cleared of all accusations made against you. I am +bound to say they were very few. And you seem chiefly to +have acted as a peacemaker and a power for good. I have +gathered that you are anxious to rejoin your friends in +Sydney. I shall be glad to have your company on the +return voyage. What do you say? I trust you will not +refuse; I shall otherwise think you have not forgiven my +apparent harshness."</p> + +<p>Thus pressed to return to family and friends—from +whom, at times, in spite of my inborn roving propensities, +the separation had cost me dear—what could I do but thank +the manly and courteous potentate, and comply with an +invitation so rarely granted to a South Sea adventurer. I +was the more loth to lose the opportunity as there had come +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +upon me of late a violent fit of homesickness which I in +vain strove to combat.</p> + +<p>I had in truth now no particular reason for remaining at +Kusaie, or indeed anywhere in the South Seas. Hayston +was gone; his magnetic influence no longer controlled my +will, as in our first acquaintance. The <i>Leonora</i>—our +pride and boast, our peerless floating home—no longer +"walked the waters like a thing of life," but lay dead, dismantled, +dishonoured on the ruthless coral rocks which had +crushed the life out of her on that fatal night.</p> + +<p>I realised now with thankfulness that I had narrowly +escaped being liable as an accessory for some of Hayston's +ultra-legal proceedings—to call them by no harsher name.</p> + +<p>How often, indeed, in the reckless daring of boyhood is +the fatal line crossed which severs imprudence from crime! +The inexorable fiat of human justice knows no shade of +criminality. "Guilty or not guilty," goes forth the verdict. +There is no appeal on earth. And the faulty, but +not all evil-natured victim, is doomed to live out all the +years of a life branded as a felon, or maddened by the fears +which must ever torture the fugitive from justice!</p> + +<p>If I stayed in the South Seas on my present footing, nothing +remained but the trader's life, pure and simple. I had +little doubt but that I could make a living, perhaps a competence +in years to come. But that meant exile in every sense of +the word. Complete severance from my kindred, whom my +soul yearned to see again; from the friends of my boyhood; +from the loved and lovely land of my birth; from the thousand +and one luxuries, material and intellectual, which are +comprehended in the word civilisation. I had slaked my +thirst for adventure, danger, and mystery. I had carried +my life in my hand, so to speak, and times without number +had doubted whether I should retain that more or less +valuable possession for the next ten minutes. I had felt +the poisoned arrows at Santa Cruz hurtling around me, even +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +hiss through my waving locks, when the death-scratch +summoned a man on either hand. I had nearly been "blue +sharks' meat" as Hayston phrased it, on coral strand amid +"the cruel crawling foam." All chances and risks I had +taken heedlessly in the past. But now I began to feel that +I must pronounce the momentous decision which would +make or mar my future career. The island life was very +fair. For one moment I saw myself the owner of a trading +station on Pingelap or Arurai. I am sitting in a large, +cool house, on soft, parti-coloured mats, surrounded by +laughing girls garlanded and flower-crowned. Around and +above, save in the plantation which surrounds the house, is +the soft green light of the paradisal woodland illumining +its incredible wealth of leafage, fruit, and flowers. Before +me lies the endless, azure sea-plain. And oh, my sea! my +own, my beloved sea!—loved in childhood, youth, and age, +if such be granted to me! In my ears are the magical murmurous +surge-voices, to the lulling of which I have so often +slept like a tired child. Fruit and flowers—love and war—manly +effort—danger—high health—boundless liberty,—all +things necessary to the happiness of primeval man, +before he became sophisticated by the false wisdom of these +later ages, should I not possess in profusion? Why, then, +should I not remain in this land of changeless summer—this +magic treasure-house of all delights of land and sea?</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Long and anxiously did I ponder over my decision. +Those only who have known the witchery of the "summer +Isles of Eden," have felt the charm of the dream-life of +the Southern Main—the sorcery of that lotus-eating existence, +alternating with the fierce hazards and stormy delights +which give a richness to life unknown to a guarded, +narrowed civilisation—can gauge my irresolution.</p> + +<p>I had well-nigh resolved to adhere to the trader's +life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>—until +I had made a fortune with which I could return in +triumph—when I thought of my mother! The old house, +with its broad, stone-paved verandah came back to me—the +large, "careless-ordered" garden with its trailing, tropical +shrubs and fruit-trees—the lordly araucarias, the boat-house, +the stone-walled bath wherein I had learned to swim—all +came back in that moment when memory recalled the +scenes and surroundings of my early life. I could hear a +voice ever low and sweet, as in the days of my childhood, +which said, "Oh! my boy! my boy! come back—let me +see my darling's face before I die."</p> + +<p>I was conquered—the temptations of the strange life, +with its sorceries and phantasms, which had so long +enveloped me, were swept away like a ghost-procession at +dawn. And in their place came the steadfast resolve to +return to the home of my youth, thenceforward to pursue +such modes of life as might be marked out for me. In a +new land like my birth-place, with a continent for an arena, +I had no fear but that a career would open itself for me. +In no country under heaven are there so many chances of +success, so many roads to fortune, as in the lone wastes +upon which the Southern Cross looks down. On land or +sea—the tracks are limitless—the avenues to fortune +innumerable. Gold was to be had for the seeking; silver +and gems lay as yet in their desert solitudes, only awaiting +the adventurer who, strong in the daring of manhood, +should compel the waste to disclose its secrets—only +awaited the hour and the man.</p> + +<p>For such enterprises was I peculiarly fitted. So much +could then be said without boast or falsehood on my part. +My frame, inured to withstand every change of temperature +which sea or land could furnish, was of unusual strength. +By hard experience I had learned to bear myself masterfully +among men of widely various dispositions and characters. +I took my stand henceforth as a citizen of the +world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>—as +a rover on sea and land—as more than a suppliant to +fortune, a "Conquistador."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The homeward voyage being now fairly commenced, I +began to speculate on the probabilities of my future career. +During the years which I had passed among the islands I +had acquired experience—more or less valuable—but very +little cash. This was chiefly in consequence of our crowning +disaster, the wreck of the <i>Leonora</i>. But for that untoward +gale, my share of the proceeds of the venture would +have exceeded the profits of all my other trading enterprises. +As it was, I was left, if not altogether penniless, +still in a position which would debar me from making more +than a brief stay with my friends in Sydney, unless I consented +to be beholden to them for support. That I held to +be impossible. For a few weeks I felt that my finances +would hold out. And after that, was there not a whole +world of adventures—risks, hardships, dangers, if you +will—all that makes life worth living—open before me; +the curtain had fallen upon one act of the life drama of +Hilary Telfer. What of that? Were there not four more, +at least, to come?</p> + +<p>Even the princess had not arrived. There had been a +"first robber" on the boards, perhaps—even more of that +persuasion. But the principal stage business was only +commencing—the dénouement was obviously far off. +Thereupon my hopes rose as if freshly illumined. My +sanguine nature—boundless in faith, fertile in expedient—reasserted +itself. Temporarily depressed, more in sympathy +with Hayston than with my own ill-luck, it seemed +more vigorous and elastic in rebound than ever. The +memory of my island life became faint and dreamily indistinct. +The forms of Hayston, the king and queen, of +Lālia, with sad, reproachful gaze—of Hope Island Nellie, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +lifting a rifle with the mien of an angered goddess—of +Kitty of Ebon, incarnate daughter of the dusky Venus—of +the bronzed and wrinkled trader, with blood and to spare +on his sinewy hand—of young Harry and the negro +Johnny. All these forms and faces, once so familiar, +seemed to recede into the misty distance until they faded +away from my mental vision.</p> + +<p>With them passed into shadow-land the joyous life of my +youth—of the untrammelled, care-free existence—such as +no man may find again in this world of slow, tracking care +and hasty disenchantment. "Was I wise?" I asked myself +again and again, in quitting it for the hard and anxious +pursuits of the Continent? Were there not a dozen +places besides Strong's Island where I should be welcomed, +fêted, caressed, almost worshipped as a restored divinity? +Was it well to abandon the rank which I had acquired +among these simple people? Was it— But no. For +ever had I made the decision. Once resolved, I disliked +changing my plans. Burdened with a regret which for +days I could neither subdue nor remove, I adhered unflinchingly +to my resolution, and addressed myself to the steady +contemplation of the future.</p> + +<p>Now had commenced for me a new life—a new world +socially speaking. The quiet reserve and unemotional +bearing of the British officer was substituted for the frank +accost and reckless speech of the island trader or wandering +mariner. I was prompt, however, to assimilate the +modish bearing of my companions, and assisted by some +natural alertness, or perhaps inherited tendencies, soon +became undistinguishable from the honourables and lordlings +of the gun-room. Upon my repose of manner, indeed, +I was often complimented. "By Jove, old fellow," +one of the offshoots of the British aristocracy would say, +"one would think you had been at Rugby or Eton. And I +suppose you have never seen England. Certainly you have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +the pull of us in make and shape. I can't think how they +grow such fellows,—more English than the English,—with +your blue eyes and fair hair, too, in these God-forsaken +regions."</p> + +<p>"Because," I said, "I am of as pure English blood as +yourself; have been reared, and moulded, and surrounded +by English people, and have all the traditions of the old +country at my fingers' end. For the rest, I hold that this +end of the world is more favourable to the growth of Anglo-Saxons, +as you call yourselves, than the other."</p> + +<p>"Well! it looks like it, I must say," said my new friend. +"I only hope that when the time comes for fighting, by sea +and land—and, mark my words, come it will—that you +will be found as stanch as I think you are."</p> + +<p>"Be sure we shall be," said I. "We have inherited the +true English 'grit,' as Americans say. You all said <i>they</i> +couldn't fight when their war began; when it finished, the +world gave a different verdict. We are our fathers' sons, +neither more nor less. The bull-dog and the game-cock +still fight to the death in our country. Many a time have +I seen it. And so will we when our time comes, and when +we think it worth our while."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>We carried an order from the New South Wales Government +to call in at Norfolk Island—once the ocean prison +of the more desperate felons of the old convict régime, who +had been replaced by the descendants of the Pitcairn +islanders. They, in their turn the descendants of mutinous +sailors and Tahitian women—now the most moral, God-fearing, +and ideally perfect race on the face of the earth.</p> + +<p>What a miracle had been wrought! Who could have +imagined that the last days of a rough old sailor, spent +among the survivors of a group of savage women who had +butchered their mates, could have so firmly fixed the morale +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +of a whole community that virtue should have indelibly +impressed <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'itelf'">itself</ins> +upon a hundred families. Sydney lies +about S.S.W. from Kusaie, but to avoid passing through +the dangers of the New Hebrides, and the reef-studded +vicinity of New Caledonia, a direct south course with a +little easting was decided upon.</p> + +<p>We made Norfolk Island, the distance being about two +thousand miles, in ten days' easy steaming from Strong's +Island. This lovely island was discovered by Cook in +1774.</p> + +<p>A military man writing of it in 1798, draws a comparison +between it and Sydney much to the disadvantage of the +latter. "The air is soft (he says) and the soil inexpressibly +productive. It is a perfect section of paradise. Our +officers and their wives were sensibly affected at their departure, +and what they regarded as banishment to Sydney."</p> + +<p>Another officer writing of it in 1847, says: "It is by +nature a paradise adorned with all the choicest gifts of +nature—climate, scenery, and vegetable productions; by +art and man's policy turned into an earthly hell, disfigured +by crime, misery, and despair."</p> + +<p>The island had been brought into a high state of cultivation +by convict labour. Its roads, buildings, and gardens +were in admirable order. But with the establishment of +the new régime—a different race with different tasks—much +was neglected, a part became decayed and ruinous. +The island is now partitioned into blocks of fifty acres, of +which each adult male is allowed one, drawn for and decided +by lot.</p> + +<p>Whale fishing is the favourite and most profitable occupation. +From this and the sale of farm produce, which +finds a market in Sydney, the inhabitants are furnished +with all their needs require. Their wants are few, simple, +and easily supplied.</p> + +<p>The old convict town with its huge, dilapidated +bar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>racks, +gaol-officers' quarters, and servants' houses, is situated +on the south-east edge of the island, where the little +Nepean islet gives sufficient shelter to form a precarious +roadstead available in certain winds. The old town is +occupied by the Pitcairn islanders—in number about three +hundred.</p> + +<p>Five miles across the island, on its north-eastern shore, +and communicating with it by a fair road, lies the Melanesian +Mission estate of a thousand acres. Sloping gently +down to a low cliff and a rocky shore, the land is an undulating +meadow, broken by ravines, and covered with a +thick sward of conch grass or "doubh," said to have been +imported from India, whence we drew our chief food supplies +so many a year ago. Nothing more beautiful in a +state of nature had ever been seen, I thought, when I first +cast my admiring eyes on it. Here and there gigantic, +graceful pines (<i>Araucaria excelsa</i>) stood in stately groves. +Higher up on the flanks of Mount Pitt (a thousand feet +above) grow the lemon and guava, cotton and wild tobacco. +The island is nine hundred miles from Sydney and thirteen +hundred and fifty from Cape Pillar, Tasmania. The +Nepean and Phillip Islands lie to the south of the main +island.</p> + +<p>We were in such a hurry to see the famous island and +still more famous islanders, that we omitted a precaution +which had been earnestly impressed upon us the day before. +This was not to attempt to land unless we had a +Pitcairner to steer. When the long swell of the Pacific +rolls in upon the shallow beaches of Sydney Bay there is +no more dangerous place in the world—the roadstead of +Madras hardly excepted—than the boat harbour at Norfolk +Island.</p> + +<p>Like most sailors, and man-of-war's men in particular, +the crew was reckless and confident. For myself, I was a +fair hand in a boat, and had mixed in so many cases of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +touch-and-go, where all hands would have fed the sharks +in a few more minutes, that I had lost any sense of caution +that I might have originally possessed. As we neared +the shore, rising and falling upon the tremendous billows, +which told of a scarce passed gale, I felt a sense of exhilaration +to which I had been long a stranger. A party of the +islanders, seeing a boat leave the ship, had come down to +watch our landing, apparently with interest. As we came +closer I noticed them talking rapidly to one another, and +occasionally waving their arms to one side or the other as +if to direct our steering. There were several women in the +group, but as we neared the landing my attention was rivetted +upon a girl who stood out some distance from the +others at the end of a rocky point, which jutted beyond the +narrow beach.</p> + +<p>I had seen strikingly beautiful faces and faultless forms +among the island girls, as all unconscious, they threw +themselves into attitudes so graceful and unstudied that a +sculptor would have coveted them for models. Among +these children of nature, roaming at will through their +paradisal isles, the perfection of the human form had +doubtless been developed. But there was a subtle charm +about this girl, as she stood with bare feet beside the plashing +wave,—a statuesque presentment of nobility, courage, +and refinement which I had never before recognised in living +woman. Tall and slender of frame, she yet possessed the +rounded outlines which, in all island women, promise a +fuller development in the matured stage of womanhood. +Her features were delicately regular; in her large dark +eyes there was an expression of strong interest, deepening +almost into fear, as she gazed at our incoming boat. She +had bent slightly forward, and stood poised on her rock +as if waiting for a signal to plunge into the boiling surf. +Her complexion was so fair that, but for her attitude, which +spoke her a daughter of the sea, one which no mortal born +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +away from the music of the surges could have assumed, I +might have taken her for an Englishwoman.</p> + +<p>"In the name of all the divine maidens since Nausicaa" +(I had not quite forgotten my <i>Odyssey</i>, rusty though was +my Greek) "who can she be?" thought I.</p> + +<p>At this point my reflections and conjectures came to an +abrupt end, as, indeed, nearly did also "the fever called +living" in my particular case. I felt the boat rise heavenwards +on the back of a tremendous roller. The islanders +shouted as though to warn us of danger, the steersman gave +the tiller a wrong turn, or omitted to give it the right one, +and the next moment the boat was buried beneath an avalanche +of foam, with crew and passengers struggling for +their lives. I could swim well, that is, of course, comparatively, +for the difference between the best performance of +a white man—well practised from youth though he be—and +of an islander is as that of a dog and a fish. Still, +having risen to the surface, I made no doubt but that I +could easily gain a landing. In this I was deceived. As +in other spots, the constant surf concealed a treacherous +undertow against which the ordinary swimmer is powerless. +Again and again did I gain foothold, to be swept +back by the resistless power of the backward current. +Each time I became weaker, and at length, after a long +fruitless struggle, I closed my eyes and resigned myself to +my fate. Borne backward and half fainting, I saw the +whole party of natives in the water mingling with the crew, +who, like myself, had been making desperate efforts to +reach the landing.</p> + +<p>My senses were leaving me; darkness was before my +eyes, when dimly, as in a dream, I seemed to mark the girl +upon the rock plunge with the gliding motion of a seal into +the boiling foam. Her bosom shone as with outstretched +arms she parted the foaming tide, her short under-dress, +reaching only to the knees, offered no impediment to the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +freedom of her limbs. I felt soft arms around me. A +cloud of dusky hair enveloped me. Strains of unearthly +music floated in my ears. It was the dirge of the mermaidens, +as they wail over the drowned sailor and bear him +with song and lament to his burial cavern. All suddenly +it ceased.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The mid-day sun had pierced the roof and side of the +cottage wherein I was lying upon a couch, softly matted. +When I awoke I looked around. Surely I had been +drowned, and must be dead and gone! How, then, was I +once more in a place where the sun shone, where there were +mats and signs of ordinary life? I closed my eyes in half-denial +of the evidences of my so-called senses. Then, as I +raised myself with difficulty, the door opened and a man +entered.</p> + +<p>He was a tall, grandly developed Pitcairner, one of the +men who had been on board the night before. His face +was dark, with the tint of those races which, though far +removed from the blackness of the Ethiop, are yet distinct +from the pure white family of mankind. But his eyes, +curiously, were of bright and distinct blue, in hereditary +transmission, doubtless, from that ancestor who had formed +one of the historic mutineers of the <i>Bounty</i>.</p> + +<p>"You've had a close shave, Hilary. That's your name, +I believe. A trifle more salt water and you'd have been +with the poor chap that's drowned. We got all the crew +out but him."</p> + +<p>"I thought I <i>was</i> drowned," I replied, "but I begin to +perceive that I'm alive. I see you're of the same opinion, +so I suppose it's all right."</p> + +<p>"It's not a thing to laugh at," the Pitcairner said gravely. +"God saw fit to save you this time. To Him and Miranda +you owe your thanks for being where you are now."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +"There are people in Sydney," I said, "who will be foolish +enough to be glad of it, and after I have a little time to +think, I daresay I shall be pleased myself. But who is +Miranda, and how did she save me?"</p> + +<p>"Miranda Christian, my cousin, is the girl you saw +standing on the rock. She had a strong fight of it to get +you in, and but for one of us going on each side neither of +you would have come out. We had been hard at it trying +to save the crew, and nearly left it too late. She was just +about done."</p> + +<p>"I shall be uneasy till I thank her. What a brave girl! +And what am I to call you?"</p> + +<p>"Fletcher Quintal, and her cousin," the islander replied, +drawing himself up and looking at me with a steady gaze. +"You won't see her till the afternoon. She has gone home +to rest after staying with you till you came to. My sister, +Dorcas, will bring you food directly, and perhaps you'd +better rest yourself too till sundown. Then some of us +will pay you a visit. Good morning."</p> + +<p>A pleasant-faced damsel, with the sparkling eyes and +perfect teeth of the race, came in shortly afterwards, who +smilingly informed me that her name was Dorcas Quintal, +and that her cousin Miranda had told her she was not to +talk much to me.</p> + +<p>However, during the time occupied in making a creditable +lunch—all things considered,—I succeeded in convincing +her that I was strong enough for a decent dose of +gossip, in the course of which I learned several interesting +pieces of information about Miranda, who certainly had +posed as my Guardian Angel in the late accident. She +was, according to Dorcas, the leader in all sports and pastimes, +and also the most learned and accomplished damsel +on the island. "She sang and played in their church choir. +She had read all the poets in the world," Dorcas believed. +"She could recite pages and pages of poetry and history. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +Altogether she was a wonderful girl to be born and brought +up in such a place as Norfolk Island, where we never see +any one"—here Dorcas wreathed her lips into an expressive +pout—"that is, except captains of ships and strangers +like yourself."</p> + +<p>"So she is quite perfect," I said, "alike on land and sea. +I can vouch for the last. I suppose she can pull an oar +and is quite at home in a boat?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed she is," answered Dorcas, warming up. "She +can sail a cutter with any man on the island, and steer a +whaleboat besides. You should see her standing up with +the big steer oar in those tiny hands of hers."</p> + +<p>"So, then, she has no faults?" I queried, a little mischievously.</p> + +<p>The girl smiled. "I suppose we have all some here as +in other places. She is rather proud and quiet, the other +girls say. I never saw it, and if there is anything else you +must find it out for yourself. And now, as you have finished +eating and drinking, I must go. Miranda will be +here by and by."</p> + +<p>"Only one word, Dorcas," said I, as she turned towards +the doorway. "How many admirers has she—all the +young men in the island, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Only one," she replied, impressively, "my brother, +Fletcher Quintal. He would die for her."</p> + +<p>"And she?"</p> + +<p>The girl paused before replying, and gazed earnestly at +me.</p> + +<p>"She says she will never marry." And with that she +passed out and left me to my meditations.</p> + +<p>I must have been fatigued, even bruised and battered by +my conflict with sea and shore, as I felt a kind of lassitude +creep over me, and presently fell into a dreamless sleep, +which lasted till the sun was low and the dimness of the +light told me that the day had passed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +I raised myself and saw Miranda sitting on a low stool +near the window, or the aperture which served for one. As +I turned, she smiled and came towards me, putting out her +hand for me to take, and gazing into my face with a frank +pleasure of the unspoiled woman of the woods and fields. +"I have to thank you for my life," I said, as I pressed +her hand warmly. "It is of no great value to any one, +as things have been going lately, but being such as it is, +you have my warmest gratitude. I should hardly have +changed for the worse if I had been lying beside poor Bill +Dacre."</p> + +<p>"You must not talk in that mocking way," she said, with +a pained expression like that of a hurt child. "God has +given us all a life to use for some good purpose. Surely +you have friends? perhaps a mother and sisters, who +would weep when they heard you were lying under the +waves?"</p> + +<p>"You are right, Miranda, and I will not talk foolishly +again; but I thank you with my whole heart for your noble +courage in risking your life to save mine. I wonder now +how we both got to land, in spite of that beastly undertow?"</p> + +<p>"I never could have done it without help," she said. "I +was nearly exhausted, yet I did not like to let you go, when +Fletcher Quintal and Peter Mills, who had each brought out +a man, swam in again, and we came in between them."</p> + +<p>"You seem to be quite at home in the water," I said. +"I thought I could swim, and at Strong's Island and other +places could hold my own with the natives pretty well. +But I found my mistake here."</p> + +<p>"Of course we all swim well," she replied, smiling, "and +know how to manage a boat. It would be curious if we +did not; there is little else to do, in Norfolk Island, except +when we are working in the fields. Our life is sometimes +dull, I must allow."</p> + +<p>"I hear that you can do all sorts of other things," I said. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +"That you are the chief musician and teacher, besides +being commander of the fleet."</p> + +<p>"Dorcas has been chattering, I am afraid," she answered, +while a blush rose to her brow, tingeing the pallor of her +ivory cheek with faint carmine. "I certainly have a variety +of occupations, and very fortunate it is! Otherwise, I don't +know what would happen to me, for I am scarcely as contented +as my cousins and the other girls on the island."</p> + +<p>"It is the old story," I said. "Now, why should you +not be contented on this lovely island where you have all +you could wish for in the world—perfect freedom, a +matchless climate, exercise, adventure, the love of your +kinsfolk, everything that satisfies the heart of woman?"</p> + +<p>"Everything necessary to satisfy a woman's heart!" she +said, rising and walking to where the casement admitted a +view of the heaving deep with the <i>Rosario</i> lying on and off. +"Can you look at the boundless ocean with its thousand +paths to the cities of the earth and not wish to roam? To +see the glories of the old world, all the varied richly-coloured +life of ancient nations that I have read of and see in my +dreams? Do you think men only are impatient of a +hemmed-in life? It is not so. Women have their longings +for a wider range, a larger sphere; and yet I am perhaps +the only girl on the island that feels what I have +described."</p> + +<p>"You must have read much," I said, rather startled at +this burst of feeling from the lips of a Norfolk Island +damsel—a child of the most contented community in the +world. "These strange yearnings must have been awakened +in you through the word-painting of these wicked authors."</p> + +<p>"And why not?" she answered, with heightened colour +and flashing eye. "That my world is one of books I do not +deny. I have daily tasks and occupations, but my evenings +are my own, and in them I read and muse. Then this little +island, with its patient, primitive people, seems to fade +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +away. I spend hours in Italy, where I revel in Florence, +the Pitti Palace, the Arno, and roam the streets of the +Eternal City amid the monuments of the world's grandest +era, their very decay 'an Empire's dust.' I fall asleep often +when reclining on the banks of 'Tiber, Father Tiber, to +whom the Romans pray.' But, oh! if I begin to wander +away in the track of my visions I shall never stop. And +you," she continued with an eager glance, "you, who have +seen men and cities, are you contented to linger away your +life under cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees, taking in glorious +ease among simple savages until you become one yourself +in all but the colour? Is this what you were born and +reared and educated for?"</p> + +<p>As the girl thus spoke, with head upraised and exalted +mien, her wondrous eyes flashing with almost unearthly +light, her mobile lineaments changing with each varying +mood, she looked in her strange and unfamiliar beauty like +some virgin prophetess of the days of old, rousing her +countrymen to deeds of patriotic valour or self-sacrificing +heroism.</p> + +<p>All enthusiasm is contagious, more especially when the +enthusiast is fair to look upon, and belongs to that sex for, +or on account of which, so much of the world's strife has +resulted.</p> + +<p>For the first time I began seriously to ask myself what +motives had led me to waste so large a portion of my +youth in heedless wandering among these fairy isles. What +were my aims in life? What did I propose to myself? +As I looked at the girl's face, aglow with the fire of a +noble ambition, I felt humbled and ashamed.</p> + +<p>"You have spoken truly, Miranda," I replied, after a +long pause, during which my fair questioner looked with a +far-away gaze across the ocean plain, now quenching its +thousand shifting gleams in the quick-falling tropic night. +"I have been idly careless and unheeding of the future, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +satisfied with the day's toil and the day's pleasure. But I +am going back to my people in Australia; there I shall +begin a new life. It is a land of duty, of labour, and its +enduring reward. There I shall renew the tension of my +moral fibre which has been too long relaxed. But you +must not be too hard on me. I have had to face losses, +dangers, and misfortunes. I have been wrecked; I lost +everything I had in the world. I have been ill; have been +wounded; and, but for some of those simple islanders you +seem to despise, I should not have been a living man +to-day."</p> + +<p>"I do not despise them," she said; "of course every one +knows that we are descended from those of Tahiti. I only +say that they are not fit companions for white men—I +mean of educated white men who in the end become as bad +as they are—even worse—much worse. But tell me about +your being ill. And who tended you? Was it a woman?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you all about it to-morrow if you will walk +with me and show me some of the scenery of this beautiful +island of yours. But it is a long story, and it is too late to +begin to-night."</p> + +<p>"I should like it above all things," she said frankly, +"though you must have seen so many grand places in your +roamings that our poor landscapes will hardly interest +you."</p> + +<p>"Much depends on the guide," I said, as I gazed admiringly +at her eloquent countenance.</p> + +<p>"I know that," she answered, meeting my too ardent +gaze with perfect unconsciousness of any hidden meaning. +"They tell me I am the best guide on the island, and indeed +I should be, for my father and I were never tired of exploring +and finding out traces of the old occupation by the +Sydney Government, and many curious discoveries we +made. So I will come here after breakfast to-morrow."</p> + +<p>She was true to her appointment, and then commenced +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +a series of delightful rambles which, perhaps, I more truly +enjoyed than many later and more pretentious travels.</p> + +<p>In despite of Miranda's depreciation of her lovely isle we +found endless excuses for interest and admiration. It was +truly a wonderful little "kingdom by the sea." Scraped +along the side of a hill would be one of the beautiful roads +constructed by the forced labour of the convicts which at +one time almost filled the island. Rising from the valley +slope were gigantic ferns, broad-leaved palms, lemons, +oranges, guavas, all originally imported, but now flourishing +in the wildest luxuriance in the rich soil and semi-tropical +climate; while above all, stately and columnar, +rose the great Araucaria peculiar to the island—the Norfolk +Island pine of the colonists.</p> + +<p>Hand in hand we roamed together through this Eden +amid the main, as though our great progenitors had again +been transplanted to this wondrous wild—a latter day +Adam, by whose side smiled a sinless Eve—pure as her +prototype, and yet informed of much of the lore which +men had wrested from the rolling ages. Together we +explored the gloomy corridors and echoing halls of the +ruinous prison houses—once the dark abodes of sorrow, +torment, and despair unutterable.</p> + +<p>Miranda shuddered at the thought that these dismal +cells and courtyards had echoed to the cries of criminals +under the lash—to the clanking of chains—had even +witnessed the death penalty inflicted on the murderer and +the mutineer.</p> + +<p>Mute and terrible witnesses were they to the guilt to +which human nature may descend—to the abysmal depths +of despair into which the felon and the outcast may be +hurled, when, hopeless of help from God or man, he +abandons himself to all the baser instincts.</p> + +<p>We seldom lingered amid these sullen retreats, around +which Miranda always declared she heard sighs and +groan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>ings, +sobs, and even shrieks, as though the spirits of those +who had suffered, and mourned, and died amidst the horrors +unspeakable of prison life still lingered amid the ruins of +their place of torment.</p> + +<p>How strange, well-nigh impossible, it even seemed to me +that the very earth, the dumb witness of crime immeasurable, +was not polluted irredeemably by the deeds that she +had perforce endured and condoned. And now—stranger +than aught that dreaming poet or seer imagined—that +this Inferno should have been transmuted into an Arcadia, +purer and more stainless than the fabled land of old, and +peopled by the most obediently moral and conscientious +family of mankind that had ever gathered the fruits of the +earth since the days of our first parents.</p> + +<p>Day after day followed of this charmed life—magical, +unreal, only in that it transcended all my other experiences +in the degree that the glamour of fairyland and the companionship +of the queen of Elfland may have exceeded the +memorials of Ercildoune. If he was enchanted, I was spellbound +even as true Thomas. Never had I met with a +companion who combined all the charm of womanhood—the +grace and joyousness of girlhood's most resistless period—with +the range of thought and intellectual progress which +this singular girl, amid her lonely isle and restricted companionship, +had explored. And withal, she had remained +in her almost infantine unconsciousness of evil—her virginal, +instinctive repulsion of all things forbidden and debarred—like +a being of another planet.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Naturally an end arrived to this blissful state of things. +The man-of-war after a few days was compelled to continue +her voyage and perform her allotted duties, which comprehended +surveys of uncharted coast-lines and suspected rocks. +I had to choose between going on to Sydney and remaining in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +this charmed isle. And here inclination and duty appeared +to draw different ways with equal strength. I was naturally +anxious to return to my birth-place, my family, and +friends. My feelings of home-sickness had returned with +redoubled strength after being long in abeyance. But all +such doubts and distrusts were swept away like storm wrack +before the swelling surges of Miranda's own isle. I was +fain to yield to the resistless force of the passion which +now dominated, nay, consumed me. True, I had not as +yet definitely assured myself that this purest pearl of +womanhood was within my grasp. I had made no proffer +of my affections. I had not, in so many words, solicited +the priceless gift of hers. But I was not so unskilled in +affairs of the heart as to mistake many a sign and symbol +from Love's own alphabet, denoting that the outworks of +the citadel were yielding, and that the fortress would ere +long open gate and drawbridge to the invader.</p> + +<p>True to nature's own teaching, Miranda had not scrupled +to confess and dilate upon the pleasure my companionship +afforded her, to declare that never before in her life had +she been half so happy, to wonder if my sisters would not +die of joy when I returned, to chide me for my long absence +from them and from such a home as I had often described +to her. And all this with the steady eye and frank expression +of girlish pleasure, which a less unsophisticated damsel +would scarcely have acknowledged without conscious blushes +and downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>Miranda, on the other hand, stated her sensations calmly +and fearlessly, her wondrous eyes meeting mine with all +the trustful eagerness of a happy child, as if it was the +most natural thing in the world. "You see, Hilary," she +would say, laying her hand lightly on my arm, and looking +up in an appealing manner, "I have never met any one +before who seems to understand my feelings as you do +apparently by instinct. You have travelled and been in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +other places besides the islands, and you have read books—nearly +all those which I have. You know that story in +the <i>Arabian Nights</i> about the prince that was changed into +a bird? He knew that he was a prince, yet he was condemned +to be dumb, and was unable to convey his feelings, +because to all the world he was only a bird.</p> + +<p>"I sometimes think we Pitcairn girls live the life of +birds—like that one," and she pointed to a soaring white-winged +sea-bird, which presently darted downwards, falling +like a stone upon the blue ocean wave. "We swim +and fish, we are almost more on the sea than the land, we +sleep on the land like that white bird, walk a little, talk a +little,—that is our whole life. I think the bird has the +best of it, as she can fly and we cannot."</p> + +<p>"But you all seem happy and contented," I said, "you +and your cousins."</p> + +<p>"<i>They</i> are, but I seem to have been born under a different +star. I must have inherited some of the restless, +adventurous spirit of my ancestor, Fletcher Christian.</p> + +<p>"The feeling of unrest and the desire to see the world—the +wonderful, ancient, beautiful world of which we, in this +island prison, for lovely as it is, it is but a prison for free +souls—becomes so intense at times that I almost dread lest +I should end my life like his."</p> + +<p>"And in what way was that?" I asked. "God forbid +you should ever do a deed so terrible," I said.</p> + +<p>"Do you not know? He used to go every day to the +top of a high cliff on the south side of Pitcairn to gaze over +the ocean—as I have done hundreds of times—thinking, +perhaps, of the wonderlands beyond, where he had forfeited +the right to live by his own act; and—and one day he +threw himself over the cliff, and they found his body on the +rocks below. Poor Fletcher! I can partly understand his +feelings."</p> + +<p>This was but one of our many conversations, always +fas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>cinating +to me, as affording the rare privilege of exploring +a mind naturally of high intelligence, developed by patient +thought and a wide range of reading,—the island library, +enriched by many generous gifts, being by no means a poor +one,—guarded from deterioration by an exquisite natural +refinement, yet withal clear and limpid as the transparent +seas which encircled her home, where the more deeply the +eye penetrated the more precious were the treasures disclosed.</p> + +<p>So it came to pass that the <i>Rosario</i> sailed without me. +The Captain and my jolly comrades of the gun-room chaffed +me about what they called my imprudent attachment. +"You'll have to turn Pitcairner," they said, "and settle +down after old Nobbs has spliced you upon a fifty-acre +patch, where you can grow sweet potatoes, yams, and maize +to the end of your days. Surely a fellow like you, with a +family to go back to, has something better in view than +that!"</p> + +<p>"I shall not stay on the island," I said, "I intend to live +in Australia, perhaps near Sydney."</p> + +<p>"Then your island princess will run away and leave you +disconsolate. They can't live away from their people and +where they were brought up. Some of them insisted on +going back to Pitcairn, and are there now. They could not +be persuaded from it. They had to let them go. They +would have died else."</p> + +<p>"I have resolved," I said. "I will take all risks. You +shall all come and see us in Sydney. We will live at +North Shore, and have a yacht built on the lines of the +<i>Leonora</i>. Adios!"</p> + +<p>So we parted. The <i>Rosario</i> got up steam, and once more +I watched the black cloud of smoke pouring from her funnels +and the waves breaking as she moved majestically +across the bright-hued ocean.</p> + +<p>Up to the last moment my simple and warm-hearted +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +friends on the island had serious doubts as to whether I +was not going off in the <i>Rosario</i>. They could hardly understand +how I could prefer remaining as their guest and +friend when the glory and dignity of a man-of-war—their +highest expression of maritime splendour—were open +to me.</p> + +<p>They had, it is true, implored me to stay with them for +a few months longer—the young men were equally pressing +with the older members of the community. With artless +candour the girls promised that if I would stay Miranda +should be my constant companion, and, except on Sundays, +when, as their chief musician and organist, she could not +naturally be spared, I should have a monopoly of her +society.</p> + +<p>"You seem to like her so much," Dorcas Quintal repeatedly +exclaimed. "And I am certain she likes you more +than any one she has ever seen. The worst of it is that +she will be so sorry when you have to go away. Clara +Young nearly died when her friend went away. That was +two years ago. But she got over it in time, and now she is +happily married. But she <i>did</i> try to drown herself one day, +only we were too quick for her."</p> + +<p>"It is a bad thing to have strangers for friends," I said, +"if it may end so tragically when they leave. I wonder +you entertain such dangerous visitors."</p> + +<p>"I suppose we can't help it," the girl replied, laughingly. +"It is so pleasant to talk with men who know the great +world we can only read about. We just take our chance. +We have plenty to do, and that prevents us from fretting +too much. I daresay you will hear a little crying to-night. +We are all very sorry the big ship is gone."</p> + +<p>"It's the old, old story, Dorcas! Girls are a good deal +alike all the world over, I suppose, in many of their ways. +But you Pitcairners are certainly different in some respects +to any women I know anywhere."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +"What do you mean?" asked the girl, eagerly. "I +know we are simple, and have never been taught very +much."</p> + +<p>"It isn't that. I will tell you before I go, or rather, I +will tell Miranda, and she shall tell you what I say."</p> + +<p>So, with the full approbation of friends and relations of +every degree of relationship, and, what was of more consequence, +with the good-will of the spiritual pastor and master +of the island, whose authority was absolute and unquestioned, +Miranda and I pursued our untroubled way. In +this wondrous Arcadia there were no jealousies, no scandals, +no asking of intentions, no fiery, disappointed aspirants, no +infuriated brothers,—these obstacles to pure and true love +were evidently the outcome of a higher or a lower stage of +civilisation. No evil consequences had ever occurred from +unrestricted freedom of intercourse between the young +people since the formation of the community. No such +result was regarded as possible. Immutably fixed in my +own course, I knew that nothing—humanly speaking—could +affect my unalterable resolve. I had discovered a +pearl of womanhood, matchless in beauty of mind and body, +combining the higher mental qualities, indeed, with such +physical perfection as no girl reared under less fortunate +conditions was likely to possess. With regard to the +future, if she consented to link her fate with mine I was +ready to take all the risks of fortune. The fickle goddess +has always favoured the brave, and with Miranda at my +side I felt that I could lead the forlorn hopes of desperate +endeavour, or endure uncomplainingly the toil and self-denial +of the humblest station. I had, it is true, led a +careless, somewhat epicurean life in the past, surrendering +myself perhaps too readily to the charm of island life. But +this was of the past, and the half-instinctive folly period of +youth. Henceforth I would essay the culture of the mental +qualities with which I had been reasonably gifted, turning +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +to account also that very sound and thorough early tuition +through which I had fortunately passed. Thus equipped, +and with a helpmate at once loving and practical—devoted +to duty and the highest forms of unselfish charity—ambitious +only for intellectual experience and development—I +felt that hope became certainty and success a mere matter +of detail. After the departure of the <i>Rosario</i> I became +almost a son by adoption among the elders of the community. +I learned to accommodate myself to their ways, +after a fashion which was rendered more easy by my years +of familiarity with island life. At the same time I was +careful not to infringe in the slightest degree upon their +peculiar customs, or to shock those religious prejudices +which were so earnestly accepted in the community. It +was taken for granted that I would settle among them in +right of my bride. If I decided to marry Miranda, or any +other island maiden, I should be put in possession of a +landed estate of fifty acres, where I might dream away life +in a round of labour that was half recreation, wandering +amid the island groves, reclining under giant ferns or lofty +pines, bathing in crystal founts or clear-hued seas at dawn +or under the yellow moon. Passing contentedly from +youth to middle age, from that half-way stage to a later +span of life, which in this enchanted land implied little or +no diminution of natural powers. Should it be so?</p> + +<p>This question I had asked Miranda more than once. +But she would not consent to take it seriously. One day, +however, I compelled her to listen, though she had again +declared that we were so happy as we were that no change +could be for the better, possibly for the worse—even.</p> + +<p>"Then, Miranda," I answered, "I must leave the island. +Did we not hear from the last whaler that called in for +fresh provisions that my old friend—the friend of the +family, Captain Carryall, was to touch here in the <i>Florentia</i>?" +He was the best known, the most popular of all +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +the skippers next to Captain Hayston. Unlike him, however, +his reputation was spotless, while for fair dealing and +adherence to his promises his fame was proverbial. "Shall +I go with him?" I said, "and must I go alone?"</p> + +<p>"And would you leave me?" she asked, imploringly—her +dark eyes turned towards my face in a passion of +reproachful tenderness, of which she herself scarce understood +the meaning, "Oh! I thought once that I could let +you go, though it has been life and happiness untold having +you to talk to and read with. I fancied I should only +mourn for you for a while—like the other island girls who +weep and lament, and then dry their tears and dance and +sing as if nothing had happened. But, oh! It is not so +with me. They always say the Fletcher-Christians are +different. I shall die! I shall die! I know I shall."</p> + +<p>And with that she cast herself on my neck, sobbing as +though her heart would break. In the same breath declaring +that she would never consent to spoil my life by marriage +with a poor savage island girl, but a few degrees +superior to the women of Pingelap and Ocean Island whom +she had so often despised.</p> + +<p>By degrees I persuaded her to listen to my pleadings, +and then calmly set before her my plans for the future. +We must be married here, and after remaining on the +island, living the idyllic life we were revelling in now, we +would sail for Sydney in the <i>Florentia</i>, or some other vessel, +and there begin life in earnest. Some employment would +be found, doubtless, which would pave the way, by which +I might make a serious effort towards a career, perhaps +a competency in the future, or even a fortune.</p> + +<p>I had but little difficulty in carrying out my plan. The +elders of the community, the relations and friends of +Miranda, were overjoyed at the prospect of her marriage +with a person of my position, who might also be enabled +to do them many a good turn if I settled in Sydney, a port +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +with which they had close business relations. I found, too, +that I was not altogether an unknown personage. Some +of the young men who had made voyages in whaleships +had heard of my companionship with Captain Hayston. +However, it would seem that all the natives whom they +had met had given a good account of me as a fair dealer, +and, moreover, generous in my treatment of them,—an +apparently unimportant matter at the time, but serious +enough now. Miranda told me afterwards, that had it +been otherwise nothing would have induced her guardians +to give their consent, or her to defy their decision.</p> + +<p>As it was, however, all seemed <i>couleur de rose</i>. No great +preparations were needed. The simple island fashion was +not encumbered with any great multiplication of garments. +On the happy day Miranda was escorted to the modest +building which did duty for a church by a band of white-robed +maidens, in whose dark hair was wreathed the crimson +blossoms of the coral plant and the hibiscus, with little +other adornment but nature's furnishing in the flower-time +of life. My comrades were selected from the younger men +of the island, among whom I had always taken care to stand +well, joining in their sports, and entering as an equal competitor +their athletic contests. I was therefore looked +upon as a most desirable acquaintance, able to hold my +own, moreover, in all manly accomplishments (except +swimming), and much esteemed for a gift of relating +adventures in strange lands, and describing the foreign +manners and customs with which a roving life had made +me familiar.</p> + +<p>It might have been imagined that a girl so singularly +gifted and attractive as Miranda would have had lovers in +abundance, by whom a successful aspirant like myself would +be regarded with jealousy. Unlikely as it may appear I +observed no feeling of this kind. In that strange society, +the passions which rage so fiercely in more civilised +com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>munities +appeared to have lost their force, or to flow with +the peaceful motion of the incoming tide rather than the +resistless rush of a mountain torrent, which love, hate, +jealousy, and envy in other lands so often resemble. The +young men admired Miranda, indeed, worshipped her from +afar. But they seemed rather elated by her good fortune, +as it so appeared to them, than enviously disposed, and +had no thought of other than the warmest friendship for +their more fortunate companion. Even Fletcher Quintal, +who might have been expected to view with dislike, if +not a stronger sensation, my marriage with his favourite +cousin, had apparently no feeling of this sort. He certainly +expressed none, but congratulated me with all the +warmth which a brother might be supposed to exhibit +at the marriage of his best loved sister with his dearest +friend. Truly it <i>was</i> the long lost rediscovered Arcadia. +There were moments when I doubted whether it was +wise to leave a land where care was unknown; where +want, with its attendant evils, had never been heard of; +where there were no rich men to envy; no bad ones to +fear; no poor to despise; where no one died but of old +age or mishap; whence all the ills that flesh is heir to +had, like the snakes of Ireland, been banished by some +good genius, and only the gifts of virtue, contentment, +and regulated industry remained. But there was wild blood +in my veins, long dormant as it had lain. The murmur of +the ocean seemed to call me with a tone of magical power. +I longed for the wave-music once more—for the voyage +which was to speed me to my birthland. I hurried on the +preparations for our wedding, and, lingering though were +all the slow sweet hours, endless the days, almost tedious +the soft starlight glow of the summer nights, the day of +days at last dawned that was to herald the happiness of a +life-time.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +Our small domain had been carefully measured and +marked out for us. A cottage had been built, thatched +with palm leaves, floored with the soft mats of the island, +simply furnished, and, as it happened, near to a bubbling +spring, and shaded by the wondrous wild orange, which +here grows almost to the height and girth of a forest tree. +It happened to be the flower-time of these charming fruit +bearers, so that wreaths and garlands of the blossom sacred +to Hymen were plentiful and profuse.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h2>EPITHALAMIUM</h2> + + +<p>Our marriage day! Oh, day of days! Dawn of a new +existence! All nature seemed to sympathise with us in +our supernal joy. For us, for us alone in all the world the +streamlets murmured, the breezes whispered together, the +wavelets plashed musically, the blue sky glowed, the sun +shone goldingly. The venerable pastor of the community—he +who had watched over every man and woman present +from infancy, who had christened, and married, and buried +the whole population of the island as they require these +offices—read the time-honoured service of the Church of +England, which was followed with deepest reverential +attention by all present. When he blessed our union in +the solemn language of the ritual familiar to me in the +days of my childhood, every head was bowed, each woman's +eye was wet with heart-felt sympathy and warmest affection +for their erst-while playmate.</p> + +<p>The day was cloudless, a breeze at times sighed through +the fragrant foliage of the grove wherein the little church +had been built. The wavelets murmured on the beach, +and the unresting surges seemed but to exchange loving +memories of coral islands and crystal seas, of waving palms +and the green gladness of tropic forests, of maidens, +feather-crowned and flower-bejewelled, dancing on silver +strands beneath the full-orbed midnight moon, or gliding, +a laughing bevy of syrens, beneath the translucent wave. +No sullen, dirge-like refrain on that paradisal day brought +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +from the ocean voices the memory of drifting wrecks, of +stormy seas, of drowned seamen—no hint of danger, of +despair, of pestilence, and death; and yet all these phases +of experience I had known and reckoned with even in my +short life.</p> + +<p>No; these and kindred ills were forgotten, banished from +earth and sea. On this blissful morn the golden age of the +earth seemed to have returned. Recalling the half-forgotten +classics of my boyhood, I could fancy that I saw fauns +peeping through the leaves of the orange grove, that the +ages had reverted to the freshness of the elder world, when +the flush of the fair Arcadian life informed all things with +divinity.</p> + +<p>And Miranda, my bride of brides! what words can +describe her as she stood, with an expression half-timid, +half-rapt, and inspired, before the humble altar that day? +Her simple dress of virgin white which but slightly concealed +while it outlined the curves of her statuesque form; +her large dark eyes, which had often appeared to me to +hold a shade of melancholy, were now irradiated by the +love-light which she, in the purity and innocence of her +heart, made no attempt to conceal. Her soft, abundant +tresses had been gathered up into becoming form and +classic simplicity, and, save a wreath of scarlet berries and +the traditional orange blossom, she wore no ornament. +As all unconscious of her maiden loveliness she stood beside +me, with her head raised and an expectant smile which +disclosed her pearly teeth, she seemed to my enraptured +gaze a daughter of the wave,—no mortal maiden, but +a being compact of air and sea and sky, visible but beneath +the moonbeams, and unrevealed to the dwellers of the garish +day.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>We had been but a month wedded; our simple home, our +tiny domain, our forest rambles, our sea-baths at dawn and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +eve, as yet contented us—filled us with all fullest delight +in which mortal beings can revel beneath this ethereal +dome. And yet the spirit of unrest, the veritable serpent +of the world's fairest Aidenns, gradually found means to +discover himself.</p> + +<p>Miranda and I had, indeed, begun to discuss our projected +voyage to Sydney, and I had many times described +to her an ideal home on one of the thousand and one bays +which render the northern shore of the unrivalled Sydney +harbour matchless in beauty and convenience for those +who, like myself, have salt water in their blood. She +agreed with me, that with a boat, a garden, a bath-house, +and a cottage built of the beautiful white, pink-veined sandstone, +which is so abundant beneath and around Sydney, +existence might be endured away from her island home, +with the aid of books and the inspiring idea of the coming +fortune.</p> + +<p>"And even if we do not make money," she said, "as +people call it—what a strange idea it seems to me, who +have hardly ever seen any—we shall be happy. I can't +imagine people who are married and love each other ever +being unhappy. Then your mother and sisters—I am so +much afraid of them. They will regard me as a kind of +savage, I am sure; and, indeed, compared with them, or +real civilised people, I am afraid that I shall feel like one. +And, oh! shall we ever be happier than we are now? +Why should we change? Do you think we can come back +now and then and visit my people? I should break my +heart if I thought I should see them no more!"</p> + +<p>I promised this and other things, doubtless, at the time. +But before we had completed the conversation about our +future life—which indeed supplied us with endless subjects +of interest—the great island wonder-sign appeared. +A shout—a rush of excited people past our hut told of a +ship in sight. We were down at the beach nearly as soon +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +as the others, and as a long, low barque came up before the +wind, something told me that she was the <i>Florentia</i>.</p> + +<p>A boat—a whaleboat, with a kanaka crew—put off soon +after she was at anchor, and in the tall man at the steer-oar, +whose commanding figure, even at that distance, I +seemed to know, there was no difficulty in identifying our +old friend Captain Carryall.</p> + +<p>Directly he jumped ashore, a dozen of the islanders +dashed into the surf and ran the boat up on the beach. +Our recognition was mutual.</p> + +<p>"Well, young fellow!" he said, "I've been hunting you +up half over the South Seas. Wherever have you stowed +yourself all this time? Why, what a man you've grown—a +couple of inches taller than me, and I'm no pony. Brown +as a berry, too! You'll have to come home with me this +trip. Your old man's beginning to get anxious about you—and +you know he's not much in that line—and your +mother and sisters."</p> + +<p>"Captain Carryall," I said, "there's no necessity for more +reasons. I'm going to Sydney with you if you'll give me a +passage."</p> + +<p>"Half a dozen if you want it," quoth the jolly sailor. +"And now I must have a word with my friends. Anybody +been married since I was here last; no Quintals—no +Millses! Mary, how's this? Dorcas—Grace—Mercy +Young, I'm ashamed of you. And Miranda! Nobody run +away with you yet? I see I must take you to Sydney and +show you at a Government House ball. Then they'd see +what a Pitcairn girl was like."</p> + +<p>"You may do that yet," I said, "for, seriously, Miranda +is now Mrs. Hilary Telfer. We have been married more +than a month."</p> + +<p>The captain could not refrain from giving a prolonged +whistle at this announcement, which certainly appeared to +take him by surprise. However, he rallied with ease and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +celerity, and addressing Miranda, whose hand he took as he +spoke, said, "My dear! let me congratulate the son of my +old friend, Captain Telfer, upon his marriage with the best, +cleverest, and prettiest girl I have fallen across in all my +wanderings. I don't suppose you have any great amount of +capital to begin life with; but if two young people like you +don't manage to find some path to fortune in a country like +Australia, I'm a Dutchman. He needs to be a good fellow, +and a man all round, to be worthy of Miranda Christian; +but he can't help, as the son of his father and his mother, +being all that, and more. So now, my dear! you must let +me kiss you, as your husband's old friend, and wish you all +happiness."</p> + +<p>Miranda blushed as the warm-hearted fellow folded her +in his arms, but submitted with becoming grace; and leaving +her among her young friends, he and I strolled away +towards our hut to talk over affairs more at leisure.</p> + +<p>"Well, youngster!" said he, laying his hand on my +shoulder, "I suppose you've had enough island life for a +while, and won't be sorry to see Sydney Heads again. Nor +I either. I've been out fifteen months this time, and that's +rather long to be away from one's home and picaninnies. +They'll be glad to see your face again at Rose Bay, I'll be +bound. But they certainly will be taken aback when you +turn up as a married man. Nineteen times out of twenty +it's a mistake to tie one's self up for life at your age. But +all depends upon getting the right woman, and Miranda is +the one woman in a thousand that a man might be proud to +marry, whether he was rich or poor, and to work and wear +out his life for all his days. I've known her since she was +a baby, and, taking her all round, I don't know her equal +anywhere. It seems queer to say so, considering her birth +and bringing up. But these Pitcairners are well known to +be the best and finest women, in all womanly ways, that +the world can show. And your wife is, and has always +been, the flower of the flock."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +I grasped the captain's hand. I knew that I had secured +a powerful ally; and though I felt so secure in the wisdom +of my choice that no disapprobation of family and friends +would have had power to affect me, yet, in such matters, it +is well to have a friend at court, and the captain's reputation +for sense and sagacity stood so high, that I felt not +only my relatives, but my acquaintances and friends, would +be strongly swayed by his judgment.</p> + +<p>"Now that we've got so far," he said, "you had better +make your arrangements to sail with me on Sunday morning; +this is Thursday, but my passengers want to see the +island and the people of whom they have heard so much."</p> + +<p>"Passengers!" I said. "How many? and where from?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I picked them up at Honolulu. Half a dozen, +and very nice people, too. They came in an English yacht +that went to San Francisco for them, and they wanted to +see Australia, and so came with me. They're rather big +people at home, I believe, though they're very quiet, and +give themselves no airs."</p> + +<p>"Any ladies?"</p> + +<p>"There are two married couples, and a young lady, with +her brother."</p> + +<p>"That's very serious, captain," said I. "I don't quite +know how Miranda will get on with travelling Englishwomen—they're +rather difficult sometimes."</p> + +<p>"Miranda will get on with any one," answered the captain, +with a decided air. "She will sit on my right hand, +as a bride, and no one in my ship will show her less than +proper respect. Anyhow, these people are not that sort. +You'll see she's all ready to start on Sunday morning. +'The better the day, the better the deed.'"</p> + +<p>So the captain went to pay a visit to the people of the +settlement, among whom his free, pleasant manner and +generous bearing had made him most popular. The girls +crowded around him, laughing and plying him with +ques<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>tions +about the commissions he had promised to execute for +them, and the presents he had brought. These attentions +he never omitted. Full of curiosity they were, too, about +the English ladies on board. "How they were dressed?" +"How long they would stay in Sydney?" "What they +would think of the poor Pitcairn girls?" and so on.</p> + +<p>With the elders he told of the whaleships he had spoken, +and of their cargoes of oil—of the Quintals, or Youngs, +Mills, or M'Coys who were harpooners and boat-steerers +on board some of the Sydney whalers, and of the chances +of their "lay" or share of profit being a good one. Besides +all this, the captain consented to act as their ambassador +to the Governor-General in Sydney, and lay before that +potentate certain defects of their island administration—small, +perhaps, in themselves, but highly important to the +members of an isolated community. In addition to all +this, he (as I heard afterwards) specially attended to my +marriage with Miranda, of which he highly approved; telling +the old pastor and the elders of the community that he +had known my father for ever so many years; that he was +highly respected now, when retired, but had been well +known in the South Seas and New Zealand many years +ago as the captain of the <i>Orpheus</i>, one of the most successful +whalers that ever sailed through Sydney Heads.</p> + +<p>"Captain Telfer of the <i>Orpheus</i>!" said one of the oldest +men of the group, "I remember him well. I was cast away +on Easter Island the time the <i>Harriet</i> was wrecked in a +hurricane. He gave me a free passage to Tahiti, a suit of +clothes, and ten dollars when I left the ship. He wanted +me to finish the voyage with him and go to Sydney. I was +sorry afterwards I didn't. He was a fine man, and a better +seaman never trod plank. No wonder Hilary is such a fine +chap. I can see the likeness now. I don't hold with our +young women going off this island in a general way, but +Miranda is a lucky girl to have Captain Telfer's son for a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +husband." All this the captain told me afterwards with +slight embellishments and variations of his own.</p> + +<p>My reputation had fairly gone before, but this light +thrown on my parentage placed me in a most exalted position—next +to their spiritual pastor and master, before +whom they bowed in genuine respect and reverence. Perhaps +there is no man in the whole world more honoured +and admired in the South Seas than the captain of a ship. +And now that the name of my father's barque, once pretty +well known south of the line, had been recalled from the +past, every doubt as to the future of Miranda and myself +was set at rest.</p> + +<p>We were invested, so to speak, with the blessing of the +whole community, and began our modest preparations with +added cheerfulness and resolve.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon we saw a boat put off from the <i>Florentia</i> +and the visitors land. They were five in number. We +could see them walk over to the village, where they were +met by some of the principal people and a few of the women +and girls. We had been making ready for our voyage, and +having finished our simple meal, sat in the shade of our +orange tree, near the door, and awaited the strangers whom +I judged rightly that curiosity and the captain would bring +to our dwelling.</p> + +<p>In less than an hour's time we saw them strolling along +the path which led to our nest. As they approached we +arose and went to meet them, when the captain with all +due form introduced us, "The Honourable Mr. and Mrs. +Craven, Colonel Percival, Mr. Vavasour, and his sister, Miss +Vavasour." Mrs. Percival had remained on board, as her +little boy of four or five years old was not well. Miranda, +rather to my surprise, was perfectly unembarrassed, and +talked away to the stranger ladies as if she had been accustomed +to the society business all her life.</p> + +<p>I could see that they were pleased and surprised at her +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +appearance, as also gratified with the manner in which she +invited them to inspect our simple dwelling.</p> + +<p>"Oh! what a charming nest of a place—quite a bower of +bliss!" cried Miss Vavasour. "I declare I will come here +when I am married and spend my honeymoon. What shade +and fragrance combined! What a lovely crystal lakelet to +bathe in! and I suppose, Mrs. Telfer, you go out fishing in +that dear canoe? What an ideal life!"</p> + +<p>"I quite agree with you and feel quite envious," said +Mrs. Craven. "Charlie and I have been married too long +to have our honeymoon over again; but it would have been +idyllic, wouldn't it, Charlie?"</p> + +<p>"Splendid place to smoke in," assented her husband. +"No hounds meet nearer than Sydney, though, I presume. +Drawback rather, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"You men are always thinking of horses, and hounds or +guns," pouted Miss Vavasour. "What can one want with +them here? What can life offer more than this endless +summer, this fairy bower, this crystal wave, this air which +is a living perfume? It is an earthly paradise."</p> + +<p>"And the beloved object," added Mrs. Craven, with quiet +humour. "You have left him out. It would be an incomplete +paradise without Adam."</p> + +<p>"Oh! here he comes!" exclaimed Miranda (as she told +me afterwards), who had not been attending to the enthusiastic +speech, but was watching bird-like for my approach.</p> + +<p>"Who? Adam?" said Miss Vavasour, laughingly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" answered she, smiling at the apparent absurdity. +"You must excuse me a little, but I was looking out +for Hilary."</p> + +<p>"Now, then, ladies!" said the cheerful voice of Captain +Carryall, "we must get back to our boat. It's dangerous +to stop ashore all night, isn't it, Miranda? We must leave +you to finish your packing. It's a long voyage to Sydney, +eh? It may be years before you see the island again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +We all went down together to the boat, where the visitors +were seen off by all the young people of the island, the +girls wondering with respectful admiration at the English +ladies' dresses, hats, boots, and shoes—in fact, at everything +they did and said as well. It was a revelation to +them, not that they had any envious feeling about those +cherished possessions. They had been too well trained +for that, and were secure in the guidance of their deeply-rooted +religious faith and lofty moral code. On the other +hand, their visitors admired sincerely the noble forms and +free, graceful bearing of the island maidens, as well as the +splendid athletic development of the men.</p> + +<p>"Here, you Thursday Quintal, come and show these +ladies how you can handle a steer-oar," called out the captain. +"He was the boat-steerer on board the <i>Florentia</i> one +voyage, and steered in the pulling race for whaleboats at +the regatta on anniversary day, which we won the year +before last in Sydney harbour. We'll bring you ashore in +the morning."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, captain," said the young fellow, showing his +splendid teeth in a pleasant smile. "It will feel quite +natural to take an oar in a boat of yours again."</p> + +<p>The wind had freshened during the afternoon, and the +rollers on the beach lifted the whaleboat as she came up to +the landing rather higher than the ladies fancied. However, +they were carefully seated, and at the captain's word, +"Give way, my lads," the crew picked her up in great style, +while Quintal, standing with easy grace at the stern, the +sixteen foot oar in his strong grasp, directed her course +with instinctive skill so as to avoid the growing force of +the wave. As he stood there—tall, muscular, glorious in +the grace and dignity of early manhood—he seemed the +embodiment of a sculptor's dream.</p> + +<p>"What a magnificent figure!" said Mrs. Craven to her +young friend. "How rare it is to see such a form in Mayfair!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +"I surmise, as our American girl said at Honolulu," +replied Miss Vavasour, "that you might look a long time +before you saw such a man among our 'Johnnies'; and +what eyes and teeth he has! Really I feel inclined to +rebel. Here's this Mr. Telfer, too, and what a grand-looking +fellow he is, and an English gentleman besides in all +his ways. He can make his way to this out of the way +speck in the ocean, and secure a Miranda for a life companion—glorious +girl she is too—while we poor English +spins have to wait till a passable <i>pretendu</i> comes along,—old, +bald, stupid, or diminutive, as the case may be,—and +are bound to take him under penalty of dying old maids. +I call it rank injustice, and I'd head a revolution tomorrow; +and oh!—"</p> + +<p>The interjection which closed the speech of this ardent +woman's righter was caused by the onward course of a +breaking wave, which was not avoided so deftly as usual, +and splashed the speaker and Mrs. Craven.</p> + +<p>"Hulloa! Quintal, what are you about?" said the captain, +"is this your steering that I've been blowing about to these +ladies and gentlemen? Miss Vavasour! I'm afraid it's +your fault, you know the rule aboard ship? Passengers are +requested not to speak to the man at the wheel."</p> + +<p>"But there's no regulation, captain, that the man at the +steer-oar is not to look at the passengers," said Mrs. Craven. +"However, here we are nearly on board, so there's no harm +done, and we're only a trifle damped."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Clear-hued—calm—waveless—dawned our farewell +day. I was glad of it. Rain and storm-clouds lower the +spirits more distinctly when one is about to make a departure +than at any other time, besides the inconvenience of +wet or bedraggled garments. It was the Sabbath day, and +the pastor arranged a special service in commemoration of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +Miranda's marriage and departure from the island. All +the ship's company that could be spared came, of course; +the visitors made a point of attending. The little church +was crowded. Except the youngest children and their +guardians, every soul on the island was there.</p> + +<p>After the Church of England service, which the islanders +had at their fingers' ends, and in which they all most +reverently joined, hymns were sung, in which the rich +voices of the young girls were heard to great advantage. +There was a strange and subtle harmony pervading the +part-singing, which seemed natural to the race, more particularly +in those parts in which the whole of the congregation +joined. As Miranda played on the harmonium, it may +have occurred to her friends and playmates for the last +time, many of them could not restrain their tears. The +aged pastor after the Liturgy preached a feeling and sympathetic +address, which certainly went to the hearts of all +present. He made particular allusion to our union and +departure.</p> + +<p>"One of the children of the island," he said, "who had +endeared herself to all by her unselfish kindness of heart, +who had been marked out by uncommon gifts, both mental +and physical, was to leave them that day. She might be +absent for years, perhaps they might not see her face again,—that +face upon which no one had seen a frown, nor hear +that voice which had never uttered an unkind word," here +the greater part of the congregation, male and female, fell +a-weeping and lamenting loudly. "But they must take +comfort; our beloved one was not departing alone, she had +been joined in holy matrimony with a youth of whom any +damsel might feel proud; he was the husband of her choice, +the son of a master mariner well known and highly respected +in former years throughout the wide Pacific. He +himself had often heard of him in old days, and the son of +such a father was worthy to be loved and trusted. The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +child of our hearts would go forth, even as Rebecca left +her home and her people with Isaac, and God's blessing +would surely rest upon all her descendants as upon the +children of the promise.</p> + +<p>"He would ask all now assembled to join in prayers for +the welfare of Hilary Telfer and Miranda, his wife."</p> + +<p>As the venerable man pronounced the words of the benediction, +echoed audibly by the whole of the congregation, +the sobs of the women were audible, while tears and stifled +sighs were the rule, and not the exception. As the congregation +rose from their knees, he walked down to the <i>Florentia's</i> +boats, it having been so arranged by the captain, who +had invited all who could by any means attend, to lunch on +board his vessel. Farewells were said on the beach to all +who were perforce detained by age, infirmity, or other +causes, and at length we were safely seated in the captain's +boat, and putting off, were followed by a perfect fleet of +every size and carrying capacity.</p> + +<p>Miranda hid her face and wept silently. I did not +attempt to persuade her to moderate her grief, as the outlet +of over-strung feelings, of genuine and passionate regret, +it was a natural and healthful safety-valve for an overburdened +heart.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I was ever more impressed with our +Church service," said Mrs. Craven. "That dear, venerable +old man, and his truly wonderful congregation! How +earnestly they listened, and how reverently they behaved!"</p> + +<p>"Think of our rustics in a village church!" said Miss +Vavasour, "the conceited choir, the sleeping labourers, the +giggling school children, where do you ever see anything +like what we have witnessed to-day? However did they +manage to grow up so blameless, and to keep so good and +pure minded? Can you tell me, Mr. Telfer?"</p> + +<p>"My knowledge of my wife's people is chiefly from hearsay," +I said; "I can remember the old tale of the Mutiny +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +of the <i>Bounty</i> when I was a school-boy in Sydney. Captain +Bligh, of the ill-fated ship, was afterwards the Governor +of New South Wales. Whether his conduct provoked the +mutiny, of which Miranda's great grandfather was the +leader, or whether the crew were overcome by the temptations +of a life in that second garden of Eden, Tahiti, has +been disputed, and perhaps can never be definitely known. +This much is certain, that the sole surviving mutineer, +John Adams, deeply repentant, changed his rule of life. +Morning and evening prayer was established, and a system +of instruction for the children and young people regularly +carried out. Such was the apparently accidental commencement +of the religious teaching of the little community at +the beginning of the century. Some of the results you +have witnessed to-day."</p> + +<p>"It certainly is the most wonderful historiette in the +whole world," said Miss Vavasour, who had listened with +deep interest. "I never saw so many nice people in one +place before—all good—all kind—all contented, and all +happy. It makes one believe in the millennium; I must +try what I can do with our village when I get back to +Dorsetshire."</p> + +<p>"You'll have your work cut out for you, Miss Vavasour," +said Colonel Percival. "Fancy the old poachers and the +hardened tramps, the beer-drinking yokels and the rough +field-hands. Work of years, and doubtful then."</p> + +<p>"Oh! dear, why do we call ourselves civilised, I wonder?" +sighed the enthusiastic damsel, just awakened to a sense of +the duties of property in correlation with the "rights." +"I really believe Englishmen—the lower classes, of course—are +the most ill-mannered, uncivilised people in the +world. Look at those dear islanders, how polite and unselfish +they are in their behaviour to each other, and to +us! It makes me feel ashamed of my country. Why, even +at a presentation to Her Majesty people push, and crush, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +and look as black as thunder if you tread on their absurd +trains."</p> + +<p>"You ought to come out and join the Melanesian Mission, +my dear," said Mrs. Craven. "There is no knowing, +with your energy and convictions, what good you might do."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could," said the girl eagerly. "But I'm not +good enough, I wish I was. If I felt I could keep up my +present feelings I'd go to-morrow. But I'm selfish and +worldly-minded, like my neighbours in Christendom. It +would be no use. I should only spoil my own life, and not +mend theirs."</p> + +<p>"Such has been the confession of many an earnest reformer, +who had started in life with high hopes and a +scorn of consequences," said Mr. Vavasour quietly; "it is +by far the most common result of heroic self-sacrifice. If +we did not occasionally see the accomplished fact, as in this +case, we might well despair."</p> + +<p>"And this was an accident of accidents," said Miss +Vavasour sorrowfully. "No missionary society sent away +the pioneer preachers to the heathen with prayers, and +flags, and collections. No, here is the grandest feat ever +accomplished in the world's history. The most religious, +contented, consistent community in the whole world evolved +from a crew of runaway sailors and a few poor savage +women! Really there must be some good in human nature +after all, reviled and insulted as it is by all the extra good +people."</p> + +<p>The <i>Florentia</i> had not had so large a party on board since +the last successful affair in Sydney harbour. That one included +dancing, which did not enter into this entertainment. +Nothing, however, could have gone off better. The curiosity +of the young women about the ladies' belongings was +amply gratified, and the luncheon voted the very best one +at which they had ever been entertained.</p> + +<p>A mirthful and joyous gathering it was. The visitors +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +were charmed with, the naturally refined and courteous +manners of the guests. And, finally, as the day wore on, +and the breeze from the land promised a good offing, +Miranda came up from her cabin, to which she had elected +to retire, and bade farewell to friends and kinsfolk, who +departed in their boats, much less saddened of mien than +they had been in the morning.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Once more at sea. The <i>Florentia</i>, though a whaler, and +not ornamented up to yachting form, was yet extremely +neat and spotlessly clean, as far as could be managed by a +smart and energetic captain. She was a fast sailer, and as +the wind off the land freshened at sundown, she spread +most of her canvas and sped before the breeze after a +fashion which would have made her a not unworthy comrade +of the <i>Leonora</i>.</p> + +<p>Miranda had retired to her cabin. Her heart was too +full for jesting converse, and after she had watched the +last speck of her loved island disappear below the horizon, +she was fain to go below to hide her tears, and relieve her +feelings by unrestrained indulgence in grief.</p> + +<p>For my part, after a cheerful dinner in the cuddy, I +remained long on deck, pacing up and down, and revolving +in my mind plans for our future. As I felt the accustomed +sway of the vessel, listened to the creaking of the rigging, +which was music in my ears, and watched the waves fall +back from her sides in hissing foam-flakes, as the aroused +vessel, feeling the force of the rising gale, drove through +the darkening wave-masses, and seemed to defy the menace +of the deep, the memories of my early island life came back +to me. The luxurious, halcyon days, the starlit, silent +nights, when ofttimes I had wandered to the shore, and +seating myself on a coral rock, gazed over the boundless +watery waste, wondering ever about my career, my destined +fate.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>Then returned the strange and wayward memories of +Hayston and his lawless associates—the reckless traders, +the fierce half-castes, the savage islanders! Again I heard +the soft voices of Lālia, Nellie, Kitty of Ebon, and smiled +as I recalled their pleading, infantine ways, their flashing +eyes, so eloquent in love or hate. All were gone; all had +become phantoms of the past. With that stage and season +of my life they had passed away—irrevocably, eternally—and +now I possessed an incentive to labour, ambition, and +self-denial such as I had never before known. With such +a companion as Miranda, where was the man who would +not have displayed the higher qualities of his nature, who +would not have risen to the supremest effort of labour, +valour, or self-abnegation? Before Heaven I vowed that +night, that neither toil nor trouble, difficulty nor danger, +should deter me from the pursuit of fortune and distinction. +So passed our first day at sea.</p> + +<p>With the one that followed the gale abated, and as the +<i>Florentia</i> swept southward under easy sail, comfort was +restored. The passengers settled themselves down to the +enjoyment of that absolute rest and passive luxuriousness +which characterise board-ship life in fine weather. Miss +Vavasour and Miranda were soon deep in earnest conversation, +both for the time disregarding the books with which +they had furnished themselves. Mrs. Craven had devoted +herself to an endless task of knitting, which apparently +supplied a substitute for thought, reading, recreation, and +conversation.</p> + +<p>I was talking to the captain when a lady came up the +companion, followed by the colonel, who half lifted, half +led a fine little boy of four or five years of age.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the captain, with a sudden movement towards +the new arrivals, "I see Mrs. Percival has come on deck. +Come over and be introduced." We walked over, and I received +a formal bow from a handsome, pale woman, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +had evidently been sojourning in the East. There is a certain +similarity in all "Indian women," as they are generally +called, which extends even to manner and expression. Long +residence in a hot climate robs them of their roses, while +the habit of command, resulting from association with an +inferior race, gives them a tinge of hauteur—not to say +unconscious insolence of manner—which is scarcely agreeable +to those who, from circumstances, they may deem to +be socially inferior.</p> + +<p>So it was that Miranda, in spite of Miss Vavasour's nods +and signals, received but the faintest recognition, and retreated +to her chair somewhat chilled by her reception. +She, however, took no apparent notice of the slight, and +was soon absorbed in conversation with Miss Vavasour, +her brother, and Mrs. Craven, who had moved up her chair +to join the party. The colonel deserted his former friends +to devote himself to his family duties, while the captain +and I walked forward and commenced a discussion which +had, at any rate, a strong personal interest for me.</p> + +<p>"Now look here, Hilary," said he, as he lighted a fresh +cigar. He had been smoking on the quarter-deck under +protest, as it were, and thus commenced: "Listen to me, +my boy! I've been thinking seriously about you and +Miranda. Your start in life when you get to Sydney is +important. I think I can give you a bit of advice worth +following. You understand all the dialects between here +and the Line Islands, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"More than eight," I answered; "I can talk with nearly +every islander from here to the Gilberts. I have learned +so much, at any rate, in my wanderings."</p> + +<p>"And a very good thing, too, for it's not a thing that can +be picked up in a year, no matter how a man may work, +and he's useless or nearly so without it; you can keep accounts, +write well, and all that?"</p> + +<p>I replied that I had a number of peculiar accounts to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +keep as supercargo to the <i>Leonora</i>, as well as all Hayston's +business letters to write; that my office books were always +considered neat, complete, and well kept. Then he suddenly +said, "You are the very man we want!"</p> + +<p>"Who are we, and what is the man wanted for?" I +asked.</p> + +<p>"For the South Sea Island trade, and no other," said +Captain Carryall, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Old +Paul Frankston (you've heard of him) and I have laid it +out to establish a regular mercantile house in Sydney for +the development of the island trade. The old man will back +us, and the name of Paul Frankston is good from New Zealand +to the North Pole and back again. I will do the whaling, +cruising, and cargo business—cocoa-nut oil, copra, and curios—while +you will live in one of those nice white houses +at North Shore, somewhere about Neutral Bay, where you +can see the ships come through the Heads; Miranda can +have a skiff, and you a ten-tonner, so as not to forget your +boating and your sea-legs. What do you think of that, eh?"</p> + +<p>"It is a splendid idea!" I cried, "and poor Miranda will +be within sound of the sea. If she were not, she would pine +away like her own araucarias which will not live outside of +the wave music. But how about the cash part of it? I +haven't much. Most of my savings went down in the <i>Leonora</i>."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll manage that somehow! Old Paul will work +that part of the arrangement. I daresay your father will +advance what will make your share equal, or nearly so, to +ours."</p> + +<p>"It sounds well," I said. "With partners like Mr. +Frankston and yourself a man ought to be able to do something. +I know almost every island where trade can be got, +and the price to a cowrie that should be paid. There ought +to be a fortune in it in five years. What a pity Hayston +couldn't have had such a chance."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> +"He'd have had the cash, and the other partners the +experience, in less than that time," said the captain, smiling +sardonically. "He was a first-rate organiser if he had not +been such a d—d scoundrel. He had some fine qualities, +I allow; as a seaman he had no equal. In the good old +fighting days he would have been a splendid robber baron. +But in these modern times, where there is a trifle of law +and order in most countries, even in the South Seas he was +out of place."</p> + +<p>"He was far from a model mariner," I said, "but it hurts +me to hear him condemned. He had splendid points in his +character, and no one but myself will ever know how much +good there was mixed up with his recklessness and despair. +I left him, but I couldn't help being fond of him to the +last."</p> + +<p>"It was a good thing for you that you did—a very good +thing. You will live to be thankful for it. He was a dangerous +beggar, and neither man nor woman could escape his +fascination. However, that's all past and gone now. You're +married and settled, remember, and you're to be Hilary +Telfer, Esq., J.P., and all the rest of it directly, and the +only sea-going business you can have for the future is to be +Commodore of the Neutral Bay Yacht Club, or some such +title and distinction. And now I've done for the present. +You go and see what Miranda thinks of it. I won't agree +to anything unless she consents."</p> + +<p>Miranda was charmed with the idea of a mercantile marine +enterprise, so much in accordance with her previous +habits and experiences. The added inducement of living +on the sea-shore, with a boat, a jetty, and a bathing-house, +decided her. She implicitly believed in Captain Carryall's +power and ability to make our fortune; was also certain +that, with Mr. Frankston's commercial aid, we should soon be +as rich as the Guldensterns, the Rothschilds of the Pacific. +She surrendered herself thereupon to a dream of bliss, +al<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>loyed +only at intervals by a tinge of apprehension that the +great undiscovered country of Sydney society might prove +hostile or indifferent.</p> + +<p>So much she communicated to Miss Vavasour as she and +Mrs. Craven were reclining side by side on their deck chairs, +while the <i>Florentia</i> was gliding along on another day all +sunshine, azure, and favouring breeze.</p> + +<p>"Don't you be afraid, my dear," said the kind-hearted Mrs. +Craven, "you and your husband are quite able to hold your +own in Sydney society or any other; indeed, I shall be +inclined to bet that you'd be the rage rather than otherwise. +I wish I had you in Northamptonshire, I'd undertake to +'knock out' (as Charlie says) the local belles in a fortnight."</p> + +<p>Miranda laughed the childishly happy laugh of unspoiled +girlhood. "Dear Mrs. Craven, how good of you to say so; +but, of course, I know I'm a sort of savage, who will improve +in a year or two if every one is as kind as you and +Miss Vavasour here; but suppose they should be like her," +and she motioned towards Mrs. Percival.</p> + +<p>This lady had never relaxed the coldness and hauteur +towards Miranda and myself. She had been unable to +modify her "Indian manner," as Captain Carryall and Mr. +Vavasour called it, and about which they made daily +jokes.</p> + +<p>As she passed the little group, she bowed slightly and +without relaxation of feature, going forward to the waist +of the ship, where she sat down and was soon absorbed in +a book. The three friends smiled at each other, and continued +their conversation.</p> + +<p>"I should like to dress you for a garden-party, Miranda," +said Miss Vavasour; "let me see now, a real summer day, +such as we sometimes get in dear old England—not like +this one perhaps, but very nice. A lovely old manor house +like Gravenhurst or Hunsdon—such a lawn, such old +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +trees, such a river, a marquee under an elm a hundred +years old, and the county magnates marching in from their +carriages."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how delicious!" cried Miranda. "I have read +such descriptions in books, but you—oh, how happy you +must be to have lived it all!"</p> + +<p>"It's very nice, but as to the happiness, that doesn't +always follow," confessed the English girl with a half +sigh. "I almost think you have the greater share of that. +Anyhow, just as the company are assembled, I am seen +walking down from the house. We are of the house party, +you know, Miranda and I. She is dressed in a soft, white, +embroidered muslin, very simply made, with a little, a very +little Valenciennes lace. Its long straight folds hang +gracefully around her matchless figure, and are confined at +the waist by a broad, white moiré sash; white gloves, +a white moiré parasol, a large Gainsborough hat with +fleecy white feathers, and Miranda's costume is complete—the +very embodiment of fresh, fair girlhood, unspotted +from the world of fashion and folly."</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h2>A SWIM FOR LIFE</h2> + + +<p>The words died on her lips as a shriek, wild, agonising, +despairing, rang through the air, and startled not only the +little group of pleased listeners, but all who happened to be +on deck at the time. We started up and gazed towards the +spot whence the cry had come. The colonel, who had been +reading on the opposite side of the deck, calmly smoking +the while, dropped his book and only saved his meerschaum +by a cricketer's smart catch. The captain came +bounding up from below, followed by the steward and his +boy; the foc'sle hands, with the black cook, hurled themselves +aft. All guessed the cause as they saw Mrs. Percival +wringing her hands frantically and gazing at an object in +the sea.</p> + +<p>Her boy had fallen overboard! Yes! the little fellow, +active and courageous beyond his years, had tried to crawl +up to the shrouds while his mother's eyes were engaged in +the perusal of the leading novel of the day. Weary of +inaction, the poor little chap had done a little climbing on +his own account, and an unexpected roll of the ship had +sent him overboard. Light as the wind was, he was +already a long way astern.</p> + +<p>Long before all these observations were made, however, +and while the astonished spectators were questioning their +senses as to the meaning of the confusion, Miranda had +sprung upon the rail, and in the next moment, with hands +clasped above her head, was parting the smooth waters. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +Rising to the surface, she swam with rapid and powerful +strokes towards the receding form of the still floating +child. With less rapidity of motion, I cast myself into +the heaving waste of water, not that I doubted Miranda's +ability to overtake and bear up the child, but from simple +inability to remain behind while all that was worth living +for on earth was adrift upon the wave.</p> + +<p>I followed in her wake, and though I failed to keep near +her, for the Pitcairn islanders are among the fastest +swimmers in the world, I yet felt that I might be of some +use or aid. Long before I could overtake her she had +caught up the little fellow, and lifting him high above +the water, was swimming easily towards me.</p> + +<p>"Oh! you foolish boy!" she cried, "why did you come +after me? do you want to be drowned again?" Here she +smiled and showed her lovely teeth as if it was rather a +good joke. It may have been, but at that time and place +I was not in the humour to perceive it.</p> + +<p>"I came for the same reason that you did, I suppose—because +I could not stay behind. If anything had happened +to you what should I have done? Here comes the +boat, though, and we can talk it over on board."</p> + +<p>Some little time had been expended in lowering the boat. +The ship had been brought to, but even then—and with +so light a wind—it was astonishing what a distance we +had fallen behind. It was a curious sensation, such specks +as we were upon the immense water-plain which stretched +around to the horizon. However, the <i>Florentia</i> was strongly +in evidence, and nearer and nearer came the whaleboat, with +the captain at the steer-oar, and the men pulling as if they +were laying on a crack harpooner to an eighty barrel whale.</p> + +<p>We were now swimming side by side, Miranda talking +to the little fellow, who had never lost consciousness, and +did not seem particularly afraid of his position.</p> + +<p>"How tremendously hard they are pulling!" I said; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +"they are making the boat spin again. One would think +they were pulling for a wager."</p> + +<p>"So they are," answered she, "for three lives, and perhaps +another. See there! God in His mercy protect us."</p> + +<p>I followed the direction of her turned head, and my heart +stood still as my eye caught the fatal sign of the monster's +presence at no great distance from us. It was <i>the back fin +of a shark</i>!</p> + +<p>"Do your best, my beloved," she continued; "we must +keep together, and if he overtakes us before the boat reaches, +splash hard and shout as loud as you can. I have seen a +shark frightened before now; but please God it may not +come to that."</p> + +<p>The boat came nearer—still nearer—but, as it seemed +to us, all too slowly. The men were pulling for their lives, +I could notice, and the captain frantically urging them on. +They had seen the dreaded signal before us, and had commenced +to race from that moment. But for some delay in +the tackle for lowering, they would have been up to us +before now.</p> + +<p>As it was we did our best. I would have taken the child, +but Miranda would not allow me. "His weight is nothing +in the water," she said, "and I could swim faster than you, +even with him." This she showed me she could do by +shooting ahead with the greatest ease, and then allowing +me to overtake her. I had to let her have her own way. +We were lessening the distance between us and the boat, +but the sea demon had a mind to overtake us, and our +hearts almost failed as we noticed the sharp black fin gaining +rapidly upon us. Still there was one chance, that he +would not pursue us to the very side of the boat. It was +a terrible moment. With every muscle strained to the +uttermost, with lung, and sinew, and every organ taxed to +utmost tension, I most certainly beat any previous record +in swimming that I had ever attained. Miranda, with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +apparently but little effort, kept slightly ahead. The last +few yards—shorter than the actual distance—appeared to +divide us from the huge form of the monster now distinctly +visible beneath the water, when with one frantic yell and a +dash at the oars, which took every remaining pound of +strength out of the willing crew, the boat shot up within +equal distance. At a signal from the captain every oar was +raised and brought down again with a terrific splash into +the water, and a simultaneous yell. The effort was successful. +The huge creature, strangely timid in some respects, +stopped, and with one powerful side motion of fins and tail +glided out of the line of pursuit. At the same moment the +boat swept up, and eager arms lifted Miranda and her +burden into it. My hand was on the gunwale until +I saw her safe, whence with a slight amount of assistance +I gained the mid-thwart.</p> + +<p>"Saved, thank God!" cried the captain, with fervent +expression, "but a mighty close thing; the next time you +take a bath of this kind, my dear Miranda, with sharks +around, you must let me know beforehand, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Some one would have had to go, captain," she answered; +"we couldn't see the dear little fellow drowned before our +eyes. It was only a trifle after all—a swim in smooth +water on a fine day: I didn't reckon on a shark being so +close, I must say."</p> + +<p>"I saw the naughty shark," said the little fellow, now +quite recovered and in his usual spirits. "How close he +came! do you think he would have eaten us all, captain?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my boy—without salt; you would never have +seen your papa and mamma again if it had not been for +this lady here."</p> + +<p>"But you took us in the boat, captain," argued the little +fellow; "he can't catch us in here, can he?"</p> + +<p>"But the lady caught you in her arms long before the +boat came up, my dear, or else you would have been +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> +drowned over and over again; that confounded tackle +caught, or else we should have been up long before. It's +a good thing they were not lowering for a whale, or my +first mate's language would have been something to remember +till the voyage after next. However, here we are all +safe, Charlie, and there's your mother looking out for you."</p> + +<p>A painfully eager face was that which gazed from the +vessel as we rowed alongside. Every trace of the languor +partly born of the tropic sun and partly of aristocratic +<i>morgue</i> was gone from the countenance of Mrs. Percival, as +her boy, laughing and prattling, was carried up the rope +ladder and lifted on deck. His mother clasped him now +passionately in her arms, sobbing, blessing, kissing him, and +crying aloud that God had restored her child from the dead. +"Oh, my boy! my boy!" she repeated again and again; +"your mother would have died too, if you had been drowned, +she would never have lived without you."</p> + +<p>By this time Miranda had reached the deck, where she was +received with a hearty British cheer from the ship's company, +while the passengers crowded around her as if she +had acquired a new character in their eyes. But Mrs. +Percival surpassed them all; kneeling before Miranda she +bowed herself to the deck, as if in adoration, and kissed her +wet feet again and again.</p> + +<p>"You have saved my child from a terrible death at the +risk of your own and your husband's lives," she said. +"May God forget me if I forget your noble act this day! I +have been proud and unkind in my manner to you, my dear. +I humble myself at your feet, and implore your pardon. +But henceforth, Miranda Telfer, you and I are sisters. If +I do not do something in requital it will go hard with me +and Charlie."</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear Sybil," interposed the husband, "do you +observe that Mrs. Telfer has not had time to change her +dress—very wet it seems to be—and I suppose Master +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +Charlie will be none the worse for being put to bed and +well scolded, the young rascal. Come, my dear."</p> + +<p>Colonel Percival, doubtless, felt a world of joy and relief +when the light of his eyes and the joy of his heart stood +safe and sound on the deck of the <i>Florentia</i> again, but it is +not the wont of the British aristocrat to give vent to his +emotions, even the holiest, in public. The veil of indifference +is thrown over them, and men may but guess at the +volcanic forces at work below that studiously calm exterior.</p> + +<p>So, laying his hand gently but firmly on his wife's arm, +he led her to her cabin, with her boy still clasped in her +arms as if she yet feared to lose him, and they disappeared +from our eyes. As for Miranda and myself, such immersions +had been daily matters of course, and were regarded +as altogether too trifling occurrences to require more than +the necessary changes of clothing.</p> + +<p>We both appeared in our places at the next meal, when +Miranda was besieged with questions as to her sensations, +mingled with praises of her courage and endurance in that +hour of deadly peril.</p> + +<p>"And <i>her</i> child, too," said Mrs. Craven; "what a lesson +of humility it ought to teach her! Had you, my dear girl, +been swayed by any of the meaner motives which actuate +men and women her foolish pride might have cost her +child's life."</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely no one <i>could</i> have had such thoughts when +that dear little boy fell overboard! I couldn't help Mrs. +Percival not liking me. I really did not think much about +it; but when I saw the poor little face in the sea, more +startled, indeed, than frightened, I felt as if I must go in +after him. It was quite a matter of course."</p> + +<p>After this incident it may be believed that we were indeed +a happy family on board the <i>Florentia</i>. Every one +vied with every one else in exhibiting respect and admiration +towards Miranda. Mrs. Percival would not hear of a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +refusal that we should come and stay with her, when we +had done all that was proper and dutiful in the family home. +Miss Vavasour and Mrs. Craven depended on me to show +them all the beauties of Sydney harbour; while Captain +Carryall pledged himself to place Mr. Frankston's yacht at +the service of his passengers generally, and to render them +competent to champion the much-vaunted glories of the +unrivalled harbour to all friends, foes, and doubters on the +other side of the world.</p> + +<p>Colonel Percival privately interrogated the captain as to +the nature of the commercial undertaking in which he was +about to arrange a partnership for me, and begged as a +favour, being a man of ample means, that he might be permitted +to advance the amount of my share. The captain +solemnly promised him that if there was any difficulty in +the proposed arrangement on account of my deficiency of +cash he should be requested to supply it. "He seemed to +feel easy in his mind after I told him this, my boy," said +the commander, with that mixture of simplicity and astuteness +which distinguished him, "but fancy old Paul and +your father admitting outside capital in one of their trade +ventures!"</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>"This time to-morrow we shall be going through Sydney +Heads," said the first mate to me as we walked the deck +about an hour after sunrise one morning, "that is, if the +wind holds."</p> + +<p>"Pray Heaven it may," said I, "then we shall have a +view of the harbour and city worth seeing. It makes all +the difference. We might have a cloudy day, or be tacking +about till nightfall, and the whole effect would be lost." I +was most anxious not only that Miranda's first sight of my +native land and her future home should impress her favourably, +but I was naturally concerned that our friends should +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +not suppose that the descriptions of the Queen City of the +South, with which the captain and I had regaled them, +were overdrawn. We sat late at supper that night talking +over the wonderful events and experiences that were to +occur on the morrow. Plans were discussed, probable +residence and inland travel calculated, the Fish River caves +and the Blue Mountains were, of course, to be visited—all +kinds of expeditions and slightly incongruous journeys to +be carried out.</p> + +<p>Colonel and Mrs. Percival had been asked to stay at +Government House during their visit, which was comparatively +short; while Mr. and Mrs. Craven and Miss Vavasour +were to go primarily to Petty's Hotel, which had been +highly recommended; and the gentlemen had intimation +that they would receive notices of their being admitted as +honorary members of the Australian and Union Clubs. +With such cheerful expectations and forecasts we parted +for the night.</p> + +<p>The winds were kind. "The breeze stuck to us," as the +mate expressed it, and about an hour after the time he had +mentioned we were within a mile of the towering sandstone +portals of that erstwhile strange, silent harbour into which +the gallant seaman Cook, old England's typical mariner, +had sailed a hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>I had been on deck since dawn. Now that we were so +near the home of my childhood, the thoughts of old days, +and the parents, brothers, sisters, from whom I had been +so long separated, rushed into my mind, until I felt almost +suffocated with contending emotions. How would they +receive us? Would they be prepared to see me a married +man? Would their welcome to Miranda be warm or formal? +I began to foresee difficulties—even dangers of +family disruption—consequences which before had never +entered into the calculation.</p> + +<p>However, for the present these serious reflections were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +put to flight by expressions of delight from the whole body +of passengers, headed by Miranda, who then came on deck. +By this time the good ship <i>Florentia</i> had closely approached +the comparatively narrow entrance, the frowning buttresses +of sandstone, against which the waves, now dashed with +hoarse and angry murmur, rose almost above us, while a +long line of surges, lit up by the red dawn fires, menaced +us on either hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a lovely entrance!" said Miss Vavasour, after +gazing long and earnestly at the scene. "It seems like the +gate of an enchanted lake. What magnificent rock-masses, +and what light and colour the sun brings out! It is something +like a sun—warm, glowing, irradiating everything +even at this early hour—and what a sky! The dream tone +of a painter! I congratulate you, you dear darling Miranda, +and you, Mr. Telfer, on having such a day for home-coming. +It is a good omen—I am sure it must be. Nothing but +good could happen on such a glorious day."</p> + +<p>"The day is perfection, but more than one good ship +coming through this entrance at night has mistaken the +indentation on the other side of the South Head for the true +passage, and gone to pieces on the rocks below that promontory. +But, at any rate, <i>we</i> are now safely inside; and +where is there a harbour in the world to match it?"</p> + +<p>As we passed Middle harbour and drew slowly up the +great waterway, which affords perhaps more deep anchorage +than any other in the world, the ladies were loud in +their expressions of admiration. "Look at those sweet +white houses on the shores of the pretty little bays!" said +Mrs. Craven; "and what lovely gardens and terraces +stretching down to the beaches!"</p> + +<p>"And there is a Norfolk Island pine, one—two—ever +so many," cried Miranda. "I did not think <i>they</i> grew +here, I am sure now that I shall be happy."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course!" said Miss Vavasour, "what is to +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +hinder you? And you are to live in one of those pretty +cream-coloured cottages—what lovely stone it must be!—with +a garden just like that one on the point, and a boat-house +and a jetty. One of those little steamers that I see +fussing about will land Mr. Telfer, when he returns from +the city, or you can get into that little boat that lies moored +below, and row across the bay for him."</p> + +<p>Miranda's eyes filled as she glanced at the pretty villas +and more pretentious mansions, past which we glided, some +half-covered with climbers, or buried amid tropical shrubs +of wild luxuriance. Her heart was too deeply stirred for +jesting at that moment. She could only press her friend's +hand and smile, as if pleading for a less humorous view of +so important a subject.</p> + +<p>The harbour itself was full of interest to the strangers. +Vessels of all sizes and shapes—coasters, colliers, passenger-boats, +yachts, and steam launches, passed and re-passed +in endless succession. Two men-of-war lay peacefully +at anchor in Farm Cove, a Messagerie steamer in the +stream, while a huge P. & O. mail-boat outward bound +moved majestically towards the Heads through which we +had so recently entered.</p> + +<p>We had just cleared Point Piper, where I remember +spending the joyous holidays of long ago with my schoolmates, +the sons of the fine old English gentleman who then +dwelt there, when a sailing boat sped swiftly towards us, +in which stood a stout, middle-aged man waving his hat +frantically.</p> + +<p>"I believe that is Paul Frankston himself come to overhaul +us," said the captain, raising his glass. "He's sailor +enough to recognise the rig of the <i>Florentia</i>, and if we had +been a little nearer his bay, he'd have wanted us to stop +the ship and lunch with him in a body. As it is I feel +sure he'll capture some of the party."</p> + +<p>"What splendid hospitality!" said Mrs. Percival. "Is +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +that sort of thing usual here? you must be something like +us Indians in your ways."</p> + +<p>"There is a good deal of likeness, I think," said the +captain. "I suppose the heat accounts for it. It's too hot +to refuse, most of the year. But here comes Paul!"</p> + +<p>The sailing boat by this time had run alongside and +doused her sail, while one of the crew held on to a rope +thrown to him, as the owner presented himself on deck +with more agility than might have been expected from a +man of his age.</p> + +<p>"Well, Charley, my boy, so you're in at last—thought +you were lost, or had run away and sold the ship, ha, ha! +What sort of a voyage have you had? Passengers, too—pray +introduce me. Is there anything I can do for them in +Sydney? Must be something. Perhaps I shall hear by +and by. Who's this youngster?</p> + +<p>"No! surely not the son of my old friend, Captain Telfer? +Now I remember the boy that ran away to the islands, or +would have done so, if they hadn't let him go. Quite right, +I ran away myself and a fine time I had there. I must tell +you what happened to me there once, eh! Charley?"</p> + +<p>Here the old gentleman began to laugh so heartily that +he was forced to suspend his narration, while the captain +regarded him with an expression which conveyed a slight +look of warning. "But I am forgetting. By the way, +Charley, have you any curios in your cabin?" The captain +nodded, and the two old friends disappeared down the +companion. Only, however, to reappear in a very few minutes, +which we employed in favourable criticism.</p> + +<p>"What a fine hearty old gentleman!" said Mrs. Craven, +"any one can see that he is an Englishman by his figure +and the way he talks; though I suppose colonists are not +so very different."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Frankston has been a good deal about the world," +I said. "But he was born in Sydney, and has spent the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +greater part of his life near this very spot. He was at sea +in his earlier years, but has been on shore since he married. +He is now a wealthy man, and one of the leading Sydney +merchants."</p> + +<p>"One would think he was a sea captain now," said Miss +Vavasour. "He looks quite as much like one as a merchant; +but I suppose every one can sail a boat here."</p> + +<p>"You are quite right, Miss Vavasour. Every one who is +born in Sydney learns to swim and sail a boat as soon as +possible after he can walk. There is no place in the world +where there are so many yachtsmen. On holidays you may +see doctors, lawyers, clergymen, even judges, sailing their +boats—doing a good deal of their own work in the 'able +seaman' line; and, to tell truth, looking occasionally much +more like pirates than sober professional men."</p> + +<p>About this time Mr. Frankston reappeared, carrying in +his hand a couple of grass-er-garments, which he appeared +to look upon as very precious. "These are for my little +girl," he said, "she has just come down from the bush with +her husband to spend the hot months with her old father. +It will give her the greatest pleasure to see these ladies and +their husbands at Marahmee, next Saturday, when we can +have a little picnic in the harbour and a sail in my yacht, +the <i>Sea-gull</i>. The captain will tell you that I am to be +trusted with a lively boat still."</p> + +<p>"I never wish to go to sea with a better sailor," said the +captain, "and if our friends have no other engagements, +I can promise them a delightful day and a view of some of +the finest scenery south of the line."</p> + +<p>Barring unforeseen or indispensable engagements every +one promised to go. Mr. Frankston averred that they had +done him a great—an important service. He was getting +quite hipped—he was indeed—when his daughter luckily +recognised the <i>Florentia</i> coming up the harbour. She is a +sailor's daughter, you know—has an eye for a ship—and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +started him off to meet his old friend Captain Carryall, and +secure him for dinner. Now he felt quite another man, +and would say good-bye. Before leaving he must have a +word with his young friend.</p> + +<p>"My dear boy," said he, laying his hand on my shoulder, +"I have known your father ever so many years. We were +younger men then, and saw something of each other in +more than one bit of fun; and at least one or two very +queer bits of fighting in the Bay of Islands; so that we +know each other pretty well. I've heard what Carryall has +to say about you and your charming wife. I think we shall +be able to 'fix up,' as our American friends say, our little +mercantile arrangement very neatly. But that's not what +I wanted to talk to you about. You've been away a good +while, so many years, we'll say."</p> + +<p>"I have indeed," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Well—you've grown from a boy into a man, and a devilish +fine one too." Here the dear old chap patted me on +the back and looked up at my face, a great deal higher up +than his. "Well! naturally, you've changed. So have +your people, your young brothers and sisters have turned +into men and women while you've been away. And then +again, another change—a great one too—you're married."</p> + +<p>"Yes! thank God I am."</p> + +<p>"I am sure you have good reason, my boy. But my idea +is this, people—the best of people—don't like surprises,—even +one's own friends. Now, what I want you to do is +to bring your wife and come and stay at Marahmee for a +week, while they're getting your rooms ready for you at +North Shore. There's nobody there now but Antonia and +her husband. It wants another pair of young people to +enliven the place a bit. And Charley Carryall will go over +and tell them all about you and your pretty Miranda, while +you and I settle our partnership affairs."</p> + +<p>I could see how it was; our good old friend, with a +kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>ness +and delicacy of feeling which I have rarely seen +equalled, had all along made up his mind that Miranda +and I should begin our Sydney experiences with a visit to +his hospitable mansion. After a talk with the captain, for +which purpose he had feigned an interest in South Sea +"curios," they had come to the conclusion that it would be +more prudent that the family should have a few days to +accustom themselves to the idea of my marriage. In the +mean time his daughter, Mrs. Neuchamp, would be able to +give Miranda the benefit of her experience as a Sydney +matron of some years' standing, and to ensure that she +made her introduction under favourable circumstances.</p> + +<p>Miranda, naturally nervous at the idea of then and there +making her appearance among a group of relatives wholly +unknown to her, was much relieved at the delay thus +granted, and cheerfully acceded to the proposed arrangement.</p> + +<p>"That being all settled, I'll get home and have everything +ready for you when you arrive. The captain will +take care of you. He knows the road out, eh, Charley? +night or day; so good-bye till dinner time. Seven o'clock +sharp."</p> + +<p>Still talking, Mr. Frankston descended to his boat, and +making a long board, proceeded to beat down the harbour +on his homeward voyage, waving his handkerchief at intervals +until he rounded a point and was lost to our gaze.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was not very long after this interview that we found +ourselves in our berth at the Circular Quay, where, unlike +Melbourne and some other ports, nothing more was needed +for disembarkation but to step on shore into the city. Our +good comrades of so many days were carried off in cabs to +their destinations, with the exception of the Percivals, who, +having been invited to Government House, found an +aide-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>de-camp +and the viceregal carriage awaiting them on the +wharf. At such a time there is always a certain amount of +fuss and anxiety with reference to luggage, rendering farewells +occasionally less sentimental than might have been +expected from the character of marine friendships. But it +was not so in our experience. Miss Vavasour and Mrs. +Craven exchanged touching farewells with Miranda, mingled +with solemn promises to meet at given dates—to write—to +do all sorts of things necessary for their keeping up the +flame of friendship. Then at the last moment Colonel and +Mrs. Percival came up. "My dearest Miranda," said this +lady, "don't forget that you are my sister, not in word only. +Put me to the proof whenever you need a sister's aid, and +it shall be always at your service. Kiss Auntie Miranda, +Charlie darling, and tell her you will always love her."</p> + +<p>"She picked me up out of the sea, when the naughty +shark was going to eat us all. She's a good auntie, isn't +she, mother?" said the little chap responding readily. +"Good-bye, Auntie Miranda."</p> + +<p>"I am not a man of many words, Mr. Telfer!" said the +colonel; "but if I can be of service to you, now or at any +future time I shall be offended if you do not let me know;" +and then the stern soldier shook my hand in a way which +gave double meaning to the pledge.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was yet early in the day, and the captain had duties +to attend to which would keep him employed until the +evening. "I've ordered a carriage at six," he said, "when +we'll start for Marahmee, which is about half-an-hour's +drive. Until that time you can go ashore if you like; the +Botanical Gardens are just round that point, or walk down +George Street, or in any other way amuse yourselves. +Meanwhile, consider yourselves at home also."</p> + +<p>"I think we'll stay at home then, captain, for the +pres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>ent," +said Miranda, "and watch the people on shore. You +have no idea how they interest me. Everything is so new. +Remember that I have never seen a carriage in my life +before, or a cab, or a soldier; there goes one now—isn't +he beautiful to behold? I shall sit here and make Hilary +tell me the names of all the specimens as they come into +view."</p> + +<p>"That will do capitally," said the captain. "I might +have known that you could amuse yourself without help +from any one."</p> + +<p>The time passed quickly enough, with the aid of lunch. +The decks were cleared by six o'clock, by which time we +were ready for the hired barouche when it drove up.</p> + +<p>Miranda and I had employed our time so well that she +had learnt the names of various types of character, and +many products of civilisation, of which she had been before +necessarily ignorant, except from books. "It is a perfect +object lesson," she said. "How delightful it is to be able +to see the things and people that I have only read about! +I feel like those people in the <i>Arabian Nights</i> who had +been all their lives in a glass tower on a desert island. +Not that our dear Norfolk Island was a desert—very far +from it. And now I am going to the first grand house I +ever saw, and to live in it—more wonderful still. I feel +like a princess in a fairy tale," she went on, as she smilingly +skipped into the carriage. "Everything seems so +unreal. Do you think this will turn into a pumpkin, drawn +by mice, like poor Cinderella's? Hers was a chariot, +though. What is a chariot?"</p> + +<p>"I remember riding in one when I was a small boy," I +answered; "and, by the same token, I had caught a number +of locusts, and put them into my hat. I was invited to +uncover, as the day was warm. When I did so, the locusts +flew all about the closed-up carriage and into everybody's +face. But chariots are old-fashioned now."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> +Onward we passed along the South Head road, while +below us lay the harbour with its multitudinous bays, +inlets, promontories, and green knolls, in so many instances +crowned with white-walled gardens, surrounding villas and +mansions, all built of pale-hued, delicately-toned sandstone.</p> + +<p>"Oh! what a lovely, delicious bay!" cried Miranda; +"and these are the Heads, where we came in. Good-bye, +old ocean, playfellow of my childhood; farewell, wind of +the sea, for a while. But I shall live near you still, and +hear you in my dreams. I should die—I should feel suffocated—if +nothing but woods and forests were to be +seen."</p> + +<p>"If you don't die until you can't see the ocean, or feel +the winds about here, you will live a long time, my dear," +said the captain. "I don't know a more sea-going population +anywhere than this Sydney one. Half the people you +meet here have been a voyage, and the boys take to a boat +as the bush lads do to a horse. But here we are at the +Marahmee gates, and there's my pet Antonia on the verandah +ready to receive us."</p> + +<p>As we drove up the avenue, which was not very long, a +very pretty, graceful young woman came swiftly to meet +us. I knew this must be Mrs. Neuchamp, formerly Antonia +Frankston, the old man's only child. She was not grown +up when I left Sydney, and I heard that she had lately +married a young Englishman, who had come out with letters +of introduction to Mr. Frankston. We had seen each +other last, as boy and girl, long years ago.</p> + +<p>"Well, Captain Charley," she said, making as though she +would have embraced the skipper, "what do you mean by +being so long away? We began to think that you were +lost—that the <i>Florentia</i> had run on a reef—all sorts of +things—been cut off by the islanders, perhaps. But now +you <i>are</i> back with all sorts of island stories to tell dad, and +a few curios for me. And you are Mrs. Telfer! Papa has +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +told me all about you—his latest admiration, evidently. +But you mustn't get melancholy when he deserts you; he +is a passionate adorer while it lasts, but is always carried +away by the next fresh face, generally a complete contrast +to the last. I am sure we shall be great friends. I used +to dance with your husband when we were children. Do +you remember that party at Mrs. Morton's? You have +grown considerably since then, and so handsome, too, I +suppose I may say—now we are all married—no wonder +Miranda fell in love with you. You're to call me Antonia, +my dear; and now come upstairs, and I'll show you your +rooms which I have been getting ready all the morning. +Papa and Ernest will be here in a few minutes."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Neuchamp evidently takes after her father," I +said, "who can say more kind things in fewer minutes than +any one I ever knew—and do them, too, which is more to +the purpose. I am so glad that Miranda has had the +chance of making her acquaintance before she sees many +other people."</p> + +<p>"She is a dear, good, unselfish girl," said the captain, +"and was always the same from a child, when she used to +sit on my knee in this very verandah, and get me to tell +her the names of the ships. I never saw a child so thoughtful +for other people, always wondering what she could do +for them; she is just the same to this day. She will be +an invaluable friend for our Miranda, I foresee. She can +give her all sorts of hints about housekeeping, and I've no +doubt one or two about dress and the minor society matters. +Not that Miranda wants much teaching in that or any other +way. Nature made her a lady, and gave her the look of a +sea princess, and nothing could alter her."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear of a handsome young woman being +spoiled by flattery, captain?" I said. "I don't want to +anticipate such a disaster, but it strikes me that if you are +all going to be so very complimentary, I shall have to go +on the other tack to keep the compass level."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +"There are dispositions that flattery falls harmless from," +said the captain solemnly; "there are women that cannot +be spoiled,—not so many, perhaps, but you have got one +of them, Antonia is another. They will make a good pair, +and I'll back them to do their duty and keep a straight +course, fair weather or foul, against any two, married or +single, that I ever saw, and I've seen a good many women +in my time. But now we had better be ready for dinner, +for old Paul and Mr. Neuchamp will be here directly."</p> + +<p>They were not long in making their appearance, and a +very merry dinner it was. Mr. Frankston wanted to hear +all about the islands, and Mrs. Neuchamp was much interested +in Captain Hayston, and thought he resembled one +of the buccaneers of the Spanish Main, for whom she had a +sentimental admiration in her girlhood.</p> + +<p>"What a pity that all the romantic and picturesque +people should be so wicked!" she asked. "How is it, and +what law of nature can it be that arranges that so many +good and worthy people are so deadly uninteresting?"</p> + +<p>"Antonia is not quite in earnest, my dear Mrs. Telfer!" +said Mr. Neuchamp, remarking Miranda's wondering look; +"she knows well that it is more difficult to live up to a high +ideal than to fall below it. There is a false glamour about +men like Hayston, I admit, by which people who are swayed +by feeling rather than reason are often attracted."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that Captain Hayston was a wicked man," +said Miranda, "though I can't get Hilary to tell me much +about him. However, there were very different accounts, +some describing him as being generous and heroic, and +others as cruel and unprincipled."</p> + +<p>"Whatever he was, there was no doubt about his being +a sailor every inch of him," said Captain Charley. "I saw +him handle his ship in a gale of wind through a dangerous +channel, and I never forgot it."</p> + +<p>"I suppose he had his faults like the rest of us," said +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +Mr. Frankston, who did not seem inclined to pursue the +subject. "Never mind, when Frankston, Telfer, and Co. +get the control of the South Sea Island trade, there won't +be any room for dashing filibusters, will there, Charley?"</p> + +<p>"I hope not; his day is over," said the captain. "I am +sorry for him, too, for he was one of the grandest men and +finest seamen God Almighty ever permitted to sail upon +His ocean. Under a different star he might have been an +ornament to the service and an honour to his country."</p> + +<p>After dinner we all sat out on the broad verandah, where +we lighted our cigars, and enjoyed the view over the sleeping +waters of the bay. It was a glorious night, undimmed +by mist or cloud. The harbour lights flamed brightly, +anear and afar, while steamers passing to the different +points of the endless harbourage lighted up the glittering +plain with their variegated lamps, as if an operatic effect +were intended.</p> + +<p>"What a wondrous sight!" said Miranda. "It certainly +is a scene of enchantment, though it loses some of its beauty +in my eyes from being so restless and exciting. There is +no solitude; all is motion and effort, as is the city by day. +Our sea-view is as still and silent as if our island had just +been discovered. It lends an air of solemnity to the night +which this brilliant, many-coloured vision seems to want."</p> + +<p>"Antonia and I enjoy this sort of thing thoroughly," +said Mr. Neuchamp; "our country is hot and dry as the +summer comes on, and the glare is something to remember. +But I must say I prefer the winter of the interior. The +nights are heavenly, the mid-day warm without being +oppressive, and the mornings are delightfully cool and +bracing."</p> + +<p>"As weather it is as nearly perfect as it can be," assented +Mrs. Neuchamp, backing up her husband. "Then the rides +and drives on the firm sandy turf and the delightful natural +roads! It's nice to think you can drive thirty or forty +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +miles in any direction without going off your own run. +Miranda must come and stay with me for a month or two +when you get settled, Mr. Telfer. We must see if she +can't be persuaded to leave the seaside for a while."</p> + +<p>"We'll make up a party," said Mr. Frankston; "it's a +long time since I have seen any station life. I had half a +mind to try squatting once myself. But I'm like Miranda—I +don't sleep well unless I can hear the surge in the +night; but for a month or two, in May or June, it would +be great fun, and do us all good, I expect."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear dad," said his daughter, patting his +shoulder, "think of the riding and driving. You're not too +old to ride, you know. I'll lend you Osmond—he's my +horse now, and he's a pearl of hackneys. I'll ride out with +you, and Ernest can take Miranda and Courtenay in the +four-in-hand drag."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's a bargain, my dear!" said her father. +"When the summer is over and the autumn has nearly +come to an end, and the nights and mornings are growing +fresh and crisp, that's the time to see the interior at its +best. I haven't forgotten the feel of a bush-morning at +sunrise; there's something very exhilarating about it."</p> + +<p>"Is there not?" replied Mrs. Neuchamp, "'as you see +the vision splendid, of the sunlit plains extended,' an ocean +of verdure. You trace the river by the heavy timber on its +banks, and the slowly-rising mists along its course. Then +the sun, a crimson and gold shield against the cloudless +azure, the cattle low in the great river meadows, you hear +the crack of a stockwhip as the horses come galloping in like +a regiment of cavalry, and the day has begun. It seems +like a new world awakening to life."</p> + +<p>"I know a young woman," said her husband, "whose +'inward eye' by no means made 'the bliss of solitude' when +she first went into the bush."</p> + +<p>"That was because I was newly married—torn away +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +from my childhood's home, and all that," laughed his wife. +"Besides, you used to stay away unconscionably long sometimes; +now everything looks different. You will have to +pass through that stage, my dear Miranda. So prepare +yourself."</p> + +<p>"I am sure Hilary will never stay away from our home +unless he is obliged; and then I must sew and sing till he +comes back, like my countrywomen at Norfolk Island and +Pitcairn when their men are at sea."</p> + +<p>"A very good custom, too," said Paul. "That reminds +me that we must have some music to-night. Antonia will +lead the way, and our cigars will taste all the better in the +verandah."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Neuchamp had a fine voice and a fine ear. She had +been well taught, and played her own accompaniments, +while she sang several favourite songs of her father's, and +a duet with her husband.</p> + +<p>"Now, it's your turn, Miranda," said Mr. Frankston. +"I've heard all about you from the captain."</p> + +<p>"I shall be very glad to sing," she answered, seating herself +at the piano, "if you care for my simple songs. I +have always been fond of music, but our poor little harmonium +was, for a long time, my only instrument. What +shall I sing?"</p> + +<p>"Sing the 'Lament of Susannah M'Coy for her drowned +lover,'" said the captain, "that was a song brought from +Pitcairn, wasn't it? I always liked it the best of all the +island sing songs."</p> + +<p>"It is simple," replied Miranda, "but it is true; I believe +the poor girl used to sit by the sea-shore singing it at +night, and died of grief a year afterwards."</p> + +<p>She struck a few chords on the grand Erard piano, and +commenced a wailing, dirge-like melody, "a long, low +island song," inexpressibly mournful. The movement was +chiefly low-toned, and in the minor key, but at times it rose +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +to a higher pitch, into which was thrown the agonised +sorrow of irrevocable love, the endless regret, the void +immeasurable and eternal, the hopeless despair of a desolated +existence.</p> + +<p>The words were simple, and more in recitative than +rhythm. There was a certain monotony and repetition, +but as an expression of passionate and hopeless sorrow it +was strangely complete.</p> + +<p>The tale was old as life and death, as love and joy, hope +and despair. The maiden watching and waiting, during +the voyage of the whaleship, the year long through. The +sudden delight of the vessel being sighted; the boats going +off; the intensity of the anxiety; the returning crew; the +eager scanning of the passengers; the refusal to believe in +mischance; the guarded half-told tale, then the unmistakable +word of doom! <i>He had been drowned at sea</i>; the fearless, +fortunate harpooner had, in the sudden flurry of the +death-stricken whale, been thrown overboard and stunned. +When the half-capsized boat was righted, Johnnie Mills +was missing! They rowed round and round, all vainly, +then sadly returned to the vessel. This was the tale they +had to tell, the tale Susannah M'Coy had to hear. Her +over-wrought feelings found relief in the "Maiden's Lament," +and after her death her girl companions in singing +it preserved the memory of the maiden and her lover, +of his doom and her unhappy fate.</p> + +<p>There was nothing unusually melodious in the song itself, +but as the low, rich notes of Miranda's voice struck on the +ear of the listeners, those who had not heard before seemed +spell-bound. Not a motion was made, not a sound escaped +them, as they listened with an intentness which said far +more than the ready and general praise at its close. Knowing, +as I did, the extraordinary quality of her voice, I had +expected that some such effect would be produced, but I +hardly reckoned on such complete and universal admiration.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +When the cry of the heartbroken girl rose and echoed +through the large room, the effect was electrical; the +higher notes were sweet and clear, without a suspicion of +hardness, and yet had wondrous under-tones of tears, such +as I never heard in another woman's voice. Long before +the wailing notes had faded into nothingness Mrs. Neuchamp's +eyes were wet. While old Paul, Mr. Neuchamp, +and the captain, seemed in no great hurry to express their +approval.</p> + +<p>"That's the most wonderful song I ever heard," said the +old man. "I've heard the girls in Nukuheva sing one +something like it, and there are notes in Miranda's voice +that take me back to my youth, the island days, and the +good old times when Paul Frankston was young and foolish. +God's blessing on them! Miranda! my dear, take an +old man's thanks. I foresee that I shall have two daughters: +one at Marahmee in the summer, and the other in the +winter, when Antonia is in the bush."</p> + +<p>After this no one would hear of her leaving off. She +sang other songs which were not all sorrowful. Some had +a livelier tone, and the transient gleam which lit up the +dark eyes told that mirth had its due place in her rich and +many-sided nature.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to hear one of our hymns now?" she +asked, with the simplicity of a child. "We used to sing +them in parts, and many a night when the moon was at the +full did we sit on the beach and sing for hours. I can hear +the surge now, and it puts me in mind of our dear old +home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, by all means," said Antonia, and without further +prelude, she began a well-known hymn, the deep tones of +her voice rising and falling as if in a cathedral, while the +organ-like chords which she evoked from the Erard favoured +the faultless rendering. We involuntarily joined in, and I +saw Antonia looking admiringly at the singer, as with head +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +upraised, and all the fervour of a mediæval penitent, she +poured forth a volume of melodious adoration.</p> + +<p>All were silent for some seconds after the last cadence +had died away. At length the pause was broken by +Antonia.</p> + +<p>"After that lovely hymn, my dear Miranda, let me first +thank you warmly for the pleasure you have given us all, +and then suggest that we retire. The gentlemen may stay +and smoke a while longer, but this has been an exciting +day for us, and you require rest. Besides, you have to +make acquaintance with your new relations."</p> + +<p>"A sensible suggestion, my darling," said Mr. Frankston. +"So we'll say good night to Mrs. Telfer and yourself. We +must have one more cigar in the verandah while we think +over that great song of hers."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>It was arranged between Mr. Frankston and the captain +that I should take my bride to my old home on the morning +after next, and present her to my family. It might have +been thought that, after so long an absence from my parents, +it would have been more in keeping with filial duty to have +rushed off at once and, in a manner, cast myself at their +feet like the prodigal. But that unlucky, yet eventually +fortunate younger son, did not bring a wife with him, in +which case the paternal welcome might have been less +distinct. I had put myself in the hands of my more experienced +friends, who, as men of the world, knew the value +of first impressions.</p> + +<p>"You and Miranda will be all the better for a day's rest, +and a little cheering up at Marahmee," had said the captain. +"Antonia, too, will see that your sea princess is properly +turned out, and fit to bear inspection by the ladies of the +family. <i>They</i> won't have much to criticise, I'll be bound. +I'm an early man, so I'll go and breakfast with your father, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> +and give him a general idea of your doings and prospects. +You had better turn up about mid-day. It will be high tide +then, and Miranda will see Isola Bella at its best. Come +on board the <i>Florentia</i> first, and I'll send you over in proper +style."</p> + +<p>Acting upon this prudent advice, Miranda and I alighted +from the Marahmee carriage at the Circular Quay, and once +more set foot on board the <i>Florentia</i>, where we found the +captain ready to receive us. He made us come down into +the cuddy and partake of fruit and wine (that is, Miranda +took the first and I the latter), while he gave us a sketch +of his interview with my father.</p> + + + +<hr class="cb" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></div> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h2>"OUR JACK'S COME HOME TO-DAY"</h2> + + +<p>"The old skipper was walking in the garden, glass in +hand. I knew I should find him up, though it was soon +after sunrise. No fear of <i>his</i> being in bed and the sun up. +'Hallo! Carryall,' he said, 'I was just thinking about +you; thought I could make out the <i>Florentia</i> yesterday. +What sort of a voyage have you had, and what luck among +the right whales?'</p> + +<p>"'Pretty fair. Rather longer out than I expected, but +didn't do badly after all; had some trading among the +islands; cocoa-nut oil has gone up, and the copra I got will +pay handsomely.'</p> + +<p>"'That's good news,' he said; 'and look here, Carryall, +my boy, I've been thinking lately that a very paying +business might be put together by going in regularly for +island trading. They're ready and willing to take our +goods, and their raw material—oil, copra, fruit, ever so +many things that they are only too glad to sell—would +pay a handsome percentage on the outlay. What is wanted +is a partner here with capital, a few ships to go regularly +round the islands, and a manager who knows the language +and understands the natives. If I were a little younger, +by Jove! I'd go into it myself. You'll stay and breakfast +with us of course. We're not late people. By the +by you haven't heard of my boy in your travels, have +you?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +"'Well I <i>have</i> heard of him, and—'</p> + +<p>"'Heard of him!' he said, not giving me time to get +further; 'where? what was he doing?'</p> + +<p>"'Well, he was supercargo on board the <i>Leonora</i>—Hayston's +brig. They had been at Ocean Island just before +me.'</p> + +<p>"'Hayston, Bully Hayston?' the old man said, looking +stern. 'I'm sorry he was mixed up with that fellow. A +fine seaman, but a d—d scoundrel, from all I've heard +of him; what were they doing there? However, I know +young fellows must buy their experience. Perhaps he's +left him by this time.'</p> + +<p>"'The <i>Leonora</i> was wrecked in Chabral harbour,' I said, +'and her bones lie on the coral reef there. She'll never +float again.'</p> + +<p>"'Ha! and did Hilary get off safe? I suppose it was +a heavy gale. Heard anything of him since?'</p> + +<p>"'He stayed at Moūt for some time,' I said, 'and then +was lucky enough to get a passage to Sydney in the <i>Rosario</i>, +but he left her at Norfolk Island.'</p> + +<p>"'Left her—left her—why the devil didn't he come on +in her, and see his old father, and mother, and sisters? +Hang the fellow, has he no natural feeling? Here have +we been wearing our hearts out with anxiety all these +years, and his poor mother having a presentiment (as she +calls it) that he's drowned or sold into slavery, or something, +and d—mn me, sir! the young rascal goes and stays +to have a picnic at Norfolk Island! The next thing we'll +hear, I suppose, is that he's married one of these Pitcairn +Island girls. Not but what he might do worse, for +I never saw such a lot of fine-looking lasses in my life, as +I did the last time I was there; and as good as they are +handsome, by George! But to stay there, so near home +too! If I didn't know that he was a good boy, and as +honest as the day, from his cradle upwards, I'd say he was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +an unnatural young— But I won't miscall the lad. To +stay there—'</p> + +<p>"'But he didn't stay there, captain.'</p> + +<p>"'What!' he roared, 'didn't stay there—went back to +the islands, I suppose, to have a little more beach-combing +and loafing? Why couldn't he have come home when he +was so near? He <i>might</i> have thought of his poor mother, +if he didn't give <i>me</i> credit for caring to see his face again.'</p> + +<p>"And here the old skipper frowned, and put on a terribly +stern expression. 'Why, he might have come home and +married a wife, and settled down and been the comfort of +our old age.'</p> + +<p>"'So he has!' I said; 'that is, he is married, and he has +come to Sydney.'</p> + +<p>"'Married? Come to Sydney? How can that be? +Why isn't he here? Carryall, my boy, you wouldn't play +a joke on an old man? No, sir! you wouldn't <i>dare</i> to do +it. How <i>could</i> he come to Sydney and be married?'</p> + +<p>"'He came with me in the <i>Florentia</i>,' I said, 'and brought +his wife with him.' And here, Miranda, my dear, I told +him what a very unpleasant young woman you were, and +took about a quarter of an hour to do it; at the end of +which narration the breakfast bell rang.</p> + +<p>"'Come into the house, Carryall,' he said, 'and tell it +all to his mother. I'll break it to her by saying that you +bring news of Hilary, and that he's quite well, and so on, +and likely to come home soon.'</p> + +<p>"So we went in. I shall never forget the look that +came into your mother's eyes when the skipper said, 'Here's +Captain Carryall straight from the islands; he's brought +you girls some shells and curios as usual, and better than +that, news of Hilary.'</p> + +<p>"'News of my boy, my darling Hilary! Good news, I +hope. Oh, Captain Carryall! say it's good. Oh! <i>where</i> is +he, and what was he doing?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +"'It is good news, my dear lady,' said I, 'or I should +not have come over to tell you. I saw him quite lately as +near Sydney as Norfolk Island.'</p> + +<p>"'Of course he was coming here—coming here; he +would not have the heart to stay away from his poor father +and mother any longer, when he was so near as that. And +was he quite well? Oh! my boy—my precious Hilary! +What would I not give if he were to come here and settle +down for good?'</p> + +<p>"'He is thinking of doing so,' I said. 'His fixed intention +was to marry and live in Sydney for the rest of his +days.'</p> + +<p>"'Thank God! thank God in His mercy!' she said, +clasping her hands. 'And do you think he will be here +soon—how many weeks?'</p> + +<p>"'It will not be a matter of weeks, but days; I know +that he took his passage in a certain ship, and that you +may expect him every hour.'</p> + +<p>"Then she looked keenly at me. Your mother is a +clever woman. She began to think I had been leading her +on.</p> + +<p>"'You are not treating me as a child, Charles Carryall, +are you? My son is here, and you have been afraid to tell +me so. Is it not so?'</p> + +<p>"'Only a harmless deception, my dear Mrs. Telfer. +Your son and his wife came here in my vessel. They +stayed at Paul Frankston's last night, and will be here at +mid-day.'</p> + +<p>"The dear lady looked as if she could not realise it for a +moment, then sat back in her chair, and raised her eyes as +if in prayer.</p> + +<p>"One of the girls moved as if to support her, but she +waved her off. 'No, my dear, you need not be afraid. I +shall not faint; I have borne many things, and can bear +this. I am returning thanks to our Almighty Father, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +has restored my son to me. "My son, who was lost, and is +found." My son, who was dead to me, and is now restored +to life. Oh, God! most heartily and humbly do I thank +Thee—most merciful—most loving!'</p> + +<p>"After this we were a very happy party. The girls, of +course, wanted to know all about Miranda here"—here my +darling smiled, and took his hand; "I dashed off a sketch, +and some day you can ask Mariana and Elinor—both +great friends of mine they are—if it is a good likeness."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it was too good," sighed Miranda, "and +they will be dreadfully disappointed."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The end of it was that we left the <i>Florentia</i> at eight bells, +in great state and majesty, in a whaleboat—upon which +Miranda insisted, despising the captain's gig as a trumpery +skiff—and a picked crew, with the skipper himself as the +steer-oar.</p> + +<p>"That's really something like," she said, as she stepped +lightly on to the thwart. "If there was a little swell on, +I should feel quite myself again, and think of the dear days +when I was a happy little island girl, bare-footed and bare-headed, +and thought going off to a strange vessel through +the great, solemn, sweeping rollers the wildest enjoyment. +But I am a happy girl now," she added, with a look in her +deep eyes which expressed a world of love and rich content; +"only the thought of learning to be a lady sometimes +troubles me."</p> + +<p>"You will never need to do <i>that</i>," I said.</p> + +<p>"There is the house?" I cried; "there's Isola Bella!" as +we rounded a point, and a picturesque stone house came +full into view. It had been built in the early days of the +colony by an Imperial officer, long resident in Italy, and +showed the period in its massive stone walls, Florentine +façade, and wide, paved verandah. The site was elevated +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +above the lake-like waters of the bay, towards which a +winding walk led, terminating in a massive stone pier, into +which iron rings and stanchions had been let. The beach +was white and smooth, though the tide ran high, and the +wavelets rippled close to the pale sandstone rocks, which +lent a tone of delicacy and purity to the foreshore.</p> + +<p>The weather-stained walls of the house were half covered +with climbers, a wilderness of tropical shrubs, and richly-blooming +flower-thickets. There were glades interspersed, +carpeted with the thick-swarded couch or "dhoub" grass, +originally imported from India, and which, nourished by +the coast showers, and delighting in a humid atmosphere, +preserves its general freshness of colour the long Australian +summer through.</p> + +<p>I had been so preoccupied with speculations as to Miranda's +reception by my family, that my own emotions, on +returning to my childhood's home, lay in abeyance. Now, +however, at the near view of the house—the pier, the +walled-in sea-bath—the scenes and adventures of my +earliest youth came back with overwhelming force and +clearness. There was the boat-house, into which I had +paddled so many a time after nightfall, returning from fishing +or sailing excursions. There was the flagstaff on which +was displayed the Union Jack and other flags on great +occasions. The old flag floated in the breeze to-day. I +knew for what reason and celebration. I could see my +mother, as of old, walking down to the pier to welcome and +embrace, or to remonstrate and fondly chide when I had +remained absent in stormy weather. How many fears and +anxieties had I not caused to agitate that loving heart! And +my stern and mostly silent parent—did I not once surprise +him in scarce dignified sorrow at my night-long absence +and probable untimely decease. Yet all his words were, +"God forgive you, my boy, for the misery you have caused +us this night."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +And now the years had passed—had flown rather, crowded +as they were with incident—that had changed the heedless +boy into the man,—matured, perhaps, by too early worldly +knowledge, and the grim comradeship of danger and death. +I had returned safely, bringing my sheaves with me in the +guise of one dearer to me than life. I had, during the +intervals of reflection I had lately enjoyed, repented fully +of the unconsciously selfish sins of my youth, and was fixed +in firm resolve to atone, so far as in me lay, by care and +consideration in the future.</p> + +<p>As we dashed alongside of the pier, the years rolled back, +and as of old I saw my mother pacing the well-known path +to the boat. She was followed by my father at a short distance. +I fancied that the dear form told of the lapse of +time, in less firm step and the bent figure which age compels. +My father was erect as ever, and his eye swept the far horizon +of outer seas as of old; but surely his hair and beard +were whiter.</p> + +<p>Miranda's step was first upon the pier—she needed no +help in leaving or entering a boat. Side by side we walked +to meet my mother, who, with a sob of joy, folded me in +her arms. "My boy! my boy!" was all she could articulate +for some moments; then, gently disengaging herself, "and +this is my new daughter?" she said. "May God bless and +keep you both, my children, and preserve for us the great +happiness which His providence has ordained this day."</p> + +<p>"Well, neighbour!" in the well-remembered greeting +which he affected, rang out here my father's clear tones, "and +so you have finished your cruise for a while! What a man +you have grown!" he exclaimed, as he looked upwards half-admiringly +at my head and shoulders, markedly above his +own. "Filled out, bronzed, you look a sailor, man, all +over."</p> + +<p>"And so you wouldn't give the Sydney girls a chance, +and have <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original read 'brough'">brought</ins> +a wife back with you for fear there +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> +mightn't be a 'currency lass' to spare. I must say I +admire your taste, my boy. No one can fault that. Welcome, +my dear Miranda, to your own and your husband's +home. Give your old father a kiss and the ceremony is +complete." Here the governor gravely embraced his new +daughter, and then, holding her at arm's length, regarded +her admiringly, till she playfully ran back to the girls. +"Charley here guarantees she is as good as she is handsome. +He said better, indeed; but that's impossible. No +woman with her looks could be better inside than out. So, +Hilary, my boy, I congratulate you on your choice. You've +fallen on your feet in love and friendship both, according +to what Carryall tells me of Paul Frankston's partnership arrangement. +And now we'll come up to the house and drink +the bride's health. I feel as if I needed a refresher after all +this excitement. I little thought when I saw Charley come +over so early what was in store for us, eh, mother?"</p> + +<p>Before we reached the house the two girls, Mariana and +Elinor, had taken possession of Miranda and carried her upstairs +to the rooms which were to be allotted to us while we +dwelt at Isola Bella. "Now that the other boys are up the +country," said Mariana, who was the elder, "we have more +houseroom than we need. So, directly we heard that you +were in Sydney, Elinor and I set to work and arranged +these two rooms, so that you and Miranda should be quite +independent. There's such a pretty view of the harbour. +You can use this one as a sitting-room, and there's a smaller +dressing-room which he can make a den of. Men always +like a place to be untidy in."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how nice it will be," said Elinor, the younger one, +whom I remember a curly-headed romp of ten when I left +home, "to have a mate for rowing and boat-sailing. Mariana +here doesn't care for boats, and dislikes rough weather. +I suppose no weather would frighten you. Oh, what lovely +trips we shall have, and mother can't be nervous when you +are with me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +"I suppose you think Miranda is a sort of mermaid," +said I, now arrived and joining in the conversation, "and +impossible to be drowned. But what would become of me +if anything happened to her? Do you think I can trust +her with you? What a grand room! I remember it well +in old days when it used to be the guest chamber. I was +only allowed into it now and then, and always under inspection. +I feel the promotion."</p> + +<p>"Now, we'll run away and leave you," said Mariana. +"Lunch is nearly ready; you will hear the bell."</p> + +<p>We sat down on a couch and gazed into each other's eyes +with clasped hands. The harbour, with its variously composed +fleet, lay wide and diversified before us. Every conceivable +vessel—barge, steamer, collier, skiff, yacht, and +row-boat—made progress adown and across its waters. +How fair a scene it was on this, one of the loveliest days +which sun and sky and wavelets deep ever combined to +fashion! After all my adventures by seas and lands—after +all the sharp contrasts of my chequered life—now lotus-eating +amid the groves or by the founts of an earthly paradise—now +ignorant, from one day to another, of the hour +when the death-knell would sound—now free and joyous, +handsomely dressed, in foreign seaports with ruffling swagger +and chinking dollars—anon ragged, shoeless, shipwrecked, +and forlorn—nay, starving, but for the charity +of the soft-hearted heathens whom we in our pride are +prone to despise.</p> + +<p>And now I was at home again. Home! sweet home! in +fullest sense of the word—welcomed, beloved, fêted! +What had I done to deserve this love and trust now so +profusely showered upon me? My better angel, too, my +darling Miranda, by my side, sharing in all this wealth of +affection. How could I have foretold that such good fortune +would be mine, all unworthy that I felt myself, when, +bruised and bleeding, I was hurled ashore in the midnight +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +storm from the wrecked <i>Leonora</i>?—when I felt in thought +the deadly shudder which ever follows the scratch of the +poisoned arrow—when I sank to eternal rest (as I then +supposed) beneath the surf-tormented shore of the island? +How had I jostled death, disease, danger in every form and +shape,—and now, almost without thought or volition of +my own, I was placed in possession of all those things for +which through a long life so many men toil and struggle +vainly and unsuccessfully.</p> + +<p>"Thank God! thank God!" I exclaimed aloud involuntarily, +for truly our hearts were filled in that hour of realised +peace and happiness with grateful wonder.</p> + +<p>"Let us give Him thanks," whispered Miranda, "who +only has done this wondrous thing for us."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Captain Carryall, my father, and Mr. Frankston were men +of action—all through their lives the deed had followed +quick on the resolve. Thus, within a week after our +arrival, premises were purchased on the shore of the bay; +stores and warehouses were planned, while upon an office +in the chief business centre of Sydney, at no great distance +from Macquarie Square, a legend of the period presented +the firm of "Carryall, Telfer, and Company, South Sea +merchants and purchasers of island produce." This was +the commencement, as it turned out, of a prosperous mercantile +enterprise, ramifying in divers directions. It was +arranged not only to purchase or to ship on commission the +raw material so easily procurable, but to advance on whaling +and trading ventures; the projectors, better equipped +with experience than capital, being always willing to pay +high interest, for which indeed the margin of profit amply +provided. Here I was in my element, whether directing +labourers, interviewing seamen, shouting in the vernacular +to the native crews, or calculating the value of cargoes. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> +My father came over every other day to watch me at my +work, and of my style of management he was pleased to +express approval. "You have not altogether wasted your +time, my boy," he said one day. "The great thing in all +these matters is energy. With that and reasonable experience +a man is sure to be successful in a new country—indeed +in any country. Pluck and perseverance mean +everything in life. Never despair. You know our family +motto—<i>Fortuna favet fortibus</i>. And you would smile if I +told you how often in the history of my life a bold bid for +fame or fortune has been my only resource."</p> + +<p>Whether I had exhibited the proverbial fortitude, or +whether, indeed, the capricious goddess was mollified in my +case, cannot with certainty be decided. The fact, however, +was there, that our luck, from whatever cause, was in the +ascendant, inasmuch as business of a profitable nature +began to pour in upon us. The average gains beyond expenses +were so apparent that it was evident that before +long we should be in a position to set up housekeeping on +our own account.</p> + +<p>In the mean time nothing could be more harmonious and +satisfactory than our composite home life at Isola Bella, +difficult as it is sometimes to arrange the housing of two +families, however closely related, under one roof. The +natural amiability of Miranda's nature fortunately prevented +the slightest friction. Constitutionally anxious to +please, it was the chief article of her simple faith to seek +the happiness of others rather than her own. Prompt in +compliance, eager to learn all minor matters with which +she had been necessarily unacquainted, ready to join in the +harmless mirth of the hour, or to tell of the wonders of her +island home, she was, as all agreed, a constant source of +interest and entertainment.</p> + +<p>More than all, her pervading, fervent, religious faith endeared +her to the pious heart of my dearest mother, in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +whose visits to the poor and in charitable ministrations she +was by choice her constant companion; while her unfeigned +pity for the half-fed, half-clothed children of the neglected +classes with which every city abounds excited my mother's +wonder and admiration.</p> + +<p>"Your wife is a pearl of womanhood, my dear Hilary," +she would say to me. "You are a good boy; I hope you +are worthy of her. I can hardly think that any man could +be. When you see the women so many men are fated to +pass their lives with, you have indeed reason to be thankful."</p> + +<p>"So I am, my dear old mother," I would say. "Every +day I feel minded to sing a song of joy and gratitude. I +feel as life was a new discovery and creation. I am in a +Paradise where no serpent that ever crawled has power to +harm my Eve. I feel sometimes as if there was an unreal +perfection about it all, too bright to last."</p> + +<p>So indeed it appeared to me at that time. Fully employed +as I was by day and in the exercise of all the faculties +that my island life had served to train, it was impossible +to overtask the health of mind and body in which I revelled. +I was sensible, too, that the joint enterprise upon +which I had embarked was growing and improving daily, +while much of its success was attributed by Mr. Frankston +and Captain Carryall to my management. At night, when +I returned there was one who never failed to catch sight of +my skiff when half across the bay. Then our family evenings, +cheered with song and harmless mirth, were truly +restful after the labours of the day.</p> + +<p>Our neighbours, too, with all the old friends of the +family, seemed desirous to welcome the son of the house +who had been so long absent, and had wandered so far. +Whether from curiosity, or a higher feeling, they were +equally anxious to call upon "the son's wife." The positions, +and dispositions, manners, and habitudes of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> +different types were well explained to Miranda by my +socially-experienced sisters, so that she was saved from +any misapprehension which might so easily have arisen.</p> + +<p>Our friends the Neuchamps, too, were often with us, and +made the greater part of our quiet recreations. On alternate +Sundays nothing would content Mr. Frankston short +of our all dining with him, to be sent back in his sailing +boat if the weather was favourable, or to remain for the +night in the ample guest-chambers of Marahmee if otherwise.</p> + +<p>Our Saturday afternoons, indeed, were almost entirely +devoted to picnics and cruises in his yacht, at which time +he insisted upon Miranda steering, or, as he said, taking +command, at which times he was always loud in admiration +of her nautical skill—declaring, indeed, that she was fit +to take charge of any vessel in Her Majesty's navy.</p> + +<p>We had also seen a good deal of our fellow passengers, +Mr. and Miss Vavasour, who, after a first introduction, were +always included in Mr. Frankston's Saturday picnic invitations. +That lively damsel professed a great admiration for +Mr. Frankston, who responded so promptly that Antonia +reproached him for turning faithless to Miranda.</p> + +<p>"It's his nature, he can't help it," she said.</p> + +<p>"But Miss Vavasour will have some day to suffer whatever +pangs are supposed to fall to the lot of the deserted +fair; then she will repent of her fascinations."</p> + +<p>"Not at all—sufficient for the day, you know. I begin +to think that one's admirers ought to be past their first +youth. They're more thoroughly appreciative. 'On his +frank features middle age Had scarcely set its signet sage,' +and so on. I'm sure that quite describes Mr. Frankston. +How should you like me for a mamma-in-law, Mrs. Neuchamp? +Marahmee is such a dear house, and these yachting +parties are all that are wanted to make life perfect."</p> + +<p>"I give my consent," said Antonia, "but beware of delay. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> +'Men were deceivers ever,' and if you wait more than a +fortnight your charms will be on the wane, so I warn +you."</p> + +<p>"I like decision," responded Miss Vavasour, "but perhaps +'two weeks,' as our American friend used to say, is +<i>rather hurried</i> legislation. The trousseau business and the +milliner's objections would be fatal. Even Miranda must +have stood out for a longer respite. How long did you +take, Miranda, dear? You're the pattern woman, you know, +the first girl I ever saw that men and women equally +delighted to honour."</p> + +<p>Miranda blushed charmingly, then looking up with her +clear, frank eyes, that always appeared to me to be fountains +of truth, as she replied—</p> + +<p>"Hilary and I were married just a month after he asked +me to be his wife, you know very well."</p> + +<p>So, jesting lightly, and with a breeze that sufficed just +to fill the great sails of the yacht, we glided along until we +had explored the recesses of Middle harbour,—a spacious +inlet winding amid the thick growing semi-tropical forest +which clothed the slopes of the bays and promontories to +the water's edge.</p> + +<p>Here and there were small clearings in which might be +discovered a tent or cabin, just sufficient for the needs of a +couple of bachelors or a hermit, who here desired to live +during his holiday amid this "boundless contiguity of +shade"—"The world forgetting, and the world forgot."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how lovely!" said Mrs. Percival, as we swept round +a point and came suddenly upon a fairy-like nook, a tiny +bay with milk-white strand and fantastic sandstone rocks. +There was a fenced enclosure around a cabin. There was +a boat, with rude stone pier and boat-house. The owner, in +cool garb and broad-leafed sombrero, was seated on a rock +reading, and occasionally dabbling his bare feet in the rippling +tide. As the yacht glided past in the deep water which +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> +came so close to his possessions, he raised his hat to the +ladies, and resumed his studies.</p> + +<p>"What a picture of peace and restful enjoyment!" said +Mrs. Craven. "How I envy men who can seclude themselves +like this within an hour's sail from a city! Now, +people are so fond of generalising about colonists, and how +wrong they are! They always describe them as wildly +energetic and restless people, perpetually rushing about in +search of gain or gold."</p> + +<p>"That's Thorndale," said one of the younger guests. +"He works hard enough at his business when he is about +it, but his notion of enjoyment is to come here on a Saturday +with only a boat-keeper, to fish, and read, and smoke +till Monday morning, when he goes back to his law and his +office."</p> + +<p>"Sensible fellow!" said the colonel. "There's nothing +like tent life to recruit a man's health after a spell of official +work. We used to manage that in India, when we +couldn't go all the way to the hills, by forming small encampments +of a dozen or twenty fellows, having a mess-house +in common, and living in tents or huts separately +when we were not hunting or shooting. Splendid life while +it lasted! Sent us back twice the men we were, when we +left the lines!"</p> + +<p>We anchored for lunch in one of the fairy nooks of which +that enchanted region is so lavish. There was tea for the +ladies and something presumably stronger for the seniors. +We had mirth and pleasantries, spoken and acted—all +went merrily in that charmed sunshine and beneath the +shadowy sea-woods. We had songs—"A mellow voice +Fitz Eustace had"—that is, one of the young fellows, +native and to the manner born, lifted up his tuneful pipe +and made us all laugh, the air he sang being certainly not +"wild and sad,"—the reverse, indeed.</p> + +<p>"Now, is not this an ideal picnic,—a day rescued from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +that terrible fiend Ennui, that haunts us all?" cried Miss +Vavasour. "I might truthfully, perhaps, except myself, +who am frivolous, and therefore easily amused—but of +course it sounds well to complain and be mysterious. But, +really, this is life indeed! The climate makes up for any +little deficiency. I shall positively go home and arrange +my affairs, make sure of my allowance being paid quarterly, +then take a cottage near Miranda, on that sweet North +Shore,—isn't that what you call it?—and live happy ever +afterwards like a 'maid of Llangollen.'"</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be nicer," said Mrs. Neuchamp. "We'll +all three live here in the summer, within reach of the sea-breeze. +In June you must come up and stay with me at +Rainbar; then you will know what the glory of winter in +our Riverina is like."</p> + +<p>The breeze freshened as we glided swiftly on our homeward +course. We had expended most of the daylight +before we left our fairy bower. Sunset banners flared o'er +the western horizon. "White and golden-crimson, blue," +fading imperceptibly into the paler tones, and swift-appearing +shades which veil the couch of the day god. The stars +tremulously gleamed at first timidly, then brightly scintillating +in pure and clustered radiance. Our merry converse +had gradually lessened, then ceased and died away. +All seemed impressed by the solemnity of the hour—the +hush of sea and land—the shimmering phosphorescent +sparkle of the silver-seeming plain over which we swept all +swift and silently. Then the lights of the city, brilliant, +profuse, widely scattered as in a lower firmament!</p> + +<p>Miss Vavasour sat with Miranda's hand in hers. "How +lovely to live in an hour like this, and yet it is like this +with such surroundings that I should like to die."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said Miranda, "we must all die when God +wills it. It is not good to talk so, my dear."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> +During the next week our good friends and fellow-passengers +of the <i>Florentia</i> were to leave us on their return +voyage. We arranged to meet as often as we could manage +the leisure, and, as it happened, there was to be a ball at +Government House—one of the great functions of the +season, which, it was decided, would be an appropriate +conclusion to our comradeship. Mr. and Mrs. Neuchamp +were going back to their station, Captain Carryall was +under sailing orders, and our friends the Colonel and Mrs. +Percival were leaving for India and "going foreign" +generally.</p> + +<p>Miranda was not eager to attend the extremely grand, +and, as far as she was concerned, strange entertainment. +But the whole party were most anxious for her to make her +appearance in public—at least on that occasion. Partly +from natural curiosity, partly on account of my wishes, +and my sisters' and Mrs. Neuchamp's strong persuasion, +she consented—pleading, however, to be relieved from all +anxiety on the score of her dress.</p> + +<p>"Oh! we'll take that responsibility," said Elinor. "Antonia +Neuchamp is generally admitted to dress in perfect +taste. We'll compose a becoming ball-dress amongst us or +die—something simple and yet not wholly out of the +fashion, and becoming to Miranda's style of beauty."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you'll make me vain," she answered, smiling. +"What will you do if I spend all Hilary's money on dress? +However, it must be a lovely sight. I have read of balls +and grand entertainments, of course, and when I was a girl +longed to be able to take part in them. Now that I am +married," and here she gazed at me with those tender, +truthful eyes, "I seem not to care for mere pleasure. It +leads to nothing, you know."</p> + +<p>"You are going to be a pattern wife, Miranda, I see," +said Mariana, my elder sister. "You must not spoil Hilary, +you know. He will think he is the only man in the world."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> +"And is he not for me?" she asked, eagerly. Then +blushing at the quick betrayal of her inmost heart, she +added, "Should it not be so? Are civilised people in a +great city anxious to attract admiration even after they are +married?"</p> + +<p>"There are people who do this and more in all societies, +my dear," said my mother, with a seriousness which rebuked +our inclination to smile at Miranda's ignorance of the world. +"But do you, my dear child, cling fast to the faith in which +you have been reared. You will neither be of them nor +among them that follow the multitude to do evil."</p> + +<p>"I don't think there is as much evil in Miranda as would +fill a teaspoon," said Elinor. "This isle of hers must have +been a veritable Eden, or she must have come down from +the moon, dear creature. You must be very good to deserve +her, I can tell you, Master Hilary."</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>The day arrived, the night of which was to realise all +manner of rose-coloured visions, in which the youth and +maidens of Sydney had for weeks indulged. It was to be +the ball of the season. The grand entertainment at which +a royal personage, who had arrived in a man-of-war but +recently, had consented to be present! The officers of the +squadron were, of course, invited. They were gratified that +the ball was fixed for a week previous to their sailing on +an extended cruise among the islands. As it happened, too, +the great pastoral section—the proprietors of the vast +estates of the interior—were still at their clubs and hotels, +not yet departed for their annual sojourn amid the limitless +wastes of "The Bush." The <i>jeunesse dorée</i> of the city, the +<i>flaneurs</i>, and civil servants who, like the poor, are "always +with us," were specially available. Lastly, the Governor's +wife had openly stated that she wished to show her friends, +the Percivals, what we could do in Sydney. And she was +not a woman to fail in any of her undertakings.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> +It was arranged that we should comply with Paul Frankston's +imperious mandate, and meet at Marahmee early in +the day for the greater convenience of driving thence to +Government House, instead of taking steamboat from the +North Shore. All our plans prospered exceedingly. The +day was calm and fair; the night illumined by the soft radiance +of the moon. We dined in great peace and contentment, +the ladies having devoted—as it appeared to me—the +greater portion of the afternoon to the befitting adornments +of their persons. We were all in good spirits. I had +reason indeed to be so, for that day I had concluded a highly +profitable trade arrangement, which augured well for my +future mercantile career.</p> + +<p>"What a glorious night!" said Paul Frankston. "Don't +be afraid of that Moselle, Ernest, it's some of my own importing—a +rare wine, as most judges think. Do you remember +the ball we went to, Antonia, given by that fellow +Schäfer? Such a swell he looked, and how well he did the +thing! He has different quarters now, if all's true that +we hear."</p> + +<p>"The poor Count!" answered Mrs. Neuchamp, "I can't +help feeling sorry for him though he was an imposter. Is +it really true that they put him in prison in Batavia? +What a fate after such a brilliant career!"</p> + +<p>"Carryall was there last year and saw him. Got an +order, you know, from the Dutch authorities. Said he was +fairly cheerful; expected to be out in three years."</p> + +<p>"He was very near not being imprisoned in Batavia or +anywhere else," interposed Mr. Neuchamp, with some show +of asperity. "If Jack Windsor had come up a little earlier +in the fray we'd have broken the scoundrel's neck, or otherwise +saved the hangman a task."</p> + +<p>"Now, Ernest, you mustn't bear malice," said his wife, +reprovingly; "after all it was Harriet Folleton and not me +whom he wished to carry off. It was an afterthought try +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>ing +to make me accompany her. But 'all's well that ends +well.' He has paid for his misdeeds in full."</p> + +<p>"Not half as much as he deserves," growled Neuchamp, +who evidently declined to perceive the humorous side of the +affair—the attempted abduction of an imprudent beauty +and heiress, besides the ultra-felonious taking away of Miss +Frankston, as she was then—as a pendant to a career of +general swindling and imposture practised upon the good +people of Sydney. Mr. Frankston's eyes began to glitter, +too, at the reminiscence. So the conversation was changed.</p> + +<p>"I really believe that women never wholly repudiate +admiration," continued Mr. Neuchamp, reflectively, "however +unprincipled and abandoned the 'first robber' may be. +It's a curious psychical problem."</p> + +<p>"You know that is untrue, Ernest," quoth Mrs. Neuchamp, +with calm decision. "Don't let me hear you say +such things." An hour later our carriages had taken up +position in the apparently endless line of vehicles which +stretched along Macquarie Street and the lamplit avenues +which led to it. After nearly an hour's waiting, as it +seemed to me, we drove through the lofty freestone gateway +which led to the viceregal mansion, and descended +within the portico, amid a guard of honour and attendant +aides-de-camp. Passing through a vestibule, and being duly +divested of wraps in the cloak-rooms, we were finally ushered +into the Viceroy's presence, and duly announced.</p> + +<p>Paul Frankston took the lead, with Miranda on his arm. +I followed with Mrs. Neuchamp, whose husband escorted +my sisters. As we were announced by name, I noticed +that Colonel and Mrs. Percival, with a few other people of +distinction, were standing on the dais, close to the Governor +and Lady Rochester, the latter talking to a young man in +naval uniform, whom I conjectured to be the Prince. As +we approached I saw Mrs. Percival speak to Lady Rochester, +who at once came forward and greeted us warmly. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> +"Mr. Frankston," she said, "I know the Governor wishes +to talk to you about the fortifications; will you and your +party come up here and stay with us. And so this is Mrs. +Telfer, the heroine of my friend, Mrs. Percival's romance! +I am delighted to see her and congratulate you, Mr. Telfer, +on bringing us such a sea princess for your bride. She has +all the air of it, I declare."</p> + +<p>Miranda secured a seat near Mrs. Percival, who watched +with pleasure her evident admiration, mingled with a certain +awe, of the brilliant, unaccustomed scene before her. +Much to her relief Miss Vavasour came up with the Cravens, +and commenced a critical review of Miranda's and +other dresses, which soon obliterated all trace of timidity +and strangeness.</p> + +<p>"Well, my princess," began Miss Vavasour, "and how +does this gay and festive scene strike you? Isn't it a fairy +tale—a dream of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>? Don't you expect +to see the fairy godmother come when the clock strikes +twelve, and your carriage turn into a pumpkin and white +mice?"</p> + +<p>"It is a scene of enchantment," said Miranda. "I hardly +expected anything so dazzlingly beautiful. How the naval +uniforms seem to light up the throng, and the soldiers too. +I don't wonder at all the pretty things we read about them +in books."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they do strike the unaccustomed eye," said Miss +Vavasour. "I wish I saw them for the first time. I'm +afraid I'm growing old. Oh! my coming-out ball! I +didn't sleep for a week before in anticipation of delicious +joy, or a week after in retrospection. Ah! me, my youth +is slipping away unsatisfied, I much fear. And now, unless +my eyes deceive me, we are going to have the first quadrille. +Miranda, we must show these good people that we dance in +our island. How about partners and a <i>vis-a-vis</i>?"</p> + +<p>We were not left long in doubt. One of the +aides-de-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>camp, +a gorgeous apparition in gold and scarlet, came up +bowing, and intimated his Royal Highness' wish to dance +with Mrs. Telfer. This, of course, was equivalent to a +command. I looked for some indecision or hesitation on +the part of Miranda. But it appeared to her evidently just +as much a part of the proceedings as if (as had happened +before) she had been asked to dance with the captain of a +man-of-war at one of their island fêtes, where waltz, quadrille, +and polka had long been familiar. I had provided +myself with an enviable partner in the shape of Mrs. Neuchamp; +and her husband having promptly arranged matters +with Miss Vavasour, we betook ourselves to the next set, +where we had a full view of the viceregal party. My +sisters had apparently no difficulty in deciding between +several aspirants for their respective hands, as they and +their partners helped to make up the set.</p> + +<p>When the melodious crash broke forth, in commencement +from Herr Königsmark's musicians, recruited from +an Austrian military band which had visited Australia, +a murmur of admiration made itself audible, as the Prince +and his partner stepped forth in the opening measure of +the dance. I turned my head and was lost in astonishment +as I noticed the unconscious grace with which Miranda +moved—calm as when rivalling the fairies in rhythmic +measure on a milk white beach beside the moonlit wave. +How many a time had I watched her!</p> + +<p>"Who in the world is that lovely creature dancing with +the Prince?" I heard a middle-aged dame behind me ask. +"She has a foreign appearance, and I think she is the +most exquisitely beautiful woman I ever saw in my life. +What a figure, too! How she smiles, what teeth, what +eyes! Is there any news of a migration of angels? Such +strange things happen nowadays on account of electricity +and all that. Who and what is she, Mary Kingston, again +I ask you?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +"My dear Arabella!" answered the other dame, evidently +one of the aristocracy of the land, "you are so enthusiastic! +She came with the Frankston party. That's her husband +quite close to us, dancing with Mrs. Neuchamp. He's the +son of Captain Telfer of North Shore, and has been away +among the islands and nobody knows where for ever so +long. He married her at Norfolk Island. I believe she is +one of those wonderful Pitcairn people that we hear such +good accounts of."</p> + +<p>"H'm; he's a young man of distinctly good taste, I must +say. I wish my Cavendish had gone to the islands too, if +that is the sort of girl they grow there. Mrs. Percival +seems to be a great chum of hers. How did that come +about?"</p> + +<p>"I believe they came back in the <i>Florentia</i> together. +Captain Carryall touched at Norfolk Island on the way +from Honolulu, and it seems that Mrs. Percival's little boy +fell overboard on the voyage, and the girl was into the sea +after him like a shot, and swam with him in her arms till +the boats came. There was something about a shark too. +Mrs. Percival tells everybody she saved his life. No +wonder she raves about her."</p> + +<p>"What a pearl of a girl! No wonder, indeed! And to +think of her having a world of courage and fire in her with +all that delicacy and beauty. I can't take my eyes off her. +The Prince admires her, apparently, too; and she smiles +like a pleased child, with as little thought of vanity or harm, +I dare swear, as a baby. She ought to be a princess, no +doubt of it. So I see it's the last figure. I must go and +look up my old friend, Paul Frankston, and make him tell +me all about her."</p> + +<p>After the dance and the usual promenade, Mrs. Neuchamp +and I recovered our respective spouses, and took the opportunity +to make a detour of the ball-room, and even to go +through the next apartment, where refreshments were +pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>curable, +into the ample gardens. The night was superbly +beautiful. The full moon lit up the grove of tropical +foliage and richly-flowering plants, the glades carpeted with +velvet lawn, the wide sea-plain traversed by shimmering +pathways of silver. Below, in the sleeping bay, lay several +men-of-war, half in shadow, half illuminated with coloured +lamps hanging from their rigging. Gay and mirthful, grave +or earnest, the frequent partners passed to and fro like +shadows of revellers beneath the moon, or turned to the +lower paths to gaze at the motionless vessels, the silver sea, +the whispering wave. It was an ecstatic experience, a fairy +pageant, a supernal revelation of an enchanted landscape.</p> + +<p>Miranda pressed my arm. "Oh, Hilary! how lovely all +this is! But you must not laugh at me. Now that I have +seen it, I do not think I shall be anxious to follow it up. +There is something almost intoxicating about it all. I can +imagine it unfitting people for their everyday life."</p> + +<p>We had hardly returned to the ball-room when the glorious +strains of the "Tausend und einer nacht" waltz pealed +forth from the band, and hurrying and anxious swains in +search of their partners, not always easy to discover in such +a crush, were seen in every direction. Instant request was +preferred to Miranda by a naval officer high in command, +but to my surprise, as we had not spoken on the subject, +she graciously, but firmly, declined the honour. He protested, +but she quietly repeated her negative: "I only +dance round dances with my husband, Captain Harley! and, +indeed, these not very often."</p> + +<p>He was inclined to be persistent, though most courteous. +"I am sure you used to dance them once. Indeed, I heard +such an account of your waltzing, Mrs. Telfer."</p> + +<p>"That was before I was married, Captain Harley!" she +replied, with such evident belief that this explanation fully +answered every objection that neither the captain nor I +could help smiling.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +"Look at your friend, Mrs. Neuchamp!" he said, as that +dainty matron came gliding past with a military partner, +looking like the very impersonation of the waltz, "and +Mrs. Craven, and Mrs. Percival."</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry that I can't comply," she answered. +"They are quite right to dance waltzes if they please. I +do not care for them now, and am only going to have one +with Hilary to-night. He is fond of it, I know. I will +dance the Lancers with you, if you like."</p> + +<p>"Anything with <i>you</i>," murmured the captain gallantly, +as he carefully wrote her name on his card, and departed +to secure a partner for the yet unfinished portion of the +dance.</p> + +<p>"I see by this lovely programme," she said, "that there +is another waltz, a polka, and then the Lancers, which I +used to know very well; and after that I will dance the +next waltz with you, Hilary, just to feel what this wonderful +floor is like. You are not angry with me for refusing +Captain Harley? I really feel as if I <i>could</i> not do it."</p> + +<p>"You can follow your own way, my dear!" I said, "in +this and all minor matters. It concerns you chiefly; and, +considering how many husbands think their wives are +rather too fond of dancing, I shall certainly not quarrel +with mine for not caring for it enough."</p> + +<p>I was not altogether without interest as to this set of +Lancers which she had promised to the gallant captain of +the <i>Arethusa</i>, knowing as I did that the fashion had changed +considerably since the Lancers was a decorous, somewhat +dull dance, differing from the quadrille only in a more +complicated series of evolutions, and, like that very proper +performance, affording much opportunity for conversation. +Not intending to take part in it myself, and being, indeed, +more than sufficiently entertained as a spectator of the +novel spectacle, I stationed myself near the "tops," one +couple of which Miranda's partner elected to be. I saw by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> +the composition of the set, and the looks of some of the +youths and maidens who eagerly took their places with +their pre-arranged <i>vis-a-vis</i>, that the pace would be rapid +and the newest variations introduced.</p> + +<p>I provided, therefore, for a <i>contretemps</i>. My younger +sister having professed herself tired with the previous +waltz, had declined the invitation of a partner not wholly +acceptable as it appeared to me. I therefore persuaded +her to walk up with me to a seat near Miranda, so that we, +as I explained, might see how she got on.</p> + +<p>What I anticipated exactly came to pass. The first few +non-committal quadrille steps were got through without +unusual display, but when Miranda saw the damsel next to +her leaning back as far as she could manage, while her +partner swung her round several times, as if he either +wished to lift her entirely off her feet, or drag her arms out +of the sockets, a look of amazement overspread her features. +She stopped with a startled air, commingled with distaste, +and saying to her surprised partner, "I cannot dance like +this—I did not know—why did no one tell me?"—walked +like a queen to the nearest seat. Now my foresight +came in. Knowing that a girl of nineteen would be willing +to dance with a naval officer of the rank and fashion of +Captain Harley, if she was ready to drop with fatigue, I +said promptly, "Allow me to introduce you to my sister +Captain Harley, who will, I am sure, be happy to take my +wife's place;" a look of joyful acquiescence lit up her countenance, +and before any serious hitch took place in the +figure the vacancy was filled.</p> + +<p>I fancied that my sister Elinor, who was at the age when +girls are not disinclined for a little daring frolic out of pure +gladsomeness, performed her part in the figures with somewhat +less unreserve after noticing the look of quiet surprise +with which Miranda observed some of the more vivacious +couples.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> +We contented ourselves, when the next series of waltzes +commenced, with a single dance, which we enjoyed as thoroughly +as the perfection of floor, music, and surroundings +warranted.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a floor!" said Miranda; "if I were as fond +of dancing as I used to be, I could dance all night; and +such music! Quite heavenly, if it is not wicked to say so. +And there is the sea, too, with the moonlight on it as in old +days! We have been taken to an enchanted castle!</p> + +<p>"But there is something different. I can hardly describe +my feelings. Why, I cannot explain, but going back +to dancing now for the mere pleasure of it, when I have +entered upon the serious duties of life, appears like returning +to one's childish passion for dolls and playthings."</p> + +<p>"And yet, how many married people of both sexes are +dancing now, not with each other either."</p> + +<p>"I see them, and I wonder. I am not surprised at married +men dancing—if they like it. If they come at all, +they may as well do so as sit down and get weary. But I +think the married women should leave the round dances to +the girls."</p> + +<p>"Would not balls be rather slow if the married women +only danced squares?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see why. Yet many of the girls have no partners—wall-flowers, +I think you call them. And that is hardly fair, surely."</p> + +<p>As this dance only came before supper, which was now +near at hand, we danced it out. I hardly noticed until the +music closed how many of the other couples had stopped, or +that quite a crowd had collected around us. This was a tribute, +I found, to Miranda's performance, which had an ease +and grace of movement such as I never saw any living woman +possess. She hardly seemed to use the ordinary means of +progression. Hers was a half-aerial motion, in time to +every note and movement of the music, while the rhythmic +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> +sway and yielding grace of her figure presented the idea of +a mermaiden floating through the translucent waves rather +than that of a mortal woman.</p> + +<p>As she swayed dreamily to the wondrous music of "Tausend +und einer nacht," her head thrown slightly back, her +parted lips, her wondrous eyes, her faultless form so impressed +the by-standers with the ideal of supreme beauty, +that they scarce repressed an audible murmur as the music +ceased and the dance came to an end.</p> + +<p>When supper was announced there was the usual crush, +but before the doors were opened a few of the more favoured +guests, including the Frankstons and ourselves, were conducted +by one of the aides-de-camp to a place near the viceregal +party. Miranda was taken possession of by another +of our naval friends, who seemed to think that they had +special claims upon her, as having knowledge of her island +home. I was requested to take in our good friend and +fellow-voyager Mrs. Percival, who was more warm and effusive +in praise of Miranda than I ever thought possible +before her child's danger broke through the crust of her +ordinary manner. Now nothing could have been more sisterly +and unreserved than her tone and expression.</p> + +<p>"It has been quite a luxury to all of us to look on at that +wonderful darling of a wife of yours dancing! The whole +room, including Lady Rochester, was in ecstasies, I assure +you. You came in for your share of compliments also, +which I mustn't make you vain by repeating. How exquisitely, +how charmingly she does dance! I have seen some of +the best <i>danseuses</i> in Europe and India—on and off the +stage—and not one worthy to be named with her. She is +a dream of grace—the very poetry of motion. I said so +before to-night, and now every one agrees with me. It is +rather a disappointment in some quarters that she declines +to dance except with you. It would seem odd for some +people, but being the woman she is I understand it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> +"She is free to follow her own course socially," I said. +"She will soon decide upon her line of action, and will not +be turned from it by outside influence. Fortunately she +and my mother are much in harmony as to leading principles, +which relieves my mind considerably."</p> + +<p>"You are fortunate in that, then, as in several other +respects; may I add that I think you worthy of your good +fortune. I trust that my boy's simple prayers for your +welfare—and he prays for you both every night—may be +answered."</p> + +<p>Just before the conclusion of the supper I saw that +Miranda had been presented to his Excellency the Governor, +who was standing near the Prince. Both of these +personages were most complimentary and flattering in their +attention to her, and when we left, as we had arranged, +immediately after that most important function supper, +leaving the girls to go home with Mr. and Mrs. Neuchamp, +we were gratified to think that we could not have been +more graciously received—treated even with distinction—and +that nothing had occurred to detract in the slightest +degree from the unwonted pleasure and modest triumph +of the night.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>After this, our first experience of "society," in the higher +sense of the word, unexpectedly agreeable, as it had been, +Miranda's fixed resolve, in which I fully concurred, was to +detach ourselves from it and its code of obligations, except +at rare intervals—to live our own lives, and to trouble +ourselves as little as might be with the tastes and fancies +of others.</p> + +<p>I was likely to have my time fully occupied in the development +of my business. Miranda had, partly from observation, +partly from information supplied by my mother +and sisters, discovered that there was even in prosperous, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> +easy going, naturally favoured Sydney a section of ill-fed, +ill-clothed, ill-taught poor. "While I meet them daily, such +as I never saw on our island, I cannot occupy myself with +the vanities of life." My mother was delighted to find a +daughter willing to co-operate with her in the benevolent +plans of relief which she was always organising for the +poor and the afflicted. Between them a notable increase +of efficiency took place in the management of children's +hospitals, soup-kitchens, and other institutions, commonly +regarded with indifference, if not dislike, by the well-to-do +members of society. Outside of these duties, our chief +pleasure at the end of the week, when only we could afford +the time, was a cruise in our sailing boat the <i>Harpooner</i>, +which soon came to be known as one of the fastest in the +harbour, as well as one that was rarely absent from the +Saturday's regatta, when a stiff breeze was sending the spray +aloft.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Our life henceforth was that of the happy nations "that +have no history." My business prospered, and as it largely +increased and developed from its original proportions, +Captain Carryall began to tire of his voyages and settled +down on shore.</p> + +<p>Within a year of the founding of our commercial enterprise +one of the ideal houses we had so often pictured came +into our possession. In an afternoon stroll, Miranda and I +had ventured into a deserted garden, lured by the masses of +crimson blooms on a great double hibiscus. The heavy +entrance-gate was awry—the stone pillars decaying—the +avenue weed-grown and neglected—the shrubberies trodden +down and disfigured by browsing cattle. Exploring further +behind a screen of thick-growing pines, we found the house,—a +noble, wide-balconied freestone building, which I well +remembered in my boyhood. Then it was inhabited, carefully +tended, and ringing with the voices of happy boys +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> +and girls in holiday-time. What blight had fallen on the +place, or on the pleasant family that once dwelt there? +On the north-eastern side the land sloped down to a little +bay, sheltered from the prevailing wind, and provided with +pier and boat-house—all marine conveniences, in short. +"Oh! if we had a house like this," said Miranda, clapping +her hands, "how happy we should be! Not that I am +otherwise now; but I should enjoy having this for our own. +We could soon renovate the poor garden." I assented, but +said nothing at the time—resolved to take counsel of our +good friend and trusted adviser then and now—who else +but Paul Frankston?</p> + +<p>From him I learned the history of the house and its old-time +inmates. Some were dead and some were gone. The +story was long. The gist of it was, however, that it was +now in the hands of certain trustees for the benefit of the +heirs-at-law. "I think I can find out about it," he concluded. +"And now come down and look at my little boat. +I've had some painting and gilding done lately; I want +you all—father, mother, sisters, wife, and everybody—to +come for a sail next Saturday. I'm going to have a race +with Richard Jones to the Heads and back, and I want +your wife to steer. Then we'll win, I'm sure, and we'll call +in at Edenhall—that's the name of the old place you saw—been +its name for fifty years or more—and we'll have +another look at it."</p> + +<p>I said "Yes, by all means."</p> + +<p>The next Saturday proved to be a day specially provided +by the gods for boat-sailing. The wind was in the right +quarter, the weather fine. The <i>Sea-gull</i> swept across the +harbour like a veritable sea-bird, spreading her broad wings. +The whole party had punctually assembled at our jetty +after an early lunch. The breeze freshened as the day +wore on; we had our friendly race against an old comrade +of Mr. Frankston's—like him, not all ignorant of the ways +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> +of those who go down to the deep in ships—which we won +handsomely, thanks to Miranda's steering, as Paul loudly +averred. And that young woman herself, as the <i>Sea-gull</i> +went flying past her sister yacht in the concluding tack, +lying down "gunnel under," with every inch of canvas on +that she dared carry, was as eager and excited as if she had +been paddling for her life in one of the canoe races of her +childhood.</p> + +<p>We got back to Neutral Bay in time for afternoon tea, a +little later than the established hour. But instead of having +it on board, Paul proposed to have it at Edenhall, where he +said he had permission to go whenever he pleased. He had +arranged with the caretaker too.</p> + +<p>We landed at the long unused pier. "How many times +have I been here before, in poor old Dartmoor's time," said +Mr. Frankston, "and how many a jolly night have I spent +within those old walls! Well, well! time goes on, and our +friends, where are they? Life's a sad business at best. +However, we can't make it better by crying over our losses. +Ladies and gentlemen, follow me!"</p> + +<p>With a sudden change of tone and manner, Paul stepped +briskly along the upward winding path, long unused, which +led to the house. The hall door stood open, and passing +along a noble hall and turning to the right, we entered a +dining-room of fine proportions. In this was an improvised +table on trestles whereon was spread a tempting collation. +Two men servants, whom I recognised as the Marahmee +butler and footman, stood ready to serve the company. A +needful amount of sweeping and repair had been effected. +The windows had been cleaned, and a fine view of the bay +thereby afforded. Altogether the effect was as striking as +it was unexpected; a general exclamation broke from the +company.</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen," said Paul, "I have prepared a +surprise for you, I know; but oblige me by making your +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>selves +at home for the present, and dining with me in this +informal fashion—I will explain by and by."</p> + +<p>The day was nearly spent. It would probably be near +the time of twilight, which in summer in Australia is nearer +nine o'clock than eight, before we reached our homes. So +the majority of the guests hailed the idea as one of Paul's +eccentric notions with which he was wont to amuse his +intimates. The Marahmee champagne was proverbial, and +after a reasonable number of corks had been drawn a progressive +degree of cheerfulness was reached. Paul rose to +his feet, and requested the usual solemnities to be observed, +as he was about to propose a toast. "Those of my friends +who have been here before, in its happier times, will +remember the former owner of this once pleasant home. +Little is left now save the evidences of decay and desertion—the +memories of a long past happy day. But there is no +reason why it should not be again inhabited, again be filled +with pleasant and pleasure-giving inhabitants. It is solid +and substantial; if somewhat old-fashioned, all the better +I say. There was no jerry building in the old days. The +garden is here—to be easily renewed in beauty—the jetty, +and the boat-house. The sea is here, much as I remember +when as a boy I used to get 'congewoi' for bait off those +very rocks."</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear!" from the guests, and Mr. Richard Jones.</p> + +<p>"And now I come to a piece of news which I am sure +you will hear with pleasure. The house and grounds have +been purchased by a young friend of mine, whose health, +with that of his charming wife, I now ask you to drink with +all the honours. The health of Mr. and Mrs. Telfer, their +long life and prosperity! and may we all have many as +pleasant a sail round the harbour as we have had to-day, +and come here to enjoy ourselves at the end of it."</p> + +<p>The applause which followed was tumultuous. Paul has +sprung a surprise upon his guests with a vengeance. I was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> +as much astonished as anybody; for though I knew that he +had promised to make inquiries about the price put upon +the property, I had no idea that he would go further in the +matter, still less that he would purchase it on my account, +as it was evident that he had done.</p> + +<p>I said a few words, chiefly to the effect that it seemed to +me quite unnecessary to go through the form of exerting +myself for my advancement in life, as my friends, Mr. +Frankston and Captain Carryall, were bent on making my +fortune for me. I trusted to prove not wholly unworthy +of such unselfish friendship, and thanking them all in the +name of my wife and myself, trusted that a meeting like +this would often conclude a happy day such as we had just +completed. As for Miranda, she went up to the old man, +and placing her hand in his, looked up into his face with an +expression of heartfelt gratitude, which hardly needed the +addition of her words: "You have made us both perfectly +happy—what can I say? My heart will not let me speak. +We have nothing to wish for now in this world."</p> + +<p>The old man looked at her with an expression of mingled +admiration and paternal affection. "I have two daughters +now," he said, "and two sons; I was always wishing to +have another pair, to gossip with when Antonia and Ernest +were away. Now I have found them I am sure. The only +thing we want now is another boat."</p> + +<p>Miranda's eyes glistened at the allusion, and she looked +as if she was only prevented, by a half-instinctive doubt as +to the fitness of the occasion, from embracing Paul before +the assembled company.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Years have passed since that day. Children's voices +have long since echoed in the wide verandahs and amid the +shrubberies of Edenhall. The house, thoroughly renovated, +is one of the most comfortable, if not the most aristocratic, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> +of the many embowered mansions which look over the Haven +Beauteous.</p> + +<p>My boys have been "water babies" from earliest childhood, +and we can turn out a crew not easy to beat, particularly +when their mother can be persuaded to steer. My +girls have inherited a large proportion of their mother's +fearless spirit, though people say not one has equalled her +in beauty. Their partners in the dance, however, appear to +consider them sufficiently good-looking, if one may judge +by the competition which their appearance at balls usually +produces.</p> + +<p>Our business, always aided by the cool heads and steady +courage of the senior partners, has increased, with the +growth of the city of Sydney and the development of the +island trade, beyond all hope and expectation. I am a rich +man now, and, indeed, somewhat in danger of the occasional +mood of discontent with the uneventful, unvarying tide of +success upon which life's barque appears ever to float. But +one look at Miranda's face, serenely happy in her children, +in her daily life of charity and almsgiving, in the devoted +love and trust of my parents, is all-sufficient to banish all +vagrant ideas.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, in the train of unbidden fancies which throng +the portals of the mind, the scenes and sounds of a far +clime claim right of audience. Again I see the paradisal +woodland, the mysterious mountain forest, the ceaseless +moan of the billow upon the reef sounds in my ear; while +forms, now fair, now fierce, flit, shadow-like, across the scene. +I hear again the soft voices of the island girls as in frolic +race they troop to beach or stream. I see the sad, bright +eyes of Lālia, or mark the fierce regard of Hope Island +Nellie as she stands with bared bosom full in the track of +the deadly arrow flight. I hear the lion roar of Hayston +as he quells a mutiny, or towers, alone and unarmed, above +a crowd of hostile islanders. I shudder in thought at the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> +dangers which I have escaped. Once more sounds from +afar the weird voice of the tempest in the midnight wreck +of the <i>Leonora</i>. Lastly, the harbour lights disappear as I +sit in my cane lounge in the verandah of Edenhall, and in +place of the wooded heights and distant city I see the +breakers upon the reef of Ocean Island, and discern a solitary +figure in the stern of a small boat sailing out into the +illimitable gloom; I fall a musing upon the mysterious +problems of Fate—of man's life and the strange procession +of circumstance—until the hour strikes and I retire. +Yet my thoughts are still dominated by the majestic +figure of the Captain, grand in his natural good qualities, +grand in his fearless courage, his generosity, his friendship—grand +even in his vices. He was not without resemblance +to a yet more famous corsair, immortalised by the +poet—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who died and left a name to other times,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes.</span> +</div></div> + + +<h2>THE END</h2> + + +<div class="tnote"><h3>Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>Any changes made to spelling or punctuation are indicated by dotted +lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the +original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p> + +<p>Instances of inconsistent hyphenation have been left intact.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Modern Buccaneer, by Rolf Boldrewood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MODERN BUCCANEER *** + +***** This file should be named 35431-h.htm or 35431-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/4/3/35431/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Erica Pfister-Altschul and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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