/cT' 
 

 / >••*' 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 AND OTHER STORIES 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 BnD ®tber Stories 
 
 LOUIS BECKE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'by REEF AND PALM,' ETC. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 T FISHER UNWIN 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 
 1899 
 
2)eDtcatton 
 
 ' TO 
 
 'N I YA' 
 
 THE SHEET-ANCHOR 
 
 OF ' TOM DENISON's ' LIFE 
 
 AND HAPPINESS 
 
 London, Afay 1899, 
 
 340116 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 RfpAN THE DEVIL .... 
 
 '■'a memory of ' THE SYSTEM ' 
 
 A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 BILGER, OF SYDNEY .... 
 
 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE . 
 
 DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE . 
 
 ADDIE RANSOM : A MEMORY OF THE TOKELAUS 
 
 IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 
 
 MAURICE KINANE .... 
 
 THE ' KILLERS ' OF TWOFOLD BAY . 
 
 DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 A FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL . 
 
 BOBARAN ..... 
 
 SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES . 
 
 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE OF CHARLES DU BREIL 
 
 THE WHITE WIFE AND THE BROWN ' WOMAN ' 
 
 WITH HOOK AND LINE ON AN AUSTRAL RIVER 
 
 THE WRECK OF THE ' LEONORA' : A MEMORY OF 
 HAYES ..... 
 
 AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY . 
 
 A BOATING ADVEN'IURE IN THE CAROLINES 
 
 A CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE FAR SOUTH SEAS 
 
 vii 
 
 19 
 61 
 
 73 
 87 
 105 
 115 
 125 
 135 
 155 
 165 
 177 
 191 
 203 
 215 
 233 
 247 
 265 
 
 281 
 299 
 311 
 
 323 
 
Ridan the Devil 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 RiDAN lived alone in a little hut on the borders of the 
 big German plantation at Mulifanua, away down at 
 the lee end of Upolu Island, and every one of his 
 brown-skinned fellow-workers either hated or feared 
 him, and smiled v/hen Burton, the American overseer, 
 would knock him down for being a 'sulky brute.' 
 But no one of them cared to let Ridan see him 
 smile. P'or to them he was a wizard, a devil, who 
 could send death in the night to those he hated. 
 And so when anyone died on the plantation he was 
 blamed, and seemed to like it. Once, when he lay 
 ironed hand and foot in the stifling corrugated iron 
 ' calaboose,' with his blood-shot eyes fixed in sullen 
 rage on Burton's angered face, Tirauro, a Gilbert 
 Island native assistant overseer, struck him on the 
 mouth and called him ' a pig cast up by the ocean.' 
 This was to please the white man. But it did not, 
 for Burton, cruel as he was, called Tirauro a coward 
 and felled him at once. By ill-luck he fell within 
 reach of Ridan, and in another moment the manacled 
 hands had seized his enemy's throat. For five 
 minutes the three men struggled together, the white 
 overseer beating Ridan over the head with the butt of 
 
 3 
 
4 RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 his heavy Colt's pistol, and then when Burton rose to 
 his feet the two brown men were lying motionless 
 together ; but Tirauro was dead. 
 
 Ridan was sick for a long time after this. A heavy 
 flogging always did make him sick, although he was so 
 bia; and strong. And so, as he could not work in the 
 fields, he was sent to Apia to do light labour in the 
 cotton-mill there. The next morning he was miss- 
 ing. He had swum to a brig lying at anchor in the 
 harbour and hidden away in the empty forehold. 
 Then he was discovered and taken ashore to the mill 
 again, where the foreman gave him * a dose of 
 Cameroons medicine ' — that is, twenty- five lashes. 
 
 ' Send him back to the plantation,' said the 
 manager, who was a mere German civilian, and 
 consequently much despised by his foreman, who had 
 served in Africa. ' I'm afraid to keep him here, and 
 I'm not going to punish him if he tries to get away 
 again, poor devil.' 
 
 So back he went to Mulifanua. The boat vovage 
 from Apia down the coast inside the reef is not a long 
 one, but the Samoan crew were frightened to have 
 such a man free ; so they tied him hand and foot and 
 then lashed liim down tightly under the midship 
 thwart with strips of green jan bark. Not that thev 
 did so with unnecessary cruelty, but ex-Lieutenant 
 Schwartzkoff, the foreman, was looking on, and then, 
 besides that, this big-boned, light-skinned man was a 
 foreigner, and a Samoan hates a foreigner of his own 
 colour if lie is poor and friendless. And then he was 
 an (I'ltu^ a devil, and could speak neither Samoan, nor 
 Fijian, nor 'i'okelau, nor yet any English or German. 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 5 
 
 Clearly, therefore, he was not a man at all, but a rnanu 
 — a beast, and not to be trusted with free limbs. Did 
 not the foreman say that he was possessed of many 
 devils, and for two years had lived alone on the plan- 
 tation, working in the field with the gangs of Tokelau 
 and Solomon Island men, but speaking to no one, only 
 muttering in a strange tongue to himself and giving 
 sullen obedience to his taskmasters ? 
 
 But as they talked and sang, and as the boat sailed 
 along the white line of beach fringed with the sway- 
 ing palms, Ridan groaned in his agony, and Pulu, the 
 steersman, who was a big strong man and not a 
 coward Hke his fellows, took pity on the captive. 
 
 ^ Let us give him a drink,' he said ; ' he cannot 
 hurt us as he is. Else he may die in the boat and we 
 lose the price of his passage ; for the white men at 
 Mulifanua will not pay us for bringing to them a dead 
 man.' 
 
 So they cast off the lashings oi fau bark that bound 
 Ridan to the thwart, and Pulu, lifting him up, gave 
 him a long drink, holding the gourd to his quivering 
 mouth — for his hands were tied behind him. 
 
 ' Let him rest with his back against the side of the 
 boat,' said Pulu presently ; ' and, see, surely we may 
 loosen the thongs around his wrists a little, for they 
 are cutting into the flesh.' 
 
 But the others were afraid, and begged him to let 
 well alone. Then Pulu grew angry and called them 
 cowards, for, as they argued, Ridan fell forward on his 
 face in a swoon. 
 
 When ' the devil ' came to and opened his wearied, 
 blood-shot eyes, Pulu was bathing his forehead with 
 
6 RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 cold water, and liis bruised and swollen hands were 
 free. For a minute or so he gasped and stared at the big 
 Samoan, and a heavy sigh broke from his broad naked 
 chest. Then he put his hands to his face — and sobbed. 
 
 Pulu drew back in wondering pity — surely no devil 
 could weep — ^and then, with a defiant glance at the 
 three other Samoans, he stooped down aud unbound 
 Ridan's feet. 
 
 ' Let him lie,' he said, going aft to the tiller. ' We 
 be four strong men — he is but as a child from weak- 
 ness. See, his bones are like to cut through his skin. 
 He hath been starved.' 
 
 At dusk they ran the boat along the plantation 
 jetty, and Pulu and another man led Ridan up the 
 path to the manager's house. His hands were free, 
 but a stout rope of cinnet was tied around his naked 
 waist and Pulu held the end. 
 
 ' Ah, you dumb, sulky devil ; you've come back to 
 us again, have you ? ' said Burton, eyeing him savagely. 
 'I wish Schwartzkoff had kept you up in Apia, you 
 murderous, yellow-hided scoundrel ! ' 
 
 ' What's the use of bully-ragging him ? ' remarked 
 the plantation engineer, with a sarcastic lauo;h ; 'he 
 doesn't understand a word you say. Club-law and the 
 sasa * are the only things that appeal to him — and he 
 gets plenty of both on Mulifanua. Hallo, look at 
 that ! Why, he's kissing Pulu's toe !' 
 
 Burton laughed. ' So he is. Look out, Pulu, 
 perhaps he's a kai tuguta'' (cannibal). 'Take care he 
 doesn't bite it off.' 
 
 " Wliip. 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 7 
 
 Pulu shook his mop of yellow hair gravely. A 
 great pity filled his big heart, for as he had turned 
 to go back to the boat Rfdan had fallen upon his 
 knees and pressed his lips to the feet of the man who 
 had given him a drink. 
 
 That night Burton and the Scotch engineer went 
 to Rfdan's hut, taking with them food and a new 
 sleeping-mat. He was sitting cross-legged before a 
 tiny fire of coco-nut shells, gazing at the blue, leaping 
 jets of flame, and as the two men entered, slowly 
 turned his face to them. 
 
 ' Here,' said Burton, less roughly than usual, ^ here's 
 some kai ka'i for you.' 
 
 He took the food from Burton's hand, set it beside 
 him on the ground, and then, supporting himself on 
 his gaunt right arm and hand, gave the overseer one 
 long look of bitter, undying hatred ; then his eyes 
 drooped to the fire again. 
 
 ^ And here, Ridan,' said Craik, the engineer, throw- 
 ing the sleeping-mat upon the ground, ' that'll keep 
 your auld bones frae cutting into the ground. And 
 here is what will do ye mair good still,' and he placed 
 a wooden pipe and a stick of tobacco in 'the devil's' 
 hand. In a moment Ridan was on his knees with 
 his forehead pressed to the ground in gratitude. 
 
 The men looked at him in silence for a few 
 moments as he crouched at Craik's feet, with the 
 light of the fire playing upon his tattooed yellow back 
 and masses of tangled black hair. 
 
 * Come awa'. Burton, leave the puir deevil to 
 himself. And I'm thinking ye might try him on 
 the other tack awhile. Ye have not broken the 
 
8 RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 creature's spirit vet, and I wouldna try to if I were 
 you — for my own safety. Sit up Ridan, mon, and 
 smoke your pipe.' 
 
 7Vo years before, Ridan had been brought to 
 Samoa hv a German labour-ship, which had picked 
 him up in a canoe at sea, somewhere off the coast of 
 Dutch New Guinea. He was the only survivor of 
 a party of seven, and when lifted on board was in the 
 last stage of exhaustion from thirst and hunger. 
 Where the canoe had sailed from., and whither bound, 
 no one on board the herhrook could learn, for the 
 stranger spoke a language utterly unknown to anyone 
 of even the herhrook'' s polyglot ship's companv — men 
 who came from all parts of Polynesia and Micronesia. 
 All that could be learned from him by signs and 
 gestures was that a great storm, had overtaken the 
 canoe, many days of hunger and thirst had followed, 
 and then death ended the agonies of all but himself. 
 
 In a few weeks, and while the brig was thrashing; 
 her wav back to Samoa against the south-east trades, 
 Ridan regained liis health and strength and became 
 a favourite with all on board, white and brown. He 
 was tjuite six feet in height, with a bright yellow 
 skin, bronzed bv the sun ; and his straight features 
 and long black hair were of tlie true Alalavo-Poly- 
 nesian tvpe. From the back of his neck two broad 
 stripes of bright blue tattooing ran down the whole 
 length of his muscular back, and thence curved out- 
 wards and downwards along the back of his thi<:;hs 
 and terminated at each heel. No one on the her- 
 hrook had ever seen similar tattooin^;, and many were 
 
RIDAN THE DEVJL 9 
 
 the conjectures as to Ridan's native place. One 
 word, however, he constantly repeated, * Oneata,' 
 and then would point to the north-west. But no 
 one knew of such a place, though many did of an 
 Oneaka, far to the south-east — an island of the Gilbert 
 Group near the Equator. 
 
 The weeks passed, and at last Ridan looked with 
 wondering eyes upon the strange houses of the white 
 men in Apia harbour. By-and-by boats came off to the 
 ship, and the three hundred and odd brown-skinned and 
 black-skinned people from the Solomons and the Ad- 
 miralties and the countless islands about New Britain 
 and New Ireland were taken ashore to work on the 
 plantations at Vailele and Mulifanua, and Ridan alone 
 was left. He was glad of this, for the white men on 
 board had been kind to him, and he began to hope that 
 he would be taken back to Oneata. But that night 
 he was brought ashore by the captain to a house 
 where many white men were sitting together, smoking 
 and drinking. They all looked curiously at him and 
 addressed him in many island tongues, and Ridan smiled 
 and shook his head and said, 'Me Ridan ; me Oneata.' 
 
 ' Leave him with me, Kiihne,' said Burton to the 
 captain of the brig. ' He's the best and biggest man 
 of the lot you've brought this trip. I'll marry him 
 to one of mv wife's servants, and he'll live in clover 
 down at Mulifanua.' 
 
 So early next morning Ridan was put in a boat 
 with many other new ' boys,' and he smiled with joy, 
 thinking he was going back to the ship — and Oneata. 
 But when the boat sailed round Mulinu'u Point, and 
 the spars of the Iserbrook were suddenly hidden by the 
 
lo RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 intervening line of palm trees, a cry of terror burst 
 from him, and he sprang overboard. He w^as soon 
 caught, though he dived and sv\^am like a fish. And 
 then two wild-eyed Gilbert Islanders held him by the 
 arms, and laughed as he wept and kept repeating, 
 * Oneata, Oneata.' 
 
 From that day began his martyrdom. He worked 
 hard under his overseer, but ran away again and again, 
 only to be brought back and tied up. Sometimes, as 
 he toiled, he would look longingly across the narrow 
 strait of sunlit water at the bright green little island of 
 Manono, six miles away ; and twice he stole down to 
 the shore at night, launched a canoe and paddled over 
 towards it. But each time the plantation guard-boat 
 brought him back ; and then Burton put him in 
 irons. Once he swam the whole distance, braving 
 the sharks, and, reaching the island, hid in a taro 
 swamp till the next night. He meant to steal food 
 and a canoe — and seek for Oneata. But the Manono 
 people found him, and, though he fought desperately, 
 they overcame and bound him, and the women cursed 
 him for a Tafito* devil, a thieving beast, and beat and 
 pelted him as the men carried him back to the planta- 
 tion, tied up like a wild boar, to get their ten dollars 
 reward for him from the manager. And Burton gave 
 him thirty lashes as a corrective. 
 
 Then came long, long months of unceasing toil, 
 broken only by attempts to escape, recapture, irons 
 
 * The Samoans apply the term 'Tafito' to all natives of the Gilbert 
 Group and other equatorial islands. The word is an abbreviation of 
 Taputeauea (Drunimond's Island), and ' Tafito ' is synonymous for 
 'savage' — in some senses. 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL ii 
 
 and more lashes. The rest of the native labourers so 
 hated and persecuted him that at last the man's nature 
 changed, and he became desperate and dangerous. 
 No one but Burton dared strike him now, for he 
 would spring at an enemy's throat like a madman, and 
 half strangle him ere he could be dragged away 
 stunned, bruised and bleeding. When his day's 
 slavery was over he would go to his hut, eat his scanty 
 meal of rice, biscuit and yam in sullen silence, and 
 brood and mutter to himself. But from the day of 
 his first flogging no word ever escaped his set lips. 
 All these things he told afterwards to Von Hammer, 
 the supercargo of the Mindora^ when she came to 
 Mulifanua with a cargo of new ' boys.' * 
 
 Von Hammer had been everywhere in the North 
 Pacific, so Burton took him to Ridan's hut, and called 
 to the 'sulky devil' to come out. He came, and 
 sullenly followed the two men into the manager's big 
 sitting-room, and sat down cross-legged on the floor. 
 The bright lamplight shone full on his nude figure 
 and the tangle of black hair that fell about his now 
 sun-darkened back and shoulders. And, as on that 
 other evening long before, when he sat crouching 
 over his fire, his eyes sought Burton's face with a look 
 of implacable hatred. 
 
 ^ See if you can find out where the d — d brute 
 comes from,' said Burton. 
 
 Von Hammer looked at Ridan intently for a minute, 
 and then said one or two words to him in a tongue 
 that the overseer had never before heard. 
 
 With trembling limbs and a joyful wonder shining 
 
 * Polynesian labourers are generally termed ' boys.' 
 
12 RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 in his dark eyes, Ridan crept up to the supercargo, and 
 then, in a voice of whispered sobs, he told his two years' 
 tale of bitter misery. 
 
 ^ Very well,' said Burton, an hour later, to Von 
 Hammer, ' you can take him. I don't want the brute 
 here. But he is a dangerous devil, mind. Where do 
 you say he comes from ? ' 
 
 ' Oneata — Saint David's Island — a little bit of a 
 sandy atoll, as big as Manono over there, and much 
 like it, too. I know the place well — lived there once 
 when I was pearling, ten years ago. I don't think 
 the natives there see a white man more than once in 
 five years. It's a very isolated spot, off the north-east 
 coast of New Guinea. " Bully " Hayes used to call 
 there once. However, let me have liim. The Mindora 
 may go to Manila next year ; if so, I'll land him at 
 Oneata on our way there. Anyway, he's no good 
 to you. And he told me just now that he has been 
 v/aiting his chance to murder you.' 
 
 The Mindora returned to Apia to take in stores, 
 and Von Ham.mer took Ridan witli him, clothed in a 
 suit of blue serge, and with silent happiness illumining 
 his face. For liis heart was leaping within him at the 
 thought of Oneata, and of those who numbered him 
 with the dead ; and when he clambered up the ship's 
 side and saw Pulu, the big Samoan, working on deck 
 with tiie other native sailors, he flung his arms around 
 him and gave him a mighty hug, and laughed like a 
 pleased child when Von Hammer told him that Pulu 
 would be his shipmate till he saw the <:reen land and 
 white beach of Oneata oFice more. 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 13 
 
 Six months out from Samoa the Mindora was hove- 
 to off Choiseul Island, in the Solomon Group, waiting 
 for her boat. Von Hammer and four hands had p-one 
 
 o 
 
 ashore to land supplies for a trader, and the brig was 
 awaiting his return. There was a heavy sea running 
 on the reef as the boat pushed off from the beach in the 
 fast-gathering darkness ; but who minds such things 
 with a native crew ? So thought Von Hammer as he 
 grasped the long, swaying steer oar, and swung the 
 whale-boat's head to the v/hite line of surf. * Give it 
 to her, boys ; now's our chance — there's a bit of a lull 
 now, eh, Pulu ? Bend to it, Ridan, my lad.' 
 
 Out shot the boat, Pulu pulling stroke, Ridan bow- 
 oar, and two sturdy, square-built Savage Islanders 
 amidships. Surge after surge roared and hissed past 
 in the darkness, and never a drop of water wetted 
 their naked backs ; and then, with a wild cry from the 
 crew and a shouting laugh from the steersman, she 
 swept over and down the edge of the reef and gained 
 the deep water — a second too late ! Ere she could 
 rise from the blackened trough a great curling roller 
 towered high over, and then with a bursting roar fell 
 upon and smothered her. When she rose to the sur- 
 face Von Hammer was fifty feet away, clinging to 
 the steer-oar. A quick glance showed him that none 
 of the crew were missing — they were all holding on 
 to the swamped boat and 'swimming' her out away 
 from the reef, and shouting loudly for him to come 
 alongside. Pushing the steer-oar before him, he soon 
 reached the boat, and, despite his own unwillingness, 
 his crew insisted on his getting in. Then, each still 
 
14 RIDAN THE DEVIL 
 
 grasping the gunwale with one hand, they worked 
 the boat out yard by yard, swaying her fore and aft 
 whenever a lull in the seas came, and jerking the 
 water out of her by degrees till the two Savage 
 Islanders were able to clamber in and bale out with 
 the wooden bucket slung under the after -thwart, 
 while the white man kept her head to the sea. But 
 the current was setting them steadily along, parallel 
 with the reef, and every now and then a sea would 
 tumble aboard and nearly fill her again. At last, 
 however, the Savage Islanders got her somewhat free 
 of water, and called to Pulu and Ridan to get in — 
 there were plenty of spare canoe-paddles secured along 
 the sides in case of an emergency such as this. 
 
 'Get in, Pulu, get in,' said Ridan to the Samoan, in 
 English ; ' get in quickly.' 
 
 But Pulu refused. He was a bigger and a heavier 
 man than Ridan, he said, and the boat was not yet 
 able to bear the weight of a fourth man. This was 
 true, and the supercargo, though he knew the awful 
 risk the men ran, and urged them to jump in and 
 paddle, yet knew that the additional weight of two 
 such heavy men as Ridan and Pulu meant death to 
 all, for every now and then a leaping sea would again 
 fill the boat to the thwarts. 
 
 And then suddenh', amid the crashing sound of the 
 thundering rollers on the reef, Ridan raised his voice 
 in an awful shriek. 
 
 * J^iicl- ! Pulu^ quick ! Some shark hav' come. 
 Get in, get in first,' he said in his broken English. 
 And as he spoke he grasped the gunwale with both 
 hands and raised his head and broad shoulders hieh out 
 
RIDAN THE DEVIL 15 
 
 of the water, and a bubbling, groan-like sound issued 
 from his lips. 
 
 In an instant the big Samoan swung himself into the 
 boat, and Von Hammer called to Ridan to get in also. 
 
 * Nay, oh, white man ! ' he answered, in a strange 
 choking voice, Met me stay here and hold to the boat. 
 We are not yet safe from the reef. But paddle, paddle 
 . . . quickly ! ' 
 
 In another minute or two the boat was out of 
 danger, and then Ridan's voice was heard. 
 
 ' Lift me in,' he said quietly, ' my strength is spent.' 
 
 The two Savage Islanders sprang to his aid, drew 
 him up over the side, and tumbled him into the boat. 
 Then, without a further look, they seized their paddles 
 and plunged them into the water. Ridan lay in a 
 huddled-up heap on the bottom boards. 
 
 ' Exhausted, poor devil ! ' said Von Hammer to 
 himself, bending down and peering at the motionless 
 figure through the darkness. Then something warm 
 flowed over his naked foot as the boat rolled, and he 
 looked closer at Ridan, and — 
 
 ' Oh, my God 1 ' burst from him — both of Ridan's 
 legs were gone — bitten ofFjust above the knees. 
 
 Twentv minutes later, as the boat came alongside 
 the M'lndora^ Ridan ' the devil ' died in the arms of 
 the man who had once given him a drink. 
 
A Memory of ' the System ' 
 
A MEMORY OF ' THE SYSTEM ' 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The house in which I lived from my birth till I was 
 twelve years of age stood on the green-grassed slopes 
 of a treeless bluff which overlooked the blue waters 
 of the sunlit Pacific. Except for a cluster of five or 
 six little weatherboard cottages perched on the verge 
 of the headland, half a mile away, and occupied by 
 the crew of the Government pilot boat, there were 
 no other dwellings near, for the 'town,' as it was 
 called, lay out of sight, on the low, flat banks of a 
 tidal river, whose upper waters were the haunt and 
 breeding places of the black swan, the wild duck and 
 the pelican. 
 
 My father was the principal civil official in the 
 place, which was called Bar Harbour, one of the 
 smaller penal settlements in Australia, founded for 
 what were called 'the better class' of convicts, many 
 of whom, having received their emancipation papers, 
 had settled in the vicinity, and had become prosperous 
 and, in a measure, respected settlers, though my father, 
 who had a somewhat bitter tongue, said that no ex- 
 convict could ever be respected in the colony until 
 he had lent money to one or other of the many retired 
 military or civil officers who held large Crown grants 
 
 19 
 
20 'A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 of land in the district and worked them with convict 
 labour; for, while numbers of the emancipists throve 
 and became almost wealthy, despite the many cruel and 
 harassing restrictions imposed upon them by the un- 
 written laws of society (which yet academically held 
 them to be purged of their offences), the grand mili- 
 tary gentlemen and their huge estates generally went 
 to ruin — mostly through their own improvidence, 
 though such misfortunes, our minister, the Reverend 
 Mr Sampson, said, in the sermons he preached in our 
 hideous, red-brick church, were caused by an * inscrut- 
 able Providence '—their dwellings and store houses 
 were burnt, their cattle and sheep disappeared, and 
 their 'assigned' labourers took to the bush, and either 
 perished of starvation or became bushrangers and 
 went to the gallows in due course. 
 
 My mother, who was a gentle, tender - hearted 
 woman, and seemed to live and move and have her 
 being only for the purpose of making happy those 
 around her, was, being English-born (she was of a 
 Devonshire family), a constant church-goer, not for 
 the sake of appearances, for her intelligence was too 
 great for her to be bound by such a shallow reason, but 
 because she was a simple, good and pure - minded 
 woman, and sought by her example to make a pro- 
 test against the scandalous and deo;raded lives led by 
 many of the soldier officers and officials with whom 
 she and her children were brought in almost daily 
 contact, for my father, being an all too generous 
 man, kept open house. But although she was always 
 sweet-tempered and sometimes mcrrv with the hard- 
 drinking old Peninsular veterans, cind the noisy and 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 21 
 
 swaggering subalterns of the ill-famed 102nd Regiment 
 (or New South Wales Corps), she always shuddered 
 and looked pale and ill at ease when she saw among 
 my father's guests the coarse, stern face of the 
 minister, and her dislike of the clergyman was shared 
 by all we children, especially by my elder brother 
 Harry (then sixteen years of age), who called him 
 ' the flogging parson ' and the ' Reverend Diabolical 
 Howl.' This latter nickname stuck, and greatly 
 tickled Major Trenton, who repeated it to the other 
 oificers, and one day young Mr Moore of the 102nd, 
 who was clever at such things, made a sketch of the 
 cleric as he appeared when preaching, which set them 
 all a-laughing immoderately. 
 
 ' God alive ! ' cried old Major Trenton, holding the 
 picture in his left hand, and bringing down his right 
 upon the table with a thump that set all the glasses 
 jingling, * 'tis a perfect likeness of him, and yet, 
 Moore, if ye had but given him a judge's wig and 
 robes instead of a cassock, he would be the double of 
 damned old hanging Norbury up there,' pointing to 
 the picture of an Irish judge which hung on the 
 wall. ' Come,' he added, ^ Mrs Egerton must see 
 this. I know our hostess loves the gentle parson.' 
 
 So three or four of them, still laughing boisterously, 
 left the table to look for my mother, whom they 
 found sitting on the latticed-in verandah, which on 
 hot summer days was used as a drawing-room. She, 
 too, laughed heartily at the sketch, and said 'twas 
 wonderfully drawn, and then my brother Harry 
 asked Mr Moore to give it to him. This the young 
 lieutenant did, though my mother begged him to 
 
22 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 destroy it, lest Mr Sampson should hear of the matter 
 and take offence. But my brother promised her not 
 to let it go out of his keeping, and there the thing 
 ended — so we thought. 
 
 Yet, in some way, my mother's convict and free 
 servants came to hear of the picture^ — they had already 
 bandied about the parson's nickname — and every one 
 of them, on some cunning excise, had come to my 
 brother's room and laughed at the drawing ; and 
 very often when they saw the clergyman riding past 
 the house, attended by his convict orderly, they would 
 say, with an added curse, ^ There goes " Diabolical 
 Howl," ' for they all hated the man, because, being 
 a magistrate as well as a minister, he had sentenced 
 many a prisoner to a dreadful flogging and had watched 
 it being administered. 
 
 But perhaps it was not altogether on account of 
 the floggings in which he so believed for which he 
 was so detested — for floggings were common enough 
 for even small breaches of the regulations of the 
 System — but for the spiritual admonition with which 
 he dosed them afterwards, while their backs were still 
 black and bloody from the cat. Once, when an old 
 convict named Callaghan was detected stealing some 
 sugar belonging to one of the pilot boat's crew, my 
 mother went to Dr Parsons, who, with the Reverend 
 Mr Sampson, was to hear the charge against Callaghan 
 on the following morning, and begged him not to 
 have the man flogged ; and Tom King, the man from 
 whom the sugar was stolen, went with her and joined 
 his pleadings to hers. 
 
 ' Now, come, doctor,' said my mother, placing her 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 23 
 
 hand on the old officer's arm and smiling into his 
 face, ' you ?nust grant me this favour. The man is 
 far too old to be flogged. And then he was a soldier 
 himself once — he was a drummer boy, so he once 
 told me, in the 4th BufFs.' 
 
 'The most rascally regiment in the service, madam. 
 Every one of them deserved hanging. But,' and here 
 his tone changed from good-humoured banter into 
 sincerity, * I honour you, Mrs Egerton, for your 
 humanity. The man is over sixty, and I promise 
 you that he shall not be flogged. Why, he is scarce 
 recovered yet from the punishment inflicted on him 
 for stealing Major Innes's goose. But yet he is a 
 terrible old rascal.' 
 
 ' Never mind that,' said my mother, laughing. 
 * Major Innes should keep his geese from straying 
 about at night-time. And then, doctor, you must re- 
 member that poor Callaghan said that he mistook the 
 bird for a pelican — it being dark when he killed it.' 
 
 * Ha, ha,' laughed the doctor, ' and no doubt Mr 
 Patrick Callaghan only discovered his mistake when 
 he was cooking his pelican, and noticed its remark- 
 ably short bill.' 
 
 My mother left, well pleased, but on the following 
 morning, while we were at our mid-day meal, she was 
 much distressed to hear that old Callaghan had 
 received flifty lashes after all — the good doctor had 
 been thrown from his horse and so much hurt that 
 he was unable to attend the court, and another 
 magistrate — a creature of Mr Sampson's — had taken 
 his place. The news was brought to us by Thomas 
 King, and my mother's pale face flushed with anger 
 
24 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 as, bidding King to go into the kitchen and get some 
 dinner, she turned to my father (who took but little 
 heed of such a simple thing as the flogging of a con- 
 vict), and said hotly, — 
 
 ''Tis shameful that such cruelty can be perpetrated ! 
 I shall write to the Governor himself — he is a just and 
 humane man — oh, it is wicked, wicked,' and then she 
 covered her face with her hands and sobbed aloud. 
 
 My father was silent. He detested the parson 
 most heartily, but was too cautious a man, in regard 
 to his own interest, to give open expression to his 
 opinions, so beyond muttering something to my 
 brother Harry about Thomas King having no 
 business to distress her, he was about to rise from the 
 table, when a servant announced that the Reverend 
 Mr Sampson wished to see him. 
 
 The mention of the clergyman's name seemed to 
 transform my mother into another woman. Quickly, 
 but gently, putting aside my sister Frances, whose 
 loving arms were clasped around her waist, she rose, 
 and fire flashed in her eyes as she said to the servant, — 
 
 ' Denham, tell Mr Sampson that I desire to speak 
 with him as soon as he has finished his business with 
 Mr Egerton.' 
 
 My father went out to the drawing-room, where 
 the clergyman awaited him, and for the next ten 
 minutes or so my mother walked quickly to and fro 
 in the dining-room, bidding us remain seated, and in a 
 harsh, unnatural tone to one so sweet and gentle, she 
 told the servants who waited to withdraw. 
 
 * Mr Sampson is at your service, madam,' said Den- 
 ham, opening the door. 
 
A MEMORY OF *THE SYSTEM' 25 
 
 ' Show him in here,' said my mother, sharply, and 
 her always pale face grew paler still. 
 
 The clergyman entered, and extended his fat, white 
 hand to her ; she drew back and bowed coldly. 
 
 ' I do not desire to shake hands with you, sir.' 
 
 Mr Sampson's red face flushed purple. 
 
 'I do not understand you, madam. Is this a jest — 
 or do you forget who I am r ' 
 
 ' I shall try to make you understand me, Mr Sampson, 
 in as few words as possible. I do not jest, and I do 
 not forget who you are. I have a request to make.' 
 
 ' Indeed ! I feel honoured, madam,' and the corners 
 of the clergyman's thick lips turned contemptuously 
 down — ' and that is — ? ' 
 
 ' That you will cease your visits to this house. It 
 would be painful indeed to me to receive you as a 
 guest from this time forth, for this very day it is my 
 intention to write to the Governor and acquaint 
 him with the shocking act of cruelty committed 
 this morning — 'twas a shameful, cruel deed to flog 
 an old man so cruelly.' 
 
 Mr Sampson's face was now livid with the rage he 
 could not suppress. 
 
 ' Beware, madam, of what you say or do. 'Tis a 
 pretty example you set your children to thus insult 
 a clergyman.' 
 
 My mother's answer cut like a whip-lash. ' A 
 clergyman such as you, Mr Sampson, can inspire 
 naught in their childish minds but fear and abhor- 
 rence,' and then she pulled the bell cord so violently 
 that not only Denham but my father entered as well. 
 
 * Show Mr Sampson out,' she said in accents of 
 
26 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 mingled anger and scorn, and then turning to the 
 window nearest, she seemed to be gazing uncon- 
 cernedly upon the blue expanse of ocean before her ; 
 but her little hands were clasped tightly together, 
 and her whole frame trembled with excitement. 
 
 As soon as the clergyman had mounted his horse 
 and ridden ofF, my father returned to the dining-room. 
 
 ' You have made a bitter enemy of a man who can 
 do me much harm,' he began ; but something in my 
 mother's face made him cease from further reproaches, 
 and he added lightly, that he hoped 'twould soon blow 
 over. 
 
 ' Charles,' said my mother, who was now herself 
 again, ' it must not blow over. The Governor shall 
 know of this man's doings. And never again shall 
 I or my children enter the church when he preaches. 
 To-night, I suppose, he will visit that wretched old man 
 — the victim of his brutality — and administer "spirit- 
 ual admonition." Come, children, let us go to the 
 beach and forget that that dreadful man has been here.' 
 
 It was, I think, this practice of ' administering 
 admonition ' to convicts after he had had them 
 sentenced to a severe flogging that first gave my 
 mother such an utter abhorrence of the man, together 
 with his habit of confining his sermons to the prisoners 
 to the one subject —their own criminal natures and 
 the terrors of hell-fire everlasting. Then, too, his 
 voice was appalling to hear, for he had a way of 
 suddenly dropping his harsh, metallic tones, and raising 
 his voice to a howl, like to that of a hungry dingo.* 
 
 * The native <log of Australia, wliose long, accentuated howl is most 
 distressing to hear. 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 27 
 
 Often did I, when sitting in our great square pew 
 in that dreadful, horrible church, press close to my 
 mother's side and bury my face in her dress, as he lashed 
 himself into a fury and called down the vengeance of 
 a wrathful God upon the rows of silent, wretched 
 beings clad in yellow, who were seated on long stools 
 in the back of the church, guarded by soldiers, who, 
 with loaded muskets, were stationed in the gallery 
 above. Some of the convicts, it was said, had sworn 
 to murder him if an opportunity served, and this no 
 doubt made him the m^ore merciless and vindictive to 
 any one of them who was so unfortunate as to be 
 charged before him in his capacity of magistrate. By 
 the Regulations he could not sit alone to deal out 
 punishment, and sometimes had difficulty in finding 
 a colleague, especially among the military men, who 
 nearly always protested against his fondness for the 
 cat ; but there were always to be found, in the end, 
 magistrates who would do anything to please him, 
 for it was known that he had great influence with the 
 Home Government, and was not chary of using it 
 on behalf of those who truckled to him, if he so 
 inclined ; and, indeed, both Major Trenton and Dr 
 Parsons said that he was a man with many good 
 points, and could be, to those who pleased him, a 
 good friend, as well as a bitter enemy to those who 
 in any way crossed him. But they asserted that he 
 should never have been appointed a magistrate in a 
 colony where the penal laws gave such latitude to his 
 violent temper and arbitrary disposition. 
 
 Early one morning in December, and three months 
 after the drawing of the picture by Lieutenant Moore, 
 
28 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 my two brothers and myself set ofF on a fishing 
 excursion to a tidal lagoon whose waters debouched 
 into the Pacific, about fifteen miles southward from 
 the little township. Behind us followed a young man 
 named Walter Trenfield, who was one of my father's 
 assigned servants, and an aboriginal named ' King 
 Billy ' ; these two carried our provisions, cooking 
 utensils and blankets, for we intended to camp out 
 for two or three days. 
 
 A half-an-hour's walk over the slopes of the bluff 
 brought us to the fringe of the dense coastal forest, 
 through which our track lay for another two or three 
 miles before we again came to open country. There 
 was, however, a very good road, made by convict 
 labour, through the scrub as far as it went ; it ran 
 almost along the very verge of the steep-to coast, and 
 as we tramped over the rich red soil we had the 
 bright blue sea beneath us on our left, and the dark 
 and almost silent bush on our right. I say 'almost,' 
 for althou2:h in these moist and sunless seaboard tracts 
 of what we Australian-born people call bush, and 
 English people would call wood or forest, there was 
 no sound of human life, there was yet always to be 
 heard the thu?np^ thu??ip of the frightened scrub 
 wallaby, and now and again the harsh, shrieking note 
 of the great white cockatoo, or the quick rush of a 
 long-tailed iguana over the thick bed of leaves, as the 
 timid reptile fled to the nearest tree, up whose rugi2;ed 
 bole it crawled for security. 
 
 We had come some three or four miles upon our 
 way, when we suddenly emerged from the darkness 
 and stillness of the scrub out into the light of day 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 29 
 
 and the bright sunshine, and heard the low murmur 
 of the surf beating upon the rocks below. Here we 
 sat down to rest awhile and feast our boyish eyes 
 on the beauties of sea and shore and sky around us. 
 A few hundred yards away from where we sat was 
 a round, verdured cone called * Little Nobby ' ; it 
 rose steep-to from the sea to a height of about three 
 hundred feet, and formed a very striking and distinct 
 landmark upon that part of the coast — bold and 
 rugged as it was — for a stretch of three score miles. 
 Presently, as we lay upon the grass, looking out upon 
 the sea, Walter Trenfield and the aboriginal joined 
 us, and whilst they made a fire to boil a billy of 
 tea, my brother Harry, hearing the call of a wonga 
 pigeon, picked up his gun and went into the scrub 
 to shoot it. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 I MUST now relate something of the previous history 
 of this young man Trenfield. He was a native of 
 Bideford, in Devon — my mother's county — and had 
 been a sailor. Some years before, he, with another 
 young man named Thomas May, had been con- 
 cerned in a mutiny on board a London whale-ship, 
 the Jason^ and both men were sentenced to fourteen 
 years' penal servitude, it being believed, though not 
 proven, that either Trenfield or May had killed one 
 of the officers with a blow of the fist. They were, 
 
30 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 with six of their shipmates, tried at the Old Bailey, 
 and although a Quaker gentleman, a Mr Robert Bent, 
 who had visited them in prison, gave a lawyer fifty 
 guineas to defend them, the judge said that although 
 the death of the officer could not be sheeted home to 
 either of them, there was no doubt of their taking 
 part in the mutiny — with which offence they were 
 charged. After spending three months in one of the 
 convict hulks they were sent out to Sydney in the 
 Breckenhr'idge transport. But before they sailed they 
 were several times visited by Mr Bent, who told them 
 that he would always bear them in mind, and should 
 endeavour to have their sentences reduced if he heard 
 good v/ord of their future conduct from his agent 
 in Sydney ; this Mr Bent was the owner of several 
 of the Government transports, which, after discharg- 
 ing their cargo of convicts, would sail upon a whaling 
 cruise to the South Seas. More than this, he said that 
 he would give them berths on one of his vessels as soon 
 as they regained their freedom, and that he had written 
 to his agent to that effect. 
 
 It so happened that this agent, a Mr Thomas 
 Campbell, was a friend of my father's, who also knew 
 Mr Bent, and so when the Breckenbridge arrived at 
 Sydney he succeeded in having Trenfield assigned to 
 him, and Thomas May to a contractor who was build- 
 ing a bridge for the Government over a river in the 
 vicinity of Bar Harbour. 
 
 The two young seamen were very much attached 
 to each other, and their cheerful dispositions, good con- 
 duct and unceasing industry led to their being granted 
 many privileges. Both my father and my mother had 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 31 
 
 taken a strong liking to Trenfield ; and so, too, 
 had Ruth Kenna, a young free female servant of ours. 
 As for we boys, we simply worshipped both Trenfield 
 and May as heroes who had sailed in the far South 
 Seas and harpooned and killed the mighty sperm whale, 
 and had fought with the wild and naked savages of 
 the Pacific Isles. 
 
 Ruth Kenna was the dau2:hter of a small farmer in 
 the district, who had been emancipated by the good 
 Governor. He was a widower, and a rough, taciturn 
 man, but passionately devoted to Ruth, who was his 
 only child. He had been transported for having taken 
 part in the disastrous Irish rebellion of ''98,' and his 
 young wife had followed him to share his exile. The 
 terrors and hardships of the long voyage out killed her, 
 for she died almost as soon as she landed, without see- 
 ing her husband, and leaving her infant child to the 
 kindly care of the officers of the detachment of the 
 regiment which had come out in the same ship. By 
 them the infant girl had been placed in the charge of 
 a respectable female convict, who, at my mother's 
 expense, had kept her till she was ten years of age. 
 Then she came to us as a servant, and had remained 
 ever since. 
 
 Very often my father — though he pretended, as 
 became his official position in a Crown Colony, to 
 have a great dislike to Irish Roman Catholics — would 
 allow we boys to go to Patrick Kenna's farm to shoot 
 native bears and opossums, which were very plentiful 
 thereabout, for the land was very thickly timbered 
 with blue gum, tallow-wood and native apple. The 
 house itself stood on the margin of a small tidal creek. 
 
32 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 whose shallow waters teemed with hsh of all descrip- 
 tions, and in the winter Kenna would catch great 
 numbers of whiting, bream and sea mullet, which he 
 salted and dried and sold to the settlers who lived 
 inland. He lived quite alone, except from Saturday 
 morning till Sunday morning, when Ruth stayed with 
 him and straightened up the rough house. Some- 
 times Ruth would persuade my mother to let my 
 brother Will and myself stay with them for the night, 
 and dearly did we love going ; for her father, though 
 a silent, cold-mannered man to most people, was 
 alwavs different to any one of us Egertons, and never 
 even grumbled when we got into mischief, though 
 he pretended to be very angry. Once, indeed, he 
 had good cause to be — as I shall relate. 
 
 One Saturday evening, after we had; finished our 
 supper, Patrick Kenna found that he had run out of 
 tobacco, and said that if we were not afraid of being 
 left by ourselves for a few hours he would walk into 
 Bar Harbour and buy some before the store closed, 
 returning before midnight. Of course we did not 
 mind, and in a few minutes Ruth's father set out, 
 accompanied by * King Billy ' and one or two other 
 black-fellows who were in hopes of selling some wild 
 honey for a bottle or two of rum. We watched them 
 disappear into the darkness of the forest, and then, as 
 the night was suitable, my brother Will proposed that 
 we should all go down to the creek and fish for black 
 bream. 
 
 'The tide is coming in, Ruth,' he said gleefully, 
 *and we'll have fine sport. I'll go on first and light 
 a fire on the bank.' 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 33 
 
 Presently, as Ruth and I were getting ready our 
 lines, he dashed into the house again, panting with 
 excitement. 
 
 ' Never mind the lines. Oh, I have glorious news ! 
 The salmon are coming in, in swarms, and the water 
 is alive with them ! Ruth, let us get the net and put 
 it rio;ht across the creek as soon as it is slack water. 
 'Twill be glorious.' 
 
 Now, we knew that the sea salmon had been seen 
 out at sea a few days before, but it was yet thought to 
 be too soon for their vast droves to enter the rivers 
 and lao:oons. But Will was quite right, for when we 
 dragged down the heavy net we found that the water, 
 which half an hour before, though under the light of 
 myriad stars, had been black and silent, was now a liv- 
 ing sheet of phosphorescent light, caused by the passage 
 up the creek of countless thousands of agitated fish, 
 driven in by hundreds of porpoises and savage, grey 
 ocean- haunting sharks, whose murderous forms we 
 could see darting to and fro just outside the shallow 
 bar, charging into and devouring the helpless, compact 
 masses of salmon, whose very numbers prevented them 
 from escaping ; for serried legion after legion from 
 the sea swam swiftly in to the narrow passage and 
 pressed upon those which were seeking to force their 
 way up to the shallow, muddy waters five miles beyond 
 — ^where alone lay safety from the tigers of the sea. 
 
 Ruth Kenna, as wild with excitement as my 
 brother and myself, took up one pole of the net and 
 sprang into the water, leaving Will and I to pay out 
 on our side. She was a tall, strong girl, but what with 
 the force of the inward current and the mad press of 
 
 c 
 
34 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 the terrified salmon, she could barely reach the sand- 
 spit on the other shore, though the passage was not 
 fifty feet across. But she managed to struggle ashore 
 and secure her end of the net by jamming the pole 
 between some logs of driftwood which lay upon the 
 sand. Then, with a loud, merry laugh, she bade me 
 run up to the house and bring her a petticoat and 
 bodice, and leaping into the water she swam across 
 again and helped Will to properly secure his end of 
 the net to the bole of a tea tree. 
 
 Old as I am now, the memory of that happy, 
 happy night lives with me yet. By the light of a 
 huge fire of logs we sat and watched the net, which, 
 as the tide ebbed, curved outward to the sea, though 
 the salmon without still tried to force a passage into 
 the creek, and the ravening sharks outside the deep 
 water of the bar rushed through and through their 
 close-packed ranks and gorged themselves till they 
 rolled about, with distended bellies, as if they were 
 water-logged baulks of timber. 
 
 As we sat by the fire, waiting for the tide to run 
 out, we heard the dogs barking and knew that Patrick 
 Kenna had returned. Presently we heard him walking 
 down towards us, and at the same moment Ruth uttered 
 an exclamation of terror and pointed to the water. 
 
 ' Oh, look ! look ! There are a lot of sharks inside, 
 coming down the creek. Quick ! let this end of the 
 net go, or they will be caught in it and tear it to pieces ! ' 
 
 Her father was alive to the danger. Springing before 
 us, he cut the end of the line fastened to the tea-tree ; 
 but he was too late, for before the net had tailed out to 
 the current four or five sharks had dashed into it and 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 35 
 
 entangled themselves in its meshes, and in ten minutes 
 the net was utterly ruined, for although the sharks 
 could not use their teeth, the great weight of their 
 gorged bodies and their furious struggles soon tore the 
 bight of it to shreds. ^ 
 
 Kenna watched the destruction of the net in silence. 
 As he stood in the light of the fire, his dark, rugged 
 face showed no sign of the anger that must have 
 burned within him at our thoughtless conduct. 
 
 ' Ye might have waited till I was back, Ruth,' 
 he said quietly; 'there's as good a net as was ever 
 made gone to ruin. And sure 'twas a mad thing for 
 ye to do when th' ravening sharks were so plentiful.' 
 
 Of course my father and mother were very angry 
 with us, and sent Kenna five pounds to partly pay for 
 the damage done. He sent it back by Ruth, and said 
 that he would be a poor creature to take it, for the 
 mishap was caused by Ruth's folly, and that we boys 
 were in no way to blame. 
 
 Almost every alternate evening Tom May would 
 come to our house, and go to Walter Trenfield's 
 quarters, which were in a large airy loft over our stable, 
 and the two young men would dress and sew the skins 
 of the wallabies and 'possums which my brothers had 
 shot. My mother never objected to us staying with 
 them till about ten o'clock, and Ruth, too, often 
 came and made coffee for us all. Both May and 
 Trenfield always behaved well and soberly, and 
 although they had been whale-ship sailors they were 
 always very careful in their language when we were 
 with them. Some time before my mother's angry 
 
36 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 interview with Mr Sampson she had mentioned, in 
 his hearing, to Major Trenton's wife, that her boys 
 were greatly attached to the two young men, whose 
 stories of their former sea life were very exciting, and 
 s(r' forth, whereupon the clergyman said sourly that 
 both were dangerous villains who should not be 
 trusted, and she would do well to prevent the 
 further intercourse of her children with such rascals. 
 
 My mother bowed stiffly to him, and said gently 
 that she thought he was mistaken greatly in their 
 characters ; also she was well able to look after her 
 children's morals ; but Mrs Trenton, a sharp-tongued 
 old Irishwoman, who hated the parson and loved my 
 mother, spoke out pretty plainly. 
 
 ' No one but a clergyman would make such a rude 
 speech to a lady, sir. A man who called himself a 
 gentleman would be made to account for his lack of 
 manners.' 
 
 One Saturday afternoon, as Walter Trenfield and 
 Ruth were driving the cows down to the creek to 
 drink, and Will and I were idling about on the sea- 
 ward hill, we saw Patrick Kenna ride up to the house, 
 dismount and knock. He only remained indoors a 
 few minutes, and presently we saw him galloping 
 towards Trenfield and Ruth, with whom he stayed 
 talking for even a still shorter time ; then, without 
 taking any notice of us — which was most unusual for 
 him — he put spurs to his horse and rode straight for 
 the scrub, towards his liome. 
 
 'There is something the matter,' said Will. 'See, 
 there is Walter running up to the house again. 
 Come, let us see what it is.' 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 37 
 
 We ran home, and entering by the garden gate saw 
 that Walter was talking to my mother on the back 
 verandah. She seemed very troubled and almost on 
 the verge of crying, and we soon heard the news, 
 which was bad enough. Thomas May had been 
 given a hundred lashes and had taken to the bush. 
 
 It appeared that May, whom we had not seen for 
 one or two weeks, had been working under an over- 
 seer named Cross, at a place about ten miles from the 
 town. (This man Cross was of a notoriously savage 
 disposition, and had himself been a convict in Van 
 Diemen's Land, but had received a pardon for having 
 shot and killed a bushranger there.) 
 
 May, with the rest of his gang, was felling timber, 
 when a heavy chip flew from the tallow-wood tree 
 upon which he was working, and struck the overseer 
 in the face. Cross at once flew into a violent passion, 
 and with much foul language accused poor May of 
 having thrown the chip at him. This the young 
 fellow warmly denied, whereupon Cross, taking his 
 pistol out of his belt, struck the sailor on the mouth 
 with the butt. In an instant May returned the blow 
 by knocking the overseer down, and was then seized 
 by two of his fellow-convicts. He was ironed and 
 taken into town, and on the following morning was 
 brought before Mr Sampson and another magistrate. 
 It was no use of his pleading provocation, he received 
 his flogging within a few hours. Towards daylight 
 he crept out of his hut, broke into his master's store- 
 room, and took a musket, powder and ball, and as much 
 food as he could carry, telling a fellow-prisoner that 
 he would perish in the bush rather than be taken alive. 
 
38 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 On the fifth night after his escape, and whilst the 
 constables were scouring the country in search of him, 
 he came to Patrick Kenna's house. The night was 
 very dark and the rain descending in torrents ; so, there 
 being no fear of intruders, Kenna barred his door and 
 made the poor fellow comfortable by giving him a 
 change of clothes, a good meal and some tobacco to 
 smoke. Tom inquired very eagerly after Walter, and 
 sent him a long message, and then told Kenna some 
 startling news. 
 
 Two days after he had absconded, and when he 
 was quite thirty miles distant from Bar Harbour, he 
 saw smoke arising from a dense scrub. Creeping 
 along on his hands and knees he saw two men — 
 escaped convicts like himself — engaged in skinning a 
 wallaby. He at once made himself known to them 
 and was welcomed. After a meal from the wallaby, 
 the two men asked him if he would join them in a 
 plan they had of getting away from the country ; he 
 was just the man, they said, being a sailor, who could 
 bring the attempt to a successful issue. Then they 
 told him that, many weeks previously, they had found 
 a whale-boat lying capsized on the beach some miles 
 away, and that she was perfectly sound. By great 
 labour they had succeeded in dragging her up into 
 the margin of the scrub on the beach, where they had 
 turned her over and covered her carefully with dead 
 branches. A further search along the beach had 
 resulted in their finding an oar and one of the line 
 tubs,* but that was all. 
 
 * English whale-ship boats generally used two line tub's — American 
 only one. No doubt this boat was lost from an English whaler, the 
 Britannia, then on the coast. 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 39 
 
 Of course poor Tom May was greatly taken with 
 this, and said that he would join them, and that he 
 thought Walter Trenfield would come as well. He 
 went with the men to look at the boat, and found her 
 just as they had said — almost new and quite water- 
 tight. He agreed to return to within a safe distance of 
 Bar Harbour, and, through Patrick Kenna, let Trenfield 
 know of the discovery of the boat and get him to help 
 them to fit her out properly. Oars and a mast they 
 could easily make, had they the tools, and a sail could 
 also be obtained through either Ruth or her father, who 
 could get them enough coarse calico for the purpose. 
 
 Kenna promised to help, although he told Tom 
 he should try to dissuade Walter from joining in the 
 enterprise. Just before daylight May bid Kenna 
 good-bye, as he was anxious to return to the other 
 two convicts and tell them that they had friends who 
 would help them. Before he left, however, he 
 arranged with Kenna that the latter should bring the 
 required articles one by one — especially two breakers 
 of water — to the foot of Little Nobby 's and hide them 
 in the scrub at the spot agreed upon. Then, when 
 all was ready and a dark night favoured. May and the 
 other two men were to launch the boat and make 
 their way with all speed down the coast to Little 
 Nobby's — nearly twenty miles distant from where the 
 boat was hidden — take on board the water and pro- 
 visions and put to sea ; it being May's intention, 
 whether Trenfield joined him or not, to make to the 
 northward for Timor in the East Indies. Then, with 
 a warm hand-grasp, they parted ; and never again was 
 Thomas May seen alive. 
 
40 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 On the following morning Kenna contrived to see 
 Walter and tell him that his former shipmate was 
 safe, and what was afoot. Of course Walter was 
 overjoyed to learn that he (Tom) had such a means 
 of escape offering, and at once announced his inten- 
 tion of fatting in with the enterprise ; but Patrick 
 Kenna spoke very strongly against his doing so, and 
 Ruth, too, came to her father's aid. It was, they 
 said, foolish of him to link himself with these desperate 
 men, every one of whom had a price upon his head, 
 whereas he, Walter, stood in good chance of receiving 
 his pardon at any moment. Why should he sacrifice 
 himself and break Ruth's heart for the sake of his 
 friend ? 
 
 So, finally, overcome by their arguments, he 
 yielded, saying, however, that he felt he was acting 
 a coward's part, and begged of Kenna to arrange a 
 farewell meeting between Tom and himself. This, 
 wisely enough, Kenna refused to do, but said he 
 would do anything else to make their separation 
 easier. So Trenfield wrote his old comrade a letter 
 of farewell, and, taking a canvas bag, he filled it with 
 all sorts of articles likely to be useful on a long boat 
 voyage. Kenna took the bag, together with material 
 for a sail, away with him at night and placed it in the 
 spot agreed upon with May. He had alreadv given 
 Tom a tomahawk and an adze with which to make 
 some oars and a mast. 
 
 On the fourth night after his visit to Kcnna's 
 house, Tom May again came through the bush, and 
 went to J^ittle Nobby's, for when Ruth's father went 
 to the hiding-place in the morning with a breaker of 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM 
 
 41 
 
 water and a large bundle of dried fish, he found that 
 the bag and the sail-cloth were gone, and on a small 
 piece of white driftwood which lav on the ground 
 these words were written in charcoal : — 
 
 ' Sunday^ Midnight.'' 
 
 By this Kenna knew that the three men meant 
 to come for the provisions and water at the time 
 mentioned. It was then Friday, and he had much to 
 do to get all in readiness ; for Little Nobby's was 
 quite six miles distant from his house, and he could 
 only make his journeys to and fro with great secrecy, 
 for the constables were still searching the coastal 
 region for May. But, aided by Billy, the aboriginal, 
 he managed to have everything in readiness early on 
 Sunday night. He afterwards told my mother that 
 besides the two breakers of water, each holding ten 
 gallons, he had provided four gallons of rum, a hun- 
 dredweight each of salted meat and dried fish, tobacco 
 and pipes, fishing tackle, two muskets, and plenty of 
 powder and bullets. The place selected for the landing 
 of the boat was an excellent one ; for on one side of 
 Little Nobby's was a little, narrow bay running in 
 between high cliffs of black trap rock, which broke 
 the force of the ocean swell entirely. Then, too, the 
 place was very lonely and seldom ^ isited, for the main 
 road lay nearly two miles back beyond the clifrs. 
 
 Whether my mother actually knew of all that was 
 going on I do not know ; but I do know that about this 
 time she seemed paler than ever, and we frequently saw 
 her and Ruth talking earnestly together ; and Ruth 
 and Walter, too, were always whispering to each other. 
 
42 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 Sunday came, and as my mother, since her quarrel 
 with the Reverend Mr Sampson over the flogging of 
 old Callaghan, did not now^ go to church, we all, 
 except my father, who was still on friendly terms 
 with the clergyman, remained at home, my mother 
 herself conducting a short service in the dining-room, 
 at which all the servants, free and bond, attended. In 
 the afternoon Major Trenton, Captain Crozier and 
 some other soldier officers rode up, as was customary 
 with them on Sundays, and Ruth and Denham brought 
 them brandy and water on the front verandah, where 
 they awaited my mother and sisters. 
 
 ' Harry, you young rascal,' said Major Trenton, 
 presently to my eldest brother, * what did you do with 
 Mr Moore's picture of the parson, eh ? ' 
 
 ' It was stolen from me, sir,' he answered, laughing, 
 * about three or four months ago.' 
 
 ' Indeed,' said the major ; ' then the thief has 
 principles, and will doubtless send it back to you, for 
 he has made a score of copies of it, and they are all 
 over the district. Why, the rascal, whoever he is, 
 nailed one to the door of the Commissariat Store not 
 long ago, and the first person to see it was Mr Sampson 
 himself. He is mightily wroth about it, I can tell ye, 
 and somehow suspects that the picture came from 
 someone in this house, and told your father that these 
 copies were given about by your man Trenfield. So 
 just ye give a hint to the fellow, and tell him that if 
 the parson gets a chance to tickle his back, faith he'll 
 do it.' 
 
 * I am sure, sir, that V/alter did not take the 
 picture,' said my brother. ^ It was nailed up over my 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 43 
 
 bed and one day I missed it. I thought that my 
 mother had destroyed or taken it away. But she had 
 not, and I cannot account for its disappearance.' 
 
 Now this was hardly true, for, from something they 
 had heard from Ruth, both Harry and my sister 
 Frances thought that Thomas May had taken away 
 the caricature, intending to replace it. 
 
 'Well, never mind, my lad,' said Major Trenton, 
 laughing, ''tis a monstrous fine joke, anyway, and, 
 faith, I sent one of the copies to the Governor himself. 
 'Twill amuse him hugely.' 
 
 Presently my mother and my two sisters joined the 
 group on the verandah, and as they were all talking 
 and laughing together, Ruth Kenna came to my 
 mother and said that her father had just come with a 
 basket of fresh fish and would like to see her for a 
 minute. I, being the youngest boy of the family, and 
 over-fond — so my brothers said — of hanging on to 
 mammy's apron-strings, as well as being anxious to see 
 the fish, followed her out on to the back verandah, 
 where black-browed, dark-faced Patrick Kenna awaited 
 her. 
 
 ' 'Tis a fine dark night coming on, ma'am,' he said 
 in a low voice. ' The wind is north-east and 'twill hould 
 well till daylight. Then 'twill come away from the 
 south-east, sure enough. They should be there long 
 before midnight and out of sight of land before the 
 dawn.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes, Patrick,' said my mother, hurriedly. ' I 
 shall pray to-night to God for those in peril on the 
 sea ; and to forgive us for any wrong we may have 
 done in this matter.' 
 
4+ A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 ' No harm can iver come to any wan in this house,' 
 said the man, earnestly, raising her hand to his Hps, 
 ' for the blessin' av God an' the Holy Virgin is upon it.' 
 
 My mother pressed his hand. ^ Good-bye, Patrick. 
 I do hope all may go well ; ' and with this she went 
 away. 
 
 Kenna raised his hat and turned to go, when Walter 
 Treniield came to the foot of the verandah steps and 
 stopped him. 
 
 *Let me come with you,' he said, 'and bid Tom 
 good-bye.' 
 
 'No,' answered Kenna, roughly, 'neither you nor I 
 nor any wan else must go near Nobby's to-night ; 
 matthers are goin' well enough, an' no folly of yours 
 shall bring desthruction upon them. As it is, the con- 
 stables suspect me, and are now watching my house.' 
 
 Then, mounting his horse again, he rode leisurely 
 away over the brow of the hill towards the scrub, 
 through which his road lay. 
 
 Both Walter and Ruth knew that unless the night 
 was very clear there was no chance of even the look- 
 out man on the pilot station seeing a small boat passing 
 along to the southward ; but nevertheless they went up 
 to the pilot station about ten o'clock, when they 
 thought that Tom May and his companions would be 
 passing Bar Harbour on their way to Little Nobby's. 
 They stayed on the headland for nearly an hour, 
 talking to Tom King and the look-out man, and then 
 came home, feeling satisfied that if the three men had 
 succeeded in launching the boat safely, they had passed 
 Bar Harbour about eleven o'clock and would reach 
 Nobby's at or before midnight. 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM 
 
 45 
 
 Soon after breakfast next morning, Patrick Kenna, 
 under pretence of speaking to my mother about a 
 strayed heifer of ours, came into the kitchen, and told 
 Ruth that all was well ; he had been to Little Nobby's 
 at daylight and found that everything was gone and 
 the boat was nowhere to be discerned. 
 
 For quite another two or three weeks after this 
 the constables pursued their search after Thomas May, 
 much to the amusement of Ruth and Patrick Kenna, 
 especially as the latter, with ' King Billy ' and another 
 aboriginal, were officially employed by my father at 
 ten shillings per diem to discover the absconder — Billy, 
 who seemed to be most anxious to get the reward of 
 five pounds, leading the constables all over the country 
 and eating more than three men's rations daily. At 
 last the chase was abandoned, and my father wrote 
 officially to Sydney and said that ' Thom.as May, 
 No. 3614, Breckenhr'idge^ was supposed to have either 
 died of starvation in the bush or have been killed by 
 the natives. My mother, of course, thought she 
 knew better. 
 
 And so the matter was forgotten by everyone but 
 us who had known and cared for the good-natured, 
 high-spirited and warm-hearted young sailor ; and as 
 the months went by, Walter Trenfield and my mother 
 both looked forward to receiving a letter from Tom 
 May, telling them that he and his companions 
 had reached some port in the Dutch East Indies in 
 safety. For not only was the boat well found, but 
 they had plentv of provisions, and Tom May was a 
 thorough seaman ; and besides that, mv mother had 
 often told us the storv of the convict William Brvant, 
 
w 
 
 ) A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 ho had escaped from Sydney Harbour in Governor 
 
 [p s time, and in an open 
 
 w 
 
 ith four other 
 
 men and his wife and two infant children, succeeded in 
 reaching Timor, after a voyage of three thousand 
 miles.* 
 
 But no letter came until two long years had 
 passed. 
 
 Ruth Kenna, at the time of my story, though not 
 yet seventeen years of age, was a tall, pov/erful girl, 
 and was known as the best horsewoman in all the 
 country around. She was a happy, good-natured sort 
 of a wench, with a heart filled with sunshine and love 
 and truth and honesty ; though Mr Sampson once 
 told my father that she was a * dangerous Papist,' and 
 the child of a convicted rebel, and as such should have 
 no place in a Protestant family. This so angered my 
 mother that she wrote the clergyman a very sharp 
 letter and said she would take it as a favour if he 
 would not interfere with her servants. This was a 
 great thing for her to do ; and my father said 'twas 
 most indiscreet. But mother only smiled and said 
 that although she was sorry Ruth was a Papist, she 
 (Ruth) was a good, honest girl, and that her father 
 was a good, honest man, and that if Mr Sampson was 
 wise he would not come near Ruth, who, being a free 
 woman, had said she would throw him down the 
 garden well. At this time Ruth was looking forward 
 to the day of her marriage with Trenfield, who, 
 through my father's influence with the Governor, was 
 expecting to be pardoned. 
 
 * Publisher's Note. — The strange but true story of the Bryants is 
 told in a vohime entitled A First Fleet Family. (Louis Becke and 
 Walter Jeffery. London : T. Fisher Unvvin. 1896.) 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 47 
 
 But now I am forging ahead too fast, and must 
 go back to where v/e boys and Walter Trenfield were 
 lying on the grassy bluff overlooking Little Nobby's 
 awaiting the return of my brother Harry. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 'Walter,' said Harry, throwing down the pigeon 
 which he had shot, and pointing to Little Nobby's, 
 ' this is the lowest tide I have ever seen. Look, the 
 topmost fringe of kelp on the rocks is quite dry, and 
 six feet above the water, and there is no surf. Let's 
 swim across the gut into the cave.' 
 
 ' As you please, sir,' the young man answered, his 
 sun-tanned face lighting up with pleasure ; 'the wind 
 is westerly, and the water very clear ; so, if there are 
 any sharks about we can easily see them.' 
 
 So presently down we trooped, and, clambering over 
 the jagged pinnacles of rock, soon reached the seaward 
 face of Little Nobby's. The cave of which my 
 brother had spoken was in the very centre of the cone, 
 and the only known way of access to it was by swim- 
 ming across the narrow gut or channel which cleft in 
 twain the base of the hill. A boat, in calm weather, 
 might have easily rowed up to the mouth of the cave, 
 but only during a very low tide. No one, so far, had 
 attempted this, and 'King Billy,' when he saw my 
 brother and Trenfield strip and jump into the water, 
 seemed much disturbed. The cave, he said, was the 
 home of a ' debbil-debbil,' and 'twas dangerous for any 
 
48 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 human being to enter it. But Harry and Trcnfield 
 had already swum across, clambered up the kelp- 
 covered ledge of the cave and disappeared into the 
 darkness beyond. 
 
 For nearly ten minutes, or perhaps a quarter of an 
 hour, Will and I waited impatiently for their return, 
 grumbling at not being allowed to go with them, 
 for the sea was as smooth as a mountain lake, and the 
 water so clear that the smallest pebble could be dis- 
 cerned lying upon the white sandy bottom five fathoms 
 belov/. 
 
 Said Will presently, ' I don't believe there's a shark 
 within a mile ; do you r ' 
 
 * No,' I answered, looking longingly at the crystal 
 water and then at the black mouth of the cavern, 
 which neither Will nor I had ever entered. 
 
 ' Then come on,' said Will, quickly, and in a few 
 seconds we were out of our clothes, and paying no 
 heed to 'King Billy's' exclamations of terror we dropped 
 quietly into the water and swam across, telling him to 
 stay where he was and keep a look-out for sharks. 
 
 A few strokes brought us safely over, and then, as 
 we climbed up and stood on the cold rocky floor of 
 the dark cave, our hearts began to fail us somewhat 
 — the place was so grim, silent and terrifying. 
 
 Feeling our way carefully along, however, we 
 advanced for some ten or twelve yards and then 
 stopped, for tliough we heard the voices, we could 
 see the figures of Harry and Trcnfield but dimly. 
 
 ' Where are you r ' cried Will. 
 
 ' Over here,' answered my brother ; 'you can come 
 along if you like. We think that there's a way of 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 49 
 
 getting out by climbing up — we can see the trees on 
 the back of the hill.' 
 
 This was a discovery indeed, and Will and I, as we 
 made our way to where they sat, found the dark- 
 ness decreasing at every step, and when we reached 
 them, we could see about us quite plainly, for thin, 
 dimmed shafts of sunlight penetrated the cavern from 
 above by a narrow cleft, through which we could 
 see not only the dark foliage of the trees, whose 
 branches overhung the place, but a strip of blue sky 
 beyond. 
 
 ' Listen ! ' said Will. 
 
 Somewhere near a ' butcher ' bird was calling to 
 its mate, who quickly answered, and then the pair 
 whistled sweetly and joyously together ; and when 
 they ceased a bell-bird sounded his clear, resonant 
 note thrice — then silence. 
 
 Presently Walter and Harry set about to attempt 
 an ascent, laughing heartily at the thought of how 
 we should startle poor ' King Billy ' by reappearing 
 out of the bowels of the earth, instead of by the way 
 we had left him. 
 
 The top of the cleft was not more than thirty feet 
 from the floor of the cave, and its very narrowness 
 reduced the difficulty of climbing up its rugged sides, 
 which were composed of pieces of rock embedded in 
 earth. In the centre, however, the walls approached 
 so closely to each other about half way down— within 
 a few inches, in fact — that they were blocked up with 
 what appeared to be a mass of decaying branches, fallen 
 leaves and such debris. 
 
 Walter Trenfield went first, then Will, and Harry 
 
50 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 and 1 followed. We found it much easier working 
 our way up than we anticipated, for the jutting points 
 of rock gave us a good foothold, and the roots of 
 trees, living and dead, helped us greatly, for some of 
 these grew across from one side of the cleft to the 
 other, and afforded us ladder-like steps. 
 
 Walter had nearly reached the mouth of the chasm, 
 when Will, who was ascending more leisurely and 
 carefully behind him, put his foot upon the thick 
 mass of leaves and rotting wood which blocked up 
 its centre, and, finding it was firm, sat down upon it 
 to rest himself. Presently, to have some amusement 
 at the expense of Harry and myself, who were 
 directly beneath him, he began to shov/er armfuls of 
 dead leaves upon us — then suddenly he uttered a cry 
 of terror, sprang to his feet, and clambered quickly 
 to the top, where Trenfield seized him just as he was 
 about to fall. 
 
 Thinking that he had been frightened, or perhaps 
 bitten by a black snake or a death-adder, Harry and 
 I climbed up after him as quickly as possible, little 
 heeding the cuts and bruises we inflicted upon our 
 naked bodies. As soon as we reached the ledge and 
 flung ourselves, panting and somewhat terrified, on 
 the thick bed of leaves which covered the ground 
 like a carpet, we saw Walter Trenfield bending his 
 tall, naked figure over Will, who was crouched up in 
 a heap and trying, through his sobs of terror, to tell 
 what it was that he had seen. 
 
 * There is a dead man down there,' he gasped, *a 
 dead man ! When I took up the last armful of 
 leaves to throw down on Tom and Harry, I saw a 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 51 
 
 dreadful face beneath ... it was almost a skull, but 
 there is some flesh on the face . . . and oh, Walter ! 
 // has red hair like To?n Mays.'' Then, overcome 
 by the terror of that which he had seen, he sobbed 
 afresh. 
 
 * Come, sir,' said Trenfield to my eldest brother, 
 ' we must go down and look.' 
 
 Leaning over the brink of the narrow cleft, I 
 watched Harry and Trenfield descend, throw down 
 the rotting leaves and timber which had accumulated 
 in the centre ; and then I saw a dreadful sight — a 
 shrunken, awful face, with white, gleaming teeth, 
 and two fleshless hands lying together upon an all but 
 skeleton chest. The rest of the body, except one leg, 
 which from the knee downwards was partly raised and 
 showed a bone protruding from a rough raw-hide boot, 
 was mercifully concealed from our sight by the coarse 
 jumper and grey canvas trousers of a convict. 
 
 Presently Walter looked up, and cried out in a 
 strange, hoarse voice, — 
 
 * Go away, Master Tom, you must not look. Do 
 you and Master Will wait for us on the rocks, but 
 first tell Billy to come here with our clothes.' 
 
 Will and I at once obeyed, glad to get away, and 
 hurrying round the base of the hill we returned to 
 ' King Billy,' who, poor simple savage, had given us 
 up for lost, and was crouched up in a heap on the 
 rocks, making a low whining noise like the cry of a 
 very young puppy. He did truly dance for joy when 
 he heard our voices, and then at once, without asking 
 us what had happened, went off to Walter and Harry, 
 taking their clothes with him. 
 
52 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 Will and I dressed ourselves, and then we sat down 
 to wait. 
 
 ' Tom,' said Will, who had now recovered his com- 
 posure, ' I am sure it is poor Tom May who is lying 
 there. Do you remember a red silk handkerchief 
 which mother gave him last Christmas Day ? Well, 
 there is one exactly like it round its neck. I was 
 too frightened to look closer, but Tom always wore 
 his handkerchief round his neck in a sailor's knot. 
 And then, too,' and here Will's eyes filled with tears 
 and he began to sob, * it had bright red hair ... it 
 had nearly all fallen off, and . . .' 
 
 ' Oh, Will,' I cried, ^ don't tell me any more ! I 
 feel so sick.' 
 
 Nearly half an hour passed, and then we saw 
 Harry and Trenfield, holding each other's hand like 
 two children, coming towards us. They sat down 
 near us, and then the young convict placed his big, 
 brown hands over his face, and heavy sobs broke from 
 his broad chest. 
 
 ' Oh, God ! Master Harry ! ' he cried, * is there no 
 justice in the world ? To die there, in that awful place, 
 like a rat in a trap ! oh, it is dreadful, dreadful ! And 
 then I thought that he was long ago far away from 
 here — a free man.' 
 
 ^ Do you think those two other men threw him 
 down there, Walter ? ' asked my eldest brother, almost 
 in a whisper. 
 
 ' No, sir,' he replied, catching his breath. ' Why 
 should they murder the man who alone was capable 
 of taking the boat upon such a long \'oyage ? This 
 is what I think, sir. Poor Tom, instead of coming 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 53 
 
 down in the boat with the other two, left them on 
 Saturday and walked here so that he mi^ht lio;ht a 
 fire on the top of Little Nobby's on Sunday night to 
 guide them to the place. He told Ruth's father that 
 he thought he should do this in case the night turned 
 out very dark. And Billy says that a fire was made, 
 and that when poor Tom was descending the hill to 
 meet the boat he fell into the cleft and got jammed 
 between the rocky walls.' 
 
 ' But would not the two other men make a search 
 for him ? ' 
 
 ' God knows, sir ! We shall never know. They 
 may have thought that Tom had been captured, and 
 that the fire had been lit by Ruth's father. But 
 I think that Billy is right, and that poor Tom, after 
 lighting the fire, was coming down the hill to meet 
 the boat, when in the darkness he wandered off the 
 track and stepped into the crack at the widest part of 
 its mouth, which is right above where we found him. 
 He must have fallen upon his back and become so 
 tightly wedged in in that awful place that he could 
 not use his arms to free himself. And then, sir, even if 
 he had not been stunned, his cries could not have been 
 heard by the other two men, who, unless they pur- 
 posely made a search, would not have had any reason to 
 go within two hundred yards of the spot where he fell.' 
 
 Harry shuddered, and then for some time no one 
 of us spoke. ' King Billy ' had been sent off to tell 
 my father of the discovery of the body, or rather 
 skeleton, which Walter and Harry had at first at- 
 tempted to free from the walls of the chasm, but were 
 too overcome to complete the task. 
 
54 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 Together we slowly ascended the bluff, and there 
 a surprise awaited us ; for, sitting on their horses, on 
 the brow of the hill, were the dreaded minister and 
 his convict orderly. They had no doubt seen our 
 bags and guns lying on the grass, and had ridden to 
 the crest of the bluff to discover our whereabouts. 
 
 Mr Sampson eyed us all very sourly, and scarcely 
 deigned to respond to our salutations, as one by one 
 we walked past him and busied ourselves in silence 
 over our impedimenta. No doubt he saw that both 
 Harry and Walter were very pale, and that Will and 
 I had not yet dried our tears. 
 
 ' Come here, boys,' he said in his harsh, pompous 
 tones. ' What, may I ask, is the cause of this grief 
 which seems to be shared by all alike ? ' Then, 
 without waiting for an answer, his glance fell upon 
 Walter Trenlield, who, after saluting him, had turned 
 away, and with averted face was strapping some of 
 our belongings together. 
 
 I saw the clergyman's coarse red face, with its fat, 
 terraced chins, grow purple with rage as I had seen it 
 once before, and I instinctively drew back. 
 
 ' Ha ! ' he said, and urging his horse forward, he 
 bent down and touched the young convict on the 
 shoulder with his whip. ' Ha ! look up, fellow. I want 
 a word with you, sirrah.' 
 
 Trenfield, who was stooping at the moment, stood 
 erect, and then, facing the parson, again raised his 
 hand to his cap. His face was deadly pale, and his 
 deep-set bright blue eyes seemed to liave suddenly 
 shrunken and drawn back, and his whole body was 
 trembling. 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 55 
 
 ' Look at me, fellow,' said Mr Sampson, for the 
 second time. 
 
 ' / am looking at you^ sir.^ 
 
 The words came from between his white lips and 
 set teeth in a low, hoarse whisper, and all the hatred 
 in his heart seemed to go with them. The clergyman 
 eyed him for a few seconds in silence, but the convict 
 met his gaze unfalteringly. 
 
 * So 'tis to you, you scoundrel, that your ruffianly 
 fellow-criminals are indebted for so much amusement 
 at mv expense ! Tell me, you villain, where you got 
 that picture, and who prompted you to display it ? 
 Answer me quickly, you unhanged rascal ! ' 
 
 Trenfield's lips moved, but ere he could speak, my 
 eldest brother stepped forward, bravely enough. 
 
 ' Indeed, sir, Treniield had nothing to do v/ith the 
 picture. It was given to me, but by some mischance 
 was lost or stolen. I am sure, sir, that Trenfleld 
 would not — ' 
 
 ' Trenfield is a villain. How dare you, presump- 
 tuous bov, seek to excuse him ! A good birching, for 
 which you are not too old, would teach you that 
 reverence and respect for a clergyman which your 
 mother has so forgotten.' 
 
 Harry fired up quickly enough at the insulting words. 
 
 * How dare you, sir, speak to me in this fashion ? 
 My father shall hear of this.' 
 
 'Let me deal with him, the bloody-minded dog!' 
 said a voice. 
 
 It was that of Walter Trenfield, who, springing 
 forward, presented my brother's loaded fowling-piece 
 at the minister's head. 'Listen to me, you beast in 
 
56 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 human form, you heartless fiend ! I am going to send 
 your poisonous soul to hell.' 
 
 He pulled the trigger, but the gun missed fire ; 
 then swiftly clubbing the weapon he brought it with 
 terrific force against the clergyman's chest and 
 knocked him off the horse. The orderly at once 
 turned, and fled as his master fell. 
 
 The Reverend Mr Sampson lay prone upon the 
 sward, his once red face blanched to a deathly white, 
 and over him, with grounded gun, stood the young 
 convict. 
 
 My brother tried to take the weapon from him, but 
 Trenfield tossed him aside with one hand as if he were 
 a straw. Then for a minute he looked at the prostrate 
 man in silence ; once he raised the gun by the muzzle, 
 then l\e threw it aside, and, kneeling beside the clergy- 
 man, placed his face close to his. 
 
 ' You dog, you dog, you damned dog ! I could 
 choke you now as you lie, you brute beast. But I 
 will let you live, to go to hell in God's own time, you 
 cruel, flogging wretch ! Tou murdered Thomas May 
 - — his rotting body is not a hundred yards away. May 
 the stink of it reach the nostrils of Almighty God — 
 and be in yours for ever ! ' 
 
 He rose quickly, took the saddle and bridle ofF the 
 clergyman's horse, and, striking the animal a sharp 
 blow on the nose, sent it galloping awav into the 
 forest ; then he returned and again stood over Mr Samp- 
 son, his face working with the violence of his passion. 
 
 'Are you going to murder me ? ' the minister asked 
 gaspingly. 
 
 * No,' he replied savagely, kicking him again and 
 
A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 57 
 
 again in the face, ' but lie there, you bloody-minded 
 swab, till I tell you you can go.' 
 
 And then, his passion spent, he turned to us with 
 outstretched hand, — ■ 
 
 ' God bless you all, young gentlemen 1 God bless 
 you. Master Harry ! and your good mother and Miss 
 Frances and little Miss Olive. I am done for now. 
 But tell Ruth that if I am taken I'll die a man. And 
 tell her, Master Harry, that — that — ' 
 
 My brother grasped his trembling hand, as for a 
 moment he stood, gun in hand, and swayed to and fro 
 as if he were like to fall. Then he plunged into the 
 forest. 
 
 One night, three weeks after this, and whilst Mr 
 Sampson was recovering from his injuries, and a force 
 of constables, with a black tracker, were scouring the 
 country for Walter, my mother called we children to 
 her bedroom. She had retired, but Ruth Kenna, with 
 tears in her blue Irish eyes, stood beside the bed. 
 
 * Quick, children,' said my mother, in a whisper, 
 ' Ruth is going away. Quick, quick ; kiss her good- 
 bye.' 
 
 And then whilst we, wondering, put our arms around 
 dear Ruth, my mother slipped out of bed, and taking 
 some money out of a cabinet, put it into the girl's 
 hand, and said, — 
 
 'Good-bye, Ruth. You've been an honest girl 
 to us. May God bless and keep you always, my 
 dear child, and do not fail to write.' 
 
 Next morning there was a great to-do, for Patrick 
 
58 A MEMORY OF 'THE SYSTEM' 
 
 Kenna's house was found to be empty, and he and his 
 daughter and Waiter Trenfield were never seen again 
 in our part. But away out on the horizon were the 
 sails of a whale-ship which had been cruising about 
 the coast for some days past ; and though my mother 
 kept her own counsel for a long year, we children 
 soon knew that all three had escaped in the whaler, 
 for my brother Harry had received a letter from Tren- 
 field. It was handed to him by the aboriginal ^ King 
 Billy,' and contained only these words, — ' Good-bye, 
 sir. Ruth and I and her father will be on the blue 
 water before daylight.' 
 
 When two years or more had passed, my mother 
 received a letter. It was written from Boston in 
 America, and was signed ' Ruth Trenfield.' 
 
 ' I am glad she and Walter are happy at last,' said 
 my mother, with the tears shining in her soft eyes. 
 
A North Pacific Lagoon Island 
 
A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 Two degrees north of the Equator, and midway be- 
 tween the Hawaiian Islands and fair, green Tahiti, is 
 the largest and most important of the many equatorial 
 isolated lagoon islands which, from lO deg. N. to 
 10 deg. S.j are dispersed over 40 deg. of longitude. 
 The original native name of this island has long been 
 lost, and by that given to it by Captain Cook one 
 hundred and twenty years ago it is now known to 
 Pacific navigators — Christmas Island. Cook was pro- 
 bably the first European to visit and examine the 
 place, though it had very likely been sighted by the 
 Spaniards long before his time, in the days of the 
 voyages of the yearly galleons between the Philippines 
 and Mexico and Peru. 
 
 On the afternoon of December 24, 1777, Cook 
 (in the Resolution and Discovery) discovered to leeward 
 of the former ship a long, low, sandy island, which 
 proved to be about ninety miles in circumference. It 
 appeared to be an exceedingly barren-looking land, 
 save on the south-west side, where grew a luxuriant 
 grove of coco-palms. Here he brought his ships to an 
 anchor, and partly to recuperate his crews, who were 
 in ill health, and partly to observe an eclipse of the 
 sun, he remained at the island some weeks. He soon 
 discovered that the lagoon in the centre was of noble 
 
 61 
 
62 A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 proportions, and that its waters teemed with an im- 
 mense variety of fish and countless ' droves ' of sharks. 
 To-day it remains the same. 
 
 Fifty years passed ere this lonely atoll was visited by 
 another ship, and then American and English whalers, 
 or, as they were called in those days, ' South Seamen,' 
 began to touch at the island, give their crews a few 
 days' spell amid the grateful shade of the palm grove 
 and load their boats to the gunwales with fat green 
 turtle, turtle eggs, robber crabs, and sea-birds' eggs. 
 From that time the place became well known to the 
 three or four hundred of sperm whalers engaged in 
 the fishery, and, later on, to the shark-catching vessels 
 from the Hawaiian Islands. Then, sixteen years ago, 
 Christmas Island was taken up by a London firm engaged 
 in the South Sea Island trade under a lease from the 
 Colonial Office ; this firm at once sent there a number 
 of native labourers from Manhiki, an island in the 
 South Pacific. These, under the charge of a white 
 man, were set to work planting coco-nuts and diving 
 for pearl shell in the lagoon. At the present time, 
 despite one or two severe droughts, the coco-nut 
 plantations are thriving, and the lessees should in 
 another few years reap their reward, and hold one of 
 the richest possessions in the South Seas. 
 
 The island is of considerable extent, and though on 
 the windward or eastern side its appearance is unin- 
 viting in the extreme, and the fierce oceanic currents 
 that for ever sweep in mighty eddies around its shores 
 render approach to it difficult and sometimes dangerous, 
 it has yet afforded succour to many an exhausted and 
 sea-worn shipwrecked crew who have reached it in 
 
A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 63 
 
 boats. And, on the other hand, several fine ships, 
 sailing quietly along at night time, unaware of the 
 great ocean currents that are focussed about the ter- 
 rible reefs encompassing the island, have crashed upon 
 the jagged coral barrier and been smashed to pieces by 
 the violence of the surf. 
 
 Scarcely discernible, from its extreme lov^ness, at a 
 distance of more than eight miles from the ship's deck, 
 its presence is made known hours before it is sighted 
 by vast clouds of amphibious birds, most of which all 
 day long hover about the sea in its vicinity, and return 
 to their rookeries on the island at sunset. On one 
 occasion, when the vessel in which I was then serving 
 was quite twenty miles from the land, we were unable 
 to hear ourselves speak, when, just before it became 
 dark, the air was filled with the clamour of countless 
 thousands of birds of aquatic habits that flew in and 
 about our schooner's rigging. Some of these were what 
 whalemen call ' shoal birds,' ' wide-awakes,' ' molly- 
 hawks,' 'whale birds' and * mutton birds.' Among 
 them were some hundreds of frigate birds, the katafa 
 of the Ellice Islanders, and a few magnificently plum- 
 aged fishers, called kanapu by the natives of Equatorial 
 Polynesia. 
 
 Given a good breeze and plenty of daylight, the 
 whale-ships of the olden days could stand round the 
 western horn of the island, a projecting point ren- 
 dered pleasingly conspicuous by the grove of graceful 
 coco-palms which Cook was so glad to observe so 
 many years before, and then enter a deep bay on the 
 north-west coast, where they obtained good anchor- 
 age in from fifteen to twenty fathoms of water of the 
 
64 A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 most wonderful transparency, and within a mile of the 
 vast stretches of white sandy beach that trend away for 
 miles on either hand. And then the sailors, overjoyed 
 at the delightful prospect of running about in the few 
 and widely-apart palm groves, and inhaling the sweet, 
 earthy smell of the thin but fertile soil, covered with 
 its soft, thick bed of fallen leaves, would lower away the 
 boats, and pulling with their united strength through 
 the sweeping eddies of the dangerous passage, effect a 
 landing on a beach of dazzling whites and situated in 
 the inner south-west border of the wide lagoon. 
 
 On our first visit to the island, in 1872, we had 
 some glorious fishing ; and when we returned on 
 board, under the rays of a moon that shone with 
 strange, uncanny brilliancy, and revealed the coral 
 bottom ten fathoms below, the scene presented from 
 our decks was one of the greatest imaginable beauty, 
 though the loneliness of the place and the absence of 
 human life was somewhat depressing. We remained 
 at the island for three days, and during our stay our 
 crew of South Sea Islanders literally filled our decks 
 with fish, turtle and birds' eggs. Curiously enough, 
 in our scant library on board the little trading vessel 
 I came across portion of a narrative of a voyage in a 
 South Seaman, written by her surgeon, a Mr Bennett, 
 in 1838,* and our captain and myself were much 
 interested in the accurate description he gave of 
 Christmas Island and its huge rookeries of oceanic 
 birds. This is what he says : * Here and there 
 among the low thicket scrubs arc vast rookeries of 
 
 * Narrati'vc of a Whaling Vcyagc round tlic Globc^ from 1^33 to 1836. 
 By F. D. Bennett. 
 
A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 65 
 
 aquatic birds, whose clamour is deafening. They 
 nest and incubate upon the ground, and show not 
 the slightest fear of the approach of human visitors. 
 Among the sooty terns, whose number it was im- 
 possible to estimate, were many hundreds of tropic 
 birds and pure snow-white petrels.' (He no doubt 
 imagined the pure snow-white petrels to be a distinct 
 species — they were young tropic birds.) 'These 
 latter, who flew with a gentle, flapping motion, 
 would actually fly up to us and scan our counten- 
 ances with an almost human expression of interest 
 and curiosity.' (Darwin, in his account of another 
 Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, also describes 
 these gentle creatures as being of ethereal beauty.) 
 * Some, indeed, permitted themselves to be caught, 
 and although their delicate, fragile forms quivered 
 with fear when they came in contact with our hands, 
 they would, when released, return to us again and 
 again, as if seeking to solve the mystery of what 
 strange beings were these that had invaded their 
 retreat. In one rookery there were many varieties 
 of these oceanic birds, and a species of booby "that 
 seems to be peculiar to Christmas Island. In size 
 and colour they much resemble the ordinary gannet 
 of our cold northern seas. Their plumage is of a 
 wondrously bright snow white, with the exception 
 of the primary and secondary feathers of the wings, 
 and the retrices^ or tail feathers, which are of a glossy 
 black. The skin of the cheeks and chin is devoid of 
 feathers, and of a jet black colour, the beak a delicate 
 yellow blue, the legs bright blue. The solicitude of 
 the female birds of this species for their offspring 
 
 E 
 
ee A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 was most interesting to witness. Their nests were of 
 the rudest description, being merely circular heaps of 
 sand raised in the open plain and exposed to the 
 fury of storms. As we approached the nests the 
 mother birds settled themselves down upon their 
 single egg and screamed loudly, but would permit 
 themselves to be lifted off, yet struggled violently 
 in our hands to get back again. Although there 
 were thousands of these nests within a radius of an 
 acre, a brooding hen might easily have been passed 
 unnoticed, for her white plumage corresponded so 
 well with the hue of the coral sands that one was 
 apt to kick against the nest were it not for the 
 agonised, barking note of the poor mother. The 
 male birds, however, of this species did not show any 
 marital concern for their partners. They were usually 
 seated near the nests, but at once took to flight upon 
 our approach. Further on, among a thicket of scrubby 
 vegetation, we found a rookery of many thousands of 
 the superb red-tailed tropic bird [Phaeton phcenicurus)^ 
 also engaged in incubation. Their nests were mere 
 circular excavations in the sand, under the shade of 
 the bushes of the thicket. Each nest contained an 
 egg of pure white, dotted with delicate lilac spots, and 
 in size rather larger and rounder than that of the 
 domestic hen. The females, as well as the males, 
 made no attempt to escape from their nests on our 
 approach, whether they had or had not the care of 
 eggs, and consequently several of our crew, with 
 innate Polynesian vanity, soon caught a number, and 
 plucking out the two long scarlet tail feathers placed 
 them in their hat bands. 
 
A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 67 
 
 ' A hundred yards away from the rookery of the 
 tropic birds was one of a colony of the snowy tern 
 before mentioned. These gentle, black-eyed creatures 
 do not even pretend to construct a nest, but simply 
 deposit a solitary egg upon the bough of a tree (like 
 the gogo^ or whale bird). They select for this purpose 
 a tree destitute of foliage, and a branch of horizontal 
 growth. It is strange that, notwithstanding the ex- 
 posed situation of these eggs, they are very difficult 
 to find ; and it was not until long after the solicitude 
 of the parent birds informed us that their spot of in- 
 cubation was near that we could solve the mystery 
 which attended their nursery. Each egg is the size 
 of a pigeon's, and marked with either blood or choco- 
 late-coloured splashes and spots of irregular shape. 
 Considering the slenderness of the branches on which 
 they are deposited, it is remarkable that the eggs 
 (which appear to be at the mercy of every passing 
 breeze) should yet retain their extraordinary position 
 during incubation.' (Any Pacific Islander could easily 
 have explained this seeming mystery. The shell, when 
 the egg is laid, is covered with a strong adhesive 
 coating. I have often seen a single ^'^g^ laid upon a 
 slender branch, swaying about in a strong trade wind, 
 and yet remain firmly in its position.) * What may be 
 the habits of the newly-hatched birds we had no 
 opportunity of learning, as none of the latter came 
 within our observation. 
 
 'Small reef birds (tern) were present in prodigious 
 numbers, skimming the waters of the coast with an 
 erratic, rapid, but yet graceful flight, like that of the 
 stormy petrel. At night they assembled in vast 
 
68 A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 numbers on an islet in the lagoon, to roost on the 
 trees. They are about the size of an Australian snipe, 
 and their forms are models of elegance and beauty. 
 Their plumage is in true slate colour, the secondary 
 wings are white, and a narrow white zone surrounds 
 each eye ; their legs and feet are a pale blue, with 
 white webs. 
 
 ' Every now and then as we, during our visit, walked 
 along the snow-white beaches, great crowds of golden- 
 winged plover and tiny snipe sprang skyward, and 
 swept in graceful gyrations over the broad expanse of 
 water, till they settled upon some sandy spit or spot of 
 projecting reef; and, indeed, the immense concourse 
 or frigate birds, boobies, terns, petrels and other 
 aquatic denizens of the island filled us with boundless 
 astonishment. 
 
 ' At night time there crept out from their lairs in 
 the loose coral shingle that lined the scrub at high- 
 water mark, incredible numbers of huge "land 
 lobsters "^ — the "robber crab" of the Pacific Islands. 
 They all crawled to within a few feet of the placid 
 waters of the lagoon, where they remained motionless, 
 as if awaiting some event — possibly to prey upon the 
 smaller species of crustacece and turtle eggs.' 
 
 Christm^as Island, in its structure and elevation, much 
 resembles Palmerston Island, Arrecifos or Providence 
 Island (the secret rendezvous of Captain * Bully ' 
 Hayes), Brown's Range, and other low-lying atolls 
 of the North and South Pacific. The greater part of 
 the interior of the island is, however, despite the vast 
 number of coco-nuts planted upon it during the past 
 ten years, still sadly deficient in cheerful vegetation. 
 
A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 69 
 
 The waters of the lagoon vary greatly in depth, but 
 generally are shallow and much broken up by sandy 
 spits, reefs and huge coral boulders which protrude 
 at low water, and the surface is much subject to 
 the action of the trade wind, which, when blowing 
 strong, lashes them into a wild surf; and the low 
 shores of the encircling islets, that form a continuous 
 reef-connected chain, are rendered invisible from the 
 opposite side by the smoky haze and spume which 
 ascends in clouds from the breaking surf that rolls 
 and thunders on the outer barrier reefs. 
 
 In the interior no fresh water is obtainable, although 
 in the rainy season some of a brackish quality can be 
 had by sinking shallow wells. This water rises and 
 falls in the wells in unison with the tides. Here and 
 there are very extensive swamps of sea-water, evapor- 
 rated to a strong brine ; the margins of these are 
 clothed with a fair growth of the pandanus or screw- 
 pine palm, the fruit of which, when ripe, forms a 
 nutritious and palatable food for the natives of the 
 Equatorial Pacific Islands. 
 
 The island where Captain Cook set up his observa- 
 tory is but a small strip of sandy soil, clothed with a few 
 coco-palms, some screw-palms (pandanus), and a thick- 
 matted carpet of a vine called At At by the natives. The 
 only quadrupeds are rats, and some huge land tortoises, 
 similar to those of the Galapagos Islands. They are 
 most hideous-looking creatures, and, being of nocturnal 
 habits, like the great robber crab, are apt to produce a 
 most terrifying impression upon the beholder, if met 
 with in the loneliness of the night. The present 
 human occupants of Christmas Island are, however, 
 
JO A NORTH PACIFIC LAGOON ISLAND 
 
 well supplied with pigs and poultry ; and though this 
 far-away dot of Britain's empire beyond the seas is 
 scarcely known to the world, and visited but twice 
 a year by a trading vessel from Sydney, they are 
 happy and contented in their home in this lonely isle 
 of the mid-Pacific. 
 
Bilger, of Sydney 
 
BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 A DEATH in the family brought about my fatal ac- 
 quaintance with Bilger. A few days after the funeral, 
 as my sister and I sat talking on the verandah of 
 our cottage (which overlooked the waters of Sydney 
 Harbour) and listened to the pouring rain upon the 
 shingled roof, we saw a man open the garden gate and 
 come slowly up to the house. He carried an ancient 
 umbrella, the tack lashings of which on one side had 
 given way entirely, showing six bare ribs. As he 
 walked up the path, his large, sodden boots made a 
 nasty, squelching sound, and my sister, who has a large 
 heart, at once said, ' Poor creature ; I wonder who he 
 is. I hope it isn't the coal man come for his money.' 
 
 He went round to the back door and, after letting 
 himself drain off a bit, knocked gently and with 
 exceeding diffidence. 
 
 I asked him his business. He said he wanted to 
 see my wife. 
 
 ' Not here. Gone away for a month.' 
 
 ' Dear, dear, how sad ! Broken down, no doubt, 
 with a mother's grief. Is there any other lady in 
 the family whom I could see ? ' 
 
 'What the deuce do you want ?' I began angrily ; 
 then, as he raised his weak, watery eyes to mine, and 
 
 73 
 
74 BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 I saw that his grey hairs were as wet as his boots, 
 I relented. Perhaps he was someone who knew my 
 wife or her people, and wanted to condole with her 
 over the death of her baby. He looked sober enough, 
 so, as he seemed much agitated, I asked him to sit 
 down, and said I would send my sister to him. Then 
 I went back to my pipe and chair. Ten minutes later 
 my sister Kate came to me with her handkerchief to 
 her eyes. 
 
 * Do go and see the old fellow. He has such a 
 sympathetic nature. I'm sure I should have cried 
 aloud had I stayed any longer. Anyone would think 
 he had known poor little Teddie ever since he was 
 born. I've asked Mary to make him a cup of tea.' 
 
 'Who is he?' 
 
 * I don't know his name, but he seems so 
 sympathetic. And he says he should be so pleased 
 if he might see you again for a few minutes. He 
 says, too, that you have a good and kind face. I 
 told him that you would be sure to take at least a 
 dozen of those in cream and gold. There's nothing 
 at all vulgar ; quite the reverse.' 
 
 ' What are you talking about, Kate ? Who is this 
 sodden old lunatic, and what on earth are you crying 
 for ? ' 
 
 My sister nearly sobbed. *I always thought that 
 what you derisively termed " mortuary bards " were 
 horrid people, but this old man has a beautiful nature. 
 And he's very wet^ — and hungry too, I'm sure ; and 
 Mary looks at him as if he were a dog. Do try and 
 help him. I think we might get one or two dozen 
 cream and gold cards, and two dozen black-edged. 
 
BILGER, OF SYDNEY 75 
 
 And then he's a journalist, too. He's told me quite 
 a sad little story of his life struggle, and the moment 
 I told him you were on the Evening News he quite 
 brightened up, and said he knew your name quite 
 well.' 
 
 * Kate,' I said, ' I don't want to see the man. 
 What the deuce does he want ? If he is one of those 
 loafing scoundrels of undertakers' and mortuary 
 masons' touts, just send him about his business ; 
 give him a glass of whisky and tell Mary to clear 
 him out.' 
 
 My sister said that to send an old man out in such 
 weather was not like me. Surely I would at least 
 speak a kind word to him. 
 
 In sheer desperation I went out to the man. He 
 addressed me in husky tones, and said that he desired 
 to express his deep sympathy with me in my affliction, 
 also that he was *a member of the Fourth Estate.' 
 Seven years before he had edited the Barangoora News^ 
 but his determined opposition to a dishonest Govern- 
 ment led to his ruin, and now — 
 
 ' Ail right, old man ; stow all that. What do you 
 want ? ' 
 
 He looked at me reproachfully, and taking up a 
 small leather bag, said that he represented Messrs 
 
 , 'Monumental Masons and Memorial Card 
 
 Designers and Printers,' and should feel pleased if I 
 would look at his samples. 
 
 He was such a wretched, hungry-looking, down- 
 upon-his-beam-ends old fellow, that I could not refuse 
 to inspect his wares. And then his boots filled me 
 with pity. For such a little man he had the biggest 
 
76 BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 boots I ever sav/ — baggy, elastic sides, and toes turned 
 up, with the after part of the uppers sticking out some 
 inches beyond the frayed edges of his trousers. As 
 he sat down and drew these garments up, and his 
 bare, skinny legs showed above his wrecked boots, 
 his feet looked like two water-logged cutters under 
 bare poles, with the water running out of the 
 scuppers. 
 
 Mary brought the whisky. I poured him out a 
 good, stiff second mate's nip. It did my heart good 
 to see him drink it, and hear the soft ecstatic ' Ah, ah, 
 ah,' which broke from him when he put the glass 
 down ; it was a Te Deum Laudamus. 
 
 Having briefly intimated to him that I had no 
 intention of buying ' a handsome granite monument, 
 with suitable inscription, or twelve lines of verse, 
 for ^4, 17s. 6d.,' 1 took up his packet of In 
 Mcmoriam cards and went through them. The first 
 one was a hand-drawn design in cream and sold — 
 Kate's fancy. It represented in the centre an enor- 
 mously bloated infant with an idiotic leer, lying upon 
 its back on a blue cloud with scalloped edges, whilst 
 two male angels, each with an extremely vicious 
 expression, were pulling the cloud along by means of 
 tow-lines attached to their wings. Underneath were 
 these words in MS. : 'More angels can be added, if 
 desired, at an extra charge of 6d. each.' 
 
 No. 2 represented a disorderly flight of cherubims, 
 savagely attacking a sleeping infant in its cradle, which 
 was supported on either hand by two vulgar-looking 
 female angels blowing bullock horns in an apathetic 
 manner. 
 
BILGER, OF SYDNEY 77 
 
 No. 3 rather took my fancy — there was so much in 
 it — four large fowls flying across the empyrean ; each 
 bird carried a rose as large as a cabbage in its beak, 
 and apparently intended to let them drop upon a group 
 of family mourners beneath. The MS. inscribed 
 said, ^ If photographs are supplied of members of the 
 Mourning Family, our artist will reproduce same in 
 group gathered round the deceased. If doves are not 
 approved, cherubims, angels, or floral designs may be 
 used instead, for small extra charge.' 
 
 Whilst I was going through these horrors the old 
 man kept up a babbling commentary on their par- 
 ticular and collective beauties ; then he wanted me 
 to look at his specimens of verse, much of which, he 
 added, with fatuous vanity, was his own composition. 
 
 I did read some of it, and felt a profound pity for the 
 corpse that had to submit to such degradation. Here 
 are four specimens, the first of which was marked, 
 ' Especially suitable for a numerous family, who have 
 lost an aged parent, gold lettering is. 6d. extra,' — 
 
 ' Mary and May and Peter and John [or other names] 
 Loved and honoured him [or her] who has gone j 
 White was his [or her] hair and kind was his [or her] heart, 
 Oh why, we all sigh, were we made thus to part ? ' 
 
 Fo7- an Aunt, {Suitable 'verses for Uneles at same rates.) 
 
 ' Even our own sweet mother, who is so kind. 
 Could not wring our hearts more if she went and left us behind j 
 A halo of glory is now on thy head. 
 Ah, sad, sad thought that good auntie is dead.' 
 
 For a Father or Mother. 
 ' Oh children, dear, when I was alive, 
 To get you bread I hard did strive ; 
 I now am where I need no bread, 
 And wear a halo round my head. 
 Weep not upon my tomb, I pray. 
 But do your duty day by day.' 
 
78 BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 The last but one was still more beautiful, — 
 
 For a Child ivho suffered a Long Illness before Decease. 
 
 [I remarked casually that a child could not suffer 
 even a short illness after decease. Bilger smiled a 
 watery smile and said ' No.'] 
 
 'For many long months did we fondly sit, 
 And watch our darling fade bit by bit ; 
 Till an angel called from out the sky, 
 " Come home, dear child, to the Sweet By-and-By. 
 Hard was your lot on earth's sad plain, 
 But now you shall never suffer again, 
 For cherubims and seraphims will welcome you here. 
 Fond parents, lament not for the loss of one so dear.'" 
 [N.B. — These are very beautiful lines.'] 
 
 The gem of the collection, however, was this : — 
 
 Suitable for a child of any age. The beautiful simplicity of the luords hwve 
 brought us an enormous amount of orders from bereaved parents. 
 
 ' Our [Emily] was so fair, 
 That the angels envied her, 
 And whispered in her ear, 
 "We will take you away on [Tuesday] night."' 
 
 \Pra'wing of angels carrying aiuay deceased child, is. 6d. extra.] 
 
 The old imbecile put his damp finger upon this, 
 and asked me what I thought of it. I said it was 
 very simple but touching, and then, being anxious to 
 get rid of him, ordered two dozen of Kate's fancy. He 
 thanked me most fervently, and said he would bring 
 them to me in a few days. I hurriedly remarked he 
 could post them instead, paid him in advance, and told 
 him to help himself to some more whisky. He did 
 so, and I observed, with some regret, that he took 
 nearly half a tumblerful. 
 
 * Dear, dear me,' he said, with an apologetic smile, 
 ' I'm afraid I have taken too much ; would you 
 
BILGER, OF SYDNEY 79 
 
 kindly pour some back. My hand is somewhat shaky. 
 Old age, sir, if I may indulge in a platitude, is — ' 
 
 'Oh, never mind putting any back. It's a long 
 walk to the ferry, and a wet day beside.' 
 
 * True, true,' he said meditatively, looking at Mary 
 carrying in the dinner, and drinking the whisky in 
 an abstracted manner. 
 
 Just then my sister beckoned me out. She said it 
 was very thoughtless of me to pour gallons of whisky 
 down the poor old fellow's throat, upon an empty 
 stomach. 
 
 ' Perhaps you would like me to ask him to have 
 dinner with us ? ' I said with dignified sarcasm. 
 
 ' I think we might at least let Mary give him some- 
 thing to eat.' 
 
 Of course I yielded, and my sister bade Mary give 
 our visitor a good dinner. For such a small man he 
 had an appetite that would have done credit to a long- 
 fasting tiger shark tackling a dead whale ; and every 
 time I glanced at Mary's face as she waited on my 
 sister and myself I saw that she was verging upon 
 frenzy. At last, however, we heard him shuffling 
 about on the verandah, and thought he was going 
 without saying ' thank you.' We wronged him, for 
 presently he called to Mary and asked her if I would 
 kindly grant him a few words after I had finished 
 dinner. 
 
 'Confound him ! What the deuce — ' 
 
 My sister said, ' Don't be cruel to the poor old 
 fellow. Tou may he like him yourself some day,"* 
 
 I said I didn't doubt it, if my womenfolk encouraged 
 every infernal old dead-beat in the colony to come and 
 
8o BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 loaf upon me. Two large tears at once ran down 
 Kate's nose, and dropped into the custard on her plate. 
 I softened at once and went out. 
 
 * Permit me, sir,' he said, in a wobbly kind of voice, 
 as he lurched to and fro in the doorway, and tried to 
 jab the point of his umbrella into a knot-hole in the 
 verandah boards in order to steady himself, ' permit 
 me, sir, to thank you for your kindness and to tender 
 you my private card. Perhaps I may be able to serve 
 you in some humble way ' — here the umbrella point 
 stuck in the hole, and he clung to the handle with 
 both hands — ' some humble way, sir. Like yourself, 
 I am a literary man, as this will show you.' He 
 fumbled in his breast pocket with his left hand, and 
 would have fallen over on his back but for the 
 umbrella handle, to which he clung with his right. 
 Presently he extracted a dirty card and handed it to 
 me, with a bow, which he effected by doubling himself 
 on his stomach over the friendly gamp, and remained in 
 that position, swaying to and fro, for quite ten seconds. 
 I read the card : — 
 
 MK HORATIO BILGER 
 
 journalist and Litterateur 
 For?nerly Editor of the ' Barangoora Nezvs ' 
 
 Real Aylesbury Ducks for Sale 
 Book-keeping Taught in Four Lessons 
 
 4^ Kellct Street, 
 DarVinghurst, Sydney 
 
 I said I should bear him in mind, and, after helping 
 him to release his umbrella, saw him down the steps 
 and watched him disappear. 
 
BILGER, OF SYDNEY 8i 
 
 ' Thank Heaven ! ' I said to Kate, * we have seen the 
 last of him.' 
 
 I was bitterly mistaken, for next morning when I 
 entered the office, Bilger was there awaiting me, out- 
 side the sub-editor's room. He was wearing a new 
 pair of boots, much larger than the old ones, and 
 smiled pleasantly at me, and said he had brought his 
 son Edward to see me, feeling sure that I would use 
 my influence with the editor and manager to get him 
 put on as a canvasser. 
 
 I refused point blank to see * Edward ' then or at any 
 other time, and said that even if there was a vacancy 
 I should not recommend a stranger. He sighed, and 
 said that I should like Edward, once I knew him. 
 He was 'a noble lad, but misfortune had dogged 
 his footsteps — a brave, heroic nature, fighting hard 
 against unmerited adversity.' I went in and shut 
 the door. 
 
 Two days later Kate asked me at supper if I 
 couldnt do something for old Bilger s son. 
 
 ' Has that infernal old nuisance been writing to you 
 about his confounded son ? ' 
 
 * How ill-tempered you are ! The " old nuisance," 
 as you call him, has behaved very nicely. He sent his 
 son over here to thank us for our kindness, and to ask 
 me to accept a dozen extra cards from himself. The 
 son is a very respectable-looking man, but rather 
 shabby. He is coming again to-morrow to help 
 Mary to put up the new wire clothes line.' 
 
 * Is he ? Well, then, Mary can pay him.' 
 
 ' Don't be so horrid. He doesn't want payment 
 
 F 
 
82 BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 for it. But, of course, I shall pay his fare each way. 
 Mary says he's such a willing young man.' 
 
 In the morning I saw Mr Edward Bilger, helping 
 Mary. He was a fat-faced, greasy-looking youth, with 
 an attempted air of hang-dog respectability, and with 
 * loafer ' v/rit large on his forehead. I stepped over to 
 him and said,— 
 
 ' Now, look here. I don't want you fooling about 
 the premises. Here's two shillings for you. Clear 
 out, and if you come back again on any pretence 
 whatever I'll give you in charge.' 
 
 He accepted the two shillings with thanks, said that 
 he meant no offence, but he thought Mary was not 
 strong enough to put up a wire clothes line. 
 
 Mary (who was standing by, looking very sulky) 
 was a cow-like creature of eleven stone, and I laughed. 
 She at once sniffed and marched away. Mr Bilger, 
 junior, presently followed her into the kitchen. I 
 went after him and ordered him out. Mary was 
 leaning against the dresser, biting her nails and 
 looking at me viciously. 
 
 Half an hour later, as I walked to the ferry, I saw 
 Mr Bilger, junior, sitting by the roadside, eating 
 bread and meat (my property). He stood up as I 
 passed, and said politely that it looked like rain. I 
 requested him to make a visit to Sheol, and passed on. 
 
 In the afternoon my sister called upon me at the 
 Evening News office. She wore that look of resigned 
 martyrdom peculiar to women who have something 
 unpleasant to say. 
 
 'Mary has given me notice-of course.' 
 
 * Why "of course?'" 
 
BILGER, OF SYDNEY 83 
 
 Kate rose with an air of outraged dignity. 
 * Servants don't like to be bullied and sworn at — 
 not white servants, anyway. You can't expect the 
 girl to stay. She's a very good girl, and I'm sure 
 that that young man Bilger was doing no harm. 
 As it is, you have placed me in a most unpleas- 
 ant position ; I had told him that he could let his 
 younger brothers and sisters come and weed the 
 paddock, and — ' 
 
 ' Why not invite the v/hole Bilger family to come 
 and live on the premises ? ' I began, when Kate 
 interrupted me by saying that if I was going to be 
 violent she would leave me. Then she sailed out 
 with an injured expression of countenance. 
 
 When I returned home to dinner at 7.30, Mary 
 waited upon us in sullen silence. After dinner I 
 called her in, gave her a week's wages in lieu of 
 notice, and told her to get out of the house as a 
 nuisance. Kate went outside and wept. 
 
 From that day the Bilger family proved a curse to 
 me. Old Bilger wrote me a note expressing his 
 sorrow that his son — quite innocently — had given me 
 offence ; also he regretted to hear that my servant had 
 left me. Mrs Bilger, he added, was quite grieved, 
 and would do her best to send some ' likely girls ' over. 
 ' If none of them suited, Mrs Bilger would be delighted 
 to come and assist my sister in the mornings. She 
 was an excellent, worthy woman.' And he ventured, 
 with all due respect, to suggest to me that my sister 
 looked very delicate. His poor lad Edward was very 
 sad at heart over the turn matters had taken. The 
 
84 BILGER, OF SYDNEY 
 
 younger children, too, were sadly grieved — to be in a 
 garden, even to toil, would be a revelation to them. 
 
 That evening I went home in a bad temper. Kate, 
 instead of meeting me as usual at the gate, was cook- 
 ing dinner, looking hot and resigned. I dined alone, 
 Kate saying coldly that she did not care about eating 
 anything. The only other remark she made that 
 evening was that ' Mary had cried very bitterly when 
 she left.' 
 
 I said, ' The useless, fat beast ! ' 
 
 The Curse of Bilger rested upon me for quite three 
 months. He called twice a week, regularly, and 
 borrowed two shillings ' until next Monday.' Then one 
 day that greasy ruffian, Bilger, junior, came into the 
 Evening News office, full of tears and colonial beer, 
 and said that his poor father was dead, and that his 
 mother thought I might perhaps lend her a pound to 
 help bury him. 
 
 The sub-editor (who was overjoyed at Bilger's 
 demise) lent me ten shillings, which I gave to 
 Edward, and told him I was sorry to hear the old 
 man was dead. I am afraid my face belied my words. 
 
The Vision of Milli the Slave 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 One day a message came over from Tetoro, King 
 of Pare, in Tahiti, to his vassal Mahua, chief of 
 Tetuaroa,* saying, ' Get thee ready a great feast, 
 for in ten days I send thee my daughter Laea to 
 be wife to thy son Narii. 
 
 For Narii, the son of the chief of Tetuaroa, had 
 long been smitten with the beauty of Laea, and de- 
 sired to make her his wife. Only once had he seen 
 her ; but since then he had sent over many canoes 
 laden with presents, such as hogs and turtle, and 
 great bunches of plantains, and fine tappa cloth for 
 her acceptance. 
 
 But Tetoro, her father, was a greedy man, and 
 cried for more ; and Mahua, so that his son might 
 gain his heart's desire, became hard and cruel to the 
 people of Tetuaroa. 
 
 Day after day he sent his servants to every village 
 on the island demandina; from them all such thino-s as 
 would please the eye of Tetoro ; so that by-and-by 
 there was but little left in their plantations, and still 
 less in their houses. 
 
 And so, with sullen faces and low murmurs of 
 
 * Tetuaroa is an island about forty miles from Tahiti. It was in 
 those days (1808) part of the hereditary possessions of the chief of Pare. 
 
 87 
 
88 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 anger, the people yielded up their treasures of mats 
 and tappa cloth, and such other things that the 
 servants of the chief discovered in their dv/ellings, 
 and w^atched them carried away to appease the avarice 
 of Tetoro the King. 
 
 One night, when they were gathered together in 
 their houses, and the torches of tut tui (candle-nut 
 kernels) were lighted, they talked among themselves, 
 not loudly but in whispers, for no one knew but that 
 one of the chief's body-men might perhaps be listen- 
 ing outside, and that to them meant swift death from 
 the anger of Mahua. 
 
 ' Why has this misfortune come upon us ? ' they said 
 to one another. ' Why should Narii, who is an aito^ * 
 set his heart upon the daughter of Tetoro when 
 there are women of as good blood as her close to his 
 hand ? Surely, when she comes here to live, then 
 will there be hard times in the land, and we shall be 
 eaten up with hunger.' 
 
 ' Ay,' said a girl named Milli, ' it is hard that we 
 should give our all to a strange woman.' 
 
 She spoke very loudly, and without fear, and the 
 rest of the people looked wonderingly at her, for she 
 was but a poor slave, and, as such, should not have 
 raised her voice when men were present. So they 
 angrily bade her be silent. Who was she that dared 
 to speak of such things ? If she died of hunger, they 
 said, what did it matter ? She was but a girl and a 
 slave, and girls' lives were worth nothing until they 
 bore male children. 
 
 And then Milli the Slave sprang up, her eyes 
 
 * A man distinguished in warfare. 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 89 
 
 blazing with anger, and heaped scorn upon them 
 for cowards. 
 
 ' See,' she said, and her voice shook with passion ; 
 ' see me, Milli the Slave, standing before ye all, and 
 listen to my words, so that your hearts may grow 
 strong, even as strong as mine has grown. Listen 
 while I tell thee of a dream that came to me in 
 the night. 
 
 'In my dream this land of ours became as it was 
 fifteen moons ago, and as it may never be again. I 
 saw the groves of plantains, with their loads of fruit, 
 shine red and yellow, like the setting of the sun, and 
 the ground was forced open because of the great size 
 of the yams and taro and arrowroot that grew be- 
 neath ; and I heard the heavy fall of the ripe coco- 
 nuts on the grass, and the crooning notes of the 
 pigeons that fed upon the red mati berries were as the 
 low booming of the surf on the reef when it sounds 
 far distant.' 
 
 For a little while she ceased, and the people 
 muttered. 
 
 ' Ay, it was so, fifteen moons ago.' 
 
 And then Milli, sinking upon one knee, and spread- 
 ing out her arms towards them, spoke again, but in a 
 low, soft voice, — 
 
 ' And I saw the white beach of Teavamoa black 
 with turtle that could scarce crawl seaward because 
 of their fatness ; and saw the canoes, filled to the 
 gunwales with white, shining fish, come paddling 
 in from the lagoon ; and then came the night. 
 And in the night I heard the sound of the vivo* 
 
 * Nasal flute. 
 
90 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 and the beat of the drum, and the songs and laughter 
 and the shouts of the people as they made merry 
 and sang and danced, and ate and drank, till the 
 red sun burst out from the sea, and they lay down 
 to sleep. 
 
 'And then, behold there came into my dream a 
 small black cloud. It gathered together at Pare, and 
 rose from the ground, and was borne across the sea 
 to Tetuaroa.* As it came nearer, darker and darker 
 grew the shadows over this land, till at last it was 
 wrapped up in the blackness of night. And then 
 out of the belly of the cloud there sprang a woman 
 arrayed as a bride, and behind her there followed men 
 with faces strange to me, whose stamping footsteps 
 shook the island to its roots in the deep sea. Then 
 came a mystic voice to me, which said, — 
 
 ' " Follow and see." 
 
 ' So I followed and saw ' — she sprang to her feet, 
 and her voice rang sharp and fierce — 'I saw the 
 strange woman and those with her pass swiftly over 
 the land like as the shadows of birds fall upon the 
 ground when the sun is high and their flight is low 
 and quick. And as they passed, the plantains and 
 taro and arrowroot were torn up and stripped and 
 left to perish ; and there was nought left of the 
 swarms of turtle and fish but their bones ; for the 
 black cloud and the swift shadows that ran before 
 it had eaten out the heart of the land, and not even 
 one coco-nut was left. 
 
 ' And then I heard a great crying and weeping of 
 
 * Tetoro's canoe, in which he sent his daughter to Tetuaroa, was 
 painted black by an English sailor who, living under his protection, 
 afterwards married his daughter. 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 91 
 
 many voices, and I saw men and women lying down 
 in their houses with their bones sticking out of their 
 skins ; and wild pigs, perishing with hunger, sprang 
 in upon them and tore their bellies open with 
 their tusks, and devoured them, and fought with 
 each other among the bones and blood of those 
 they ate.' 
 
 A groan of terror burst from the listening people, 
 and the slave girl, with her lips parted and her 
 white teeth set, looked with gleaming, angry eyes 
 slowly round the group. 
 
 ' Again I heard the cries and the groans and the 
 weeping ; and I saw thee, Foani, take thy suckling 
 child from thy withered breast, and give it to thy 
 husband, so that it might be slain to feed thy other 
 children. And then thou, too, Tiria, and thou, Hini, 
 and many other women, did I see slay thy children 
 and their children, and cook and eat them, even as 
 the wild pigs had eaten those men and women that lay 
 dying on their mats. And this, O people ! is all of 
 the dream that came to me ; for then a great sweat 
 ran down over my body, and a heavy pain came upon 
 my heart, so that I awoke.' 
 
 She trembled and sank down again among the 
 women, in the midst of whom she had been sitting, 
 and then growling, angry murmurs ran round the 
 assemblage, and the names of Narii and the king's 
 daughter passed from lip to lip. 
 
 Well as they liked their chief's son — for he was 
 distinguished alike for his bravery and generosity — 
 they yet saw that his marriage with Laea would mean 
 
92 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 a continued existence of misery to them all, or at least 
 so long as the young man's passion for his wife lasted. 
 
 Past experience had taught them many a bitter 
 lesson, for ever since their island had been conquered, 
 they had been subjected to the payment of the most 
 exacting tribute. 
 
 Fertile as was Tetuaroa, the continued demands 
 made upon its people for food by the royal family 
 of Tahiti had frequently reduced them to a condition 
 bordering upon starvation. 
 
 But these requests had, of late years, been so much 
 modified, that the island, under the rule of Mahua, had 
 become renowned for its wealth of food and the pros- 
 perous condition of its inhabitants. 
 
 It was, therefore, with no pleasant feelings that the 
 people viewed the approaching marriage of the son of 
 their chief to the child of the grasping Tetoro, a man 
 who would certainly see no abatement made in the 
 extortions he had succeeded in inducing his vassal 
 Mahua to again inaugurate. 
 
 At midnight, long after the women were asleep, 
 the principal men of the island met together and 
 talked of the dream described by the slave girl. So 
 firmly were they convinced that she had been chosen 
 by the gods as a means of warning them of their 
 impending fate if the marriage took place, that they 
 firmly resolved to frustrate it, even if it cost every 
 one of them his life. 
 
 But, so that neither Mahua nor his son should 
 suspect their intentions, they set about to prepare for 
 the great feast ordered by Tetoro ; and for the next 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 93 
 
 week or so the whole population was busily engaged 
 in bringing together their various presents of food and 
 goods, and conveying them to the chief's house, where, 
 on the arrival of the fleet of canoes that would bring 
 the king's daughter from Pare, they would be pre- 
 sented to her in person by the priests and minor chiefs. 
 
 On the afternoon of the tenth day, some men whom 
 Mahua had set to watch for Tetoro's fleet saw the 
 great mat sails of five war canoes sweeping across the 
 long line of palms that fringed the southern beach. 
 Then there was great commotion, and many pu * 
 were sounded from one end of the island to the other, 
 bidding the people to assemble at the landing-place 
 and welcome the bride of the chief's son. 
 
 Now, it so happened that Narii, when the cry arose 
 that the canoes were coming, was sitting alone in a 
 little bush-house near the south point of the island. 
 He had come there with two or three of his young 
 men attendants, so that he might be dressed and 
 adorned to meet Tetoro's daughter. As soon as they 
 had completed their task he had sent them away, for 
 he intended to remain in the bush-house till his father 
 sent for him ; for such was the custom of the land. 
 
 Very gay and handsome he looked, when presently 
 he stood up and looked out over the lagoon to where 
 the canoes were entering the passage. Round his 
 waist was a girdle of bright yellow strips of plantain 
 leaves, mixed with the scarlet leaves of the ti plant ; a 
 band of pearl-shell ornaments encircled his forehead, 
 and his long, black hair, perfumed with scented oil, 
 
 * The conch shell. 
 
94 THE VISION OF MILLT THE SLAVE 
 
 was twisted up in a high spiral knob, and ornamented 
 with scarlet hibiscus flowers. Across one broad 
 shoulder there hung a small, snowy-white poncho or 
 cape, made of fine tappa cloth, and round his wrists 
 and ankles were circlets of pearl shell, enclosed in a 
 netting of black coir cinnet. On each leg there was 
 tattooed, in bright blue, a coco-nut tree, its roots 
 spreading out at the heel and running in wavy lines 
 along the instep to the toes, its elastic stalk shooting 
 upwards till its waving plumes spread gracefully out 
 on the broad, muscular calf. 
 
 Yet, although he was so finely arrayed, Narii was 
 troubled in his mind ; for not once did those who had 
 dressed him speak of Laea, and this the young man 
 thought was strange, for he would have been pleased 
 to hear them talk to him of her beauty. In silence 
 had they attended to his needs, and this hurt him, for 
 they were all dear friends. So at last, when they rose 
 to leave him, he had said, — 
 
 ' Why is it that none of ye speak either to me, or to 
 one another ? Am I a corpse that is dressed for the 
 funeral rites ? ' 
 
 Then one of them, named Tanco, his foster- 
 brother, answered, and bent his head as he spoke, — 
 
 ' Oh, Narii, son of Mahua, and mine own brother, 
 hast thou not heard of the dream of Milli ? ' 
 
 At the name of Milli, the hot blood leapt into the 
 face of the chief's son ; but he answered quickly, — 
 
 ' Nay, naught have I heard, and liow can the dream 
 of a slave girl concern mc on such a day as this r ' 
 
 ' Oh, Narii ! ' replied Taneo, ' 'tis more tlian a 
 dream ; for the god Oro hath spoken to her, and 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 95 
 
 shown her things that concern thee and all of thy 
 father's people.' And with that the young men arose 
 and left him without further speech. 
 
 Little did Narii know that scarce a stone's throw 
 away from where he stood, Milli, with love in her 
 eyes, was watching him from behind a clump of 
 plantain trees. She, too, was arrayed as if for a 
 dance or a marriage, and behind her were a number 
 of women, who were crouched together and spoke 
 only in whispers. 
 
 As they stood, the sounds of the drums and flutes 
 and conches came from the village, and then Narii 
 went forth from the little house, and walked towards 
 it through the palm grove. 
 
 As he stepped proudly along the shaded path he 
 heard his name called in a low voice, and Milli the 
 Slave stood before him with downcast eyes, and barred 
 his path. 
 
 Now, Narii, bold as he was, feared to meet this 
 girl, and so for some moments no words came to 
 him, and Milli, looking quickly up, saw that he 
 had placed his right hand over his eyes. Then she 
 spoke, — 
 
 ' See, Narii, I do but come to thee to speak some 
 little words ; so turn thy face to me once more ; for 
 from this day thou shalt never again see Milli the 
 Slave.' 
 
 But Narii, still keeping his hand to his eyes, turned 
 aside, and leaning his forehead against the trunk of a 
 palm-tree, kept silence awhile. Then he said, in a 
 low voice, — 
 
96 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 * Oh, Milli, be not too hard ! This woman Laea 
 hath bewitched me — and then — thou art but a 
 slave.' 
 
 * Aye,' answered the girl, softly, ^ I am but a slave, 
 and this Laea is very beautiful and the daughter of a 
 great chief. So for that do I come to say farewell, 
 and to ask thee to drink with me this bowl of orange 
 juice. 'Tis all I have to offer, for I am poor and 
 have no wedding gift to give thee ; and yet with 
 this mean offering do I for ever give thee the hot 
 love of my heart — ay, and my life also, if thou 
 should'st need it.' 
 
 And so, to please the girl whom he had once 
 loved, he received from her hand the drink of orange 
 juice, which she took from a basket she carried, and 
 yet as he drank he looked away, for he feared to see 
 her eyes looking into his. 
 
 Only one word did he say as he turned away, and 
 that was ' Farewell,' and Milli answered ' Farewell, 
 Narii ; ' but when he had gone some distance she 
 followed him and sobbed softly to herself. 
 
 And soon, as Narii walked, his body swayed to and 
 fro and his feet struck the roots of the trees that 
 grew out through the soil along the path. Then 
 Milli, running swiftly up, caught him as he fell, 
 and laid his head upon her knees. His eyes were 
 closed and his skin dead to her touch. 
 
 Presently the bushes near by parted, and two 
 women came out, and lifting Narii between them, 
 they carried the young man to a shady place and 
 laid him down. 
 
 And then Milli wept as she bent her face over 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 97 
 
 that of the man she loved, but the two older women 
 bade her cease. 
 
 Once more the girl looked at Narii, and then, 
 stepping out into the path, ran swiftly towards the 
 village. 
 
 The five canoes were now sailing quickly over 
 the smooth lagoon, with the streamers from their 
 mat sails floating in the wind, and on the stages 
 that ran from their sides to the outriggers were 
 grouped parties of singers and dancers, with painted 
 bodies and faces dyed scarlet with the juice of the 
 ?nati berry, who sang and danced, and shouted, and 
 made a brave show for the people who awaited 
 their coming on the shore. 
 
 On the great stage of the first canoe, which was 
 painted black, v/as seated Laea, surrounded by her 
 women attendants, who joined in the wild singing 
 whenever the name of their mistress formed the 
 singers' theme. 
 
 Then suddenly, as each steersman let fall from 
 his hand his great steering paddle, which was 
 secured by a rope to the side, the canoes ran up 
 into the wind, the huge mat sails were lowered, 
 the stone anchors dropped overboard, and the music 
 and dancing ceased. 
 
 And then a strange thing happened, and Laea, 
 who was of a proud and haughty disposition, as 
 became her lineage, grew pale with anger ; for 
 suddenly the great crowd of people which had 
 assembled on the beach seemed to sway to and 
 fro, and then separate and form into two bodies ; 
 
98 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 and she saw that the women and children had 
 gathered apart from the men and stood in a com- 
 pact mass on the brow of the beach, and the men, 
 in strange, ominous quiet, spear and club in hand, 
 had ranged, without a sound, in battle array before 
 her escort. 
 
 There was silence awhile, and then Taneo, the 
 foster brother of Narii, clothed in his armour of 
 cinnet fibre, and grasping a short stabbing spear in 
 his hand, stepped out of the ranks. 
 
 * Get thee back again to Tahiti, O men of Pare,' 
 he said quietly, striking his spear into the sand. 
 'This marriage is not to our minds.' 
 
 Then Laea, as she looked at the amazed and 
 angered faces of her people as they heard Taneo's 
 insulting words, dashed aside her attendants, and 
 leaping from the canoe into the shallow water, 
 walked to the shore, and stood face to face with 
 him. 
 
 'Who art thou, fellow, to stand before the daughter 
 of Tetoro the King, with a spear in thy rude hand, 
 and thy mouth filled with saucy words ? ' 
 
 ' I am Taneo, the foster brother of the man thou 
 seekest to marry. And because that a warning hath 
 come to us against this marriage do I stand here, spear 
 in hand.' 
 
 Laea laughed scornfully. 
 
 ' / seek thy brother in marriage r Thou fool ! 
 Would I, the daughter of my father, seek any man 
 for husband ? Hath not this Narii pestered me so 
 with his presents and his love-offerings that, for ^'crv 
 weariness, and to please my father, 1 turned my face 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 99 
 
 from the Englishman who buildeth ships for him, 
 and said " Aye " to this Narii — who is but a little 
 man "^ — when he besought me to be wife to him. 
 Ah ! the Englishman, who is both a clever and 
 strong man, is more to my liking.' 
 
 ' Get thee back, then, to thy Englishman, and leave 
 to me my lover,' cried a woman's voice, and Milli the 
 Slave, thrusting aside the armed men who sought to 
 stav her, sprang out upon the sand, and clenching her 
 hands tightly, gazed fiercely at the king's daughter. 
 
 ' Thy lover ! ' and Laea looked contemptuously at 
 the small, slender figure of the slave girl, and then 
 her cheek darkened with rage as she turned to her 
 followers. * See how this dog of a Narii hath insulted 
 me ! Have I come all this way to be fooled for the 
 sake of such a miserable creature as this ? ' and she 
 pointed scornfully to Milli and then spat on the 
 ground. ^ Where is this fellow ? Let him come 
 near to me so that I may tell him to his face that I 
 have ever despised him as one beneath me. Where 
 is he, I ask thee, girl r ' And she seized the slave 
 girl by her wrist. 
 
 The savage fury of her voice, her blazing eyes, and 
 noble, commanding presence, excited alike both her 
 own people and the clustering throng of armed men 
 that stood watching on the beach, for these latter, by 
 some common impulse moved nearer, and at the same 
 time every man in the five canoes sprang out, and, 
 dashing through the water, ranged themselves beside 
 their mistress. 
 
 ' Back ! ' cried Taneo, warningly ; ^ back, yc men 
 
 * Meaning in rank. 
 
100 THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE 
 
 of Pare, back, ere it be too late, and thou, Laea, harm 
 not the girl, for see, O foolish woman ! we here are 
 as ten to one, and 'twill be a bloody day for thee and 
 thy people if but a spear be raised.' 
 
 And then, facing round, he cried, ' And back, O men 
 of Tetuaroa. Why draw ye so near r Must blood run 
 because of the vain and bitter words of a silly woman r ' 
 
 Then, with an angry gesture, Laea released her hold 
 of the slave girl's slender wrist, and she, too, held up a 
 warning hand to her warriors. 
 
 ' True, Taneo,' she said mockingly ; ' thy people 
 are as ten to one of mine, as thou sayest, and for this 
 alone dost thou dare insult me. Oh, thou coward, 
 Taneo ! ' 
 
 A swift gleam of anger shone in Taneo's eyes, and 
 his hand grasped his spear tightly. Then he looked 
 steadily at the king's daughter, and answered. 
 
 * Nay, no coward am I, Laea. And see, if but 
 a little blood will appease thee, take this spear and 
 slay me. It is better for one to die than many.' 
 Stretching out his hand, he gave her his spear. 
 
 She waved it back sneeringly. 
 
 ' Thy words are brave, Taneo ; but only because 
 that behind them lieth no danger. Only a coward 
 could talk as — ' 
 
 He sprang back. 
 
 ' Ho, men of Pare ! Listen ! So that but one or 
 two men may die, and many live, let this quarrel lie 
 between me and any one of ye that will battle with 
 mc here, spear to spear, on this beach. Is it not 
 better so than that Tetoro the King should weep for 
 so many of his people ? ' 
 
THE VISION OF MILLI THE SLAVE loi 
 
 A tall, grey-headed old warrior leapt out from the 
 ranks of those that stood behind Laea. 
 
 * Thou and I, Taneo, shall fight till one of us be slain.' 
 
 Suddenly Milli the Slave sprang between them with 
 outstretched arms. 
 
 ' Peace, peace ! Drop thou thy spear, Taneo, and 
 thou thine, old man. There is no need for blood but 
 mine — for Narij is dead.' 
 
 Then, kneeling on the sand she said, * Draw near 
 to me and listen.' 
 
 Quickly the opposing parties formed a circle around 
 her ; before her stood the haughty and angry Laea ; 
 behind her, and standing side by side, Taneo and the 
 grey-haired Tahitian warrior, 
 
 ' I am Milli, the bond-woman of Mahua, the father 
 of Narii. And Narii loved me ; but because of thee, 
 O Laea, he turned from me, and my heart became 
 cold. For who would give food to my child when it 
 was born — the child of a slave whose lover was a chief 
 and who had cast her off? And then there came a 
 vision to me in the night, and I saw the things of 
 which I have told ye, O men of Tetuaroa. And I 
 knew that the black cloud of my vision was sent to 
 warn the people of this land against the marriage, and 
 the hunger and the bitter days of poverty that would 
 come of it. And so, because thou art a great woman, 
 O Laea, and I but a poor slave, did I meet Narii but 
 a little while since and give him to drink ; and when 
 he drank of that which I gave him he died, for it was 
 poisoned.' 
 
 A low murmur, half anger, half pity, broke from 
 the assembled people. 
 
102 THE VISION OF MILL! THE SLAVE 
 
 ' Thou fool ! ' said Laea, pityingly ; and then she 
 turned to Taneo. 
 
 * And so thy brother hath died by the hand of a 
 slave ? Let us part in peace. Farewell ! ' 
 
 And then, as the men of Pare returned in silence 
 to their canoes, Taneo and his people closed in upon 
 the kneeling figure of the slave girl, who bent her 
 head as a man stepped before her with a club. 
 
 When the five canoes had sailed away a little dis- 
 tance from the beach, Laea saw the men of Tetuaroa 
 open out their ranks, and, looking in the midst, she 
 saw, lying face downwards on the sand, the body of 
 Milli the Slave. 
 
Denison gets a Berth Ashore 
 
DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE 
 
 After manv years as supercargo, ' blackbirder ' * and 
 trader in the South Seas, Tom Denison one day found 
 himself in Sydney with less than ten shillings in his 
 pocket, and with a strong fraternal yearning to visit 
 his brother, who was a bank manager in North 
 Queensland and a verv good-natured man. So he 
 sent a telegram, 'Tired of the sea. Can you find 
 me a billet ashore r ' An answer soon came, ' Yes, if 
 you can manage poultry farm and keep books. If so, 
 will wire passage money and expenses.' 
 
 Denison pondered over the situation. He had seen 
 a lot of poultry in his time — in coops on board the 
 Indiana and the Palestine ; and one Captain 'Bully' 
 Hayes, with whom he had once sailed as supercargo, 
 had told him a lot of things about game fowls, to 
 which birds the genial ' Bully ' had a great leaning — 
 but was not sure that he was good at books. In fact, 
 the owners of the Palestine had said that his system of 
 book-keeping had driven the senior partner to drink, 
 and they always sent a ' Manual of Book-keeping ' 
 on board every time the ship sailed from Sydney. At 
 
 * A 'backbirder' is the term applied to any person engaged in the 
 Polynesian labour traffic. 
 
 10^ 
 
io6 DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE 
 
 the same time Denison was touched by the allusion 
 to passage money and expenses, and felt that making 
 entries about the birth of clutches of chickens and 
 ducklings, and the number of eggs sold, would be simple 
 enough — much easier than the heartbreaking work of 
 a supercargo, when such customers as Flash Harry 
 of Apia or Fiji Bill of Apamama would challenge the 
 correctness of their grog bills, and offer to fight him 
 instead of paying. And then, he thought, it would 
 be simply delightful to sit in a room in a quiet farm- 
 house and hear the gentle moaning of calves and the 
 cheerful cackle of exultant hens, as he wrote items in 
 a book about eggs and things, and drink buttermilk, 
 instead of toiling in the ill-smelling trade-room on board 
 the Palestine^ bottling off Queensland rum and opening 
 tierces of negrohead tobacco, while the brig was either 
 standing on her head or rolling her soul out, and 
 Packenham the skipper was using shocking language 
 to everyone on deck. 
 
 So he sent a ^collect' telegram to his brother, and 
 stated that he thoroughly understood all branches of 
 poultry and book-keeping. 
 
 On the voyage up to Cooktown he kept to himself, 
 and studied ' Pip and Its Remedy,' 'Warts and the 
 Sulphur Cure,' ' Milligan on Roup in Ducks,' and 
 other valuable works ; so that when the steamer 
 reached the port and he met his brother, the latter 
 was deeply impressed with the profound knowledge he 
 displayed of the various kinds of poultry diseases, and 
 said he felt sure that Denison would * make the thing 
 pay.' The poultry farm, he said, belonged to the 
 bank, which had advanced money to the former pro- 
 
DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE 107 
 
 prietor, who had most unjustifiably died in delirium 
 tremens at Cooktown Hospital a few months ago, 
 leaving the farm to the care of some aboriginals, and 
 his estate much in debt to the good, kind bank. 
 
 On the following evening Denison was driven out 
 to the place by his brother, who took advantage 
 of the occasion to point out to the youth the beauties 
 of a country life, away from the temptations of cities. 
 Also he remarked upon the folly of a young man 
 spending the bloom of his years among the dissolute 
 natives of the South Seas ; and then casually inquired 
 if the women down there were pretty. Then the 
 younger Denison began to talk, and the elder brother 
 immediately pulled up the horse from a smart trot 
 into a slow walk, saying there was no need to rush 
 along on such a hot night, and that he liked to hear 
 about the customs of foreign countries. About ten 
 o'clock they reached their destination, and the elder 
 brother, without getting out of the trap and entering 
 the house, hurriedly bade Tom good-bye and drove ofF 
 as quickly as possible, fearing that if he stayed till the 
 morning, and the youth saw the place by daylight, the 
 latter would become a fratricide. 
 
 The occupants of the farm were, the new manager 
 found, three black fellows and two ' gins,' * all of whom 
 were in a state of stark nudity ; but they welcomed 
 him with smiles and an overpowering smell of ants, the 
 which latter is peculiar to the Australian nigger. One 
 of the bucks, who when Denison entered was sleeping, 
 with three exceedingly mangy dogs, in the ex-pro- 
 prietor's bunk — a gorgeous affair made of a badly- 
 
 * ' Gin,' or ' lubra ' — the female Australian aboriginal. 
 
io8 DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE 
 
 smelling new green hide stretched between four posts, 
 at once got up and gave him possession of the couch ; 
 and Denison, being very tired, spread his rug over the 
 hide and turned in, determined not to grumble, and 
 make the thing pay, and then buy a place in the 
 Marquesas or Samoa in a few years, and die in comfort. 
 During the night the mosquitoes worried him in- 
 cessantly, until one of the coloured ladies, who slept on 
 the ground in the next room, hearing his petulant 
 exclamations, brought him a dirty piece of rag, soaked 
 in kerosene, and told him to anoint his hair, face and 
 hands with it. He did so, and then fell asleep 
 comfortably. 
 
 Early in the morning he rose and inspected the 
 place (which I forgot to say was twenty miles from 
 Cooktown, and on the bank of the Endeavour River). 
 He found it to consist of two rusty old corrugated 
 iron buildings, vaguely surrounded by an enormous 
 amount of primaeval desolation and immediately encom- 
 passed by several hundred dead cattle (in an advanced 
 state of putrefaction) picturesquely disposed about the 
 outskirts of the premises. But Denison, being by 
 nature a cheerful man, remembered that his brother 
 (who w^as pious) had alluded to a drought, and said 
 that rain was expected every day, as the newly-appointed 
 Bishop of North Queensland had appointed a day of 
 general humiliation and prayer, and that poultrv-rearing 
 was bound to pay. 
 
 The stock of poultry was then rounded up by the 
 black-fellows for his inspection — thirty-seven dissolute- 
 looking ducks, ninety-three degraded and anaemic 
 female fowls, thirteen spirit - broken roosters, and 
 
DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE 109 
 
 eleven apathetic geese. Denison caught one of the 
 ducks, which immediately endeavoured to swallow his 
 fore-finger, under the impression it was food of some sort. 
 
 'Jaclcy,' he said to the leading coloured gentleman, 
 ' mv brother told me that there were five hundred 
 ducks here. Where are thev r ' 
 
 Jacky said that the ducks would go on the river 
 and that 'plenty feller big alligator eat 'em up.' 
 
 'Then where are the seven hundred and fifty 
 laying hens ? ' 
 
 Jacky scratched his woolly head and grinned. 
 ' Goanner ' eat some, snake eat some, some die, some 
 
 run away in bush, hawk eat some. By , this 
 
 feller duck and fowl altogether dam fool.' 
 
 During the following week Denison found that 
 Jacky had not deviated from the truth — the alligators 
 did eat the ducks, the tiger and carpet snakes and 
 iguanas did crawl about the place at night-time and 
 seize any luckless fowl not strong enough to fly up 
 to roost in the branch of a tree, the hawks did prefer 
 live poultry to long-deceased bullock, and those hens 
 physically capable of laying eggs laid them on an 
 ironstone ridge about a mile away from the house. 
 He went there one day, found nine eggs, and saw five 
 death adders and a large and placid carpet snake. 
 Then he wrote to his brother, and said that he 
 thought the place would pay when the drought broke 
 up, but he did not feel justified in taking ^^3, los. a 
 week from the bank under the present circumstances, 
 and would like to resign his berth, as he was afraid 
 he was about to get an attack of fever. 
 
 A few days later he received an ofHcial letter from 
 
no DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE 
 
 the bank, signed ' C. Aubrey Denison, Manager,' 
 expressing surprise at his desire to give up the control 
 of a concern that was ' bound to pay,' and for the 
 management of which the bank had rejected twenty- 
 three other applications in his favour, and suggesting 
 that, as the poultry were not thriving, he might skin 
 the carcases of such cattle as died in the future, and 
 send the hides to Cooktown — * for every hide the 
 bank will allow you 2s. 6d. nett.' With the official 
 letter was a private communication 'from the Elder 
 Brother telling him not to be disheartened so quickly 
 - — the place was sure to pay as soon as the drought 
 broke up ; also that as the river water was bad, and 
 tea made from it was not good for anyone with fever, 
 he vv^as sending up a dozen of whisky by the mailman 
 next week. Again Denison was touched by his 
 brother's thoughtfulness, and decided to remain for 
 another week at least. But at night-time he thought 
 a good deal about the dear old Palestine and Harvey 
 Packenham, her skipper. 
 
 While awaiting with considerable anxiety the arrival 
 of the mailman, Denison passed the time in killing 
 tiger-snakes, cremating the dead cattle around the 
 place, bathing in the only pool in the river safe from 
 alligators, and meditating upon the advantages of a 
 berth ashore. But when the mailman arrived (four 
 days late) with only five bottles of whisky, and said 
 in a small, husky voice that the pack-horse had fallen 
 and broken seven bottles, he felt a soured and dis- 
 appointed man., and knew that he was only fit for the 
 sea. The mailman, to whom lie expressed these 
 sentiments, told him to cheer up. It was loneliness, 
 
DENISON GETS A BERTH ASHORE in 
 
 he said, that made him feel like that, and he for his 
 part ' didn't like to see no man feelin' lonely in the 
 bloomin' bush.' Therefore he would keep him com- 
 pany for a few davs, and let the sanguinarv^ mail go to 
 Hades. 
 
 He did keep him company. And then, when the 
 whisky was finished, he bade Denison good-bye, and 
 said that any man who would send ' his own 
 bloomin' brother to perish in such a place was not 
 lit to live himself, and ought to be flamin' well 
 shown up in the bloomin' noospapers.' At day- 
 break next morning Denison told the coloured ladies 
 and gentlemen to eat the remaining poultry ; and, 
 shouldering his swag, tramped it into Cooktown to 
 Mook for a ship.' 
 
Addie Ransom : a Memory of 
 the Tokelaus 
 
ADDIE RANSOM : A MEMORY OF THE 
 TOKELAUS 
 
 A HOT, Steamy mist rose from the gleaming, oily sea, 
 and the little island lay sweltering and gasping under 
 a sky of brass and a savagely blazing sun. Along 
 the edges of the curving lines of yellow beach the 
 drought-smitten plumes of the fast-withering coco- 
 palms drooped straight, brown and motionless ; and 
 Wallis, the trader at Avamua village, as he paced to 
 and fro upon the heated boards of his verandah, cursed 
 the island and the people, and the deadly calm, and 
 the brassy sky, and the firm of Tom de Wolf & 
 Sons (whom he blamed for the weather), and the 
 drought, and the sickness, and the overdue ship, and 
 himself, and everything else ; and he wished that Lita 
 would go away for a month — her patience and calm- 
 ness worried and irritated him. Then he might 
 perhaps trv getting drunk on Sundays like Ransom ; 
 to-day was Sunday, and another Sunday meant another 
 hell of twelve hours' heat, and misery, and hope 
 deferred. 
 
 ' Curse that damned bell ! There it goes again, 
 though half of the people are dead, and the other 
 half are dying like rotten sheep ! Oh, for a ship, or 
 rain, or a howling gale — anything but this ! ' 
 
 He dashed his pipe furiously upon the verandah, 
 and then flung himself into a cane lounge, pressed 
 
 115 
 
ii6 ADDIE RANSOM: A MEMORY 
 
 his hands to his ears, and swore silently at the jarring 
 clamour of the hated church bell. 
 
 Lita's brown hand touched him on the shoulder. 
 
 * Wassa th' matter, Tom, wis you ? ' 
 
 ^ Oh, go away, for God's sake, Lita, there's a good 
 girl. Leave me alone. Go to church, and tell loane 
 I'll give him a couple of dollars not to ring that 
 damned, infernal bell again to-day. I'm going mad ! 
 I'll get drunk, I think, like Ransom. My God ! just 
 think of it, girl ! Twelve months without a ship, and 
 this hateful, God-forsaken island turning into a pest- 
 house.' 
 
 * Wasa is pesta-house, Tom r ' 
 
 ' Place where they put people in to die — lazzaretto, 
 charnel-house, morgue, living grave ! Oh, go away, 
 girl, go to the blarsted church if you want to, and 
 leave me alone.' 
 
 Her slender fingers touched his hand timidly. 
 
 ' I don' wan' go to church, Tom. I don' wan' 
 leave you here to get mad an' lon'ly by yourse'f.' 
 
 * Very well, old woman, stay here with me. Per- 
 haps a breeze may come by-and-by and then we can 
 breathe. How many people died yesterday, Lita : ' 
 
 ''Bout nine, Tom — four men, tree woman, an' 
 some child.' 
 
 ' Poor devils ! I wish I had some medicine for 
 them. But I'm hanged if I know what it is — some 
 sort of cholera brought here by that infernal American 
 mis^^ionary brig, I believe. Hallo ! there's loane 
 beginning.' 
 
 The white-walled native church was not a stone's 
 
ADDIE RANSOM: A MEMORY 117 
 
 throw away, and through the wide, paneless windows 
 and open doors the deep voice of loane, the Samoan 
 native teacher, sounded clearly and solemnly in the 
 still, heated morn. Wallis, with his wide straw hat 
 covering his bronzed face, lay back in the lounge, 
 and, at first, took no heed. Lita, sitting at his feet, 
 rested her chin on one hand and listened intently. 
 
 * Turn ye all, men and women of this afflicted land 
 of Nukutavau, to the Word of God, which is written 
 in the Book of Isaiah, in the fortieth chapter and the 
 sixth verse. It was to my mind that we should first 
 sing to the praise of Jehovah ; but, alas ! we cannot 
 sing to-day ; for my cheeks are wetted with many 
 tears, and my belly is bursting with sorrow when I 
 see how few there are of us who are left. But yet 
 can we pray together ; and the whisper of affliction 
 shall as surely reach the ear of God as the loud, glad 
 song of praise. But first hear ye these words :— - 
 
 * " The Voice said, Cry. And he said. What shall I 
 cry f And the Voice answered, All flesh is grass, and all 
 the goodliness thereof is as the floiuer of the field : the grass 
 wither eth, the flower fadeth ; because the spirit of the 
 Lord blow eth upon it: Surely the people is grass.^^ ' 
 
 Wallis sat up and listened ; for as the preacher 
 ceased he heard the sound of many sobs ; and 
 presently a woman, old, gaunt and feeble, staggered 
 out from the church and flung herself face downwards 
 upon the burning sand. 
 
 ' A ?nate, a mate tatou^ she moaned, ' e agi ?nai le 
 ?nana-va leova.' ('We perish, v/e perish with the 
 breath of Jehovah.') 
 
 She lay there unheeded ; for now the preacher, with 
 
Ii8 ADDIE RANSOM: A MEMORY 
 
 broken voice, was passionately imploring his congrega- 
 tion to cast themselves upon the mercy of God, and 
 beseech Him to stay the deadly pestilence which had 
 so sorely smitten the land. 
 
 'And spare Thou, O God Most High, Most 
 Merciful, and Most Just, these many Httle children 
 who yet live, for they are but very small, and have not 
 yet sinned before Thee. Three of mine own hast thou 
 touched with Thy hand, and taken to Thee, and my 
 belly and the belly of my wife are empty, and yearn in 
 the night for the voices we shall hear no more. And for 
 those three whom Thou hast taken, spare Thou three 
 of those who yet live. And shield, O God, with 
 Thy care, the papalagi * Ranisome and his child, the 
 girl Ati ' (Addie), 'for she loveth Thy word; and 
 turn Thou the heart of her father from the drinking 
 of grog, so that he shall be no more as a hog that is 
 lo'ia.^ t * And shield, too, th.Q papalagi Walesi and the 
 woman Lita — she who liveth with him in sin — for their 
 hearts are ever good and their hands ever open to us 
 of Nukutavau ; and send, O most merciful and com- 
 passionate One, a ship, so that the two white men 
 and the woman Lita, and the girl Ati, and we, Thy 
 people, may not die of hunger and thirst and sickness, 
 but live to praise Thy holy name.' 
 
 A burst of weeping, and Amene ! Amene ! came 
 from his hearers, then silence ; and Wallis, taking his 
 hat from his face, bent his head. 
 
 Presently the scanty congregation came slowly 
 
 * Foreigner. 
 
 i A man or an animal is loia\\\vti\ he or it has eaten or drunk to such 
 repletion as to lie down and be overrun with ants — an expressive 
 Samoan synonym for excess. 
 
ADDIE RANSOM: A MEMORY 119 
 
 forth. Some, as they passed the white man and Lita, 
 tried to smile a greeting to them, though every brown 
 face was wet with tears. Last of all came loane, the 
 Samoan teacher, short, square-built, with deep sunken 
 earnest eyes bent to the ground, his right arm support- 
 ing his wife, whose slender frame was shaken with the 
 violence of her grief for those three of her heart whom 
 ' He had taken.' Waliis, followed by Lita, stepped 
 down from his verandah, and held out his hand. The 
 teacher pressed it in silence, and, unable now to speak, 
 walked slowly on. Lita, her dark, oval face still hot 
 with anger, drew back and made no sign, though 
 Eline, the teacher's wife, murmured as she passed, — 
 ' Nay, be not angry, Lita ; for death is near to us all.' 
 
 As thev returned to the house, Ransom, the old 
 trader from Avatulalo, the next village to that in 
 which Waliis lived, met them at the gate. He was 
 a man of sixty or thereabout — grey, dirty, dishevelled 
 and half drunk. 
 
 ' I want you and Lita to come back with me,' he 
 said slowly, holding to the palings of the fence, and 
 moving his head from side to side ; ' you must come 
 . . . you must come, or ' — with sudden frenzy — ' by 
 God, I'll put a firestick into your house ; I will, by 
 blazes, I will ! Curse you, Tom Waliis, and your 
 damned, Sydney-white-duck-suit-respectability, and 
 your damned proud quarter-caste Portugee woman, 
 who you ain't married to, as I was to mine — bad as 
 she was. Put up your hands you — ' 
 
 Waliis gripped him firmly but kindly by the wrists, 
 and forced him into a seat. 
 
120 ADDIE RANSOM : A MEMORY 
 
 ' What's the matter with you, Ransom r Only 
 drunk and fightable as usual ? or are you being chased 
 by pink snakes with tiger's heads again, eh ? There, 
 sit quiet, old man. Where is Addie ?' 
 
 For a few moments the old man made no answer ; 
 then he rose, and placing his trembling hands on 
 Wallis's chest said brokenly, — 
 
 'God help me, Tom ! She's a-dyin' . . . an' I'm 
 near drunk. She was took bad this mornin', an' has 
 been callin' for the teacher an' Lita — an' I'd as lief 
 go to hell as to ask a damned Kanaka mission'ry to 
 come an' talk Gospel an' Heaven to a child o' mine — 
 not in my own house, anyway. It ain't right or 
 proper. But she kep' on a-pesterin' me, an' at last I 
 said I would come an' arst him ... an' while I was 
 waitin' outside the church I hears the damned feller 
 a-prayin' and sayin' *' All flesh h grass^ and the grass 
 withereth " ' — his voice quivered and broke again — 
 'an' onct I heard my old mother say them very words 
 when she was a-dyin', more'n forty year ago, in the 
 old country. An' Addie's dyin' fast, Tom ; dyin', an' 
 I can't say a prayer with her ; I don't know none. I'm 
 only a drunken old shellback, an' I ought to be struck 
 dead for my bloody sins. She's all I has in the world 
 to love ; an' now, an' now — ' He turned away and, 
 covering his face with his coarse, sunburnt hands, 
 sobbed like a child. 
 
 Half an hour later Wallis and Lita were in the 
 room with the dying girl. Ransom, shambling 
 behind them, crept in and knelt at the foot of the 
 bed. Two native women, who were squatted on the 
 
ADDIE RANSOM : A MEMORY 121 
 
 matted floor went out softly, and Wallis bent over the 
 girl and looked into her pallid, twitching face, over 
 which the dread grey shadow was creeping fast. She 
 put out her hand to the trader and Lita, and a faint 
 smile moved her lips. 
 
 'You is good to come, Tom Wallis,' she said, in 
 her childish voice, ' an' so is you, Lita. Wher' is my 
 fath' ? I don' see him. I was ask him to bring loane 
 here to pray fo' me. I cant pray myself. ... I 
 have been try. . . . Wher' is you, fath' ? ' 
 
 Ransom crept round to her side, and laid his face 
 upon her open hand. 
 
 'Ah, fath', you is come . . . poor fath'. I say, 
 fath', don you drink no more. You been promise me 
 that, fath', so many time. Don you break yo' 
 promise now, will you r ' 
 
 The grizzled old sinner put his trembling lips to 
 hers. ' Never no more, Addie — may God strike me 
 dead if I lie ! ' 
 
 ' Come away, old man,' said Wallis, softly, ' let Lita 
 be with her. Neither you nor I should disturb her 
 just now. See, she wants Lita. But her time is 
 near, and you must keep close to her.' 
 
 They drew apart, and Lita knelt beside the bed. 
 
 ' An' did he pray for fath', an' me, an' you, an' 
 Tom, an' my mother who runned away ? Tell me 
 all 'bout it, Lita. I did wan' him to come and tell 
 me some things I wan' to know before I is dead. 
 Tell me what he say.' 
 
 * He say dat vers', " De grass with\ de Jioiv fade^ 
 hut de word of de Lor God endure fo'' ev T ' 
 
122 ADDIE RANSOM : A MEMORY 
 
 ' Was do it mean, Lita, dear ? ' 
 
 ' I don' 'xactly know, Ati, dear. But Tom say he 
 mean dat by-an'-by, if we is good an' don' lie an' 
 steal, an' don' kill nobody, dat we all go to heav' 
 when we is die.' 
 
 'Lita, dear, loane say one day dat de Bible say 
 my fath' go to hell because he get drunk all de time.' 
 
 ' Don' you b'lieve him, Ati ; loane is only dam Kan- 
 aka mission'ry. Wassa the hell do he know 'bout such 
 thing ? Ton go to heav' sure 'nuff, and you' fath' 
 come to you there by-an'-by. He never been steal or 
 lie ; he on'y get drunk. Don' you be 'fraid 'bout dat, 
 Ati, dear. An' you will see yo' mother, too. Oh, yes, yo' 
 will see yo' mother ; an' yo' fath' will come there too, all 
 nice, an' clean, an' sober, in newpyjamas all shinin' white; 
 an' he will kiss yo' mother on her mouf, an' say," I forgive 
 you, Nellie Ransom, jes' as Jesu Christ has forgive me."' 
 
 The girl sighed heavily, and then lay with closed 
 eyes, breathing softly. Suddenly she turned quickly 
 on her side, and extended her arms, and her voice 
 sounded strangely clear and distinct. 
 
 * Where is you, fath' ? Quick, quick, come an' 
 hoi' me. It is dark. . . . Hoi' me tight . . . clos' 
 up, clos' up, fath', my fath' . . . it is so dark— so dark.' 
 
 The natives told Wallis next morning that ' Rani- 
 some ' had gone quite mad. 
 
 ^ How know ye he is mad ? ' 
 
 ' Tail ! He hath taken every bottle of grog from 
 two boxes and smashed them on the ground. And 
 then we saw him kneel upon the sand, raise his hands, 
 and weep. He is mad.' 
 
In a Native Village 
 
IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 
 
 When I first settled down on this particular island as a 
 trader, I had, in my boundless ignorance of the fierce 
 jealousy that prevailed between the various villages 
 thereon, been foolish enough to engage two or three ser- 
 vants from outlying districts — much against the wishes 
 of the local kaupule (town councillors), each of whom 
 brought me two or three candidates (relatives, connec- 
 tions or spongers of their own) and urged that I should 
 engage them and no others. This I refused to do, point 
 blank, and after much angry discussion and argument, I 
 succeeded in having my own way, and was allowed to 
 choose my servants from villages widely apart. In the 
 course of a few weeks some terrific encounters had taken 
 place between my women servants and other of the local 
 females, who regarded them as vile usurpers of their right 
 to rob and plunder the new white man. However, in 
 time matters settled down in a measure ; and beyond 
 vituperative language and sanguinary threats against the 
 successful applicants, the rejected candidates, male and 
 female, behaved very nicely. But I was slumbering on 
 a latent volcano of fresh troubles, and the premonitory 
 upheaval came about a month after our head nurse, 
 Hakala, had been fined five dollars for using English 'sea- 
 faring' language to another woman who had called her a 
 pig. As Hakala could not pay the fine — being alreadv 
 
126 JN A NATIVE VILLAGE 
 
 in debt to me for two months' wages paid in advance — 
 I settled it ; for she was a widow, and had endeared her- 
 self to me by the vigorous manner in which she had 
 pitched a large, fat girl named 'Heke out of the house for 
 stealing some sugar from my store-room. The members 
 of the kaupule (the village parliament) were pleased to 
 accept the money, but wrote me a formal letter on the 
 following morning, and remarked that it was wrong of 
 me to encourage brutal conduct in any of my servants — 
 wrong and un-Christian-like as well. ' But,' the letter 
 went on to say, ' it is honest of you to pay this woman's 
 fine; and Talamaheke' (the sugar-thief) ^hasbeen sen- 
 tenced to do three days' road-making for stealing the 
 sugar. Yet you must not think evil of Talamaheke, for 
 she is a little vale (mad), and has a class in the Sunday- 
 school. Now it is in our minds that, as you are an 
 honest man, you will pay the fines owing on the horse.' 
 I had a vague recollection of my predecessor telling 
 me something indefinite about a horse belonging to 
 the station, but could not remember whether he said 
 that the animal was in the vicinity of the station or 
 was rambling elsewhere on the island, or had died. So 
 I called my Samoan cook, Harry, to learn what he 
 knew about the matter. Harrv was the Adonis of 
 the village, and already the under-nurse, E'eu, a sweet 
 little hazel-eyed creature of fifteen, and incorrigibly 
 wicked, had succumbed to his charms, and spent much 
 of her time in the kitchen. At that moment Harry 
 was seated outside the cook-house, dressed in a suit of 
 spotless white duck, playing an accordeon ; also he 
 wore round his brown neck a thick wreath of white 
 and scarlet flowers. Harrv, I mav remark, was a dandv 
 
IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 127 
 
 and a notorious profligate, but against these natural 
 faults was the fact that he could make very good bread. 
 
 * Harry,' I said, ' do you know anything about this 
 horse r ' and I tapped the official letter. 
 
 He smiled. * Oh, yes, sir. I know all 'bout him. 
 He been fined altogether 'bout two hundred and 
 fifty dollar, an' never pay.' 
 
 'What do you mean ? How can anyone fine a horse ? ' 
 
 Then Harry explained and gave me the horse's history. 
 
 The animal had been brought from New Zealand 
 for some occult reason, and had behaved himself very 
 badly ever since he landed. Young banana trees 
 were his especial fancy, cotton plants he devoured 
 wholesale, and it was generally asserted that he was 
 also addicted to kicking chickens. My three prede- 
 cessors on the station had each repudiated the crea- 
 ture, and each man when he left the island had said 
 that his successor would pay for all damage done. 
 
 ' Where is the brute now ? ' I asked. 
 
 Looking cautiously around to see that no one was 
 within earshot, Harry informed me that until a week 
 previously the nua had been running quietly in the 
 interior of the island for many months, but since my 
 arrival had been brought back by two of the deacons 
 and was now feeding about the immediate vicinity. 
 
 'Why did the deacons bring him back, if he destroys 
 banana trees and kill chickens r ' 
 
 Harry looked very uncomfortable and seemed disin- 
 clined to speak, but at last let the cat out of the bag 
 and revealed a diabolical conspiracy— the horse had 
 been brought back for my undoing, or rather for the 
 undoing of the strings of mv bag of dollars. 
 
128 IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 
 
 * You see, sir,' said he, confidentially, ' these people 
 on this island very clever — all dam rogue' (his mother 
 was a native of the island), ^an' 'bout a month ago, 
 when you give two dollar to help build new church, 
 xhQ fakafili and kaupuW (judge and councillors) ^sav 
 you is a very good man and that you might pay that 
 horse's fines. An' if you pay that horse's fines then the 
 people will have enough money to send to Sydney to 
 buy glass windows and nice, fine doors for the new 
 church. An' so that is v/hy the deacons have bring that 
 horse back.' 
 
 ' But what good will bringing the horse here do ? 
 That won't make me pay his fines.' 
 
 ' Oh, you see, sir, since the horse been come back 
 the people take him out every day into some banana 
 plantation and let him eat some trees. Then, by-and- 
 by — to-morrer, perhaps — they will come an' ask you 
 to go and look. Then you v/ill look an' say, " Alright, 
 I will pay five dollar." An' then when you pay that 
 five dollar the kaupuU and the judge v/ill say, " Now 
 you mus' pay for all the bad things that that horse do 
 before you come here." An' s'pose you won' pay, 
 then I b'lieve the judge an' headmen goin' to tapu* your 
 store. You see they wan' that money for church very 
 bad, because they very jealous of Halamua church.' 
 
 'Jealous of Halamua church ! Why ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, because Halamua people been buy a foolpit for 
 their church — a very fine foolpit from California ; an' 
 now this town here very jealous, and the people sav that 
 when you pay that horse'sfine they will buy pine windows, 
 pine doors, and pine floor, and give Halaftiua church hell.' 
 
 * Tapiiy in this sense, means boycotting. 
 
IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 129 
 
 The novel (but in some cases exceedingly correct) 
 pronunciation of pulpit pleased me, yet my wrath was 
 aroused at this scandalous revelation of the plans of 
 the villagers to beautify their church at my expense. 
 It was as bad as any church bazaar in Christendom. 
 
 As Harry surmised, I received a visit from a 
 deputation the next morning. They wanted me to 
 come and see the destruction done to their plantations 
 by my horse. 
 
 'But it's not my horse,' I said. * 1 decline to hear 
 anything about a horse. There is no horse down in 
 my stock list, nor an elephant.' 
 
 A dirty old ruffian with one eye and a tattooed face 
 regarded me gravely for a moment, and then asked me 
 in a wheezy, husky voice if I knew that Ananias and 
 Sapphira were struck dead for telling lies. 
 
 ' Of course,' I replied promptly, * I saw them struck. 
 My uncle in England had them buried in his garden 
 to improve the soil. And why do you come here 
 and tell me these things about a horse ? If there is 
 a horse, and it eats your bananas and sugar-cane, why 
 don't you shoot it ? ' 
 
 This suggestion staggered the deputation, half of 
 which scratched its head meditatively. Then a tall, 
 thin man, with an attenuated face like a starved fowl, 
 said sneeringly in English, — 
 
 * What for you want to make gammon you no savee 
 about horse ? ' 
 
 His companions smiled approvingly ; not that they 
 understood a word of English, but they evidently re- 
 garded the fowl-like creature as a learned person who 
 would give me a dressing down in my own language. 
 
 I 
 
130 IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 
 
 I looked at him with a puzzled expression, and then 
 said to Harry, — 
 
 ' What does this man say, Harry ? I can't talk 
 German. Can you r ' 
 
 Harry grinned and shook his head ; the rest of the 
 deputation looked angrily at the hatchet-faced man, 
 and the member seated next to him told him he ought 
 to be ashamed of himself to pretend to be able to 
 vogahau faka Beretania (talk English). 
 
 For some minutes no one spoke. Then the 
 youngest member of the deputation, a jolly, fat-faced 
 young deacon, dressed in a suit of white flannel, 
 laughed merrily, and asked me for some tobacco. I 
 gave them a plug each all round, and the deputation 
 withdrew. So having successfully repudiated the horse 
 and all his works, I felt satisfied. 
 
 Pigs were the next trouble — my own pigs and the 
 pigs of the general public. When I landed on the 
 island I had brought with me from Sydney a lady and 
 gentleman pig of exceedingly high lineage. They 
 were now the proud and happy parents of seven 
 beautiful little black-and-white piglets, and at any hour 
 of the day one might see numbers of natives looking 
 over my wall at the graceful little creatures as they 
 chased one another over the grass, charged at nothing, 
 and came to a dead stop with astonishing rapidity and 
 a look of intense amazement. One fatal day I let 
 them out, thinking they would come to no harm, as 
 their parents were with them. As they did not return 
 at dusk I sent E'eu, the under-nurse, to search for 
 them. She came back and told mc in a whisper that 
 
IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 131 
 
 the father and mother pig were rooting up a sweet- 
 potato patch belonging to the local chief. The 
 piglets she had failed to discover. Enjoining secrecy, 
 I sent E'eu and Harry to chase the parents home. 
 This was effected after considerable trouble, but the 
 owner of the potato patch claimed two dollars 
 damages. I paid it, feeling his claim was just. Next 
 morning the seven piglets were returned one by one 
 by various native children. Each piglet had, accord- 
 ing to their accounts, been in a separate garden, and 
 done considerable damage; and 'because they' (the 
 piglets) * were the property of a good and just man, the 
 owners of the gardens would not hurt nor even chase 
 them,' etc. Glad to recover the squealing little 
 wanderers at any cost, I gave each lying child a 
 quarter-dollar. Next day I had a piece of ground 
 walled in with lumps of coral and placed the porcine 
 family inside. Then I wrote to the councillors, asking 
 them to notify the people that if any of the village 
 pigs came inside my fence and rooted abyssmal holes 
 in my ground, as had been their habit hitherto, I 
 should demand compensation. His Honour the Chief 
 Justice stated in court that this was only fair and 
 right ; the white man had paid for the damage done by 
 his pigs, and therefore he was entitled to claim damages 
 if the village pigs caused him trouble. (I had previously 
 squared his Honour with the promise of a male sucker.) 
 One day the seven young pigs escaped from their 
 mother and went out for a run on the village green. 
 They were at once assailed as detestable foreign devils 
 by about two hundred and forty-three gaunt, razor- 
 backed village sows, and were only rescued from a cruel 
 
132 IN A NATIVE VILLAGE 
 
 death after every one had lost its tail. Why is it that 
 pigsof difFerent breeds always bite off each other's tails ? 
 I claimed fifty cents per tail, and was awarded $3.50 
 damages, to be paid by the community generally. 
 The community refused to pay. His Honour then 
 notified by the town crier that I was at liberty to 
 shoot any pig that broke into the station grounds. I 
 put a cartridge into a Snider rifle and told my servants 
 to call me if they heard a grunt in the night. 
 
 Three days after this, as I was discussing theology 
 and baked fowl one night with the local teacher in his 
 own house, a boy burst in and said that there was a 
 strange pig in my garden devouring my crop of 
 French beans. In two minutes I was back in my 
 house, snatched up the Snider, and ran to the garden 
 wall. There was the brute, a great black-and white 
 beast, the biggest native pig I ever saw. His back 
 was turned, but hearing my steps he 'went about' 
 and faced me. 'Twas a bright moonlight night, and 
 the bullet plugged him fair between the eyes. Over 
 he rolled without a kick. Then I heard a shriek or 
 laughter, and saw half a dozen girls scuttling away 
 among the coco-palms. A horrible suspicion nearly 
 made me faint. Jumping over the wall I examined 
 the defunct, and could scarce forbear to shed a tear. 
 
 'Twas mine own prized black Australian boar, 
 daubed over with splashes of coral lime whitewash. 
 And the whitewash came from a tub full of it, with 
 which the natives had that morning been whitening 
 the walls of the newly-built village church. The 
 one-eyed old scoundrel of a deacon told me next day 
 it v/as a judgment on me. 
 
Maurice Kinane 
 
MAURICE KINANE 
 
 Eastward, from the coast of New Guinea, there 
 lies a large island called, on the maps, New Britain, 
 the native name of which is Berara. It is nearly 
 three hundred miles in length and, in parts, almost 
 sixty in width, and excepting the north-eastern 
 portion, now settled by German colonists, is inhabited 
 by a race of dangerous and treacherous cannibals, 
 who are continually at war among themselves, for 
 there are many hundred tribes living on the coast as 
 well as in the interior. Although there have been 
 white people living on the north-east coast for over 
 thirty years — for there were adventurous American 
 and English traders living in this v/ild island long 
 before the natives ever saw a German— not one of 
 them knew then, or knows now, much of the strange 
 black tribes who dwell in the interior of the centre 
 and western part of the island, save that they were 
 then, as they are in this present year, always at enmity 
 with the coast tribes, and are, like them, more or less 
 addicted to cannibalism. 
 
 Sixty miles from the vi^estern end of the island is the 
 mountainous land of German New Guinea ; and 
 sometimes, when the air is clear and the south-east 
 trade wind blows, the savages on Berara can see 
 
 135 
 
136 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 across the deep, wide strait the grey loom of the 
 great range that fringes the north-eastern coast of 
 New Guinea for many hundred miles. Once, in- 
 deed, when the writer of this true story lived in New 
 Britain, he saw this sight for a whole week, for there, 
 in those beautiful islands, the air is very clear at certain 
 seasons of the year. 
 
 From Matupi, where the principal settlement in 
 New Britain is situated, to the deep bay at Kabaira, 
 fifty miles away, the coast is very beautiful. And, 
 indeed, no one who looks at the lovely grassy downs 
 that here and there show through the groves of 
 waving palm trees stretching from the beach away 
 up to the rising land of the interior could think that 
 such a fair country was the home of a deadly fever ; 
 and that in the waters of the bright limpid streams 
 that ran gently down from the forest-clad hills to 
 meet the blue waters of the Pacific there lurked 
 disease and death to him who drank thereof. 
 
 At the time of my story (except for the adventur- 
 ous American whalemen from Nantucket and New 
 Bedford, and the sandal-wood cutters from. New South 
 Wales, who sometimes touched there) white men v,^ere 
 unknown to the people of New Britain. Sometimes 
 when the sperm-whaling fleet was cruising northwards 
 and westward to the Moluccas, a ship would sail 
 along the coast in the daytime, but always anchored 
 at night, for it was dreaded for the many dangerous 
 reefs that surround it. And once the anchor was 
 down a strict watch was kept on board, for the nati\ cs 
 were known to be fierce and treacherous. 
 
 Between v/here is now the German settlement 
 
MAURICE KINANE 137 
 
 and the great native town at Kabaira Bay there 
 is an island called Mano, which stands five miles 
 ofF from the mainland. Early one morning, when 
 the wild people of the villages among the palm- 
 groves which lined the long winding beach came out 
 of their thatched huts for their morning bathe they 
 gave a great cry, for a large full-rigged ship was 
 standing in close under the lee of Mano, and clew- 
 ing up her sails before she came to an anchor. 
 
 Now the natives who lived on the mainland of 
 New Britain were the hereditary enemies of those 
 who dwelt on Mano Island, and it was hateful for 
 them to see a ship anchor there, for then the Mano 
 Islanders would get axes and muskets and hoop- 
 iron. So, with Baringa, the chief, at their head, 
 they all ran to the summit of a high, grassy hill 
 (known, by reason of a terrible deed once done there 
 in the olden times, as the Hill of Old Men's Groans), 
 and sat down to watch if the ship would send her 
 boats ashore. 
 
 ' Look ! ' said Baringa, fiercely, striking the ground 
 with his heavy jade-headed club, ' look, I see a boat 
 putting out from the side. Who among ye will come 
 with me to the ship, so that I may sell my turtle shell 
 and pearl shell to the captain for muskets and powder 
 and bullets ? Are these dogs of Mano to get such 
 things from the ship, and then come over here at 
 night and slay and then cook us in their ovens ? 
 Hungry am I for revenge ; for 'tis now twelve moons 
 since they stole my son from me, and not one life have 
 I had in return for his.' 
 
 But no one answered. Of what use was it, they 
 
138 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 thought, for Baringa to think of his Httle son ? He 
 was but a hoy after all, and had long since gone 
 down the throats of the men of Mano. Besides, the 
 Mano people were very strong and already had many 
 guns. 
 
 So for an hour Baringa sat and chafed and watched ; 
 and then suddenly he and those with him sprang up, 
 for a sound like thunder came over to them, and a 
 cloud of v/hite smoke curled up from the ship's side ; 
 she had fired one of her big guns. Presently Baringa 
 and his people saw that the boat which had gone 
 ashore was pulling back fast, and that some of the 
 crew v/ho were sitting in the stern were firing their 
 muskets at the Mano people, who were pursuing the 
 boat in six canoes. Twice again the ship fired a big 
 gun, and then the boat v/as safe, for the two twenty- 
 four pounders, loaded with grape-shot, smashed two of 
 them to pieces when they were less than a hundred 
 yards from the ship. 
 
 Baringa shouted vv^ith savage joy. ' Come,' he 
 cried, 'let us hasten to the beach, and get quickly to 
 the ship in our canoes ; for now that the white men 
 have fought with these Mano dogs, the ship will come 
 here to us and anchor ; for I, Baringa, am known to 
 many white men.' 
 
 The name of the ship was the Boadicea. She was of 
 about seven hundred tons, and was bound to China from 
 Port Jackson, but for four months had remained among 
 the islands of the New Hebrides group, where the 
 crew had been cutting sandal-wood, which in those 
 days was very plentiful there. Her captain, who was 
 
MAURICE KINANE 139 
 
 a very skilful navigator, instead of going through 
 Torres Straits, had sailed between New Ireland and 
 New Britain, so that he might learn the truth of 
 some tales he had heard about the richness of those 
 islands in sandal-wood and pearl shell. So he had 
 cruised slowly along till he sighted Mano Island, and 
 here he decided to water the ship ; for from the deck 
 was visible a fine stream of water, running from the 
 forest-clad mountains down to the white sands of the 
 quiet beach. 
 
 As soon as possible a boat was lowered and manned 
 and armed ; for although he coidd not see a native 
 anywhere on the beach, nor any signs of human 
 occupation elsewhere on the island, the captain was 
 a very cautious man. A little further back from the 
 beach was a very dense grove of coco-nut trees laden 
 with fruit, and at these the crew of the Boad'icea 
 looked with longing eyes. 
 
 ' We must water the ship first, my lads,' said Captain 
 Williams, *and then we'll spend the rest of the day 
 among the coco-nut trees, and fill our boats with them.' 
 
 Just then as the bronze-faced captain was ascending 
 to the poop from his cabin ; a small barefooted boy 
 came aft, and, touching his hat, said, — 
 
 ' Av ye plaze, sor, won't ye let me go in the boat, 
 sor?' 
 
 ' Why, Maurice, my boy, there's quite enough of 
 us going in her as it is,' said the captain, kindlv, for 
 the dirty-faced but bright-eyed Maurice Kinane was a 
 favourite with everyone on board. 
 
 ^ Ah, but shure, sor,' pleaded the boy, 'av yer 
 honour would just let me go, av it was only to pluck 
 
Kfo MAURICE KINANE 
 
 a blade av the foine green grass, and lave me face in 
 the swate clane wather I'll be beholden — ' 
 
 'Well, well, my lad, jump in then,' said Captain 
 Williams,! with a smile, and buckling his cutlass belt 
 around his v/aist he sent the lad down the ladder 
 before him and the boat pushed off. 
 
 • •••••• 
 
 Ten months before, this poor Irish lad, who was 
 but thirteen years of age, had lost both his parents 
 through the upsetting of a boat in Sydney Harbour. 
 His father was a sergeant in the 77th Regiment, and 
 had only arrived in the colony a (qw months previous 
 to the accident, and the boy vv^as left without a 
 relative in the world. But the captain of his father's 
 company and the other officers of the regiment were 
 very kind to him, and the colonel said he would get 
 him enlisted as a drummer. 
 
 And so for a time Maurice lived in the barracks 
 under the care of Sergeant MacDougall, a crusty old 
 warrior, who proved a hard master and made the boy's 
 life anything but a happy one. And Maurice, though 
 he v/as proud of the colonel's kind words and of 
 serving with the regiment, fretted greatly at the 
 harsh manner of the old sergeant. 
 
 One morning he was reported as missing. Little 
 did those who looked for him all the next day think 
 that the boy was far out at sea, for he had stowed 
 away on board the Boadicea ; and although Captain 
 Williams was very angry with him when he was 
 discovered and led aft, the lad's genial temper and 
 bright, honest face soon won him over, as, indeed, it 
 did everyone else on board. 
 
MAURICE KINANE 141 
 
 For nearly an hour after the boat had landed at the 
 mouth of the little stream the seamen were busily 
 engaged in filling the water casks. Not a sign of 
 a native could be seen, and then, regardful of the 
 longing looks that the sailors cast at the grove of 
 coco-nuts, the captain, taking with him Maurice and 
 four hands, set out along the beach for the purpose of 
 gathering a few score of the young nuts to give to his 
 men to drink. 
 
 One of the four seamen was a Kanaka named 
 ' Tommy Sandwich.' He was a native of Sand- 
 wich or Vate Island in the New Hebrides. In a 
 very short time this man had ascended a lofty palm- 
 tree, and was throwing down the coco-nuts to the 
 others, who for some minutes were busily engaged 
 tying them together to carry them to the boat. 
 
 ' That will do, Tommy,' cried the captain, pre- 
 sently. ' Come down now and help the others to 
 carry.' He did not see that Maurice, boy-like and 
 adventurous, had managed to ascend a less lofty tree 
 some little distance away, out of sight of his ship- 
 mates, and at that moment was already ensconced in 
 the leafy crown, gazing with rapture at the lovely 
 scene that lay before him. 
 
 It took the men but another ten minutes to tie up 
 the coco-nuts into bunches of ten, and then each of 
 them drank copiously of the sweet milk of half a 
 dozen which Tommy had husked for them. 
 
 ' Come, lads,' said Captain Williams, * back to the 
 boat now. By-and-by — ' 
 
 A dreadful chorus of savage yells interrupted him, 
 
142 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 and he and the men seized their muskets and sprang 
 to their feet. The sounds seemed to come from 
 where the boat was watering ; in a few seconds more 
 four musket shots rang out. 
 
 ' Run, run for your lives,' cried the captain, draw- 
 ing his pistol. ' The savages are attacking the boat.' 
 And the seamen, throwing down the coco-nuts, rushed 
 out of the palm grove to rescue their shipmates. 
 
 They were only just in time, for the banks of the 
 little stream were covered with naked savages, who 
 had sprung out of the thick undergrowth upon the 
 watering party, and ere the boat could be pushed off 
 two of the poor sailors had been savagely slp.ughtered. 
 Fortunately for the captain and his party, they were 
 nearer to the boat, when they made their appearance, 
 than were the natives, and, plunging into the water, 
 and holding their muskets over their heads, they 
 reached her in safety, and at once opened fire, whilst 
 the rest of the crew bent to the oars. 
 
 But the danger was not yet over, for as soon as the 
 boat was out of reach of the showers of spears sent at 
 her from the shore, a number of canoes appeared 
 round a bend of the mountainous coast. They had 
 evidently been sent to cut off the white men's retreat. 
 And then began the race for life to the ship which 
 had been witnessed by Baringa and his people from 
 the mainland. 
 
 Maurice, from his tree, had heard the yells of the 
 savages and the gunshots, and was about to descend 
 and follow the captain and his shipmates, when he 
 heard a rush of bodies through the palm grove, and 
 saw beneath him forty or fifty natives, all armed with 
 
MAURICE KINANE 143 
 
 clubs and spears. They were a horrible-looking lot, 
 for they were quite naked and the lips of all were 
 stained a deep red from the juice of the betel-nut, and 
 their dull reddish-brown bodies were daubed over with 
 yellow and white stripes. This party had perhaps 
 meant to surprise the captain and his men as they were 
 getting the coco-nuts, for, finding them gone, they at 
 once rushed out of the grove in pursuit. P'ortunately 
 for Maurice they v/ere too excited to think of look- 
 ing about them, else his end would have come very 
 quickly. 
 
 For nearly ten minutes the lad remained quiet, 
 listening to the sounds of the fighting, and in fearful 
 doubt as to his best course of action — whether to 
 make a bold dash and try to find his way to the boat, 
 or remain in the tree till a rescue party was sent from 
 the ship. Suddenly the thundering report of one of 
 the ship's guns made him peer seaward through the 
 branches of his retreat ; and there, to his delight, he 
 caught a brief view of the boat. Again the report of 
 another gun pealed out, and a wild screaming cry 
 from the natives told him that the shot had done some 
 execution. 
 
 ' I must get out of this,' he thought, ^ and make a 
 bolt along the beach in the other direction, till I get 
 into the hills. I can see better from there, and 
 perhaps make a signal to the ship.' Maurice got 
 quietly down from the tree, and after looking 
 cautiously about him, was about to set off at a run, 
 when he found himself face to face with a young 
 native boy, who, running quickly forward, grasped 
 him by the hands, and began to talk volubly, at the 
 
144 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 same time trying to drag him towards the beach. 
 The boy, save for a girdle of ti leaves, was naked, and 
 Maurice, anxious and alarmed as he was for his own 
 safety, could not but notice that the young savage 
 seemed terribly excited. 
 
 ' Let me go, ye black naygur,' said Maurice, free- 
 ing his hands and striking him in the chest. 
 
 In an instant the native boy fell upon his knees, and 
 held up his hands, palms outward, in a supplicating 
 gesture. 
 
 Puzzled at this, but still dreading treachery, 
 Maurice turned away and again sought to make 
 his way to the hills ; but again the boy caught his 
 hands, and with gentle force, and eyes filled with 
 tears, tried to push or lead him to the beach. At last, 
 apparently as if in despair of making the white lad 
 understand him by words, he made signs of deadly 
 combat, and ended by pointing over to where the boat 
 had been attacked. Then, touching Maurice on the 
 chest, and then himself, he pointed to the sea, and 
 lying on the ground worked his arms and legs as if 
 swimming. 
 
 'Sure, perhaps he's a friend,' thought Maurice, 'an' 
 wants me to swim oiF to the ship. But perhaps he's 
 a thraitor and only manes to entice me away to be 
 murdered. Anyway, it's not much of a choice I've 
 got at all. So come on, blackamoor, I'm wid ye.' 
 
 Although not understanding a v/ord that Maurice 
 said, the native boy smiled when he saw that the 
 white lad was willing to come with liim at last. 
 Then, hand-in-hand, they ran quietly along till they 
 reached the beach ; and here the native, motioning 
 
MAURICE KINANE 145 
 
 Maurice to keep out of view, crept on his hands and 
 knees till he reached a rock, and then slowly raised his 
 head above it and peered cautiously ahead. 
 
 Whate\'er it was he saw evidently satisfied him, for 
 he crawled back to Maurice, and again taking his 
 hand broke into a run, but instead of going in the 
 direction of the river, he led the way along the beach 
 in the opposite direction. Feeling confident now 
 that he had found a friend, Maurice's spirits began to 
 rise, and he went along with the bov unhesitatingly. 
 
 At last they rounded a sandy point, covered with a 
 dense growth of coco-nut trees and pandanus palms ; 
 this point formed the southern horn of a small deep 
 bay, in the centre of which stood an island, warded 
 by a snow-white beach, and on the nearmost shore 
 Maurice saw a canoe drawn up. 
 
 The island beach was quite three hundred yards 
 away, but Maurice was a good swimmer, and although 
 he shuddered at the thought of sharks, he plunged in 
 the water after his dark-skinned companion and soon 
 reached the islet, which was but a tiny spot, contain- 
 ing some two or three score of coco-palms, and three 
 untenanted native huts. It was used by the natives 
 as a fishing station, and the canoe, which was a very 
 small one, had evidently been in use that day. Close 
 by were the marks in the sand where a larger one had 
 been carried down. In one of the huts smoke was 
 arising from a native ground-oven, which showed that 
 the fishermen had not long gone ; doubtless they 
 would return when the food was cooked, for the 
 native boy pointed out the oven to Maurice with a 
 look of alarm. 
 
 K 
 
146 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 The two boys soon launched the canoe, and each 
 seizing a paddle, at once struck out in the direction of 
 the ship. The native lad sat aft, Maurice for'ard, and 
 clumsy as was the latter with the long and narrow 
 canoe paddle, he yet managed to keep his seat and 
 not capsize the frail little craft. 
 
 ' Kurroo ! ' cried foolish Maurice, turning to his 
 companion, * v/e're all right now, I'm thinkin'. 
 There's the ship ! ' 
 
 There she was sure enough, and there also were 
 four canoes, paddling along close in-shore, returning 
 from their chase of the captain's boat. They heard 
 Maurice's loud shout of triumph, at once altered their 
 course, and sped swiftly towards the two boys. 
 
 Scarcely had Captain Williams and his exhausted 
 crew gained the ship when the mate reported that a 
 fleet of canoes was coming across from the mainland 
 of New Britain, and orders were at once given to load 
 the ship's eight guns with grape and canister. (In 
 those days of Chinese and Malay pirates and danger- 
 ous natives of the South Seas, all merchants ships, 
 particularly those engaged in the sandal-wood trade, 
 were well armed, and almost man-of-v/ar discipline 
 observed.) 
 
 'We'll give them something to remember us by, 
 Hodgson,' said Captain Williams, grimly. ' That 
 poor lad ! To think I never noticed he was not 
 in the boat till too late ! I expect he's murdered by 
 now ; but I sJiall take a bloody vengeance for the 
 poor boy's death. Serve out some grog to the hands, 
 steward ; and some of you fellows stand by with some 
 
MAURICE KJNANE 147 
 
 shot to dump into the canoes if we should miss them 
 with the guns and they get alongside.' 
 
 But just as he spoke the mate called out, ' The 
 canoes have stopped paddling, sir, all except one, 
 which is coming right on.' 
 
 * All right, I see it. Let them come and have a 
 look at us. As soon as it gets close enough, I'll sink 
 it.' 
 
 For some minutes the canoe, which contained 
 seven men, continued to advance with great swift- 
 ness ; then she ceased paddling, and the steersman 
 stood up and called out something to the ship, just 
 as she was well covered by two of the guns on the 
 port side. In another minute she would have been 
 blown out of the water, when Tommy Sandwich ran 
 aft and said, — 
 
 'I think, cap'n, that fellow he no want fight ship ; 
 I think he want talk you.' 
 
 * Perhaps so. Tommy ; so we'll let him come a bit 
 closer.' 
 
 Again the native paddles sent the canoe inward 
 till she was well within easy hailing distance of the 
 ship, and the same native again stood up and called 
 out, — 
 
 * Hi, cap'n. No you shoot me. Me Baringa. Me 
 like come 'board.' 
 
 * All right,' answered Captain Williams, ' come 
 alongside.' 
 
 The moment the canoe ranged alongside, Baringa 
 clambered up the side, and advanced fearlessly to- 
 ward the poop. * Where cap'n ? ' he asked, pushing 
 unceremoniously aside those who stood in his way ; 
 
148 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 and mounting the ladder at the break of the poop 
 he walked up to the master of the Boadicea and held 
 out his hand. 
 
 In a very short time, by the aid of Tommy Sand- 
 wich, whose language was allied to that of the natives 
 of New Britain, Captain Williams learnt how matters 
 stood. His visitor was anxious to help him, and volun- 
 teered to join the white man in an attack on the 
 treacherous people of Mano, though he gave but 
 little hope of their finding Maurice alive. They had, 
 he said, stolen his own son twelve months before, and 
 eaten him, and he wanted his revenge. Presently, as 
 a proof of his integrity, he produced from a dirty 
 leather cartridge pouch, that was strapped around his 
 waist, a soiled piece of paper, and handed it to the 
 captain. It read as follows : — 
 
 * The bearer, Baringa, is the chief of Kabaira 
 Coast. He is a thorough old cannibal, but, as far as 
 I know, may be trusted by white men. He supplied 
 my ship with fresh provisions, and seems a friendly 
 old cut-throat. Matthew Wallis, 
 
 ' Master^ ship Alger in e of New Bcdfoj-d. 
 
 ' October 21 J?, 1839.' 
 
 * Well, that's satisfactory,' said Captain Williams, 
 turning to Tommy. ^ Tell him that I am going to 
 land and try and find Maurice, and he can help me 
 with his people. Mr Hodgson, man and arm the 
 boats airain.' 
 
 In a moment all was bustle and excitement, in the 
 midst of which a loud 'hurrah ' came from aloft from 
 
PvlAURICE KINANE 149 
 
 a sailor who was on the fore-yard watching the re- 
 maining canoes of Baringa's fleet. ' Hurrah ! Here's 
 Maurice, sir, coming off in a canoe with a nigger, an' 
 a lot of other niggers in four canoes a-chasin' him.' 
 
 Springing to the taffrail. Captain Williams saw the 
 canoe, which had just rounded the point and was now 
 well in view. The two boys were paddling for their 
 lives ; behind them were the four canoes filled with 
 yelling savages. 
 
 ' Into the boats, men, for God's sake ! ' roared the 
 captain. Had a greater distance separated Maurice 
 from his pursuers the master of the Boadicea would 
 have endeavoured to have sunk the four canoes v/ith 
 the ship's guns ; but the risk was too great to attempt 
 it as they were. However, the gunner and carpenter 
 were sent into the fore-top to try and pick off some of 
 the natives by firing over Maurice's canoe. 
 
 Five minutes later the ship's three boats were pull- 
 ing swiftly to the rescue, and Baringa, jumping into 
 his own canoe, beckoned to the rest of his flotilla to 
 follow him, and six natives urged the light craft 
 furiously along after the boats. 
 
 On, on, came the two poor boys, straining every 
 nerve ; but every moment their pursuers gained on 
 them ; and on, on dashed the heavy, cumbersome 
 boats. Already the nearest canoe was within fifty 
 feet of Maurice and his black friend, the savage 
 paddlers undaunted by the fire from the muskets of 
 the gunner and carpenter, when Captain Williams 
 saw a native rise up and hurl a club at the two boys. 
 Quick as lightning the captain picked up his musket 
 and fired, and the savage fell forward with a bullet 
 
ISO MAURICE KINANE 
 
 through his chest. But quick as he was he v/as too 
 late, for the club whizzed through the air and struck 
 the native boy on his right arm. 
 
 A savage yell of triumph came from the pursuing 
 canoes as their occupants saw the boy go down and 
 the canoe broach-to, and then the leading canoe 
 dashed up alongside that of Maurice and his companion. 
 
 ' Pull, men, pull, for God's sake ! ' cried the captain, 
 frantically, as he saw the Irish lad, paddle in hand, 
 standing up over the body of the fallen boy, and 
 strike wildly at his murderous pursuers. 
 
 With heaving bosoms and set teeth the seamen 
 urged the boats along, and they and the four canoes 
 crashed together in deadly conflict. But as they met, 
 a huge savage stood up and, poising a spear, darted it 
 at the prone figure of the native boy ; it did not reach 
 him, for Maurice, wounded and bleeding as he was 
 with a spear wound through his thigh, flung himself in 
 front of the weapon to save his friend. It struck him 
 in the shoulder and came out a full foot at his back. 
 
 ' You dog,' said Williams, raising his pistol, and the 
 native went down with a crash. 
 
 And then ensued a scene of slaughter, as the seamen 
 of the Boadicea got to work with their cutlasses. It 
 did not take long to end the fight, and not one of the 
 Mano men escaped, for now Baringa's canoes had 
 come up, and with their heavy jade clubs dashed out 
 the brains of those of their enemies who sought to 
 swim ashore. It was in truth a hideous sight, and 
 even the hardy sailors shuddered when they saw the 
 merciless manner in which wounded and dying men 
 were massacred by their naked allies. 
 
MAURICE KINANE 
 
 151 
 
 As quickly as possible, the two boys were lifted out 
 of the little canoe and placed in the captain's boat, 
 where their wounds were examined. The native 
 boy's arm v/as broken, and his back badly hurt, but he 
 was quite conscious. As for Maurice, he was in a bad 
 state, and Captain Williams decided not to pull out 
 the spear till the ship was reached. 
 
 Just as he had given orders to pull for the ship, 
 Baringa's canoe returned from the slaughter of the 
 remaining fugitives, and drew up alongside the captain's 
 boat, and the moment the chief saw the native boy 
 lying in the stern sheets of the boat he sprang out of 
 the canoe and embraced him. 
 
 'It is my boy, my Lokolol — he whom I thought 
 was dead.' 
 
 Little remains to be told. The two boys were 
 carefully attended to as soon as they reached the ship, 
 and to the joy of everyone the spear, when extracted 
 from Maurice's body, was pronounced by Baringa not 
 to be a poisoned one. As for Lokolol, the chief's son, 
 his arm was put in splints, but during the time that was 
 occupied in doing this his hand was clasped around 
 that of the brave young sailor lad who had saved his life, 
 and his big, black eyes never left Maurice's pallid face. 
 
 For three days the Boad'icea remained at anchor 
 opposite the village— she had sailed there the morning 
 after the fight — and the chief showed his gratitude by 
 every possible means. On the morning of the day on 
 which the ship sailed he came on board, attended by 
 thirty canoes, every one of which was laden deep 
 down with pearl shell. It was passed up on deck, and 
 stacked in a heap, and then Baringa asked for the 
 
152 MAURICE KINANE 
 
 captain and the white boy who had saved his son. 
 Beside him stood Lokolol, his arm in a sling, and tears 
 running down his cheeks, for he knew he would see 
 Maurice no more. 
 
 Then Captain Williams came on deck and showed 
 the chief the little cabin boy, lying in a hammock under 
 the poop awning. The burly savage came over to him, 
 and taking Maurice's hand in his, placed it tenderly upon 
 his huge, hairy bosom in token of gratitude. Then he 
 spoke to the captain through Tommy Sandwich. 
 
 ^ Tell this good captain that I, Baringa, am for ever 
 the white man's friend. And tell him, too, that all 
 this pearl shell here is my gift to him and the boy who 
 helped my son to escape from captivity. Half is for 
 the good captain ; half is for the brave white boy.' 
 
 Then, after remaining on board till the ship was many 
 miles away from the land, the chief and his son bade 
 the wounded boy farewell and went back to the shore. 
 
 Maurice soon recovered, and when the Boadicea 
 arrived at Hong Kong, and Captain Williams had sold 
 the pearl shell, he said to his cabin boy, — 
 
 ' Maurice, my lad, I've sold the pearl shell, and 
 what do you think I've been paid for it ? Well, just 
 eight thousand dollars — ^1600 in English money. 
 You're quite a rich boy now, Maurice. It's not every lad 
 that gets four thousand dollars for saving a nigger's life.' 
 
 Maurice's bright blue eyes filled with honest tears. 
 'Shure, sor, he was a naygur, thrue enough. But 
 thin, yerc honour, he had a foinc bould heart to do 
 what he did for Maurice Kinane.' 
 
 And, as I have said, this is a true story, and old 
 Maurice Kinane, wlio is alive now, himself told it to mc. 
 
The ' Killers ' of Twofold Bay 
 
THE ' KILLERS ' OF TWOFOLD BAY 
 
 Enbosomed in the verdure-clad hills of the southern 
 coast of sunny New South Wales lies a fisherman's 
 paradise, named Twofold Bay. Its fame is but local, 
 or known only to outsiders who may have spent a 
 day there when travelling from Sydney to Tasmania 
 in the fine steamers of the Union Company, which 
 occasionally put in there to ship cattle from the little 
 township of Eden, which is situated upon the northern 
 shore of its deep and placid waters. But the chief 
 point of interest about Twofold Bay is that it is the 
 rendezvous of the famous 'killers' [Orca gladiator)^ 
 the deadly foes of the whole race of cetaceans other 
 than themselves, and the most extraordinary and 
 sagacious creatures that inhabit the ocean's depths. 
 From July to November two ' schools ' of killers may 
 be seen every day, either cruising to and fro across 
 the entrance of the bay, or engaged in a Titanic 
 combat with a whale- — a ' right ' whale, a ' humpback,' 
 or the long, swift ' fin-back.' Never have they been 
 known to tackle the great sperm-whale, except when 
 one of those mighty creatures has been wounded by his 
 human enemies. An3 to witness one of these mighty 
 struggles is worth travelling many a thousand miles 
 to see ; it is terrible, awe-inspiring and wonderful. 
 The "^killer' ranges in length from ten feet to twenty- 
 155 
 
156 THE 'KILLERS' OF TWOFOLD BAY 
 
 five feet (whalemen have told me that one was seen 
 stranded on the Great Barrier Reef in 1862 which 
 measured thirty feet). Their breathing apparatus and 
 general anatomy is much similar to that of the larger 
 whales. They spout, ^ breach.' and 'sound ' like other 
 cetaceans, and are of the same migratory habit, as the 
 two ' schools ' which haunt Twofold Bay always leave 
 there at a certain time of the year to cruise in other 
 seas, returning to their headquarters when the hump- 
 back and fin-back whales make their appearance on 
 the coast of New South Wales, travelling northwards 
 to the feeding-grounds on the Bampton Shoals, the 
 coast of New Guinea and the Moluccas. 
 
 The head of the killer is of enormous strength. The 
 mouth is armed in both jaws with fearful teeth, from 
 one and a half inches to two inches long, and set rather 
 widely apart. In colour they show an extraordinary 
 variation, some being all one hue — brown, black, or dull 
 grey ; others are black, with large, irregular patches 
 or streaks of pure white or yellow ; others are dark 
 brown with black and yellow patches. One, which 
 I saw ashore on the reef at the island of Nukulaelae 
 in the South Pacific, was nearly black, except for a 
 few irregular blotches of white on the back and belly. 
 This particular killer had died from starvation, for 
 nearly the entire lower jaw had decayed from a 
 cancerous growth. 
 
 The whaling station at Twofold Bay is now, alas ! 
 the only one in the colony — the last remnant of a 
 once great and thriving industry, whicli, in the early 
 days of the then struggling colony, was the nursery 
 of bold and adventurous seamen. It is now carried 
 
THE 'KILLERS' OF TWOFOLD BAY 157 
 
 on bv a family named Davidson, father and sons — in 
 conjunction with the killers. And for more than 
 twenty years this business partnership has existed be- 
 tween the humans and the cetaceans, and the utmost 
 rectitude and solicitude for each other's interests has 
 always been maintained. Orca gladiator seizes the 
 whale for the Davidsons and holds him until the 
 deadly lance is plunged into his Mife,' and the David- 
 sons let Orca carry the carcass to the bottom, and 
 take his tithe of luscious blubber. This is the literal 
 truth ; and grizzled old Davidson, or any one of the 
 stalwart sons who man his two boats, will tell you 
 that but for the killers, who do half of the work, 
 whaling would not pay with oil only worth from 
 ^18 to ^24 a tun. 
 
 Let us imagine a warm, sunny day in August at 
 Twofold Bay. The man who is on the lookout at 
 the old lighthouse, built by Ben Boyd on the southern 
 headland fifty years ago, paces to and fro on the grassy 
 sward, stopping now and then to scan the wide ex- 
 panse of ocean with his glass, for the spout of a whale 
 is hard to discern at more than two miles if the 
 weather is not clear. If the creature is in a playful 
 mood and * breaches,' that is, springs bodily out of 
 the water and sends up a white volume of foam and 
 spray, like the discharge of a submarine mine, you 
 can see it eight miles away. 
 
 The two boats are always in readiness at the trying- 
 out works, a mile or so up the harbour ; so, too, are 
 the killers ; and the look-out man, walking to the 
 verge of the cliff, looks down. There they are, 
 cruising slowly up and down, close in-shore, spouting 
 
158 THE 'KILLERS' OF TWOFOLD BAY 
 
 lazily and showing their wet, gleaming backs as they 
 rise, roll and dive again. There's * Fatty,' and ' Spot,' 
 and ' Flukey,' and ' Little Jim,' and * Paddy,' and 
 ' Tom Tug.' Nearly every one of them has a name, 
 and each is well known to his human friends. 
 
 Presently the watchman sees, away to the south- 
 ward, a white, misty puff, then another, and another. 
 In an instant he brings his glass to bear. ' Hump- 
 backs ! ' Quickly two flags flutter from the flagpole, 
 and a fire is lit ; and as the flags and smoke are seen, 
 the waiting boats' crews at the trying-out station are 
 galvanised into life by the cry of ' Rush, ho, lads ! 
 Humpbacks in sight, steering north-west ! ' Rush 
 and tumble into the boats and away ! 
 
 Round the south head sweeps the first boat, the 
 second following more leisurely, for she is only a 
 'pick-up' or relief, in case the first is 'fluked' and 
 the crew are tossed high in air, with their boat crushed 
 into matchwood, or meets with some other disaster. 
 And as the leading boat rises to the long ocean swell 
 of the offing, the killers close in round her on either 
 side, just keeping clear of the sweep of the oars, and 
 'breaching' and leaping and spouting with the antici- 
 pative zest of the coming bloody fray. 
 
 ' Easy, lads, easy ! ' says the old boat-header ; ' they're 
 coming right down on us. Billy was right. They're 
 humpbacks, sure enough ! ' 
 
 The panting oarsmen pull a slower stroke, and 
 then, as they watch the great, savage creatures which 
 swim alongside, they laugh in the mirthless manner 
 peculiar to most young native-born Australians, for 
 suddenly, with a last sharp spurt of vapour, the killers 
 
THE 'KILLERS' OF TWOFOLD BAY 159 
 
 dive and disappear into the dark blue beneath ; for 
 they have heard the whales, and, as is their custom, 
 have gone ahead of the boat, rushing swiftly on below 
 full fifty fathoms deep. Fifteen minutes later they 
 rise to the surface in the midst of the humpbacks, and 
 half a square acre of ocean is turned into a white, 
 swirling cauldron of foam and leaping spray. The 
 bull-dogs of the sea have seized the largest whale of 
 the school, and are holding him for the boat and for 
 the deadly lance of his human foes. The rest of the 
 humpbacks raise high their mighty flukes and 'sound,' a 
 hundred — two hundred — fathoms down, and, speeding 
 seaward, leave the unfortunate bull to his dreadful fate. 
 
 (And, in truth, it is a dreadful fate, and the writer 
 of this sketch can never forget how one day, as he and 
 a little girl of six watched, from a grassy headland on 
 the coast of New South Wales, the slaughter of a mon- 
 strous whale by a drove of killers, that the child wept 
 and shuddered and hid her face against his shoulder.) 
 
 Ranging swiftly alongside of him, from his great 
 head down to the ' small ' of his back, the fierce 
 killers seize his body in their savage jaws and tear great 
 strips of skin and blubber from off his writhing sides 
 in huge mouthfuls, and then jerking the masses aside, 
 take another and another bite. Li vain he sweeps his 
 flukes with fearful strokes from side to side — the bull- 
 dogs of the sea come not within their range ; in vain 
 he tries to 'sound' — there is a devil on each side of 
 his jaws, their cruel teeth fixed firmly into his huge 
 lips ; perhaps two or three are underneath him tear- 
 ing and riving at the great tough corrugations of his 
 grey-ribbed belly ; whilst others, with a few swift 
 
i6o THE 'KILLERS' OF TWOFOLD BAY 
 
 vertical strokes of their flukes, draw back for fifty feet 
 or so, charge him amidships, and strike him fearful 
 blows on the ribs with their bony heads. Round and 
 round, in ever-narrowing circles as his strength fails, 
 the tortured humpback swims, sometimes turning 
 on his back or side, but failing, failing fast. 
 
 * He's done for, lads. Pull up ; stand up, Jim.' 
 The boat dashes up, and Jim, the man who is pulling 
 
 bow oar, picks up his harpoon. A minute later, it flies 
 from his hand and is buried deep into the body of the 
 quivering animal, cutting through the thick blubber 
 as a razor would cut through the skin of a drum. 
 
 * Stern all ! ' and the harpooner tumbles aft and 
 grips the steer oar, and the steersman takes his place 
 in the head of the boat with his keen-edged lance. 
 But 'humpy' is almost spent, and though by a mighty 
 effort he ' ups flukes,' and sounds, he soon rises, for the 
 killers thrust him upwards to the surface again. Then 
 the flashing lance, two, three swift blows into his 
 ' life,' a gushing torrent of hot, dark blood, he rolls 
 over on his side, an agonised trembling quivers through 
 his vast frame, the battle is over and his life is gone. 
 
 And now comes the curious and yet absolutely 
 truly described final part that the killers play in this 
 ocean tragedy. They, the moment the whale is dead, 
 close around him, and fastening their teeth into his body, 
 by main strength bear it to the bottom. Here — if 
 they have not already accomplished it — they tear out 
 the tongue and eat about one-third of the blubber. In 
 from thirty-six to forty hours the carcass will again 
 rise to the surface, and as, before he was taken down, 
 the whalemen have attached a line and buoy to the 
 
THE 'KILLERS' OF TWOFOLD BAY i6i 
 
 body, its whereabouts is easily discerned from the 
 lookout on the headland ; the boats again put ofF and 
 tow it ashore to the trying-out works. The killers, 
 though they have had their fill of blubber, accompany 
 the boats to the head of the bay and keep ofF the 
 sharks, which would otherwise strip ofF all the remain- 
 ing blubber from the carcass before it had reached the 
 shore. But once the boats are in the shallow water the 
 killers stop, and then with a final ' pufF ! pufF ! ' of 
 farewell to their human friends, turn and head seaward 
 to resume their ceaseless watch and patrol of the ocean. 
 The killers never hurt a man. Time after time 
 have boats been stove-in or smashed into splinters by a 
 whale, either by an accidental blow from his head or 
 a sudden lateral sweep of his monstrous flukes, and the 
 crew left struggling in the water or clinging to the 
 oars and pieces of wreckage ; and the killers have 
 swum up to, looked at, and srnelt them — but never 
 have they touched a man with intent to do him harm. 
 And wherever the killers are, the sharks are not, for Jack 
 Shark dreads a killer as the devil is said to dread holy 
 , water. Sometimes I have seen ' Jack ' make a rush in 
 I between the killers, and rip ofF a piece of hanging 
 ^j blubber, but he will carefully watch his chance to do so. 
 On some occasions, v^hen a pack of killers set out 
 whale-hunting, they will be joined by a thresher — the 
 fox-shark [Alopias vulpes) — and then while the killers 
 bite and tear the unfortunate cetacean, the thresher 
 deals him fearful blows with his scythe-like tail. The 
 master of a whaling vessel told me that o^i the north 
 end of New Caledonia, there was, from 1868 till 1876, 
 a pack of nine killers which were alwavs attended by 
 
 L 
 
1 62 THE 'KILLERS' OE TWOFOLD BAY 
 
 two threshers and a sword-fish. Not only he, but 
 many other whaling skippers had seen this particular 
 swordfish, year after year, joining the killers in attacks 
 upon whales. The cruising ground of this pack 
 extended for thirty miles, north and south, and the 
 nine creatures and their associates were well known 
 to hundreds of New Bedford whalemen. No doubt 
 many of these combats, witnessed from merchant 
 ships, have led to many sea-serpent stories ; for when a 
 thresher stands his twenty feet of slender body straight 
 up on end like a pole, he presents a strange sight, as 
 his long body sways, and curves, and twists in air, 
 as he deals his cutting blows upon his victim. Then, 
 too, the enormous length of the pectoral fins of a 
 humpback whale, which show dazzlingly white as he 
 rolls from side to side in his agony, and frantically 
 beats the water with them in his struggles, or upends 
 one after the other like a mast, might well be mis- 
 taken for the uprearing of a serpent's body. But any 
 South Sea whaleman will smile when he hears talk 
 of the sea-serpent, though he has not forgotten the 
 awe and fascination with which he was filled, when 
 he first saw a whale in the agonies of combat with 
 Alopias vulpcs and Orca gladiator^ and the serpentine 
 evolutions of the former creature. 
 
 The whaleman in the Pacific sees very strange and 
 wondrous sights ; and never, since Herman Melville 
 wrote his strangely exciting and weird book, ' The 
 Whale,' nearly fifty years ago, has any writer gi\'cn 
 us such a vivid and true picture of whaling life and 
 incident as Mr Frank T. Bullen in his ' Cruise of the 
 Cachalot^'' published this year. 
 
Denison's Second Berth Ashore 
 
DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 I HAVE already told how Tom Denison, the South Sea 
 Island supercargo, took a berth ashore as overseer of a 
 Queensland duck farm, wliich was mortgaged to a 
 bank of which his brother was manager, and how he 
 resigned the post in great despondency, and humped 
 his swag to Cooktown. 
 
 Over his meeting with his brother let a veil be 
 drawn. Suffice it to say that the banker told him 
 that he had missed the one great chance of his life, 
 and quoted Scripture about the ways of the improvi- 
 dent man to such an extent that Denison forgot 
 himself, and said that the bank and its infernal ducks 
 could go and be damned. Thereupon his sister-in-law 
 (who was a clergyman's daughter, and revered the 
 Bank as she did the Church) swooned, and his brother 
 told him he was a heartless and dissolute young ruffian, 
 who would come to a bad end. Feeling very hurt 
 and indignant, the ex-supercargo stumped out of the 
 bank, and went down to the wharf to look for a ship. 
 
 But there was only a dirty little coasting steamer in 
 port, and Denison hated steamers, for once he had had 
 to go a voyage in one as supercargo, and the continuous 
 work involved by being constantly in port every fev/ 
 days, instead of drifting about in a calm, all but broke 
 
i66 DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 his heart. So he rented a room at a diggers' boarding- 
 house kept by a Chinaman, knowing that this would 
 be a dagger in the heart of his sister-in-law, who was 
 the leading lady in Cooktown society ; also, he walked 
 about the town without a coat, and then took a job on 
 the wharf discharging coals from a collier, and experi- 
 enced a malevolent satisfaction when he one evening 
 met Mrs Aubrey Denison in the street. He w^as in 
 company with four other coal-heavers, all as black as 
 himself; his sister-in-law was walking with the wife 
 of the newly-appointed Supreme Court judge. She 
 glanced shudderingly at the disgraceful sight her 
 relative presented, went home and hysterically sug- 
 gested to Aubrey Denison, Esq., that his brother Tom 
 was a degraded criminal, and was on the way to well- 
 deserved penal servitude. 
 
 After the coal-heaving job was finished, Denison lay 
 back and luxuriated on the. ^5, 17s. 6d. he had earned 
 for his week's toil. Then one morning he saw an 
 advertisement, in the North ^eensland Trumpet-Call^ 
 for a proof-reader. And being possessed of a certain 
 amount of worldly wisdom, he went dov/n to the bank, 
 saw his brother (who received him with a gloomy 
 brow) and said he should like to write a letter to the 
 editor of the Trumtet-Call. He wrote his letter — on 
 bank paper — and then went back to Sum Fat's to await 
 developments. The following morning he rccei\xd a 
 note from the editor telling him to call at the ofHcc. 
 'I'o Susie Sum Fat, his landlord's pretty half-caste 
 daughter, he showed the missive, and asked her to lend 
 him one of her father's best shirts. Susie, who liked 
 Denison for his nice ways, and the tender manner '\\\ 
 
DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 167 
 
 which he squeezed her hand when passing the bread, 
 promptly brought him her parent's entire stock of Hnen, 
 and bade him, with a soft smile, to take his pick. Also 
 that night she brought him a blue silk kummerbund 
 streaked with scarlet, and laid it on his pillow, with a 
 written intimation that it was sent ^ with fondiest love 
 from Susie S. Fat.' 
 
 Arrayed in a clean shirt, and the swagger kummer- 
 bund, Denison presented himself next morning to the 
 editor of the Tru?npet-Call. There were seven other 
 applicants for the billet, but Denison's white shirt 
 and new kummerbund were, he felt, a tower of 
 strength to him, and even the editor of the Trumpet- 
 Call seemed impressed — clean shirts being an anomaly 
 in Cooktown journalistic circles. 
 
 The editor was a tall, stately man, with red eyes 
 and a distinctly alcoholic breath. The other applicants 
 went in first. Each one had a bundle of very dirty 
 testimonials, all of which recalled to Denison Judge 
 Norbury's remarks about the * tender ' letters of a 
 certain breach of promise case. One little man, with 
 bandy legs and a lurching gait, put his unclean hands 
 on the editorial table, and said that his father was 
 * select preacher to the University of Oxford.' 
 
 The red-eyed man said he was proud to know him. 
 ' Your father, sir, was a learned man and I reverence 
 his name. But I never could forgive myself did I 
 permit a son of such a great teacher to accept such a 
 laborious position as proof-reader on the Trumpet-Call. 
 Go to Sydney or Melbourne, my dear sir. The editors 
 of all our leading colonial papers were clergymen or 
 are sons of clergymen. I should be doing your future 
 
i68 DENISON'S SFXOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 prospects a bitter injustice. A bright career awaits 
 you in this new country.' 
 
 He shook the hand of the select preacher's son and 
 sent him out. 
 
 Among the other applicants was a man who had 
 tried dugong fishing on the Great Barrier Reef; a 
 broken-down advance agent from a stranded theatrical 
 company ; a local auctioneer with defective vision, but 
 who had once written a ' poem ' for a ladies' journal ; 
 a baker's carter who was secretary to the local debating 
 society ; and a man named Joss, who had a terrific 
 black eye and who told Denison, sotto voce^ that if the 
 editor gave hi?n any sauce he would * go for him ' there 
 and then and ' knock his bloomin' eye out,' and the 
 son of the local bellman and bill-poster. The editor 
 took their names and addresses, and said he should write 
 to them all in the morning and announce his decision. 
 Then, after thev had ffone, he turned to Denison 
 
 } jay 
 
 with a pleasant smile and an approving look at Sum 
 Fat's shirt, and asked him if he had had previous 
 experience of proof-reading. Denison, in a diffident 
 manner, said that he had not exactly had much. 
 
 'Just so. But you'll try and do your best, Mr 
 Denison ? Well, come in this evening at eight 
 o'clock, and see Mr Pinkham, the sub-editor. He'll 
 show you what to do. Salary, ^2, 15s. Strict 
 sobriety, I trust ? ' 
 
 The successful one said he never got quite drunk, 
 expressed his thanks and withdrew. Once into the 
 street he walked quickly into Sum Fat's, and told the 
 Celestial that he had taken a billet at ' thirty bob ' a 
 week on a newspaper. 
 
DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 169 
 
 ' Wha' paper ? ' inquired Sum f'at, who was 
 squeezing a nasty-looking adipocerous mass into fish- 
 balls for his boarders. 
 
 ' The Trumpet-Call.'' 
 
 'That's a lotten lag, if you li'. It close on 
 banklupt this long time.' 
 
 Denison assented cheerfully. It was a rotten rag, 
 he said, and undoubtedly in a weak position financi- 
 ally ; but the thirty bob would pay his board bill. 
 
 Then Sum Fat, who knew that the ex-supercargo 
 was lying as regarded the amount of his salary, nodded 
 indifferently and went on pounding his awful hash. 
 
 ' Where is Mr Pinkham ? ' asked Denison at eight 
 p.m., when an exceedingly dirty small boy brought 
 him his first proof. 
 
 ' He's tanked."^ An' he says he ain't agoin' to help 
 no blackguard sailor feller to read no proofs. And 
 most all the comps is tanked, too.' 
 
 However, with the intelligent assistance of the boy, 
 Denison managed to pull through that night, with the 
 following result in the ' Intercolonial Telegrams ' 
 column : — 
 
 ^ Melbourne^ August 13. — The body of an elderly 
 boat was foundd last night floating down the Tarra, 
 down the Tarra^ with its throat cut. It wus dressed in 
 V grey tweed suit with a flannel shirty dressed in a grey 
 tweed suit with a flannel shirt. This mourning a girl 
 said thp deceased was her father^^ etc. 
 
 *' Tanked.' A colonialism which indicates that a person has 
 indulged in too much liquid refreshment. 
 
170 DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 A few lines further down in the same column was 
 the intelligence that Chief Justice Higinbotham of 
 Victoria had 'sentenced the man Power to imprison- 
 ment for the term of his natural next.' 
 
 When Denison turned up next evening, the editor 
 asked him in distinctly cold tones if he ' had read the 
 paper.' 
 
 Denison said he had not — he was too tired. 
 
 Then the editor pointed out tw^enty-nine hideous 
 mistakes, all underlined in blue pencil and on a par 
 with the two above-mentioned. Denison explained in 
 regard to the word 'next' that he meant 'life,' but 
 there being a turned ' e ' in ' life ' he somehow deleted 
 the entire word, and just then in his zeal, calling out 
 next proof,' he unthinkingly wrote 'next' on the 
 proof instead of ' life.' As for the matter of the boat 
 he had no excuse to offer. The editor was not harsh, 
 but said that a man of Denison's intelligence ought to 
 be employed in building up Britain beyond the seas 
 instead of reading proofs. 
 
 For the next two issues he pulled through fairly 
 well. Sum Fat advanced him ten shillings, with 
 which he bought Susie a pair of canvas shoes, and 
 Susie kissed him seven times and said she loved him 
 because he never said horrid things to her like the other 
 men. And when she laid her innocent face upon his 
 shoulder and wept, Denison was somewhat stirred, and 
 decided to get away from Susie as quickly as possible. 
 
 On the fourth evening a beery local politician sent 
 in a paragraph, written in an atrocious hand, stating 
 that he (the beery man) had 'received a number of 
 replies to the circulars he had sent out to the sup- 
 
DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 171 
 
 porters of the Government,' etc. In the morning the 
 paragraph appeared : — 
 
 * Mr Ehenezer Thompson^ the champion of Separation^ 
 for North ^eensland^ has again received quite a large 
 munher of reptiles^ etc. 
 
 Of course Mr Thompson was terribly insulted— 
 everyone in Cooktown knew that he had periodical 
 illnesses, during which he imagined he was chased by 
 large snakes joined to blue dogs with red eyes and crim- 
 son tails — and demanded Denison's instant dismissal. 
 The editor, however, pleaded for him on account of 
 his inexperience, and the matter was passed over. 
 
 He worried along pretty well till the end of the 
 week, and then fresh trouble arose. Mr Pinkham 
 the sub-editor, who did the foreign cables and the 
 local fire-brigade items, got exceedingly drunk — a 
 weekly occurrence — and, for his own safety, was locked 
 up by the intelligent police. The three reporters, 
 who all hated Pinkham, declined to sub-edit his 
 cables, and consequently the editor was himself driven 
 to take refuge in drink. The business manager, 
 however, took his place, and told Denison that he 
 relied on him to assist with the cables. Denison 
 hinted at increased emoluments, and the manager 
 promptly threatened to sack him and all the rest of 
 the literary staff. He would do the cables himself, he 
 said. He abhorred Denison on account of Susie and 
 the kummerbund. 
 
 Just then the Emperor Frederick was dying at San 
 Remo, and cables were coming through via Sydney. 
 
172 DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 At one a.m. the business manager came in to Denison 
 and said that they should try to get along amicably. 
 As both the editor and Mr Pinkham, he said, were in 
 a disgraceful condition, he relied upon the rest of the 
 staff to maintain the credit of the Trump et-Call^ etc. 
 Then he showed Denison a cable he had just received, 
 and asked him if he could assist him to make it out. 
 It ran in this wise : * London — Emperor Frederick 
 condition very grave. German physicians hamper 
 Morell Mackenzie, but approve suggestion operation 
 trache Otomy esophagus without delay.' 
 
 Denison said (with secret joy) that he was afraid 
 he couldn't help. But he believed that there were 
 two world-famous Italian doctors named Tracchi 
 and Tomy. ' Esophagus ' was, he also remarked, 
 no doubt meant for ^sarcophagus' — the Latin name 
 for the gullet. And he suggested to his enemy 
 that it would be well to rush the cable through as 
 quickly as possible. The business manager said he 
 should — he merely felt a little doubt about the proper 
 spelling of the Italian doctors' names, though he, of 
 course, knew that there was no such word as 
 esophagus. As he went out Denison smiled like a 
 fiend. His anticipations of an ample revenge upon 
 the low, sordid creature who had refused him another 
 sovereign a week were gratified in the morning, for 
 under a large heading he saw this : — 
 
 ' THE EMPEROR FREDERICK 
 
 ' Serious Condition 
 ' Sy^N REMO.--Thc Emperor Frederick's condlUon is 
 
DENISON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 173 
 
 causing grave anxiety. The German physicians /;/ 
 attendance hinder Morell Mackenzie in every possible 
 way. They^ however^ agree to his suggestion to send 
 for the two celebrated Italian specialists^ Drs Tracchi 
 and Tomy^ and with the??! perfor?n an operation on the 
 E?nperors sarcophagus. Wheat is id. fir??ier. Hides 
 are dull^ bank rate unaltered. Talloiu is i?nprovi?ig.'' 
 
 The absolute beauty of the thing, however, to 
 Denison's mind, was that the business manager had 
 sold a copy of his translation of the cablegram to the 
 other local paper — run by the Cooktown Labour 
 Union — which had used it word for word. 
 
 Nothing of moment occurred after this till a re- 
 port of a sermon by Dr Stanton, the first Bishop of 
 North Queensland, appeared. His lordship, alluding to 
 certain conditions of the human mind which rendered 
 one's judgment 'subject to warp and bias,' the in- 
 telligent compositor made it ' wasps and bees,' and 
 Denison, being very sleepy when he read the proof, 
 let it go. And Dr Stanton, good and generous man, 
 laughed heartily when Denison, with a contrite and 
 broken heart called on him, and asked for his forgiveness. 
 
 But Nemesis was coming along. There was a 
 wealthy and atrociously vulgar magnate in Cooktown, 
 whose wife ran second to Mrs Aubrey Denison in 
 local society, and who had just lost her father. The 
 death announcement appeared as follows : — 
 
 ' On June 18, at the Bungalow^ Cooktown^ Do?iald 
 Dugald M'lVhannel^ Government Inspector of Artesian 
 Bores for North ^eensland^ aged sixty-five. 
 
 ' Also.^ at the same time and place., five trusses of 
 
174 DENl SON'S SECOND BERTH ASHORE 
 
 l^ictoria hay^ some pigs and calves^ and twenty-six hags 
 of onions and potatoes^ all in prime order ^ 
 
 Of course this v/as the last straw, and Denison was 
 asked to resign. But as Mrs Aubrey Denison wrote 
 and said she should like to forgive him for his dis- 
 graceful conduct before he went away, he sent the 
 Scotch foreman of the Trumpet-Call to explain to her 
 that the catch-line of an auctioneer's advertisement 
 had been ' dropped ' on the same galley as the 
 mortuarv notice, and overlooked when the forme was 
 locked. And so, after a tender farev^^ell to little Susie 
 Sum Fat, and with her kisses still warm upon his 
 lips, Denison went out into the world again to look 
 for a ship. 
 
A Fish Drive on a Micronesian 
 Atoll 
 
A FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN 
 ATOLL 
 
 We were thrashing our way in a little brigantine, 
 owned bv Tom de Wolf, of Liverpool, against the 
 strong north-east trade wind, from the Western 
 Carolines to Milli in the Marshalls, when one day 
 we sighted a low-lying cluster of five small palm- 
 clad islands that lay basking, white and green, in 
 the bright Pacific sun ; and an hour before dark 
 the Lunalilo dropped her anchor just in front of the 
 native village. In a few minutes the resident white 
 trader came ofF to us in his boat and made us welcome 
 to his island home. 
 
 We had heard that he had quite a considerable 
 quantity of hawkbill turtle shell and some coco-nut 
 oil to sell, and came to ascertain the truth of the 
 report before we were anticipated by some German 
 or American trading vessel. 
 
 Less than a mile away from where the brigantine 
 was anchored we saw a noble white beach, trending 
 cast and west in many curves, and backed by serried 
 lines of palms and groves of bread-fruit trees, through 
 whose bright verdancy peeped out the thatch-covered 
 and saddle-backed houses of the natives. Apart from 
 the village, and enclosed by a low fence of growing- 
 hibiscus palings, stood the trader's house, a long, 
 rambling building with white coral-lime walls and a 
 wide, shadv verandah on all four sides. In front of 
 
 M 
 
i-S FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESJAN ATOLL 
 
 the Fence was a tall, white-painted flagstafi"", and pres- 
 ently we saw a woman come out of the trader's 
 house and walk up to it. In another minute the 
 Stars and Stripes went slowly up, and then hung 
 limp and motionless in the windless atmosphere. 
 
 ' There,' said the trader, with a laugh, * you see, my 
 wife, native as she is, is more polite than I am. But 
 the fact is that I was so excited when I saw your 
 schooner that I never thought about hoisting the old 
 gridiron. Now, look here, gentlemen ; before we do 
 anything else, or talk about business, I want you to 
 promise to come ashore to night. There is to be a 
 big fish drive, and I can assure you that that is 
 a sight worth seeing.' 
 
 We made the promise, and half an hour later 
 went ashore and walked up to our friend's house. 
 Here we found the entire population of the island 
 assembled to do us honour, and for quite ten minutes 
 were embraced most effusively by every one, male or 
 female, who could get near us. The men were naked 
 to their waists — the missionaries had not then made 
 any headway in the Caroline Islands — around v^diich 
 they wore either gaily-coloured girdles of bleached 
 and then dyed strips of fine pandanus leaf, or sashes 
 of closely-woven banana fibre. The women, how- 
 ever, somewhat ineffectually concealed the remarkable 
 beauty of their figures by wearing, in addition to their 
 grass waist girdles, a crescent-shaped garment of 
 ;imilar material, which was suspended from their necks, 
 and covered their bosoms.* Their glossy black hair 
 hung in wavy curls down their smooth brown backs. 
 
 ■' Since the advent of the missionaries this costume has been srpprcssed. 
 
FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL 179 
 
 Nearly all the young unmarried girls wore narrow 
 head circlets of white pandanus leaf, profusely adorned 
 and embroidered with red and yellow beads, flat pieces 
 of polished pearl shell, and edged with green and gold 
 and scarlet parrots' feathers. Their address and 
 modest demeanour was engaging in the extreme, and 
 we noticed that they showed the utmost deference 
 and respect to an aged female who sat on a mat in 
 the centre of the room, surrounded by a number of 
 voung children. She was, we learnt, the king's 
 mother, and at her request the trader led us over to 
 where she sat, and gave us a formal introduction. 
 She received us in a pleasant but dignified manner, 
 and the moment that she opened her lips to speak 
 the clatter of tongues around us ceased as if by magic, 
 and the most respectful silence prevailed. 
 
 As neither the captain nor myself were able to speak 
 the local dialect — which is similar to that of Ponape 
 — we were somewhat at a loss to answer the questions 
 she put to us, and etiquette forbade the trader to 
 volunteer his services as an interpreter, till the old 
 dame asked him. Presently, however, she desired 
 him to tell us that she was very pleased to see us ; 
 that the fish drive would, she hoped, interest us 
 greatly. Then, at a sign from her, a handsome 
 young man who stood in the doorway came forward 
 and laid down a bundle of mats at our feet ; this was 
 the old lady's formal present to the captain and myself. 
 She then rose, and bidding us to come and see her in 
 her son's house before we sailed, she walked over to 
 the end of the room, attended by her retinue of 
 children, and sat down again on a finely-worked mat, 
 
i8o FISH DRIVE ON A MiCRONESIAN ATOLL 
 
 which was spread out before her. Then she made 
 another and longer speech on behalf of her son, who, 
 she said, had desired her to say that he was very 
 pleased we had brought the ship to an anchor ; that 
 his stomach was filled with friendship for white men ; 
 and that the trader would tell us that all that he (the 
 king) said was true ; also that if any of her people 
 stole even the most trifling article from our ship they 
 would be severely punished, etc. Furthermore, she 
 trusted that after we had spent one night at the white 
 man's house and seen the fish drive, we would spend 
 the following morning with her, when we should be 
 feasted, and every honour and attention shown us. 
 Then the young man attendant produced another 
 present — from the king. This was a live sucking 
 pig, a pair of fat Muscovy ducks, and a huge green 
 turtle. This latter was carried in by four women, 
 and placed in the centre of the room. We then, 
 through the trader, made return gifts of a bolt of 
 white calico, a lamp and a tin of kerosene. Touching 
 these with her hand the old woman signed to her 
 attendants to take them away, and then, with another 
 polite speech, left the house. 
 
 The moment the king's mother retired, many more 
 of the common people swarmed into the house, and all 
 seemed highly delighted to learn that we intended to 
 stay and see the great fish drive. 
 
 As every one of our native crew was very anxious 
 to join in the sport, the captain had asked the king's 
 mother to * tapu ' the ship till daylight, and shortly 
 afterwards wc were told by a messenger from the king 
 that this had been done, and that no native would 
 
FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL i8i 
 
 attempt to board the ship till we had returned. 
 Although these people were honest enough, our 
 captain thought it hardly safe enough to leave the 
 ship without a white man on board, for all natives 
 are very careless with the use of fire, and, being great 
 smokers, he felt nervous on that score. 
 
 At five o'clock we were taken to the king's house, 
 where we found the whole population assembled. A 
 great feast was spread out, and King Ralok, who 
 advanced to meet us, took us by our hands and sat 
 us down in the midst of a vast collection of baked 
 fish, bread fruit, turtle meat and eggs, and roast fowls, 
 pigeons and pork. Of course we had to eat ; but at 
 the earliest opportunity the trader told the king that 
 we were anxious to see the preparations made for the 
 drive before it got too dark. Ralok at once agreed, 
 and after drinking the milk of a young coco-nut to 
 wash down the repast, we made a start for the scene 
 of operations. 
 
 This was along the shore of the lagoon. At high 
 water, for nearlv two or three miles, the white, sandy 
 bottom would be covered by a depth of about four feet 
 of water ; at low water, as it was now, it was dry. 
 Here and there were clumps of coral boulders, 
 generally circular in shape, and these, at high water, 
 would be just flush with the surface. These boulders 
 were some two or three hundred yards apart, and as 
 we came out upon the lagoon beach we saw that they 
 were connected by a vast number of nets lying upon 
 the sand, in readiness to rise, by means of their light 
 wooden floats of puka wood, as soon as the incoming 
 tide swept in from the ocean. Upon the top of each 
 
1 82 FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL 
 
 of these connecting boulders were piled bundles or 
 long torches made of dried coco-nut branches, which 
 were to be lighted when the drive began. The total 
 length of the netting was about two miles, but at one 
 end, that facing the deep water of the lagoon, there 
 was a wide, unenclosed space. Flere, hov/ever, were 
 lying half a dozen canoes, whose outrigger platforms 
 were piled up with strong nets, which were to be 
 stretched across the opening at the proper moment. 
 
 After looking at the preparations, we returned to 
 the village, and as we had no time to lose, and the 
 tide was coming in at a great rate over the reef, we 
 began to dress, or rather undress, for the sport. To 
 each of us was given a spear, and a number of young 
 women and children were told off to accompany 
 us with baskets, with half-a-dozen boys as torch- 
 bearers. 
 
 As soon as darkness had fallen the whole village 
 was astir. From every house men, women and very 
 young children swarmed, these latter without even 
 the traditional leaf to hide their nakedness, while the 
 grown girls and women, possibly with the view of not 
 shocking us too much, wore short — very short — girdles 
 around their loins. 
 
 The grown men and youths now launched a 
 number of canoes, and, crowding into them, paddled 
 out into the lagoon, keeping well away, however, 
 from the line of nets, the floats of which were now 
 appearing upon the surface of the water. In each 
 canoe was a large basket filled with a nasty-looking 
 mass. This was the crushed shells and bodies of 
 uga^ or small land crabs, and was to be used as 
 
FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESTAN ATOLL 183 
 
 ' burley ' to attract the nsii to the wake of the 
 canoes. 
 
 Before going further I must mention that at a 
 particular season of the year — May — many of the 
 Micronesian Islands are visited by vast shoals of fish 
 much resembling an English salmon. These enter 
 the lagoons from the ocean in pursuit of smaller fish. 
 These smaller fish, which are a species of sprat, assemble 
 in incredible quantities, and at night-time are wont 
 to crowd together in prodigious numbers about the 
 coral boulders before mentioned, in the same manner 
 that ocean-living fish will sometimes attach themselves 
 to a ship or other moving substance, as some protec- 
 tion from pursuit by bonito, albicore, and the fish 
 called tautau. The latter are of nocturnal habit 
 when seeking food, and during the daytime lie almost 
 motionless near the bottom, where they can often 
 be seen in serried masses. As soon as night falls 
 they rise to the surface and give chase to flying-fish 
 and other surface-sv/imming ocean fish. In shape 
 they are very similar to a salmon, but do not pos- 
 sess the same deepness of body and general fulness. 
 Their heads consist of a series of long plates, and 
 their jaws are armed with rows of serrated bone 
 plates. In colour they are a very beautiful iridescent 
 silver along the sides and belly, the back and head 
 being a deep, glossy blue. When full grown their 
 length is slightly over four feet, and weight about 
 twenty-five pounds. They are as voracious as the 
 pike, swim with extraordinary swiftness at night-time, 
 and will take the hook eagerly if baited with a whole 
 flying-fish ; their flesh is somewhat delicate in flavour 
 
184 FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL 
 
 and greatly relished by the natives of Micronesia, who 
 regard it as second only to the universally esteemed 
 flying-fish. 
 
 Two or three days before we made the little group 
 of islands, immense droves of these tautauy as the 
 natives of Eastern Polynesia call them, had been 
 hovering about the reefs, and the people were now 
 to endeavour to tempt them into the trap set for 
 them with such care and labour. 
 
 For about a quarter of an hour not a sound broke 
 the silence of the night. We were in the midst of 
 some three or four hundred natives, who only spoke 
 in whispers for fear of alarming the fish. All round 
 the deeper portion of the chain of nets was a line of 
 canoes, filled with women and girls, who held torches 
 in their hands ready to light up the moment the signal 
 was given. Further in towards the shore, where the 
 water was not too deep to prevent them keeping 
 on their feet, were numbers of girls and children 
 standing close together, their bodies almost touching, 
 and the floats of the nets touching their bosoms ; we 
 white men, with the trader, were standing together, 
 with our torch - bearers, upon a flat - topped coral 
 boulder. 
 
 Suddenly a whisper ran along the line of watchers 
 — the canoes were coming. One by one we made 
 them out, the paddlers dipping their paddles into the 
 water in silence, as one of their number in each canoe 
 threw out double handfuls of the crushed crab * hurley.' 
 As they approached nearer to us we became av/arc of 
 a peculiar lappinp-, splashing noise, as of hundreds of 
 bare feet walking in water a few inches deep. 
 
FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL 185 
 
 ' That's the fish,' whispered the trader. * Look at 
 them — they are coming in in thousands.' 
 
 And then even our unaccustomed eyes could see 
 that the water behind the canoes was churned into 
 a white froth by the jumping, sphishing fish, which 
 were following the canoes in a solid wall, snapping 
 up the food so industriously thrown to them. In a 
 few minutes the canoes had entered the open end of 
 the trap, and were paddling noiselessly past the inner 
 lines of nets, not a hundred yards from where we 
 stood. At last, when the whole inclosure was 
 literally swarming with fish, the outside canoes 
 quickly closed up the gap by stretching the nets 
 across it, and almost at the same moment there was 
 a tremendous splashing and churning up of the water 
 around each knoll and boulder of coral. The tautau 
 had left off eating the bait thrown them from the 
 canoes, and were attacking the myriads of small fish 
 that clustered round the boulders. And then, at a 
 signal given by one of the outside canoes, the torches 
 sprang into flame, and by the bright light that flooded 
 the scene the most extraordinary sight was revealed, 
 for from one side to the other the great inclosure 
 was full of magnificent tautau^ about three feet six in 
 length. They were all swimming on the surface ; and 
 as soon as the blaze of the torches illumined the water 
 they at once became almost stationary ; or, after the 
 manner of flying-fish, when subjected to a strong light, 
 swam slowly about in a dazed, hesitating manner. 
 
 The work of capturing some very large turtle, that 
 had come into the fatal circle of nets, was now at once 
 be2:un, lest in their endeavours to escape the nets 
 
1 86 FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL 
 
 might be broken and the fish escape. There were 
 six of these creatures speared before they could do 
 any damage ; as well as two or three small sharks, 
 which, having gorged themselves to repletion, were 
 killed as they lazily swam along the circle of nets. 
 
 So well had the natives judged of the time it would 
 take to carry out their scheme, that within half an 
 hour of the inclosure of the fish the tide began to fall, 
 and the imprisoned swarms showed signs of anxietv to 
 escape, but as fresh supplies of torches were brought 
 from the village, and kept continuously alight, their 
 alarm seemed to disappear. Had a heavy shower of 
 rain fallen — so the trader told us — and extinguished 
 the torches, the fish would have rushed at the nets 
 and carried them away by sheer weight. 
 
 Meanwhile, as the tide continued to fall, many of 
 the women and girls amused themselves by stunning 
 all the fish that came within reach of them, and load- 
 ing the canoes with them. Once some fifty or sixty 
 taiitau came right up to the boulder on which we 
 stood, and were so dazed by the glare of light that 
 poured down on them, that some permitted themselves 
 to be captured by the hand. 
 
 Lower and lower fell the water, and as the shore 
 end of the trap became dry, the fish were gradually 
 forced to come closer and closer together as their 
 swimming space diminished. By-and-bv, as the 
 receding tide left the chain of coral rocks dry on 
 their summits, women waded out with firewood, 
 and built fires on them ; not that there was now 
 any danger of the fish breaking away, but to give 
 a still better light. At last, however, the word was 
 
FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESIAN ATOLL 187 
 
 passed along the line that the sea end of the drive 
 had been streno-thened by additional nets in case a 
 sudden rush might occur ; but, by this time, so 
 rapidly was the water running out, that even at 
 the deepest end there was not perhaps two feet avail- 
 able for the now terrified and struggling swarms of 
 tautau. In another twenty minutes there was heard a 
 most extraordinary sound, caused by thousands upon 
 thousands of fish thrashing and jumping about on 
 the sand ; while at the sea end of the drive, where 
 the great body of all were massed together, the scene 
 was simply indescribable. What little water was left 
 was beaten into froth and foam by their violent 
 struggles, and the light from the torches showed 
 that a space of about five acres in extent was covered 
 with a shining, silvery mass of splendid tautau^ inter- 
 mixed with a small number of gorgeous-hued rock- 
 fish, cray-fish, and some hawk-bill turtle. 
 
 The work of picking up the prizes went on for at 
 least two hours. Three or four of the tautau placed 
 in a basket was as much as a woman could carry, 
 and, although everyone present worked hard, some 
 thousands of fish were not taken. Many of these, 
 however, were not dead, and, with the incoming tide, 
 swam oft' again. All the young turtle, however, were 
 secured, the natives taking them up carefully and 
 putting them in walled-in pools where they would 
 remain prisoners. 
 
 We tried to ascertain the number of fish taken, but 
 gave it up. Every house and canoe-shed appeared to 
 have the floor covered with them, and for the next 
 day or two there were great fish dinners on the island 
 
1 88 FISH DRIVE ON A MICRONESTAN ATOLL 
 
 Some thousands of tatitau were split open and dried 
 upon platforms in the same manner as the natives of 
 Eastern Polynesia dry flying-fish, and the Eraser 
 River Indians their salmon. 
 
 We succeeded in buying a fine lot of turtle shell 
 from the trader, as well as some from the king and 
 his mother. The old lady treated us right royally, 
 and, a few hours before we sailed, a canoe-load of 
 fruit and drinking coco-nuts were sent off to the ship, 
 with her compliments. 
 
Bobaran 
 
B O B A R A N 
 
 When our boat touched the beach in front of the 
 trader's house just as the dawn was breaking, I 
 thought Kabaira Bay one of the loveliest places in 
 the Pacific, and said so to the man I had been sent 
 to relieve. He quite concurred in my opinion of the 
 beauties of the scenery, but said that he was verv 
 glad to get awav. Then, being a cheerful man, 
 though given to unnecessary blasphemy, like most 
 South Sea Island traders, he took me out to the rich 
 garden at the back of the station and showed me the 
 gra\'e of his predecessor, who had died of fever a 
 year before. Further on, but outside the enclosing 
 fence, were some more graves, he said. 
 
 ' Whose r ' I asked. 
 
 ^ Captain Murray's, his mate's, and two of his 
 cutter's crew.' 
 
 ' Fever r ' 
 
 * No,' he replied, with some slight surprise at my 
 ignorance ; * the natives killed 'em a couple o' years 
 ago. An', see, just over there by Point Luen, is the 
 Hon. Mr Willington's house. He was a nephew 
 
 of Lord L . I goes there sometimes and rips a 
 
 board out o' the floor when I wants one.' 
 
 191 
 
92 BOBARAN 
 
 Mr Willington gone awav 
 
 My friend was surprised this time. ' Why, you 
 ?nust be a new chum in New Britain. Why, 
 Willington ain't dead six months.' 
 'Fev— ' 
 
 ' Fever be . No, he got speared when he was 
 
 lying in his bunk readin' a book one night. / told 
 him that the niggers would pay him out for a-playin' 
 crooked with em' ; but he was too cock-a-hoopy to 
 listen to a feller like me.' 
 
 * Any more white men buried in Kabaira r ' I 
 asked after a while, as we walked back to the house 
 to take stock of my host's trade goods. 
 
 ' No, that's all that's planted here — at least, all I 
 know of, and I've been here, in New Britain, five 
 years. There's been a good many Dutchmen killed on 
 the coast here, and over in New Ireland, but I didn't 
 know any of 'em. An' they're such a silly lot o' 
 duffers, that they reg'lar tempts these New Britain 
 niggers to kill 'em ; and then the beggars, not know- 
 ing an Englishman from a Dutchman, are ready to 
 murder anyone with a white skin. So you look out, 
 young feller. These niggers here are a rotten bad 
 lot. But I'll interdooce yer to Bobaran. He's the 
 biggest cut-throat of em' all ; but he an' me is good 
 pals, and onct you've squared him you're pretty safe. 
 Got plenty fever medicine r ' 
 
 ' Lots.' 
 
 ' Liquor ? ' 
 
 ' Case of gin.' 
 
 'That'll keep you clear o' fever as much as any- 
 thing, as long as tlic case lasts. Always drink some 
 
BOBARAN 193 
 
 when it's raining.' (It usually rained nine days out 
 of ten in New Britain). 'Now we'll take stock. I 
 can tell you I'm mighty glad to clear out o' this place 
 — an' so will you be in a couple o' months, if — you're 
 alive.' 
 
 Having thus, in cheerful converse, somewhat en- 
 lightened me as to the peculiar characteristics of 
 Kabaira Bay and its inhabitants, my friend had break- 
 fast cooked, and whilst we were eating it, sent a 
 messenger for his friend Bobaran to come and make 
 the acquaintance of the new white man. During 
 breakfast the trader gave me much further information, 
 all of which, as a man new to the ropes, I was very 
 glad to obtain. Kabaira, I already knew (I had but 
 just arrived in New Britain from Eastern Polynesia), 
 was the ' furthest out ' trading station on the great 
 island, which, at that time, had barely thirty white men 
 living on it ; most of these were settled on Gazelle 
 Peninsula, and a few on the Duke of York Island, mid- 
 way between the northern point of New Britain and 
 mountainous New Ireland. My nearest neighbour 
 lived at Kabakada, a populous native town ten miles 
 away. My host told me that this man was ' a noisy, 
 drunken little swine,' the which assertion I subse- 
 quently found to be absolutely correct. Further on, 
 five miles from Kabakada, was another trader named 
 Bruno Ran, a hard-working Swiss ; then, after round- 
 ing Cape Stephens, was the large German trading 
 station of Matupi in Blanche Bay, where you could 
 buy anything from a needle to a chain cable. On the 
 Duke of York Island was another trading station, and 
 also the VVesleyan Mission, which as yet had made but 
 
 N 
 
194 BOBARAN 
 
 few converts in New Britain ; and over in New 
 Ireland were a few scattered English traders, who 
 sometimes sailed over on a visit to their dangerously- 
 situated fellow-countrymen in the big island. 
 
 For dangerous indeed was the daily existence of 
 traders in those then little-known islands. But 
 money was to be made, and men will dare much to 
 make money quickly, even though at the risk of their 
 lives. As for the natives of New Britain, a few 
 words will suffice. They were the most unmitio-ated 
 savages, cowardly and treacherous, and with the ex- 
 ception of the people of the villages in the vicinity of 
 Blanche Bay, whose women wore a scanty girdle of 
 leaves of the plant Cordyline terminalls^ they passed 
 their lives in a state of stark nudity. Their dwell- 
 ings and canoes were of the poorest description, but 
 their plantations and gardens v/ere highly cultivated, 
 and marvels of incessant and intelligent labour. For 
 human life they had no regard ; in fact, a pig was 
 worth more than a man, except among those tribes 
 where a man who weighed more than a pig would 
 be more valuable as food. At the present time things 
 have improved on the Gazelle Peninsula, but along 
 the coast-line, which to the westward stretches for over 
 two hundred miles towards New Guinea, matters have 
 not changed. As for their personal appearance, it is 
 simply hideous. Take the biggest anthropoid ape, 
 stain his teeth black and his lips scarlet, stick a vv^ig 
 of matted greasy curls on his head, and put half a 
 dozen slender spears in his right pav/, and you have 
 an idea of a New Britain nigger — a ^ brand,' according 
 to missionary ethics, who should be plucked from the 
 
B03ARAN 195 
 
 burning, but whom the Christian of ordinary intelli- 
 gence would cheerfully watch burning until he was 
 reduced to a cinder. 
 
 Just as we had finished breakfast, Bobaran came in 
 and squatted on the flour. Being a man of rank and 
 influence, he was privileged, and allowed to carry his 
 arms with him inside the trader's house. These con- 
 sisted of five spears, one long-handled ebony-wood 
 club, with a huge jade head, and a horse-pistol, which 
 was fastened to a leather belt around his naked waist. 
 His fuzzy wool was dyed a bright brick red colour 
 and twisted into countless little curls which, hanging 
 over his beetling and excessively dirty black forehead, 
 almost concealed his savage eyes, and harmonised with 
 his thick, betel-stained lips and cavernous, grip-sack 
 mouth. Around his arms were two white circlets of 
 shell, and depending from his bull-like neck a little 
 basket containing betel-nut and lime. He certainly 
 was a most truculent-looking scoundrel. Nevertheless, 
 I shook hands with him cordially, and he agreed, for 
 certain considerations, to look after me, find me in 
 food, warn me of any danger that might impend, and 
 also to murder anyone with whom I might feel 
 annoyed, for a fixed but very small remuneration. In 
 proof whereof of this alliance, and as a token of amity 
 and goodwill, Parker (the trader) presented him with 
 a small tin of ship biscuit, four dynamite cartridges, a 
 dozen boxes of matches and a bottle of a villainous 
 "German liquor called 'Corn Schnapps.' Then the 
 atrocity stood up and embraced me, and asked me to 
 show him my firearms. His fierce eyes gleamed with 
 pleasure as he turned them about in his filthy paws. 
 
196 BOBARAN 
 
 and he was especially pleased with the size of a 
 Sharp's rifle cartridge and bullet which would, he 
 grinned, * make big fellow hole in man.' Then, with 
 further expressions of goodwill on both sides, we 
 parted. 
 
 At dusk Parker bade me good-bye, and urging 
 me to put the utmost confidence in Bobaran and 
 drink plenty of gin whenever it rained — to keep the 
 fever from ^ gettin' holt ' of my system — he walked 
 down to the beach and stepped into the boat. For a 
 few minutes I stood watching till he was hidden from 
 view by a point of land, and then, feeling somewhat 
 depressed at my future loneliness, I walked back to 
 the house. 
 
 Bobaran, the Mesdames Bobaran (three), and the 
 Masters and Misses Bobaran were sitting on the 
 verandah awaiting me. None of them were as much 
 dressed as their father, who had, as I have said, a 
 leather belt around his loins, and all were chewing 
 betel-nut and expectorating the scarlet juice thereof 
 vigorously about the premises. Being aware of the 
 fact that a New Britain woman is never abroad at 
 night, and a man but seldom, I was surprised at such 
 a family gathering, for the village was some distance 
 away. Bobaran, however, explained that as he and 
 two of his sons intended keeping guard for me that 
 night, the rest of the family had come with them — 
 and that they should like some tobacco. 
 
 Leaving his wives and children outside to smoke, 
 my protector came into the sitting-room, and as he 
 had acquired a considerable amount of unpolished 
 sailor man's English, I found him very entertaining 
 
BOBARAN 197 
 
 and also instructive. First he told me that the 
 Kabaira people were perfectly safe ; it was a very 
 peaceful village, and the people liked white men, and 
 he hoped I would not carry arms whenever I went out 
 — it made them frightened, and when people were 
 frightened of a man they naturally tried to kill him. 
 Agreed to. Secondly, they were not cannibals — all 
 their neighbours were, however. (I said I was pleased 
 to hear it, no doubt someone had maligned them.) 
 But they were all thieves, and I must take prompt 
 action to prevent myself from being robbed — (here 
 one of his wives crept to the door on all fours and 
 asked her lord and master for a match, but was struck 
 with great violence in the mouth with an empty 
 salmon tin instead, for interrupting). To-morrow I 
 should do as ' Parka ' did the day he came to Kabaira. 
 I must go down to the beach with a dynamite 
 cartridge in my hand and seek for a place where there 
 was plenty of fish. And I must have another 
 cartridge ready in my pocket. As soon as the first 
 shot went off hundreds of natives would jump in the 
 water and try to steal all the best fish. Then I was 
 to light the fuse of the second cartridge and throw it 
 in. And it would be sure to hurt so7ne of the people, 
 and they would not follow me next time I went fish- 
 ing. But, of course, if I should happen to kill anyone, 
 I would pay for it r 
 
 Of course I would, I said. How much ? 
 
 ' Big feller man, one good musket ; boy, one axix ' 
 (axe) ; 'old woman, old feller, musket ; young girl, one 
 good musket.' 
 
 Then he approached me on a delicate subject, /.^., 
 
198 BOBARAN 
 
 the taking over of my predecessor's harem of three 
 native women. I explained that I was expecting my 
 wife down soon from Samoa and couldn't do it. He 
 said it was a great pity, as one of ' Parka's ' wives 
 could make tea and cook meat. Also, that I need be 
 under no fear of her making any unpleasantness when 
 my wife turned up. Would I like to see the girl ? 
 * Parka ' had taught her a lot of things. She did not 
 oil her hair with pigeon fat, and cleaned her teeth 
 every day just like a Samoan girl. Also, she had ten 
 coils of dewarra (cowrie shells threaded on the midribs 
 of the coco-nut leaf, and used as the native currency). 
 I said I was very much tempted, but thought I had 
 better not. He looked at me steadily for a few 
 seconds, as he thrust a fresh ' chaw ' of betel-nut and 
 lime into his hideous mouth, and said that I was 
 missing a great chance — there were plenty of white 
 men along the coast who would be glad to get anyone 
 of ' Parka's ' wives, especially she who could make 
 tea and cook meat. 
 
 He seemed pleased that I was disposed to be as 
 liberal-handed as Parker, for whom he seemed to have 
 a high regard ; and then proceeded to tell me of some 
 of his own exploits among the inhabitants of Mutavat, 
 a village across the bay, which was at enmity with 
 Kabaira. The infinite gusto with which he related a 
 series of atrocious murders gave me a chill, and he 
 looked like an evil spirit when his great red lips parted 
 in a grin and revealed his black teeth. Presently he 
 asked me if I had shot any people ; and when I said I 
 had not, he became regretful, but soon brightened up 
 again and said I would have plenty of chances yet. 
 
BOBARAN 
 
 199 
 
 There were some bush villages, to which he would 
 take me some dav, and if we were careful we could 
 knock over two or three people easily ; they were a 
 bad lot these ' man-a-bush ' (bush-men). 
 
 At ten o'clock I turned in, and Bobaran, after an 
 animated conversation with his family, lay down at 
 my door with a Snider rifle and his horse-pistol by his 
 side. 
 
 And for many long, weary months, in the beauti- 
 ful but fever-ridden Kabaira Bay, he was the only 
 person to whom I could talk ; and in time I began 
 to take a liking to him, for I found him, as Parker 
 had told me, 'a thunderin' old cut-throat, but as 
 straight as a die to a white man who acts straight to 
 him.' 
 
Sea Fishing in Australia 
 
SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 ' Hi, mister, turn out, please, if you're a-comin' with 
 us,' a gruff voice called out to me one frosty morning 
 in May, and then a hairy, good-humoured-looking 
 face flattened itself against my window pane as the 
 owner sought to peer into the room. 
 
 I jumped out of bed, opened the window, and 
 shivered in my pyjamas as the keen morning air 
 rushed in to the warm room. Slaney, the coxswain 
 of the Port Macquarie pilot boat,* was standing below 
 me on the grassy side walk, muffled up in his great 
 coat, and carrying a shin of beef in his hand. 
 
 ' How does it look outside, Slaney ? ' I asked. 
 
 * Smooth as glass. Hurry up, please. I've just 
 come from the butcher's, couldn't get any fish bait 
 last night, so bespoke a shin of beef.' 
 
 Five minutes later 1 had dressed, and was running 
 up the hill to the pilot station with my fishing tackle, 
 together with some sandwiches, some bottles of beer, 
 and a tin pannikin, slung in a corn sack over my 
 shoulder — not a very elegant turn - out, but the 
 correct thing for such rough and tumble work as 
 schnapper fishing. At the top of the hill I stopped 
 to give myself breath a minute. An impatient 
 
 * Port Macquarie is a quaint * old ' seaport on the northern coast of 
 New South Wales. 
 
 203 
 
204 SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 ' Hallo there, do hurry,' ascended to me from beneath, 
 where the smart pilot boat lay rocking on the waters 
 of a little cove, cut out of the solid rock by the labour 
 of convicts seventy years before, her crew of six men 
 standing up to their knees in the water, and holding 
 her steady. Tumbling down the grassy hill at the 
 risk of breaking my neck, I waded out and clambered 
 over the side, and in another minute the crew were 
 bending to their oars and the boat sweeping round a 
 clump of conical rocks that sheltered the boat harbour 
 from the long roll of the Pacific billows. Oh, what 
 a lovely morning, and how the blue ocean glinted and 
 sparkled in the quick warming sun. Away to the 
 southward the high, thickly -timbered coast was 
 broken up by jutting headlands and little, irregularly 
 shaped bays, with steep, rocky shores ; and northward 
 a long sweep of beach trended in a curving line for 
 ten miles, till it ended at the purple sides of Point 
 Plomer, beyond which loomed the misty blue outline 
 of Captain Cook's ' Smoaky ' Cape. 
 
 The wind was from the westward ; so we hoisted 
 our lug sail, and headed seaward to the sun. Behind 
 us the noisy Hastings River bar clamoured and moaned 
 unceasingly ; for though the sea was smooth, the tide 
 was on the ebb, and rushing fiercely out over the wide 
 but shallow entrance to the river, and short, angry 
 waves reared, and tumbled, and fought the roaring 
 current. But in another ten minutes the noise of the 
 waters became lost in the distance, and we heard . 
 naught but the gentle lip-lap^ lip-lap^ of the boat's 
 cut-water as she slipped o\'er the swelling seas. Three 
 miles out we took our bearings from a mountain 
 
SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 205 
 
 called The Brothers, and Camden Haven Heads, and 
 then dropped our anchor in twenty-two fathoms on 
 a rocky bottom,. 
 
 There is not much 'finnicking' preparation for 
 schnapper fishing, and in five minutes every line was 
 baited, and over the side, and at the bottom, and before 
 another two or three had passed we knew we had 
 struck the right spot, for nearly every one of us felt 
 the unmistakable tug of a lusty schnapper, and then 
 the determined downward pull, strong and steady, 
 which he makes when once hooked. Slaney, who 
 was using a line as thick as signal-halliards, was the 
 first to haul his fish over the side, and drop him, kick- 
 ing and thrashing like a young porpoise, into the 
 boat ; the rest of us, whose tackle was much thinner, 
 were a long way behind him, and Slaney's line was 
 over the side a2:ain before our fish were laid beside the 
 first arrival. What a beautiful fish is a ten-pound 
 schnapper — a brilliant pink back, sides and tail, dotted 
 over with tiny spots of a wonderful, gleaming blue 
 that sparkle like miniature diamonds ; the bream- 
 shaped head a deep reddish-purple, with nose and lips 
 of palish pink ; the belly a pure, shining white. No 
 wonder that Phillip, the first Governor of New South 
 Wales, spoke of the schnapper as ^an exceedingly 
 beautiful and palatable fish.' 
 
 For about an hour we c.ontinued to haul up fish 
 after fish till our arms ached. The smallest weighed 
 about three pounds, the largest about seventeen 
 pounds, and the average weight of the lot was about 
 eight pounds. Then we knocked ofF for breakfast. 
 That finished, we lit our pipes and settled down to 
 
2o6 SEA FISHING TN AUSTRALIA 
 
 v/ork again. Alas ! a swarm of ugly brown and 
 yellow 'leather-jackets' had arrived on the scene, 
 and before our lines could touch bottom the brutes 
 would either take the bait, or bite off the hook 
 snoozings with their keen, rat-like teeth. In a 
 quarter of an hour we had caught but four schnapper 
 and lost a dozen or more hooks ; my own line was 
 bitten through at about five fathoms from the surface 
 — a piece of meat skin had wound itself round it and 
 had been discovered by one of these predatory villains. 
 No wonder that the Samoans and natives of the 
 Tokelau Islands term the leather-jacket isu?nu nioana 
 — the sea-rat. However, as leather-jackets make 
 excellent schnapper bait, two of us were told off to 
 fish for them with bream-lines and wire-snoozed 
 small hooks, and we soon had the satisfaction of 
 catching a dozen of the thieves. These were quickly 
 skinned and cut up ; then we lifted anchor and pulled 
 southward for about half a mile, knowing we should 
 catch but few schnapper where leather-jackets were. 
 
 Our new ground proved a lucky one, for we not 
 only caught some seventy schnapper — some of them 
 truly noble fish — but two magnificent black and white 
 rock cod, a fish whose flavour is excelled by no other 
 in Australian waters. No leather-jackets appeared to 
 disturb our pleasure, and not even the usual murderous 
 shark showed his ugly face, and played the usual game 
 of seizing every schnapper as it was hauled up, and 
 biting it in halves. Only the previous week half a 
 dozen had followed us about from ground to ground, 
 breaking our lines, and taking five out of every ten 
 fish we hooked. Two at last we succeeded in 
 
SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 207 
 
 harpooning and killing, and casting their bodies to 
 their friends, who made short work of them and left 
 us alone for the rest of the day. 
 
 Schnapper in the winter months, on the Australian 
 coast, retire to the deep water, and can be caught in 
 from thirty to fifty fathoms. They travel in droves like 
 sheep, and prefer to frequent rocky or broken ground. 
 Sometimes, however, they will enter the bar harbours 
 in great numbers and ascend the tidal rivers. Twenty- 
 five years ago they were often taken in nets in the 
 Parramatta River, near Sydney, and were very 
 plentiful in Sydney Harbour itself. Nowadays one 
 is rarely caught anywhere inside the Heads. Steam- 
 boat traffic and the foul water resulting from sewerage 
 has driven them to the deep waters of the ocean. 
 One peculiar feature of schnapper fishing on the 
 northern coast of New South Wales is that, be the 
 fish ever so plentiful and hungry, they invariably 
 cease biting immediately, if the wind should change 
 to the east or north-east. Yet on the southern sea- 
 board, from Tv/ofold Bay to Galo Island, they will take 
 the hook during a black north-easter, as freely as they 
 do when the vv^ind is blowing from any other quarter. 
 
 From one end to the other of the coast of New 
 South Wales, there is grand rock-fishing to be had by 
 anyone who once is initiated into its mysteries, and is 
 not afraid of getting an occasional drenching from an 
 ocean roller when there is any sea running. Right 
 from the southern boundary of the colony to the 
 Tweed River on the north, are breaks in the long 
 sandy beaches, of rocky coast, which in most places 
 are easilv accessible to the fisherman ; and the water in 
 
2o8 SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 these spots being deep close under the verge of the 
 cliffs, the deep-sea fish, such as schnapper, blue and 
 brown groper, the gigantic mottled rock-cod, trevally, 
 king-fish, the great Jew-fish, sea salmon, etc., at 
 certain seasons of the year cruise to and fro about the 
 rocks in extraordinary numbers. But, strange as it 
 may appear, rock-fishing is almost unknown to the 
 average colonial, except those living near the principal 
 ports. The greatest ignorance, too, prevails as to the 
 edible qualities of the many varieties of excellent rock- 
 fish, except the well-known schnapper. The gener- 
 ality of the coast settlers look upon most coloured fish 
 as ' bad to eat,' if not * poisonous,' and particularly so 
 in the case of the delicious blue groper or blue-fish, 
 the 'leather jacket,' and the scaleless bonito, which 
 latter occasionally visit the shores of the colony in 
 large ' schools,' and take a bait eagerly. 
 
 My boyish experiences of rock-fishing in New South 
 Wales are full of delightful memories. Then, accom- 
 panied by one of the few surviving members of the 
 Hastings River (Port Macquarie) blacks, my brothers 
 and myself would set out for a week's camping-out on 
 the wild and lonely coast between Port Macquarie and 
 Camden Haven — a stretch of twenty miles or so. 
 Our equipment consisted of some very heavy lines 
 and hooks for the big fish, some fine tackle for beach 
 fishing — for bream, whiting, flathead, etc. — a couple 
 of spears for cray-fish,an old smooth-bore army musket 
 and ammunition (for shooting ducks on the tidal 
 lagoons), tea, sugar, as much bread as we could carry, 
 and a tomahawk. As for tents, such luxuries were 
 unknown to us boys in those days ; if it showed signs 
 
SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 209 
 
 of rain at night time we could soon put up a bark 
 shelter, and, with a pair of light blankets under us, 
 sleep in peace. 
 
 One of our most favoured spots was at Tacking 
 Point, a curious steep-to bluff, clothed on its sides 
 with a dense thicket scrub, the haunt of hundreds of 
 black wallabies and wonga pigeons, and also a large 
 variety of brown and black snakes, with an occasional 
 death adder. The summit, however, was beautifully 
 grassed, and clear of timber, except for a clump or two 
 of gnarled and knotted honeysuckle trees ; and here, 
 after our day's fishing, we would camp, and, lying 
 beside our fire, look out upon the starlit Pacific two 
 hundred feet below. Although only five miles from 
 the little town, we scarcely saw a human being dur- 
 ing our many trips. Sometimes, however, some of 
 * Tommy's ' sooty relatives would follow us up, in 
 order to gorge themselves on fish and game, which 
 we shared with them cheerfully. 
 
 My first groper was an exciting experience. 
 Descending to the rocky shore very early in the 
 morning with ' Tommy,' we clambered over some 
 huge jagged and wildlr-jungled-together boulders at 
 the foot of the bluff, and reached the edge of a large, 
 deep pool of blue water in the rocks, with a narrow 
 opening to the sea. The sides were covered with 
 long streaming kelp and many - coloured seaweed, 
 which moved gently up and down to the rise and fall 
 of the ocean swell. Only in one part could we see 
 the white sand at the bottom of the pool, for the 
 depth of water was some six or seven fathoms. Both 
 blue and brown groper are very fond of crabs ; in 
 
 o 
 
2 10 SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 fact, when a big, wary fellow will not look at either a 
 piece of octopus or the flesh of the aliotis shell, he 
 cannot resist a crab. We soon secured plenty of 
 crabs of all sizes and colours, and, baiting our lines 
 with two of the largest, dismembered the others, and 
 flung portions of them into the pool. A number of 
 small parrot-fish, sea-bream, and mottled cod at once 
 appeared and devoured the fragments. The size and 
 hardness of the shells of our crabs, however, were too 
 much for them, and although they snapped off a leg 
 or two and 'worried' the baits considerably, our 
 hooks touched bottom safely (we were using sinkers 
 of stone). Suddenly, just as my companion had 
 thrown another handful of 'hurley' into the water, 
 three big blue groper rose to the surface almost 
 together, and, swallowing the crushed-up crab, began 
 swimming round and round the edges of the pool 
 eagerly seeking for more. This was my first view of 
 this species of groper at close quarters, and these 
 three presented a very beautiful sight, the very dark 
 blue of the whole of their closely-scaled, shining 
 bodies, and the very light blue of their fins and tails 
 making a pretty contrast. Two were about 15 lb. to 
 16 lb. each, the other about 35 lb. to 40 lb., and 
 nearly four feet in length. They swam but slowly, 
 though every now and then they would turn with 
 some swiftness of motion as ' Tommy ' continued to 
 throw in pieces of crab. Meanwhile, by my black 
 companion's whispered instructions, I had cut the 
 sinker off a spare line, and baited the four-inch 
 hook with the two largest crabs left. Unrecving 
 about six fathoms of line, I handed the baited end to 
 
SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 211 
 
 'Tommy,' who deftly threw it just before the nose of 
 the big fellow. In an instant he had seized the hook, 
 and, diving, made for the opening between the rocks. 
 'Tommv,' yelling to me to look to the other lines, 
 held on like grim death and managed to turn his 
 prize's head in time ; the two others sticking close to 
 their brother in misfortune. I had just hauled up 
 one of the other two lines, and was running round the 
 jagged side of the pool holding the other in my left 
 hand (so as to keep clear of ' Tommy's ' fish), when I 
 felt a terrific tug that nearly sent me over. ' Look 
 out ! Look out !' shouted 'Tommy,' warningly ; 'don't 
 let that fella get underneath the seaweed ; keep him 
 clear of dat, or you lose him ! ' For a i6-lb. fish he 
 pulled tremendously (for a boy of my size) ; but at 
 last I managed to get a steady strain on him, and then 
 his big blue head, with its thick, negro-like lips, soon 
 appeared at the base of a slanting rock, up which I 
 hauled him, kicking and floundering. ' Tommy ' mean- 
 while had already landed his fish, and had cast his line 
 for the last of the trio ; but without success ; he had 
 made off to the sea. 
 
 A few hours later, at low tide, we caught, in the 
 same pool, seven schnapper, averaging about 8 lb. 
 each ; a brown groper of 20 lb., a dozen or more of 
 deep sea bream, beautiful silvery-scaled fish, with a 
 pale greenish tinge on the head and back, and bright 
 yellow fins and tail ; and several huge cray-fish, which 
 clung to our hooks and did not let go their hold in 
 time. 
 
 This pool was only one of many along this pictur- 
 esque and rocky coast, along which, at the present time, 
 
212 SEA FISHING IN AUSTRALIA 
 
 fish are just as plentiful and as easy to catch ; but four 
 years ago I, on visiting 'the' pool of my early days, 
 found it filled by a pile of soap-stone rocks, detached 
 by the rains from the sea face of the bluiF above it. 
 It was a bitter disappointment to me, for the memory 
 of that pool had remained with me since my boy- 
 hood, and I felt as one who, after a long, long separa- 
 tion in foreign climes from some dear friend of his 
 youth, at last returns home, hoping to meet his 
 comrade once more, and is shown his grass-grown 
 erave. 
 
An Adventure in the New 
 Hebrides 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW 
 HEBRIDES 
 
 More than twenty years ago a fine young Polynesian 
 half-caste, named Alan, and the writer, were running 
 a small trading cutter out of Samoa, among the low- 
 lying atolls of the EUice and Tokelau groups, in the 
 South Pacific. We had hauled her up on the beach 
 to clean and put a few sheets of copper on her, when, 
 one day, a big, bronze-faced man came to us, and 
 asked us if we were open to a charter to Santo in 
 the New Hebrides. After a few minutes' conversa- 
 tion we struck a bargain, the terms of which were 
 to take him, his native wife, three servants, and 
 twenty tons of trade goods to his trading station on 
 Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, for six hundred 
 dollars. He was an ex-trading skipper, but had 
 given up the sea, married a Hervey Island half-caste, 
 and, after trading some years in the Caroline and 
 Marshall groups, had made a trip to the New 
 Hebrides, where he had gone into partnership with 
 a Frenchman, who, like himself, was a sailor man, 
 and had settled down on Santo. Hannah — for that 
 was his name — had then returned to the Carolines 
 for his family, and brought them to Samoa, from 
 whence he thought he could get a passage down to 
 
 215 
 
2i6 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 the New Hebrides in one of the two German brigs 
 then engaged in the Kanaka labour trade — ' black- 
 birding,' as it was called. But one, the Iserbrook^ 
 had been burnt in Sydney Harbour, and the other 
 was away at Valparaiso. 
 
 But now arose a difficulty. I was not navigator 
 enough to take the vessel to Santo — a distance of 
 thirteen hundred miles — let alone beat her back to 
 Samoa against the south-east trades. This, however, 
 Captain Hannah soon settled. He agreed to navi- 
 gate us down, and his partner would come back with 
 me, as his wife, who was a Samoan woman, wanted 
 to pay a visit to her native country, and our vessel 
 would afford her an excellent opportunity ; his own 
 services in bringing the cutter back to Samoa to 
 be ' squared ' by free passages for himself and wife. 
 
 My partner Alan v/as quite satisfied. The big 
 man planked down two hundred and fifty dollars on 
 account, and we shook hands all round. Hannah 
 was a quiet, silent sort of fellow, but I knew we 
 should get on all right, for he came down to us 
 next morning with his people, helped us heave the 
 cutter off the beach, and covered our decks with pigs 
 and poultry. That afternoon we got our wood and 
 water aboard, and were ready for sea at daylight. 
 
 Alan was a splendid type of a man. Brought up 
 to the sea from his childhood, he had served some 
 years as a boat-steerer on American whale-ships, then 
 with 'Bully' Hayes as boatswain in the notorious 
 Rona brig ; and a finer seaman never walked a deck. 
 He was very proud of the English blood in his veins, 
 and always talking of the exploits of his father, who 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 217 
 
 had served with the gallant Cochrane in the Chilian 
 navy. At sea he was a man for emergencies — quick, 
 resolute, resourceful and sober. On shore, with money 
 in his pocket, he descended to the level of the lowest 
 beach-comber, and was always in trouble for thumping 
 somebody — generally another half-caste or a police- 
 man. Peace to his bones ! He went to a sailor's 
 death long ago ; but the writer of this narrative will 
 never forget the dark, handsome face, laughter-filled 
 eyes, and cheery voice of the best shipmate with 
 whom he ever sailed. 
 
 We put to sea with a fine breeze, and running 
 between the islands of Upolu and Savai'i, were out 
 of sight of land by dusk. There were but thirteen 
 persons all told on board — our seven passengers, Alan, 
 four native sailors, and myself — but we were in no 
 wise crowded for room, for the hold was used as a 
 sleeping-place by Captain Hannah's wife, her two 
 children and three servants. Mats had been spread 
 over the cargo, and the weather being fine, the hatch 
 was left open from the time we left Samoa nearly till 
 we reached Santo. 
 
 The south-east trade wind held steadily, and the 
 little vessel, being clean and in fine trim, ran along 
 at a great rate, till, on the sixth day out, when we 
 had just sighted Pentecost Island, one of the New 
 Hebrides group, it died away, and at sunset we were 
 becalmed. All that night the air was close and 
 muggy, but towards dawn a faint air came from the 
 westward. During the night the strong current had 
 carried us in ten or twelve miles nearer to the shore, 
 and at sunrise we were not more than six miles from 
 
2i8 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 the land. Pentecost, from the treachery of its savage 
 inhabitants, had always borne a bad reputation ; and 
 so, as the cutter still continued to drift shorewards, 
 Alan, Captain Hannah and myself thought it just 
 as well to be prepared for any canoes that might 
 attempt to cut us off. (As a matter of fact, hov/- 
 ever, we need not have been under any alarm in 
 this respect, for although the Pentecost natives were, 
 and are now, a thoroughly bad lot, as the surveying 
 vessels of the Australian Squadron know to their cost, 
 they would never attempt to cut off a vessel unless 
 she were anchored. But no one of we white men 
 knew much of the New Hebrides.) So as we had 
 plenty of arms on board — Winchesters and Sharp's 
 rifles — we got them in readiness ; and very fortunate 
 it was that we did so. 
 
 We drifted steadily along the densely-wooded shores 
 of Pentecost all that day, the sea as smooth as glass, 
 and the pitch bubbling up in the decks from the 
 intense heat. Towards sunset. Captain Hannah's 
 wife, who was lying on the skylight with her 
 youngest child, called out to us that she could see 
 a boat or canoe on the starboard beam. Hannah 
 and I at once got our glasses, and soon made out a 
 boat, pulling five oars, coming towards us from the 
 island, and not more than a couple of miles away. 
 
 As she came nearer, and lifted now and then to 
 the swell, we obtained a better view, and saw there 
 were six people in her — five pulling and one steering. 
 They came along very leisurely. 
 
 ' Shipwrecked people, I imagine,' said Hannah j 
 and then, turning to Alan and myself, he added, with 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 219 
 
 a laugh, ^ Perhaps there's a fine big lump of a ship 
 ashore about here, and you fellows are bound to 
 get some fine pickings — might get the ship herself 
 afloat.' 
 
 In ten minutes or so a bit of a light air came over 
 the water, and filled our sails, so we stood over towards 
 the boat, which was now drawing close. Presently 
 one of our native sailors hailed us from aloft, and 
 said he could see four or five more men in the boat 
 besides those who were pulling ; and at the same 
 time she ceased rowing awhile, then the oars dipped 
 again, and she came on. 
 
 Suddenly Hannah, who was scanning the strange 
 boat very closely, turned to me quietly and said, ' I 
 don't like the looks of that boat. We had better not 
 let them come alongside. Perhaps they're escapees 
 from New Caledonia. I thought so at first — they've 
 got the regular " He Nou stroke." If they try to 
 board we must beat them ofi^, or we may lose the 
 ship.' 
 
 Realising the danger, we at once called the 
 native hands aft, gave each man a loaded Sharp's rifle 
 and half a dozen cartridges, and told him to lay it 
 down handy on the deck, and be prepared to use it. 
 Hannah's wife at once began loading our five Win- 
 chester rifles. By this time the boat was within a 
 hundred yards of the cutter. Whether those in her 
 saw what we were doing or not I do not know, but 
 they came on very confidently. 
 
 Then, getting up on the rail, I hailed, ' Boat ahoy, 
 there ! Don't come any nearer, or we'll fire into 
 you. What do you want r ' 
 
220 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 There was a sudden commotion among the rowers, 
 and then Hannah and Alan, coming to the rail, stood 
 beside me with their Winchesters in their hands. 
 This display had a good effect, for they stopped 
 pulling at once, and the man steering stood up. 
 The moment I got a full view of him and heard 
 him speak, I knew that Hannah was right about 
 the identity of the strangers. 
 
 ' We are a ship-a-wreck men,' he called out ; ' we 
 wanta water and provis'.' 
 
 ' Well, pull abeam or us to windward, but don't 
 come alongside just yet.' 
 
 ' All right,' was the answer. 
 
 The wind was very light, and the boat could have 
 soon overtaken us, but we felt confident that, with 
 the arms we possessed, we could easily beat them 
 off if they tried to board. At the same time we were 
 willing to give them some provisions, and such other 
 assistance as lay in our power. 
 
 After talking the matter over with Hannah, I 
 again hailed the boat, and told the steersman that he 
 could come aboard, but that the rest of his crowd 
 must keep to the boat. 
 
 Hauling our jib to windward, we let them range 
 alongside, and the steersman jumped on deck. Dur- 
 ing the few minutes that the boat was waiting, we had 
 a good look at her and her occupants. The former, I 
 could see, was German-built, very long, narrow and 
 heavy, and was lumbered up with a quantity of fresh 
 coco-nuts, yams, taro and other native food. As for 
 the crew, they were as suspicious and as desperate- 
 looking a lot of scarecrows as could be imagined. 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 221 
 
 Some of them were dressed in the heavv woollen 
 garments usually worn by German merchant sea- 
 men, but half a dozen of them were wearing the 
 vellow-grey canvas trousers of the New Caledonian 
 convict. As I looked down at them Alan pointed 
 out to me the muzzles of three or four short rifles 
 showing from beneath the edge of a ragged native 
 mat which was spread over the bottom boards for'ard. 
 They had evidently spent the night on shore, for 
 some of them, who were wearing cloth caps, had 
 made themselves peaked sunshades of plaited green 
 coco-nut leaves, which were tied round their heads, 
 native-fashion. Lying amidships was a good-sized 
 water-breaker ; and one of the gang, a little, hook- 
 nosed ruffian, with a villainous face and wearing a 
 filthy print shirt with the tails outside his pants, kept 
 tapping it with a piece of wood to show us by the 
 hollow sound that it was empty. 
 
 ' Pass it up on deck, you monkey-faced swine,' said 
 Alan. 'Why didn't you fill it when vou were 
 ashore ? ' 
 
 ' We no finda water,' said the leader ; ' we looka 
 
 two, tree day — no finda, and too many nigger on 
 
 shore shoota us all the time witha-bow-anda-arra.' 
 
 ' Well, you've got some guns there, I see. 
 Couldn't you keep the niggers off while a couple of 
 you filled the breaker r ' I asked. ' And there's plenty 
 of water on Pentecost, I believe.' 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. ' Of what-a good the 
 gun ? We no have the cartridge. Perhaps you give 
 some — feefty, twenty, ten, eh r ' 
 
 Alan, who was a bit of a humorist, answered that 
 
222 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 we would give him as many cartridges as he wanted, 
 if he gave us all the rifles he had in the boat in 
 exchange. 
 
 A scowl — which he tried to twist into a smile — 
 flitted across his face, and he turned his head away. 
 
 Giving the crowd in the boat a long line, we veered 
 them astern, and as the breeze was now freshening, 
 the cutter slipping through the water pretty fast, and 
 we felt safe, Hannah, Alan and myself turned our 
 undivided attention to our visitor. He was a tall, 
 squarely-built fellow of about fifty years of age, with 
 a thick stubble of iron-grey beard covering his cheeks 
 and chin, and his forehead and neck were burnt to the 
 colour of dark leather by the rays of a tropic sun. He 
 was dressed in a pea-jacket and dungaree pants, but 
 had no boots. 
 
 ' Sit down,' I said, ^ and tell us what we can do for 
 you. But take a glass of grog first.' 
 
 He drank the liquor eagerly, first bowing to Mrs 
 Hannah and then to us all in turn, and at the same 
 time taking a sweeping glance along the deck at our 
 crew, who were grouped for'ard. As he raised his 
 hand to his mouth I saw that the back of it was much 
 tattooed. 
 
 * Where did you lose your ship r ' I asked. 
 
 * Astrolaba Reefa,' he answered quickly, ' three 
 hundreda mila to south-a-ward.' 
 
 ' What was her name ? ' 
 
 ' The Airdale^ he replied glibly. ' Belonga to 
 Liverpool — fine biga ship. We bound to Pam in 
 New Caledonia to load chroma ore, and run ashore on 
 dark night. Ship break up verv quick ' — and then he 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 223 
 
 spun off the rest of his yarn, and a very plausible 
 one it was, too. The ship, he said, was not injured 
 much at first, and on the following morning the 
 captain, with the second mate and four hands, had 
 left in one of the boats for Pam to get assistance. 
 The first mate, bos'un and three hands were drowned. 
 After waiting for ten days on the wreck the rest of 
 the crew took to the long boat, for bad weather came 
 on, and the ship began to pound on the reef. 
 
 ' But what are you doing here so far to the north- 
 ward r ' asked Hannah, in his slow, drawling tones. 
 ' Why didn't you steer for New Caledonia ? You were 
 only two days' sail to there from Astrolabe Reefs. 
 Now you are three hundred miles to the north.' 
 
 The man was a marvellous liar. Yes, he said, that 
 was true, but ^ Goda help him,' he would * speaka 
 true.' He and the nine men with him did not want 
 to go to New Caledonia, and did not want to have any- 
 thing more to do with the captain, who was a very 
 * harda ' man, and so they had stood to the northward, 
 meaning to land on one of the New Hebrides. 
 
 ^ What was the captain's name ? ' 
 
 ' Smeeth — Captain Johna Smeeth. Belonga to 
 Liverpool.' 
 
 ' Are you one of the ship's officers ? ' 
 
 'I am carpenter,' he answered promptly. *I all 
 the time sail in Englisha ship.' 
 
 'Just so ; are you a Frenchman ?' asked Hannah, 
 casually. 
 
 ' No ; I come from Barcelon'.' 
 
 ' Well,' I said, ' I hope you will get along all right 
 in your boat, wherever you go. I'll give you a 50-lb. 
 
224 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 tin of biscuits, some tinned meats, and as much water 
 as you can take.' 
 
 He thanked me effusively, and said he would re- 
 member me in his prayers to the Virgin, etc. 
 
 ' Have you a compass r ' I asked. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders despairingly. No, they 
 had no compass ; the ' gooda Goda must be compass ' 
 for them. 
 
 Mani, Hannah's wife, who was sitting near us, with 
 her youngest child on her lap, apparently taking no 
 heed of our talk, held the infant up and smiled ; and, 
 as if speaking to it, said in Samoan, — 
 
 ' He lies. I saw a boat compass in the stern sheets 
 of the boat.' 
 
 ' Well, I'm sorry I can't give you a compass,' I said. 
 ' Alan, pass up a tin of biscuit and a case of meat. 
 The breeze is freshening, and we must get along.' 
 
 Then our visitor made an earnest appeal. His boat 
 was leaky, his comrades were worn out, yet if we would 
 let them come aboard they would, after a little rest, tow 
 the cutter in a calm, and not trouble us in any way. 
 Then, when we sighted Santo, they would leave us 
 and make for Leper's Island, which was the place they 
 wanted to reach. The natives there were very 
 friendly, and there were some white men there. 
 
 ' No,' I said, ' our vessel is too small for so many 
 people. If you follow Pentecost along to the north, 
 you will sight Leper's Island as soon as you round the 
 north point. Now, haul your boat alongside. And 
 here are a couple of bottles of brandy for yourself and 
 crew, some matches, and a small box of tobacco.' 
 
 The boat liauled alongside, and our visitor, ao;ain 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 225 
 
 thanking us, got in. In a few minutes we saw their 
 leader serving them out a nip ; then the night blotted 
 them from view. 
 
 At daylight we were again becalmed and drifting 
 steadily to the northward. The boat was not in sight, 
 and the only signs of life visible around us were some 
 slender columns of smoke ascending from the native 
 villages along the coast, which was less than three 
 miles away. The heat at ten o'clock was intense, and, 
 to add to our discomfort, a heavy swell set in and 
 caused us to roll incessantly. However, we lowered 
 our mainsail, tried to be philosophical, and waited for 
 a breeze. Towards four in the afternoon a sharp rain 
 squall swept down upon us from the land ; it lasted 
 barely ten minutes, and was followed by others at 
 short intervals, and then we knew we were in for a 
 night of it. Whenever one of these squalls came tear- 
 ing over the water we made good use of the wind by 
 running before it to the east, so as to get away from 
 the land ; but at midnight we found we were still 
 a great deal too close ; and that the current was very 
 strong, and now setting in-shore very rapidly, we 
 could tell by the sound of the surf. There was 
 nothing for us but to tow ofF, for the water was too 
 deep to anchor, even within thirty fathoms of the reef. 
 Just as we got the boat over the side there came a 
 tremendous downpour of rain, and we could only make 
 ourselves heard by shouting to each other at the top 
 of our voices. This continued for half an hour, and 
 through it all, the boat, with Alan and three hands, 
 continued to tow. Suddenly the rain ceased — for 
 about five minutes — onlv to fall again with a deafen- 
 
 p 
 
226 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 ing uproar. At two o'clock it toned down to a misty 
 drizzle, and we called to Alan to come alongside, as 
 Hannah, two of his natives and myself would give 
 him a spell. The rain had beaten the swell down, but 
 the current was terribly strong, and when the mist 
 lifted a bit we saw we were still too close to the reef. 
 After taking a cast of the lead, and finding no bottom, 
 Hannah and his two natives and myself tumbled into 
 the boat. We had just about tautened the tow-line 
 when Alan's voice rang out. 
 
 * Boat ahoy ! Come back, quick, for God's sake ! 
 Here's the Frenchmen coming ! ' 
 
 We backed alongside and jumped on board, just in 
 time ; for almost at the same moment the French- 
 men's boat came up with a rush, and half a dozen 
 men sprang on to our decks and instantly closed 
 with us. The rest would have followed, but the 
 ever-ready Mani began firing into their boat with a 
 Winchester. This kept them off. Had they, too, 
 gained the deck we should probably have lost the ship. 
 The struggle on board was short but sharp. Hannah, 
 who was possessed of enormous strength, had seized 
 the first man who jumped over the rail round his 
 waist, and slung him clean across the deck against the 
 port bulwarks, were he lay stunned ; and then went 
 for the next man, whom he knocked backward into 
 the boat with a terrific blow. Meanwhile, Alan, two 
 native sailors and myself, where tied up in a knot with 
 three others on the port side. It was so dark that 
 it was impossible to tell friend from foe at first ; and 
 one of our hands, a Savage Islander, named Puniola, 
 was just about to put a knife into me, as he, two of 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 227 
 
 the boarders and myself were struggling together, when 
 by chance he felt the big square buckle of my leather 
 belt and recognised me. He quickly let go of me, 
 seized one of the convicts by the throat, and choked 
 him into insensibility, and we soon quietened one of 
 the other two by the same method. The third man, 
 who was as wiry as an eel and as strong as a horse, 
 fought desperately, knocked two of us down, and was 
 then himself laid out by Hannah, who had come to 
 our assistance. Poor Alan, however, had fared badly ; 
 for the leader of the gang had half-stunned him with a 
 weapon of some sort, and we found him lying across 
 the cutter's tiller, bleeding profusely from a cut on the 
 head. His assailant, seeing that the attempt to 
 capture the ship had failed, jumped overboard and 
 swam to his boat, which was drifting near to us in the 
 darkness. 
 
 As quickly as possible we got lights and examined 
 the gentry lying about on the deck. One of them 
 was still unconscious, the rest were pretty badly 
 mauled about in the tussle ; and Mani suggested that 
 we had better drop them overboard to save further 
 trouble. Her blood was up, and she was full of fight ; 
 but Hannah merely laughed, and told her not to be 
 such a pust fia ai (tiger cat). 
 
 Showing a light, we hailed the Frenchmen's boat, 
 and told them to come alongside again. 
 
 * If you don't look smart we'll drop these five men 
 overboard. So hurry up.' 
 
 The gentleman from 'Barcelon' — who was certainly 
 possessed of inimitable cheek — after telling us to go to 
 Hades, added that he had but one oar in the boat, the 
 
228 AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 
 
 others had gone adrift. So we had to dump our 
 prisoners into our own boat, and pull out to the other. 
 Then, while Alan and I covered those in the French- 
 men's boat, Hannah and two hands flung our prisoners 
 out of our boat into their own. Their leader took 
 matters very coolly, cursed his returning comrades 
 freely as cowards, and then had the face to ask us 
 for some oars. 
 
 Then Hannah, who, we now found, spoke French, 
 boiled over. Jumping into the other boat, he seized 
 the gentleman from Barcelona by the throat with his 
 left hand and rapidly pounded his face into a pulp with 
 his right. 
 
 Whilst Hannah was taking his satisfaction out of 
 the big man, we struck some matches and examined 
 the rest of the crowd in the boat. One man, we 
 saw, was badly wounded, Mani having sent two 
 bullets through his right shoulder and one through 
 his thigh ; another had his cheek cut open, but 
 whether this was caused by a bullet or not I could 
 not tell. I, being young and green, felt very pitiful 
 and wanted Hannah to bring the badly-wounded man 
 on board ; but he, like a sensible man, said he would 
 see me hanged first, and that we ought to shoot the 
 lot of them. 
 
 But, anyway, we gave them three oars, and then 
 pushed clear of their boat just as another rain squall 
 came seething along. 
 
 At dawn we saw them, about two miles abeam of 
 us, pulling slowly in towards Pentecost. 
 
 We heard afterwards that they were sighted by the 
 Sydney steamer Ripple^ Captain Ferguson, off Torres 
 
AN ADVENTURE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES 229 
 
 Island, in the Banks Group. Most probably they 
 abandoned the idea of stopping at Leper's Island, 
 where thev would not be safe from recapture by the 
 French cruisers, and were then making for the 
 Solomons. But that they ever reached there is 
 doubtful ; or, if they did, thev were probablv eaten 
 by the natives. The boat, we heard, they had 
 captured from a German vessel loading nickel ore at 
 one of north-eastern ports of New Caledonia, and 
 they had then raided a small settlement on the coast 
 and obtained some arms and provisions. Long after- 
 wards I was told that their leader was a sailor who 
 was serving a life sentence for killing his mistress 
 at La Ciotat, in the South of France. 
 
 It is quite possible, however, that thev may have 
 been picked up by an American whale-ship making 
 northwards to the Moluccas from the New Zealand 
 ground. In those days there were quite thirty ships 
 still remaining of the once great American whaling 
 fleet, which traversed the Pacific from one end to the 
 other. 
 
 Publisher's Note. — The half-caste Alan mentioned in this story is 
 the same ' Alan ' who so frequently figures in Mr Becke's tales in By 
 Reef and Pahn^ and his subsequent books. 
 
The South Sea Bubble of Charles 
 du Breil 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE OF 
 CHARLES DU BREIL 
 
 Less than a year ago news was received of the arrival 
 in Noumea, in New Caledonia, of the remainder of a 
 party of unwashed visionaries, calling themselves the 
 ' United Brotherhood of the South Sea Islands.' A year 
 before they had sailed away from San Francisco in a 
 wretched old crate of a schooner, named the Percy 
 Edzvard (an ex-Tahitian mail packet), to seek for 
 an island or islands whereon they were to found a 
 Socialistic Utopia, where thev were to pluck the wild 
 goat by the beard, pay no rent to the native owners 
 of the soil, and, letting their hair grow down their 
 backs, lead an idyllic life and loaf around generally. 
 Such a mad scheme could have been conceived 
 nowhere else but in San Francisco or Paris. 
 
 In the latter city such another venture, but 
 founded on more heroic lines of infatuation, was 
 organised eighteen years ago by the late Charles du 
 Breil, Marquis de Rays, and the results ought to have 
 made the American enthusiasts reflect a little before 
 they started. But having got the idea that they 
 might sail on through summer seas till they came to 
 some land fair to look upon, and then annex it right 
 away in the sacred name of Socialism (and thus 
 
 233 
 
234 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 
 
 violate one of the principal articles of their faith), 
 they started — only to be quickly disillusionised. For 
 there were no islands anywhere in the two Pacifies 
 to be had for the taking thereof; neither were there 
 any tracts of land to be had from the natives, except 
 for hard cash or its equivalent. The untutored 
 Kanakas also, with whom they came in contact, 
 refused to become brother Socialists and go shares 
 with the long-haired wanderers in their land or any- 
 thing else. So from island to island the Percy Edward 
 cruised, looking more disreputable every day, until, 
 as the months went by, she began to resemble, in her 
 tattered gear and dejected appearance, her fatuous 
 passengers. At last, after being chivvied about con- 
 siderably by the white and native inhabitants of the 
 various islands touched at, the forlorn expedition 
 reached Fiji. Here fifty of the idealists elected to 
 remain and work for their living under a government 
 which represented the base and brutal institution of 
 Monarchy. But the remaining fifty-eight stuck to the 
 Percy Edward^ and her decayed salt junk, and stink- 
 ing water, and their beautiful ideals ; till at last the ship 
 was caught in a hurricane, badly battered about, lost 
 her foremast, and only escaped foundering by resting 
 her keel on the bottom of Noumea Harbour. Then 
 the visionaries began to collect their senses, and 
 denounced the Percy Edward and the principles of 
 the ^ United Brotherhood ' as hollow frauds, and 
 elected to go ashore and get a good square meal. 
 
 The affair recalls the story of the ill-starred colony 
 of ' Nouvelle France,' which was given the tacit 
 support of the French Government, the blessing of 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 235 
 
 the Church, and the hard-earned savings of the 
 wretched dupes of French, Itaban and Spanish 
 peasantry who believed in it — until it collapsed, and 
 many of them died cursing it and themselves on the 
 fever-stricken shores of New Ireland. 
 
 Early in 1879 an enticing prospectus appeared, 
 signed 'Ch. du Breil, Director and Founder of the 
 Free Colony of Port Breton in Oceania.' In this 
 precious document the marvellous fertility, the 
 beautiful scenery, and the healthy climate of the .^„ 
 island of New Ireland (Tombara) were described 
 at length, while the native inhabitants came in for 
 much unqualified praise as simple children of nature, 
 who were looking forward with rapture to the advent 
 of the colonists, and to the prospect of becoming 
 citizens of the Free Colony, and being recognised 
 as Frenchmen, and helping the settlers cultivate the 
 vine, etc., and being admitted into the fold of 
 Christianity. 
 
 Perhaps Du Breil believed in his impossible scheme 
 — many people said so, when, some years afterwards, 
 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a 
 fine of thirty thousand francs for his share in it. But 
 if he did not, the French peasantry did, and money 
 came pouring in. Ignorant people sold their little 
 all and gathered together at Marseilles and other 
 ports, where ships waited to convey them to the 
 new paradise ; in all, nearly half a million pounds 
 was subscribed. Then away went emissaries to the 
 southern parts of Italy, where the ignorant agri- 
 cultural labourers bit freely and were caught whole- 
 sale. In their case, however, the prospectus varied from 
 
236 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 
 
 that issued in France, which was specially designed 
 to ensnare small capitalists, tradespeople and farmers, 
 as well as the poorer peasants. The various religious 
 fraternities in France, which hoped to benefit finan- 
 cially by their advocacy, boomed the scheme, and 
 sermons were preached on the philanthropy of M. 
 le Marquis, who, like Law and Blount, was nothing 
 if not magnificent. By the time the Chandernagore^ 
 the first ship, had sailed from Flushing, elaborate plans 
 were issued of the new citv, with its parks and 
 public buildings, and noble wharves and boulevards 
 aglow with life and excitement ; while the religious 
 wants of the settlers had not been neglected, for 
 cathedrals and churches figured conspicuously. Also, 
 it was indicated by a carefully-prepared descriptive 
 pamphlet, that gold and diamonds and such other 
 things only wanted looking for in the surrounding 
 islands, where they could be obtained in quantities 
 sufficient to satisfy the most avaricious. 
 
 The Chandernagore carried only eighty colonists, all 
 males, and, flying the Liberian flag, after a long pas- 
 sage she reached the Lachlan Islands, in the South 
 Pacific, where sixteen of them elected to stay, 
 charmed by the beauty of the place and the uncon- 
 ventional manners of the native women. Of these 
 sixteen, five died from fever, and of the remainder 
 two were killed and eaten by natives of other islands, 
 and the rest were rescued by Australian and German 
 trading vessels. The Chandernagore proceeded on her 
 voyage, and Port Breton was reached at last. It is on 
 the south end of the great island of New Ireland, and 
 with, perhaps, the exception of the Falkland Islands, 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 237 
 
 or the Crozets, or London in the month of November, 
 the most sodden, dank, squashy and appalling place on 
 the globe. The day after the ship anchored it began 
 to rain, and, as it showed no signs of clearing up at 
 the end of three weeks, the captain was besought to 
 look out for another site for the city where it was not 
 quite so wet. He took them to a better place, named 
 Liki Liki Bay, near Cape St George, and, after a 
 preliminary orgie on board, the enthusiastic colonists 
 set to work house-building and clearing the primaeval 
 forest for the grape and fig crop. But as there were 
 about two thousand and ninety trees to the hectare, 
 and every tree was joined to its neighbours by vines 
 as thick as a ship's main-mast, the work proceeded but 
 slowly. Considerable time was lost, also, by each 
 man dropping his axe twice in ten seconds to kill 
 the mosquitoes which stung him severely. After a 
 few days of this the founders of New France decided 
 to return to Europe, and, duly arming themselves, 
 went on board and interviewed the captain. The 
 captain, MacLachlan, was a Scotchman by birth, but 
 a naturalised Frenchman. He was also a humorist 
 in a grim sort of way. On the voyage out he and 
 M. de Villacroix, who was the temporary Governor, 
 found that the eighty gentlemen colony founders 
 were a pretty rough lot, who wanted to take charge 
 of the ship. MacLachlan, who was a man of energy, 
 brought them to reason by tricing seven of them up 
 to the rigging by their thumbs, and promised to ' deal 
 severely ' with them next time. So when thev 
 boarded the Chandernagore and informed him that he 
 must take them back to France, he answered bv 
 
238 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 
 
 hunting them ashore again, landing six months' pro- 
 visions, and saiHng for Sydney, according to instruc- 
 tions from the Marquis. On arriving at Sydney he 
 chartered a schooner, loaded her with provisions and 
 agricultural machinery, and despatched her to Liki 
 Liki Bay. Rough and cruel as he may appear, 
 MacLachlan was the right sort of man to master 
 insubordination and mutiny. I knew the man well, 
 and know that he knew the ruffianly element he had 
 to deal with in the first lot of colonists, and dealt 
 with it in a proper and summary manner. Had 
 there been half a dozen more such men as himself 
 and Villacroix to back him up, the tragic ending of 
 the ill-fated expedition would have been averted. 
 
 But meantime the second contingent was preparing 
 to leave, and the steam.er Genii was bought by the 
 Marquis to load another cargo of deluded emigrants 
 at Marseilles and Barcelona. Like Villacroix and 
 MacLachlan, her captain (Rabardy) was a man in 
 whom he reposed implicit trust j and, indeed, Du Breil 
 seems to have been at least fortunate in the choice 
 of his sea-leaders to conduct his deplorable colonists 
 to their Paradise. Under other and less determined 
 men the loss of life would have been terrible. 
 MacLachlan's letters from Sydney had warned him 
 of one source of danger — mutiny — and Du Breil 
 decided to send out with the second contingent a 
 military guard. From the Italian and Spanish 
 'settlers' there was nothing to fear. Whatever they 
 suffered they suffered in silence, like sheep ; and the 
 presence of several priests (going out to preach in the 
 handsome stone cathedrals and churches before men- 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 239 
 
 tioned), whom they looked up to with simple reverence, 
 was a surer safeguard for their good conduct than a 
 company of troops. The married men among the 
 French contingent of the second lot were like them 
 in this respect ; but, all through the course of the 
 disastrous expedition, it was cursed by the inclusion 
 of a number of unmarried man, whose ruffianism 
 proved too strong to be checked ; then there were a 
 number of nymphes du pave^ recruited from the streets 
 of Marseilles and Toulon. * They came on board as 
 unmarried women, but an "arrangement " in each case 
 was made with one of the single men to play M. le 
 Mari,' said one of the leaders, to the writer, when he 
 lay dying of fever in the GeniPs stifling saloon at 
 Duke of York Island. Who can wonder at the 
 collapse of the ' colony,' when practices such as these 
 were tolerated ? But it is typical of the system, or 
 rather want of system, of French colonisation generally. 
 On March i6th the Genii left Barcelona with over 
 two hundred and fifty colonists — men, women and 
 children. Some of the Italians were from the north 
 — these were hard-working and intelligent — some 
 from Calabria — little better than beasts of the field 
 — and the Spaniards came from Valencia and Cata- 
 lonia. The military guard consisted of a Spanish 
 captain and lieutenant and an Italian lieutenant, 
 while the rank and file were of various nationalities. 
 Before the crazy old Genii reached Port Said the 
 guard themselves made matters warm, and, with the 
 first and second engineers and second officer, refused 
 to proceed. Rabardy, the captain, gladly let them go 
 at Port Said and made for the Maldive Islands, where 
 
240 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 
 
 he engaged thirty Arabs. Later on he put these 
 ashore at Point de Galle. At Singapore the vessel 
 remained six weeks, waiting for instructions, and then 
 reached Liki Liki Bay fifteen days later — to find the 
 place abandoned and the beach covered with the stores 
 left there by the Cmayidernagore party, who had 
 escaped to Australia : this he learned two days later 
 from the white traders at Mioko, the settlement on 
 Duke of York Island, twenty or thirty miles away. 
 Rabardy was at his wit's end. He knew that another 
 steamer was due in a month or two, and determined 
 to wait and consult with the new Governor, who was 
 coming out with a fresh batch of three hundred people. 
 No work at settlement was begun, for Rabardy con- 
 sidered the former site could be bettered. Meanwhile, 
 there arrived a barque of one thousand tons, the 
 Marquis de Rays, deeply laden with cotton and sugar 
 machinery, stores, provisions and medicines, and a large 
 amount of trade goods for barter with the natives. 
 These latter, although not cannibals like the people of 
 the neighbouring Island of New Britain, were a very 
 low tvpe of savages, and their mode of life was disgust- 
 ing in the extreme ; whilst their wild and ferocious 
 appearance was in harmony with their stark nudity. 
 Still the GeniFs people established friendly relations 
 with them, and were supplied with fruit and vegetables, 
 such as yams and taro. 
 
 On October 17th the steamer India arrived with 
 her emigrants, and the new Governor, M. de Prevost, 
 nothing daunted by the unfortunate previous experi- 
 ences of t]]e colony and its mismanagement, set to 
 work with Captain Rabardv to get things in order. 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 241 
 
 A fresh site was chosen for the actual settlement, and 
 the new arrivals, joining heartily with the GeniPs 
 people, began to clear and build. The Italians and 
 Spaniards toiled, in happy expectation of future pros- 
 perity, with their French fellow-settlers, and hope ran 
 high. But already the deadly malaria had begun its 
 work, and ere long more than half of the many 
 hundreds of colonists were suffering from fever, and 
 soon some died. Then suddenly the Governor, who 
 hitherto had cheered them up by his example and 
 energy, announced his intention of going to Sydney 
 in the Genii (the India had sailed for France) to 
 procure cattle and a fresh stock of provisions. He 
 never returned. Months and months went by, and the 
 colonists waited and waited, while the fever carried ofF 
 someone every few days ; and then their hearts failed 
 them, and they longed for the lands they had left for a 
 chimera. A sad two months passed, and then one 
 day another steamer — the Nouvelle Bretagne — came 
 into Liki Liki Bay. She had brought out some three 
 hundred more colonists, Spanish people, who listened, 
 with doleful faces, to the tale of those who had preceded 
 them to the Utopia of Charles du Breil. Rabardy, of 
 the Genily who, a month later, was to die of fever, 
 game to the last, consulted with Captain Henry, of 
 the Nouvelle Bretagne^ and, as they talked on the poop 
 deck of the newly-arrived steamer, a cry came from 
 the people on shore that another ship was in sight. 
 An hour later a black-painted, unobtrusive-looking 
 steamer came slowly into the bay and dropped anchor. 
 She looked like a collier, and flew the red ensign of 
 England ; but Henry knew her. She was the Legaspi^ 
 
242 THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 
 
 Spanish gunboat from Manila, and had chased him 
 from the Philippines. As her cable rattled through 
 her hawsepipes, down went the red ensign and up 
 went the Spanish colours, and a boat full of armed 
 men dashed alongside the Nouvelle Bretagne^ and in 
 another five minutes Captain Henry was a prisoner, 
 handcuffed, and on his way to the warship. What he 
 had done at Manila was a daring deed enough, and is 
 a story in itself, and nothing much to his discredit. 
 His ship had been prevented from putting to sea bv 
 the Spanish authorities, and Henry, who had many 
 sick on board, and was greatly harassed in mind, 
 suddenly slipped his cable and steamed off, although 
 there was a Spanish guard on board. These he landed 
 on the coast of Luzon. 
 
 That evening the commander of the Legaspi called 
 the Spanish emigrants together and addressed them. 
 * The colony is a failure ; the French, Italian and 
 Spanish Governments have repudiated it. Those of 
 you who like to return with the Legaspi to Manila 
 can do so ; those who do not may remain here, to die 
 of starvation or be eaten by the savages.' 
 
 Next morning the Legaspi steamed out of Liki Liki 
 Bay with the Nouvelle Bretagne in tow, taking all the 
 Spanish colonists with her. Then, to the aid of the de- 
 spairing French and Italian colonists, came one Tom 
 Farrell, an English trader on the Duke of York 
 Island. He gave them provision^, advanced them 
 money, and treated them well, taking care to get 
 possession of the Genii and the barque Adarquis de 
 Rays. The Genii he sent to Australia under com- 
 mand of an English captain ( Rabardy was dead by 
 
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE 243 
 
 then, and his dying words to the writer of this sketch, 
 as he grasped his hand for the last time, were, ' I have 
 tried — and failed. I had not one competent officer 
 with me to help me to maintain my authority or 
 shoot some of the ruffians who have ruined the 
 expedition'). Her unfortunate passengers were 
 generously treated by the New South Wales Govern- 
 ment, who settled many of them on the Richmond 
 River, in the northern portion of the colony. Here 
 they founded a prosperous little settlement, and are to 
 this day happy and contented, and thank their stars 
 that they left a spurious Utopia to dwell in a country 
 where the conditions of climate are like those of their 
 own sunny Italy. Perhaps, however, they think some- 
 times of those of their former comrades who died out 
 there in the savage * colony ' of Charles du Breil. At 
 Liki Liki there died nine ; at Duke of York Island, 
 thirteen ; at New Britain, twenty-one ; and six were 
 eaten by the cannibals of the islands thereabouts. Of 
 a score or so of others who remained in the North- 
 West Pacific there is no record. Probably they suc- 
 cumbed to fever, or went down under the clubs and 
 spears of the wild people of New Britain, New Guinea 
 and the Admiralty Group. Such was the end of the 
 vision of Charles du Breil and the Colony of New 
 France. 
 
The White Wife and the Brown 
 ^ Woman' 
 
THE WHITE WIFE AND THE 
 BROWN ^ WOMAN' 
 
 Masters, the trader at Fana 'alu, was walking up the 
 beach to his house, reading a letter which he had 
 just received from the captain of a passing vessel. It 
 was from his employers in Sydney, — ' We are con- 
 fident that Mrs Masters and yourself will do all you 
 can to render the lady's stay at Fana 'alu agreeable to 
 her. You will find her husband, our new supercargo, 
 a very fine fellow, easy to get on with, and a thoroughly 
 honourable and conscientious business man.' 
 
 ' Here, Melanie, old woman, where are you ? ' he 
 called, as he flung himself lazily into a cane lounge 
 on the verandah. 
 
 Melanie, who, native-like, was combing her hair in 
 the sitting-room, rose from the mat upon which she 
 was sitting and came to the door. 
 
 'What is it, Tom r' she asked, leaning against the 
 wall and drawing the comb slowly through her long, 
 black locks. 
 
 ' Why, the barque will be here in another week or 
 
 so, so this letter says, and there's a tamaltai papalagi 
 
 (white lady) on board, and she will very likely stay 
 
 here with us while her husband, who is the new 
 
 supercargo, goes away in the ship to the Solomon 
 
 247 
 
248 THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 Islands. He will come for her again in about six 
 weeks.' 
 
 Melanie's dark eyes glistened with pleasure. White 
 women were rare visitors at lonely Fana 'alu. Every 
 year, it was true, when the American missionary barque 
 touched at the island, one, or sometimes two, white 
 ladies would come ashore ; but they were mission- 
 aries' wives, and never passed inside the door of the 
 trader's house to speak to his wife. That, in the 
 eyes of the converted natives, would have been 
 scandalous. Melanie might, if she so wished it, have 
 called upon them at the native teacher's house, and 
 paid homage afar off by sitting down on the mats 
 in the furthest corner of the house, while fat, greasy 
 Lepeka,* the wife of the equally fat and greasy teacher 
 Paulo, Christianly whispered in the ears of the holy 
 white ladies that that was the white man's * woman ' 
 — who wasn't married to her 'husband.' And even a 
 white missionary's wife must not offend the spouse of 
 the native teacher. So had any of these ladies wished 
 to talk to Melanie, they would have had to make 
 Lepeka their medium ; for in some parts of the South 
 Seas the usual position of vicar and curate is reversed, 
 and the white visiting missionary and his wife deliver 
 themselves into the hands of the brown curate and 
 his wife for the time being. Perhaps it is this that 
 makes most white missionaries so thin — the strain of 
 having to submit to a Kanaka teacher's ideas of con- 
 ventionality must be prettv hard to bear. And so poor 
 Melanie, who would ha^'e liked to liavc sat near the 
 
 * Rcbrcca. 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 249 
 
 fair-faced, sweet-voiced white ladies, or, perhaps, 
 fondled their hands, as did the young unmarried girls 
 who always surrounded them, bore her lot with con- 
 tent. For once, when she had brought her simple alofa 
 (gift of love) to the missionaries, and laid it timidly 
 down on the mats in the centre of the room, one of 
 the white ladies had smiled at her and said to her 
 husband,— 
 
 ' Oh, what a pretty girl, and how nicely she is 
 dressed. Ask her to come here and sit by me.' 
 
 But Melanie was quick to see Lepeka's dark frown, 
 and discreetly retired to her usual corner, at the back 
 of the room, and when she went home to Masters, 
 she did not chatter and laugh as usual when telling 
 him of all she had seen and heard at the teacher's 
 house. 
 
 For, in her simple heart, there began to grow an 
 unrest. She would feel better, she thought, when the 
 mission ship had sailed away again, and she would 
 forget the kind smile of the missionary's wife, and 
 forget, too, the sneering curl of Lepeka's fat lips. 
 Three years before, when Tom Masters had picked 
 her up in a dancing saloon in Apia and had asked her 
 to come away with him to Fana 'alu as his wife, she 
 had thought of a marriage in the church, with its 
 attendant mild excitements, and gluttonies of baked 
 pig and fowls, and palnsami and other delicacies, and 
 the receiving and giving of many presents. But 
 when Masters — who possessed a fragmentary con- 
 science — told her whv he could not marrv her, she 
 accepted the position calmly, and said it did not 
 matter. 
 
2 50 ■ THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 PerhapSj among the women of Fana 'alu, she stood 
 highest in pubHc estimation, notwithstanding her 
 bar sinister, for she was open-handed and generous, 
 and both the chief's wife and Lepeka, the teacher's 
 grand lady, were of common blood — whilst she, 
 despite her antecedents in Apia, was of the best in 
 Manono — the birthplace of the noble families of 
 Samoa. 
 
 So, as she stood there in the doorway, first combing 
 and then plaiting her hair a la Suisse^ she asked in 
 her native tongue, — 
 
 ' Is she young, Tom ? Will she have hair of gold- 
 thread like that of the wife thou hadst in Sini * long 
 ago — she who married another man ? ' 
 
 Masters laughed. How could he tell ! She might 
 be young and fair ; she might be an olomatua (an old 
 woman), dried up and skinny. But that was none of 
 their business. All that he and Melanie had to do 
 was to entertain her well and make much of her. 
 
 'True,' said the placid-minded Melanie ; 'and even 
 if she be as ugly as an aitu (devil), yet will that fat- 
 faced pig Lepeka die with envy to see a white lady 
 a guest in my house. Would that I could send to 
 Manono for my three brothers, so that they might 
 come here and get drunk, and beat Paulo ! I hate 
 Paulo, even as I hate Lepeka, for they both speak 
 evil of me^ yet are for ever cringing to thce^ taking 
 eagerly thy gifts of money to the church and the 
 school and the mission fund, and yet whispering of 
 me as the dancing-house whore.' 
 
 * Sydney. 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 251 
 
 ' Never mind that, old woman,' said Masters, softly, 
 placing his hand upon the girl's head. * Next year 
 we shall go away from Fana 'alu. We shall go to 
 Ponape, in the far, far north — away from these islands ; 
 no bitter tongues shall pain thy heart there.' Then, 
 picking up his hat, he sauntered down to the beach 
 again and stood watching his whale - boat being 
 hauled up into the boat-shed by her native crew. 
 
 ' Like the wife he once had in Sydney^ long ago.'' 
 
 He lit his pipe, and began to pace to and fro on the 
 sandy path under the cool shade of the coco-palms and 
 bread-fruit trees, thinking of an incident of his past life, 
 which, although six long years had passed, neither his 
 subsequent wanderings in many lands, nor his three 
 latter years' monotonously happy and lazy existence 
 with Melanie at Fana 'alu, had yet quite banished 
 from his memory. And the chance question put to 
 him half an hour before had brought back to him a 
 vision of the slender, blue-eyed and golden-haired 
 woman who was the partner of his first matrimonial 
 venture. 
 
 They had in the beginning led a turtle-dovev kind 
 of life in those old days on the shores of Port Jackson. 
 Not long after their marriage the shipping firm in 
 which he was employed failed, and he had to seek 
 for another billet ; and, being an energetic, self-reliant 
 man, with no false pride, he shipped as stev/ard on 
 board the Noord Brabant.^ a hogged-backed, heart- 
 broken and worn-out American lumber ship running 
 between Puget Sound and the Australian colonies. 
 His wife had cried a little at first ; but he told her 
 that no one but their two selves would know, and 
 
252 THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 it was better for him to be earning five pounds a 
 month than idling about in Sydney. 
 
 On board the crazy old barque he found an ac- 
 quaintance, who soon became a friend. This was the 
 second mate — another Sydney man — who had shipped 
 on the Noord Brabant because berths on good ships 
 were scarce and mates and skippers were plentiful. 
 So the two men, while the ship was being patched 
 up for her long voyage across the Pacific, spent 
 their evenings together at Masters's house. 
 
 Harry Laurance — that was the second mate's name 
 — was a fine, handsome man, with clear, honest eyes 
 and a merry, infectious laugh, and those evenings at 
 his friend's house were a source of unalloyed happiness 
 to him, for from his boyhood he had known no home 
 except a ship or a squalid boarding-house. 
 
 One night, as the three sat together in Masters's 
 little four-roomed cottage, and Nellie Masters had 
 ceased playing upon the rattling fifteen-guinea box 
 of discord called a piano, the three made plans for 
 the future. When they — Masters and Laurance — 
 returned from Puget Sound, they were not to part. 
 Laurance, who had had long experience in the Island 
 trade, had saved a little money — not much (as he 
 told Masters one dav when he placed ten sovereigns 
 in the latter's hand, and asked him to accept it as a 
 loan for his wife's sake), but nearlv enough to buy a 
 little thirty-ton vessel he knew of which was for sale, 
 and which would be just the craft to run on trading 
 vovages from New Zealand among the islands of the 
 Gambicr Group — if they could load her with trade 
 goods. And he knew a man in Puget Sound who, 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 253 
 
 he thought, would lend him a few hundreds, and 
 take a third share in the venture. Then, when he 
 and Masters returned from the impending voyage to 
 Sydney, they, with Mrs Masters, would go over to 
 Auckland, buy the schooner and the trade goods, 
 and then sail for Manga Reva in the Gambier 
 Group, where Masters and his wife were to buy 
 a bit of land and put up a trading station, whilst 
 Laurance ran the little vessel to and fro among the 
 various islands of the group, and brought back pearl 
 shell and copra for sale to the big German firm in 
 Tahiti. And Masters's pretty wife smiled joyously. 
 She did not like to be parted from Tom for nearly 
 seven months ; but seven months was not a lifetime 
 — and then they would be so happy, away from the 
 grinding poverty of their existence in Sydney. 
 
 Dreams ! Six weeks afterwards, as the old Noord 
 Brabant lay groaning over on her beam ends, thrash- 
 ing her canvas to ribbons in a fierce night squall off 
 Beveridge Reef, Tom Masters, hurrying on deck to 
 help the hands shorten sail, was knocked overboard by 
 the parting of the spanker-boom guy, and disappeared 
 without a cry, into the seething boil to leeward. 
 
 For two hours — after the squall had ceased, and 
 Masters was missed — the boat searched for him 
 under the bright rays of a silvery moon and a clear, 
 cloudless sky. But every now and then rain fell 
 heavily, and though the boat rowed round and 
 round the ship within a radius of two or three 
 miles no answermg cry came to the repeated hails 
 of the crew. So then the Noord Brabant stood away 
 
254 THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 again on her course, and Harry Laurance lay awake 
 all his watch below, thinking sadly of his friend and 
 of the dreadful shock which awaited the young wife 
 in Sydney. 
 
 But Tom Masters did not drown. When he came 
 to the surface of the water he found himself floating 
 among the debris of the quarter-boat, which, when the 
 spanker-boom guy parted and the heavy spar swung 
 over to leeward, had swept the after-davit out of its 
 socket and let the boat hang, stern down, by the 
 for'ard fall, until the labouring old barque, raising her 
 stern high out of the water, smashed down upon it as 
 it dragged under her counter and tore out the for'ard 
 ringbolt. 
 
 Half-stunned by the force of the blow which he had 
 received on the back of his head from the spanker- 
 boom when it swept him overboard, Masters was yet 
 able to swim to the wreckage of the boat which he 
 saw floating near him, and, clinging to the after part 
 of the keel, he saw the cabin lights of the Noord 
 Brabant shining brightly through the square, old- 
 fashioned ports for a minute or two, and heard the 
 cries of her crew as the sails were clewed up and 
 furled. Then a sharp, hissing rain squall hid her from 
 view in a thick white mist, and, with agony and despair 
 in his heart, he gave up all hope of life, knowing that 
 the only other boat was turned bottom up on the main 
 hatch of the barque, and that the ship was only half- 
 manned by a scratch crew of long-shore loafers. 
 
 But it so happened that when the Noord Brabant^ 
 close-hauled to clear Beveridge Reef, was thrown on her 
 beam ends by the violence of the squall, the whaling 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 255 
 
 schooner John Bright was rolling easily along before it 
 under shortened canvas, and the cook of the schooner, 
 as he stood on the foc'scle, smoking his pipe, caught a 
 sight of floating wreckage right ahead, with the indi- 
 stinct figure of a man clinging to it, and bawled out 
 * Hard a-port ! ' just in time, or else the schooner had 
 run right on top of the drifting boat and finished this 
 tale and Tom Masters as well. 
 
 But boats are lowered quickly on an American 
 whale-ship — quicker than on any other ship afloat — and 
 in less than ten minutes Tom Masters was picked up 
 and, in face of a blinding rain squall, brought on board 
 the John Bright. Then a long illness — almost death. 
 
 Three months afterwards, as the schooner was 
 slowly crawling along over the North Pacific towards 
 Honolulu, she spoke a timber ship bound to the 
 Australian colonies from Port Townsend in Puget 
 Sound ; and Masters, now recovering from the terrible 
 shock he had received, went on board and asked the 
 captain to let him work his passage. But the Yankee 
 skipper of the lumber ship did not seem to like the idea 
 of having to feed such a hollow-eyed, gaunt-looking 
 being for another six weeks or so, and refused his 
 request. And so Masters, in a dulled, apathetic sort of 
 way went back to the John Bright^ climbed up her side, 
 and, with despair in his heart, lay down in his bunk 
 and tried to sleep, never knowing that, half an 
 hour before, when he was speaking to the captain of 
 the lumberman, a letter to his wife from Laurance lay 
 in a locker not three feet away from him, telling her 
 of her husband's death at sea and his own heartfelt 
 sorrow and sympathy. 
 
256 THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 And Laurance was honest and genuine in his 
 sympathy. He had had a warm feeling of friendship 
 for Tom Masters, and his heart was filled with pity for 
 the poor little wife left alone without a friend in the 
 world. He had tried to express himself clearly in his 
 letter, but all that Nellie Ma-sters could understand was 
 that Tom had been drowned at sea, that Laurance 
 would be back in Sydney in a month or two and give 
 her all particulars, and that she was not utterly friend- 
 less and alone in the world. 
 
 Within a month of Harry Laurance's return she 
 began to think more of him and of his goodness to 
 her, than of her dead husband — and then gratitude 
 became love. She was only a poor little woman, 
 and of a weakly, irresolute nature, unable to 
 think for herself, and unfitted to battle alone 
 with the world and poverty. So one day when Laur- 
 ance, whose big heart was full of love and pity for 
 her, asked her to be his wife, she gave him a happy 
 smile and said ' Yes.' Before a second month had 
 passed they were quietly married. 
 
 Masters, meanwhile, had been pursued by the demon 
 of ill-luck. When the schooner reached Honolulu, 
 he, a mere wreck, physically and mentally, of his 
 former self, had been carried ashore to the hospital, and 
 was making a slow recovery, when the Sydney whaling 
 brig, IVild Wave^ came into port with some of her crew 
 injured by a boat accident. One of the men was 
 placed in a bed next to that occupied by Masters, and 
 one day his captain came to see him and brought 
 him some colonial newspapers which had just arrived. 
 
 ' Here, mate,' said the sailor, tossing one of the papers 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 5/ 
 
 over to Masters, ' you're a Sydney man, and there's a 
 Sydney newspaper.' 
 
 Masters took up the paper, and the first lines he 
 read were these : — 
 
 ^Laurance — Masters. On the loth inst., at the 
 Scots Church, Church Hill, Henry A. Laurance to 
 Helen, widow of the late Thomas Masters.' 
 
 Possibly, had he been well enough to have returned 
 to Sydney, he would have gone back and made three 
 persons' lives unhappy. But, although an English- 
 man, he had not the rigidly conventional idea that the 
 divorce court was part of the machinery of the Wrath 
 of God against women who unknowingly committed 
 bigamy, and ought to be availed of by injured hus- 
 bands. So, instead of having a relapse, he pulled himself 
 together, left the hospital, and got placidly drunk, and 
 concluded, when he became sober, not to disturb them. 
 
 ' I suppose neither of them is to blame,' he thought. 
 * How were either of them to. know that I was not 
 drowned ? . . . And then poor little Nell had only 
 ten shillings a week to live upon until I came back.' 
 
 Still, he would have been better pleased had Harry 
 Laurance been a stranger to him — no man cares to 
 know his successor in such a matter. By-and-by he 
 worked his passage to Samoa, where, under the 
 assumed name of Tom Patterson, he soon found 
 employment. Then one night he went into Charley 
 the Russian's saloon — and met Melanie. 
 
 And now he was settled down at Fana 'alu, was doing 
 well as a trader, and had acquired, in all its intensity, 
 
 R 
 
258 THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 the usual dislike to the idea of ever going back to the 
 world again, common enough to men of his nature in 
 Polynesia. Besides that, Melanie understood him and 
 he understood her. She was as open and honest as the 
 day, worked hard for him in his store, and was sincerely 
 attached to him. So he was well content. 
 
 There was much commotion in the village when 
 the trading barque arrived and lay-to off Fana 'alu. 
 Melanie, in a dress of spotless white muslin, flitted to 
 and fro within the house, smoking cigarettes and 
 cursing her women assistants' laziness and stupidity. 
 Masters, it so happened, was away in his boat at 
 another village along the coast, and pretty Melanie 
 was in a state of nervous trepidation at the thought of 
 having to meet the English lady alone. What should 
 she do r What should she say ? Her English was 
 scant but vigorous, having mostly been acquired from 
 the merchant skippers, Vv^ho, in her — to put it nicely — 
 maiden days, frequented the dance house of * Charley 
 the Russian ' in Apia, and she was conning over the 
 problem of whether she should address her coming 
 guest in that language or not. Her child, a little girl 
 of two, followed her mother's movements with intense 
 curiosity ; and presently a bevy of young native girls 
 swarmed into the room with the news that the boat 
 had come ashore, and that the white lady and her hus- 
 band had landed and were now walking up to the house. 
 Then Mrs Masters Number Two pulled herself to- 
 gether and, throwing away her cigarette, Vvcnt to the 
 door and, v/ith a graceful, modest demeanour and a 
 timid, bashful smile, held out her hand to a lovely being 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 259 
 
 with big, bright blue eyes and thick masses of hair 
 of shining gold. Beside this — to Melanie — glorious 
 vision of beauty, stood the husband — a big, black- 
 moustached and bronze-faced man, who stooped as he 
 entered the door of the trader's house, and said good- 
 naturedly to her, — 
 
 * Glad to meet you, Mrs Patterson. Will your 
 husband be long before he returns ? ' 
 
 * I don' know, sir,' answered Melanie. ' He hav' 
 gone to Pitofanua. But he will come ver' quick 
 when he know that the ship hav' come.' Then, 
 trembling with pleasurable excitement, she turned to 
 the lady and indicated a low easy-chair, and said in 
 Samoan, — 
 
 ' Sit thou there, O lady ; ' and then in English, * I 
 can't speak Englis' very good sometimes. But my man 
 will soon come.' Then she remembered something. 
 ' Please will you come into dis room here, which is 
 been made all ready for you, an' take off your hat ; ' and 
 then she darted over to a side table, brought a glass 
 and a bottle of whisky over to the lady's husband ; 
 then, with a winning smile, timidly held out her 
 brown hand to her guest, and led her into the bedroom. 
 
 The new supercargo helped himself to a nip of 
 whisky and then sat down, his keen business eye 
 taking in the order and cleanliness of the room. In 
 a few minutes his wife came out. 
 
 ^ Hang these traders, Nell ! Why isn't this fellow 
 here to meet me ? He had no business to go away 
 from his station when the ship was due. However, 
 he has jolly nice quarters, and so we'll make ourselves 
 comfortable until he turns up. I think you'll like this 
 
26o THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 place, Nell, and won't find it tedious whilst I'm away 
 at the Solomons. Eh, pet r ' 
 
 The White Lady nodded and smiled. ' Yes, Harry, 
 but I'll miss you terribly to-morrow. Six weeks is 
 a long .time, dear. . . . Oh, Harry, do look — isn't 
 she a lovely child r ' And, bending down, she swept 
 up Melanie's little girl in her arms and kissed her 
 softly, and her eyes suddenly filled with tears. 
 
 ' Yes,' said the supercargo, shortly, as, without 
 looking at the child, he took some papers from his 
 pocket and began to read. His and her hearts' desire 
 had never been granted, and so he hated to look at the 
 child of another man. 
 
 ' I wish this fellow would come,' he said presently, 
 in an irritable tone, as he rose and walked to and fro. 
 ... ' Don't let that child paw you about like that, 
 Nell. . . . Hallo, here he is at last.' 
 
 Fanning his heated brow with his broad hat of 
 pandanus leaf, the trader stood in the doorway. 
 
 * Good morning. I'm sorry I was away when you 
 came — ' 
 
 A cry, half scream and half sob, came from the 
 supercargo's wife, as, still holding the child in her 
 arms, she swayed to ,and fro, and Melanie sprang to 
 her side. 
 
 * Oh, Harry, it is Tom ! ' she said. 
 
 Then she sank back and lay upon the matted floor, 
 with her head pillowed upon Melanie's bosom ; and 
 the child wailed in terror. 
 
 'What the hell is the matter?' said the big super- 
 cargo, striding forward to the trader and seizing him 
 bv the arm. Then he looked into Masters's face. ' Bv 
 
THE WHITE WIFE 261 
 
 God, Masters, is it you ? As heaven is my judge, I 
 swear to you that we both thought you were dead ! ' 
 
 The trader's eyes met his in a long, searching glance, 
 then turned to where the unconscious figure of the white 
 woman lay, supported in the arms of Melanie, who, 
 with affrighted eyes, gazed appealingly to them both. 
 
 He reached out his hand to the other man. * That's 
 all right, Laurance. Let us go outside and talk. See, 
 your wife has fainted, but Melanie will see to her.' 
 
 That night, whilst Masters and Laurance, cigars in 
 mouth, were gravely picking out the former's trade 
 goods on board the Palestine^ the White Lady and 
 the Brown * Woman' talked. 
 
 ' Is you any better now r ' said Melanie, as she caress- 
 ingly ran her hand down the golden locks of Mrs 
 Laurance. 
 
 A smothered sob was her answer, and the yellov/ 
 head buried itself among the pillows of the couch. 
 
 Melanie turned away despairingly, and then lit a 
 cigarette. What a fool was this beautiful white woman 
 — nothing but sob, sob, sob ! What could be done to 
 dry her tears r 
 
 Presently the Brown * Woman ' slid her hand under 
 the waist of the weeping White Lady, and pressed her 
 cheek to hers. 
 
 * Don' you wan' to stay here now ? ' 
 
 * No, no, no ! Let me go away. I wish I were dead ! ' 
 ^ What for r ' and the philosophical Melanie sent two 
 
 long streaks of smoke through her nostrils. ^ Why 
 are vou 'shamed r You have a husban' now, and yo' 
 don' v/an' to faotane^ do you r ' 
 
262 THE WHITE WIFE 
 
 'What \s faotane F ' 
 
 Melanie laughed. ' Faotane is Samoa language ; it 
 means stealing a husban'. . . . And yo' won' steal 
 my husban' from me, will you ? Yo' hav' got a new 
 husban', and yo' won' take Tom from me, will yo' ? ' 
 
 Mrs Laurance sprang to her feet and placed her 
 hands on the Brown ' Woman's ' shoulders. 
 
 ' Tell me,' she said, ' did he ever talk of me ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' said the truthful Melanie. ' He tell me that 
 yo' have hair like gold, and that your eye was blue like 
 the sky.' 
 
 ' No more ? ' 
 
 Melanie shook her black locks. ' No more. My 
 man never talk too much. You like to eat some roast 
 pigeon now r ' 
 
 The White Lady turned her head aside and sobbed. 
 * And for a soulless being like this !' Then she re- 
 membered that Masters was not to blame, and waited, 
 trembling and sobbing, for the two men to return. 
 
 Masters, having finished his business on board the 
 barque, held out his hand to Laurance. 
 
 ' Good-bye, Harry. Nothing can be done. Tom 
 Masters was drowned off Beveridge Reef years ago, 
 and Harry Laurance married his widow ; and Tom 
 Patterson is another man, who has a native wife, and — ' 
 
 He wrung Laurance's hand, sprang up the com- 
 panion-way and called to his boat's crew, — 
 
 ' Haul the boat alongside, boys. I'm going to Pito- 
 fanua again ; and you beggars will have to pull like 
 hell. . . . Good-bye, Harry, old fellow. Send vour 
 boat ashore for your wife . . . and God bless you both ! ' 
 
With Hook and Line on an 
 Austral River 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE ON AN 
 AUSTRAL RIVER 
 
 The English visitor to the Eastern Colonies of 
 Australia, who is in search of sport with either rod 
 or hand line, can always obtain excellent fishing in 
 the summer months, even in such traffic-disturbed 
 harbours as Sydney, Newcastle and other ports ; but 
 on the tidal rivers of the eastern and southern seaboard 
 he can catch more fish than he can carry home, during 
 nine months of the year. In the true winter months 
 deep sea fishing is not much favoured, except during 
 the prevalence of westerly winds, when for days at a 
 time the Pacific is as smooth as a lake ; but in the 
 rivers, from Mallacoota Inlet, v/hich is a few miles 
 over the Victorian boundary, to the Tweed River on 
 the north, the stranger may fairly revel, not only in 
 the delights of splendid fishing, but in the charms of 
 beautiful scenery. He needs no guide, will be put to 
 but little expense, for the country hotel accommoda- 
 tion is good and cheap ; and, should he visit some of 
 the northern rivers, where the towns — or rather small 
 settlements — are few and far between, he will find the 
 settlers the embodiment of British hospitality. 
 
 Some five years ago the writer formed one of the 
 
 crew of a little steamer of fifty tons, named the Jenny 
 
 265 
 
266 WITH HOOK AND LINE 
 
 Lind^ which was sent out along the coast in the 
 futile endeavour to revive the coast whaling industry. 
 Through stress of weather we had frequently to make 
 a dash for shelter, towing our one whale-boat,' to one of 
 the many tidal rivers on the coast between Sydney and 
 Gabo Island. Here we would remain until the weather 
 broke, and our crew would literally cover the deck 
 with an extraordinary variety of fish in the course of 
 a few hours. Then, at low tide, we could always fill 
 a couple of corn sacks with excellent oysters, and get 
 bucketfuls of large prawns by means of a scoop net 
 improvised from a piece of mosquito netting. Game, 
 too, was very plentiful on the lagoons. The settlers 
 were generally glad to see us, and gave us so freely of 
 milk, butter, pumpkins, etc., that, despite the rough 
 handling we always had at sea from the weather, we 
 grew quite fat. But as the greater part of my fishing 
 experience was gained on the northern rivers of the 
 colony of New South Wales, it is of them T shall write. 
 Eighteen hours' run by steamer from Sydney is the 
 Hastings River, on the southern bank of which, a mile 
 from the bar, is the old-time town of Port Macquarie — 
 a quaint, sleepy little place of six hundred inhabitants, 
 who spend their days in fishing and waiting for better 
 times. There are two or three fairly good hotels, very 
 pretty scenery along the coast and up the river, and a 
 stranger can pass a month without suffering from 
 ennui— x\\d.l is, of course, if he be fond of fishing and 
 shooting ; if he is not, he should avoid going there, 
 for it is the dullest coast town in New South Wales. 
 The southern shore, from the steamer wharf to oppo- 
 site the bar, is lined with a hard beach, on which, at 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE 267 
 
 high tide or slack water at low tide, one may sit 
 down in comfort and have great sport with bream, 
 whiting and flathead. As soon as the tide turns, how- 
 ever, and is well on the ebb or flow, further fishing is 
 impossible, for the river rushes out to sea with great 
 velocity, and the incoming tide is almost as swift. On 
 the other side of the harbour is a long, sandy point 
 called the North Shore, about a mile in length. This, 
 at the north end, is met by a somewhat dense scrub, 
 which lines the right bank of the river for a couple of 
 miles, and affords a splendid shade to anyone fishing 
 on the river bank. The outer or ocean beach is but 
 a few minutes' walk from the river, and a magnificent 
 beach it is, trending in one great unbroken curve to 
 Point Plomer, seven miles from the township. 
 
 Before ascending the river on a fishing trip one has 
 to be provided with a plentiful supply of cockles, 
 or ' pippies,' as they are called locally. These can 
 only be obtained on the northern ocean beach, and 
 not the least enjoyable part of a day's sport consists in 
 getting them. They are triangular in shape, with 
 smooth shells of every imaginable colour, though a 
 rich purple is commonest. As the backwash leaves 
 the sands bare, these bivalves may be seen in thick but 
 irregular patches protruding from the sand. Some- 
 times, if the tide is not low enough, one may get 
 rolled over by the surf if he happen to have his back 
 turned seaward. Generally I was accompanied by 
 two boys, known as ' Condon's Twins.' They were 
 my landlord's sons, and certainly two of the smartest 
 young sportsmen — although only twelve years old — I 
 ever met with. Both were very small for their age. 
 
268 WITH HOOK AND LINE 
 
 arid I was always in doubt as to which was which. 
 They were always delighted to come with me, and 
 did not mind being soused by a roller now and then 
 when filling my ^ pippy ' bag. Pippies are the best 
 bait one can have for whiting (except prawns) in 
 Australia, for, unlike the English whiting, it will not 
 touch fish bait of any sort, although, when very 
 hungry, it will sometimes take to octopus flesh. 
 Bream, whether black or silvery, flathead, trevally, 
 Jew-fish, and, indeed, all other fish obtained in 
 Australia, are not so dainty, for, although they like 
 'pippies' and prawns best, they will take raw meat, 
 fish, or octopus bait with readiness. Certain species 
 of sea and river mullet are like them in this respect, 
 and good sport may be had from them v/ith a rod in 
 the hot months, as Dick and Fred, the twins aforesaid, 
 well knew, for often would their irate father wrath- 
 fully ask them why they wasted their time catching 
 ' them worthless mullet.' 
 
 But let me give an idea of one of many days' fishing 
 on the Hastings, spent with the ' Twins.' Having 
 filled a sugar-bag with ' pippies ' on the ocean beach, 
 we put on our boots and make our way through the 
 belt of scrub to where our boat is lying, tied to the 
 protruding roots of a tree. Each of us is armed with 
 a green stick, and we pick our way pretty carefully, 
 for black snakes' are plentiful, and to tread on one 
 means death. The density of the foliage overhead is 
 such that but little sunlight can pierce through it, 
 and the s^round is soft to our feet with the thick 
 carpet of fallen lea\'cs bcneatli. No sound but the 
 murmuring of the sea and the hoarse notes of count- 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE 269 
 
 less gulls breaks the silence, for this side of the river is 
 uninhabited, and its solitude disturbed only by some 
 settler who has ridden down the coast to look for 
 straying cattle, or by a fishing party from the town. 
 Our boat, which we had hauled up and then tied to 
 the tree, is now afloat, for the tide has risen, and the 
 long stretches of yellow sandbanks which line the 
 channel on the further side are covered now with a 
 foot of water. As we drift up the river, eating our 
 lunch, and letting the boat take care of herself, a 
 huge, misshapen thing comes round a low point, 
 emitting horrid groanings and wheezings. It is a 
 steam stern-wheel punt, loaded with mighty logs of 
 black-butt and tallow wood, from fifty feet to seventy 
 feet in length, cut far up the Hastings and the Maria 
 and Wilson Rivers, and destined for the saw-mill at 
 Port Macquarie. 
 
 In another hour we are at our landing-place, a 
 selector's abandoned homestead, built of rough slabs, 
 and standing about fifty yards back from the river 
 and the narrow line of brown, winding beach. The 
 roof had long since fallen in, and the fences and out- 
 buildings lay low, covered with vines and creepers. 
 The intense solitude of the place, the motionless forest 
 of lofty, grey-boled swamp gums that encompassed it 
 on all sides but one, and the wide stretch of river 
 before it were calculated to inspire melancholv in 
 anyone but an ardent fisherman. Scarcely have wc 
 hauled our boat up on the sand, and deposited our 
 provisions and water in the roofless house, when we 
 hear a commotion in the river — a swarm of fish called 
 'tailer* are making havoc among a 'school' of small 
 
270 WITH HOOK AND LINE 
 
 mullet, many of which fling themselves out upon the 
 sand. Presently all is quiet again, and we get our 
 lines ready. 
 
 For whiting and silvery bream, rather fine lines are 
 used ; but we each have a heavy line for flathead, for 
 these fish are caught in the tidal rivers on a sandy 
 bottom up to three feet and four feet in length. They 
 are in colour, both on back and belly, much like a sole, 
 of great width across the shoulders, and then taper away 
 to a very fine tail. The head is perfectly flat, very 
 thin, and armed on each side with very sharp bones 
 pointing tailward. A stab from one of these causes 
 intense inflammation. The fins are small — so small 
 as to appear almost rudimentary — yet the fish swims, 
 or rather darts, along the bottom with amazing 
 rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few 
 feet from the shore, where, concealed in the sand, 
 they can dart out upon and seize their prey in their 
 enormous ' gripsack ' mouths. The approach of a 
 boat, or a person walking along the sand, will cause 
 them to at once speed like lightning into deep water, 
 leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud, which is 
 washed off their backs in their flight. Still, although 
 not a pleasing fish to look at, the flathead is of a 
 delicious and delicate flavour. There are some varia- 
 tions in their shades of colour, from a pale, delicate 
 grey to a very dark brown, according to their habitat, 
 and, although most frequent in very shallow water, 
 they are often caught in great quantities ofl' the coast 
 in from ten to fifteen fathoms of water. Gut or wire 
 snoodings arc indispensable when fishing for flathead, 
 else the fish invariably severs the line with his fine 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE 271 
 
 needle-pointed teeth, which are set very closely to- 
 gether. Nothing comes amiss to them as food ; but 
 they have a great love for small mullet or whiting, or 
 a piece of octopus tentacle. 
 
 Baitino- our heavv lines with mullet — two hooks 
 with brass-wire snoods to each line — we throw out 
 about thirty yards, then, lea\'ing two or three fathoms 
 loose upon the shore, we each thrust a stick firmly 
 into the sand, and take a turn of the line round it. 
 As the largest flathead invariably darts upon the bait, 
 and then makes a bolt with it, this plan is a good one 
 to follow, unless, of course, they are biting freely ; in 
 that case the smaller lines for bream and whiting, etc., 
 are hauled in, for there is more real sport in landing a 
 lO-lb. flathead than there is in catching smaller fish, 
 for he is very game, and fights fiercely for his life. 
 
 Having disposed our big lines, we bait the smaller 
 ones with 'pippies,' and not two minutes at the outside 
 elapse after the sinkers have touched bottom when we 
 know we are to have a good time, for each of us has 
 hooked a fish, and three whiting are kicking on the 
 sand before five minutes have expired. Then for 
 another hour we throw out and haul in again as 
 quickly as possible, landing whiting from 6 oz. to 
 nearly 2 lb. v/eight. One of the -'Twins' has five 
 hooks on his line, and occasionallv lands three fish 
 together, and now and again we get small bream and 
 an occasional ' tailer ' of 2 lb. or 3 lb. As the sun 
 mounts higher the breeze dies away, the heat becomes 
 very great, and we have frequent recourse to our 
 water jar — in one case mixing it with whisky. Then 
 the whiting cease to bite as suddenlv as thev have 
 
272 WITH HOOK AND LINE 
 
 begun, and move off into deeper water. Just as we 
 are debatino; as to whether we shall take the boat out 
 into mid-stream, Twin Dick gives a yell, as his stick is 
 suddenly whipped out of the sand, and the loose line 
 lying beside it rushes away into the water. But Dick 
 is an old hand, and lets his fish have his first bolt, and 
 then turns him. ^ By jingo ! sir, he's a big fellow,' he 
 cries, as he hauls in the line, now as taut as a telegraph 
 wire, and then the other twin comes to his aid, and in 
 a few minutes the outline of the fish is seen, coming 
 in straight ahead, as quick as they can pull him. 
 When he is within ten feet of the beach the boys run 
 up the bank and land him safely, as he turns his bodv 
 into a circle in his attempts to shake out the hook. 
 Being called upon to estimate his weight, I give it as 
 1 1 lb., much to the Twins' sorrow — they think it 15 lb. 
 Half an hour passes, and we catch but half a dozen 
 silvery bream and some small baby whiting, for now 
 the sun is beating down upon our heads, and our 
 naked feet begin to burn and sting ; so we adjourn to 
 the old house and rest awhile, leaving our big lines 
 securely tied. But, though the breeze for which we 
 wait comes along by two o'clock, the fish do not, and 
 so, after disinterring our takes from the wet sand, 
 wherein we had buried them as they were caught, to 
 prevent them being spoilt by the sun, we get aboard 
 again and pull across to the opposite bank of the river. 
 Here, in much deeper water, about fifteen feet right 
 under the clayey bank, we can see hundreds of fine 
 bream, and now and then some small Jew-fish. Taking 
 off our sinkers, we have as good and more exciting 
 sport among the bream than we had with the whiting. 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE 273 
 
 catching between four and five dozen by six o'clock. 
 Then, after boiling the billy and eating some fearfully 
 tough corned meat, we get into the boat again, hoist 
 our sail, and land at the little township just after dark. 
 Such was one of many similar days' sport on the 
 Hastings, which, with the Bellinger, the Nambucca, 
 the Macleav and the Clarence Rivers, affords good 
 fishing practically all the year round. Then, besides 
 these tidal rivers, there are at frequent intervals along 
 the coast, tidal lagoons and ' blind ' creeks where fish 
 congregate in really incredible quantities. Such places 
 as Lake Illawarra and Lake Macquarie are fishing 
 resorts well known to the tourist ; but along the 
 northern coast, where the population is scantier and 
 access by rail or steamer more difficult, there is an 
 absolutely new field open to the sportsman — in fact, 
 these places are seldom visited for either fishing or 
 shooting by people from Sydney. During November 
 and December the bars of these rivers are literally 
 black with incredible numbers of coarse sea-salmon — 
 a fish much like the English sea bass — which, making 
 their way over the bars, swim up the rivers and remain 
 there for about a week. Although these fish, which 
 weigh from 8 lb. to 10 lb., do not take a bait, and are 
 rather too coarse to eat, their roes are very good, 
 especially when smoked. They are captured with 
 the greatest of ease, either by spearing or by the hand, 
 for sometimes they are in such dense masses that they 
 are unable to manoeuvre in small bays, and the urchins 
 of coastal towns hail their yearly advent with delight. 
 They usually make their first appearance about 
 November 20th (I presume they resort to the rivers to 
 
27-1- WITH HOOK AND LINE 
 
 spawn), and are always followed by a great number 
 of very large sharks and saw - fish,* which commit 
 dreadful havoc in their serried and helpless ranks. 
 Following the sea-salmon, the rivers are next visited 
 in January by shoals of very large sea-mullet — blue- 
 black backs, silvery bellies and sides, and yellow fins 
 and tails. These, too, will not take a bait, but are 
 caught in nets, and, if a steamer happens to be on the 
 eve of leaving for Sydney, many hundreds of baskets 
 are sent away ; but they barely pay the cost of freight 
 and commission, I believe. There are several varieties 
 of sea-mullet, one or two of which will take the hook 
 freely, and I have often caught them off the rocky 
 coast of New South Wales with a rod when the sea 
 has been smooth. The arrival of the big sea-mullet 
 denotes that the season for Jew-fish is at its height, 
 and if the stranger to Australian waters wants excit- 
 ing sport, let him try Jew-fishing at night. In deep 
 water off the coast these great fish are occasionally 
 caught during daylight, but a dull, cloudy night is 
 best, when they may be caught from the beach or 
 river bank in shallow water. Very stout lines and 
 heavy hooks are used, for a 90-lb. or lOO-lb. Jew-fish 
 is very common. Baiting with a whole mullet or 
 whiting, or one of the arms of an octopus, the most 
 amateurish fisherman cannot fail to hook two or three 
 Jew-fish in anight. (Even in Sydney Harbour I have 
 seen some very large ones caught by people fishing 
 from ferry wharves.) They are very powerful, and 
 also very game, and when they rise to the surface 
 
 Tl 
 
 e 'saw-fish' of the Australian tidal rivers is very distinct from the 
 sh of the deep sea. 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE 275 
 
 make a terrific splashing. At one place on the Hast- 
 ings River, called Blackman's Point, a party of four 
 of us took thirteen fish, the heaviest of which w^as 
 62 lb. and the lightest 9 lb. Next morning, however, 
 the Blackman's Point ferryman, who always set a 
 line from his punt when he turned in, showed us one 
 of over 90 lb. When they grow to such a size as 
 this they are not eaten locally, as the flesh is very 
 often full of thin, thread-like worms. The young 
 fish, however, are very palatable. 
 
 The saw-fish, to which I have before alluded as harry- 
 ing the swarms of sea-salmon, also make havoc with the 
 Jew-fish, and very often are caught on Jew-fish lines. 
 They are terrible customers to get foul of (I do not 
 confound them with the sword-fish) when fishing from 
 a small boat. Their huge broad bill of hard bone, set 
 on both sides with its terrible sharp spikes, their great 
 length and enormous strength, render it impossible to 
 even get them alongside, and there is no help for it 
 but either to cut the line or pull up anchor and land 
 him on the shore. Even then the task of despatching 
 one of these creatures is no child's play on a dark 
 night, for they lash their long tails about with such 
 fury that a broken leg might be the result of coming 
 too close. In the rivers of Northern Queensland the 
 saw-fish attain an enormous size, and the Chinese 
 fishermen about Cooktown and Townsville often have 
 their nets destroyed by a saw-fish enfolding himself in 
 them. Alligators, by the way, do the same thing 
 there, and are sometimes captured, perfectly helpless, 
 in the folds of the nets, in which they have rolled 
 themselves over and over again, tearing it beyond 
 
276 WITH HOOK AND LINE 
 
 repair with their feet, but eventually yielding to their 
 fate. 
 
 The schnapper, the best of all Australian fish, is 
 too well known to here enter into a detailed descrip- 
 tion. Most town-bred Australians generally regard 
 it as a purely ocean-loving fish, or at least only fre- 
 quenting very deep waters in deep harbours, such as 
 Sydney, Jervis Bav and Twofold Bay. This is quite 
 a mistake, for in many of the rivers, twenty or more 
 miles up from the sea, the writer and many other 
 people have not only caught these beautiful fish, but 
 seen fishermen haul in their nets filled with them. 
 But they seldom remain long, preferring the blue 
 depths of ocean to the muddy bottoms of tidal rivers, 
 for they are rock-haunting and surf-loving. 
 
 Of late years the northern bar harbours and rivers 
 of New South Wales have been visited by a fish that 
 in my boyhood's days was unknown even to the oldest 
 fisherman — the bonito. Although in shape and size 
 they exactly resemble the ocean bonito of tropic seas, 
 these new arrivals are lighter in colour, with bands of 
 marbled grey along the sides and belly. They bite 
 freely at a running bait — /.^., when a line is towed 
 astern — and are very good when eaten quite fresh, 
 but, like all of the mackerel tribe, rapidly deteriorate 
 soon after they are caught. The majority of the 
 coast settlers will not eat them, being under the idea 
 that, as they are all but scaleless, they are ' poisonous.' 
 This silly impression also prevails with regard to many 
 other scaleless fish on the Australian coast, some ot 
 which, such as the trevally, are among the best and 
 most delicate in flavour. The black and white rock 
 
WITH HOOK AND LINE 277 
 
 cod is also regarded with aversion by the untutored 
 settlers of the small coast settlements, yet these fish 
 are sold in Sydney, like the schnapper, at prohibitive 
 prices. 
 
 In conclusion, let me advise anyone vi^ho is con- 
 templating a visit to Australia, and means to devote 
 any of his time to either river or lake fishing, to take 
 his rods with him ; all the rest of his tackle he can 
 buy as cheap in the colonies as he can in England. 
 Rods are but little used in salt-water fishing in 
 Australia, and are terribly expensive to buy. Those 
 who do use a rod are usually satisfied with a bamboo 
 — a very good rod it makes, too, although inconvenient 
 to carry when travelling — but the generality of people 
 use hand lines. And the visitor must not be persuaded 
 that he can get really good river fishing without going 
 some distance from Sydney or Melbourne. That there 
 is some excellent sport to be obtained in Port Jackson 
 in summer is true, but it is lacking in a very essential 
 thing— the quietude that is dear to the heart of every 
 true fisherman. 
 
The Wreck of the Leonora : 
 A Memory of ' Bully ' Hayes 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA: A 
 MEMORY OF 'BULLY' HAYES 
 
 The brig Leonora^ owned and commanded by the 
 notorious Captain ' Bullv ' Haves, has, perhaps, been 
 more written and talked about than anv other vessel, 
 except the Boimty^ that ever sailed the South Seas, 
 and her career was as eventful as that of her captain. 
 It was my fortune to fill the distinguished position of 
 supercargo to that eminent gentleman for two vears, 
 and, as may be imagined by those who have read any- 
 thing of Hayes's strange life and doings in the Pacific 
 and the China Seas, I found the berth a remarkablv 
 curious one. How and why I became supercargo to 
 the famous alleged pirate is another story ; but, in 
 justice to ^Bullv's' memory, I may here at once sav 
 that the man was not the remorseless rufSan that his 
 enemies and many writers of tales of the South Seas 
 have painted him ; furthermore, he was one of the 
 best sailor-men that ever trod a deck. Had he lived 
 in the times of Drake or Dampier, he would have 
 been a hero, for he was a man born to command and 
 lead. Inter al'ia^ he was also clever with his fists, and 
 my soul was possessed of the deepest admiration for 
 him in this respect from the very first day I stepped 
 
 on board the Leonora^ in Milli Laijoon, in the Marshall 
 
 281 
 
282 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 Islands, for it was my privilege to see him knock out 
 three men, one after another, in twice as many minutes. 
 These men were ' toughs ' from a New Bedford 
 whaler, and had been put ashore at Milli Lagoon by 
 their captain as dangerous and useless characters. They 
 came on board the Leonora and asked ' Bully ' to ship 
 them. He refused in such unnecessary language that 
 the leader of the three, in fatuous ignorance of the 
 man to whom he was speaking, threatened to ' put a 
 head on him ' ; whereupon Hayes at once had the deck 
 cleared, and, taking them in turn, knocked each man 
 out in the first round. Then he gave them a glass of 
 grog all round, a bottle of arnica to cure the mal- 
 formations he had caused on their countenances, and 
 sent them ashore. 
 
 But this is not the story of the wreck of the 
 Leonora. 
 
 We had made Strong's Island from Ponape, in the 
 Western Carolines, to wood and water and land some 
 cattle, and for two weeks we lay at anchor in the 
 beautiful harbour of Lele. We found the island in a 
 very disturbed and excited state, for a few weeks pre- 
 viously two American sperm whalers had touched at 
 Lele and landed five white men, with a retinue of 
 nearly one hundred savage natives from Pleasant Island, 
 an isolated spot situated in 0.25 S., and these people — 
 white and brown — so terrified the Strong's Islanders 
 that the old King Togusa was in abject fear of them. 
 We (Hayes and myself) soon learnt their story, which 
 was that they had been compelled to flv for their lives 
 from Pleasant Island on account of an engagement 
 between the various clans of that place. The two 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 283 
 
 chiefs under whose protection these men lived had 
 been badly beaten, and the victors gave the five white 
 traders a short notice to clear out or be shot. They 
 at once put to sea in their several whale-boats, but 
 when some three hundred miles away from the island, 
 on their way to Ponape — the North Pacific Cave of 
 Adullam — thev were sighted and picked up by the 
 two whalers, the St George and the Europa^ the cap- 
 tains of which, not caring for their companv all the 
 way to Ponape, landed them at Strong's Island. They 
 were now awaiting a chance to continue their voyage 
 to Ponape in a passing whaler, and in the meantime 
 their savage followers were harrying the unfortunate 
 Strong's Islanders to death, robbing their plantations, 
 abducting their women and knocking them about 
 generally. 
 
 These wild people were the most noisy and intract- 
 able lot of natives I had ever seen, wearing only a 
 girdle of leaves around their waists, and all armed with 
 Snider carbines and short stabbing knives made from 
 cutlasses broken in halves. But, although they bullied 
 the weak and effeminate Strong's Islanders, they were 
 yet very obedient to their white masters, to whom they 
 were all more or less related through the native wives 
 whom the traders had married. The women were 
 very tall and handsome, and every bit as handy with 
 their knives as the men in a quarrel. 
 
 Hayes, of course, was well known to both the white 
 men and natives, and at once began his good offices by 
 threatening to open fire on the houses and boats of the 
 former if they did not at once cease to persecute the 
 king and his subjects. This threat he made in the 
 
284 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 presence and hearing of the king himself, who was 
 deeply grateful, and at once said he would make him 
 a present of two tvms of oil. The five hairy ruffians 
 were considerably startled at first ; but Hayes, I regret 
 to say, turning to one of them, named Pedro Diaz, 
 said in Spanish, ' Don't be scared, Peter. I'm not 
 going back on you fellows ; but at the same time 
 vou'll have to quit knocking these poor devils about. 
 So just go ashore and take away your people's rifles- 
 it means a couple of tuns of oil for me — its just as 
 well in the hold of the Leonora as in that of the mis- 
 sionary brig Morning Star. The missionaries would 
 only promise King Togusa credit in heaven. I'll give 
 him enough grog to keep him drunk for a month of 
 Sundays on earth ; and as he never possibly could get 
 to heaven, I am treating him better than the 
 missionaries, who would simply be obtaining his oil 
 under false pretences.' 
 
 On the following day the king sent off his gift of 
 oil ; the five white men and he became reconciled, 
 and the abducted Strong's Island women were re- 
 turned to their parents or husbands as a guarantee of 
 good faith. In the evening the traders came on board 
 and made an arrangement with Haves to proceed 
 in the brig to Arrecifos (Providence Island), a large 
 atoll to the north-west, of which Hayes had taken 
 possession. Here they were to live as long as they 
 liked, paying Hayes a certain quantity of coco-nut oil 
 as tribute, and resisting, by force of arms, any attempt 
 to take possession of the atoll by the German 
 trading company of Godeffroy, should it be made 
 bv any one of the three armed German brigs be- 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORJ 2S5 
 
 longing to the firm, and then cruising in the North 
 Pacific. 
 
 Two days later we bade farewell to the old king 
 and his pretty young wife, Se, and the Leonora sailed 
 out of Lele. We were first to call at South Harbour, 
 six miles to leeward, where we were to take in yams, 
 pigs and other pro\'isions for the yoyage to Proyidence 
 Island, as we had now o\'er one hundred additional 
 people on board. 
 
 We ran out of Lele at daylight, and at seyen 
 o'clock in the morning dropped our anchor in 
 fourteen fathoms in South Harbour, or Utwe,"^ as the 
 natiyes called it. As quickly as possible the ship's 
 boats, aided by those belonging to the traders, set to 
 work to bring ofi'' the yams and pigs, for which, as 
 they were brought on deck by their natiye owners, 
 I weighed and paid. By dusk we had finished, and 
 I was just dressing to go to supper aboard one of the 
 American whale-ships which were lying near us, when 
 the trade wind, which had been lusty enough all day, 
 suddenly fell — a yery dangerous sign at that season of 
 the H'ear. In a few minutes Hayes sent a boat oyer to 
 the whalers, telling the captains that a blow was coming 
 on from the westward, and adyising them to clear out 
 to sea. But the American captains decided not to risk 
 towing out through the narrow passage ; and as they 
 were in a much better position than the Leonora^ they 
 did wisely, for in less than a quarter of an hour a moun- 
 tainous swell began rolling in, and it soon became 
 eyident that eyen with our own four boats, and the 
 seven belonging to the traders, we could not tow out. 
 
 * The Port Louin of Dupurrcy, 
 
286 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 As quickly as possible Hayes had our royal and 
 top-gallant yards sent down, the boats slung in-board 
 from the davits on the deck, the Pleasant Islanders 
 sent below, and every preparation made to ride out 
 the blow, which we were in hopes would not last 
 more than six hours or so. So far not a breath of 
 wind had come, but the brig was rolling so badly that 
 we quite expected to see her go over on her beam ends 
 and stay there. At sunset the air was so close and 
 oppressive that one could scarcely breathe, and the 
 natives in the hold became half suffocated, and could 
 only be kept down by the white traders and some of 
 our officers threatening to shoot the first man that 
 tried to get on deck. Many of them, however, 
 besought to be allowed to swim ashore and remain 
 till morning, and Hayes told them they could go. 
 Some ten men and six women at once came up ; 
 and, although it was now dark, and the sharks con- 
 sequently much more to be dreaded, sprang overboard, 
 and swam in towards the native village of Utvve. 
 
 For another tv/enty mJnutes or more we remained 
 anxiously awaiting. The sky was as black as pitch, 
 and there was now a tremendously high sea, and the 
 din and thunder of the surf on the reef a couple of 
 cables' length away was most appalling. I had never 
 heard anything like it before, nor have I since ; and the 
 weird sound of the huge seas as they tumbled and 
 roared upon the hollow crust of the reef made my hair 
 stand upon end like priming wires. The tide was 
 low, and perhaps that had something to do with the 
 wild, resounding clamour of the seas upon the long line 
 of rejf J but there was a strange humming note under- 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 287 
 
 lying it all, which was new to many of our ship's 
 company, and seemed to fill even the rest of the 
 Pleasant Islanders who remained on board with a 
 sense of dread, for thev earnestly besought Hayes to 
 let them come on deck, for, they said, ' the belly of 
 the world was about to burst.' 
 
 To this, most fortunately for themselves, Hayes 
 consented, and in a few minutes they swarmed up 
 on deck, each man carrvino- his Snider and cutlass- 
 knife, and the women and children loaded up with 
 their sleeping-mats and other gear. Some of the 
 women crawled under the long boat, which was lying 
 on the port side, and made themselves comfortable ; 
 and the men brought their arms to me to stow in the 
 trade room, for fear of their getting wet, and then 
 returned to their white masters, who were grouped 
 together on deck. 
 
 Then, quite suddenly, the jumping, tumbling sea 
 began to subside, and through the darkness we heard 
 the skipper of one of the American whalers hail us. 
 
 'What are you going to do, Captain Hayes r I 
 guess we're in a pretty tight place. I'd try to tow 
 out if I could see the hole in the wall. We're going 
 to get it mighty hot presently. It's coming on 
 fast.' 
 
 ' That's so,' Hayes replied, with a laugh ; ' but v/e 
 can't stop it. And, say, look here, captain, as you 
 fellows are lying further out than I am, you might 
 each start a cask of oil to run when the seas begin to 
 break. It won't help you much, but it will me.' 
 
 The whale-ship captain laughed, and said that he was 
 afraid that his six hundred barrels of oil would start 
 
288 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 themselves if the sea began to break — meaning that 
 his ship would go ashore. 
 
 The previous heavy rolling of the brig had nearly 
 made a wreck of mv trade room, for everything had 
 been jerked oft" the shelves, and cases of liquor, powder, 
 cartridges, concertinas and women's hats, etc., were 
 lying burst open on the floor ; so, calling a couple of 
 native sailors to help me, I was just going below, 
 when I heard Captain Hayes's sharp tones calling out 
 to our officers to stand by. 
 
 From the north-west there came a peculiar droning, 
 humming sound, mingled with a subdued crashing and 
 roaring of the mountain forest, which lay about a 
 quarter of a mile astern of us — the noise one hears 
 when a mighty bush fire is raging in Australia, and a 
 sudden gust of wind adds to its devastation — and then in 
 another half a minute the brig spun round like a top to 
 the fury of the first blast, and we were enveloped in 
 a blinding shower of leaves, twigs and salty spray. She 
 brought up to her anchors with a jerk that nearly threw 
 everyone off his feet, and then in an incredibly short 
 time the sea again began to rise, and the brig to plunge 
 and take water in over the bows and waist— not heavy 
 seas, but sheets of water nipped off by the force of the 
 wind and falling on the decks in drenching showers. 
 
 Just as I was hurrying below. Haves stopped me. 
 
 ' Don't bother about the trade room. Get all the 
 arms and ammunition you can ready for the boats. 
 I'm afraid that we won't see this through. The 
 blubber-hunters are all right ; but we are not. We 
 have to ride short. I can't give her more than 
 another ten fathoms of cable — tliere are a lot ot coral 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 289 
 
 boulders right aft. If the wind hauls round a couple 
 of points we may clear them, but it isn't going to ; 
 and we'll get smothered in the seas in another ten 
 minutes — if the cables don't part before then.' 
 
 Seldom was a ship sent to destruction in such a 
 short time as the Leonora. I had not been hve minutes 
 in the main cabin before a heavy sea came over the 
 bows with a crash, carried away the for'ard deck- 
 house, which it swept overboard, killed four people, 
 and poured into the cabin. I heard Hayes call out to 
 the mate to give her another ten fathoms of cable, and 
 then, assisted by half a dozen native women and a 
 young Easter Island half-caste girl named Lalia, wife 
 to one of the five white traders, began packing our 
 arms and ammunition into two or three strong trade 
 boxes. In another chest we stowed the ship's chrono- 
 meters, Hayes's instruments, and all the charts upon 
 which we could lay hands, together with about six 
 thousand silver dollars in bags, the ship's books and some 
 silver plate. The women, who were the officers' and 
 traders' wives, were fearfully terrified ; all but Lalia, 
 who was a fine, courageous girl. Taking a cutlass 
 from the rack in the cabin she stood over them ; and, 
 cursing freely in French, English, Spanish and 
 whalers' language, threatened to murder every one of 
 them if they did not hurry. We got the first box of 
 arms safely up the companion, and Hayes saw it 
 lowered into one of the traders' whale-boats, which was 
 standing by under the stern. Then, as a tremendous 
 crashing sea came over the waist, all the women but 
 Lalia bolted and left us alone. Lalia laughed. 
 
 ' That's the long-boat gone, sir ; and all those 
 
290 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 Pleasant Islands women are drown, I hope— the 
 damned savage beasts, I hate them.' 
 
 I learnt afterwards that the crash was caused by 
 the two guns on the starboard side taking a run to 
 port, and carrying away the port ones with them over 
 the side through the bulwarks.* The long-boat was 
 washed overboard by the same sea, but half a dozen 
 of our Rotumah Island sailors had jumped overboard 
 after her, and, using canoe paddles, saved her from being 
 dashed on the reef. She was soon brought alongside, 
 fully manned, and awaiting Hayes's orders. 
 
 The captain now called to me to stand by to take 
 charge of her, when a second fearful sea came over the 
 waist, and fairly buried the ship, and Hung, the Chinese 
 carpenter and myself were only saved from going 
 overboard, by being entangled in the falls of one of 
 the quarter-boats. As for the long-boat, it was swept 
 away out of sight, but succeeded in reaching the shore 
 safely, with the loss of one man. 
 
 By this time the seas were breaking over the brig 
 with terrible force, and when they came over the 
 bows they swept her flush decks like a torrent. 
 Presently she gave such a terrible roll to port that we 
 thought she was going over altogether, and the third 
 mate reported that six four-hundred-gallon water tanks, 
 which were stored in the 'tween decks amidships, had 
 gone adrift to the port side. Then Hayes told the 
 carpenter to cut away the masts. A icw slashes at 
 the rigging, and a couple of snicks at the spars them- 
 selves, sent the sticks over the side quick enough ; the 
 brig stood up again and rode easier. 
 
 * The Leonora carried four guns. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 291 
 
 Meanwhile, the boat of one of the traders named 
 Terry— an old ex-man-of-war's man — had come off, 
 manned by half a dozen of his stalwart half-caste sons, 
 and although it was still pitch dark, and the din of 
 the gale sounded like fifty railway locomotives whistl- 
 ing in unison, and the brig was only revealed to the 
 brave fellows by the white light of the foam-whipped 
 sea, they ran the boat under the counter, and stood 
 by while a number of women and children jumped, or 
 were pitched overboard, to them. These were quickly 
 rescued, and then that boat, too, vanished. 
 
 Again the wind lulled for about five minutes, and 
 Hayes and old Harry Terry urged the rest of the 
 remaining women to jump overboard and make for the 
 shore, as the brig's decks were now awash, and every 
 third or fourth sea swept along her, fore and aft, with 
 irresistible force. One woman — a stout, powerfully- 
 built native of Ocean Island — whose infant child was 
 lashed to her naked back with bands of coir cinnet, 
 rushed up to the captain, and crying, * Kapeni, ka 
 mate a mate ' — ( ' Captain, if I die, I die ' ) — put her arms 
 round his neck, rubbed noses with him, and leaped 
 over the stern rail into the seething surf. She was 
 found the next morning lying dead on a little beach, 
 having bled to death from the v/ounds she had received 
 from the jagged coral rocks, but the baby was alive, for 
 with her dying hands the poor creature had placed it 
 under shelter, and covered it over with grass and leaves, 
 where it was found, sleeping soundly, by a native sailor. 
 
 There was not now the slightest hope of saving the 
 ship, unless the sea went down ; and Hayes, who was 
 as cool as if he were taking his morning coffee, told 
 
292 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 the rest of the crew, who were now all gathered 
 together aft, to get ashore the best way they could. 
 Three of the white traders were still aboard, await- 
 ing the return of their boats, which, manned by their 
 faithful Pleasant Islanders, we now and again could 
 dimly discern, as they appeared on the summit of the 
 heaving seas, waiting for a chance to pull up astern 
 and rescue their masters. 
 
 There were still two chests full of valuables in the 
 main cabin to be got on deck, and Lalia (sweet Lalia), 
 the young woman of whom I have before spoken, 
 although her husband had gone ashore, refused to 
 jump to the boats, and said she would stay and help 
 us to save them. 
 
 ' Go, ashore, Lalia. Go to your husband,' said 
 Hayes, sternly pushing her to the stern rail ; * he is an 
 old man, and cannot come ofF again in his boat for 
 you. Perhaps he is drowned.' 
 
 The girl laughed and said it was all the better — 
 she would get another and a younger husband ; she 
 would stay with the men on board and not swim 
 ashore with the old women. Then she ran below. 
 In a few minutes she reappeared, with a fine powerful 
 Pleasant Island native named Karta, carrying our 
 Chinese steward, who was paralysed with drink and 
 terror. Hayes took the man up in his arms and, see- 
 ing one of the boats close to, threw him overboard 
 without further ado. Then Lalia and I again went 
 below for another of the boxes, and, aided by Karta, 
 we had got it half-way up the companion ladder 
 when the brig rose her stern high to a mountain sea, 
 and then came down with a terriffic crash on to a coral 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 293 
 
 boulder, ripping her rudder from the stern post, and 
 sending it clean through the deck. Lalia fell back- 
 wards into the cabin, and the heavy chest slipped down 
 on the top of her, crushing her left foot cruelly 
 against the companion lining, and jamming her slender 
 body underneath. Karta and myself tried hard to free 
 the poor tortured girl, but without avail, and then some 
 of our Rotumah Island sailors, hearing our cries for help, 
 ran down, and by our united exertions, we got her clear, 
 put her in the steward's bunk — as she had fainted — 
 
 and luo-o-ed the chest on deck. 
 
 00 
 
 One of the traders' whale-boats was lying close to, 
 and the chest was, by the merest chance, dropped into 
 her just as the brig came down again on the coral 
 boulder with a thundering crash and smashed a big 
 hole into her timbers under her starboard counter. In 
 a few minutes she began to fill. 
 
 ' It's all up with her, boys,' cried the philosophical 
 'Bully.' 'Jump for the boats all of you ; but wait 
 for a rising sea, or you'll get smashed up on the coral. 
 Bo'sun, take a look round below, and see that there 
 are no more women there. We must take care of the 
 women, boys.' 
 
 Karta, the brave Pleasant Islander, a Manila man 
 named Sarreo, and myself then went below for Lalia. 
 She' was sitting up in the steward's bunk, stripped to the 
 waist, and only awaiting help to get on deck. Already 
 the main cabin had three feet of water in it, and just 
 as we lifted the girl out, another sea came in over deck 
 and nearly filled it; and with it came the bruised and 
 battered dead body-of a little ;native boy, who, crouch- 
 ing up under the shelter of the companion, had been 
 
294 THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 
 
 killed by the wheel falling upon and crushing him 
 when the rudder was carried away. 
 
 Half-drowned, we managed to struggle on deck, 
 Karta carrying the girl, and the Manila man and I 
 helping each other together. The brig was now quite 
 under water for'ard, but her after part v/as hanging 
 on the coral boulder under it, though every succeed- 
 ing sea rolled her from side to side. Hayes snatched 
 the girl from Karta's arms just as the ship lobbed over 
 to starboard on her bilge, then a thumping sea came 
 thundering down, and swept the lot of us over the 
 stern. 
 
 The poor Manila man was never seen again — bar- 
 ring a small portion of his anatomy ; to wit, his right 
 arm and shoulder, the rest having been assimilated 
 by Jack Shark. Hayes got ashore by himself, and the 
 writer of this narrative, with Karta, the Pleasant 
 Islander, and Lalia, the trader's wife, came ashore on 
 the wreck of a boat that had been carried on top of 
 the after-deck house. 
 
 We were all badly knocked about. Karta had a 
 fearful gash in his leg from a piece of coral. This he 
 had bound up, whilst swimming, with a strip of his 
 grass-cloth girdle. Lalia, in addition to her dreadfully 
 crushed foot, had her right arm badly cut ; and the 
 writer was so generally excoriated and done-up that 
 he would never have reached the shore, but for the 
 gallant Karta and the brave-hearted Lalia, who both 
 held him up when he wanted to let go and drown 
 quietly. 
 
 At dawn the gale had ceased, and whilst we, the 
 survivors of the Leonora^ stood up and stretched our 
 
THE WRECK OF THE LEONORA 295 
 
 aching limbs we saw, as we glanced seaward, the two 
 ' blubber hunters,' who had ridden out the storm 
 safely, heave-up and sail through the passage. I don't 
 think either of the captains was wanting in humane 
 feeling ; but both were, no doubt, very much afraid that 
 as ' Bully ' Hayes had lost his ship, he would not be 
 particular about taking another near to hand. And 
 they were quite correct. Hayes and his third mate, 
 some of the white traders, and twenty or so of our 
 crew were quite willing to seize one of the whalers, 
 and sail to Arrecifos. But the Yankee skippers knew 
 too much of ' Bully,' and left us to ourselves on 
 Strong's Island ; and many a tragedy resulted, for the 
 crew and passengers of the Leonora^ with some few 
 exceptions, were not particular as to their doings, and 
 mutiny, treachery, murder, and sudden death, were the 
 outcome of the wreck of the Leonora, 
 
An Old Colonial Mutiny 
 
AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 
 
 The following notice one day appeared among the 
 oiiicial records of the earlier days ( 1800) of the colony 
 of New South Wales :- — 
 
 * Whereas the persons undermentioned and described 
 did, in the month of November, by force of arms, 
 violently take away from His Majesty's settlement at 
 Dalrymple a colonial brig or vessel called the Venus^ 
 the property of Mr Robert Campbell, a merchant of 
 this territory, and the said vessel then containing 
 stores, the property of His Majesty, and a quantity of 
 necessary stores, the property of the officers of that 
 settlement, and sundry other property, belonging to 
 private individuals.' 
 
 Then follows the description of the crew, from 
 which it will be seen that there was every factor 
 towards some criminal deed on board the Venus. 
 First of all the chief mate is mentioned : — 
 
 ' Benjamin Burnet Kelly, chief mate ; says he is an 
 American. He arrived in this colony as chief mate 
 of the Albion^ a South Sea whaler (Captain Bunker) ; 
 Richard Edwards, second mate ; Joseph Redmonds, 
 seaman, a mulatto or mestizo of South America 
 299 
 
300 AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 
 
 (came out from England in the Venus) ; Darra, 
 cook, a Malay man, both ears missing ; Thomas 
 Ford and William Porter Evans, boys of 14 and 
 16 (Evans is a native of Rose Hill m this colony) ; 
 Richard Thompson, a soldier ; Thomas Richard 
 Evans, a convict, formerly a gunner's mate on H.M.S. 
 Calcutta (sentenced to fourteen years for desertion 
 and striking an officer) ; John Lancaster or Lanca- 
 shire, a convict, a very dangerous person ; Charlotte 
 Badger, convict, a very corpulent person (has an 
 infant in arms) ; Kitty Hegarty, convict, very hand- 
 some w^oman, w^ith w^hite teeth and fresh complexion, 
 much inclined to smile, a great talker.' 
 
 Then comes an official proclamation, signed ' G. 
 Blaxcell, Secretary, Government House, Sydney,' 
 cautioning 'all governors and officers in command 
 at any of His Majesty's ports, and the Honourable 
 East India Company's magistrates or officers in 
 com^mand, at home or abroad, at v^hatever port the 
 said brig may be taken into, or met with at sea, 
 against any frauds or deceptions that may be practised 
 by the offending parties,' and asking that they might 
 be seized and brought to condign punishment. 
 
 The FenuSy under the command of Mr S. Rodman 
 Chace, sailed out of Sydney Cove (as Port Jackson 
 w^as then called) for Twofold Bay at the time before 
 mentioned. Here she remained at anchor for about 
 five weeks, and here it was that the first trouble 
 began. 
 
 Captain Chace had been ashore, and about dusk 
 was returning in his boat to the ship, when he heard 
 
AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 301 
 
 sounds of great hilarity proceeding from those on 
 board. On coming alongside and gaining the deck, 
 he found that the two convict ladies were entertaining 
 Mr Benjamin Burnet Kelly, the mate, with a dancing 
 exhibition, the musical accompaniment to which was 
 given bv Darra, the earless Malayan cook, who was 
 seated on a tub on the main-hatch playing a battered 
 violin. Lying around the deck, in various stages of 
 drunkenness, were the male convicts and some of the 
 crew, and the genial Mr Kelly presided over a bucket 
 of rum, pannikins of which were offered to the ladies 
 at frequent intervals by the two faithful cup-bearers, 
 — Ford and Evans. 
 
 Chace at once put an end to the harmony by 
 seizing the bucket of rum and throwing it overboard, 
 and the drunken people about him being incapable of 
 offering much resistance, he put them in irons and 
 tumbled them below. Kelly, who was a big, trucu- 
 lent-looking man, then produced a bowie knife of 
 alarming dimensions and challenged Chace to combat, 
 but was quickly awed by a pistol being placed at his 
 breast by his superior officer. He then promised to 
 return to his duty, provided — here he began to weep, 
 that — the captain did not harm Kitty Hegarty, for 
 whom he professed an ardent attachment. 
 
 As the Fenus carried despatches for the Governor 
 of Van Diemen's Land, Captain Chace was eager to 
 reach his destination, Port Dalrymple, with all speed, 
 and therefore was in a very anxious state of mind 
 after the disturbance mentioned, particularly as the 
 mate Kelly, and the convicts on board, seemed to 
 have some sort of secret understanding. However, 
 
302 AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 
 
 the Venus arrived there safely, and Captain Chace 
 duly delivered his despatches to Lieutenant House, 
 the Marine officer in charge. Feeling sure that there 
 was now no further danger to be apprehended, he 
 spent the night with an old shipmate, the captain 
 of the schooner Governor Hunter. After breakfast, 
 accompanied by Mr House, he got into his boat and 
 set out for his ship. He had left instructions with 
 the mate to get up anchor at six o'clock and come up 
 the river, and about seven o'clock, as he and Mr House 
 were being pulled towards her in the boat, they saw 
 that she was under weigh, and coming up. 
 
 * There's not much use in us going down, as your 
 ship is coming up, Chace,' said Mr House. ^ Let us 
 go ashore here in this cove and wait for her.' 
 
 The master agreed to this, and the boat turned into 
 a little sandy-beached cove, where they lost sight of 
 the ship, which, with the light breeze then blowing, 
 would not pass abreast of the cove for another hour. 
 
 About an hour passed, and then they heard the 
 sound of oars, and the Venus s boat was seen sweeping 
 round the headland of the cove. The crew seemed 
 thoroughly exhausted, and many of them were cut 
 and bleeding. In a few moments they told their 
 story, which was, that just after the ship got under 
 weigh, Kelly and the convicts sprang upon the second 
 mate, stunned him and pitched him below. Then, 
 before those of the crew who were not in league with 
 the mutineers could offer any resistance, they were 
 set upon by the pilot, Thompson, the soldier, Darra, 
 the earless cook and the two women, all of whom 
 v/cre armed with pistols and swords. 
 
AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 303 
 
 * Into the boat, all of you fellows,' said Kelly, point- 
 ing a pistol at the five seamen ; ' into the boat ; quick ! 
 or you are all dead men ! ' 
 
 The boat was towing astern, and the five seamen, 
 seeing that the Femis was now in the absolute posses- 
 sion of the mutineers, and that Kelly would not 
 hesitate to shoot them if they disobeyed him, went 
 into the boat quietly. 
 
 As soon as the mutineers cast off the boat's painter, 
 Kelly came aft with Kitty Hegarty, and placing his 
 arms around her waist, jocularly called out to the 
 men in the boat to * look at the pirate's bride, and 
 give his compliments and "Mrs Kelly's" compliments 
 to Captain Chace, Lieutenant House, and the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor.' He also charged them to tell 
 Lieutenant House that he was much obliged to him 
 for lending Chace (on a former occasion) the 
 Narrative of Lieutenant Bligh and the Mutiny of 
 the Bounty^ which had so much interested him 
 (Kelly) and 'Kitty' that they had * decided to do 
 Fletcher Christian's trick, and take a cruise among 
 the South Seas.' He then, with much accompanying 
 laughter from merry Miss Hegarty, put a wooden 
 bucket on her head, and called out to the people in 
 the boat to look at ' Her Majesty, Queen Kitty 
 Hegarty of the Cannibal Islands.' Immediately after 
 this badinage he ordered Thompson, who was at the 
 helm, to put it hard up ; and then wore ship and 
 sailed out seawards. 
 
 News of the mutiny was at once sent to Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Paterson. But the mutineers were 
 
304- AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 
 
 not heard of for a long time. Then it was learnt 
 that Kelly had sailed the Venus to the coast of New- 
 Zealand and, by means of selling a number of casks 
 of rum to the Maoris, had acquired a quantity of 
 small arms, and two brass cannons, each throwing a 
 6-lb. shot. At one of the places they touched at, 
 Thompson, with the aid of Kelly, abducted a hand- 
 some young Maori girl. She was a niece of Te 
 Morenga, a chief in the Bay of Islands district. The 
 unfortunate girl, however, so fretted, and lost so much 
 of her attractiveness, that her scoundrelly abductor 
 sold her to a chief named Hukori, of Mercury Bay, 
 or, if he did not sell her, she eventually came into 
 Hukori's possession. On their voyage up the Hauraki 
 Gulf, they raided one or two small Maori hapus and 
 carried off another girl, the* daughter of the chief 
 Te Haupa, or, as he was better known, Te Totara. 
 
 Early in the following year Captain Bierney, of 
 the London brig Commerce^ reported to the Governor 
 of New South Wales that the Venus had anchored at 
 Te Puna, in New Zealand, and that Kelly had invited 
 a number of Maoris on board to an orgie. For some 
 time a great state of drunkenness had prevailed on 
 board ; for the Venus^ among other stores, carried a 
 large quantity of wines and spirits, intended for the 
 use of the military at Van Diemen's Land. Her sails 
 and running gear were in a very bad state, and not 
 the slightest discipline was maintained. 
 
 In answer to the mutineers' invitation, a number of 
 Maoris came on board, and Kelly, addressing the 
 leading chiefs, told them that he was perfectly well 
 
AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 305 
 
 aware of the fact that he and those with him were 
 incapable of offering resistance if his visitors attempted 
 to cut off the ship. But, he said, he had determined 
 to abandon the ship, and therefore he had invited 
 them on board so that they might take what they 
 wanted from her ; and if they had no objection, he 
 and his wife wished to live ashore with them for the 
 future. He then broached a cask of rum and invited 
 them to drink it. 
 
 The Maoris appeared to have fallen in with his 
 suggestion with alacrity, and the chief gave the 
 leading mutineer and his wife a large whare to live 
 in, and also two slaves as servants. 
 
 The rest of the tale is incomplete in its details. 
 Of the fate of the Fenus nothing is known. Prob- 
 ably she was burnt by the Maoris. Kelly, Kitty 
 Hegarty, Charlotte Badger and her child, Thompson, 
 and two others, lived among the natives for some 
 time. Then the woman Kitty Hegarty died suddenly 
 while Kelly was away on a warlike excursion with 
 his Maori friends, and was hastily buried. It was 
 alleged that she was killed by some women, one of 
 whom was anxious to possess Kelly for her husband. 
 Kelly himself was captured by a king's ship in 1808, 
 and sent to England, where he was hanged for piracy. 
 Lancaster was also captured by the master of an 
 American whale-ship. The Brothers of Nantucket, 
 and taken to Sydney and hanged. The rest of the 
 mutineers either met with violent deaths at the hands 
 of the Maoris, or succeeded in living their lives out as 
 pakeha-Maoris. 
 
 Of the other woman — Charlotte Badger — and her 
 u 
 
3o6 AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 
 
 child nothing further was known, save that in 1808 she 
 and the child were offered a passage to Port Jackson by 
 Captain Bunker ; but she declined, saying she would 
 rather live with the Maoris than return to New South 
 Wales to be hanged. This was not unnatural. 
 
 But, long afterwards, in the year 1826, an American 
 whale-ship, the Lafayette of Salem, reported an in- 
 cident of her cruise that showed some light on the 
 end of Charlotte Badger. 
 
 In May 1826, the Lafayette was off 'an unknown 
 
 island in the South Seas. It was covered with trees, 
 
 was about three miles long, and was inhabited by a 
 
 small number of natives. The position of this island 
 
 was in 22 deg. 30 min. south, 176 deg. 19. min. west.' 
 
 The weather being calm at the time and the natives, 
 
 by the signs and gestures they made to the ship, 
 
 evidently friendly, the captain and second mate's boats 
 
 were lowered, and, with well - armed crews, pulled 
 
 ashore. Only some forty or fifty natives of a light 
 
 brown colour were on the island, and these, meeting 
 
 the white men as they landed, conducted them to 
 
 their houses with every demonstration of friendliness. 
 
 Among the number was a native of Oahu (Hawaii), 
 
 named Hula, who had formed one of the crew of the 
 
 London privateer Port-au-prince^ a vessel that had been 
 
 cut off by the natives of the Haabai Group, in the 
 
 Friendly Islands, twenty years previously. He spoke 
 
 English well, and informed Captain Earthing of the 
 
 Lafayette that the island formed one of the Tonga 
 
 Group (it is now known as Pylstaart Island), and that 
 
 his was the second ship that had ever visited the place. 
 
 Another ship, he said, had called at the island about 
 
, AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY 307 
 
 ten years before (this would be about 18 16) ; that he 
 had gone off on board, and had seen a very big, stout 
 woman, with a little girl about eight years of age with 
 her. At first he thought, from her dark skin, that she 
 was a native, but the crew of the ship (which was a 
 Nantucket whaler) told him that she was an English- 
 woman, who had escaped from captivity with the 
 Maoris. 
 
 No doubt this was the woman Badger, described in 
 the official account of the mutiny of the Fenus as ' a 
 very corpulent person.' 
 
A Boating Adventure in the 
 Carolines 
 
A BOATING ADVENTURE IN THE 
 CAROLINES 
 
 In the year 1874 we were cruising leisurely through 
 the Western Carolines, in the North Pacific, trading 
 at such islands as we touched at, and making for the 
 Pelew Group, still farther to the westward. But at 
 that season of the year the winds were very light, a 
 strong ocean current set continuously to the eastward, 
 and there was every indication of a solid calm setting in, 
 and lasting, as they do in these latitudes, for a week. 
 Now, part of our cargo consisted of dried sharks' fins, 
 and the smell from these was so strong that every one 
 of the three white men on board was suffering from 
 severe headache. We had a number of native pas- 
 sengers, and, as they lived in the hold, we could not 
 close the hatches ; they, however, did not mind the 
 nauseating odour in the least. So, for three or four 
 days, we crawled along, raising the wooded peaks of 
 Ascension Island (Ponape) one afternoon, and drifting 
 back to the east so much in the night as to lose them 
 at sunrise. Then followed another day of a sky of 
 brass above and a steaming wide expanse of oily sea 
 below, and then, at nightfall, a sweet, cooling breeze 
 from the north-east, and general happiness, accentuated 
 by a native woman playing a dissolute-looking 
 accordion, and singing ' Voici le Sabre,' in Tahitian 
 
 3" 
 
312 A BOATING ADVENTURE 
 
 French. No one cared to sleep that night. Dawn 
 came almost ere we knew it, and again the blue peaks 
 of Ascension loomed up right ahead. 
 
 Just as we had finished coffee, and our attention was 
 drawn to a number of boobies and whale-birds resting 
 upon some floating substance half a mile distant, we 
 discovered a couple of sail ahead, and then another, and 
 another, all whalers, and, as they were under easy- 
 cruising canvas — being on the sperm whaling ground 
 — we soon began to overhaul them. One was a 
 small, full-rigged ship, the others were barques. As 
 we slipped along after them I ran our little vessel 
 close to the floating object I have before mentioned, 
 and saw it was a ship's lower mast, which looked, from 
 the scarcity of marine growth upon it, to have been in 
 the water but a short time. Shortly after, we passed 
 some more wreckage, all of which evidently had be- 
 longed to a good lump of the vessel. 
 
 About eleven o'clock we were close to one of the 
 barq'ues — a four-boat ship, and also carrying a nine-foot 
 dinghy at her stern. She hoisted the Hawaiian colours 
 in response to ours, and, as the breeze was very light, 
 I hailed her skipper and we began to talk. Our 
 skipper wanted some pump-leather ; he wanted some 
 white sugar. 
 
 ' Come aboard,' he said, ' and have dinner with me. 
 I'll give you a barrel of 'Frisco potatoes to take back.' 
 
 We lowered our whale-boat, and, taking two hands, 
 I pulled alongside the barque. Although under the 
 Hawaiian flag, her officers were nearly all Americans, 
 and, as is always the case in the South Seas, we were 
 soon on friendly terms. The four ships were all 
 
A BOATING ADVENTURE 313 
 
 making for Jakoits Harbour, in Ponape, to wood and 
 water ; and I said we would keep company with them. 
 Our own skipper, I must mention, was just recovering 
 from wild, weird visions of impossible, imaginary 
 animals, superinduced by Hollands gin, and I wanted 
 to put him ashore at Ponape for a week or so. 
 
 After dinner the American captain put a barrel of 
 potatoes into our boat, and I bade him good-bye for 
 the time. The breeze was now freshening, and, as he 
 decided to get into Jakoits before dark, the barque made 
 sail, and was soon a good distance ahead of our vessel. 
 Between four and five o'clock we saw the foremost 
 whaler — the ship — brace up sharp, and almost immedi- 
 ately the other three followed suit. We soon dis- 
 covered the cause — whales had been sighted, coming 
 down from windward. The ' pod ' or school was 
 nearest to us, and we could see them quite plainly 
 from the deck. Every now and then one of them 
 would ' breach ' and send up a white mass of foam, and 
 by their course I saw that they would pass between us 
 and the barque — the ship nearest to us. In less than 
 five minutes there were more than a dozen boats 
 lowered from the four vessels, all pulling their hardest 
 to reach the whales first. The creatures came along 
 very leisurely, then, when about a mile from the 
 schooner, hove-to for a short time ; their keen hearing 
 told them of danger ahead, for three or four of them 
 sounded, and then made ofF to windward. These were 
 followed by all the boats from the other three vessels, 
 and two from the barque, the remaining two belonging 
 to the latter pulling across our bows, close together, 
 and within a hundred yards of us. 
 
314 A BOATING ADVENTURE 
 
 The rest of the whales — some cows, with their calves, 
 and a bull — after lying quiet for a short time, also 
 sounded, but soon rose again, quite close to the two 
 boats. That of the chief mate got ' fast ' first to one 
 of the cows, and away they flew at twelve or thirteen 
 knots. The second boat was making for the bull, 
 which seemed very uneasy, and was swimming at a 
 great speed round and round the remaining cows and 
 calves, with his head high out of the water as if to guard 
 them from danger, when the monstrous creature again 
 sounded and the boat-header instantly turned his 
 attention to a cow, which lay perfectly motionless on 
 the water, apparently too terrified to move. 
 
 Haifa dozen strokes sent the boat to within striking 
 distance and the boat-header called to his boat-steerer 
 to 'Stand up.' The boat-steerer, who pulls bow oar 
 before a whale is struck, and goes aft after striking, is 
 also the harpooner, and at the order to stand up, takes 
 in his oar and seizes his harpoon. After he has darted 
 the iron, and the boat is backed astern, he comes aft to 
 steer, and the officer takes his place for'ard, ready to 
 lance the whale at the fitting time. There is no reason 
 or sense in this procedure, it is merely whaling custom. 
 
 Just as the boat-steerer stood up, iron in hand, the 
 bull rose right under the boat's stern, lifted her clean 
 out of the water with his head, and then, as he swept 
 onward, gave her an underclip with his mighty flukes, 
 smashing her in like an egg-shell and sending men, 
 oars, tub and lines, and broken timbers, broadcast into 
 the air. Then, with the lady by his side, he raced 
 away. 
 
 Most fortunately, our own boat was still towing 
 
A BOATING ADVENTURE 315 
 
 astern, for as we were so near the land we had not 
 bothered about hoisting her up again, knowing that 
 we should want her to tow us into Jakoits if the wind 
 fell light when going through the passage. 
 
 The mate, two Penrhyn Island natives and myself 
 were but a few moments in hauling her alongside, 
 jumping in, and pulling to the assistance of the whale- 
 boat's crew, some of whom we could see clinging to 
 the wreckage. The officer in charge was a little wiry 
 Western Island Portuguese, and as we came up he 
 called out to us that one of the men was killed and 
 had sunk, and another, whom he was supporting, had 
 his leg broken and was unconscious. We lifted them 
 into the boat as quickly as possible, laid the injured 
 man on his back and started for the schooner. We 
 had scarcely pulled a dozen strokes when, to our 
 profound astonishment, we saw her suddenly keep 
 away from us. 
 
 'The captain's come on deck again,' cried one or 
 our native hands to me. 
 
 Sure enough, the skipper was on deck, and at the 
 wheel, and took not the slightest heed of our repeated 
 hails, except that he merely turned his head, gave us 
 a brief glance, eased off the main-sheet a bit, and let 
 the schooner spin away towards the land. We learnt 
 next evening that he had suddenly emerged on deck 
 from his bunk, given the helmsman a cuff on the 
 head, and driven him, the steward and the other 
 remaining hand up for'ard. They and the native 
 passengers, who knew something of his performances 
 when in liquor, were too frightened to do anything, 
 and let him have his own way. 
 
3i6 A BOATING ADVENTURE 
 
 We pulled after the schooner as hard as we could 
 for a quarter of an hour, then gave it up and steered 
 for the barque, which was now a couple of miles 
 away. She had been working to windward after the 
 chief mate's and fourth mate's boats — both of which 
 had quickly killed their respective whales — when the 
 disaster to the second officer's boat was seen, and she 
 was now coming towards us. The fourth boat was 
 miles distant, chasing the main body of the ' pod,' in 
 company with those of the other barques and the 
 ship. 
 
 By this time it was all but dark ; a short, choppy 
 sea had risen, the wind came in sharp, angry pufFs 
 every now and then, and we made scarcely any head- 
 way against it. The barque seemed to be almost 
 standing still, though she was really coming along 
 at a ripping pace. Presently she showed a light, and 
 we felt relieved. Just then the man with the broken 
 leg called to his officer, and asked for a smoke, and I 
 was filling my pipe for him when the boat struck 
 something hard with a crash, shipped a sea aft, and at 
 once capsized, several of us being taken underneath 
 her. 
 
 The Portuguese, who was a gallant little fellow, 
 had, with one of the Penrhyn Islanders, got the 
 wounded man clear, and presently we all found our- 
 selves clinging to the boat, which was floating 
 bottom-up and badly bilged. Fortunately, none of 
 us were hurt, but our position was a dangerous one, 
 and we kept hailing repeatedly, fearing that the 
 barque would run by us in the darkness, and that 
 the blue sharks would discover us. Then, to our joy. 
 
A BOATING ADVENTURE 317 
 
 we saw her close to, bearing right down upon us, 
 and now came the added terror that she would run 
 us down, unless those on board could be made to 
 hear our cries and realise our situation. 
 
 Again we raised our voices, and shouted till our 
 lungs were exhausted, but no answer came, the only 
 sounds we heard being the thrapping and swash of 
 the waves a2;ainst our boat. Five minutes — which 
 seemed hours — passed, and then we suddenly lost 
 sight of the barque's headlight, and saw the dull gleam 
 of those aft shining through the cabin ports. 
 
 ^ Thank God ! ' said the whaler officer, ' he's bring- 
 ing to.' 
 
 Scarcely had he spoken when we heard a hail 
 distinctly. 
 
 ' Boat ahoy, there, where are you ? ' 
 
 * In the water. We're capsized,' I answered. 
 
 No response came ; then again they hailed, and 
 again we shouted unitedly, but no reply, and presently 
 we saw a blue light was being burnt on the starboard 
 side — they were looking for us in the wrong quarter. 
 For some minutes our suspense was horrible, for, 
 if the captain thought he had overshot our boat 
 (knowing nothing of the second disaster), he would, 
 we feared, go off on the other tack. Again they 
 hailed, and again we answered, though we were now 
 feeling pretty well done up, and the Portuguese was 
 alternately praying to the saints and consigning his 
 captain to hell. 
 
 * Hurrah ! ' cried Tom, one of my Penrhyn Island 
 boys, 'she's filling away again, and coming down j 
 they've heard us, safe enough.' 
 
3i8 A BOATING ADVENTURE 
 
 It so happened that they had not heard us at all ; 
 but the captain, at the earnest request of the ship's 
 cooper, who believed that we had been swamped, and 
 were to leeward, decided to keep away for a short 
 time, and then again bring-to. Not only was he 
 anxious for us, but for the other boats, and the dead 
 whales as well ; for he feared that, unless he could 
 get the latter alongside by daylight, and start to cut- 
 in, the sharks would devour the best part of them. 
 
 A few more minutes passed, and now we saw the 
 barque looming through the night, and apparently 
 again coming right on top of us. We shouted and 
 screamed till our voices broke into hoarse groans ; 
 and then there happened a strange thing. That 
 which had caused our misfortune proved our salvation. 
 We heard a crashing sound, followed by loud cries 
 of alarm, and then saw the ship lying flat aback, 
 canting heavily over to port. Presently she righted, 
 and then made a stern-board, and came so close to 
 us that one of the hands not only heard our cries but 
 saw us in the water. 
 
 In an instant the captain called to us to cheer up, 
 and said a boat was coming. 'The ship struck 
 some wreckage, and is making water,' he added. 
 
 We were taken aboard in two trips, the poor, 
 broken-legged sailor suffering terribly. He had been 
 kept from drowning by one of the Penrhyn men, 
 who stuck to him like a brick through all the time 
 we were in the water. Neither of these brave 
 islanders had lost heart for a moment, though Harry, 
 the elder of the two, was in consumption and not at 
 all strong. 
 
A BOATING ADVENTURE 319 
 
 As soon as we had sufficiently recovered to be able 
 to talk and tell our story, we were pleased to hear 
 from the captain that the ship was not badly injured, 
 and that the pumps — short-handed as he then was — 
 could easily keep the water down ; also that all the 
 other boats were safe, and had signalled that they had 
 each ' killed,' and were lying by their whales. 
 
 Early in the morning the four ships were within a 
 few miles of each other, and each had one or more 
 whales alongside, cutting-in. The schooner, too, was 
 in sight, lying becalmed under the lee of Ponape. 
 The captain of the whaler lent me one of his boats, paid 
 me a fair price for the loss of our own, and otherwise 
 treated us handsomely. He was highly pleased at 
 having such * greasy luck,' /.^., getting three fish, 
 and, besides presenting me with another barrel of 
 potatoes, gave me four bolts of canvas, and each of our 
 natives came away with a small case of tobacco, and 
 five dollars in silver. 
 
 We had a long pull to the schooner, and our 
 arrival was hailed with cries of delight. The skipper, 
 we were pleased to learn, was nearly dead, having been 
 severely beaten by the women passengers on board, 
 one of whom, creeping up behind him as he was 
 steering, threw a piece of tappa cloth over his head, 
 while the others bore him to the deck and tied him up 
 and hammered him. He told me a few days after- 
 wards that he had not the slightest recollection of 
 leaving us in the boat. 
 
 The wreckage upon which the whale-ship struck 
 was, so her captain imagined, the same which had 
 capsized our boat. As far as he could make out in 
 
320 A BOATING ADVENTURE 
 
 the darkness, it was a long and wide piece of decking, 
 belonging to a large ship. Our boat, very probably, 
 had gone half her length on top of the edge of it, 
 and was then washed off again after she had bilged ; 
 and the strong current had set us clear. 
 
A Christmas Eve in the Far South 
 Seas 
 
A CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE FAR 
 SOUTH SEAS 
 
 Donald MacBride and myself were the only 
 Britishers living on one of the North Pacific island 
 lagoons when Christmas of 1880 drew near, and 
 we determined to celebrate it in a manner that 
 would fill our German and American trading 
 rivals throughout the group with envy. MacBride 
 was a bony, red-headed Scotchman, with a large 
 heart and a small, jealous, half-caste wife. The 
 latter acquisition ruled him with a rod of iron, much 
 to his financial and moral benefit, but nevertheless 
 agreed with me that we — Donald, she and myself — 
 ought to show the Americans and the / Dutchmen ' 
 how an English Christmas should be celebrated. But 
 as Sera was a half-caste native of the Pelews, and had 
 never been to a civilised country, she also concurred 
 with me that Donald and myself should run the show, 
 which, although I was not a married man, was to 
 take place in my house on account of the greater 
 space available. Donald, she said, wanted to have a 
 ' hakkise ' ; so we bought a nanny-goat from Ludwig 
 Wolfen, the German trader at Molok, and one 
 evening — the 23rd of December — I helped Sera to 
 drive and drag the unsuspecting creature home to her 
 husband's place to the slaughter. (I may as well say 
 at once that MacBride's nanny-goat haggis was a 
 
 323 
 
324 A CHRISTMAS EVE 
 
 hideous failure, and my boat's crew, to whom it was 
 handed over, with many strong expressions about 
 MacBride's beastly provincial taste, said that it smelt 
 good, like shark's liver, but was not at all so juicy.) 
 
 Meanwhile, Wolfen, a fat, good-hearted Teuton, 
 with a face like a full moon in a fog, called upon me, 
 and remarked in a squashy tone of voice, superinduced 
 by too many years of lager beer, and its resultant 
 adipose tissue, that he and Peter Huysmans, his 
 neighbour, would feel very much hurt if we did not 
 invite them to participate in the festivities. I said 
 that ' Blazy-head ' (for so we called dear old MacBride) 
 and myself would be delighted ; whereupon Wolfen, 
 who had once, when he was a sailor on an English 
 ship, spent a Christmas in a public-house somewhere in 
 the vicinity of the East India Docks, said that the 
 correct thino- for us to do would be to have a Christ- 
 mas cake ; also, he suggested we should invite Tom 
 Devine and Charley de Buis, the two American 
 traders who lived across the lagoon, to join the party. 
 Being aware of the fact that, from trade jealousies, 
 there had hitherto been a somewhat notorious bitter- 
 ness of feeling between my German fellow-trader and 
 the two Americans, I shook his hand warmly, said 
 that I was delighted to see that he could forgive and 
 forget, and that I should that moment send my boat 
 across the lagoon to Devine and Charley de Buis with 
 a written invitation, and ask them to favour us with 
 their company ; also, that as Mrs Charley — who was 
 a Samoan half-caste girl — was skilled in baking 
 bread, perhaps she would lend Mesdames MacBride, 
 Wolfen and Huysmans her assistance in making a 
 
A CHRISTMAS EVE 325 
 
 Christmas cake, the size of which should cause the 
 native population to sit up and respect us as men or 
 more than ordinary intelligence and patriotism. 
 
 On the evening of the 24th, three whale-boats, 
 attended by a flotilla of small native canoes, sailed 
 into the little sandy-beached nook upon the shores ot 
 which the trading station was situated. The three 
 boats were steered by the Messrs Peter Huysmans, 
 Charles de Buis and Thomas Devine, who were 
 accompanied by their wives, children and numerous 
 female relatives, all of the latter being clad in their 
 holiday attire of new mats, and with their hair ex- 
 cessively anointed with scented coco-nut oil, scarlet 
 hibiscus flowers behind their ears, and necklaces of 
 sweet-smelling pieces of pandanus drupes. 
 
 MacBride, Mrs MacBride and I received them the 
 moment they stepped out of the boats, and then Ludwig 
 Wolfen, who was disposed in the background with an 
 accordion, and seated on a gin case, played ' The Star 
 Spangled Banner,' to the accompaniment of several 
 native drums, beaten by his wife and her sister and 
 brothers. Then my boatman — a stalwart Maori half- 
 caste — advanced from out the thronging crowd of 
 natives which surrounded us, and planted in the sand 
 a British red ensign attached to a tall bamboo pole, 
 and called for three cheers for the Queen of England, 
 and three for the President of the United States. 
 This at once gave offence to Ludwig Wolfen, who 
 asked what was the matter with the Emperor of 
 Germany ; whereupon Bill Grey (the Maori) took off 
 his coat and asked him what he meant, and a fierce 
 encounter was only avoided by half a dozen strapping 
 
326 A CHRISTMAS EVE 
 
 natives seizing Billy and making him sit down on the 
 sand, while the wrathful Ludwig was hustled by 
 Donald MacBride and Mrs Ludwig and threatened 
 with a hammering if he insulted the gathering by his 
 ill-timed and injudicious remarks about a foreign 
 potentate. (Ludwig, I regret to say, had begun his 
 Christmas on the previous evening.) 
 
 But we were all too merry, and too filled vi^ith 
 right good down comradeship to let such a trifle as this 
 disturb the harmony of our first Christmas fore- 
 gathering ; and presently Bill Grey, his dark, handsome 
 face wreathed in a sunny smile, came up to the sulky 
 and rightly-indignant trader with outstretched hand, 
 and said he was sorry. And Wolfen, good-hearted 
 German that he was, grasped it warmly, and said he 
 was sorry too ; and then we all trooped up to the 
 house and sat down, only to rise up again with our 
 glasses clinking together as we drank to our wives and 
 ourselves and the coming Christmas, and to the brown 
 smiling faces of the people around us, who wondered 
 why we grew merry so suddenly ; for sometimes, as 
 they knew, we had all quarrelled with one another, 
 and bitter words had passed ; for so it ever is, and ever 
 shall be, even in the far South Seas, when questions of 
 ' trade ' and ' money ' come between good fellowship 
 and old-time camaraderie. And then sweet, dark- 
 eyed Sera, MacBride's young wife, took up her 
 guitar and sang us love songs in the old Lusitanian 
 tongue of her father ; and Tom Dcvine, the ex- 
 boat-steerer, and Charley de Buis, the reckless ; and 
 Peter Huysmans, the red-faced, white-haired old 
 Dutchman, all joined hands and danced around tlic 
 
A CHRISTMAS EVE 327 
 
 rough table ; while Billy Grey and Ludwig Wolfen 
 stood on the top of it and sang, or tried to sing, 
 ' Home Sweet Home ' ; and the writer of this memory 
 of those old Pacific days sat in a chair in the doorway 
 and wondered where we should all be thei next year. 
 For, as we sang and danced, and the twang, twang of 
 Sera's guitar sounded through the silent night without, 
 Tom Devine, the American, held up his hand to 
 MacBride, and silence fell. 
 
 ' Boys,' he said, ' let us drink to the memory of the 
 far-off faces of those dear ones whom we never may see 
 again ! ' 
 
 He paused a moment, and then caught sight of Sera 
 as she bent over her guitar with downcast eyes ; 'And to 
 those who are with us now — our wives and our children, 
 and our friends ! Drink, my boys ; and the first man 
 who, either to-night or to-morrow, talks about business 
 and dirty, filthy dollars, shall get fired out right away 
 before he knows where he is ; for this is Christmas 
 time — and. Sera MacBride, why the devil don't you 
 play something and keep me from making a fool of 
 myself r ' 
 
 So Sera, with a twist of her lithe body and a 
 merry gleam in her full, big eyes, sang another 
 song ; and then long, bony MacBride came over to 
 her and kissed her on her fair, smooth forehead, 
 whispered something that we did not hear, and 
 pointed to Charley de Buis, who stood, glass in hand, 
 at the furthest corner of the big room, his thin, sun- 
 tanned face as grave and sober as that of an English 
 judge. 
 
 ' Gentlemen ' — (then sotto voce to the chairman in the 
 
328 A CHRISTMAS EVE 
 
 doorway, * Just fancy us South Sea loafers calling our- 
 selves gentlemen ! ') — * gentlemen, we are here to spend 
 a good time, and I move that we quit speech-making 
 and start the women on that cake. Tom Devine and 
 myself are, as you know, members of two of the First 
 Families in America, and only came to the South Seas 
 to wear out our old clothes — ' 
 
 * Shut up,' said Devine ; ' we don't want to hear 
 anything about the First American families ; this is 
 an English Christmas, with full-blooded South Sea 
 trimmings. OfF you go, you women, and start on 
 the cake.' 
 
 So Charley de Buis ' shut up,' and then the women, 
 headed by Sera and Mary Devine, trooped off to the 
 cook-house to beat up eggs for the cake, and left us to 
 ourselves. When it drew near midnight they re- 
 turned, and Peter Huysmans arose, and, twisting his 
 grizzled moustaches, said, — 
 
 ' Mine boys, will you led me dell you dot now is 
 coming der morn ven Jesus Christ vos born ? And 
 vill you blease, Mary Devine, dell dose natives outside 
 to stop those damdt drums vile I speaks ? Und come 
 here you, MacBride, mit your red het, und you, 
 Ludwig Wolfen, and you Tom Devine, und you 
 Charley de Buis, you wicked damdt devil, und you, 
 Tom Denison, you saucyAustralian boy, mit your curlt 
 moustache and your svell vite tuck suit ; und led us 
 join our hands together, and agree to have no more 
 quarrellings und no more angry vorts. For vy should 
 ve quarrel, as our good friendt says, over dirty dollars, 
 ven dere is room enough for us all on dis lagoon to 
 get a decent livings ? Und den ve should try und re- 
 
A CHRISTMAS EVE 329 
 
 member dot ve, none of us, is going to live for ever, 
 and ven ve is dead, ve is dead a damdt long time. 
 But now, mine friend ts, I vill say no more, vor I am 
 dry ; so here's to all our good healths, and let us 
 bromise one another not to haf no more angry vorts.' 
 
 And so we all gathered around the big table, and, 
 grasping each other's hands, raised our glasses and 
 drank together without speaking, for there was some- 
 thing — we knew not what — that lay behind Dutch 
 Peter's little speech which made us think. Presently, 
 when a big and gaudy German-made cuckoo clock in 
 the room struck twelve, even reckless Charley de Buis 
 forgot his old joke about Tom Denison's * damned old 
 squawking British duck,' as he called the little painted 
 bird, and we all went outside, and sat smoking our 
 pipes on the wide verandah, and watching the flashing 
 torchlights of the fishing canoes as they paddled slowly 
 to and fro over the smooth waters of the sleeping 
 lagoon. Then, almost ere we knew it, the quick red 
 sun had turned the long, black line of palms on 
 Karolyne to purple, and then to shining green, and 
 Christmas Day had come. 
 
 To-night, as a chill December wind wails through 
 the leafless elms and chestnuts of this quiet Kentish 
 village, I think of that far-away Christmas eve, and the 
 rough, honest, sun-browned faces of the men who were 
 around me, and pressed my hand when Peter Huysmans 
 spoke of home and Christmas, and Tom Devine of ' the 
 dear faces whom we never might see again.' For 
 only one, with the writer, is left. MacBride and his 
 o;entle, sweet-voiced Sera went to their death a year 
 
 Y 
 
330 A CHRISTMAS EVE 
 
 or two later in the savage and murderous Solomons ; 
 Wolfen and his wife and children perished at sea when 
 the Sadie Foster schooner turned turtle off the 
 Marshalls ; and Devine and Charley de Buis, 
 comrades to the last, sailed away to the Moluccas in 
 a ten-ton boat and were never heard of again — their 
 fate is one of the many mysteries of the deep. Peter 
 Huysmans is alive and well, and only a year ago I 
 grasped his now trembling hand in mighty London, 
 and spoke of our meeting on Milli Lagoon. 
 
 And then again, in a garish and tinselled City bar, 
 we raised our glasses and drank to the memory of 
 those who had gone before. 
 
 THE END 
 
 Colston &^ Coy. Limited, Frintas, Edinburi^h. 
 
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