The Call Of The South Part 21

We did "bustle". In twenty-four hours we were clear of Levuka reef and spinning along to the W.N. W. before the strong south-east trade, for our run of 1,600 miles. 'Day and night the little schooner raced over the seas at a great rate, and we made the pa.s.sage in seven days, dropping anchor off the largest village in the island--Guasap.

In ten minutes our decks were literally packed with excited natives, all armed, but friendly. Had they chosen to kill us and seize the schooner, it would have been an easy task, for we numbered only eight persons--captain, mate, bos'un, four native seamen, and myself.

We learned from the natives that two months previously there had been a terrible hurricane which lasted for three days and devastated two-thirds of the islands. Thousands of coco-nut trees had been blown down, and the sea had swept away many villages on the coast. So violent was the surf that the wreck of the sunken ship on Elaue Island had been cast up in fragments on the reef, and the natives had secured a quant.i.ty of iron work, copper, and Muntz metal bolts. These articles I at once bargained for, after I had seen the collection, and for two old Tower muskets, value five shillings each, obtained the lot--worth 250.

I had arranged with the chief and his head men to buy their oil in the morning. And White and I found it hard to keep our countenances when they joyfully accepted to fill every cask we had on the ship each for twenty sticks of twist tobacco, a cupful of fine red beads and a fathom of red Turkey twill! Or for five casks I would give a musket, a tin of powder, twenty bullets, and twenty caps!

In ten minutes I had secured eighty tuns of oil (worth 30 a tun) for trade goods that cost White less than 20. And the beauty of it was that the natives were so impressed by the liberality of my terms that they said they would supply the ship with all the fresh provisions--pigs, fowls, turtle and vegetables that I asked for, without payment.

As White and I, after our palaver with the head men, were about to return on board, we noticed two children who were wearing a number of silver coins, strung on cinnet (coir) fibre, around their necks. We called them to us, looked at the coins and found that they were rupees and English five-shilling pieces.

I asked one of our Fijian seamen, who acted as interpreter, to ask the children from where they got the coins.

"On the reef," they replied, "there are thousands of them cast up with the wreckage of the ship that sank a long time ago. Most of them are like these"--showing a five-shilling piece; "but there are much more smaller ones like these,"--showing a rupee.

"Are there any _sama sama_ (yellow) ones?" I asked.

No, they said, they had not found any _sama sama_ ones. But they could bring me basketfuls of those like which they showed me.

White's usually solemn eyes were now gleaming with excitement I drew him and the Fiji man aside, and said to the latter quietly:--

"Sam, don't let these people think that these coins are of any more value than the copper bolts. Tell them that for every one hundred pieces they bring on board--no matter what size they may be--I will give them a cupful of fine red beads--full measure. Or, if they do not care for beads, I will give two sticks of tobacco, or a six-inch butcher knife of good, hard steel."

(The three last words made White smile--and whisper to me, "'A good, hard steal' some people would say--but not me".)

"And Sam," I went on, "you shall have an _alofa_ (present) of two hundred dollars if you manage this carefully, and don't let these people think that we particularly care about these pieces of soft white metal.

We came to Mayu for oil--understand?"

Sam did understand: and in a few minutes every boy and girl in Guasap were out on the reef picking up the money. That day they brought us over 200 in English and Indian silver, together with about 12 in Dutch coins. (From this latter circ.u.mstance White and I concluded that the wrecked vessel was the missing Dutch barque.)

On the following morning the reef at low tide presented an extraordinary spectacle. Every woman, boy and girl from Guasap and the adjacent villages were searching for the coins, and their clamour was terrific.

Whilst all this was going on, White, and the mate, and crew were receiving the oil from the sh.o.r.e, putting it into our casks, driving the hoops, and stowing them in the hold, working in such a state of suppressed excitement that we were unable to exchange a word with each other, for as each cask was filled I, on the after-deck, paid for it, shunted off the seller, and took another one in hand.

At four o'clock in the afternoon we ceased work on board and went on sh.o.r.e to "buy money".

The village square was crowded with women and children, every one of whom had money--mostly in English five-shilling pieces. Some of these coins were bent and twisted into the most curious shape, some were imbedded in lumps of coral, and nearly all gave evidence of the terrific fury of the seas which had cast them up upon the reef from a depth of seven fathoms of water. Many were merely round lumps, having been rolled over and over among the sand and coral. These I demurred to accepting on the terms agreed upon for undamaged coins, and the natives cheerfully agreed to my decision.

That day we bought silver coin, damaged and undamaged, to the value of 350, for trade goods worth about 17 or 18.

And for the following two weeks, whilst White and our crew were hammering and coopering away at the oil casks, and stowing them under hatches, I was paying out the trade goods for the oil, and "buying money".

We remained at Mayu for a month, until there was no more money to be found--except a few coins (or rather what had once been coins); and then with a ship full of oil, and with 2,100 worth of money, we left and sailed for Sydney.

White sold the money _en bloc_ to the Sydney mint for 1,850. The oil realised 2,400, and the copper, etc., 250. My share came to over 400--exclusive of four months' wages--making nearly 500. This was the best bit of trading luck that I ever met with.

I must add that even up to 1895 silver coins from the Dutch barque were still being found by the natives of Woodlark Islands.

CHAPTER XXVI ~ MODERN PIRATES

Piracy, as most people are aware, is not yet quite extinct in Chinese and East Indian waters, despite the efforts that have been made to utterly stamp it out. But it is not generally known that along the sh.o.r.es of Dutch New Guinea, on both sides of the great island, there are still vigorous communities of native pirates, who will not hesitate to attack even armed trading vessels. These savages combine the business of head-hunting with piracy, and although they do not possess modern firearms, and their crafts are simply huge canoes, they show the most determined courage, even when attacking a vessel manned by Europeans.

The annual reports of the Governors of Dutch, German and British New Guinea, detailing the murderous doings of these head-hunting pirates, are as interesting reading as the tales of Rajah Brooke and Stamford Raffles, and the practical suppression of piracy in the East Indian Archipelago, but seldom attract more than a few lines of comment in the public press.

In writing of pirates of the present day, I shall not go beyond my own beat of the North and South Pacific, and speak only of events within my own personal knowledge and observation. Before entering into an account of some of the doings of the New Guinea "Tugeri," or head-hunter pirates, I shall tell the story of two notable acts of piracy committed by white men in the South Pacific, less than ten years ago. The English newspapers gave some attention to one case, for the two princ.i.p.al criminals concerned were tried at Brest, and the case was known as the "Rorique tragedy". Much comment was made on the statement that the King of the Belgians went to France, after the prisoners had been sentenced to death (they were Belgian), to personally intercede for them. The French press stigmatised His Majesty's action as a scandal (one journal suggesting that perhaps the pirates were pretty women in men's garb); but no doubt King Leopold is a very tender-hearted man, despite the remarks of unkind English people on the subject of the eccentricities of the Belgian officers in the Congo Free State--such as cutting off the hands of a few thousands of stupid negroes who failed to bring in sufficient rubber. There are even people who openly state that the Sultan of Turkey dislikes Armenians, and has caused some of them to be hurt. But I am getting away from my subject The story of the Roriques, and the tragedy of the _Niuroahiti_ which was the name of the vessel they seized, is one of the many grisly episodes with which the history of the South Seas is so prolific. Briefly it is as follows:--

About the end of 1891 the two brothers arrived at Papeite, the capital of Tahiti, from the Paumotu Group, where, it was subsequently learned, they had been put on sh.o.r.e by the captain of an island trader, who strongly suspected them of plotting with the crew to murder him and seize the ship. Nothing of this incident, however, was known at Tahiti among the white residents with whom they soon ingratiated themselves; they were exceedingly agreeable-mannered men, and the elder brother, who was a remarkably handsome man of about thirty-five, was an excellent linguist, speaking German, French, Italian, English, Dutch, Spanish and Zulu fluently. Although they had with them no property beyond firearms, their _bonhomie_ and the generally accepted belief that they were men of means, made them the recipients of much hospitality and kindness.

Eventually the younger man was given a position as a trader on one of the pearl-sh.e.l.l lagoon islands in the Paumotu Group, while the other took the berth of mate in the schooner _Niuroahiti_, a smart little native-built vessel owned by a Tahitian prince. The schooner was under the command of a half-caste, and her complement consisted, besides the captain, of Mr. William Gibson, the supercargo, Rorique the first mate, a second mate, four Society Island natives, and the cook, a Frenchman named Hippolyte Miret. The _Niuroahiti_ traded between Tahiti and the Paumotus, and when she sailed on her last voyage she was bound to the Island of Kaukura, where the younger Rorique was stationed as trader.

She never returned, but it was ascertained that she had called at Kaukura, and then left again with the second brother Rorique as pa.s.senger.

Long, long months pa.s.sed, and the Australian relatives and friends of young Gibson, a cheery, adventurous young fellow, began to think, with the owner of the _Niuroakiti_, that she had met a fate common enough in the South Sea trade--turned turtle in a squall, and gone to the bottom with all hands.

About this time I was on a trading cruise in the Caroline Islands, and one day we spoke a Fiji schooner. I went on board for a chat with the skipper, and told him of the _Niuroakiti_ affair, of which I had heard a month before.

"By Jove," he exclaimed, "I met a schooner exactly like her about ten days ago. She was going to the W.N.W.--Ponape way--and showed French colours. I bore up to speak her, but she evidently didn't want it, hoisted her squaresail and stood away."

From this I was sure that the vessel was the _Niuroakiti_, and therefore sent a letter to the Spanish governor at Ponape, relating the affair. It reached him just in time.

The _Niuroakiti_ was then lying in Jakoits harbour in Ponape, and was to sail on the following day for Macao. She was promptly seized, and the brothers Rorique put in irons, and taken on board the Spanish cruiser _Le Gaspi_ for conveyance to Manila Hippolyte Miret, the cook, confessed to the Spanish authorities that the brothers Rorique had shot dead in their sleep the captain, Mr. Gibson, the second mate, and the four native sailors.

The trial was a long one, but the evidence was most d.a.m.ning and convincing, although the brothers pa.s.sionately declared that Miret's story was a pure invention. Sentence of death was pa.s.sed, but was afterwards commuted to imprisonment for life, and the Roriques are now in chains in Cayenne.

The second case was of a very dreadful character, and has an additional interest from the fact that out of all the partic.i.p.ators--the pirates and their victims--only one was left alive to tell the tale, and he was found in a dying condition on one of the Galapagos Islands, and only lived a few days. The story was told to me by the captain of the brigantine _Isaac Revels_, of San Francisco, who put into the Galapagos to repair his ship, which had started a b.u.t.t-end and was leaking seriously. He had just anch.o.r.ed between Narborough and Albemarle Islands when he saw a man sitting on the sh.o.r.e, and waving his hands to the ship. A boat was lowered, and the man brought on board. He was in a ravenous state of hunger, and half-demented; but after he had been carefully attended to he was able to give some account of himself.

He was a young Colombian Indian, could speak no English, and only a mongrel, halting kind of Spanish. The Portuguese cook of the Isaac Revels, however, understood him. This was his story:--

He was one of the peons of a wealthy Ecuadorian gentleman, who with another equally rich friend sailed from Guayaquil for the Galapagos Islands (which belong to Ecuador), and the largest of which, Albemarle Island, they had leased from that Government for sheep and cattle-breeding. They took with them a few thousand silver dollars, which the peon saw placed in "an iron box" (safe).

One of the merchants had with him his two young daughters. The vessel was a small brig, and the captain and crew mostly Chilenos. One night, when the brig was half-way across to the Galapagos (600 miles from Ecuador) the peon, who was on deck asleep, was suddenly seized, pitched down into the fo'c'stle, and the scuttle closed. Here he was left alone until dawn, and then ordered on deck, aft. The captain pointed a pistol at his head, and threatened to shoot him dead if he ever spoke of what had happened in the night. The man--although he knew nothing of what had happened--promised to be secret, and was then given fifty dollars, and put in the mate's watch. He saw numerous blood-stains on the after-deck, and soon after was told by one of the hands that all the four pa.s.sengers had been murdered, and thrown overboard. The captain, mate and four men, it appeared, had first made ready a boat, provisioned, and lowered it They made some noise, which aroused the male pa.s.sengers, one of whom came on deck to see what was the matter. He was at once seized, but being a very powerful man, made a most determined fight. His friend rushed up from below with a revolver in his hand, and shot two of the a.s.sailants dead, and wounded the mate. But they were a.s.sailed on all sides--shot at and struck with various weapons, and then thrown overboard to drown. Then the pirates, after a hurried consultation, went below, and forcing open the girls' cabin door, ruthlessly shot them, carried them on deck, and cast them over the side. It had been their intention to have sent all four away in the boat, but the resistance made so enraged them that they murdered them instead.

For some days the pirates kept on a due west course towards the Galapagos. A barrel of spirits was broached, and night and day captain and crew were drunk. When Albemarle Island was sighted, every one except the peon and a boy was more or less intoxicated. A boat had been lowered, and was towing astern--for what purpose the peon did not know. At night it fell a dead calm, and a strong current set the brig dangerously close in sh.o.r.e. The captain ordered some of the hands into her to tow the brig out of danger; they refused, and shots were exchanged, but after a while peace was restored. The peon and the boy were then told to get into the boat, and bale her out, as she was leaky.

They did so, and whilst so engaged a sudden squall struck the brig, and the boat's towline either parted, or was purposely cast off.

When the squall cleared, the peon and boy in the drifting boat could see nothing whatever of the brig--she had probably capsized--and the two unfortunate beings soon after daylight found themselves so close to the breakers on Narborough Island that they were unable to pull her clear--she being very heavy. She soon struck, and was rolled over and over, and the Chileno boy drowned. The peon also received internal injuries, but managed to reach the sh.o.r.e.

The people on board the _Isaac Revels_ did all they could for the poor fellow, but he only survived a few days.

In another article in this volume I have told of my fruitless efforts to induce some of the Rook Island cannibals to "recruit" with me. It was on that voyage I first saw a party of New Guinea head-hunting pirates, and I shall never forget the experience.

After leaving Rook Island, we stood over to the coast of German New Guinea, and sailed along it for three hundred miles to the Dutch boundary (longitude 141 east of Greenwich) for we were in hopes of getting a full cargo of native labourers from some of the many islands which stud the coast. No other "labour" ship had ever been so far north, and Morel (the skipper) and I were keenly anxious to find a new ground.

We had a fine vessel, with a high freeboard, a well-armed and splendid crew, and had no fear of being cut off by the natives. (I may here mention that I was grievously disappointed, for owing to the lack of a competent interpreter I failed to get a single recruit But in other respects the voyage was a success, for I did some very satisfactory trading business)

After visiting many of the islands, we anch.o.r.ed in what is now named in the German charts Krauel Bay, on the mainland. There were a few scattered villages on the sh.o.r.e, and some of the natives boarded us.

They were all well-armed, with their usual weapons, but were very shy, distrustful and nervous.

Early one morning five large canoes appeared in the offing--evidently having come from the Schouten Islands group, about ten miles to the eastward. The moment they were seen by the natives on sh.o.r.e, the villages were abandoned, and the people fled into the bush.