A MEMORY OF THE SOUTHERN SEAS

From "Chinkie's Flat And Other Stories"

By Louis Becke

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company 1904

CAPTAIN "BULLY" HAYES

In other works by the present writer frequent allusion has been made, either by the author or by other persons, to Captain Hayes. Perhaps thecontinuous appearance of his name may have been irritating to many ofmy readers; if so I can only plead that it is almost impossible whenwriting of wild life in the Southern Seas to avoid mentioning him. Everyone who sailed the Austral seas between the "fifties" and "seventies, "and thousands who had not, knew of him and had heard tales of him. In some eases these tales were to his credit; mostly they were not. However, the writer makes no further apology for reproducing thefollowing sketch of the great "Bully" which he contributed to the _PallMall Gazette_, and which, by the courtesy of the editor of that journal, he is able to include in this volume. 

In a most interesting, though all too brief, sketch of the life ofthe late Rev. James Chalmers, the famous New Guinea missionary, whichappeared in the January number of a popular religious magazine, the author, the Rev. Richard Lovett, gives us a brief glance of thenotorious Captain "Bully" Hayes. Mr. Chalmers, in 1866, sailed for theSouth Seas with his wife in the missionary ship _John Williams_--thesecond vessel of that name, the present beautiful steamer being thefourth _John Williams_. 

The second John Williams had but a brief existence, for on her firstvoyage she was wrecked on Nine Island (the "Savage" Island of CaptainCook). Hayes happened to be there with his vessel, and agreed to conveythe shipwrecked missionaries to Samoa. No doubt he charged them a prettystiff price, for he always said that missionaries "were teaching Kanakasthe degrading doctrine that even if a man killed his enemy and cut outand ate his heart in public, and otherwise misconducted himself, hecould yet secure a front seat in the Kingdom of Heaven if he said he wassorry and was then baptized as Aperamo (Abraham) or Lakopo (Jacob). "

"It is characteristic of Chalmers, " writes Mr. Lovett, "that he was ableto exert considerable influence over this ruffian, and even saw goodpoints in him, not easily evident to others. "

The present writer sailed with Hayes on four voyages as supercargo, andwas with the big-bearded, heavy-handed, and alleged "terror of the SouthSeas" when his famous brig _Leonora_ was wrecked on Strong's Island, onewild night in March, 1875. And he has nothing but kindly memories of amuch-maligned man, who, with all his faults, was never the cold-bloodedmurderer whose fictitious atrocities once formed the theme of a highlyblood-curdling melodrama staged in the old Victoria Theatre, in PittStreet, Sydney, under the title of "The Pirate of the Pacific. " In thislively production of dramatic genius Hayes was portrayed as somethingworse than Blackboard or Llonois, and committed more murders andabductions of beautiful women in two hours than ever fell to the luck inreal life of the most gorgeous pirate on record. No one of the audiencewas more interested or applauded more vigorously the villain's downfallthan "Bully" Hayes himself, who was seated in a private box with a lady. He had come to Sydney by steamer from Melbourne, where he had left hisship in the hands of brokers for sale, and almost the first thing he sawon arrival were the theatrical posters concerning himself and his careerof crime. 

"I would have gone for the theatre people, " he told the writer, "if theyhad had any money, but the man who 'played' me was the lessee of thetheatre and was hard up. I think his name was Hoskins. He was a bigfat fellow, with a soapy, slithery kind of a voice, and I lent him tenpounds, which he spent on a dinner to myself and some of his company. Iguess we had a real good time. "

But let us hear what poor ill-fated Missionary Chalmers has to say aboutthe alleged pirate:--

"Hayes seemed to take to me during the frequent meetings we had onshore" (this was when the shipwrecked missionaries and their wives wereliving on Savage Island), "and before going on board for good I met himone afternoon and said to him, 'Captain Hayes, I hope you will have noobjection to our having morning and evening service on board, and twiceon Sabbaths. All short, and only those who like need attend. ' Certainlynot. My ship is a missionary ship now' (humorous dog), 'and I hope youwill feel it so. All on board will attend these services. ' I replied, 'Only if they are inclined. '" (If they had shirked it, the redoubtable"Bully" would have made attendance compulsory with a belaying pin. )

"Hayes was a perfect host and a thorough gentleman. His wife andchildren were on board. We had fearful weather all the time, yet I mustsay we enjoyed ourselves. .. . We had gone so far south that we couldeasily fetch Tahiti, and so we stood for it, causing us to be muchlonger on board. Hayes several times lost his temper and did very queerthings, acting now and then more like a madman than a sane man. Much ofhis past life he related to us at table, especially of things (he did)to cheat Governments. "

Poor "Bully!" He certainly did like to "cheat Governments, " although hedespised cheating private individuals--unless it was for a large amount. And he frequently "lost his temper" also; and when that occurredthings were very uncomfortable for the man or men who caused it. Onone occasion, during an electrical storm off New Guinea, a number ofcorposants appeared on the yards of his vessel, which was manned byPolynesians and some Portuguese. One of the latter was so terrified atthe ghastly _corpo santo_ that he fell on his knees and held a smallleaden crucifix, which he wore on his neck, to his lips. His example wasquickly followed by the rest of his countrymen; which so enraged Hayesthat, seizing the first offender, he tore the crucifix from his hand, and, rolling it into a lump, thrust it into his month _and made himswallow it_. 

"You'll kill the man, sir, " cried Hussey, his American mate, who, beinga good Catholic, was horrified. 

Hayes laughed savagely: "If that bit of lead is good externally it oughtto be a darned sight better when taken internally. "

He was a humorous man at times, even when he was cross. And he was oneof the best sailor-men that ever trod a deck. A chronometer watch, which was committed to the care of the writer by Hayes, bore thisinscription:--

"_From Isaac Steuart, of New York, to Captain William Henry Hayes, ofCleveland, Ohio. A gift of esteem and respect for his bravery in savingthe lives of seventeen persons at the risk of his own. Honor to thebrave. _"

Hayes told me that story--modestly and simply as brave men only tell atale of their own dauntless daring. And he told me other stories as wellof his strange, wild career; of Gordon of Khartoum, whom he had known, and of Ward and Burgevine and the Taeping leaders; and how Burgevineand he quarrelled over a love affair and stood face to face, pistols inhand, when Ward sprang in between them and said that the woman was his, and that they were fools to fight over what belonged to neither of themand what he would gladly be rid of himself. 

Peace to his _manes!_ He died--in his sea-boots--from a blow on his big, bald head, superinduced by his attention to a lady who was "no betterthan she ought to have been, " even for the islands of the North Pacific. 

THE "WHALE CURE"

I once heard a man who for nearly six years had been a martyr torheumatism say he would give a thousand pounds to have a cure effected. 

"I wish, then, that we were in Australia or New Zealand during the shorewhaling season, " remarked a friend of the writer; "I should feel prettycertain of annexing that thousand pounds. " And then he described thewhale cure. 

The "cure" is not fiction. It is a fact, so the whalemen assert, andthere are many people at the township of Eden, Twofold Bay, NewSouth Wales, who, it is vouched, can tell of several cases of chronicrheumatism that have been absolutely perfectly cured by the treatmentherewith briefly described. How it came to be discovered I do not know, but it has been known to American whalemen for years. 

When a whale is killed and towed ashore (it does not matter whether itis a "right, " humpback, finback, or sperm whale) and while the interiorof the carcase still retains a little warmth, a hole is out through oneside of the body sufficiently large to admit the patient, the lowerpart of whose body from the feet to the waist should sink in the whale'sintestines, leaving the head, of course, outside the aperture. Thelatter is closed up as closely as possible, otherwise the patient wouldnot be able to breathe through the volume of ammoniacal gases whichwould escape from every opening left uncovered. It is these gases, whichare of an overpowering and atrocious odour, that bring about the cure, so the whalemen say. Sometimes the patient cannot stand this horriblebath for more than an hour, and has to be lifted out in a faintingcondition, to undergo a second, third, or perhaps fourth course on thator the following day. Twenty or thirty hours, it is said, will effect aradical cure in the most severe cases, provided there is no malformationor distortion of the joints, and even in such cases the treatment causesvery great relief. One man who was put in up to his neck in the carcassof a small "humpback" stood it for sixteen hours, being taken out attwo-hour intervals. He went off declaring himself to be cured. À yearlater he had a return of the complaint and underwent the treatment asecond time. 

All the "shore" whalemen whom the writer has met thoroughly believe inthe efficacy of the remedy, and by way of practical proof assert thatno man who works at cutting-in and trying out a whale ever suffersfrom rheumatism. Furthermore, however, some of them maintain that the"deader" the whale is, the better the remedy. "More gas in him, " theysay. And any one who has been within a mile of a week-dead whale willbelieve _that_. 

Anyway, if there is any person, rheumatic or otherwise, who wants toemulate Jonah's adventure in a safe manner (with a dead whale), let himwrite to the Davidson Brothers, Ben Boyd Point, Twofold Bay, N. S. W. , orto the Messrs. Christian, Norfolk Island, and I am sure those valorouswhalemen would help him to achieve his desire. 

THE SEA "SALMON" SEASON IN AUSTRALIA

The sea salmon make their appearance on the southern half of the easternseaboard of Australia with undeviating regularity in the last week ofOctober, and, entering the rivers and inlets, remain on the coast tillthe first week of December. As far as my knowledge goes, they comefrom the south and travel northwards, and do not appear to relish thetropical waters of the North Queensland coast, though I have heard thatsome years ago a vast "school" entered the waters of Port Denison. 

Given a dear, sunny day and a smooth sea the advent of these fish tothe bar harbours and rivers of New South Wales presents a trulyextraordinary sight. From any moderately high bluff or headland one candiscern their approach nearly two miles away. You see a dark patch uponthe water, and were it not for the attendant flocks of gulls and otheraquatic birds, one would imagine it to be but the passing reflection ofa cloud. But presently you see another and another; and, still fartheroat, a long black line flecked with white can be discerned with a goodglass. Then you look above--the sky is cloudless blue, and you knowthat the dark moving patches are the advance battalions of countlessthousands of sea salmon, and that the mile-long black and white streakbehind them is the main body of the first mighty army; for others are tofollow day by day for another fortnight. 

Probably the look-out man at the pilot station is the first to seethem, and in a few minâtes the lazy little seaport town awakes from itsmorning lethargy, and even the butcher, and baker, and bootmaker, andbank manager, and other commercial magnates shut up shop and walk tothe pilot station to watch the salmon "take" the bar, whilst the entirepublic school rushes home to prepare its rude tackle for the onslaughtthat will begin at dark. 

The bar is a mile wide or more, and though there is but little surf, the ebbing tide, running at five knots, makes a great commotion, and theshallow water is thick with yellow sand swept seaward to the pale greenbeyond. Presently the first "school" of salmon reaches the protectingreef on the southern side--and then it stops. The fish well know thatsuch a current as that cannot be stemmed, and wait, moving slowly toand fro, the dark blue compactness of their serried masses ever andanon broken by flashes of silver as some turn on their sides or make anoccasional leap clear out of the water to avoid the pressure of theirfellows. 

An hour or so passes; then the tumult on the bar ceases, the incomingseas rise clear and sandless, and the fierce race of the current slowsdown to a gentle drift; it is slack water, and the fish begin to move. One after another the foremost masses sweep round the horn of the reefand head for the smooth water inside. On the starboard hand a line ofyellow sandbank is drying in the sun, and the passage has now narroweddown to a width of fifty yards; in twenty minutes every inch of water, from the rocky headland on the south side of the entrance to where theriver makes a sharp turn northward, half a mile away, is packed with aliving, moving mass. Behind follows the main body, the two horns ofthe crescent shape which it had at first preserved now swimming swiftlyahead, and converging towards each other as the entrance to the bar isreached, and the centre falling back with the precision of well-trainedtroops. And then in a square, solid mass, thirty or forty feet in width, they begin the passage, and for two hours or more the long dark lines offish pass steadily onward, only thrown into momentary confusion now andthen by a heavy swell, which, however, does no more than gently undulatethe rearmost lines of fish, and then subsides, overcome by the weightand solidity of the living wall. 

Along the beach on the southern side of the river stand a hundred ormore yelling urchins, with stout lines fitted with many baitless hooksand weighted with a stone. As the swarming fish press steadily on withinten feet or less of the shore the children fling their lines across, anddraw them quickly in. Sometimes two or three fish are "jagged" at once, and as the average weight is 10 lb. The jagger takes a turn of the linearound his waist and straggles up the beach. Even if he has but one fishhooked amidships he has all he can do to drag him out from the countlessthousands and land him. It is not an eminently ideal or sportsmanlikesort of fishing, this "jagging, " but it possesses a marvellous enjoymentand fascination for the youth of ten, and older people as well; for afull-grown salmon is a powerful fellow, and his big, fluke-like tailenables him to make a terrific rush when under the influence of terroror when chasing his prey. 

Once over the bar and into the placid waters of the tidal river, thevanguards of the hundreds of thousands to follow pursue their waysteadily up the shallow flats and numberless blind creeks, where theyremain till spawning is over. Every day some fresh accessions to theirnumbers, and at night time strange, indescribable sounds are heard, caused by the movements of the fishes' tails and fins as they swimto and fro, and one section, meeting another, endeavours to force aright-of-way. On the third or fourth evening the sharks and porpoisesappear, having followed the "schools" in from the sea, and wreak fearfulhavoc among them. Sometimes in a deep pool or quiet reach of the riverone may see a school of perhaps five or six thousand terrified salmon, wedged one up against the other, unable to move from their very numbers, while half a dozen sharks dash in among them and devour them by thescore; and often as the current runs seaward hundreds of half bodies ofsalmon can be seen going out over the bar. At night time the townspeopleappear on the scene in boats with lanterns and spears, and for no otherpurpose than the mere love of useless slaughter kill the fish till theirarms are exhausted. At places within easy access of Sydney by steamer orrail some few thousands of salmon are sent to market, but as the fleshis somewhat coarse, they are only bought by the poorer members of thecommunity, 4d. And 6d. Each being considered a good retail price for a10 lb. Fish. The roes, however, are excellent eating, and some attempthas been made to smoke them on a large scale, but like everything elseconnected with the fishing industry (or rather want of industry) in NewSouth Wales, has failed. It sometimes happens (as I once witnessed inTrial Bay, on the coast of New South Wales) that heavy weather willset in when the salmon are either passing inwards over the bars or arereturning to sea. The destruction that is then wrought among them isterrific. On the occasion of which I speak, every heavy roller thatreared and then dashed upon the beach flung upon the sands hundreds ofthe fish, stunned and bleeding. At one spot where the beach had but avery slight inclination towards the water from the line of scrub abovehigh-water mark there were literally many thousands of salmon, lyingthree and four deep, and in places piled up in irregular ridges andfirmly packed together with sand and seaweed. 

"JACK SHARK"

"What is the greatest number of sharks that you have ever seen togetherat one time?" asked an English lady in San Francisco of Captain Allen, of the New Bedford barque _Acorn Barnes_. 

"Two or three hundred when we have been cutting-in a whale; two or threethousand in Christmas Island lagoon. "

Some of the hardy old seaman's listeners smiled somewhat incredulouslyat the "two or three thousand, " but nevertheless he was not only notexaggerating, but might have said five or six thousand. The ChristmasIsland to which he referred must not be mistaken for the island of thesame name in the Indian Ocean--the Cocos-Keeling group. It is in theNorth Pacific, two degrees north of the equator and 157. 30 W. , and isa low, sandy atoll, encompassing a spacious but rather shallow lagoon, teeming with non-poisonous fish. It is leased from the Colonial Officeby a London firm, who are planting the barren soil with coconut treesand fishing the lagoon for pearl-shell. Like many other of the isolatedatolls in the North Pacific, such as the Fannings, Palmyra, andProvidence Groups, the lagoon is resorted to by sharks in incrediblenumbers; and even at the present time the native labourers employed bythe firm alluded to make a considerable sum of money by catching sharksand drying the fins and tails for export to Sydney, and thence toChina, where they command a price ranging from 6d. To 1s. 6d. Per pound, according to quality. 

The lagoon sharks are of a different species to the short, thick, wide-jawed "man-eaters, " although they are equally dangerous at nighttime as the deep-sea prowlers. The present writer was for a long timeengaged with a native crew in the shark-catching industry in the NorthPacific, and therefore had every opportunity of studying Jack Shark andhis manners. 

On Providence Lagoon (the Ujilong of the natives), once the secretrendezvous of the notorious Captain "Bully" Hayes and his associateadventurer, Captain Ben Peese, I have, at low tide, stood on the edge ofthe coral reef on one side of South Passage, and gazed in astonishmentat the extraordinary numbers of sharks entering the lagoon for theirnightly onslaught on the vast bodies of fish with which the waterteems. They came on in droves, like sheep, in scores at first, thenin hundreds, and then in packed masses, their sharp, black-tipped finsstretching from one side of the passage to the other. As they gained theinside of the lagoon they branched off, some to right and left, othersswimming straight on towards the sandy beaches of the chain of islets. From where I stood I could have killed scores of them with a whalelance, or even a club, for they were packed so closely that theyliterally scraped against the coral walls of the passage; and someGilbert Islanders who were with me amused themselves by seizing severalby their tails and dragging them out upon the reef. They were nearly allof the same size, about seven feet, with long slender bodies, and theirmarkings, shape, and general appearance were those of the shark calledby the Samoans _moemoeao_ ("sleeps all day"), though not much more thanhalf their length. The Gilbert Islanders informed me that this specieswere also _bàkwa mata te ao_ (sleepers by day) at certain seasons ofthe year, but usually sought their prey by night at all times; and a fewmonths later I had an opportunity afforded me of seeing some hundreds ofthem asleep. This was outside the barrier reef of the little island ofAiluk, in the Marshall Group. We were endeavouring to find and recovera lost anchor, and were drifting along in a boat in about six fathoms ofwater; there was not a breath of wind, and consequently we had no needto use water glasses, for even minute objects could be very easilydiscerned through the crystal water. 

"Hallo! look here, " said the mate, "we're right on top of a nice littlefamily party of sharks. It's their watch below. "

Lying closely together on a bottom of sand and coral _débris_ were abouta dozen sharks, heads and tails in perfect line. Their skins were amottled brown and yellow, like the crustacean-feeding "tiger shark"of Port Jack-son. They lay so perfectly still that the mate lowereda grapnel right on the back of one. He switched his long, thin taillazily, "shoved" himself along for a few feet, and settled down again tosleep, his bedmates taking no notice of the intruding grapnel. Furtheron we came across many more--all in parties of from ten to twenty, andall preserving in their slumber a due sense of regularity of outline inthe disposition of their long bodies. 

The natives of the low-lying equatorial islands--the Kingsmill, Gilbert, Ellice, and Tokelau or Union Groups--are all expert shark fishermen;but the wild people of Paanopa (Ocean Island) stand _facile princeps_. Ihave frequently seen four men in a small canoe kill eight or ten sharks(each of which was as long as their frail little craft) within threehours. 

SOME PACIFIC ISLANDS FISHES

Of all the food-fishes inhabiting the reefs, lagoons, and tidal watersof the islands of the North and South Pacific, there are none that areprized more than the numerous varieties of sand-mullet. Unlike the samefishes in British and other colder waters, they frequently reach a greatsize, some of them attaining two feet in length, and weighing up to tenpounds; and another notable feature is the great diversity of colourcharacterising the whole family. The writer is familiar with at leastten varieties, and the natives gave me the names of several otherswhich, however, are seldom taken in sufficient numbers to make them acommon article of diet. The larger kind are caught with hook and line inwater ranging from three to five fathoms in depth, the smaller kinds arealways to be found in the very shallow waters of the lagoons, where theyare taken by nets. At night, by the aid of torches made of dried coconutleaf, the women and children capture them in hundreds as they lie onthe clear, sandy bottom. In the picturesque lagoons of the Ellice Group(South Pacific), and especially in that of Nanomea, these fish affordexcellent sport with either rod or hand-line, and sport, too, withsurroundings of the greatest beauty imaginable; for the little lagoonof Nanomea is perfectly landlocked, except where there are breaks ofreef--dry at low water--which is as clear as crystal, and the low-lyingbelt of land is a verdant girdle of coco and pandanus palms, growingwith bread-fruit and _fetau_ trees on the rich, warm soil composed ofvegetable matter and decayed coral detritis. 

And then, too, you can look over the side of the canoe, or from anexposed boulder of coral, and see the fish take your bait--unless abreeze is rippling the surface of the water. 

I usually chose the early morning, before the trade wind roused itself, as then, if in a canoe, one need not anchor, but drift about from oneside of the lagoon to the other; then about ten o'clock, when the breezecame, I would paddle over to the lee of the weather side of the island(the land in places not being much wider than the Palisadoes of PortRoyal in Jamaica) and fish in unruffled water in some deep pool amonga number of sand banks, or rather round-topped hillocks, which even athigh water were some feet above the surface. 

When bent on sand-mullet--_afulu_ the natives call them--I was in thehabit of going alone, although the moment I appeared in the villagecarrying my rod, lines, and gun, I was always besought to take one ortwo men with me. One of the most ardent fishermen on the island was oneKino--a gentleman who weighed eighteen stone; and, as my canoe was onlyintended for two light-weights like myself, I always tried to avoidmeeting him, for not only was he most persistent in his desire to seehow I managed to get so many mullet, but was most anxious to learn tospeak English. 

On one occasion I fatuously took the monster out in my whaleboat tofish for _takuo_ (a variety of _tuna_) one calm starlight night when theocean was like a sheet of glass. We pulled out over the reef, and whena mile from the shore lowered our heavy lines and began fishing. Fornearly a quarter of an hour neither of us spoke, then he suddenly askedme in his fat, wheezy tones, if I would mind telling him something. 

"What is it?"

"Will you tell me, friend, what are the English words that should bespoken by one of us of Nanomea to a ship captain, giving him greeting, and asking him if he hath had a prosperous voyage with fair weather? Myheart is sick with envy that Pita and Loli speak English, and I cannot. "

Forgetting my past experiences of my man, I was fool enough to tell him. 

"You say this: 'Good morning, Captain; have you had a good voyage andfair weather?'"

He greedily repeated each word after me, very slowly and carefully; thenhe asked me to tell him again. I did so. Then he sighed with pleasure. 

"Kind friend, just a few times more, " he said. 

I told him the sentence over and over again for at least a score oftimes; and his smooth, fat face beamed when at last he was able to saythe words alone. Then he began whispering it. Five minutes passed, andhe tackled me again. 

"Is this right?--'Good--mornin', kipen--ha--ad--you--have--goot--foy--age--and--fair wesser?'"

"That is right, " I said impatiently, "but ask me no more to-night. Dost not know that it is unlucky to talk when fishing for _takuo_ and_tautau?_"

"Dear friend, _that_ we believed only in the heathen days. _Now_ we areChristians. "

He paused a moment, then raised his face to the stars and softlymurmured, "Good--mornin' kâpen--haad--you--you--have--goot--foyage--andwesser--and fair--wesser?" Then he looked at me interrogatively. I tookno notice. 

He toyed with his line and bent an earnest gaze down in the placiddepths of the water as if he saw the words down there, then taking aturn of his line round a thwart, he put his two elbows on his enormousnaked knees, and resting his broad, terraced chin on the palms of hishands, he said slowly and mournfully, as if he were communing with someone in the spirit-world--

"Good--mornin'--kâpen. Haad--you--haave----" &c. , &c. 

Then I sharply spoke a few words of English--simple in themselves, butwell understood by nearly every native of the South Seas. He lookedsurprised, and also reproachful, but went on in a whisper so faint thatI could scarcely hear it; sometimes quickly and excitedly, sometimesdoubtingly and with quivering lips, now raising his eyes to heaven, andwith drooping lower jaw gurgling the words in his thick throat; thensighing and muttering them with closed eyes and a rapt expression ofcountenance, till with a sudden snort of satisfaction, he ceased--atleast I thought he had. He took up a young coconut, drank it, and beganagain as fresh as ever. 

"Stop!" I said angrily. "Art thou a grown man or a child? Here is sometobacco, fill thy pipe, and cease muttering like a _tama valea_ (idiotboy). "

He shook his head. "Nay, if I smoke, I may forget. I am very happyto-night, kind friend. Good-mor----"

"May Erikobai" (a cannibal god of his youth) "polish his teeth on thybones!" I cried at last in despair. That shocking heathen curse silencedhim, but for the next two hours, whenever I looked at the creature, Isaw his lips moving and a silly, fatuous expression on his by no meansunintelligent face. I never took him out with me again, although he sentme fowls and other things as bribes to teach him more English. 

 * * * * *

These sand-mullet are very dainty-feeding fish. They are particularlyfond of the soft tail part of the hermit crabs which abound all overthe island, especially after rain has fallen. Some of the shells (_T. Niloticus_) in which they live are so thick and strong, however, thatit requires two heavy stones to crush them sufficiently to take out thecrab, the upper part of whose body is useless for bait. For a stick oftobacco, the native children would fill me a quart measure, and perhapsadd some few shrimps as well, or half a dozen large sea urchins--a veryacceptable bait for mullet. My rod was a slender bamboo--cost a quarterof a dollar, and was unbreakable--and my lines of white American cotton, strong, durable, and especially suitable for fishing on a bottom of purewhite sand. My gun was carried on the outrigger platform, within easyreach, for numbers of golden plover frequented the sand banks, feedingon the serried battalions of tiny soldier crabs, and in rainy weatherthey were very easy to shoot. The rest of my gear consisted of twenty orthirty cartridges, a box of assorted hooks, a heavy 27-cord line witha 5-in. Hook (in case I saw any big rock cod about), a few bottles oflager, some ship biscuits or cold yam, and a tin of beef or sardines, and some salt. This was a day's supply of food, and if I wanted more, there were plenty of young coconuts to be had by climbing for them, andI could cook my own fish, native fashion; lastly there was myself, invery easy attire--print shirt, dungaree pants, panama hat, and no boots, in place of which I used the native _takka_, or sandals of coconutfibre, which are better than boots when walking on coral. Sometimes Iwould remain away till the following morning, sleeping on the weatherside of the island under a shelter of leaves to keep off the dew, andon such occasions two or three of the young men from the village wouldinvariably come and keep me company--and help eat the fish and birds. However, they were very well conducted, and we always spent a pleasantnight, rose at daybreak, bathed in the surf, or in the lagoon, and afteran early breakfast returned to the village, or had some more fishing. Itwas a delightful life. 

My canoe was so light that it could easily be carried by one person fromthe open shed where it was kept, and in a few minutes after leavingmy house I would be afloat, paddling slowly over the smooth water, andlooking over the side for the mullet. In the Nanomea, Nui, and NukufetauLagoons the largest but scarcest variety are of a purple-grey, with fins(dorsal and abdominal) and mouth and gill-plates tipped with yellow;others again are purple-grey with dull roddish markings. This kind, withthose of an all bright yellow colour throughout, are the most valued, though, as I have said, the whole family are prized for their delicacyof flavour. 

As soon as I caught sight of one or more of the sought-for fish, I wouldcease paddling, and bait my hook; and first carefully looking to seeif there were any predatory leather-jackets or many-coloured wrasse insight, would lower away, the hook soon touching the bottom, as I alwaysused a small sinker of coral stone. This was necessary only because ofthe number of other fish about--bass, trevally, and greedy sea-pike, with teeth like needles and as hungry as sharks. In the vicinity of thereef, or about the isolated coral boulders, or "mushrooms" as we calledthem, these fish were a great annoyance to me, though my nativefriends liked them well enough, especially the large, gorgeously-hued"leather-jackets, " to which they have given the very appropriate nameof _isuumu moana_--the sea-rat--for they have a great trick of quietlybiting a baited line a few inches above the hook. _Apropos_ of the"sea-rat, " I may mention that their four closely-set and humanlike teethare so thick that they will often crush an ordinary hook as if it weremade of glass, and as their mouths are exceedingly small, and many areheavy, powerful fishes, they cause havoc with ordinary tackle. But afellow-trader and myself devised a very short, stout hook (1 1/2 inch ofshank) with a barbless curve well turned in towards the shank; thesewe bent on to a length of fine steel wire seizing. They proved just theideal hook for the larger kind of sea-rat, which run up to 10 lb. , andthe natives were so greatly taken with the device that, whenever a shiptouched at the island, short pieces of fine steel wire rigging wereeagerly bought (or begged for). 

However, no leather-jackets, wrasse, greedy rock-cod, or keen-eyedtrevally being about, the bait touches the sandy bottom, and then youwill see one--perhaps half a dozen--_afulu_ cease poking their noses inthe sand, and make for it steadily but cautiously. When within a footor so, they invariably stop dead, and eye the bait to see if it is wortheating. But they are soon satisfied--that round, pale green thing withdelicious juices exuding from it is an _uga_ (hermit crab) and must notbe left to be devoured by rude, big-mouthed rock-cod or the like, andin another moment or two your line is tautened out, and a purple-scaledbeauty is fighting gamely for his life in the translucent waters of thelagoon, followed half-way to the surface by his companions, whom, lateron, you place beside him in the bottom of the canoe. And even to lookat them is a joy, for they are graceful in shape, lovely in colour, andeach scale is a jewel. 

You take up the paddle and send the canoe along for half-a-cable'slength towards a place where, under the ledge of the inner reef, both_afulu sama sama_ and _afulu lanu uli_ (yellow and purple mullet) arecertain to be found; and, as the little craft slips along, a largegar--green-backed, silvery-sided, and more than a yard long--may dartafter you like a gleaming, hiltless rapier skimming the surface of thewater. If you put out a line with a hook--baited with almost anything--abit of fish a strip of white or red rag--you will have some sport, for these great gars are a hard-fighting fish, and do the tarponjumping-trick to perfection. But if you have not a line in readiness youcan wait your chance, and as he comes close alongside, break his backwith a blow from the sharp blade of your paddle, and jump overboard andsecure him ere he sinks. 

"Not very sportsmanlike, " some people will say; but the South Sea nativeis very utilitarian, and it takes a keen eye and hand to do thething neatly. And not only are these gars excellent eating--like allsurface-feeding, or other fish which show a "green" backbone whencooked; but fore and aft strips out from their sheeny sides makesplendid bait for deep-sea habitants, such as the giant sea bass and the200-pounder "coral" cod. 

Under the ledge of the inner reef, if you get there before the sunis too far to the westward, so that your eyes are not blinded by itsdazzling, golden light, you will see, as you drop your line for theyellow and purple mullet which swim deep down over the fine coral sand, some of the strangest shaped, most fantastically, and yet beautifullycoloured rock fish imaginable. As you pull up a mullet (or a green andgolden striped wrasse which has seized the bait not meant for him), manyof these beautiful creations of Nature will follow it up to within afew feet of the canoe, wondering perhaps what under the sea it meansby acting in such a manner; others--small creatures of the deepest, loveliest blue--flee in tenor at the unwonted commotion, and hidethemselves among the branching glories of their coral home. 

"LUCK"

CHAPTER I

A "hard" man was Captain William Rodway of Sydney, New South Wales, andhe prided himself upon the fact. From the time he was twenty years ofage, he had devoted himself to making and saving money, and now at sixtyhe was worth a quarter of a million. 

He began life as cabin boy on a north-country collier brig; was starved, kicked, and all but worked to death; and when he came to command aship of his own, his north-country training stood him in goodstead--starving, kicking, and working his crew to death came asnaturally to him as breathing. He spared no one, nor did he sparehimself. 

From the very first everything went well with him. He saved enough moneyby pinching and grinding his crew--and himself--to enable him to buythe vessel to which he had been appointed. Then he bought others, established what was known as Rodway's Line, gave up going to seahimself, rented an office in a mean street, where he slept and cookedhis meals, and worked harder than ever at making money, oblivious of thesneers of those who railed at his parsimony. He was content. 

One Monday morning at nine o'clock he took his seat as usual in hisoffice, and began to open his pile of letters, his square-set, hardface, with its cold grey eyes, looking harder than ever, for he had beenannoyed by the old charwoman who cleaned his squalid place asking himfor more wages. 

He was half-way through his correspondence when a knock sounded. 

"Come in, " he said gruffly. 

The door opened, and a handsome, well-built young man of about thirtyyears of age entered. 

"Good morning, Captain Rodway. "

"Morning, Lester. What do you want? Why are you not at sea?" and he benthis keen eyes upon his visitor. 

"I'm waiting for the water-boat; but otherwise I'm ready to sail. "

"Well, what is it then?"

"I want to know if it is a fact that you will not employ married men ascaptains?"

"It is. "

"Will you make no exception in my favour?"

"No. "

"I have been five years in your employ as mate and master of the_Harvest Home_, and I am about to marry. "

"Do as you please, but the day you marry you leave my service. "

The young man's face flushed. "Then you can give me my money, and I'llleave it to-day. "

"Very well. Sit down, " replied the old man, reaching for his wages book. 

"There are sixty pounds due to you, " he said; "go on board and waitfor me. I'll be there at twelve o'clock with the new man, and we'll gothrough the stores and spare gear together. If everything is right, I'llpay your sixty pounds--if not, I'll deduct for whatever is short. Goodmorning. "

At two o'clock in the afternoon Captain Tom Lester landed at CircularQuay with his effects and sixty sovereigns in his pocket. 

Leaving his baggage at an hotel he took a cab, drove to a quietlittle street in the suburb of Darling Point, and stopped at a quaint, old-fashioned cottage surrounded by a garden. 

The door was opened by a tall, handsome girl of about twenty-two. 

"Tom!"

"Lucy!" he replied, mimicking her surprised tone. Then he became grave, and leading her to a seat, sat beside her, and took her hand. 

"Lucy, I have bad news. Rod way dismissed me this morning, and I haveleft the ship. "

The girl's eyes filled. "Never mind, Tom. You will get another. "

"Ah, perhaps I might have to wait a long time. I have another plan. Where is Mrs. Warren? I must tell her that our marriage must be putoff. "

"Why should it, Tom? I don't want it to be put off. And neither doesshe. "

"But I have no home for you. "

"We can live here until we have one of our own. Mother will be only toohappy. "

"Sure?"

"Absolutely, or I would not say it. "

"Will you marry me this day week?"

"Yes, dear--today if you wish. We have waited two years. "

"You're a brave little woman, Lucy, " and he kissed her. "Now, here ismy plan. I can raise nearly a thousand pounds. I shall buy the _Dolphin_steam tug--I can get her on easy terms of payment--fill her with coaland stores, and go to Kent's Group in Bass's Straits, and try andrefloat the _Braybrook Castle_. I saw the agents and the insurancepeople this morning--immediately after I left old Bodway. If I floather, it will mean a lot of money for me. If I fail, I shall at leastmake enough to pay me well by breaking her up. The insurance people knowme, and said very nice things to me. "

"Will you take me, Tom?"

"Don't tempt me, Lucy. It will be a rough life, living on an almostbarren, rocky island, inhabited only by black snakes, albatrosses, gullsand seals. "

"Tom, you _must_. Come, let us tell mother. "

Three days later they were married, and at six o'clock in the eveningthe newly-made bride was standing beside her husband on the bridgeof the _Dolphin_, which was steaming full speed towards Sydney Heads, loaded down almost to the waterways with coals and stores for fourmonths. 

CHAPTER II

Two months had passed, and the sturdy _Dolphin_ was lying snugly atanchor in a small, well-sheltered cove on one of the Kent's Group ofislands. Less than a hundred yards away was one of the rudest attemptsat a house ever seen--that is, externally--for it was built withwreckage from many ships and was roofed with tarpaulins and coarse"albatross" grass. Seated on a stool outside the building was Mrs. Lester, engaged in feeding a number of noisy fowls with broken-upbiscuit, but looking every now and then towards the _Braybrook Cattle_, which lay on the rocks a mile away with only her lower masts standing. It was nearing the time when her husband and his men would be returningfrom their usual day's arduous toil. She rose, shook the biscuit crumbsfrom her apron, and walking down to the _Dolphin_, anchored just infront of the house, called--"Manuel. "

A black, woolly head appeared above the companion way, and Manuel, the cook of the wrecking party, came on deck, jumped into the dinghyalongside and sculled ashore. 

"Manuel, you know that all the men are having supper in the houseto-night, " she said, as the man--a good-natured Galveston negro--steppedon shore. 

"Yes, ma'am. "

"Well, I've done all _my_ share of the cooking--I've made two batches ofbread, and the biggest sea pie you ever saw in your life, but I want twobuckets of water from the spring. "

"All right, ma'am. I'll tote 'em up fo' yo' right away. ". 

"Please do. And I'll come with you. Captain Lester and the otherswon't be here for half an hour yet, and I want to show you somecurious-looking stuff I saw on the beach this morning. It looks likedirty soap mixed with black shells, like fowl's beaks. "

The negro's face displayed a sudden interest. "Mixed with shells, yo'say, ma'am. Did yo' touch it?"

"No--it looks too unpleasant. "

The negro picked up the buckets, and, followed by Mrs. Lester, set outalong a path which led to a rocky pool of some dimensions filled withrain water. . "Leave the buckets till we come back, Manuel We have notfar to go. "

She led the way to the beach, and then turning to the left walked alongthe hard, white sand till they came to a bar of low rocks covered withsea-moss and lichen. Lying against the seaward face of the rock wasa pile of driftweed, kelp, crayfish shells, &c, and half buried in_débris_ was the object that had aroused her curiosity. 

"There it is, Manuel, " she said, pointing to an irregularly-shaped massof a mottled grey, yellow and brown substance, looking like soap, mixedwith cinders and ashes. 

The negro whipped out his sheath knife, plunged it into the mass, thenwithdrew it, pressed the flat of the blade to his nostrils, and thenuttered a yell of delight, clapped his hands, took off his cap andtossed it in the air, and rolled his eyes in such an extraordinarymanner, that Mrs. Lester thought he had become suddenly insane. 

"Yo' am rich woman now, ma'am, " he said in his thick, fruity voice. "Datam ambergris. I know it well 'nuff. I was cook on a whaleship fo' fiveyears, and have handled little bits of ambergris two or three times, butno one in de world, I believe, ever see such a lump like dis. "

"Is it worth anything then?"

"Worth anything, ma'am! It am worth twenty-two shillings de ounce!"

He knelt down and began clearing away the weed till the whole mass wasexposed, placed his arms around it, and partly lifted it. 

"Dere is more'n a hundredweight, " he chuckled, as he looked up at Mrs. Lester, who was now also feeling excited. "Look at dis now. "

He cut out a slice of the curious-looking oleaginous stuff, struck amatch and applied the light. A pale yellow flame was the result, andwith it there came a strong but pleasant smell. 

Mrs. Lester had never heard of ambergris to her recollection, but Manuelnow enlightened her as to its uses--the principal being as a developerof the strength of all other perfumes. 

Such a treasure could not be left where it was--exposed to the risk ofbeing carried away by the tide so the negro at once went to work withhis knife, catting it into three pieces, each of which he carried tothe house, and put into an empty barrel. Then he returned and carefullysearched for and picked up the minutest scraps which had broken offwhilst he was cutting the "find" through. 

Just at sunset, Lester and his gang of burly helpers returned tiredand hungry, but highly elated, for they had succeeded in getting out anunusual amount of valuable cargo. 

"We've had great luck to-day, Lucy, " cried Lester, as he strode over thecoarse grass in his high sea boots; "and, all going well, we shall makethe first attempt to pull the ship off the day after to-morrow. "

"And I have had luck too, " said his wife, her fair, sweet face, nowbronzed by the sun, glowing as she spoke. "But come inside first, andthen I'll tell you. "

The interior of the dwelling consisted of two rooms only--a smallbedroom and a large living room which was also used as a kitchen. Itwas quite comfortably furnished with handsome chairs, lounges, chests ofdrawers, and other articles taken from the cabin of the stranded ship. The centre of the room was occupied by a large deal table made by oneof the men, and a huge fire of drift timber blazed merrily at one end. Manuel was laying the table, his black face beaming with sup-pressedexcitement, and the rough, sea-booted wreckers entered one by one andsat down. Mrs. Lester bade them smoke if they wished. 

"Well, boys, " said their leader to the wrecking party--of whom therewere thirty--"we all deserve a drink before supper. Help yourselves towhatever you like, " and he pointed to a small side-table covered withbottles of spirits and glasses. Then Lucy, after they had all satisfiedthemselves, walked over to the cask containing her "find, " and standingbeside it, asked if they would all come and look at the contents and seeif they knew what it was. Lester, thinking she had succeeded in catchinga young seal, looked on with an amused smile. 

One by one the men came and looked inside the cask, felt the greasy masswith their horny fingers, and each shook his head until the tenth man, who, the moment he saw it, gave a shout. 

"Why, I'm blest if it ain't ambow-grease!"

Lester started. "Ambergris! Nonsense!" and then he too uttered a cryof astonishment as a second man--an old whaler--darted in front of him, and, pinching off a piece of the "find, " smelt it. 

"Hamble-grist it is, sir, " he cried, "and the cask is chock-full of it. "

"Turn it out on the floor, " said Lester, who knew the enormous value ofambergris, "and let us get a good look at it. Light all the lamps, Lucy. "

The lamps were lit, and then Manuel repeated his experiment by burninga piece, amid breathless excitement. No further doubt could exist, andthen Manuel, taking a spring balance (weighing up to 50 lbs. ) fromthe wall, hung it to a rafter, whilst the men put the lot into threeseparate bags and suspended them to the hook in turn. 

"Forty-five pounds, " cried the mate of the Dolphin, as the first bag washooked on. "Come on with the next one. "

"Thirty-nine pounds. "

"_And_ thirty-four pounds makes a hundred and eighteen, " said Lester, bending down and eagerly examining the dial. 

"How much is it worth, skipper?" asked the tug's engineer. 

"Not less than £1 an ounce----"

"No, sah, " cried Manuel, with an _ex cathedra_ air, "twenty-twoshillings, sah. Dat's what the captain of de _Fanny Long_ Hobart Townwhaleship got fo' a piece eleven poun' weight in Sydney last June. AndI hear de boys sayin' dat he would hab got £1 5s. Only dat dere was apower of squids' beaks in it--and dere's not many in dis lot, so it'sgwine to bring more. "

He explained that the pieces of black shell, which looked like brokenmussel shells, were in reality the beaks of the squid, upon which thesperm whale feeds. Then, for the benefit of those of the party, he andthe two other ex-whalemen described the cause of the formation of thispeculiar substance in the body of the sperm whale. 

Lester took pencil and paper and made a rapid calculation. 

"Boys, we'll say that this greasy-looking staff is worth only a pound anounce--though I don't doubt that Manuel is right. Well, at £1 an ounce, it comes to eighteen hundred and eighty-eight pounds. "

"Hurrah for Mrs. Lester!" cried Lindley, the mate. 

"She has brought us luck from the first, and now she has luck herself. "

The men cheered her again and again, for there was not one of them thathad not a rough affection for their captain's violet-eyed wife. Theyhad admired her for her pluck even in making the voyage to this desolatespot, and her constant cheerfulness and her kindness and attention innursing three of them who had been seriously ill cemented their feelingsof devotion to her. There was a happy supper party in "Wreck House"---asLucy had named her strangely-built abode--that night, and it was notuntil the small hours of the morning that the men went off to sleep onthe tug, and left Lucy and her husband to themselves. 

"I'm too excited to sleep now, Tom, " she said. "Come, I must show youthe place where I found it. It is not a bit cold. And oh! Tom, I'mbeginning to love this lonely island, and the rough life, and thetame seals, and the wild goats, and the fowls, and black Manuel, and, and--oh, everything! And look, Tom dear, over there at the lighthouseat Deal Island. I really believe the light was never shining as it isto-night. Oh! all the world is bright to me. "

CHAPTER III

Two days later, and after nearly fifteen weeks of arduous andunremitting labour, there came, one calm night, a glorious spring tide, and the _Dolphin_, under a full head of steam, and with her stout, broadframe quivering and throbbing and panting, tugged away at the giant hulkof the stranded ship; and the ship's own donkey engine and winch wheezedand groaned as it slowly brought in inch by inch a heavy coir hawsermade fast to a rock half a cable length ahead of the tug. And then the_Braybrook Castle_ began to move, and the wrecking gang cheered andcheered until they were hoarse, and the second engineer of the tug andtwo stokers, stripped to their waists, with the perspiration streamingdown their roasting bodies, answered with a yell--and then, lying wellover on her starboard bilge, the great ship slid off stern first intodeep water, and Tom Lester's heart leapt within him with joy and pride. 

Lucy, as excited as any one else, was on the bridge with him, her faceaglow, and her hand on the lever of the engine-room telegraph. 

"Half-speed, Lucy. "

As the bell clanged loudly, and the heart of the sturdy tug beat lessfrantically, the wrecking gang on board the ship under Lindley slippedtheir end of the coir hawser from the winch barrel, and worked likemadmen to get the ship on an even keel by cutting adrift the lashings ofseveral hundred barrels of cement (part of the cargo) which were piledup on the starboard side of the main deck, and letting them plungeoverboard As the ship righted herself inch by inch, and finally stood upon an even keel, Lester made an agreed-upon signal--blowing his whistlethrice--for Lindley to stand by his anchors, which were all ready to letgo. 

His device of getting up the barrels of cement from the lower hold, andstowing them against the iron deck stanchions (having previouslycut away the bulwark plates) so as to give the vessel a big cant tostarboard, had answered perfectly; for, high as was the tide that night, the _Dolphin_, though so powerful, could not have moved a ship of 1, 500tons with her keel still partly sustaining her weight on the rooks onwhich she had struck. By canting her as he had done, she had actuallyfloated--and no more than floated--an hour before the tide was at itsfull. 

Half an hour later the _Braybrook Castle_ had been towed round to alittle bay just abreast of "Wreck House, " and the tug's engines stopped. 

"All ready, Lindley?" shouted Lester. 

"All ready sir. "

"Then let go. "

At a tap from Lindley's hammer, the great anchor plunged down, and theflaked out cable roared as it flew through the hawse-pipes, drowning theloud "Hurrah" of the men on board. 

"What is it, Lindley?" cried Lester, "ten fathoms?"

"Twelve, sir. "

"Give her another twenty-five. It's good holding ground and there isplenty of room for her to swing. Lindley!"

"Yes, sir. "

"We have had a bit of good luck, eh?"

"Yes, sir. That is because Mrs. Lester is on the tug. She brings us goodluck. "

Lester laughed and turned to his wife. "Do you hear that, Lucy?"

She was gazing intently over to the westward, but turned to him themoment he spoke. 

"Tom, I can see a blue light over there. .. . Ah, see, there is a rocket!What is it?"

Lester took his night glasses and looked. 

"There is a ship ashore somewhere between here and the Deal Islandlight, " he said, and then he rang, "Go astern, " to the engine-room. 

"Lindley, " he called as soon as the tug backed alongside the _BraybrookCastle_, "there is a ship ashore about four miles away from us to thewestward. My wife noticed her signals a few minutes ago. "

"More salvage, sir, " bawled Lindley, "Mrs. Lester is bringing us moreluck. What's to be, sir?"

"I want ten or a dozen men, and I'll go and see what I can do. You areall right, aren't you?"

"Right as rain, sir. "

Fifteen, instead of a dozen men slid down a line on to the deck of thetug, and Lucy, at a nod from her husband, turned on "Full steam ahead, "and Lester whistled down the speaking-tube. 

"Hallo!" was the response. 

"Give it to her, Patterson, for all she's worth. There is a shipashore about four miles away. She is burning blue lights and sending uprockets. "

Five minutes later, the Dolphin was tearing through the water at her topspeed--eleven knots--and Patterson came up on the bridge. 

"Who saw the seegnals first?" he inquired. 

"I did, Mr. Patterson, " said Lucy. 

"Ay, I thoct as much, Mistress Leslie. Even that lazy, sheeftless Irishfireman loon ae mine, Rafferty, said ye'd bring us mair guid luck. " Thenhe dived below again to the engines so dear to his Scotsman's heart. 

The night was dark, but calm and windless, and the panting tug tore herway through a sea as smooth as glass towards where the ghastly glare ofthe last blue light had been seen. Twenty minutes later, Lester caughtsight of the distressed ship. She was lying on her beam ends, and almostat the same moment came a loud hail--

"Steamer ahoy!"

"Clang!" went the telegraph, and the _Dolphin's_ engines stopped, andthen went astern, just in time to save her from crashing into a boatcrowded with men; a second boat was close astern of the first. They camealongside, and the occupants swarmed over the tug's low bulwarks, and anold greybearded man made his way up to Lester. 

"My cowardly crew have forced me to abandon my ship. We were caught ina squall yesterday, and thrown on our beam ends. " Then he fell down in afit. 

"Veer those boats astern, " cried Lester to his own men, "I'm going tohook on to that ship!"

Bailey, one of his best men, gave a yell. 

"More luck, boys. Mrs. Lester!"

As the poor captain was carried off the bridge into the little cabin, the _Dolphin_ went ahead, and in a quarter of an hour, Bailey and hismen had cut away the masts and the tug had the ship in tow. 

At daylight next morning Lester brought her into the little bay wherethe _Braybrook Castle_ lay, and Bailey anchored her safely. 

When Lester boarded her he found she was the _Harvest Queen_, sistership to the _Harvest Maid_, _Harvester_, and his own last command, the_Harvest Home_, all ships of 1, 500 tons, and belonging to Captain JamesRodway. 

"Why didn't you cut away her masts?" he said to the unfortunate captainlater on. 

"Ah, you don't know my owner, " the old man replied, "and besides that, Icould have righted the ship if my crew had stuck to me. But after beingeighteen hours on our beam ends, they took fright and lowered the boats. I'm a ruined man. "

"Not at all. You have done your duty and I'll give you command ofanother ship to-day--the _Braybrook Castle_. You have nothing further todo with the _Harvest Queen_. She was an abandoned ship. She's mine now. Salvage, you know. "

The old man nodded his head. "Yes, I know that. And you'll make a potoat of her. "

"What is she worth?"

"Ship and cargo are worth £80, 000. We loaded a general cargo in London. "

"That will be a bit of a knock for Rodway. " "Do you know him?" askedCaptain Blake in surprise. 

"I do indeed! I was master of the _Harvest Home_. Now come ashore. Mywife is getting as something to eat. "

CHAPTER IV

At the end of another four weeks, the _Braybrook Castle_, withthree-fourths of the cargo she had brought from London, sailed forSydney under the command of Captain Blake of the _Harvest Queen_, and the _Harvest Queen_ under jury masts, and with her valuable cargoundamaged, was ready to sail, escorted by the _Dolphin_ on the followingday, with Lindley as master. 

The last night at "Wreck House" was even a merrier and happier one thanthat on which the wrecking party celebrated Lucy's "find. " But yet Lucyherself felt a little sad at saying farewell to this wild spot, whereamid the roar of the ever-beating surf, and the clamour of the gullsand terns, she had spent the four happiest months of her life. The roughfood, the fresh sea-air, and the active life had, Lester declared, onlyserved to increase her beauty, and she herself had never felt so strongand in such robust health before. Almost every day in fine weather shehad taken a walk to some part of the interior of the island, or alongthe many white beaches, filling a large basket with sea-birds' eggs, orcollecting the many beautiful species of cowries and other sea-shellswith which the beaches were strewn. Years before, another wrecking partyhad left some goats on the island, and these had thriven and increasedamazingly. Her husband's men had shot a great number for food, andcaptured three or four, which supplied them with milk, and these latter, with their playful kids, and a number of fowls which had been broughtfrom Sydney in the _Dolphin_, together with a pair of pet baby seals, made up what she called her "farmyard. " On one part of the island therewas a dense thicket of low trees, the resort not only of hundreds ofwild goats, but of countless thousands of terns and other sea-birds, whohad made it their breeding ground. It was situated at the head of a tinylandlocked bay, the beach of which was covered with the weather-wornspars and timbers of some great ship which had gone ashore there perhapsthirty or forty years before. The whole of the foreshores of the island, however, were alike in that respect, for it had proved fatal to many agood ship, even from the time that gallant navigator Matthew Flindershad first discovered the group. 

On the morning of the last day of the stay of the wrecking party on theisland, Lucy set out for this place, remembering that on her last visitshe had left a basket of cowries there. Bidding her beware of blacksnakes, for the place was noted for these deadly reptiles, Lester wentoff on board the _Harvest Queen_. 

An hour afterwards, as Lester was engaged with Lindley in the ship'scabin, a man on deck called down the skylight to him. 

"Here is Mrs. Lester coming back, sir. She's running, and is calling foryou. "

With a dreadful fear that she had been bitten by a snake, Lester rushedon deck, jumped into a boat, and was ashore in a few minutes. Lucy, tooexhausted to come down to the boat and meet him, had sat down in frontof the now nearly empty house. 

"I'm all right, Tom, " she panted, as he ran up to her, "but I've had aterrible fright, " and she could not repress a shudder. "I have just seenthree skeletons in the thicket scrub, and all about them are strewn allsorts of things, and there are two or three small kegs, one of which isfilled with money, for the end has burst and the money has partly runout on the sand. "

Lester sprang to his feet, and called out to the two men who had pulledhim ashore to come to him. 

"Mrs. Lester's luck again!" he cried. 

"Mrs. Lester's luck again!" bawled one of the men to the rest of thewrecking party on board the _Harvest Queen_, and in an instant the crywas taken up, and then came a loud cheer, as, disregarding discipline, all hands tumbled into a boat alongside, frantically eager to learn whathad occurred. 

Lester waited for them, and then Lucy gave a more detailed account ofhow she made her discovery. 

"I found my basket where I had left it, and had just sat down to takeoff my shoes, which were filled with sand, when a goat with two of thesweetest little kids you ever saw in your life came suddenly out frombehind a rock. The kids were not more than a day or two old, and Idetermined to catch at least one of them to take home. The moment themother saw me she ran off with her babies, and I followed. They divedinto the thicket, and led me _such_ a dance, for they ran much fasterthan I thought they could. 

"I had never been so far into the scrub before, and felt a little bitfrightened--it was so dark and quiet--but I was too excited to give up, so on I sped until the nanny and kids ran into what seemed a tunnel inthe thick scrub. It is really a road made by the goats and is only aboutthree feet high, the branches and creepers making a regular archwayoverhead. I stooped down and followed, and in a few minutes came to alittle space which was open to the sky; for the sunlight was so brightthat, coming out of the dark tunnel place, I was quite dazzled for a fewmoments, and had to put my hands over my eyes. 

"When I looked about, I saw that the ground was strewed with all sortsof things--rotten boards and boxes, and ships' blocks, and empty bottlesand demijohns, with all the cane covering gone. Then I saw the threekegs, and noticed one had burst open or rotted away, and that it wasfilled with what looked like very large and dirty nickel pennies. I wentto it and took some up, and saw they were crown pieces! Of course, I wasat once wildly excited, and thought no more of the dear little kiddies, when I heard one of them cry out--quite near--and saw it, lying downexhausted, about ten yards away. I was running over to it when I sawthose three dreadful skeletons. They are lying quite close to eachother, near some brass cannons and a lot of rusty ironwork. I was soterrified that I forgot all about the poor kid, and--and, well, that isall; and here I am with my skirt in rags, and my face scratched, and myhair loose, and 'all of a bobbery, ' as Manuel says. "

"Boys, " said Lester, "I'm pretty sure I know how those poor fellows'bones come to be there. An East Indiaman--the _Mountjoy_--was lostsomewhere on the Kent Group about sixty years ago; and I have read thatshe had a lot of specie on board. Now, as soon as Mrs. Lester has resteda bit, we'll start. "

"I'll carry you, ma'am, " said Bailey, a herculean creature of 6 ft. 6in. , and stepping into "Wreck House" he brought out a chair, seatedLucy on it, and amidst applause and laughter, lifted it up on his mightyshoulders as if she was no more weight than the chair itself. 

She guided them to the spot, and within an hour, not only the threesmall casks--all of which were filled with English silver money, butthe contents of two others, which were found lying partly buried in thesandy soil, were brought to the house. And then began the exciting taskof counting the coins, which took some time, and when Lester announcedthe result, a rousing cheer broke from the men. 

"Six thousand, two hundred and seven pounds, four shillings, boys; allwith the blessed picture of good old George the Third on them. Lucy, mydear, let us drink your health. "

Lucy drew him aside for a minute or two ere she complied with hisrequest, and with sparkling eyes she talked earnestly to him. 

"Of course I will, dear, " he said. 

"Now, hoys, " he cried, as Lucy brought out two bottles of brandy, andsome cups and glasses, "let us drink my wife's health. She has broughtus good luck. And she and I are dividing a thousand pounds between you, with an extra fifty for Manuel; for I'm pretty well certain that theHome Government can't claim any royalty. "

The rough wreckers cheered and cheered again, as they drank to "Mrs. Lester's Luck. " They were all being paid high wages, and were worththem, for they had toiled manfully, and the most pleasant relations hadalways existed between them and Lester. 

Immediately after breakfast on the following morning the anchors of the_Harvest Queen_ were weighed to the raising chanty of--

"Hurrah, my boys, we're Homeward Bound!" and then the _Dolphin_, withLester on the bridge and Lucy beside him at the telegraph, went ahead, and tautened out the tow line, and Lindley made all sail on his stumpyjury masts. 

Seventeen days later, the gallant little tug pulled the _Harvest Queen_into Sydney Harbour. "Mrs. Lester's Luck, " had been with them the wholevoyage, for from the time they had left Kent's Group, till they passedbetween Sydney Heads, nothing but fine weather and favourable winds hadbeen experienced. 

As the _Dolphin_, with the hulking _Harvest Queen_ behind her, came upthe smooth waters of the harbour to an anchorage off Garden Island, bigBailey, who was standing beside Lester and Lucy on the bridge, uttered ayell of delight. 

"Mrs. Lester's luck again, by all that's holy! There is the _BraybrookCastle_ at anchor over in Neutral Bay!"

It was indeed the _Braybrook Castle_, which had arrived only one daypreviously, and when Lester went on shore a few hours later, he foundthat he was a richer man by over £17, 000 than when he had left Sydneyless than six months before. 

And "Mrs. Lester's Luck" brought happiness to many other people besideherself and her husband in the city of the Southern Sea, and when a yearlater, in England, she stood on a stage under the bows of a gallant shipof two thousand tons, built to Lester's order, and broke a bottle ofAustralian wine against her steel plates, she named her "The Lucy'sLuck!"

BULL-DOGS OF THE SEA

Not many sea-going people--outside of professional whalemen orsealers--know much about the "killer" and his habits, and still lessof his appearance. Yet this curious whale (for the killer is one of theminor-toothed whales) is known all over the world, though nowhere isit more plentiful than along the eastern and southern coasts of theAustralian continent. In the colder seas of the northern part of theglobe it is not uncommon; and only last year one was playing havoc, it was stated, with the fishermen's nets off the northeastern coast ofIreland. 

On the eastern seaboard of Australia, however, the killers can bewatched at work, even from the shore, particularly from any bluff orheadland from which a clear view can be obtained of the sea beneath, andshould there be a westerly wind blowing, their slightest movements maybe observed; particularly when they are "cruising, " i. E. , watching forthe approach of a "pod" of either humpback or fin-back whales. Duringthe prevalence of westerly winds the sea water becomes very clear, soclear that every rock and stone may be discerned at a depth of sixor eight fathoms, and the killers, when waiting for their prey, willfrequently come in directly beneath the cliffs and sometimes remainstationary for half an hour at a time, rolling over and over, or sunningthemselves. 

First of all, let me describe the killer's appearance. They range inlength from ten to twenty feet, have a corresponding girth, and show thegreatest diversity of colouring and markings. Their anatomy is very muchthat of the sperm whale--the one member of the cetacean family whichthey do not attempt to attack on account of his enormous strength andformidable teeth--and they "breach, " "spout" and "sound" like otherwhales. The jaws are set with teeth of from one or two inches in length, deeply imbedded in the jawbone, and when two of these creatures succeedin fastening themselves to the lips of a humpback, even fifty feet inlength, they can always prevent him from "sounding" and escaping intodeep water, for they cling to the unfortunate monster with bull-dogtenacity, leaving others of their party to rip the blubber from hissides and pendulous belly. 

On the coast of New South Wales--particularly at Twofold Bay, wherethere is a shore whaling station, there are two "pods" or communitiesof killers which have never left the vicinity within the memory of theoldest inhabitant, and indeed they were first noticed and written aboutin the year 1790. At other places on the Australian coast there arepermanent pods of ten, fifteen or twenty, but those at Twofold Bay arequite famous, and every individual member of them is well-known, notonly to the local whalemen, but to many of the other residents ofTwofold Bay as well, and it would go hard with the man who attempted toeither kill or injure one of any of the members of the two pods, for thewhalemen would be unable to carry on their business were it not forthe assistance rendered to them by their friends the killers, whosescientific name, by the way, is _Orca Gladiator_--and a more fittingappellation could never have been applied. 

Now as to the colouring and markings--which are not only diverse, butexceedingly curious. Some are of a uniform black, brown, dark grey, ordirty cream; others are black with either streaks or irregular patchesof yellow, white or grey: others again are covered with patches ofblack, white or yellow, ranging in size from half a dozen inches indiameter to nearly a couple of feet. One which the present writer foundlying dead on the reef of Nukulaelae Island, in the Ellice Group, wasalmost a jet black with the exception of some poorly defined whitemarkings on the dorsal fin and belly; another which he saw accidentallykilled by a bomb fired at a huge whale off the Bampton Shoals, was of areddish-brown, with here and there almost true circular blotches of purewhite. This poor fellow was twelve feet in length, and his death wascaused by his frantic greediness to get at the whale and take his tollof blubber. The whale was struck late in the day, and the sea was sorough that the officer in charge, after having twice tried to get up anduse his lance, determined to end the matter with a bomb before darknesscame on. At this time there was a "pod" of seven killers running side byside with the whale and endeavouring to fasten to his lips whenever hecame to the surface; and, just as the officer had succeeded in gettingwithin firing distance and discharging the bomb, poor _Gladiator_ camein the way, and was killed by the shot, much to the regret of the boat'screw. 

For, as I have said, the whalemen--and particularly the shore whalemen, _i. E_. , those who do their whaling from a station on shore--regard, andwith good reason, the killers as invaluable allies. Especially is thisso in the case of the Twofold Bay shore whalers, for out of every tenwhales killed during the season, whether humpbacks, "right" whales, orfinbacks, three-fourths are captured through the pack of killers seizingand literally holding them till the boats come up and end the mightycreatures' miseries. 

Towards the end of winter an enormous number of whales appear on theAustralian coast, coming from the cold Antarctic seas, and travellingnorthward along the land towards the breeding grounds--the Bamptonand Bellona Shoals and the Chesterfield Groups, situated between NewCaledonia and the Australian mainland, between 17° and 20° S. Themajority of these whales strike the land about Cape Howe and Gabo Islandat the boundary line between New South Wales and Victoria--sixty milessouth of Twofold Bay. Most of them are finbacks, though these are alwaysaccompanied by numbers of humpbacks and a few "right" whales--the mostvaluable of all the southern cetacea except the spermaceti or cachalot. The latter, however, though they will travel in company with the flyingfinback and the timid humpback and "right" whale, has no fear of thekillers. He is too enormously strong, and could crush even a full-grownkiller to a pulp between his mighty jaws were he molested, andconsequently the killers give the cachalot a wide berth as a dangerouscustomer. The finback, however, swift and lengthy as he is, seldommanages to escape once he is "bailed up, " and having no weapon ofdefence except his flukes (for he is one of the baleen or toothlesswhales), he has but one chance of his life, and that is to dive to sucha depth that his assailants have to let go their hold of him in order toascend to the surface to breathe. 

The finback, I must mention, although the most plentiful of all thewhale family, and sometimes attaining the length of ninety feet, isnever attacked by whale-boats when he is "loose, " _i. E. _, free, andis only captured when his struggles with the ferocious killers have soexhausted him that a boat can approach and dart a harpoon into or lancehim. The reason for this immunity of primary attack by boats is that thefinback is in the first place of little value when compared to eitherthe humpback or "right" whale, for the coating of blubber is thin, andthe plates of baleen (or whalebone) he possesses are very short; and inthe second place he is, although so timid a creature, too dangerous tobe struck with a harpoon, for he would take the entire whale-line out ofthree or four boats and then get away with it after all, for it is theswiftest of all the cetacean family, and all whalemen say that noone but a stark lunatic would dream of putting an iron into a loose"finner, " such as ranges the Southern Ocean. I was told, however, ofone well-authenticated case off the Azores, where a reckless Portugueseshore-whaler struck a bull finback, which, after taking the lines fromfour boats (220 fathoms in each) towed them for three hours and then gotaway, the line having to be cut owing to the creature sounding to suchan enormous depth that no more line was available. 

The shore whaling parties at Twofold Bay, however, run no risks of thissort. They let their friends, the Gladiators, do most of the work, andfind that "fin-backing" under these circumstances is fairly profitable, inasmuch as they can tow the carcase ashore, and "try out" the blubberat their leisure. 

But, in a case where one of these finbacks is held by killers, it canbe approached, as I have said, by shore boats and killed, as is thepractice of the Twofold Bay whalemen. 

Let the writer now quote, with the publisher's permission, from a workhe wrote some years ago describing the way the killers "work in" withtheir human friends. In this particular instance, however, it was ahumpback whale, but as _Orca Gladiator_ treats the humpback and "right"whale as he does the lengthy "finner, " the extract from the article isquite applicable. 

"Let us imagine a warm, sunny day in August at Twofold Bay. The man whois on the look-out at the abandoned old lighthouse built by one Ben Boydon the southern headland fifty years ago, paces to and fro on the grassysward, stopping now and then to scan the wide expanse of ocean withhis glass, for the spout of a whale is hard to discern at more thantwo miles if the weather is misty or rainy. But if the creature is in aplayful mood, and 'breaches'--that is, springs bodily out of the water, and falling back, sends up a white volume of foam and spray, like thedischarge of a submarine mine, you can see it eight miles away. 

"The two boats are always in readiness at the trying-out works, a mileor so up the harbour; so too are the killers, and the look-out man, walking to the verge of the cliff, gazes down. 

"There they are, cruising slowly up and down, close in shore, spoutinglazily, and showing their wet, gleaming backs and gaff-topsail-likedorsal fins as they rise, roll, and dive again. .. . Some of them havenicknames, and each is well known to his human friends. 

"Presently the watchman sees, away to the southward, a white, mistypuff, then another, and another. In an instant he brings his glass tobear. 'Humpback!' Quickly two flags flutter from the flagpole, and afire 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 cryof 'Rush, ho, lads! Humpbacks in sight, steering north-west! Rush andtumble into the boats and away!'

"Round the south head sweeps the first boat, the second following moreleisurely, for she is only a 'pickup' or relief, in case the first is'fluked' and the crew are tossed high in air, with their boat crushedinto matchwood, or meets with some other disaster. And as the leadingboat rises to the long ocean swell of the offing, the killers close inround her on either side, just keeping clear of the sweep of the oars, and 'breaching' and leaping and spouting with the anticipative zest ofthe coming bloody fray. 

"'Easy, lads, easy!' says the old boat-header; 'they are coming rightdown on us. Billy has right. They're humpbacks, sure enough!'

"The panting oarsmen pull a slower stroke, and then, as they watch thegreat savage creatures which swim alongside, they laugh in the mirthlessmanner peculiar to most native-born Australians, for suddenly, with alast sharp spurt of vapour, the killers dive and disappear into the darkblue beneath; for they have heard the whales, and, as is their custom, have gone ahead of the boat, rushing swiftly on below fully fiftyfathoms deep. Fifteen minutes later they rise to the surface in themidst of the humpbacks, and half a square acre of ocean is turned into awhite, swirling cauldron of foam and leaping spray. The bull-dogs of thesea have seized the largest whale of the pod or school--a bull--and areholding him for the boat and for the deadly lance of his human foes. The rest of the humpbacks rise high their mighty flukes and 'sound'a hundred--two hundred--fathoms down, and, speeding seaward, leave theunfortunate bull to his dreadful fate. 

("And in truth it is a dreadful fate, and the writer of this sketch cannever forget one day, as he and a little girl of six watched, from agrassy headland on the coast of New South Wales, the slaughter of amonstrous whale by a drove of killers, that the child wept and shudderedand hid her face against his shoulder. )

"Banging swiftly alongside of him, from his great head down to the'small' of his back, the fierce killers seize his body in their savagejaws and tear great strips of blubber from off his writhing sides inhuge mouthfuls, and then jerking the masses aside, take another andanother bite. In vain he sweeps his flukes with fearful strokes fromside to side--the bull-dogs of the sea come not within their range; invain 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 threeare underneath him tearing and riving at the great rough corrugations ofhis grey-white belly; whilst others, with a few swift, vertical strokesof their flukes, draw back for fifty feet or so, charge him amidships, and strike him fearful blows on the ribs with their bony heads. Roundand round, in ever-narrowing circles as his strength fails, the torturedhumpback 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 uphis harpoon. A minute later it flies from his hand, and is buried deepinto the body of the quivering animal, cutting through the thick blubberas 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 and seizes hiskeen-edged lance. But 'humpy' is almost spent, and though by a mightyeffort he 'ups flukes' and sounds, he soon rises, for the killersthrust him upwards to the surface again. Then the flashing lance--two, three swift thrusts into his 'life' a gushing torrent of hot, darkblood, and he rolls oyer on his side, an agonised trembling quiversthrough his vast frame, the battle is oyer and his life is gone. 

"And now comes the curious and yet absolutely truly described final partthat the killers play in this ocean tragedy. They, the moment the whaleis dead, close around him, and fastening their teeth into his body, by main strength bear it to the bottom. Here--if they have not alreadyaccomplished it--they tear out the tongue, and eat about one-third ofthe blubber. In from thirty-six to forty hours the carcase will againrise to the surface, and as, before he was taken down, the whalemenhaye attached a line and buoy to the body, its whereabouts are easilydiscerned from the look-out on the headland; the boats again put off andtow it ashore to the trying-out works. The killers, though they haye hadtheir fill of blubber, accompany the boats to the head of the bay andkeep off the sharks, which would otherwise strip off all the remainingblubber from the carcase before it had reached the shore. But once theboats are in the shallow water, the killers stop, and then with a final'puff! puff!' of farewell to their human friends, turn and head seawardto resume their ceaseless watch and patrol of the ocean. 

"The killers never hurt a man. Time after time haye boats been stove inor smashed into splinters by a whale, either by an accidental blow fromhis head or a sudden lateral sweep of his monstrous flukes, and thecrew left struggling in the water or clinging to the oars and pieces ofwreckage; and the killers have swum up to, looked at, and smelt them, but never have they touched a man with intent to do him harm. Andwherever the killers are, the sharks are not, for Jack Shark dreads akiller as the devil is said to dread holy water. Sometimes I haveseen 'Jack' make a rush in between the killers, and rip off a piece ofhanging blubber, but he will carefully watch his chance to do so. "

 * * * * *

One of the most experienced whaling masters of New Bedford, with whomthe writer once cruised from the Gilbert Islands to Tap in the WesternCarolines, told him that on one occasion when he was coming from theshore to his ship, which was lying to off the Chatham Islands, the boatwas followed by a pack of five killers. They swam within touch of theoars, much to the amusement of the crew, and presently several of whatare called "right whale" porpoises made their appearance, racing alongahead of the boat, whereupon Captain Allen went for'ard and picked upa harpoon, for the flesh of this rare variety of porpoise is highlyprized. The moment he struck the fish it set off at a great rate, butnot quick enough to escape the killers, for though the porpoise wasmuch the swifter fish (were it loose), the weight of the boat and fiftyfathoms of line was a heavy handicap. As quickly as possible the menbegan hauling up to the stricken fish so that Allen might give it thelance, when to their astonishment the killers seized it and literallytore it to pieces in a few minutes. 

"If ever I felt mad enough to put an iron into a 'killer' it was then, "he said, "but I couldn't do it. And very glad of it I was afterwards, for a week later I had two boats stove in by a whale, and of course, hadI hurt one of those beggars of killers, the whole crew would have saidit was only a just retribution. "

"REVENGE"

On that fever-stricken part of the coast of the great island of NewBritain, lying between the current-swept headland of Gape Stephens andthe deep forest-clad shores of Kabaira Bay, there is a high grassy bluffdotted here and there with isolated coco-palms leaning northward to thesea beneath, their broad branches restlessly whipping and bending tothe boisterous trade wind. On the western side of the bluff there is anarrow strip of littoral, less than half a mile in width, and thicklyclothed with a grove of betel nut, through which the clear waters of amountain stream flow swiftly out oceanwards across a rocky bar. 

Near where the margin of the grove of straight, grey-boled betels touchthe steep side of the bluff, there may be seen the outline of a low wallof coral stones, forming three sides of a square, and bound and knittogether with vines, creepers, and dank, ill-smelling moss--the growth, decay, and re-growth of three score years. The ground which it enclosesis soft and swampy, for the serried lines of betel-trees, with theirthick, broad crowns, prevent either sun or wind from penetrating to thespot, and the heavy tropical rains never permit it to dry. It is a dark, dismal-looking place, only visited by the savage inhabitants when theycome to collect the areca-nuts, and its solitude is undisturbed saveby the flapping of the hornbill's wings as he carries food to hisimprisoned mate, or the harsh screech of a white cockatoo flyingoverhead to the mountain forest beyond. 

Yet sixty years ago it was not so, for then on the shore facing the barstood a native village, and within the now rained wall were the housesof three white men, who from their doorways could see the blue Pacific, and the long curve of coast line with cape and headland and white lineof reef stretching away down to the westward in the misty tropic haze. 

Walk inside the old, broken walls, and you will see, half-buried in themoist, steaming, and malarious ground, some traces of those who dweltthere--a piece of chain cable, two or three whaler's trypots, a rottenand mossgrown block or two, only the hardwood sheaves of which haveresisted the destroying influences of the climate; a boat anchor, andfarther towards the creek, the mouldering remains of a capstan, from thedrumhead holes of which long grey-green pendants of moss droop down uponthe weather-worn, decaying barrel, like the scanty ragged beard thatfalls on the chest of some old man worn out with poverty and toil. 

That is all that one may see now; for the dense, evergrowing jungle haslong since hidden or rotted all else that was left. 

 * * * * *

The three men were named Ford, Adams, and Stenhouse. They were_beche-de-mer_ fishers, and for nearly a year had been living in thissavage spot--the only white men inhabiting the great island, whosenorthern coast line sweeps in an irregular half-moon curve for morethan three hundred miles from Cape Stephens to within sight of thelofty mountains of New Guinea. In pursuit of their avocation, death fromdisease, or from the spears or clubs of the treacherous, betel-chewing, stark-naked cannibals among whom they dwelt was ever near, but to themen of their iron resolution and dauntless courage that mattered not. Two years' labour meant for them a large sum of money--enough to enablethem to return with their wives and families and native dependents, tothose more restful islands in the Western Carolines whence they had comea year before. 

All three men were employed by one firm in Singapore, whose ship hadbrought them with their families and some thirty or forty natives of Yapto New Britain. Nine months after their landing, a small schooner hadcalled to replenish their supplies, and ship the cured trepang, whichby the most assiduous labour and daring enterprise they had accumulated;and when this story opens, the schooner had been gone some weeks, andthey and their native workers were preparing their boats for anothercruise along the great barrier reef of New Britain. 

Two of these men, Adams and Stenhouse, were old and tried comrades, andin their rough way, devoted to each other. Stenhouse, the elder ofthe two, had some ten years previously, while sailing along the PelewIsland, found Adams adrift in an open boat--the sole survivor of ashipwrecked crew of sixteen men, and had nursed him back to life andreason. Later on, Adams had married one of Stenhouse's half-castedaughters. Ford, too, who was an American, was connected by marriagewith Stenhouse, and nearly every one of the thirty or forty male andfemale Caroline Islanders who worked for the three white men were moreor less allied to their wives by ties of blood or marriage, and therewas not one of them who would not have yielded up his or her life intheir defence. 

Stenhouse, who was the leader of the adventurous party, was a man ofabout forty-five years of age, and, like his two comrades, an ex-sailor. He was nearly six feet in height, and possessed of such powers ofstrength and endurance that his name was known throughout the WesternPacific to almost every white man, but his once handsome features weremarred by such a terrible disfigurement, that those who came to knowthe man and his sterling character always thought or spoke of him withgenuine and respectful pity. What had caused this cruel distortion wasknown to but three other persons besides himself--the mother of hischildren, his son-in-law, Thomas Adams, and the man who had inflictedthe injury; and to spare the reader's feelings as much as possible, itneed only be said that the left side of his face had been so injured byviolence of some kind as to be pitiful to look upon, the more so as theeye was missing. 

 * * * * *

Late one evening, just as Stenhouse and his son-in-law, Adams, weresmoking their last pipes before tarning in, their comrade entered thehouse hurriedly, accompanied by one of their native employees, who hadbeen away on a fishing excursion. 

"Here's news! There's a big full-rigged ship just anchored under CapeStephens. Masik boarded her, and had a yarn with the mate. "

"Where is she from?" asked Stenhouse, turning his one eye upon thenative, Masik. 

"I know not, master. But she is a great ship with many men onboard--some white, and some yellow, with shaven heads. 

"Ah, a Calcutta-Sydney ship, most likely, " said Stenhouse to hiscomrades. Then turning to Masik--"Why came she here? Didst ask?"

"Aye, " replied the man in his native tongue; "the ship came here becausethere be many sick, and two dead men on board. It is a strong sickness. "

"Didst speak of us white men here?"

The man nodded. "Aye, and the mate said that the captain would like theeall to come to the ship; but to hasten, for when the two men are buriedto-morrow the ship will sail And the mate gave me these for thee. "

Adams eagerly extended his hand for a bundle of newspapers which Masikcarried wrapped up in a piece of old sail-cloth. 

"This is a god-send, " said Adams, as he opened the packet and tossedsome of the papers to Stenhouse and Ford, "only about six months old. Hallo, here's the name of the ship and captain I suppose, on one ofthem:

Roger Fullerton, Esq. , Ship _Ramillies_------"

"_What!_"

It was Stenhonse who spoke, and his usual cheerful voice now soundedcracked and discordant, as with an oath he tore the paper from hiscomrade's hand, read the name, and then sat down, with one hand pressedto his sightless orb, his whole frame trembling from head to foot. 

"What is the matter, Ted?" asked Ford anxiously. 

Slowly he turned his face towards his comrades. It was white. 

"Send them away, " he said, "but tell them to call the others and getready. I am going down to the cape to-night, to that ship. I am going tokill a man. "

Ford looked at him wonderingly. Adams, who understood, spoke a fewwhispered words to the natives, who quickly left the room. 

"Tom. "

"Yes, Ted. "

"Are all the women and children asleep?"

Adams nodded, and Stenhouse silently motioned to him and Ford to beseated. He remained standing. 

"Jim Ford, " he said quietly, "look at me"--he drew his hand down thedistorted side of his face--"and tell me what you would do to a man whomade you look like this. "

"I would have his life if I swung for it. "

"Well, I am going to have this man's life. I shall not be hanged for it, but if I am killed, I look to you, Jim, and you Tom, to stand to my wifeand children. "

Ford put out his hand impulsively: "All that I have I owe to you, Ted. Iwill stand to 'em, so help me God. "

"I knew you would. Now, only three people in the world besides me--TomAdams, my wife, and the man who did it--know what made me the blarstedscarecrow I am; but as I may be a dead man by this time tomorrow, I'lltell you. "

He paused, and with his forefinger still pressed firmly on the name onthe newspaper, said slowly:--

"This man, Roger Fullerton, was a passenger on the _Mahratta_, EastIndiaman. I was his servant. We were bound to Sydney from Table Bay. Hewas going out to be Commissary-General or something of that kind in NewSouth Wales. We had a rough, mutinous crew on board, and one night therewas a fight between them and the officers and passengers. They burstinto the cabin, and would have captured the ship but for the mate, who shot one man dead and cut another down. I had nothing to do withthem--as God is my witness--for I was only a lad of nineteen, andwould have stood to the captain and officers like a man, but I was madeprisoner by the mutineers early in the fight. After the row was over, Mr. Fullerton missed his watch and a hundred sovereigns which were ina writing case in his cabin. He accused me of stealing them, and whenI hotly denied the charge, knocked me down on deck and kicked me sosavagely in the face that I should have been killed if I had not beendragged away from him. As it was, he broke my jaw and destroyed my lefteye. But that was not all. When he reached Sydney he charged me withthe theft. I got a heavy sentence and was sent to the coal-mines atNewcastle; but after two years of hell I escaped by stowing away in aDutch barque bound to Samarang. And now _my_ turn has come. "

"Are you sure he is the man?" asked the American. 

"Quite. He settled in the Colony and married there. I have heard of himfrom time to time for many years. "

 * * * * *

Before midnight the three white men, with twenty-five of their nativefollowers armed with muskets and cutlasses, were following the coastlinein the direction of Gape Stephens. The night was dark and rainy, but theroute was familiar to both Adams and Stenhouse. All night they marchedsteadily onward, and only when daylight broke did they halt on the banksof a stream to rest and eat. Then, crossing the stream, they struck anative path which led to the shore. 

"There she is, " said Ford. 

The ship lay about a mile from the shore. Stenhouse looked at herearnestly, and then abruptly told his comrades his plans, which weredaring but simple. He would await the landing of the boat bringing thedead men ashore for burial, and take them prisoners. In all probabilitythe captain would be in charge, and it was Stenhouse's intention to holdhim and his boat's crew as ransom for the man he wanted. He intendedno harm to them, but was determined to achieve his object if he hadto carry his prisoners off to the mountains, and keep them there tillFullerton was given up to him. 

Immediately after breakfast, the watchers saw two boats leave the ship, and pull in towards a creek which debouched into a sandy cove situatedimmediately under Gape Stephens. The coastline here was uninhabited, and except for the banks of the creek, which were heavily timbered, presented a succession of rolling, grassy downs, and here and thereclumps of _vi_ (wild mango) and cedar trees, and Stenhouse felt prettycertain that the burying party would pick upon one of these spots tointer the bodies, and that he could easily cut them off from the boats. 

Swiftly and silently they took up a position on the banks of the creek, Stenhouse with his two friends keenly watching the advancing boatsfrom behind the buttressed roots of a giant Indian fig-tree. In a fewminutes, the leading boat, in which were six men and an officer, enteredthe creek, but the water being shallow, grounded on the bar, and thecrew got out. The second boat contained four seamen, and three or fourpersons who were seated aft, and she too took the ground, and then, as her crew stepped out into the water, Stenhouse gripped Adams by theshoulder. 

"See, Tom, there he is! The man himself. Look! that big fellow withthe white whiskers, sitting between the others. " He held a hurriedconsultation with his comrades, and quickly decided on his course ofaction. 

Both crews were now endeavouring to drag the boats across the shallowbar into the deeper water beyond, but the task was too much for them, and presently the captain, who was in the second boat, ordered them tocease, and said something to the big, white-whiskered man, who noddedhis head in approval. 

Four seamen then lifted two coffins from the first boat, and, followedby four others carrying their own and their shipmates' arms and somespades, began wading through the water to the shore, directly to wherethe unseen watchers lay awaiting; and the remainder of the party, leaving the boats with two men on guard, came slowly after them. 

Stenhouse pointed to the two boat-keepers, and said something to Ford, who, with half-a-dozen natives, quickly disappeared. 

In a few minutes the bearers of the coffins reached the shore, andplaced their burdens on the ground to await further orders. 

"We shall find clear ground, sir, within a few yards from the bank, "began the captain, addressing the tall man, who with bared head and slowstep walked by his side, when suddenly there came a rush of a score ofhalf-naked figures, who threw themselves silently upon the party, andovercame them almost without a sound. 

"Surrender, or you are all dead men, " cried a hoarse voice. 

There was no need for the stern summons, for not only were theastonished sailors terrified by the extraordinary suddenness of theattack and the savage appearance of their captors, but their captain, the surgeon, and the big man had their pistols taken from their belts soquickly that resistance was utterly out of the question, covered as theywere by half-a-dozen muskets pointed at their breasts. 

Then Adams stepped out and addressed the captain. 804

"No harm will be done to you and yonr men, but you must remain ourprisoners for awhile. Then your arms will be returned to you, and youcan go back to your ship. Your boat-keepers are secured. "

"What in God's name does this mean?" cried the unfortunate officer. 

"Silence, if you value yonr life, " cried the same stern voice that hadcalled upon them to surrender. 

The captain turned and sought to discern the speaker, but the muzzleof a pistol was placed menacingly against his chest, and he was againordered to be silent. 

Then at a sign from Adams all the crews' and officers' arms were carriedoff to the boats by two natives, and the wondering seamen were bidden byAdams to lift the coffins and follow him. 

"Do not attempt to escape, " he said, speaking to the whole partygenerally; "if you do you will be shot down without mercy. "

As he spoke Ford, with five armed natives, silently joined the rest ofthe captors. Follerton, the captain, and the surgeon all looked at himcuriously. 

"March, gentlemen, " he said, pointing with his drawn cutlass to thebearers of the coffins, who were now, guided by Adams, pushing theirway through the timber, surrounded by their native guards with musketscocked. 

In ten minutes the belt of timber had been passed through, and captorsand captured emerged upon a grassy sward. 

"Halt!"

Again that hoarse, strange voice sounded from somewhere near, and theseamen shuddered as they gently laid their burdens on the ground. 

"Bury your dead, sir, and have no fear, " said Adams to the captain. 

Then he and Ford spoke to their followers, who silently drew back andpermitted the seamen who carried shovels to advance. The ground was softand moist, and their task was soon accomplished, and the coffins loweredinto their graves. 

Then the captain, followed by the surgeon and Roger Fullerton, advanced, prayer-book in hand, and read the burial service, and Adams and Fordwondered somewhat when, at its conclusion, a heavy sob burst fromFullerton. 

Quickly the earth was shovelled in, and soon two mounds showed onthe sward. Then came the clank of arms, and the mourners were againsurrounded by their half-nude guards. 

"Follow, " said Adams shortly. 

He led them for a distance of about a hundred yards, then halted, andthe prisoners found themselves in a hollow square. 

"Are you going to slaughter unarmed men?" cried the surgeon, who wasterrified at the very appearance of the wild-looking Caroline Islandersand their grim, silent leaders. 

Adams shook his head, but made no reply. 

A heavy footstep sounded in the jungle near them, and Stenhouse, carrying two cutlasses under his arm, strode into the square and stoodbefore Fullerton. 

For a moment or two their eyes met, and then Stenhouse raised his handand touched his distorted face. 

"You know me, Mr. Fullerton?"

"I know you. You have come to kill me. "

"Yes, unless you kill me. " He drew a cutlass from its leather sheath andheld its hilt out to the man he hated. Fullerton folded his arms acrosshis chest. 

"Take it, " said Stenhouse slowly, "or, by Heavens! I'll cut you down asyou stand. "

"As you will, " replied the old man steadily, "but fight you I will not. My life is in your hands. Take it. I am not afraid to die. "

Stenhouse drew his cutlass slowly, his one eye shining with a deadlyhatred. 

"For God's sake, man, whoever you are, whatever your injuries may be, do not shed the blood of an old man on his son's grave!" and the captainsprang forward with outspread, appealing hands. 

"His son!" and the point of the gleaming weapon drooped. 

"His only son. Have mercy on him, as you hope for mercy yourself. "

"Stop, Captain Marsland. Do not ask for mercy for me. I did this man agrievous wrong. My life is his. Let him have his due. "

Stenhouse threw down his cutlass with an oath, turned his back on hisenemy, and put his hand to his forehead. 

Then he faced round sharply, and once more he looked into Fullerton'sunmoved face. 

"Go, " he said. 

And without another word he strode away, followed by his comrades andhis savage companions. 

SAUNDERSON AND THE DYNAMITE

Saunderson was one of those men who firmly believed that he kneweverything, and exasperated people by telling them how to do things; andDenison, the supercargo of the _Palestine_, hated him most fervently forthe continual trouble he was giving to every one, and also because hehad brought a harmonium on board, and played dismal tunes on it everynight and all day on Sundays. But, as Saunderson was one of the partnersin the firm who owned the _Palestine_, Denison, and Packenham theskipper, had to suffer him in silence, and trust that something mighthappen to him before long. What irritated Denison more than anythingelse was that Saunderson frequently expressed the opinion thatsupercargoes were superfluous luxuries to owners, and that such work "asthey tried to do could well be done by the captains, provided the latterwere intelligent men. "

"Never mind, Tom, " said Packenham hopefully, one day, "he's a bigeater, and is bound to get the fever if we give him a fair show in theSolomons. Then we can dump him ashore at some missionary's--he and hisinfernal groan-box--and go back to Sydney without the beast. "

When the _Palestine_ arrived at Leone Bay, in Tutuila, Saundersondressed himself beautifully and went ashore to the mission-house, and inthe evening Mrs. O------ (the missionary's wife), wrote Denison a noteand asked if he could spare a cheese from the ship's stores, and added aP. S. , "What a _terrible_ bore he is!" This made the captain and himselffeel better. 

The next morning Saunderson came on board. Denison was in the cabin, showing a trader named Rigby some samples of dynamite; the trader wanteda case or two of the dangerous compound to blow a boat passage throughthe reef opposite his house, and Denison was telling him how to use it. Of course Saunderson must interfere, and said _he_ would show Rigby whatto do. He had never fired a charge of dynamite in his life, nor evenseen one fired or a cartridge prepared, but had listened carefully toDenison. Then he sarcastically told Denison that the cheese he had sentMrs. O------ might have passed for dynamite, it was so dry andtasteless. 

"Well, dynamite is made from cheese, you know, " said the supercargodeferentially, "just cheese slightly impregnated with picric acid, gastrito-nepenthe, and cubes of oxalicogene. "

Saunderson said he knew that, and after telling Rigby that he wouldwalk over to his station before dinner, and show him where to beginoperations on the reef, went on shore again. 

About twelve o'clock Denison and Rigby went on shore to test thedynamite, fuse, and caps--first in the water and then on the reef. Just abreast of the mission-house they saw a big school of grey mulletswimming close in to the beach, and Denison quickly picked up a stone, tied it with some string round a cartridge, cut the fuse very short, litit, and threw it in. There was a short fizz, then a dull, heavy thud, and up came hundreds of the beautiful fish stunned or dead. Saundersoncame out of the mission-house and watched the natives collecting them. Denison had half-a-dozen cartridges in his hand; each one was tightlyenveloped in many thicknesses of paper, seized round with twine, and hadabout six inches of fuse, with the ends carefully frayed out so as tolight easily. 

"Give me some of those, " said Saunderson. 

The supercargo reluctantly handed him two, and Saunderson remarked thatthey were very clumsily covered, but he would fix some more himself"properly" another time. Denison sulkily observed that he had no timeto waste in making dynamite cartridges look pretty. Then, as Saundersonwalked off, he called out and told him that if he was going to shootfish he would want to put a good heavy stone on the cartridges. Saunderson said when he wanted advice from any one he would ask forit. Then he sent word by a native to Mrs. O------that he would send heralong some fish in a few minutes. 

Now within a few hundred yards of the mission-house there was a jetty, and at the end of the jetty was Her Majesty's gunboat _Badger_, a smallschooner-rigged wooden vessel commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Muddle, one of the most irascible men that ever breathed, and who had sat onmore Consuls than any one else in the service. 

Sannderson went on the jetty followed by a crowd of natives, and lookedover into the water. There were swarms of fish, just waiting to bedynamited. He told a native to bring him a stone, and one was brought--anice round, heavy stone as smooth as a billiard ball--just the verywrong kind of stone. He tied it on the cartridge at last, after it hadfallen off four or five times; then, as he did not smoke, and carried nomatches, he lit it from a native woman's cigarette, and let it drop intothe water. The stone promptly fell off, but the cartridge floated gaily, and drifted along fizzing in a contented sort of way. Sannderson put hishands on his hips, and watched it nonchalantly, oblivious of the factthat all the natives had bolted back to the shore to be out of danger, and watch things. 

There was a bit of a current, and the cartridge was carried along tillit brought up gently against the _Badger_--just in a nice cosy placebetween the rudder bearding and the stern-post. Then it went off with abang that shook the universe, and ripped off forty-two sheets of copperfrom the _Badger_; and Saunderson fell off the jetty into the water; andthe bluejackets who were below came tumbling up on deck; and thegunner, seeing Lieutenant-Commander Muddle rush up from his cabin in hisshirt-sleeves with a razor in his hand, thought that he had gone queeragain in his head, and had tried to blow up the ship, and was going toout his throat, and so he rushed at him, and knocked him down and tookhis razor away, and begged him to be quiet; and Muddle, thinking it wasa mutiny, nearly went into a fit, and straggled so desperately, andmade such awful choking noises that two more men sat on him; and thenavigating midshipman, thinking it was fire, told the bugler to soundto quarters, and then, seeing the captain being held down by three men, rushed to his assistance, but tripped over something or somebody andfell down and nearly broke his nose; and all the time Saunderson whowas clinging to one of the jetty piles, was yelling pitifully for help, being horribly afraid of sharks. 

At last he was fished out by Bigby and some natives and carried up tothe mission-house and then, when he was able to talk coherently, hesent for Denison, who told him that Commander Muddle was coming for himpresently with a lot of armed men and a boatswain with a green bag inwhich was a "cat, " and that he (Saunderson) would first be flogged andthen hanged at the _Badger's_ yard-arm, and otherwise treated severely, for an attempt to blow up one of Her Majesty's ships; and thenSaunderson shivered all over, and staggered out of the mission-housein a suit of Mr. O------'s pyjamas, much too large for him, and metCommander Muddle on the jetty and tried to explain how it occurred, andMuddle called him an infernal, drivelling idiot, and knocked him cleanoff the jetty into the water again, and used awful language, and toldDenison that his chronometers were ruined, and the ship's timbersstarted, and that he had had a narrow escape from cutting his own throatwhen the dynamite went off, as he had just begun to shave. 

Saunderson was very ill after that, and was in such mortal terror thatMuddle and every one else on board the gunboat meant to kill, wound, orseriously damage him, that he kept inside the mission-house, and said hefelt he was dying, and that Mr. O------ would prepare him for the end. So Denison and Paekenham, who were now quite cheerful again, sent histraps and his harmonium ashore, and sailed without him, a great peace intheir bosoms. 

THE STEALING OF SA LUIA

One dull rainy morning, soon after daybreak, as the ship _St. George_ ofNew Bedford was cruising for sperm whales between the islands of Tucopiaand Vanikoro, the look-out hailed the deck and reported a boat in sight. The captain was called, and a few minutes later appeared and went aloft. 

The boat was about three miles distant to leeward, and CaptainElphinstone at once kept the ship away. The wind, however, was so lightthat it took her some time to get within hailing distance, and thenit was discovered that the boat contained three natives--a man and twoyoung girls--who appeared to be greatly exhausted, for afterfeebly raising their heads for a moment and putting out their handsimploringly, they fell back again. 

A boat was quickly lowered from the ship, and the sufferers brought onboard, and their own boat, which was a small, native-built craft muchlike a whale-boat, but with an outrigger attached, was hoisted on board, for she was too good to be turned adrift. 

On board the _St. George_ was a Samoan named Falaoa. He was a nativeof the island of Manua, and at once recognised the unfortunates ascountry-people of his own. The man, who was in a dreadful state ofemaciation, and barely able to raise his voice above a whisper, was oversix feet in height, and appeared to be about five-and-twenty years ofage; his companions had evidently not undergone as much suffering anddid not present the same shocking appearance as he, for the sun hadburnt his skin to such a degree that that part of his tattooing whichwas not covered by the scanty _lava lava_ of tappa cloth around hisloins had become almost black. 

Under the kind and careful treatment they received from CaptainElphinstone and his officers, all three soon recovered, and ten daysafter they had been rescued, the following entry was made in the ship'slog:--"This day, at their own request, we landed the three Samoans atthe island of Nufilole, one of the Swallow Group, where they were wellreceived by the natives and a white trader. They were accompanied by oneof my crew named Falaoa, who begged me to let him go with them, havingbecome much attached to one of the young women. We gave them some armsand ammunition, and some clothing and tobacco. They all behaved withthe greatest propriety during their stay on the ship. From where theystarted in Samoa to where we picked them up in 12° S. Is a distance of1, 800 miles. "

And here is their story, told by Sa Luia to the wife of Frank Chesson, awhite trader then living on the Santa Cruz Islands, in which the SwallowGroup is included. Chesson himself had lived in Samoa, and spoke thelanguage well, and the four people remained in his house for many monthsas welcome guests. A strong and lasting friendship was formed, andresulted in the trader, his wife and family, and the four Samoansremoving to the little island of Fenua-loa, and there founding whatis now a colony of Polynesians with language, customs and mode of lifegenerally entirely distinct from their Melanesian neighbours. 

* * * * *

I am Sa Luia. I come from Mulifanua, at the lee end of Upolu in Samoa. My father was not only the chief of Mulifanua, but has great lands inthe Atua district on the north side of Upolu--lands which came to himthrough my mother, who died when I was but a week old--and from theselands he had his name, Pule-o-Vaitafe (Lord of many Rivers). 

Now it is not well for a daughter to speak unkindly of her father; butthis what I now say is true. My father, though he was so rich a man, wasvery cruel to those who crossed his path, and though he was a brave manin battle, his heart was shrunken up by reason of his avarice andhis desire to grow richer, and all Samoa, from Manna in the east toFalealupo in the west, spoke of him as Pule-lima-vale--"Pule theclose-fisted"--or Pule fata-ma'a--"Pule the stony-hearted. " Yet all thisgave him no concern. 

"What does it matter to me?" he said to his brother Patiole one day, when Patiole, who was a chief of Manono, reproached him for his meannessin sending away some visitors from Tutuila with such scanty presentsthat all the people of Mulifanua were ashamed. "What does it matter tome what people say of me? This _malaga_ (party of visitors) from Tutuilaare eaten up with poverty. Why should I give them fine mats, and musketsand powder and bullets? Am I a fool? What return can they make to me?"

"They came to do thee honour, " said my uncle, putting his hand acrosshis eyes out of respect to my father, who was of higher rank than he, and speaking softly. "They are thy dead wife's relatives, and are ofgood blood. And thou hast shamed them--and thyself as well--by sendingthem away empty-handed. "

My father laughed scornfully. "What care I for my dead wife's relatives!I have no need of them, and want them not. When I took the daughter ofMauga to wife, Mauga was a great man. Now he and his people are brokenand dispersed. Let them go and eat grass or wild yams like pigs. I, Pule-o-Vaitafe, want no needy dependents. "

"Thou art a hard man, " said my uncle, bending his forehead to the mat onwhich he sat. 

"And thou art a fool, " replied my father; "if thy heart pains thee ofthis, why dost thou not give them all that they wish?"

"Because for me, thy brother, to do so, would put shame on thee, for'tis thy place and thy honour as head of our family to help these peoplewho have fallen on evil days through warfare, " said my uncle sadly. 

"Thine then be the place and the honour, " said my father scornfully. "Iwill not begrudge thee either. Naught will I have to do with broken men. Farewell. "

That was my father's way. That was his hard, hard heart, which knewneither pity nor remorse. This is how my mother died:

When I was seven days old, she took me, as is customary with a woman ofchiefly rank, to the _fale siva_ (town dance house), where I had to beshown to the people, who brought fine mats and tappa cloth, and manyother presents. Now my father was filled with anger that my mother hadnot borne him a male child, for a male child would have meant richerpresents--not only from his own people, but from towns and villages faraway. So when he saw that instead of such gifts as a new canoe or somevery old, rare mats, or muskets, or such other things as would havebeen given were the child a boy, there were but the usual presents for agirl-child, his lips turned down with scorn, and he muttered a curse. Mymother heard him and the tears flowed down her cheeks. 

"It may be that my next child will be a boy, " she whispered, and thenshe held me up to my father. "See, Pule, though a girl, she hath thyfeatures, and thou wilt come to love her. "

"Tah!" said my father in angry contempt; and without another word herose and went away. 

Then my mother wept silently over me for a long time, for the shame putupon her was very great, and not to be endured. So, with some of herwomen, she took me to a place called Falema'a, where the cliffs rise upstraight from the sea. Her hair was then oiled and dressed, and thenshe made gifts of her rings of gold and tortoise-shell to her women, and bade them farewell. Then she took me in her arms, and leapt over thecliff into the sea. 

It so happened that half-way down the cliff, which is twelve fathomshigh, there was a boy named Manaia. He was collecting the eggs of thesea-bird called _Kanapu_ and his canoe was anchored just in front of thebase of the cliff. He was a brave boy, and being of a very poor family, had clambered up the steep side of the wall of rock, so that he mightfind the _kanapu_ eggs in the clefts and holes, and sell them to peoplein exchange for food for his mother and sisters. As he clung to thejagged face of the rock, he saw my mother falling through the air, andin an instant he sprang after her. When she came to the surface, I wasstill clasped tightly in her arms, and Manaia cried to her to swim tothe canoe. 

"Nay, " she cried, "but take my babe. "

And so Manaia took me, and my mother threw up her arms and sank anddied. 

When my uncle heard of this, he sent a party of his people over fromManono for me, and I was taken to live with him. My father did notinterfere, for the manner of my mother's death had made the peoplemurmur, and he was afraid that they might rise in rebellion, and killor banish him. But yet he tried to get another rich wife, and sent adeputation of his chiefs to Seu Manu of Apia asking for his daughterSina; and Sina sent him back a piece of wood carved in the semblance ofa woman, together with a stone shaped like a heart, with this message--

"This is a good wife for Pule-o-Vaitafe. If she displease him, he cansink her in the sea with a heart of stone. "

After that my father tried no more, for the people all round about weremurmuring, and he began to feel afraid. 

But in no other way did he change, and although Manono is but twoleagues distant from Mulifanua, he never came to see me till I was inmy fifteenth year, and when I was chosen by the people of Aana to be_Taupo_{*} of Mulifanua. Then I had to leave my uncle, which made meweep, for although I was proud of the honour done me, I did not wish toleave him and go back to my father. But I had no choice but to obey, andso I was taken back to Mulifanua by a fleet of canoes and _taumualua_(native boats), with great ceremony, and then followed many meetings andmuch feasting and dancing. I was put under the care of two women, whoattended me day and night, as is the custom; they walked, ate, and sleptwith me, and every day I was taught how to dance, and how to wearmy fine mats and long train of tappa, so as to receive or call uponvisitors who came to the town from other places in Samoa. 

 * Taupo, the town maid. This distinction is usually conf erred on a girl of good family, and has many honours and emoluments in the way of presents attached to it. In some cases a _taupo_ will not marry till she reaches middle age, and occasionally will remain single. 

In all the many years that I had spent on Manono, I had not once seenthe boy Manaia--he who had taken me from the water--though I had heardof him as having been tattooed and grown into a tall man. But on thesame day that I returned and was taken to the _fale taupule_ (councilhouse) to be received by the people as their _taupo_, a girl namedSelema who attended me whispered his name, and pointed him out to me. He was sitting with the other young men, and like them, dressed in hisbest, and carrying a musket and the long knife called _nifa oti_. I sawthat he was very, very tall and strong, and Selema told me that therewere many girls who desired him for a husband, though he was poor, and, it was known, was disliked by my father. 

Now this girl Selema, who was of my own age, was given to me as myespecial _tavini_ (maid) and I grew to like her as my own sister. Shetold me that already my father was casting about in his mind for a richhusband for me, and that the man he most favoured was old Tamavili, chief of Tufa, in Savai'i, who would soon be sending messengers withpresents to him, which if they were accepted, would mean that my fatherwas inclined to his suit, and that he, Tamavili, would follow himselfand pay court to me. 

All this frightened me, and I told Selema I would escape to my uncle inManono, but she said that that would not do, as if he tried to protectme it would mean war. So I said nothing more, though much was in mymind, and I resolved to run away to the mountains, rather than be madeto marry Tamavili, who was a very old man. 

One day Selema and I went to the river to wash our hair with the pithof the wild oranges. We sat on the smooth stones near the water, and hadjust begun to beat the oranges with pieces of wood to soften them, whenwe saw a man come down the bank and enter a deep pool further up thestream. 

"'Tis Manaia, " said Selema; "he hath come to drag the pool for fish. "Then she called out to him, "_Ola_, Manaia, " and he looked at us andlaughed as he spun his small hand-net into the pool. We sat and watchedhim and admired his strength and skill and the clever way in which hedived and took the fish from his net. In a little while he had caughtseven--beautiful fish, such as are in all the mountain streams of Samoa. Then he came out of the water, made a basket of leaves, and approachedme, and without a word, laid them at my feet. This pleased me, so I putout my hand and touched one of the fish--meaning that one only would Itake. 

"They are all for thee, lady, " he said in a low voice. 

Selema laughed and urged me to accept the gift; so I took the basket, and then, when I looked at his face and saw that his eyes were stillturned down, I took courage and said--

"Thou art Manaia. Dost thou remember me?"

"How could I forget thee?" he replied; and then he raised his eyes tomy face, and I felt glad, for they were like unto those of my unclePatiole--kind and soft when they looked into those of a woman or child, but steady and bold to those of a man. 

"I am glad to see thee, Manaia, " I said, "for I owe thee my life, " andas he took my hand and pressed it to his forehead, Selema stole away andleft us together. 

Now I know not what he said to me, except that when he spoke the name ofTamavili of Tufa, I wept, and said that I would I were back at Manono, and that I was but a child, and had no desire to be wedded to any man. Then he lifted me up in his great arms, and said--

"I love thee, Sa Luia, I love thee! And even if thou canst not love me, yet shall I save thee from wedding this old dotard. Aye, I shall savethee from him as I saved thee from the boiling serf of Falema'a when thymother, who was a great lady, cried out to me, 'Take my babe. '"

So that is how Manaia my husband wooed me, and when Selema came back andsaw us seated together, she laughed again, though tears were in her eyeswhen she took my feet and pressed them to her cheeks, for she fearedthat when we fled, she would be left behind. Then Manaia whispered to meand asked me if it was to my mind to take her. 

"Ay, " I said; "else will my father kill her when we are gone. "

So we made our plans, and when the messengers of Tamavili came and laidtheir presents before me, I said I was content, and that they could goback to their master, and tell him that in a month's time I wouldbe ready and that he could come for me. This pleased my father, andalthough at night time I always slept between the two women, as iscustomary for a _taupo_, with a mat over me, and they lay on theoutside, one on each side, yet in the day time I often met my lover inthe forest, whilst Selema kept watch. 

"We shall go to Uea, "{*} he said; "'tis but seventy leagues away, and sosoon as the rainy season is ended we shall start. I have bought a smallbut good boat and have strengthened it for the voyage with an outrigger, and in my mother's house is hidden all the food we can carry. In eightdays more the westerly winds will cease, and we shall start, for then weshall have the Matagi Toe'lau (trade wind) and at Uea we shall besafe and live in peace. Then some day I shall send for my mothers andsisters, for on the night that we escape, they too must flee for theirlives to Sen Mann, of Apia, who will protect them from thy father'swrath. "

 * Wallis Island, two hundred miles from Samoa. Many Samoans fled there for refuge after a reverse in battle or for other causes. 

On the morning of the fourth day after this, there came a strangemessenger to the town to see my father, who in a little time appeared athis door with a smiling face and bade the conch be blown to summon thepeople together. 

"Here is news, O people, " he said. "Manka, {*} the white trader of Tufa, also seeketh my daughter, Sa Luia, in marriage. He and Tamayili havequarrelled--why, it matters not to me, or thee--and Manka, who is a veryrich man, hath sent me word that he will compete with Tamayili. Whateverhe offers for dowry and for presents to me, the white man will givedouble. This is a good day for me. "

 * Monk. 

But the people were silent, for they knew that he was breaking hispledged word with Tamavili, and was setting at naught the old customsand the honour of the town. So, as he looked at them, he scowled; thenhe held out his hand, on the palm of which were ten American gold coins, each of twenty dollars. 

"Two hundred dollars hath this white man, Manka, sent to my daughter SaLuia as a present, with these words: 'If she cares not for my suit, welland good--let her have them made into bracelets for her pretty arms. "

Now this was a great gift, and it came with such generous words that thepeople applauded, and my father smiled, as his long thin fingers closedaround the heap of gold; but suddenly his face darkened as Manaia spoke. 

"'Tis a free gift to the lady Sa Luia. Therefore, O Pule-o-Vaitafe, giveit to her. "

"Aye, aye! 'tis hers, 'tis hers, " cried the people. 

My father sent a glance of bitter hatred to my lover, and his lipstwitched, but without a word he came to me, and bending low before me, put the money on the ground at my feet, and I, his daughter, heard histeeth grinding with rage, and as I felt his hot breath on my hand, Iknew that murder was in his heart. It is easy for a chief such as was myfather, to have a man who displeases him killed secretly. 

My father went away in anger, and then the chiefs decided that althoughthe white man could not wed me, he should be received with great honour, and be given many presents; for he was known to us as a man of greatstrength and daring, and was tattooed like a Samoan, which is a greatthing to the mind of a Samoan woman, who loathes an untattooed man asunworthy of all that a woman can give, for without tattooing a young manhath no manhood, and his children are weak of body and poor of mind. 

That night my father asked me for the money, which I gave himunwillingly, for I wished to send it back to the white man. He tookit and placed it in a great box, which contained such things as guns, pistols, and powder and ball, and the key of which he always wore aroundhis neck. 

When the eighth day dawned, the sea was very smooth, and our hearts weregladdened by seeing that the wind was from the south-east, and as theday wore on, it increased in strength. When night fell, and the eveningfires were lit, Manaia, saying he was going to fish for _malau_, launched his boat and sailed along the shore for a league to the mouthof a small stream. Here he was met by his mother and sisters, who wereawaiting him with baskets of cooked food, young coconuts and calabashesof water for the voyage. Then they put their arms around him, and weptas they bade him farewell, for seventy leagues is a long voyage for asmall boat not intended for rough seas. Then they went into the forestand fled for their lives to Sen Manu of Apia, and Manaia waited for me. 

When the town was buried in slumber, Selema, who lay near me, touched myhead with her foot, and then asked me if I slept. 

"Nay, " I replied in a loud voice, and speaking with pretended anger, soas to awaken the two women between whom I lay. "How can I sleep? 'Tistoo hot. Let us go to the beach awhile and feel the cool wind. "

The two women grumbled a little at being disturbed, and Selema and Irose and went out of the house. Then, once we were at a safe distance, we ran swiftly to the beach, and then onwards to where Manaia awaitedus. 

Selema took her seat on the foremost thwart, Manaia at the stern, and Iin the centre, and then we pushed off, and using canoe paddles, made forthe passage through the reef out into the open sea. When the dawn broke, we were half-way across the straits which divide Savai'i from Upolu, and only two leagues away we saw the clustering houses of Tufa on theiron-bound coast. We did not dare to hoist the sail for fear of beingseen, so continued to paddle, keeping well into the middle of thestraits. Only that the current was so fierce, Manaia would havesteered north, and gone round the great island of Savai'i and then madewestward, but the current was setting against the wind, and we shouldhave all perished had we tried to go the north way. 

Presently Manaia turned and looked astern, and there we saw the greatmat sail of my father's double canoe, just rising above the water, andknew that we were pursued. So we ceased paddling, and hoisted our ownsail, which made us leap along very quickly over the seas, though everynow and then the outrigger would lift itself out of the water, and wefeared that we might capsize. But we knew that Death was behind us, andso sat still, and no one spoke but in a whisper as we looked astern, andsaw the sail of the great canoe growing higher and higher. It was a verylarge canoe and carried a hundred men, and on the raised platform was acannon which my father had bought from a whale-ship when it was in hismind to fight against Tamalefaiga, who was the king of Upolu. 

Suddenly Selema cried out that she saw a _taumualua_{*} and a boat witha sail coming towards us from Tufa, and my heart sank within me, for Iknew that if they saw we were pursued by Pule-o-Vaitafe, they would, outof respect for him, stop us from escaping. Still there was naught for usto do but go on, and so we leapt and sprang from sea to sea, and Manaiabade us be of good heart, as he turned the head of the canoe toward theland. 

 * A large native-built boat

"If this _taumualua_ and the boat seek to stay us, I shall run ashore, "he said, "and we will take to the mountains. It is Manka's boat, fornow I can see the flag from the peak--the flag of America. " "And the_taumualua_ is that of Tamavili of Tufa, " said Selema quietly, for sheis a girl of great heart, "and it races with the white man's boat. "

I, who was shaking with fear, cannot now well remember all thatfollowed, after Manaia headed our canoe for the shore, and tried toescape, but suddenly, it seemed to me, the white man's boat, withflapping sail, was upon as, and Manka was laughing loudly. 

"Ho, ho!" he cried, pulling his long white moustache, "so this is theway the wind bloweth! The old dotard Tamavili and I race together for abride, and the bride is for neither of us, but for the man who saved herfrom the sea. Ha, ha! Thou art a fine fellow, Manaia, and I bear thee noill will, even though the girl hath my good golden money. "

"Nay, Manka, " cried Selema quickly, and taking something from her girdleshe held it up to the white man; "see, here is thy gift to the lady SaLuia. We meant to give it back to thee with all good will, for Sa Luialoves no man but this her lover Manaia, who held her up from the angrysea when her mother died. And so when Pule-o-Vaitafe took the money fromher--which was thy free gift--I waited till he slept, and stole the keyof his treasure-chest, and took the money so that it might be returnedto thee. "

"Is this true?" asked the white man of Manaia. "The money is thine, "said Manaia, who knew not what else to say, "but the woman is mine. So let us depart, for Tamavili and his men--whom no one in Malifanuathought to see for three days yet--are drawing near, and we may escapeby running the canoe through the surf, and taking to the mountains. "

The white man swore an oath. "Thou art a fine fellow, and I bear no illwill, but will help thee to outwit that old dodderer who tried to stealaway three days before me. I will put my boat between he and thee andkeep him off. Whither wouldst land?"

"Not here, unless we are pressed. But we are in bad case; for see, onthe one side comes Pule-o-Vaitafe, and on the other Tamavili. Yet ifthou wilt be the good friend to us, we may escape both, and keep on ourway to the open sea. "

"The open sea!" cried Manka quickly--"and whither to?"

"To Uea. "

"Thou art a bold fellow, " said the white man again, "and shalt have thegirl, for thou art worthy of her. And she shall keep the money for herdowry. I am no man to go back on my word, even though I lose so faira bride. As for Pule-o-Vaitafe, I care not a blade of grass, and forTamavili even less. And see, take this rifle, and if Tamavili cometh tooclose to thee, how can I help thee defending thyself and the women?"

With that he gave Manaia one of six rifles in his boat and two score andten cartridges, some tobacco, matches, and a pipe; then he pressed ourhands and wished us God-speed, and we parted, he sailing towards the_taumualua_, which was crowded with men, and we following. When he camewithin speaking distance of Tamavili, he again brought his boat to thewind and mocked at the old man. 

"Ho, ho! Tamavili. Whither goest in such a hurry? See, there in thecanoe is the little bird we both sought, and there following comes herfather. But she is neither for me nor thee. Is not her lover there, afine man--nearly as handsome as I am, and big enough to make ten suchrats as thee. "

Tamavili was mad with rage, and did not answer. There were with Mankasix men--all armed with rifles which loaded at the breech like thatwhich he had given Manaia, and Manka was too great a man for evenTamavili to hurt. But suddenly, as we in the canoe sailed in between theboat and the _taumualua_, the old chief found his voice, and called outto Manaia to lower his sail. 

"Give me the lady Sa Luia, " he said, "and I will let thee and the girlSelema go, " and as he spoke, the crew turned the _taumualua_ round andcame after us, twenty men paddling on each side. 

"Keep back!" cried Manaia fiercely, as he changed seats with me, andgiving me the steering paddle, he took up the rifle and loaded it. 

"Beware, old man!" shouted Manka, "'tis a dog that bites!"

But Tamavili was too hot with anger to take heed, and shouted to his mento go on, and then Manaia took aim and fired, and two men went down. 

"Ho, ho!" and Manka's voice again mocked, "did I not say 'twas a dogthat bit?"

There was great commotion in the _taumualua_ for a moment or two, but_Tamavili_ shouted to his men to go on; he would have ordered some ofthem to cease paddling and try and shoot Manaia, but feared to hurtor perhaps kill me, and that would have meant war between Tufa andMulifanua. 

"Alo, alo foe!"{*} he cried, standing up on the stem and brandishinghis death-knife at Manaia. "I shall give thy head to the children of thevillage for a football ere the sun is in mid-heaven. "

 * "Paddle, paddle hard!"

That was a foolish boast, for once more Manaia knelt and shot, and Iturned my head and saw the blood spurt from Tamavili's naked chest as hefell down without a sound among the paddlers and a loud cry of angerand sorrow burst from his men. But in a moment a young sub-chief of Tufanamed _Lau Aula_ (the Golden-haired) took command and shouted to the crewto press on, and leaping to the bow, he began firing at us with a shortgun (revolver) and one of the bullets struck the girl Selema on the legand tore a hole through the fleshy part. Now this Lau Aula was a bloodrelative of Manaia, who called out to him to cease firing, but Lau Aulatook no heed, and began shooting at us with muskets loaded with roundbullets, which were handed to him by some of his people. 

Then Manaia's face was evil to look at; his lips were drawn back, andhis teeth showed like those of an angry dog, for the blood which flowedfrom Selema's wound was creeping around his naked feet. Yet once more hecried out to Lau Aula to beware ere it was too late; but the young chiefcalled him a thief, and bade him bring the boat to the wind. 

"This for thee, then, " cried Manaia, and once more he raised his rifleand fired, and Lan Anla spun round and fell over into the sea, for thebullet had struck him in the throat and his life was gone. 

That was the last of the fight, for when Lau Aula fell, the rest ofTamavili's men threw down their paddles and let us sail on withoutfurther pursuit. 

Then, whilst I steered, Manaia tied strips of tappa around Selema's legso as to stay the bleeding. 

"We are safe, " cried the girl bravely through her tears, for the painwas very great. "See, lady, the wind is not strong enough for the bigdouble canoe to pursue us. "

But yet, in his rage, when my father saw that we were escaping, helowered the mat sail and fired two shots at us with the cannon, and thegreat heavy balls roared over our heads and fell into the sea with aheavy splash not fifty fathoms away. But cannon-balls cost much money, and so, when a third shot was fired, and it fell astern of our boat, myfather wasted no more, and we saw the sail again hoisted and the canoego slowly down towards the _taumualua_ of Tamavili, to which the whiteman was already rendering succour, for Manka, although he had quarrelledwith the old chief of Tufa, was yet a man of a kind heart. 

And so we sailed on before a fair, soft breeze, and by sunset the greatmountain peaks of Savai'i had sunk beneath the sea rim, and we weresteering westward by the bright stars with a great joy filling ourhearts. 

For four days we sailed steadily onwards, and Selema's wound soon beganto heal. On the evening of the fourth day we saw the land of Uea justshowing above the sea rim, and thought to place our feet on the shorein the morning. But now came sorrow, for in the night it began to blowstrongly from the north-east, and heavy rain squalls drove us past theland. In the morning there was but the open sea, and the waves werewhite and angry, and all that day and the next Manaia kept the boat tothe wind, hoping that it would change and let us sail back to Uea. Butwe hoped vainly; and then, on the third day, there came such a furiousstorm that we could do naught but drive before it, and go on and on intothe great unknown western ocean, whither so many have gone, and havebeen no more known of men. For many, many days we sailed on, and then, although we had much rain and so suffered no thirst, our food began tofail, and had not Manaia one day caught a sleeping turtle, we shouldhave perished. Some time about the fourteenth day, we saw the jaggedpeaks of an island against the sky, and steered for it. It was theisland called Rotumah--a fine, fair country, with mountains and valleysand running streams, and on it dwell people who are like unto us Samoansin appearance and manners and language. We sailed the boat into a bay onwhich stood a village of many houses, and the people made us welcome andgave us much food, and besought us to stay there, for their island was, they said, a better place than Uea. And this we should have done andbeen content, but in the night, as I slept in the house of the unmarriedwomen, a girl whispered in my ear--

"Get thee away with thy lover and the girl Selema. Felipa, the headchief of Fao, hath been told of thy beauty, and hath sent word here thatthe man Manaia must be killed to-night, and thou and Selema be sent tohim. This is wrong for even a chief to do, and we of this place wouldaid thee to escape. "

So Manaia and I and Selema stole away to the boat, and the people of thevillage, who pitied us, pretended not to hear or see us. They were verykind, and had put baskets of cooked food and other things into the boat;and so we pushed off, and stood out to sea once more. They had toldus to go round to the north end of the island, where there was a chiefnamed Loli, who would protect us and give us a home. 

But again evil fortune befell us, for the chief of Fao, hearing of ourescape, sent a messenger overland to Loli, claiming us as _mea tafea imoana_--gifts sent to him by the sea--and asking him to hold us for him. And so Loli, who would have welcomed us, was afraid, and begged us notto land and so bring about bloodshed. 

"Great is my sorrow, O wanderers, " he cried to us, as we sat in the boata little distance from the beach, "but ye must not land. Steer to thewest, and a little to the south, where there is a great land--many, manyislands which trend north and south. "{*}

 * The New Hebrides Group. 

"Is it far?" asked Manaia scornfully. 

"Four days for a ship, longer for a boat, " replied Loli shamefacedly;"the gods go with thee, farewell. "

Once again we sailed towards the setting sun, steering by the stars atnight time, and for seven days all went well. Then after that there camecalms, and the hot sun beat upon us and ate its way into our hearts, andwe saw no sign of land, and only now and then did a seabird come nearus. And then came the time when all our food was gone, and we waited fordeath to come. Manaia had eaten no food for five days when it came tothis, for he said he was feeling quite strong, and divided his sharebetween us. Once as he and I slept Selema put a little piece of oldcoconut--the last that was left--into my hand, and slipped over the sideto die, but Manaia heard her, and, although he was very weak, he rousedand caught her as she sank. 

Two days before that on which the ship found us Manaia shot a smallshark which was following the boat. It was not as long as a man's armnor as thick as a woman's, but it kept us alive. Manaia gave us all theflesh, and kept only the head and skin for himself; after that all theworld became dark to me, and we lay together in the boat to die. 

The captain of the whale-ship was very kind to us, and when he foundthat the sailor named Falaoa did not wish to part from us on account ofSelema, whom he wished to marry, he gave his consent, and said he wouldland us all here at Nufilole, where there was a white man who would bekind to us. 

That is all, and now my husband Manaia and I, and Falaoa and his wifeSelema are well content to live here always. For even now, after manymonths have passed, do Selema and I cry out in our slumbers, and whenwe awaken our hair lies wet upon our foreheads; but soon all these baddreams will pass away from us for ever.