Concerning Bully Hayes Read online

  Produced by David Widger

  CONCERNING "BULLY" HAYES

  From "The Strange Adventure Of James Shervinton and Other Stories"

  By Louis Becke

  T. FISHER UNWIN, 1902

  LONDON

  I

  "BULLY" HAYES! Oh, halcyon days of the sixties and seventies, when thePacific was not, as now, patrolled by men-of-war from lonely Pylstaart,in the Friendlies, to the low-lying far-away Marshalls and the corallagoons of the north-west; when the Queensland schooners ran full"nigger" cargoes to Bundaberg, Maryborough, and Port Mackay; when theGovernment agents, drunk nine days out of ten, did as much recruitingas the recruiters themselves, and drew--even as they may drawto-day--thumping bonuses from the planters _sub rosa!_ In those days thenigger-catching fleet from the Hawaiian Islands cruised right away southto palm-clad Arorai, in the Line Islands, and ran the Queensland shipsclose in the business. They came down from Honolulu in ballast-trim,save for the liquor and firearms, and went back full of a sweating massof black-haired, copper-coloured Line Islanders, driven below at dark totake their chance of being smothered if it came on to blow. Better forthem had it so happened, as befel the _Tahiti_ a few years ago when fourhundred of these poor people went to the bottom on their way to slaveryin San Jose de Guatemala.

  Merry times, indeed, had those who ran the labour vessels then in thetrade, when Queensland rivalled the Hawaiian Islands in the excitingbusiness of "black-birding," and when Captain William Henry Hayes, ofCleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.--vulgarly called "Bully" Hayes--came twice ayear to fair Samoa with full cargoes of oil, copra, and brown-skinnedkanakas, all obtained on the stalwart captain's peculiar time-paymentsystem.

  * * * * *

  One hardly ever hears the name of the redoubtable Bully mentionednowadays, yet it is scarcely thirty years ago since his name was a powerall over the wide Pacific, from Manila to Valparaiso. In those days dida German trading-vessel in the Islands sight a white-painted brig withyacht-like lines and carrying Cunningham's patent topsails, the Teutonicskipper cracked on all his ship could stagger under, and thanked heavenwhen he saw the stranger hull-down; for Bully, with his _fidus achates_,the almost equally notorious Captain Ben Peese, had a penchant forboarding Dutchmen and asking for a look at their chronometers, and inhis absent-minded way, taking these latter away with him.

  And in Sydney, and Melbourne especially, people will remember the gay,dashing, black-whiskered Yankee captain who, in the sixties, came tothese ports in a flash clipper ship, where he spent his money royally,flirting--alas! if he had but stopped at that--with every accessiblewoman of high or low degree--provided she was fair to look upon--andplaying the devil generally in every known and unknown manner, and whothen sailed gaily away to China, neglecting to attend to many littlefinancial matters in connection with the refitting of his ship, andleaving the affections of a number of disconsolate beauties in a verybad state of repair.

  The writer happened to know the gentleman well, and although it is nowsixteen years since his body was thrown to the sharks among the lagoonsof the Marshall Group, it is not too late to rescue his memory from muchundeserved obloquy. Many a fancifully embroidered tale has been told andprinted of the terrible "massacres" he perpetrated among the inhabitantsof the South Seas. These massacres were purely apocryphal and onlyworthy of appearing--as they did in the first place--in an unreliabledaily paper in San Francisco.

  A man's true character is generally revealed by sudden misfortune. Thewriter sailed with Hayes for nearly two years, and was with him when,perhaps, the heaviest stroke of ill-luck he ever experienced befellhim. In March of 1874 his brig _Leonora_ ground herself to death onthe jagged coral of Strong's Island, in the Caroline Group, and "Bully"seemed for the nonce a broken man. But few people knew that beneaththat gay, laughing, devil-may-care exterior there lay a whole world ofdauntless courage and iron resolution; that six months after the brigwas destroyed he would, by unwearying toil and the wonderful fascinationhe exercised over his fierce and ruffianly crew, find himself awealthier man than when he trod his brig's deck with a full cargo of oilbeneath his feet and ten thousand dollars in his cabin.

  * * * * *

  Let me first of all, though, before relating all that befell us duringour sojourn on Strong's Island, where I, at least, spent many long,happy months, speak of the _Leonora_, once the _Waterlily_, and _alias_the _Luna_, the _Leonie_, and the _Racinga_. As the _Waterlily_ shewas first known, and under that name sailed her maiden voyage in theopium-trade, and beat the record. At this time Hayes made his appearanceat one of the Treaty Ports in a ship named the _Old Dominion_. On theway out from New York his crew had mutinied, headed by the steward, aGreek. In the fight that ensued Hayes killed the Greek outright bya blow of his fist, and threw another with such violence against adeck-house that he died in a few hours. An inquiry was held, and Hayes,so it was stated, came out of it well. The _Old Dominion_ was sold, andHayes entered the Imperial Chinese service as commander of a gunboat.Another gunboat was commanded by one Ben Peese. Of this period of hislife Hayes never cared to speak, but the story of Peese and himself wasgiven as follows:--

  The two became friends, and in conjunction with some mandarins of highrank, levied a system of blackmail upon the Chinese coasting junks thatbrought them--_not_ the junks--in money very rapidly, and Hayes's daringattack on and capture of a nest of other and real pirates procured forhim a good standing with the Chinese authorities. Peese soon got intotrouble, however, and when a number of merchants who had been despoiledhad succeeded in proving that his gunboat was a worse terror to themthan the pirates whom he worried, he disappeared for a time. The_Waterlily_, which was then on the point of sailing for Calcutta, was,at this time, chartered at a big figure by some rich merchants to takea cargo of provisions to Rangoon. Shortly after her departure Hayesresigned and went to Macao. Here he was joined by his colleague, incommand of the _Waterlily_. How Peese had got possession of her wasnot known. Hayes told people that his friend had bought her, but thoseintimate with Peese knew a great deal better. Anyhow, some months later,the merchants who chartered her said that Peese, who had been givencommand after his forced resignation from the Imperial service, hadlanded them somewhere in the Straits, taken all their dollars, sold thecargo to the Dutch military authorities, and cleared out.

  And then with a new ship, a new crew--many of whom were Hayes's andPeese's former Chinese naval service pirates--the partners sailed forthe Bonin Islands, where Peese was well known, and had lived before. Twodays ere making the Bonins a ship was sighted ashore on a reef. It was agunboat from Macao with an official on board, bound to the Bonin Islandsto investigate the murder of a Portuguese captain and mate. A boat waslowered from the _Waterlily_, and Peese, who spoke Spanish well, learnedfrom the captain that the gunboat, which was then hard and fast, had runashore in the night and bumped a big hole in herself just amidships. Fora thousand dollars Peese agreed to stand by them and save all he could,including her four guns. The guns were rafted to the _Waterlily_,then the small arms and stores followed in the boats belonging to thegunboat. At dusk Hayes went aboard the wrecked ship and took the brig'sChinese carpenter with him. On examination he said the ship could begot off again if she could be canted over and a sail "fothered" over thehole temporarily. This the gunboat captain agreed to try, and signalledfor his boats to return from the _Waterlily_. After working all nightthe thing was done, and the captain and officers were profuse intheir expression of admiration at Hayes's skill. As the tide fell thecarpenters got to work, and the gunboat was made watertight. UnderHayes's direction, at flood-tide, she was then kedged over the reef intothe lagoon, and anchored in smooth water. Peese and Hayes then arrangedto bring in the _Waterlily_ at next tide, lay her alongside the gunboat,
and put the guns and stores aboard again, agreeing to take the captain'sorder on Macao for 700 dollars and 800 dollars in cash. But next morningthe brig was nowhere to be seen, and although the captain had his shiphe was minus his big guns, many small arms, and stores to the valueof 2,000 or 8,000 dollars. In attempting to get under way he again ranashore, and remained hard and fast for a week.

  Meanwhile Hayes and Peese had gone off on a southerly course to thePelew Group where the cannons were sold to the chiefs, and the twocaptains gave a feast, and made merry generally, and got rid of nearlyall their crew, taking Pelew men and seven Japanese in their places.

  For a week or so all went well, and then Hayes and Peese fell out--overa woman, of course. Peese had bought a very beautiful girl from one ofthe chiefs for 250 dollars, which sum, he told Hayes privately, he didnot intend to pay. Hayes insisted on his comrade either paying the sumagreed on or giving her up. Peese, declaring he would do as he liked,drew his pistol and ordered the girl into the boat. Hayes tore theweapon from him, and seizing the girl with one hand, pointed the pistolat Peese and told him to go on board. Peese was no coward, but he knewhis man, and sulkily retired. With all Hayes's wickedness he was notentirely heartless. He asked the girl to tell him if she was afraidof Peese. She said "No!" and then Bully quietly told her to follow hisfellow-captain aboard. But Peese never forgave him, and from that daythe two mutually distrusted each other.

  After cruising about the Western Carolines for two or three months, andin some mysterious way filling up the brig, now named the _Leonora_,with a cargo of coco-nut oil, and getting a ton of hawk-billturtle-shell, worth 6 dollars a pound, the two worthies appeared in ApiaHarbour, Samoa. Here they sold the cargo and obtained a commission fromthe firm of Johann Caesar Godeffroy and Sons, of Hamburg--a firm thatin Polynesia rivalled, in a small way, old John Company--to procure forthem two hundred or three hundred Line Island labourers at 100 dollarsper head.

  In those days the most respected storekeeper in Apia was a retiredmariner--a Captain Turnbull--a stout old man, slow of speech, andprofoundly, but not obtrusively, religious. People used to wonder howit was that "Misi Pulu," the shrewdest business man in the group, wouldsupply Hayes with 1,000 or 2,000 dollars' worth of trade, and merelytake his I O U, while refusing to give credit to any other soul. Spokento on the matter, the gruff old man replied, "That's my business, butI'll tell you why I trust a man like Hayes and won't trust any one here.I know the man, and I've told him what none of you would dare to tellhim, that I looked upon his course of life with horror. He laughed atme and said, with a dreadful oath, that if ever he could do me a'good turn' he would. That pleased me, and when he came to me a weekafterwards and said that he wanted new canvas and running gear, but theDutchmen wouldn't sell him any on credit, I said I would--and did, andhe paid me, and I'll give him a few thousand dollars' credit any day."

  Bully and Peese sailed for the Ellice and Gilbert groups, and soon newsreached Sydney that they had been playing havoc with the traders there.With the traders of Captain Eury, and those of Captain Daly, of theSydney brig _Lady Alicia_, they were very rough, appropriating alltheir oil and other native produce and giving them sarcastically writtenreceipts. Hayes stated that this was in retaliation for Daly havingvisited his (Hayes's) stations in some of the Kingsmill Islands, andhaving been too friendly with some of the local fair.

  When the brig returned to Samoa, Hayes alone was in command; thevoluble, bearded Peese had, he said, sold him his interest in the shipand gone to China again. People talked and said that Hayes had killedhim, but as the strength of the big captain's right arm was well knownin Samoa, nobody talked too loud. It was on this occasion that Hayes"had" the German firm for some thousands of dollars. It seems that inreturning through the Kingsmill and Gilbert Groups he found a number ofthe German firm's traders in terror of their lives, the natives havingwarned them to clear out or be killed, they would have no white men ontheir islands. Hayes consented to give them all passages to Samoa--for aconsideration, of course, and they agreed on behalf of their firm to payhim each 50 dollars passage money--a reasonable enough sum. Most of themhad large quantities of oil and copra--this also was shipped. After thelast island had been visited, Hayes called them together in the cabinand addressed them: "Now, boys, I've promised to give you all passagesto Samoa, and I will--if you do what I want. Now you've all got moneybelonging to the German firm. Well, each of you must give me 50 dollars,and if you take my advice you'll stick to the remainder. One thing youall know as well as I do, and that is, that the Dutchmen will take yoursouls out of their cases if you owe them anything. As for the oil andcopra _I'll_ see to that. That's all I've got to say, and if any of youwon't agree to this let him come on deck and try and convince me." Thetraders grinned and consented to take the offer of a passage and theprivilege of annexing the firm's dollars, and each paid his 50 dollars.When Hayes got to Samoa, Weber, the German manager, interviewed Bully,who detailed the dangers the traders had escaped, and genially said, "Ihardly like to make you pay for your traders' passages, but as I havesuch a heavy cargo for you, you won't object to pay me a trifle--say 50dollars each. They've all got money for you as well as oil and copra."Weber paid, Hayes giving an acknowledgment. Then Weber sent hiscargo-boats to unload the brig. He was rather surprised when Hayes senthim a note:--

  Brig _Leonora_, Apia. "Dear Sir,--You have forgotten that you have notyet made any arrangements with me about the freight of your oil andcopra. I now demand freight on 200,000 lbs. copra at 1 cent per lb.,2,000 dollars; for the oil, a lump sum of 600 dollars; in all, 2,500dollars. Unless the freight is paid at once, and delivery takenforthwith, I will proceed to New Zealand and sell to recoup myself.--W.H. Hayes."

  The German firm was furious at this trick, but knowing what Hayes wasand fearing to lose everything, they paid and took delivery, and Hayes,as he paid over, told Weber that he would always have a good opinion ofhim in future for his prompt manner in settling up. Weber gasped, butsaid nothing.

  Just about this time the American corvette _Narrangansett_ steamedinto Apia Harbour. It had been rumoured around Polynesia for some timepreviously that certain charges had been made against Bully by Americancitizens. What the exact nature of these charges were has never beenknown. Anyhow, the captain of the corvette heard that Hayes was atanchor in Apia, and came down full speed from Pago Pago in Tutuila.Captain Edward Hamilton was then pilot, and brought the _Narrangansett_in. The moment the anchor was down, an armed boat's crew dashed aboardthe _Leonora_ and took possession. The officer in command had a surprisein store for him, when, entering the brig's cabin, he saw seated at thetable not the truculent, piratical ruffian he expected to see, but aquiet, stout man of herculean proportions, who bowed politely and said,"Welcome on board the _Leonora_, sir. Have you come to seize my ship andmyself? Well now, don't apologise, but sit down a while until my stewardbrings you a glass of wine, and then I'll go and see what all this isabout." This officer afterwards told Hamilton that he was so struck withBully's cool effrontery, and his equally genial smile, that he did sitdown and take a drink, and then Hayes accompanied him to the corvette.As the boat ran alongside, the officers and bluejackets not on dutythronged the side to see the famous pirate, who walked calmly to thequarter-deck, and, singling out the captain (Maude, I believe, was hisname), said, "How do you do, sir? I am happy to see my country's flagagain in these seas; but what the hell do you mean, sir, by putting anarmed crew on my deck? By God, sir, if you don't give me good reasonsI'll make you repent it." The corvette captain stood quite unmoved,although there was a suppressed titter heard amongst his officers.

  "I pardon you your offensive language, Captain Hayes, as I daresay youfeel excited. If you will come below I will show you good authority formy action. I have orders to arrest you and investigate serious chargesagainst you. I trust, however, that you will be able to clear yourself."

  The quiet, gentlemanly manner of the naval officer acted like a charmupon Hayes. The fierce glitter in his bright blue eyes died out, andbowing
to the corvette captain he turned to the group of officers, andin a bluff sincere manner, said: "Gentlemen, I apologise to your captainand to you for my insulting manner. I see that I have acted in anunbecoming way; but I am a hasty man, yet quick to make amends when I amin the wrong."

  The officers returned his salute, and then Bully went below and listenedwith an unmoved face to the warrant for his arrest. He was allowed towrite a letter to the shore, and given the liberty of the ship whilstthe captain of the _Narrangesett_ was preparing for the trial. Anotification was sent to the three Consuls of his seizure, and askingthem to attend and verify the charges made to them by various personsagainst Hayes. None but the German Consul responded, and his witnesses(traders whose stations had been cleaned out by Hayes) utterly brokedown. One look at those steady, steel-blue eyes was enough for them.They knew what was in store for them if any of them ever crossed Bully'spath again, and slunk away to their German protectors. After two hours'investigation, the captain broke up the court, and formally told thosepresent that he would announce his decision in writing.

  Two hours afterwards the commander of the _Narrangansett_ wrote a briefnote to the Consuls, stating that he would not--from the unreliableand contradictory evidence--be justified in taking Hayes to the UnitedStates, and added some severe remarks about the skulking and terrifiedmanner of the witnesses.

  Then Hayes was told he was a free man, and straightway the prisonerbecame the guest, and Bully made a neat little speech.

  "Gentlemen, I thank you for your kindness and courtesy to me. You havedone me a good service. If I went to the States now and told how I hadbeen seized by a tyrannical American officer, it would make me a richman. I could run for President. I could get in, too. I could paintyou all as a crew of piratical ruffians disgracing the uniform of thegreatest country in the world, and the papers would back me up. Theywould make me President of a big bank, and the Secretary of the Navywould keep the _Narrangansett_ at sea for another two years--to save youfrom getting lynched by an indignant nation. But I am just going to begood and generous and remain in obscurity; and to-morrow night I shallbe proud and happy if you will honour me by coming to my house and seethe pirate in his lair."

  In the afternoon Bully "dressed ship" and gave his crew liberty. Theywent into Matafele, the German quarter of Apia, and made a hideousdisturbance; the _Narrangansett_ sailors joined in, and, only for someofficers being present, the German residents would have had a bad nightof it. Hayes's crew were all gloriously drunk, so were some of the_Narrangansett_ men, and a lot of flash Samoan _manaia, i.e._, "bucks,"lent a hand in the proceedings; for even in those days the Germans wereas much hated by the natives as they are at the present time.