Old Mary Read online

  III

  "My husband invested his savings in a small schooner, which he named the_Taunton_ and within a month of our marriage we were at sea, bound ona trading voyage to Tahiti and the Paumotus. This first venture provedvery successful, so did the two following voyages; and then, as hedetermined to found a business of his own in the South Seas, he bought alarge piece of land on this island from the natives, with whom he wason very friendly terms. His reasons for choosing this particular islandwere, firstly, because of its excellent situation--midway between PortJackson and the Spanish settlements on the South American coast, whichwere good markets; secondly, because great numbers of the Americanwhaling ships would make it a place of call to refresh if there wasa reputable white man living on the island; and thirdly, because heintended to go into sperm whaling himself, for it was an immenselyprofitable business, and he could, if he wished, sell the oil to theAmerican ships instead of taking it to Port Jackson. The natives here inthose days were a very wild set, but they really had a great friendshipand respect for my husband; and when they learnt that he intended tosettle among them permanently they were delighted beyond measure. Theyat once set to work and built us a house, and the chief and my husbandexchanged names in the usual manner.

  "My first child was born on the island whilst my husband was away on avoyage to Port Jackson, and, indeed, of my four children three were bornhere. When Robert returned in the _Taunton_ he brought with him a cargoof European stores and comforts for our new home, and in a few monthswe were fairly settled down. From the first American whaleships thatvisited us he bought two fine whaleboats and all the necessary gear,and then later on engaged one of the best whalemen in the South Seas tosuperintend the business. In the first season we killed no less than sixsperm whales, and could have taken more, but were short of barrels. Thewhaling station was at the end of the south point of the harbour, andwhen a whale was towed in to be cut in and tried out the place presenteda scene of great activity and bustle, for we had quite two hundrednatives to help. Alas, there is scarcely a trace of it left now! Thegreat iron try-pots, built up in furnaces of coral lime, were overgrownby the green jungle thirty years ago, and it would be difficult even tofind them now.

  "The natives, as I have said, were very wild, savage, and warlike; butas time went on their friendship for my husband and myself and childrendeepened, and so when Robert made a voyage to Port Jackson or to any ofthe surrounding islands I never felt in the least alarmed. I must tellyou that we--my husband and myself--were actually the first white peoplethat had landed to live on the island since the time of the _Bounty_mutiny, when Fletcher Christian and his fellow mutineers tried to settlehere. They brought the _Bounty_ in, and anchored her just where your ownschooner is now lying--opposite Randle's house. But the natives attackedChristian and his men so fiercely, and so repeatedly, though withterrible loss to themselves, that at last Christian and Edward Youngabandoned the attempt to found a settlement, and the _Bounty_ wentback to Tahiti, and finally to Afita, as the people here call PitcairnIslands.

  "Four years passed by. My husband was making money fast, not only asa trader among the Paumotus and the Society Islands, where he had twosmall vessels constantly employed, but from his whale fishery. Then camea time of sorrow and misfortune. A South Seaman, named the _StirlingCastle_, touched here for provisions, and introduced small-pox, andevery one of my poor children contracted the disease and died; manyhundreds of the natives perished as well. My husband at this time wasaway in one of his vessels at Fakarava Lagoon in the Paumotu Group,and I spent a very lonely and unhappy seven months before he returned.Almost every morning, accompanied by one or two of my native womenservants, I would ascend that rugged peak about two miles from here,from where we had a complete view of the horizon all round the island,and watch for a sail. Twice my heart gladdened, only to be disappointedagain, for the ships on both occasions were Nantucket whalers. And then,as the months went by, I began to imagine that something dreadfulhad happened to my husband and his ship among the wild people of thePaumotus, for when he sailed he did not expect to be away more thanthree months.

  "At last, however, when I was quite worn out and ill with anxiety, hereturned. I was asleep when he arrived, for it was late at night, andhis vessel had not entered the harbour, though he had come ashore in aboat. He awakened me very gently, and then, before I could speak to himand tell him of our loss, he said--

  "'Don't tell me, Molly. I have heard it all just now. But, there, I'mhome again, dear; and I shall never stay away so long again, now thatour children have been taken and you and I are alone.'

  "After another year had passed, and when I was well and strong again,the whaleship _Chalice_ of Sag Harbour, Captain Freeman, touchedhere, and the master came on shore. He was an old acquaintance of myhusband's, and told us that he had come ashore purposely to warn us ofa piratical vessel which had made her appearance in these seas a fewmonths before, and had seized two or three English and American ships,and murdered every living soul of their crews. She hailed from Coquimbo,and her captain was said to be a Frenchman, whilst her crew was composedof the worst ruffians to be found on the coast of South America--menwhose presence on shore would not be tolerated even by the authoritiesat any of the Spanish settlements from Panama to Valdivia. Sailingunder French colours, and professing to be a privateer, she had actuallyattacked a French merchant brig within fifty miles of Coquimbo Roads,the captain and the crew of which were slaughtered and the vesselplundered and then burnt. Since then she had been seen by severalvessels in the Paumoto archipelago, where her crew had been guilty ofthe most fearful crimes, perpetrated on the natives.

  "My husband thanked Freeman for his information; but said that if thepirate vessel came into Tubuai Lagoon she would never get out again,except under British colours. This was no idle boast, for not onlywere my husband's two vessels--which were then both at anchor in thelagoon--well armed, but they were manned by English or English-bloodedhalf-caste seamen, who would have only been too delighted to fight aFrenchman, or a Spaniard, or a Dutchman.

  "Ah, 'tis so long ago, but what brave, rough fellows they were! Someof them, we well knew, had been transported as convicts, and were, whenopportunity offered, drunken and dissolute, but to my husband and myselfthey were good and loyal men. Two of them had seen Trafalgar day in the_Royal Sovereign_ under Collingwood when that ship had closed with the_Santa Anna_ and made her strike. Their names--as given to us--wereJames Watts and Thomas Godwin. After the fleet returned to Englandthey got into mischief, and were transported for being concerned in asmuggling transaction at Deal, in Kent, in which a preventive officerwas either killed or seriously wounded--I forget which. Their exemplaryconduct, however, had gained them a remission of their sentences, andthe Governor of New South Wales, who was most anxious to open up theSouth Sea Island trade, had recommended them to my husband as good men,Godwin having been brought up to the boatbuilding trade at Lowestoft inEngland, and Watts as a gunsmith.

  "About ten days after the visit of the _Chalice_ my husband left in oneof his vessels for Vavitao--only a day's sail from here. He wanted meto go with him, but I was too much interested in a large box of Englishseeds, and some young fruit trees which the Governor of New South Waleshad sent to us, and so I said I would stay and watch our garden, inwhich I took a great pride. He laughed and said that I must not forgetto look out for 'Freeman's pirate' as well as for my garden. He neverfor one moment imagined that the French vessel would turn up at Tubuai.

  "He took with him Thomas Godwin and William Myson, leaving Watts, whowas master of the other vessel, with me, to attend to the whaling.

  "A week after he had sailed I set out to walk to the north end of theisland, where my children were buried. I had with me an active nativeboy named Tati--who was carrying some plants and seeds which I intendedplanting on and about the children's graves--and two young women. Westarted early in the morning, for I intended staying at the north endtill late in the afternoon, whilst the two girls went crayfishing on thereef.
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  "About noon I had finished my labours, and then, as it was a beautifullybright day, I climbed a hill near by, called 'The White Man's Lookout,'which commanded a clear view of the sea all round the island. It hadbeen given this name by the natives, who said that Fletcher Christianand his fellow-mutineer, Edward Young, had often ascended the hill andgazed out upon the ocean, for they were fearful that at any moment aKing's ship might appear in pursuit of their comrades and themselves.

  "I was again feeling somewhat anxious on account of my husband. Heshould have returned a week before, for there had been no bad weather,and I knew that his business at Vavitao should have kept him there onlya day at the most. But the moment I gained the summit of the hill myheart leapt with joy, for there were two vessels in sight, one of whichI at once recognised as my husband's. They were about a mile distant,and