Rídan The Devil And Other Stories
Page 22
AN OLD COLONIAL MUTINY
The following notice one day appeared among the official records of theearlier days (1800) of the colony of New South Wales:--
'Whereas the persons undermentioned and described did, in the month of November, by force of arms, violently take away from His Majesty's settlement at Dalrymple a colonial brig or vessel called the _Venus_, the property of Mr Robert Campbell, a merchant of this territory, and the said vessel then containing stores, the property of His Majesty, and a quantity of necessary stores, the property of the officers of that settlement, and sundry other property, belonging to private individuals.'
Then follows the description of the crew, from which it will be seenthat there was every factor towards some criminal deed on board the_Venus_. First of all the chief mate is mentioned:--
'Benjamin Burnet Kelly, chief mate; says he is an American. He arrived in this colony as chief mate of the _Albion_, a South Sea whaler (Captain Bunker); Richard Edwards, second mate; Joseph Redmonds, seaman, a mulatto or mestizo of South America 299 (came out from England in the _Venus_); Darra, cook, a Malay man, both ears missing; Thomas Ford and William Porter Evans, boys of 14 and 16 (Evans is a native of Rose Hill in this colony); Richard Thompson, a soldier; Thomas Richard Evans, a convict, formerly a gunner's mate on H.M.S. _Calcutta_ (sentenced to fourteen years for desertion and striking an officer); John Lancaster or Lancashire, a convict, a very dangerous person; Charlotte Badger, convict, a very corpulent person (has an infant in arms); Kitty Hegarty, convict, very handsome woman, with white teeth and fresh complexion, much inclined to smile, a great talker.'
Then comes an official proclamation, signed 'G. Blaxcell, Secretary,Government House, Sydney,' cautioning 'all governors and officers incommand at any of His Majesty's ports, and the Honourable East IndiaCompany's magistrates or officers in command, at home or abroad, atwhatever port the said brig may be taken into, or met with at sea,against any frauds or deceptions that may be practised by the offendingparties,' and asking that they might be seized and brought to condignpunishment.
The _Venus_, under the command of Mr S. Rodman Chace, sailed out ofSydney Cove (as Port Jackson was then called) for Twofold Bay at thetime before mentioned. Here she remained at anchor for about five weeks,and here it was that the first trouble began.
Captain Chace had been ashore, and about dusk was returning in his boatto the ship, when he heard sounds of great hilarity proceeding fromthose on board. On coming alongside and gaining the deck, he found thatthe two convict ladies were entertaining Mr Benjamin Burnet Kelly, themate, with a dancing exhibition, the musical accompaniment to which wasgiven by Darra, the earless Malayan cook, who was seated on a tub on themain-hatch playing a battered violin. Lying around the deck, in variousstages of drunkenness, were the male convicts and some of the crew, andthe genial Mr Kelly presided over a bucket of rum, pannikins of whichwere offered to the ladies at frequent intervals by the two faithfulcup-bearers,--Ford and Evans.
Chace at once put an end to the harmony by seizing the bucket of rum andthrowing it overboard, and the drunken people about him being incapableof offering much resistance, he put them in irons and tumbled thembelow. Kelly, who was a big, truculent-looking man, then produced abowie knife of alarming dimensions and challenged Chace to combat, butwas quickly awed by a pistol being placed at his breast by his superiorofficer. He then promised to return to his duty, provided--here hebegan to weep, that--the captain did not harm Kitty Hegarty, for whom heprofessed an ardent attachment.
As the _Venus_ carried despatches for the Governor of Van Diemen's Land,Captain Chace was eager to reach his destination, Port Dalrymple, withall speed, and therefore was in a very anxious state of mind after thedisturbance mentioned, particularly as the mate Kelly, and the convictson board, seemed to have some sort of secret understanding. However,the _Venus_ arrived there safely, and Captain Chace duly delivered hisdespatches to Lieutenant House, the Marine officer in charge. Feelingsure that there was now no further danger to be apprehended, he spentthe night with an old shipmate, the captain of the schooner _GovernorHunter_. After breakfast, accompanied by Mr House, he got into his boatand set out for his ship. He had left instructions with the mate to getup anchor at six o'clock and come up the river, and about seven o'clock,as he and Mr House were being pulled towards her in the boat, they sawthat she was under weigh, and coming up.
'There's not much use in us going down, as your ship is coming up,Chace,' said Mr House. 'Let us go ashore here in this cove and wait forher.'
The master agreed to this, and the boat turned into a littlesandy-beached cove, where they lost sight of the ship, which, withthe light breeze then blowing, would not pass abreast of the cove foranother hour.
About an hour passed, and then they heard the sound of oars, and the_Venus_ boat was seen sweeping round the headland of the cove. The crewseemed thoroughly exhausted, and many of them were cut and bleeding. Ina few moments they told their story, which was, that just after the shipgot under weigh, Kelly and the convicts sprang upon the second mate,stunned him and pitched him below. Then, before those of the crew whowere not in league with the mutineers could offer any resistance, theywere set upon by the pilot, Thompson, the soldier, Darra, the earlesscook and the two women, all of whom were armed with pistols and swords.
'Into the boat, all of you fellows,' said Kelly, pointing a pistol atthe five seamen; 'into the boat; quick! or you are all dead men!'
The boat was towing astern, and the five seamen, seeing that the _Venus_was now in the absolute possession of the mutineers, and that Kellywould not hesitate to shoot them if they disobeyed him, went into theboat quietly.
As soon as the mutineers cast off the boat's painter, Kelly came aftwith Kitty Hegarty, and placing his arms around her waist, jocularlycalled out to the men in the boat to 'look at the pirate's bride, andgive his compliments and "Mrs Kelly's" compliments to Captain Chace,Lieutenant House, and the Lieutenant-Governor.' He also charged them totell Lieutenant House that he was much obliged to him for lending Chace(on a former occasion) the _Narrative of Lieutenant Bligh and the Mutinyof the Bounty_, which had so much interested him (Kelly) and 'Kitty'that they had 'decided to do Fletcher Christian's trick, and take acruise among the South Seas.' He then, with much accompanying laughterfrom merry Miss Hegarty, put a wooden bucket on her head, and called outto the people in the boat to look at 'Her Majesty, Queen Kitty Hegartyof the Cannibal Islands.' Immediately after this badinage he orderedThompson, who was at the helm, to put it hard up; and then wore ship andsailed out seawards.
* * * * *
News of the mutiny was at once sent to Lieutenant-Governor Paterson. Butthe mutineers were not heard of for a long time. Then it was learnt thatKelly had sailed the _Venus_ to the coast of New Zealand and, by meansof selling a number of casks of rum to the Maoris, had acquired aquantity of small arms, and two brass cannons, each throwing a 6-lb.shot. At one of the places they touched at, Thompson, with the aidof Kelly, abducted a handsome young Maori girl. She was a niece of TeMorenga, a chief in the Bay of Islands district. The unfortunate girl,however, so fretted, and lost so much of her attractiveness, that herscoundrelly abductor sold her to a chief named Hukori, of MercuryBay, or, if he did not sell her, she eventually came into Hukori'spossession. On their voyage up the Hauraki Gulf, they raided one or twosmall Maori _hapus_ and carried off another girl, the daughter of thechief Te Haupa, or, as he was better known, Te Totara.
* * * * *
Early in the following year Captain Bierney, of the London brig_Commerce_, reported to the Governor of New South Wales that the _Venus_had anchored at Te Puna, in New Zealand, and that Kelly had invited anumber of Maoris on board to an orgie. For some time a great state ofdrunkenness had prevailed on board; for the _Venus_, among other stores,carried a large quantity of wines and spirits, intended for the use ofthe militar
y at Van Diemen's Land. Her sails and running gear were in avery bad state, and not the slightest discipline was maintained.
In answer to the mutineers' invitation, a number of Maoris came onboard, and Kelly, addressing the leading chiefs, told them that hewas perfectly well aware of the fact that he and those with him wereincapable of offering resistance if his visitors attempted to cut offthe ship. But, he said, he had determined to abandon the ship, andtherefore he had invited them on board so that they might take what theywanted from her; and if they had no objection, he and his wife wished tolive ashore with them for the future. He then broached a cask of rum andinvited them to drink it.
The Maoris appeared to have fallen in with his suggestion with alacrity,and the chief gave the leading mutineer and his wife a large _whare_ tolive in, and also two slaves as servants.
The rest of the tale is incomplete in its details. Of the fate of the_Venus_ nothing is known. Probably she was burnt by the Maoris. Kelly,Kitty Hegarty, Charlotte Badger and her child, Thompson, and two others,lived among the natives for some time. Then the woman Kitty Hegartydied suddenly while Kelly was away on a warlike excursion with his Maorifriends, and was hastily buried. It was alleged that she was killed bysome women, one of whom was anxious to possess Kelly for her husband.Kelly himself was captured by a king's ship in 1808, and sent toEngland, where he was hanged for piracy. Lancaster was also captured bythe master of an American whale-ship, _The Brothers_ of Nantucket, andtaken to Sydney and hanged. The rest of the mutineers either met withviolent deaths at the hands of the Maoris, or succeeded in living theirlives out as pakeha-Maoris.
Of the other woman--Charlotte Badger--and her child nothing further wasknown, save that in 1808 she and the child were offered a passage toPort Jackson by Captain Bunker; but she declined, saying she wouldrather live with the Maoris than return to New South Wales to be hanged.This was not unnatural.
But, long afterwards, in the year 1826, an American whale-ship, the_Lafayette_ of Salem, reported an incident of her cruise that showedsome light on the end of Charlotte Badger.
In May 1826, the _Lafayette_ was off 'an unknown island in the SouthSeas. It was covered with trees, was about three miles long, and wasinhabited by a small number of natives. The position of this island wasin 22 deg. 30 min. south, 176 deg. 19. min. west.' The weather beingcalm at the time and the natives, by the signs and gestures they made tothe ship, evidently friendly, the captain and second mate's boats werelowered, and, with well-armed crews, pulled ashore. Only some forty orfifty natives of a light brown colour were on the island, and these,meeting the white men as they landed, conducted them to their houseswith every demonstration of friendliness. Among the number was a nativeof Oahu (Hawaii), named Hula, who had formed one of the crew of theLondon privateer _Port-au-prince_, a vessel that had been cut off bythe natives of the Haabai Group, in the Friendly Islands, twenty yearspreviously. He spoke English well, and informed Captain Barthing of the_Lafayette_ that the island formed one of the Tonga Group (it is nowknown as Pylstaart Island), and that his was the second ship that hadever visited the place. Another ship, he said, had called at the islandabout ten years before (this would be about 1816); that he had gone offon board, and had seen a very big, stout woman, with a little girl abouteight years of age with her. At first he thought, from her dark skin,that she was a native, but the crew of the ship (which was a Nantucketwhaler) told him that she was an Englishwoman, who had escaped fromcaptivity with the Maoris.
No doubt this was the woman Badger, described in the official account ofthe mutiny of the _Venus_ as 'a very corpulent person.'