The Devil in Paradise--Captain Putnam in Hawaii

by James L. Haley

  “I noticed when we were in the temple that he is approximately the same size as Mary Washington, whom we lost in Malaya. My present intention is to have Fleming splice him onto her stump as a new figurehead. He will want to trim him down, of course: there are parts of his anatomy that we do not need to display to the world.”

  “Brilliant, sir, I approve. That did sound like quite the sanguine affair onshore. Dr. Berend tells me there were no survivors.”

  “No, there were not.”

  Miller looked ineffably sad.

  “Michael, it had nothing to do with what I said in Singapore about wanting to exterminate the human predators of the world. Mr. Pitt was right: Boki’s land was a refuge for priests who wanted to bring back the old religion. One that spoke English shouted that we had defiled their temple, and they attacked us in a most determined rush. One could not call it a fight—clubs and daggers against muskets. Very sad, in its way.”

  “And so they died, along with their way of life.”

  “The irony, Mr. Miller, is that one day historians who don’t know crap will write that they were picturesque little natives living colorful little lives and we should have left them alone to sit for portraits and be interviewed by members of the Royal Society.”

  “That is rather a bold prediction, sir.”

  “Not so very much. Read Herodotus; read Livy. Historians have always romanticized distant savages, whether distant in geography or in time. But we accomplished the queen’s business. Saeger and his crew are punished for their crime.”

  “Punished most horribly, from what Dr. Berend told us.”

  “Yes, they were very brutally killed. While I think of it, I want you to send a salvage party over to the schooner. Take off everything that can be used, make up parcels of their personal effects, to the extent that they can be identified. We will set her afire before we leave this place.” With a toss of his head he gestured up to the temple, where its ten-foot wall of lava blocks was backlit by the pyre within it. “I have half a mind to demolish that thing with target practice. This part of the island has been a stronghold of the queen’s opposition, and as their sanctum, she would probably thank us for knocking it down. But I don’t see much point in destroying one when there are a hundred still standing.”

  Miller nodded. “I quite agree, sir. I think we have made enough noise for one day.”

  Bliven went below, where he found Clarity in the privacy of his berth, feeding Ben from a packet of finely cut-up fruit and fish.

  “Well,” she sighed. “What now?”

  “Now? We go to Honoruru, report to the queen, and then we go home.”

  “Home.” She closed her eyes. “But wait, we can’t do that. Captains are no longer allowed to sail with their wives, as I heard.” He read in her eyes that she was already in a mood to tease.

  He sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her and their son. “That is true. However, I am empowered to rescue and repatriate refugees whose lives are in danger.” He lifted her chin and kissed her long. “If you are a poor, helpless waif, God help the rest of us.”

  The next day they were back in Honoruru, standing together before the queen. This time she was clad in bright blue English silk.

  “Captain Putnam, our prime minister has given us a full account of what you have done. We hold that our justice has been fulfilled. I shall soon write a letter through Mr. Jenkins, our secretary, to your government expressing our thanks for your gallant and honorable conduct.”

  “I thank Your Majesty.”

  “And now, Missy La Laelae, come embrace me one last time.”

  Clarity approached, stopping to curtsy, as Kahumanu extended her meaty knee for her to sit on, as had once been their habit. “Missy, there is something that I desire you to know,” she said quietly. “I did not wish to send you to the north shore with Boki. After the great killing at Hana, I had to speak as one voice with my chiefs against you all. If I had not done so, they could have deposed me. That would have meant the end of your god in my country, and with the chiefs in power, they could bring back kapu. These things I could not allow. I acted against my feelings for you, but I acted as queen to my people. Can you understand this?”

  Clarity bowed her head for a moment. “Yes, ma’am. I cannot say you were wrong. You are still in power, justice has been done, the guilty men have been punished, and the missionaries are going to stay. So it seems you acted wisely.”

  “And now one last time, tell me some good thing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

  She considered it briefly. “One thing that encourages me, when I am weary, when I see how much evil there is in the world that must be overcome and I am out of strength, when it seems like doing good things no longer has any point, I remember this. After our Lord was crucified and rose from the dead, He appeared to His apostles, the men who had followed Him. They were very sad, but He told them not to be discouraged, and that He would be with them in spirit, always, even to the end of time.” She could tell from the tears that rose in Kahumanu’s eyes that she had struck home.

  The queen reached up, pulled a silver comb from her hair, and placed it in Clarity’s. “Take this to remember me, and I wish you to remember me in your prayers.”

  Clarity was unprepared for her own rush of emotion. “Every day, my queen.”

  Kahumanu kissed her on the forehead and Clarity kissed her huge hand. A little nod and push at the back dismissed her and she slid off the queen’s knee and backed away into a final curtsy. “Ka mea Kamahao.”

  “Mahalo,” she whispered lowly. “Aloha oe. Captain Putnam!”

  “Ma’am?”

  “The purser from your ship was heard inquiring of the American agent as to the proper price of pork and fish and other victuals. This was, however, after we had already provisioned your ship of our own generosity.” She pointed a finger at him. “Do not let him cheat you.”

  “No, ma’am. I thank you.”

  As they departed the royal pili, Muriel Albright approached them, favoring one leg now with the use of a beautiful new cane of koa wood. “I wanted to see you before you left.”

  Clarity flew to her as Karaimoku placed a big hand on Bliven’s shoulder. “Captain Putnam, we have had adventures together.”

  It still embarrassed him how tall the chief was next to him. “Yes. I am sorry that men had to die, but I hope that we have made the future of your country more secure.”

  “Your people say greeting and farewell by shaking hands. You and I now are going to do it our way.”

  “And what is that?”

  Karaimoku placed his hands on Bliven’s shoulders. “Do not be afraid, I shan’t kiss you. I am going to place my forehead against yours, and we shall share breath for a moment.”

  By the time he pulled away they were both smiling. “And now we shake hands?”

  “Yes.”

  Clarity shook her head slowly. “Mrs. Albright, will you not come home with us?”

  “No, child. This is where God has led me. I am content to live out my days in this work.”

  They held hands. “I shall never forget you. It is hard, to feel that a good-bye is final.”

  “No, my dear, only if you believe that it is final. Perhaps I shall not see you again in this life, but in the next, you and I will surely resume our mockery of pompous reverends.”

  Clarity laughed helplessly, impatient that she could not see clearly through her tears. “Good-bye, dear Mrs. Albright.”

  Bingham drew Bliven aside. “Captain, I have a great favor to ask. After much discussion and prayer, one of our families, the Chamberlains, have concluded that their calling here was, perhaps, not well-thought-out. Two of their children are sickly. May we prevail upon you to take them home?”

  “Reverend, unless I miss my guess, they are packed already.”

  “There you have us, sir. They can leave upon the
instant.”

  “Get them down to the pier posthaste.”

  “Oh, God bless you!” He turned and walked toward their house as fast as his dignity would allow.

  * * *

  * * *

  UNITED STATES SLOOP of war Rappahannock, twenty-six guns, Captain Putnam, discharged her pilot and stood out of Honoruru harbor on a fine afternoon, making her course west by south, running full and by with the strength of the trade winds coming straight over the taffrail.

  Bliven sought out the ship’s carpenter. “Ah, Fleming. The berth in my compartment—I wish you to widen it by a foot and a half.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  “And ask the sailmaker to stuff and sew up a new mattress to that dimension.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Can you do this by tonight?”

  “With the freedom of your cabin and to make some noise, yes, sir.”

  “Go to it, then. Mr. Ross, I am afraid I’m going to have to exile you back down to a wardroom berth.”

  “Yes, sir. I have moved my things already.”

  “Have you? Well. And for the duration, you may knock and enter the great cabin, but enter the compartments only when bidden.”

  “Sir, I would have thought that went without saying.”

  “Do you think you can manage to serve a captain’s table this evening?”

  “Happily, sir! The queen loaded us to the gunwales with fresh food of every description. The sooner we eat some of it, the sooner we will have room on the decks to walk a straight line.”

  “Ha! Well, then, let us extend the invitation to the midshipmen and the warrant officers. Same menu, but they must dine in the wardroom, for I have my wife, the Chamberlains, and their children. They and the officers will crowd my own table. You will be serving us, of course, but take care you reserve a full plate for yourself. That will be a large number for dinner; dragoon a couple of the more presentable-looking seamen to help you.”

  After dinner, Clarity sat with Ben asleep in her lap, in a chair that she had turned to face away from the table, watching the night horizon where Diamond Hill had receded from their view, as Bliven came over and put his hands on her shoulders.

  “Home now, my dearest?” she asked.

  He sat beside her and wrapped an arm around her. “Home now.”

  “Oh, Lord, I suppose that means back around Cape Horn.”

  “In strictest confidence, my love: never again in this life if I can help it.”

  “Oh, that is good hearing. But what, then?”

  “Once we reach a more southerly latitude, we are going to let the earth spin beneath us, and go home via the Cape of Good Hope.”

  “Africa?”

  “My love, you will be the only lady in Litchfield to have circumnavigated the globe.”

  “Well! I don’t . . . You take my breath away.”

  “And then, knowing the close interest you have in slavery and in bringing it to an end, I thought we might put in at Dakar. Perhaps when you see the beginning of those awful trips that the slave ships make, it will stoke that abolitionist fire under you a little bit.”

  It did not bear saying, but she knew that his own feelings about that sad subject must have modified more toward her own, or he would not have offered her a look at the slave markets and holding pens of West Africa. Ben awoke and wriggled. “I believe it is time for Baby and me to retire.”

  “Do you want anything?”

  She shook her head.

  He kissed her. “I am going to have a look topside. I won’t be long.”

  As he went up the ladder and aft to the quarterdeck, it was surprising how the air had chilled.

  “Good evening, Captain.”

  “Mr. Rippel, good evening. Are you ready to go home?”

  “Ready, Captain? You have no idea.”

  Bliven ambled over to the port rail, grasped the mizzen ratlines, and let himself relax, filling his lungs with clean sea air and enjoying the relief of a long and difficult mission well acquitted.

  “Good evening, Captain.”

  “Mr. Horner, good evening. What brings you up?”

  “I don’t know, sir. Couldn’t sleep.”

  Bliven gave him a searching look. “Pupukea was your first real action, you said.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You keep seeing it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I understand. I was the very same at your age.”

  “Truly?”

  “What you must do is ask yourself whether you acted wrongly in any part of it. You followed orders; you fired only when you were attacked. To have not done so would have cost our lives instead of theirs. If you hate the violence and the bloodshed, good for you. That is what will make you a good soldier.”

  “I understand. Thank you.” He stood quietly for several minutes. “Captain, may I ask you something?”

  “Of course, Mr. Horner.”

  “It is not of any great moment, really, but I have been curious.”

  “Speak up, lad, what is it?”

  “Well, sir, in your wife’s book—is it . . . true . . . about the guns and the ramrods at the Battle of Derna?”

  Bliven let out his breath slowly as he pursed his lips and sucked at them as he gave his lieutenant of marines a look both askance and withering. “Mr. Rippel?”

  “Sir?”

  “You have the deck. I am going below. Good night, Mr. Horner.”

  “Good night, Captain.”

  HONORURU

  20TH AUGUST, 1822

  My dear Commodore,

  In my last report, from Canton, I advised that Capt. Jakob Saeger, schooner Free Trader, whose attack by Malay pirates now some years ago was an impetus for sending my vessel to the Pacific, was thought to be in harbor at the time I arrived there.

  Once in Canton, agreeable to instructions, I made the acquaintance of the American agent, Mr. Dunn, who was happy to learn of his country’s increasing interest in foreign contact and commerce. Before I could make contact with Capt. Saeger, a general fire destroyed much of the business community. After this I learned from Mr. Dunn that Capt. Saeger was indeed in port, and caused a great commotion when it was discovered that the sandalwood which he sold was deceptively mixed with a useless wood, for which he was compelled to return their money, and was banned from further commerce.

  The authorities in Canton, after investigation, concluded that the fire which destroyed the foreign quarter of the city was of unknown origin, but spread with such devastating effect owing to the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. My own suspicion, though it is founded principally in my own instincts, is supported by relevant circumstantial evidence such as the location of the fire’s first detection, and that it was deliberately set by Capt. Saeger, his motive being to destroy the stocks of sandalwood belonging to his competitors.

  Mr. Dunn was unharmed in the conflagration, although the American mercantile was destroyed. Further, the collection that he has assembled of Chinese art and ancient artefacts, was rescued onto boats and rowed into the harbor by the swift action of his Chinese factor, Mr. Ting Qua, who allowed his own commercial merchandise to go up in flames rather than witness the destruction of his cultural heritage. This gallantry, while it has no bearing on my mission and will not appear in my official report, I found to be highly commendable.

  I learned from Mr. Dunn that Capt. Saeger was heard to say, that he would avenge himself upon the Hawaiians who had sold him the false sandalwood. I therefore returned to the Sandwich Islands as fast as possible, although this required a hard sail of ten weeks into unfavoring winds. By the time I arrived, I learned that Capt. Saeger had most treacherously called a gathering of native canoes to come trade at his ship, but instead turned his guns upon them—he had acquired four small carronades from the British at Valparaiso, on
the claim of needing to protect himself from the Malacca pirates—and with a broadside of grape shot killed more than a hundred native Hawaiians at Hana, on the island of Maui, who had sold him the adulterated sandalwood.

  With the country in an uproar, and with my vessel the only one capable of finding and arresting Capt. Saeger, I accepted the Queen’s request to locate him. Also at her direction, the American missionaries who have been dispersed through the islands, were sequestered in the households of powerful chiefs for their protection. The head of the missionaries, Mr. Bingham, and a couple of others, have assured me that they have not felt in personal danger, that the Queen and most of her court have converted to the Christian faith, and that the Americans here feel no need nor desire to be evacuated and withdrawn—with a few exceptions as I shall detail presently.

  Learning of the events in Hana, I set off in pursuit of Capt. Saeger to force an end to his depredations, which in addition to being criminal were harming the reputation of the United States. Off the district of Pupukea on the north shore of Oahu, I learned that Capt. Saeger and some of his crew had gone ashore with the prospect of a profitable bargain in obtaining pure sandalwood. There they were captured and meted out mortal justice by the high chief of this district. His own conversion to piracy was attested by his remaining crew opening fire on my vessel, inflicting three fatalities and wounding five among my men. Once I returned fire, the result was his vessel was burnt to the waterline, with his men escaping to the shore in small boats. The deaths of Capt. Saeger and those with him, I can confirm by having gone ashore and found and buried their bodies.

  Back at Honoruru I made report of these facts to the Queen, who expressed her satisfaction, not with the deaths of Saeger et al., but that justice had been done—a conclusion with which I can not but concur. She also expresses her continuing good will toward our country, and her gratitude for the religious instruction and practical help—doctor, teachers, etc., brought by Mr. Bingham and the other missionaries of the Congregationalist Church.

  A few of them imparted to Mr. Bingham that they no longer felt safe there, and desire to return home, viz. Daniel and Jerusha Chamberlain and five children. Despite my disinclination to take on civilians, two of their children are in delicate health, and I am well founded in my opinion that my ship’s surgeon Dr. Craighead Berend will offer the best medical care they could obtain in this part of the world. As I am now bound for Boston by the straightest route possible, I am bringing the Chamberlain family with me. And as my intention is that no ship now here will reach there before us, I will deliver this letter by hand at that time.