We walked off, Bagley still too pale and frightened to talk.
‘Just one thing,’ said Bel to me when we were back on the beach. ‘The monkey. I wonder who gave him that necklace and taught him to fetch coconuts?’
Were there other natives here? Maybe he had been the pet of one of the dead we had buried. Maybe he had escaped from someone who was watching us even as we spoke.
CHAPTER 7
Company
It took Garrick another day before he found a tree suitable to use as a mast. It was duly felled and laboriously heaved out to the beach where he set about stripping and preparing it for the ship.
We stayed there on the beach during the day and returned to the Orion at night. She was anchored a fair way off, for the sea was shallow for several hundred feet beyond the shore. Now, whenever I returned I kept thinking about who owned that monkey and whether they would make themselves known to us.
I asked Evison if he knew anything about the people of these parts. ‘A bit,’ he said cagily. ‘There aren’t many of them, so I’m hoping we won’t come to their attention. They’re dirty in their dress and dwelling places, but they’re clever too – they cultivate land, breed cattle and have their own script. They believe in evil spirits. They are small in stature – the women especially rarely grow taller than our ten year olds.’
‘They don’t sound too bad,’ I said. ‘They train monkeys too.’ This was of no interest to him.
Then Evison said, ‘Their least appealing feature is a fondness for human flesh. I don’t think we should tarry here too long.’
That day I heard Evison and Garrick arguing. ‘It’ll not be ready for another three days,’ said the carpenter crossly. ‘I do a bad job and it’ll come crashin’ down in calm weather never mind a storm. I’ll not have sailors’ lives on my conscience.’
Evison was jumpy. Perhaps he felt we were pushing our luck staying this long. He often peered into the jungle close to the beach, as if he were expecting trouble.
Now when we ventured into the jungle to search for food and water we went in groups of four or five, at least two armed with musket and pistol.
Two days later the natives made their first appearance. Ten of them stood on the far edge of the sweeping crescent of sand that made up the beach. They were naked save for loincloths and leaned on their spears, broad brown faces regarding us blankly.
‘They’re all children,’ said Bagley with derision. ‘Just look at the size of them.’
‘They might be small,’ said Evison, ‘but they can still kill us. They’re sizing us up, wondering if we’re worth a fight.’
He and Garrick fell into conversation. ‘There’s several days’ work here that’ll go to waste if we just up sticks and run,’ said the carpenter. ‘We don’t know for sure that they’re hostile. They might just want to trade?’
‘Let’s see then,’ said the Captain. ‘Men. Gather your belongings, but do it slowly. Don’t let them think we’re frightened of them. Let’s see what these fellows are like.’
Evison turned and stood aside from the rest of us, then waved. One of the native men, attired in a fine feather headdress, stood forward and waved back. Then they called and beckoned Evison to come over to them.
‘Don’t go,’ said Bagley. ‘They could kill you on the spot and then have a go at us.’
The distance between them and our boat moored near the shoreline was roughly the same. We could not be certain of reaching it before they caught up with us.
I could feel the fear running between us like a magnetic force.
Evison was being put on the spot. ‘Who will come with me?’ he said tersely.
Not going would show we were afraid of them. ‘I’ll go,’ I heard myself saying.
‘I need brawn, lad,’ he said.
My volunteering shamed the other men. Lieutenant Hossack, Garrick and Bedlington stepped forward.
‘Are you all armed?’ asked Evison. They nodded. ‘Then let’s see what they’re made of.’
Seeing four of our party walk towards them, the native chief immediately selected three of his men to go with him, and they walked forward to meet our fellows on neutral ground.
As they grew closer the chief called out, ‘Geen wapen.’
‘That sounds like Dutch,’ said one of our men. ‘He’s saying “No weapons.”’
To emphasise the point the natives laid down their spears and knives in the sand.
We saw Evison and his men do the same with their guns, and I wondered if some of the natives would nip out of the forest to snatch them.
The two groups met, and both Evison and the chief made bowing motions. We were still anxious, but the meeting seemed to go well.
Evison returned with a smile. ‘They want to trade. I said we would return tomorrow with plates and nails. They say they have gold to give us. Gold from the far hills.’
‘So you could understand them?’ I said. Evison shrugged.
‘A few words. The chief, he speaks a little Dutch and so do I.’
The next day we returned. The natives did too. Evison had brought several bags of nails from the Orion and went with two of the crew to barter with them. I watched from a distance. The Captain was arguing heatedly. We held our breath, wondering if our comrades were going to be slaughtered.
The natives backed away and began to make contrite gestures – bowing and holding their hands in a submissive way. I began to breathe again and noticed my hands were trembling. Bel held tightly to my arm. ‘Thought we’d had it then,’ she whispered.
Evison returned to our party. ‘They’ve no gold, so there’s no nails for them. Their chief says he has sent men into the mountains for it and they’ll be a few days. But I don’t think they’re really going to exchange their gold for a few nails. I think they’re waiting for more of their kind to arrive, and then they’ll have a go at us.’
He turned to the carpenter. ‘They’re very interested in your tools, Mr Garrick. I think the sooner you’re away with your mast and tool bag, the better.’
‘Then let’s go,’ said Garrick. ‘We’ll have to carry on shaping the mast when we have it in place on the Orion.’
Evison spoke again. ‘I can’t take you all, and the mast, right now. I want those of you remaining to spend the last hour or two here stocking up on any fruits and vegetables you can find. It’ll be valuable work and useful in keeping the scurvy at bay. Stay together, stay away from the natives and stay close enough to the beach to be ready for us when we return. I’ve told them we’ll be back for their gold but my guess is they’ll attack if they think we’re going for good. If some of us stay, they’ll know for sure we’ll be coming back.’
The Captain took Bel to one side. He looked solemn as he spoke and she nodded a few times. Then we all helped push the mast into the shallows and watched as they attached it to the stern of the boat with a rope. Garrick hauled his tool bag aboard and they started rowing for the Orion. The natives watched from the edge of the forest and began a strange little dance, stamping their feet and spears into the ground in unison. It was a menacing gesture. Evison’s response – a friendly wave and a promise to return – seemed out of place.
A handful of us remained. I couldn’t contain my curiosity. I asked Bel, ‘What did the Captain say to you?’
‘Told me he was sorry he couldn’t take me back on the boat just now,’ said Bel. ‘Said he needed every strong man he could get to haul the mast on to the ship.’ She seemed unconcerned. ‘Fair enough, I suppose.’
Lieutenant Hossack was among us. Evison obviously hadn’t forgiven his Lieutenant for the fight they had had that dark night. When the boat had sailed past hailing distance, he sat down in the sand. We looked at him expectantly for orders.
Eventually I spoke. ‘Shall we all go together, sir, to look for fruit, or in several parties?’
He looked bewildered. To our surprise he began complaining about what we had been asked to do. ‘Bloody waste of time,’ he said sourly. ‘Fruit for scurvy. Wha
t stuff and nonsense. It’s work that keeps the scurvy from men’s bones, not fruit.’
Then he turned to me and said, ‘Yes, off you go, Witchall. Take whoever will come with you. I shall stay here and summon you when the boat returns.’
It seemed an unnecessarily dangerous thing Evison had asked us to do. But maybe he did it to take our minds off our predicament. Off we went, Bel, Thomas Bagley and me. Bagley carried a pistol so we had some defence against any man-eating animal, but we had only powder for one shot, and I feared that would be best used to defend ourselves from the natives. We found mangoes and figs close by and I took off my shirt to make a cradle to carry them.
When we’d gathered all we could we returned to the edge of the beach. Hossack was there, crouching where the jungle ended and the sand began. A small party of natives remained at the opposite end of the crescent beach. ‘They’ve not taken their eyes off me the whole time you’ve been gone,’ said the Lieutenant. I could hear the fear in his voice.
‘We shall wait here until the boat returns. Then we shall run to it as quickly as we can. I dare say that will be the cue for the natives to attack us.’
‘Why are they waiting?’ I asked. ‘Why don’t they just kill us?’
Hossack shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Maybe they think they’ll surprise us all at once. Maybe they hope to seize our boat. Maybe they’re waiting for reinforcements. Maybe they’re afraid of our guns.’
So we waited. The sun rose to its zenith and I was grateful for the cover of the trees. We slaked our thirst on the fruit we had found. Fear gnawed at my gut. Bel was frightened too. As she sat in the sand, she clutched her arms tight across her stomach and rocked to and fro.
We were sat slightly away from the others and I asked her if she was disappointed about having to leave New South Wales. I thought it would take her mind off the waiting. She was surprisingly forthright.
‘I liked the place but I never liked the people Miss Lizzie mixed with. Lieutenant Gray was the worst and there were plenty similar. Hossack’s a bit like Gray too. I keep waiting for her to see through him. That awful God-given arrogance. I never liked Gray. The first row Lizzie had with him was about me. “You’re far too familiar with that servant,” he said. After that she’d be snooty with me when he was there. Like it was expected of her. After they got engaged he started to drink more heavily.
‘I made up my mind that if she married him I was going to go. I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life being kicked up the backside by an oaf like that. Then one day she came home with a black eye and told me she was going to call off the engagement.
‘Gray got steaming drunk and told her, right in front of me, that he knew people who would kill her for five guineas. I wasn’t having that. I said “I know people who would kill you for nothing.” That shut him up.’
The Orion was a good half mile out at sea, and we could see they were still hauling the mast on board. Meanwhile, Hossack was plotting our best defence. ‘We must stay on guard for an attack at any quarter. The natives may decide to capture or kill us before our men return. They could come round under cover of the jungle and surprise us from behind.’
I looked over to the far side of the beach. They were still there, and I could swear there were a few more of them. A quick count numbered twelve. With ourselves and the men in the boat we would still just about outnumber them.
Bagley held his pistol plainly in front of him. ‘Don’t fire unless you’re sure of your target,’ said Hossack. ‘I have a pistol, but I have only powder for it and no shot.’
Every flutter of wings or snapping twig close by made us start. I counted fifteen natives now and perhaps more were creeping around the beach towards us. They stood plainly in view, leaning on their spears, staring over to where we sat.
We heard a clattering close by. Peering into the dense undergrowth we saw only dancing shadows. I caught a glimpse of a shoulder or an arm, perhaps ten yards away from us. Bagley must have seen it too for he fired his pistol into the forest. I saw a flash of orange fur as a monkey hurtled away. The whiff of gunpowder caught in my nostrils and when my ears had stopped ringing from the sound of the pistol I could hear laughter. Not close by, but from across the beach. The natives were amused by our behaviour. We had let them know how jumpy and frightened we were. Then they settled down and started to stamp their feet and spears again, as we had seen them do when the boat left.
‘I don’t think they’re sneaking round to attack us,’ I said. ‘I don’t suppose they’d be laughing if they thought we’d shot one of theirs.’
Now his last shot had gone, Bagley grew fretful. ‘Why don’t they come?’ he kept saying. Hossack was unusually patient. He might be an ass, but he was proving to be a good man in a tight spot. ‘The tide is against us. When it comes in, the boat will return. Now fill your pistol with powder,’ he handed his powder horn over to Bagley. ‘We might at least be able to frighten them with some blank shots.’
It was mid-afternoon when the Orion’s cutter started back towards us. ‘Witchall, go and see if you can stand up and attract their attention somewhere where the natives can’t see you,’ said Hossack.
It seemed a forlorn task, but I retreated to the edge of the jungle and waved my arms wildly. The cutter headed close to our position.
It ran aground in the shallows, about ten feet from the edge of the shore, and Evison jumped out and waded towards us. So far, the natives had stayed where they were, but this was their cue. As soon as the Captain reached the beach, another ten of them emerged from cover and they all began to stamp their feet and beat the ground with their spears.
This was no time for clever tactics. ‘Run!’ shouted Evison, and we did. The fruit we had painstakingly gathered was abandoned and we hurtled along the beach towards the shoreline. The natives began to charge towards us and Hossack and Bagley both levelled their pistols and fired. At once, the natives threw themselves to the ground. It gained us several vital seconds before their courage returned and they raced forwards.
We reached the shore almost together, Bel running as fast as any of us, with her dress gathered up around her knees. But now stones were falling around us, and one hit me in the back of the head with such force it knocked me to the ground. I felt momentarily dazed but could hear Bel yelling, ‘Get up, Sam,’ as she dragged me to my feet. The spears would come next.
Men in the cutter were already pushing it out from the shore, and the boat was afloat by the time we reached it. Hands grabbed and bundled us aboard as stones rained down with merciless frequency. The fastest of the natives had already reached the water, and would be upon us any moment. Evison felled him with a pistol shot.
I remembered something I had read in Captain Bligh’s account of his own battle with natives and shouted, ‘Let’s throw our clothes at them – that will distract them!’
Evison led by example. He took off his blue captain’s jacket with fine gold embroidery and gleaming brass buttons, scrunched it into a ball and threw it over the heads of the nearest natives and towards the shallows. At once, some turned and scrambled back, determined to be the first to reach this choice prize. I threw my own shirt. Other men spun their hats. One man even hurled his precious shoes at them. Not all the natives were prepared to be distracted by our offerings. But as we began to scull for our lives towards the Orion, only a few still raced through the surf towards us. As it dawned on them they were now outnumbered, they stopped running. A last handful of rocks sailed over. In our confusion and haste to dodge them we failed to notice an incoming spear, aimed with deadly accuracy into the middle of our boat. Thomas Bagley was a target you could hardly miss. The spear hit him full in the chest and he lunged forward with a look of total surprise on his face, spitting blood over the back of the man at the oars in front of him.
‘Hold him down,’ said Evison heatedly as Bagley writhed in agony, ‘before he does for us all.’
Bagley shrieked pitifully as Garrick pulled the spear out. Then Garrick held the poor ma
n in a bear grip, lying him down as gently as he could in the bottom of the boat. ‘Keep still, old mate, or we’ll all be slaughtered,’ he whispered.
‘Put him over the side,’ said Lieutenant Hossack. ‘He’s as good as dead.’
‘We’ll do no such thing,’ said Evison. ‘Now row for your lives.’
I had seen men with these sorts of injuries linger for days. Mercifully, Thomas Bagley did not live to see our return to the ship. He went a deathly pale and his legs began to tremble and after a few agonised spasms his body gave up the ghost.
In a few short minutes the Orion loomed before us. Silent faces stared down from over the rail. Bagley had been well liked on the ship. He was not a moaner or a carper and he mucked in whenever he was needed. Evison read the funeral service to a sombre, thoughtful crew. It could have been any one of us wrapped in that canvas sheet, food for the fishes thousands of miles from home. At least we were able to give him a proper funeral, and spared him the ordeal of being butchered by a frenzied pack of natives in the shallows of the shore.
CHAPTER 8
The Speckled Monster
We sailed through the oceans and the weeks merged one into the other. Our creaking ship braved the rigours of the sea and although men were frequently ordered to pump water from the hold, the Orion carried us through the Indian Ocean. Close to the Roaring Forties, we stopped briefly at the Cape to reprovision, then continued into the sluggish horse latitudes and doldrums.
As we approached the Equator west of Africa, there was no breath of wind for days on end. Our salty diet of dried meat and dried peas and beans produced a terrible thirst in us all, especially on days when the heat was so fierce it melted the tar between the planking. Our water supply was sufficient but it was brackish and foul, even after a red hot poker heated in the galley fire was plunged in to purify it.
This was the worst part of the journey – there were no hostile natives or pirates to distract us, no volcanoes … We all lapsed into a glazed-eyed lethargy. Evison tried to keep his crew busy but we were too weary to grow restless and mutinous. Once every couple of days, to prevent an outbreak of disease, vinegar was sprinkled liberally below decks and the ship was smoked out with sulphur fumes. The sour smells lodged in our throats and made our thirst worse.
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