When in October, 1870, I sailed into the harbour of Apia, Samoa, in theill-fated ALBATROSS, Mr Louis Becke was gaining his first experiencesof island life as a trader on his own account by running a cutterbetween Apia and Savai'i.
It was rather a notable moment in Apia, for two reasons. In the firstplace, the German traders were shaking in their shoes for fear of whatthe French squadron might do to them, and we were the bearers of thegood news from Tahiti that the chivalrous Admiral Clouet, with a veryproper magnanimity, had decided not to molest them; and, secondly, thebeach was still seething with excitement over the departure on theprevious day of the pirate Pease, carrying with him the yet moreillustrious "Bully" Hayes.
It happened in this wise. A month or two before our arrival, Hayes haddropped anchor in Apia, and some ugly stories of recent irregularitiesin the labour trade had come to the ears of Mr Williams, the EnglishConsul. Mr Williams, with the assistance of the natives, very cleverlyseized his vessel in the night, and ran her ashore, and detained MrHayes pending the arrival of an English man-of-war to which he could begiven in charge. But in those happy days there were no prisons inSamoa, so that his confinement was not irksome, and his only hardlabour was picnics, of which he was the life and soul. All wentpleasantly until Mr Pease—a degenerate sort of pirate who made hisliving by half bullying, half swindling lonely white men on smallislands out of their coconut oil, and unarmed merchantmen out of theirstores—came to Apia in an armed ship with a Malay crew. From thatmoment Hayes' life became less idyllic. Hayes and Pease conceived amost violent hatred of each other, and poor old Mr Williams was reallyworried into an attack of elephantiasis (which answers to the gout inthose latitudes) by his continual efforts to prevent the twodesperadoes from flying at each other's throat. Heartily glad was hewhen Pease—who was the sort of man that always observed LESCONVENANCES when possible, and who fired a salute of twenty-one guns onthe Queen's Birthday—came one afternoon to get his papers "allregular," and clear for sea. But lo! the next morning, when his vesselhad disappeared, it was found that his enemy Captain Hayes haddisappeared also,