THE CAREER OF A REMARKABLE SCOUNDREL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 181, 8 March 1860, Page 4

THE CAREER OF A REMARKABLE SCOUNDREL.

[From the Sydney Empire, Jan. 9.] . For the information of our readers in Sydney, and New South Wales generally, we have the satisfaction of informing and of warning them that there is now, or was a day or two since, in this colony, one of the most systematic and unmitigated scoundrels that it has ever, had the fortune to he possessed of. He has hitherto passed as Captain Hayes, or Captain William Henry Hayes, and is a man of some six feet high, about fifteen stone weight, and of rather plausible, bluff exterior, which with many, it would seem, has enabled him to pass off, until a settlement came, as a very honest, jolly seaman ; and he is a man who at times spends his money, or the money in his possession, very liberally, which, considering the very strong probabilities connected with its -acquisition, is not very difficult to account for. The success of this enormous mercantile humbug (he having possessed himself probably to the amount of £ 20,000, or to the value thereof, if not twice as much, in the last eight years, without any equivalent but impudence and pi'omises) is the, more singular from the fact that he is a man of the most meagre education, and possessing no particular qualities, except rare cunning, attended by an unlimited commaud of impudence, and a somewhat more than average degree of physical power, of which fact he is partial to giving discourteous.intimations to the unfavourably disposed. Having now introduced our subject, we will endeavour to give an outline of his history. He is the son of a grog-shop keeper, in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., his father not being considered a very respectable member of his trade. Of his education, as the term is generally understood, we know nothing, but, although he does not appear to have wasted much time in that -way, he certainly picked up a very practical knowledge of figures. In early life lie learned something of seafaring, of which more hereafter, and the i next item we know of him is his marriage in i Cleveland. His first professional speculation - recorded is that of horse-stealing, the legal j consequences of which he escaped by a flaw in > the indictment. Before the prosecution could i be further proceeded with, he married another! s woman of small property and less reputation, . with whom he went to a more convenient field l for the exercise of his talents—California. lie i then, with the money of a gentleman, over [ whom during the voyage there lie had appeared . to acquire great influence, started his wife in . a retail liquor saloon, and subsequently by . promises of rare speculation and enormous : returns, with the aid of-a confederate, whom , he employed to personate a wealthy San Fran- , cisco merchant, he persuaded this friend to purchase the barque Otranto, and fit her out in costly stylo for' a China voyage. All pre-

parations being made, Hayes sailed with her ] as master; and this is all the owner heard of 1 him or her,, until his return to California about s a year since, after an absence of five. or six j years. , . i After Hayes’ arrival in China, lie ran the 1 Otranto for a while between the various Clii- < nese ports, taking, advantage of every oppor- 1 tunity to raise funds by means of bottomries 1 upon the vessel, until at length the barque was i seized to . settle her liabilities. With the mo- i ney. thus procured lie bought the . barque J. i 'Bradley, jiuir., .and , prudent the same course of. borrowing- and i raising .money on bottomries, lie suddenly left, i Shanghai was .one of the last ports, perhaps I the last, at. which he ; touched in Chiha.; There 1 lie employed a tailor' to furnish him with 500 i dollars worth of clothing- for himself, and 40 ] dollars: for each of his crew. The clothing 1 was made and delivered, anil on the morning i of liis. departure the poor knight of tlie shears ! came on board to get liis money. Hayes re- i

ceivecl, ‘ him very - politely j requesting, him. to 1 wait a.while until lie was more at leisure. At s length the vessel approached the moutliof the 1 river, and the. tailor, beginning to “ smell a 1 mouse,”.urged liim.. again for the immediate I payment. “ Sir,” said Captain'Hayes, “itis s very inconvenient for me to pay you now ; 1 1 shall return in two weeks, and then we will 1 square accounts. At the present moment lam ! going to sea, and if you don’t get into your boat you shall go with me.” The tailor went i ashore, without his money. Hayes next turned up in South Australia, : about three years ago, where lie conspired with the captain of a ship to defraud tlie owners of her out of .£4,000. In collusion with him, Hayes brought a suit for the recovery of the £4OOO, said to have been advanced by him on the security of a bottomry bond. The case was decided against him, and his bond pronounced fraudulent, and Hayes was left pennyless, he having sold the J. Bradley, Junior, to enable him to meet liis expenses and carry on his suit. , This hy no means damaged, liis ardour in the pursuit of cash, for he contrived in the course of a few months, during which he was well known in Adelaide for the uproarious life he led, to. run into debt and obtain, money to the amount of about £2OOO, the storekeepers and others generally believing liis statement that he was a flourishing and wealthy mariner ; when suddenly, to tlie surprise anil disgust of liis friends!, the news spread of his having decamped. A short consultation was held amongst the chief sufferers, and it was agreed to charter one ’of tlie port steam-tugs and start in pursuit. Stores, &c., were hurriedly tumbled on hoard, anil they steamed

down the Gulf of St. Vincent, within twelve i hours’ start. As the passage from Port Ade- 1 laide to the open ocean is generally through a 1 passage seven miles wide, running between tlie i mainland and Kangaroo Island, and at a dis- < tance of seventy 'miles from port the anxious < creditors, with whom was a party of water 1 police, calculated upon .overtaking 'their friend < on this track. But, unfortunately, tlieir supply 1 of coal fell short when in sight of the vessel, ; and a heavy swell was on at the time. In fact, 1 if we have been correctly informed, the.steam- i tug’and object of pursuit were so near together, i about dusk, as to enable the impulsive and i exasperated tug charterers to witness Hayes’s i pantomimic gestures, as to what lie would do ; with their necks and bodies if he got hold of 1 them. As the vessel declined to stop for them, they. were, compelled to return. In South : Australia or in Melbourne Ilaj'es married again, anil, in the latter colony he’ renewed operations by selling to. a party of miners a share of a vessel in which he had not the : slightest interest. Soon after, by some acci- : dent, he was engaged ta, take command of the barque Orestes, bound for Vancouver Island. 'The Orestes entered the port of Honolulu on : her way, and remained in that harbour about i six weeks. The voyage thus far had been one continned scene.of trouble anil bickering : between tlie captain and his passengers. From one of his passengers he hail, while in Australia, procured the sum of 2000 dollars, all the money lie had, for the purpose of investing it in liquor and selling it, on their joint account, to the steerage passengers during the voyage. He received the money and kept it, but de- : dined to buy tlie liquor. 'While in Honololu his then last wife procured a separation from him on account of his brutal conduct towards ; her; and during the stay of the ship there, Mr. Clement, the supercargo for the ship and agent for the owners, having discovered, in addition to many acts of dishonesty, on the part of Hayes, that he had conspired to run away with the vessel and cargo, removed him from the ship. Hayes then returned to San Francisco with his tim'd wife (who subsequently became reconciled to him), leaving behind him : debts to the amount of 2000 dollars. Captain Hayes now almost came to grief, but lavish promises of money saved him for > renewed swindling activity. The owner of: the Otranto, who met him, he quieted .with ; the prospect, of several thousand dollars; and liis second wife, who found him in company ' with liis third wife, was induced to forego pro- i ceedings for . a similar aerial and worthless ' consideration. His next performance, of which < recent accounts liave .been, given, was his'run* • ning away with 'the' 1 Wig/Ellenitayfor whicli ■ he promised To pay, but didn’t. But lie took : care to secure something more than an empty ■ hull, for he carried off some 2000 dollars’ . worth of jewellery bought on credit, and 5000 or 0000 dollars in cash, which had been deposited in his hands on freight,'or for saffii keeping, hy, the passengers, i After taking French leave of liis *S'an Fran- • cisco friends, anil carrying off the wife and i children of one of Ins passengers whom lie left ; behind, Captain Hayes next turns up in the • Hawaiian islands. He euteryi] the port of

Kahului, on the island of Maui, pn loth September, with the design of taking oil board some fresh provisions, and. probably of smug- : gling a few goods on shore. Unfortunately for the carrying out. of his intentions, the she- 1 t ; iff of that island got an inkling of his. proceedings, : and hastened at once across the : mountains to arrest the rogue upon a warrant: for a violation of the revenue laws. He arrested him on shore, on the afternoon of the 18th, but subsequently consented to accompany him on board of his vessel, that he might give certain alleged necessary orders to his mate. Once on board, the captain detained the sheriff upon various pretexts, until it was too late to go on shore, and they arranged that lie should sleep on board, and in the morning they would land and .proceed together to Lahaino, while the mate remained to carry the vessel round by sea. .Early, in the morning, however, the captain announced to the Sheriff his determination to resist the arrest, alleging .that it was illegal, and declaring that he should go to sea immediately, and gave the sheriff his choice to go asliore or remain on board. Being' unaccompanied by any force lie was obliged to submit, and. having been landed, was subjected to the mortification of: seeing the .Ellenita squaring away before a j fresh wind. Captain Hayes . forgot, before leaving, to pay for the supplies procured at Kahului, amounting to about .100 dollars. Although at the risk of trespassing on the patience of our readers, we proceed somewhat farther in this man’s career, which now assumes a much darker aspect. A few days since some of the passengers and crew of the Ellenita arrived in Sydney by H.M. brig Elk, stating that on the 16th October, that is about four weeks after leaving the Hawaiian islands, the Ellenita foundered at sea about 70 miles from the Navigators’ islands. From evidence given in the /later Police Court last week, it appeared that Hayes was charged with iride cently assaulting a girl, one of the passengers, twice during this voyage from Kahului. ' It should be remembered, in connection with the loss of this vessel,.that //ayes had every reason to suppose his flight with her at that time was' generally known, arid’ lie bad ; with him jewellery and money to the amount of ,£I3OO or ,£I4OO at the least. It is also worthy of notice that Hayes secured the only available boat t 6 himself, and as soon as possible disposed of all the men out of it, except himself and the oarsmen, and took in the women, and , at the same time secured all the nautical instruments, and nearly all the provisions from , the adjoining raft. We give a portion of the account as follows :-!

“ The brig, foundered on the 16th October, 1859, about seventy miles from the Navigators’ islands. The passengers and crew exerted themselves to keep her afloat till the water was near the between deck beams. We then commenced building a raft; it was constructed of tlie maintrysail boom and a spare topmast, with planks nailed upon them, arid three water casks on the top of them. The raft was launched some time in the afternoon, and some addition made to it; it was seen that it would be under water as soon as any weight was put upon it. Accordingly a temporary deck was made with-cabin doors, and bulkhead boards and other light stuff, and all nailed and lashed together to make it as strong as possible, then provisions and water were passed on it. The captain said he would put the men out of the boat, except the oarsmen, and take the women and children in, because the latter were all wet and cold. One man (a passenger) objected to leaving the boat, but the captain told him he would throw him out if he did not get out; he then got out and the women and children got in. There were several gallons of water in the boat in demijohns, but no provisions. The captain kept asking for bread aud meat and other things from the raft, and always obtained it, because they on the raft thought he was going to stay with them. Some time during tlie forenoon he changed oarsmen to give them a spell, and after a while sent a man on to the raft to get more provisions, taking that which would best 1 suit the raft, namely, can meats, including one can of biscuits. All this time they on the raft were led to suppose that the boat would stayby them/ They took the sun in tire boat at noon, and told the latitude to tliem on the raft, and, something about the bearings of some place, and then said he was going to leave us ; he accordingly left us without compass, or chart, or epitome, or any kind of navigation tools except a quadrant, which soon washed overboard. All the bread that was on the raft was one barrel, and that was so wet that the salt water could be squeezed out of it. The water lias been estimated from 60 to 80 gallons. There were thirteen men and 1 boy on the raft, including the cook, steward, and a seaman, the rest jvere passengers.” The statement then goes to describe their dreadfull sufferings on the raft for the next sixteen days—how they rolled until they were up to their waists in water, and how their water became salt, until at last they drank no water at all. During this time they caught several sharks, which they tempted alongside with a bare bone, and then slipping a noose over their heads, dragged them aboard and eat them ravenously. Several of them became delirious,.and the steward died insane. . About the 18th day they were rescued by some natives of Wallis Island, who had been directed to lookafter them by the commander of her

Majesty’s ship Elk, he having learned that they were on the raft from their captain (liayes), who ho d arrived safely some time before at

Navigators’lsland,; ' And if an opinion might be formed from the stout healthy appearance Hayes presented shortly afterwards in our police courts, his sufferings were not very severe, in fact he seemed to thrive on them. This difficult-to-be-disposcd-of vessel —the

Ellenita, having foundered: apparently at a most convenient moment, under circumstances . singularly suspicious, with only the loss of one life and serious injury for. life to some dozen others, the bold Hayes; stands now in a new field of action, arid with the Californian jewels and dollars J to back him, and; for; the nonce, relieved frorii the attentions of- ruined -tradesmen, deserted wives:, and obnoxious creditors. Whether this gentleman, who seems as yet with impunity to have committed more scoundrelism -than the aggregate, of crime which in former days has sent ! many aTiundred ; meu to the gallows, will renew his performances in Sydney by way of relieving us of a ship as a rover, or will kindly vary The: entertainment with another wife, or will try his hand at an “ escort,” is a matter of conjecture 4 ; but should any further noteworthy actioji of Mr. Hayes come within our knowledge, we promise our readors the earliest and latest intelligence.