LOUIS BECKE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10652, 13 May 1895, Page 2

LOUIS BECKE .

STIRRING ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH SEAS. In tho introduction furnished by the Earl of Pembroke to the volume of South Baa Adventures recently published by Mr Lanin Beebe (tho latest notable addition tt? tho ranks of Australian writers), under tha title, *' By Eaof and Palm,” tha writer csyn “ When ia October, 18170, 1 called into tha harbour of Apia, Samoa, in tho illfated Albatross, Mr Louis Bccko was gaining his first exuarieacea of island lifo as a trader on bis own account by running a cutter between Apia and Savaii. It was rather a ootabld moment in Apia, for two reasons. In tho first place, tho German traders wore chairing’ in thair shoes for.fear of what tha French squadrons might do to them, and wo were tbo bearers of tha good newa from Tahiti that the chivalrous Admiral Clouet, with a very proper magnanimity, bad decided not to molest them; and, necsndly, the beach wr.a fit ill scathing with excitement ova? the departure on the previous day of tha psrato Pease, carrying with him the yet more illustrious ‘Bully’ Hayes. HATES AND PEASE. “It happened in this wise : A month or two before our arrival, Hayes bad dropped anchor ia Apia, tad seme ugly stories of recent irregularities in the labour trade 3sad corao to tha ears of Mr Williams, the -.English consul. Mr Williams, with the aß23stanca of tho natives, very cleverly seized his vessel iu the night, and ran her ashore, and detained Mr Hayes pending the arrival of an English man-of-war, to which he could be given in charge. But in thoaa happy days there were no prisons id Samos, *so that Ms confinement was not irksome, and his only hard labour was picnics, of which he was the life and soul. All went pleasantly until Mr Pease—a degenerate eorfc of pirate who made his living by half-bullying, halfswindling lonely white men on small islands out of their cocoa-nut oil, and unarmed merchantmen out of thair stores — eamo to Apia in an armed ship with a Malay crew. From that moment Hnyoa’a life became less idyllic. Hayes and Pease conceived a most violent hatred of each other, and poor old Mr "Williams was really worried into an attack of elephantiasis (which answers to the gout in those latitudes) by his continual efforts to prevent tho two desperadoes from flying at each other’s throats. Heartily glad was he when Pease, who was the sort of man that always observed- las convenances when possible, and who fired a calnta of twenty-one guns on tho Qaeon’s Birthday—camo oao afternoon to gac his papers ‘ all regular ’ and clear for sea. But lo 'the next morning, whoa his vessel had disappeared, it was found that bis enemy Captain Hayes had disappeared also, and tho ladies of Samoa were loft disconsolate at tho doparturo of tho moat agreeable man they had ever known.

"However, all this ia another story, as Mr Kipling says, and one which I hope Mr Eeoke will tell ua more fully some day, for ho know Hayes well, having acted rs supercargo on board his ship, and shared a shipwreck and other adventures with him. EAELT ADVBNTUEE3. “ But even before this date Mr Br-cke hsd had cs much experience aa fallto most men of adventures in the Pacific Ocean. ” Born at Port Macquarrie, in Australia, where hie father was clerk of patty sessions, ha was seized at the ago of fourteen with an intense longing to go to _saa. It ia poncibla that ho inherited this passion through his mother, for her father, Charles Beilby, who was private secretary to the Duka" of Cumberland, invested a legacy that foil to him In a small vessel, and sailed with his family to the then very new world of Australia. However this may be, it was impoodbla to keep Louis Bucko at home; and, £.3 an alternative, an uncle undertook to send him, and a brother two ytiu-a older, to a mercantile house in California. Hla first voyage was a terrible one. There were no steamer?, of course, in those days, and they sailed for San Francisco in a wretched old barque. Por over a month they wore drifting about the stormy sea between Australia and New Zealand, a partially dismasted and leaking wreck. The crew mutinied—they had bitter causa to—and only after calling at Ruturu, in tho Tubud Group, and obtaining fresh food, did they parmit the captain to'raeumc command of tho half-sunken old craft. They were ninety days in reaching Honolulu, and another forty ia making the Californian coast, "The two lads did not find the routine of a xacEchsat's office at all to their taste; and while the elder obtained employment on a. cattle ranchc, Louis, still faithful to the 2S&, got a berth aa clerk in a steamship company, and traded 10 the southern ports. Ia a. yos.t’a time he had money enough to take passage ia a schooner bound on A SHAUjE-CATCHING CEUICE to Christmas end Balciyra Elands in the North Pacific. The life was a very rough one, and full of incident rad adventure* which I hope ha wdl relate some day. Rotuming to Honolulu, ha foil in. with aa old man who had bought a schooner for a trading venture amongst the Western Carolines. Back© put in lOOOdols, and sailed with him as supercargo, he and the skipper being the only white men on board. Ho soon discovered that, though a good seaman, the old man knew nothing of navigation. In a few weeks they were among tho Marshall Islands, and tho captain went mad from i delirium tremens. Back® and tho three

native sailora ran the vessel into a little l uninhabited atoll, and for a week bad to keep the captain tied up to prevent hw killing himself. They got him right at last and stood to the westward. On their voyage they ware witnesses of a tragedy (in this instance, fortunately, not oomplota), on which the pitiless sun of the Pacific haa looked down very often. They fell in with a hig Marshall Island sailing oanoo that had been blown out of sight of land, and had drifted 600 miles to the westward. Out of her complement of seventy people, thirty wets dead. They gave them provisions and water, and left them to mate Strong’s Island (Kusaia) which wss in sight. Boc-ke and tua chief swore Marshall Island Bruderschaft with each other. Years aftsrwards, when ho c.imo to live iu the group, the chief proved hia iriandship in a signal manner. trading. “The erniso proved a. profitable one, and froai that timo Mr Back® determined to become a trader and to learn to know the people of every group of the Pacific; and, returning to California, ho made for Samoa, and from theuca to Sydney. But at this time the Palmer Etvor gold rush had jant broken cut in North Queensland, and a brother, who wca a bank manager on tho celebrated Charters Towers goldfields, invited him to come up, D.n everyone seemed to bo making his fortune. He wandered between tho rushes for two yours, not making a fortune, buu acquiring much useful experience, learning amongst other things the art a. blac.-:-eraith, and becoming a crack shot with a rifle. Ksturniag to Sydney, ho ‘Bailed for the Friendly Islands (Tonga) iu company with this King of Tonga’s yacht, the Taufaahau. Tho Friendly Islanders disappointed him (at which no one that knows them will wonder), and ho went on to Samoa, and set up so a trader on his own account ror the first time. He and a Hanahiki nal.cast bought a cutter, wad went into partnership, trading throughout the group. This was tho timo of Colonel Stcipbergor’s brisf tenure of power. Tho natives wars fighting and tho cutter was seized ou two occasions. When the war was over ho made a study of the language and became a great favourite with the natives, as indeed eeems to have been tho cnee in most of the places he wont to ia Polynesia and Micronesia. From Samoa ha was seat away ia charge of a trading vessel under sealed orders to tho Marshall Islands. Theso orders turned out to be to hand the vessel over to the notorious Captain • Bully ’ Hayes. (Some day ho promises that he will give us tho details of this very curious adventure.) Ho found Hayes awaiting him in his famous brig Leonora in Mill! Lagoon. Ha handed over hia charge and took passage with him in the brig/ After some months cruising in the Carolines they were wracked on Strong’s Island (Kuaaio). Hayas made himself the rater of the island, and Mr Becko and ha had a A BITTEB QUARREL. The natives treated the latter with great kindness, built him a house, and gave him land on the lee side of the ialtuid, where he lived happily enough for five months. Hayes wao captured by an English man-of-war, but escaped and went to Guam. Mr Becko want back in the cruises to the colonies, and then again sailed for Eastern Polynesia, living in the Gambiorc, Panmotoa and Easter and Pitcairn Islands. ,In this part of the ocean he picked up an abandoned French barque ou a raof, floated her, and loaded her with cocoanuto, intending to nail her to Hew Zealand with a native crew, but they went ashore in a hurricane and lost everything. Meeting with the managing partner of a Liverpool linn ha took service wish them as a trader in the Ellice and Tokelau groups; finally settling down as a residential trader. Then he took passage once more for the Carolines, and was wrecked on Peru, one of the Savaga Gilbert Islands (lately annexed), losing every dollar be possessed. Ho returned to Samoa, and engaged as ‘recruiter’ in the labour trader.

HE GOT BADLT HOSTIN AH ENCOUNTER WITH SOKI3 NATIVES, and want to New Zealand to recover. Then ho Bailed to New Britain on a trading venture, and fell in with smu had much to do with the ill-fated colonising expedition of tho Marquis do Eayo in New Ireland. A bad attack of malarial fever, and a wound in tho neck (labour recruiting or even trading among the blacks pf Melanesia Beams to have been a much loss pleasant business than residence among the gentle brows folk of tho Eastern Pacino) made him leave and return to the Marshall Islands, where Lailik, the chief whom ho had succoured at sea years, before, mads him welcome. He left on a fruitless quest after ah imaginary guano island, and from then until two years ago he has been living on various islands in both the North and South Pacific, leading what he calls ‘a wandering and lonely, but not unhappy, existence,’ * Jjjui,’ as they call him, being a man both liked and trusted by the natives from lonely Easter Island to the far-away Pallews. During on® of iua visits to the colonies he married a young Irish lady, a daughter of Colonel MauuKeli, of H.M.V 11th Regiment, by whom he has two children. For tho last two years ho has been living in Australia and contributing South Sea stories to the colonial papers. He is still in tho prime of life, and whether he will now remain within the bounds of civiliaa tion, or whether some day he will return to hia wanderings as Odysseus ia fabled to have done in his old age, I fancy that ho hardly knows himself. But when once the charm of a wild, roving life has got into a man’s blood, tho trammels of civilisation are irksome, and its atmosphere ia hard to breatho.

“It will be seen from this ail too condensed sketch of Mr Backe’s career that he knows the Pacific aa i'ow men alive or dead have ever known it, Ha is one of the rare man who have led a very wild life and have the culture and talent necessary to givo soma account of it* As a rule, tho men who know don’t write, and the men who write don’t know.”