THE LAST OF THE PIRATES

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 7

THE LAST OF THE PIRATES

(By N. R. Martin.)

A STORY OF TACT.

The introduction of steam power and of submarine telegraphy robbed sea.lifo of much of its romance. The last of the West Indian pirates was hanged in 1850, and since that time except in one remote quarter of the world there has been little danger to peaceful merchantmen. But amongst the multitude of islands in the South Seas there lingered till quite recently remains orf the old piratical spirit. Far frdm civilisation and out of the reach of law the South Sea traders did what was right in their own eyes. They robbed the natives, and when the latter retaliated seized them and sold them into semi-slavery in Queensland. “Forced Labour” was the euphemistic term applied to this business. The most notorious and the most criminal of these men was the ever-famous “Bully” Hayes. To this day when island traders meet half an hour cannot pass without some reference, half-admiring and half-regretful, being made to this supreme scoundrel. It is difficult to construct a connected biography of Captain William Hayes. For obvious reasons he did not seek publicity, and in Oceana it is fairly easy for a ship’s captain to avoid intercourse with too curious inquirers. Then unfortunately Captain Hayes never fell into the hands of the law, though rewards were frequently offered for his apprehension, and at one time the British, American, and French Govern-

ments liad all set a price on his head. As a consequence of this favour of fortune we have not the advantage in dealing with Captain Hayes through those records of Courts of Justice which are so useful to the biographers of ordinary criminals. His life must be constructed from mere hearsay—the yarns cf drunken beach-combers, and the tremendous denunciations of missionaries. Captain “Bully” Hayes was a citizen of the United States, though he frequently claimed to be a British subject. About 1850 he was serving in the United States Navy, and according to his own account was an officer. A disgraceful intrigue wtih the wife of a fellow officer obliged him to resign his commission. Ho next entered the Chinese Navy, and after a short career in that service was dismissed for corruption. The Chineso aro supposed to have reduced corruption to a fine art, but they admitted that they could learn something from Captain Kayes. He used to boast that whilst in the Chinese Navy he made ten thousand dollars per month out of his perquisites without reckoning the ' amount he had to pay the mandarins to overlook his peccadillos. Even the Chinese Government could not endure this for long, so Hayes’s career iir China was but a brief one. Erom China Hayes drifted to Australia, and induced a Sydney shipping house to give him command of a vessel. He then set off on a trading cruise through the South Sea Islands. His ship was laden with goods for the purpose of bartering with the natives. Captain Hayes, instead of bartering his goods for copra, sold all his cargo for cash to the white* traders -esident in the islands. Whilst this was advantageous to the Captain, who pocketed the money, still it would have been most unsatisfactory to the owners if an empty ship had been taken back to Sydney. Hayes, therefore, landed on one of the Gilbert Islands, and persuaded two of the principle chiefs to come aboard his ship. Directly they were on board, the Captain weighed anchor and set sail. The natives-followed in their canoes, beseeching the Captain to restore their chiefs. The Captain humanely fixed the ransom of the chiefs (wha had committed no hostile acts) at a shipload of cocoa nuts, which the native* were to deliver at an uninhabited island in the neighbourhood. Directly the stipulated quantity of cocoa nut* had. been delivered, the Captain set the natives to woi-k to split them, and dry the kernels into copra. When this had been done the Captain released one chief, and told the natives that he would release the other directly another shipload of copra was delivered at the island. The protests of the natives were useless. “Bully” Hayes believed in making natives work, and the other chief was not released till the second shipload of copra was delivered. Then Haycsjoaded his own vessel with copra, sold the other cargo to a Gentian trader, and set sail for Sydney. This was a very profitable voyage for Mr Hayes. He had sold a cargo of trade goods and a cargo of copra, and had pocketed the proceeds, yet he still had a cargo of copra for his owners. Later in his career Captain Hayes would . not have been so scrupulously honest

-—he would also have sold the second cargo of copra and the ship. Through the talkativeness of his crew (to whom he had made an unfulfilled promise of a share in his illegitimate profits), some hints of these lucrative transactions became known in Sydney, and Captain Hayes found it difficult to procure another ship. He, therefore, went to Queensland, and obtained command of a “blackbirding” schooner. “Blackbirding” is the pleasant term given to the practice of obtaining forced native labour for the Queensland plantations. The natives are induced, for a small fi£.u£ideration, to sign an agreement to work in Queensland a t®nn of years, and the plantation owners pay tlie captains a fixed sum per head for all labourers obtained in this way.

This “blackbirding” business suited 1 Captain Hayes admirably. Ho was a very big and powerful man, and had a wonderful ascendency over the natives. He could induce the most wary natives to come aboard his ship, and once aboard their fate was sealed. Captain Hayes never went through the absurd formality (as he regarded it) of paying ■ the natives anything to sign their in- i dentures of apprenticeship. He gave them the option of signing or being thrown overboard. and the natives signed. 13v this simple plan Captain Ha yes was enabled to conduct his 1 “blackbirding” on the most economical principles. But the gains from “he business did not satisfy him. So when sent with a big schooner on a “blackbird in g” cruise lie secured a large cargo of natives, and with characteristic . enterprise set sail for Brazil. Here be sold all the natives to Brazilian planters. and instead of the miserable thirty dollars a head offered by the Queensland planters for forced labourers se- i cured four hundred dollars a head for the islanders as slaves. As, however, his running away with the schooner was an act of piracy Captain Hayes sold it to a Brazilian shipowner, and purchased a smaller, but more speedy vessel. f From this time it was impossible for Captain Hayes to return to Queensland. He had made the place too hot to hold him, for in addition to stealing the ; schooner he had induced some of the planters to advance him money on ac- : count of his promised ea.rgo. We next find Captain Hayes sailing into Sydney harbour with signals of distress at his mast head. A Government tug immediately sot out to his assistance. "When it reached his ship all bands were seen at the pumps. Iu great agitation Captain Hayes called to the tug captain, and said that he thought he could just save the ship, but would the tug take off his passengers. The captain of the tug. of course, complied with this request-, and more than a hundred Chinese passengers were taken from Hayes’s ship. Directly the tug had gone to the shore to land them Hayes made sail out of the harbour. Hi> ship had sprung no leak, but at this time the Government levied a very heavy poll tax on Chinese immigrants. For this tax the captain of the ship conveying them to Australia was held responsible. Hayes had made his passengers pay him not only the fare, but the tax in addition and bad then chosen this impudent method of evading his responsibilities. "When the Custom House officials tried to collect the poll tax from tho Chinamen, the only answer they got from the bland Celestials was, “No savee—no money—pay it all to that had Captain Haves.” Reluctantly the Government had to admit Captain Hayes’s passengers free of duty. This little exploit rendered it impossible for tho Captain to return to Sydney, so he sailed to Singapore, and sold his vessel (which, by tho way, was some ono else’s property) there. He then went to New Zealand, and worked his way into the good graces of a Wellington shipowner. This gentleman, though he had heard some account of Hayes’s exploits, was so fascinated bv his polished manners that- no agreed to sell him a ship on easy terms. The terms did not involve any immediate cash payment-, so, as might be expected, Hayes got possession of the vessel, and afterwards never paid her owner a farthing. He took the vessel to Auckland, and then, by representing to a merchant there that the ship was his own property, obtained a cargo of trade goods on credit. The merchant was cautious enough, however, to insist on sending his son as supercargo. Captain Hayes, of course, assented to this, and even induced the affectionato father to provide certain luxuries for his son’s comfort aboard ship. When all was complete tho captain sailed away, and turned tho young supercargo adrift in an open boat before the ship was out of sight of land.

The Captain now had a valuable ship and cargo which had not cost him a penny. He, therefore, resolved to enter systematically on the island trade. He established trading stations on many islands, and was soon doing a flourishing business. However, the covetousness of tho Captain caused him to overreach himself. He camo across a French trader in ' tho Ellice Islands, and annexed his stock-in-trade. The Frenchman naturally complained to his Government, and diplomatic correspondence ensued between America, and England. Finally, orders were given to

the naval officers of these nations to seize the person of the Captain. This interference upset the Captain’s regular business, as there were gun-boats watching his trading stations, so he gradually relinquished his island trade. He found it more lucrative to go into tho arms business, and for a considerable time he made large sums by supplying the Samoan natives, who were in the midst of a civil war, with arms. With laudable impartiality, the Captain sold cannon and rifles to both sides. He also bombarded the villages of one side or +he other, provided he was paid at the rate of ten dollars a shot. Finally his stock of arms was almost exhausted, so he procured large sums from the Samoan chiefs on the pretence of going to San Francisco for more. It vT£S not good policy to pay the Captain in advance. He sailed away, and was soon so . busy in a little philanthropic work that he forgot all about the Samoans. He had landed at one of the Manahiki Islands, and found that it was being devastated by a terrible drought. The Captain offered for a consideration to remove all the inhabitants to a fertile island about a- hundred miles away. The natives eagerly agreed to his terms. He took them all on hoard, carried them to the Brazilian coast, and sold them all into slaverv.

By this time the Captain’s fame had spread throughout- the South Seas. The English and American traders admired him, but the French and Germans hated him. Curiously enough the Captain was most popular with the natives. He could do what he pleased with the most treacherous savages in the South Seas. His huge dimensions and his absolute fearlessness overawed the natives. They thought that he was a god, and obeyed his slightest word. To show his reckless courage, we may say that lie built a house on the island whose chiefs he had held to ransom, and used to sleep in it unarmed and unguarded, thougluthe natives were noted for their ferocity. He was equally cool when dealing with white men, and the most brutal exconvicts and beach-combers on the islands had a wholesome dread of Bully Hayes. It may he wondered that the Captain was not taken by some of the war vessels which were supposed to be on the look-out for him. As a matter of fact, the Americans and English did not exert themselves much to capture Hayes. The Yankees did not want to take their ex-navy officer, and tho English had some sympathy with this AngloSaxon adventurer. It" is said that one British officer did take him prisoner, and then allowed him to go ashore with a small guard to arrange his business affairs. Hayes is said to have been allowed by the guard to escape, but the story is not well authenticated.

Early in the sixties Hayes put in an appearance in the Hokitika River, in New Zealand. As there was then no telegraphic communication with Christchurch. he knew that for a time he was safe from arrest. He sailed into the harbour wtili a ship load of South Sea curios, which he wished to sell to the gold-miners. As Hayes was now a popular hero, the gold-miners all turned up to roaring trade. His terms wore cash for the curios, and the Captain did a roaring trade. His terms were cash down—purchasers to call for their goods at the ship the following morning. He sold his entire stock, and, having obtained payment in advance, sailed out of tho harbour with tho night tide, leaving .the swindled purchasers disconsolate.

We should scarcely mention this • trifling swindle were it not that we owe-! to this visit a description of the Captain j by a keen observer. At this time Cap- ' tain Hayes had become immensely corpulent. He is described as being perhaps the tallest- and stoutest man the writer ever saw. He reminded this observer of Wilkie Collins’s magnificentItalian villain—Count Fosco. He had a handsome leonine head, and a most attractive face. It was always said by the? beachcombers that no woman could resist Bully Hayes’s smile. On hoard his ship, the Bona, nautical life was deprived of many of its hardships. All the crew had wives of a sort aboard, liquor flowed freely, and no discipline was maintained whilst they were in harbour. B.ut at sea all was different. There Bully Hayes ruled with a rod of iron, and had not the least hesitation in shooting an unruly sailor. Most of his crew had married natives, hut Hayes kept two white wives aboard in addition to having a native wife on most of the islands. All his men were fully armed, and though it is believed that Captain Hayes did not often indulge in actual piracy, lie made no scruple about taking any stores he wanted from passing ships. But tho Captain did not indulge in tho bloodthirsty practices of the old pirates. He did not kill those he robbed, and one of his crew, who some years since kept a grogshop in Honolulu, asserted that- Bully Hayes in his time had not killed more than twenty men, not counting natives. It may be said in extenuation that these were nearly all rebellious bands or bloodthirsty beach-combers.

The last, scone in the Captain’s history is a tragic one. He had, or imagined he had, reason to be jealous of his first mate. The Captain, with his usual violence of temper, called out that ho would kill the mate, and rushed up

the companion ladder with a pistol in each hand, and a knife between his teeth. Tho mate, a thoughtful though immoral man, waited at the head of the ladder, and as the Captain emerged on deck, smashed in his head with the tiller. Hayes was promptly thrown overboard, still clutching his pistols, and thus this last of the pirates came to an end worthy of his bucanneering predecessors.