THE ISLAND OF ARENAS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3443, 9 March 1920, Page 61

THE ISLAND OF ARENAS.

A DEAL IN GUANO. By Geo. M. Hashing. .O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea. Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, Par as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our Empire, and behold our home. Sixty-seven years have now passed since I first visited the Island of Arenas, situated in the Caribbean Sea, off the north £oast of the Yucatan Peninsula. In 1852 Captain Wheeler, a prototype of "Bully Hayes," who was homeward bound in a brig hailing from Boston, U.S.A., after a voyage to Central 'America, sighted • the island. The day being favourable, he anchored the brig in a snug little harbour beautifully sheltered by a semicircular coral reef. The area of the island would scarcely exceed a square mile, with its surface almost level with the sea. It was uninhabited, and perfectly destitute of anv vegetation, but covered from margin to centre with a smooth layer of guano, ranging in depth from a lew inches at the water's edge to some 4ft or sft deep in the middle of the island, which was also the breeding place of millions of sea-birds —large gannets or sea-geese,—which literally covered the island with eggs during the laying season. After a careful inspection and the filling of a number' of bags with guano, which were taken on board the brig as samples ,_ the Vessel departed for her destination, Boston. -. At that period Messrs Sampson and Tappering was the principal shipping firm In Boston, and owned the brig commanded by Captain Wheeler. On analysis the guano proved to be worth about 20dol (or £4) per ton, which was about half the price paid at that time for Peruvian guano; but there was a keen demand for the fertiliser, as the Eastern and Middle Sta-tes,'especially Pennsylvania and Maryland, were going in strongly for agriculture. Seeing a large fortune in the island, Captain Wheeler made a compact with Sampson and Tappering to charter a fleet of suitable vessels to be quietly despatched to the island to load up and take away the guano. Wheeler left ( Boston in the brig for New York, where his .vessel loaded up with the requisite materials for buildings, tools required, food supplies, two brass cannon, and 45 young male German emigrants, engaged for a trading voyage to South America, Au additional captain was also engaged, as well as half a dozen of the worst type of wharf-bullies to boss the Germans. The brig then sailed for the island, where, in spite of their remonstrance, the Germans were landed on promise of high wages. In a few days all the rough huts, tents, and cookhouse were erected close to the becah, Captain Wheeler's residence occupying a central site, with the two cannon trained into position, so as to rake the German quarters should the least symptom of. insubordination manifest #self. Before the brig was loaded for the return voyage, my ship, the Lanark, of Boston (Captain-M'Goun), and two other vessels arrived. The loading, done by ships' long-boats, occupied about a couple of weeks for each vessel, and the fleet comprised some 30 vessels, averaging about 300 tons each, the port of discharge being Baltimore, Maryland. Captain Wheeler was certainly an utterly unprincipled bully, and the gangers were men of the same stamp, so the Germans had a pretty rough time of it. On one occasion Wheeler visited our ship, and in the cabin I showed him my sketchbook, containing a number of views of different parts of the world I had visited, and also a sketch of the Island of Arenas. He thereupon insisted that I should draw him an enlargement of the island, for which he promised to give me sdol. r . remember spending several hours in the ship's main-top taking a bird's-eye picture of the island. I completed the sketch and sent it ashore to the captain. But, alas! he swindled me out of the sdol. Each trip to-the island and back occupied about three months, and the voyages were Teally pleasant. Sailing up and down the lovely Chesapeake Bay, through the Strait of Florida, skirting the lovely Bahama Islands and the north coast of Cuba; then across the Bahama Banks, .where the beautifully pellucid blue, smooth waters disclosed the coral sandy bottom, where myriads of fishes of every conceivable "hue and dazzling brightness disported themselves clearly and gracefully. These lovely trips still linger in one's memory like bright and happy moments on life's journey. During nine of 10 months, each of the 30 vessels had made three, and some four, trips to Baltimore and back, taking awav durinsr that time about 40,000 tons of guano, worth ■6160,000 in Baltimore. Dining the period a hurricane was experienced at the island, when a fine barque, the Inca, was wrecked on the reef. During the gale one of the Inoa's crew was struck over the head with a handspike, and killed, by a ruffianlv second mate named M'Can, who actually threw the dead man's body overboard into the surf. Wheeler retained the Inca's crew on the island to work, but sent the villain M'Can home by our ship. ' He disappeared in the pilot boat that came off at Hampton Roads, and we heard no more of what became of him. On our last trip, when but a_ few shiploads of guano were left on the island, one bright morning a Mexican gunboat made its appearance and anchored close to the snore. Captain Wheeler immediately ran up the Stars and Stripes on the flagpole. The officer in command and a boat's crew, armed with bayonets fixed, inarched up to Captain Wheeler's bungalow and imperatively ordered him to haul Sown the United States flag and to leave pie island with the whole of his crew, Ibag and baggage, within 48 hours. The iprder had to be obeyed. All hands and the cook from the various vessels went aahore to help in removing everything to »

the vessel selected to convey Captain Wheeler and all the men away from the island, «nrhile the crews of other vessels worked day and night shifts to load up with guano and ready to leave the island for time. At last all got away within the time specified; but the final rascality of Captain Wheeler will hardly be credited. He sailed his vessel to New Orleans, where the Germans and bullies were landed to be paid off. They were landed jright enough, and the bullies received their pay privately; but the Germans, who were left in a lodging-house to be settled with the day following, were left lamenting. In the darkness of the evening before the settling-up day Wheeler dropped his vessel down the river, slipped out to sea, and sailed away to Boston. This narrative, perfectly truthful, shows how some of the American millionaires of the present day wre made.