BULLY HAYES’ EARS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1929, Page 3

BULLY HAYES’ EARS

A VARIETY OF STORIES NEW TALE DISCREDITED. ■NOTORIOUS PIRATE'S DOINGS. Au alleged incident in the life of Bully Hayes, the notorious South Sea skipper, has been related by Mr, Albert Heusler, now 81 years of age, and residing at Curl Curl, near Sydney. He says that he knew Hayes intimately. Mr. Heusler stated that Hayes in his later life had no ears. His story was that Hayes, when visiting one of the Pacific Islands, fell in love with a daughter of the native king and carried her off and married her. On a subsequent visit to the island, it was added, the king’s followers captured Hayes and the king cut off both his ears as a punishment for taking his daughter. Mr. H. Fildes, of Wellington, in writing to the Evening Post, says that Mr. Heusler’s story is quite a new one. Mr. Fildes goes oh to say: —“In 1915 Mr. A. T. Saunders, of North Adelaide, published, for private circulation, a little work, ‘Bully Hayes: An Authentic Life of William Henery''Hayes, of Ohio, or New York. Born 1829, killed 1877.’ It is evident the writer covered a wide field of research, embracing New Zealand, Australia, South Sea Islands, United States, and the Parliamentary Papers of Great Britain. “Bully Hayes roamed the Pacific and its islands from 1853 to 1877, first as an unprincipled trader, and from 1868 as a blackbirder. Mr. Saunders has accounted for him over that period of thirty-four years, with hiatuses of a few ■weeks only in 1861-62, 1863-6, and 1867x On the subject of the buccaneer’s ears a lot is given, not by way of fact, but to illustrate what absurd stories were told of Bully Hayes. This one is extracted by me because of its New Zealand ■ interest, and I premise it with this. STORY OF OTAGO GOLD FIELDS. “Hayes was certainly a picturesque figure to look at. He stood six feet high, -was broad and strongly built, weighing fifteen stone, had an aquiline nose, fine features, a long, dark brown beard, wore his hair unusually long and carefully tended, affected a Californian digger’s dress, Yankee hat, and wore his trousers tucked into his high boots. It was said he could be extremely plausible, having a tongue which could tempt a bird off a tree.

“In January, 1863, Bully. Hayes was on the goldfields at Fox’s, near Arrowtown, keeping the United States Hotel. There also was Mr. William Barr, l it? of California. It was rumoured there was reason for Captain Hayes’ unusually long hair, and that some years before he had been detected cheating in a game of poker in Sacramento. One of '1 he losers, detecting something suspiei'.M/.s in his play, whipped out his bowie knife and pinned Hayes’ hand to the table. In tho excitement that followed some cards slipped out of II ryes’ sleeve, and while one of the party urge! that he should bo strung up on the nearest tree, the majority decided a 'itrio earcropping would meet the case.

HOW THE BARBERS DID THE DEED.

•‘This rumour impelled certain residents of Fox’s to offer a five-peanl note to the first mining-camp barber w1 o would cut Hayes’ hair short the next time he patronised them. It is said the secret was well kept, and that Hayes was unaware of it. In time Hayes went to have his hair attended to. It was aeard he was at a certain barber’s, ana in a short time the saloon was fuLy patronised by miners. With a few deft a..d apparently casual scissor snips the deed was done, and Hayes, surveying himself in the glass, saw it was obvious to the world he had but one ear to Ins head.

•‘There is much more, but this is the story put briefly, and which Mr. Saunders characterises all a fable, excepting the fact that Bully Hayes had only one ear, and may have been born so. In another part of his life of Bully Hayes he' tells us there was no doubt one of Hayes’ ears was missing and that a printed account is extant stating he lost it over a game of cards. In part confirmation of this we have the published, statement of Captain Hines, of Lyttelton, who stated, in 1909, that he had sailed with Hayes several times and that he wore his hair long so as to cover a badlydisfigured ear he had received in a fight in a Californian gambling saloon, where ho had been detected cheating at<a game of cards.

“Bully Hayes was in Wellington more than once. He was a frequent visitor to Lyttelton from 1864 to 1866; Wiu at the Bluff, Otago, Akaroa, Picton, Nelson, Hokitika, Wanganui and Auckland, where Mr. Saunders says he did not land. He hade farewell to New Zealand on January 15, 1867, preferring to anchor three miles outside Rangitoto. “It is said that -late in 1862 Hayes was one of the variety artists attached to the Glogski and Buckingham family of entertainers touring Southern New Zealand. By that time he was notorious in Australia and in the South Seas, and afterwards made a name for himself in New Zealand.”