My Crusoeship on Surprise Island.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue XX, 16 November 1901, Page 942

My Crusoeship on Surprise Island.

(By

A. T. FIRTH.

In so far as he is easily able to gratify the ambitions of his boyhood and live a real Robinson Crusoe existence the New Zealand youth is most advantageously situated. If tile lonelier parts of the colony itself do uot satisfy his romantic soul there are thousands of islands in the broad Pacific ready to receive their lonely tenant. But perhaps before embarking on the crusoe business it might be well to serve a short apprenticeship to the calling under conditions not quite so exacting as those Defoe's hero had to put up with, and I know of no better place for that preliminary training than Surprise Island, where I recently spent considerably over a year as manager for the Austral Guano Company. You will not find Surpri-e Island in the ordinary atlas; the chances are you will not find, the Huon group of which it is one. But if you get hold of a larger map and look some two hundred miles to the north of New Caledonia you ma ," see a cluster of dots. These are the Huons, and one of the dots is Surprise Island. It looks insignificant enough in the map, but even the dot does it more than justice, for it is only a fifty acre patch of ground not more than the height of a man above the sea lewd. Why it is called Surprise Island I do not know, but so far as my experience of it goes the name was not inappropriate. I had dim ideas of “summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea" when 1 engaged with the Austral Guano Company. and when I reached my new home I found it literally a rock of indurated guano. Thousands, nay probably tens of thousands of years ago. the birds of the Pacific had found here a resting and breeding place as they find to-day. Generation after generation of them had peopled the fifty-acre seet'on of dry land —or it may have been much more extensive in these times —and gradually their droppings had accumulated until the deposit vas many feet in thickness. Then came great geological changes. The dry land was submerged deep in the ocean and subjected to the enormous pressure of the water. Thrown up again it was again resorted to by birds; and this double process appears to have been repeated many tines. Now what we fil'd is an island entirely composed of guano hard as rock —indeed so hard that, it lias to be blasted with gelignite and cut with picks to get it out. All the kind above the water is guano, and below the water too the formation is the same. During my year's engagement on the island some soil) tons of guano concrete were broken out. .00 tons of which was taken from below high-water mark when the tide was out. The deposit is worked by black labour imported from New Caledonia. New Hebrides. I.ifu. Pare, and Ounia Islands. The natives from the New Hebrides are cannibals in process of civilisation. The process, however, is not very forward, for when asked if human flesh is good they say: “Man good. belong kai kai.” One boy in my employment named Vinara had nine marks. each about 1 inch long, branded into his arm. each mark representing a human being who had fallen victim to his t aide. The boys imported from Lifu. Mare, and Ounia islands spend most of their leisure ill cutting and trimming- their hair, which afterwards they dye red and gold with lime voter. The preparation also acts in other ways, ns it has small life-killing properties. The concrete guano is worked in the following manner: The surface is first cleared of vegetation, and :> face started, which has an average depth of about two feet. Holes are then sunk about three feet backfrom the face, to a depth of IS inches and <> feet apart. Into each hole is put from one to two plugs of gelignite. About s<» shots are fired daily, loosening from fl) to 70 tons of eon- ■ •r<‘te. This i then got out with picks, broken into l> uniform size, ami built into walls parallel to the face, where it remains until dry.

when it is trucked to the mill and crushed. We had storage capacity for upwards of 5000 tons. The shipping season commences about May, and eeases before the end of the year, no vessels arriving after that owing to the danger of being amongst the coral reefs during the hurricane season. Vessels lie off the island about half a mile when loading. The guano, in bags about s(>lb net, is trucked to the wharf and slid into 10-ton cutters, which go out

and discharge in turn. The bags are emptied into the ship’s hold, and returned to be re-filled. From 90 to 100 tons are loaded per day- of nine hours.

The worst thing that we had to put up with on Surprise Island was the shortage of provisions, which unavoidably occurred on several occasions. From October to December Mr Williams and myself were the only white men there, and we had 44 black boys under us. About the

middle of November the provisions began to give out, but as a vessel was expected daily with fresh supplies, this did not cause us much anxiety at first. As the weeks dragged on. however, and still no sign of a sail, the aspect became decidedly serious. About the middle of December (we were then living on boiled grass and salt beef) the boys began to give us considerable trouble, crying out for more food. On several occasions they threatened to run away with the cutters, and it was only the determined threat of our revolvers which prevented them from doing so. On December 19th the beef gave out. We therefore had to keep a double watch upon the men, lest their savage instincts should get the better of them. The next day (December 20) we commenced getting the cutters ready lor taking our departure to New Caledonia with all hands. But as the distance was upwards of 200 miles, and we knew nothing of navigation, our chances of getting there were very small indeed.

On December 21st, the necessary preparations being nearly completed, I was standing with Williams near the factory when suddenly the air was rent with hideous shrieks and yells, and we saw the blacks running to and fro in wild, excitement. At once we guessed the cause of the commotion, and set off at a run for our lookout pole, which is 70ft high and situated in the centre of the island. No sooner had we commenced to climb than the blacks came in a rush towards it, and ran up as only a black can. We had by this time reached the top, and were holding on like grim death, the violent ascent of this howling excited mob of blacks making it shake to its very foundations. Then we perceived the cause of the disturbance. Away on the eastern horizon, some twelve miles distant, was a long trail of smoke, betokening- a steamer. It was with heartfelt satisfaction we saw it grow more and more distinct; and about an hour afterwards the St. Antoine, a French steamer of two thousand tons steamed through the passage which divided the coral reefs, and came to anchor. She had some months supply of provisions for us. During- the turtle season there is always plenty of meat of that description to fall back upon, to say nothing- of turtle soup, which one soon tires of. The creatures usually make their appearance in August, and remain until October, and during this season they come ashore to lay their eggs, which they deposit in holes in the sand, each laying from 120 to 130. These eggs hatch out in time by the aid of the sun’s heat. When thus occupied the boys take the opportunity of turning them over upon their backs, where they remain until required for eating- purposes. On Sunday mornings the boys used to amuse themselves by swimming out in search of turtle. When one was sighted they surrounded it and sometimes with great difficulty a black would succeed in getting on to its back. Once there he threw his arms under its front fins and had not much trouble in steering it towards shore. There it is beached and turned over on its back, and for some hours afterwards is heard blowing and kicking, and sighing as if itfj. heart would break. On one occasion a boy- tried Louie De Rougemont’s steering dodge of putting his toes into its eyes, but the turtle was equal to the occasion, for it bit one of his big toes off close to the foot, whereupon the unfortunate fellow y-elling with pain, fell off its back into the water and the turtle was seen no more. Shark fishing- was also a common sport, the end of the wharf being the spot selected. One evening a large shark seventeen feet long and nine feet round the girth was hooked, and when landed in shallow water the boys attacked it with axes. Much to our astonishment dozens of baby sharks, each some ten inches long, came out of its huge mouth and attacked the boys right and left. After a hard tussle the monster was beached and killed, and upon opening up

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

MY CRtfSOESHIP ON SURPRISE ISLAND.

JU stomach the skulls of a billy goat au4 a turtle were found. The latter I brought back with me as a curio. Twelve miles to the N.W. of Surprise tstand are situated the islands of Fabre and Leizure, which are still iu their natural state of undisturbed their only occupants being TninionK of birds of great variety. The largest of these is the man-o’-war hawk, which measures nine feet six inches across the wings. The area Of each of these islands is about fifty acres, and every square foot of space has a nest upon it. tens of thousands of birds having to remain in the air until there is room on the ground for them to lay and hatch their eggs, aud when one lot of young attain the power of flight the next batch of birds occupy the space,and so on. The young birds evidently have very delicate stomachs, for on the approach of a human being they vomit forth fish in every stage of digestion. During the latter end of September the mutton birds make their appeal* ance on Surprise Island in millions. They riddle the ground through and through with holes, and for months keep up a constant din. somewhat resembling the yells of a million cats combined with the cries of as many babies. AU night long these birds used to keep dashing with considerable force against the iron roof of the cottage, many of them being stunned by the impact. The boys tell me that the reason of this is that these birds have the habit of flying backwards to keep the dust out of their.eyes, and are therefore unable to see where they are going'. The schooner Norval arrived at the Island a few days after Christinas with the latest mail from Noumea, bearing date of December 18th. The next mail was brought by the barque Woosung, on June 9th—so we had been nearly six months without communication with tha entside world. Probably we were amongst the last people on this planet to hear of the Queen's death, the news reaching us nearly five months after that event. On receipt of the news I had the ensign put. at half-mast, and during the evening the boys, came over to my house to offer sympathy, and sing songs of condolence, which were rendered mostly in their own tongue.

We had been expecting the Woosung from April 23rd, but as before mentioned she did not put in an appearance until June 9th. In the meantime the food had run out, so that we were again compelled to live on fish and boiled grass, and the husks of rice which the weevils had left. There is a great risk in eating the fish, which are caught near the Island, as the majority of them are of a poisonous nature, and if eaten are likely to bring on violent sickness, which lasts several days. During the period of famine there was a good deal of sickness amongst the boys, due to the above cause.

There are no springs of any kind upon the Island, and at first we had to depend entirely upon the rain for our water supply. About the middle of September, 1900, this had entirely run out, and the new condenser which was being made upon the Island was not quite ready- for working. All cooking had to be done with seawater, and our only drink was pure limejuice and vinegar. This state of things lasted for five days, when n heavy downpour put an end to our sufferings, four inches of rain falling in a little over three hours.

At 3 p.m. on July 4th last we took our departure from Surprise Island in the barque Woosung. bound for the Bluff. An hour afterwards it had disappeared below the horizon, lost to us for ever. It was with genuine regret that we saw the coeoanut. trees, dimly outlined against the horizon, slowly disappear from view. Three weeks later we sighted the snowcapped peak of Mount Cook, and a week afterwards we dropped anchor in the Bluff Harbour. I'. THE WRECK OF THE ANTIOCO ACCAME. Our picture shows the barque Antioco Accanic as she lies on Kartigi

Beach, near Shag Point, Otago. Captain Monti, her master, in his account of how the vessel got wrecked, states that he was steering a course which he thought would take him a mile and a half outside Danger Reef. He found himself in broken water, and luffed up, when the vessel crashed on the rocks, where she hung for half an hour. The boats were got out, and the men's effects and gear put In. Suddenly the vessel slipped off the rock, and as she was making water rapidly Captain Monti decided to beach her, and selected a spot where the beach was good on the north side of Shag Point railway station. The erew in the boats got ashore safely.