Concerning "Bully" Hayes: From "The Strange Adventure of James Shervinton, and Other Stories" - 1902Becke, Louis
History
Concerning "Bully" Hayes: From "The Strange Adventure of James Shervinton, and Other Stories" - 1902
Becke, Louis
Adventure stories, Australian; Pacific Area -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Sea stories
While two of the fleet of Peruvian slavers appeared among the Ellice
Group, the other two remained to "work" Easter Island, the which they
did successfully, carrying away all the able-bodied men and comely women
they could seize (three hundred), to die miserably in guano-pits of
the Chincha Islands. The vessels which "worked" the Ellice Group were a
barque and a brig. The brig was commanded by a big Irishman, and simply
because he was a big man and spoke in English to the natives, it was
reported in the Hawaiian missionary press that the slaver captain was
Bully. The natives of Nukulaelae, an island which suffered severely from
the slavers' visit, always maintained for long afterward that it was
Hayes (whom they had never actually seen), because the _ihi vaka_
(captain) was a tall, bearded man, who kept knocking his sailors down
every minute if they were not quick in their movements; and this was the
commonly accepted description of Bully and one of his habits.
But at the time the two Peruvians were cruising through the Ellices,
Bully was exploiting the Paumotu Archipelago, and arousing the anger of
the French authorities, by his irregular business methods. For instance,
he would "buy" pearl-shell from the traders and kick them over the side
if they had the audacity to ask for payment. In accordance with his
custom, Bully, on this cruise, devoted a good deal of time to studying
the soft-eyed Paumotuan _vahine_; and after filling his schooner with
a fair amount of plunder, he did, it is stated, take away some ten or
fourteen young Paumotu women--not to Chili or Peru, but merely on an
extended and indefinite pleasure trip. Most of these young ladies were
desirous of getting to Tahiti, where they believed their charms would be
better appreciated than in their own island homes. In his characteristic
way _Il capitano galantuomo_ offered them free passages. Passing through
the Society Group and not entering Papeite Harbour (possibly on account
of his strained relations with the French naval authorities) he made
his way to the Marquesas. Here some four or five of his lady passengers
elected to remain with newly-found lovers, either white or native; and
Bully always blessed the union of two happy hearts by recording the
affair in his humorously-kept log and giving a spree. If the bridegroom
was a white man, Bully would also "buy" his oil, fungus and cotton, make
him very drunk, place his laughing and blushing bride in his arms, and
then, in his absent-minded way, see him over the side into his boat and
sail away without paying. Bully used to say that his defective memory
was the cause of all the malignant slanders set afloat about him. And,
as regarded women, he used to remark he also suffered from the curious
complaint of "moral astigmatism." The rest of the girls reached home
somehow, after undergoing a pleasant and varied experience, each being
the happy possessor of one of his peculiar and characteristically
written testimonials.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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