1912 - Berry, A. Reminiscences of Alexander Berry - CHAPTER III.

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CHAPTER III.

On my return to Sydney, after my voyage to Norfolk Island and thence to Van Diemen's Land, I found Commodore Bligh yet residing at Government House, and still under arrest, but that Major Foveaux was now the Acting-Governor. He had been Commandant at Norfolk Island at the time that the orders came out from England to evacuate that place. On the receipt of those orders he had immediately proceeded to Sydney, and (as I was informed) was then recommended by Governor King at once to proceed to England

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in order to prevent the evacuation from being carried into effect. The order for the evacuation of Norfolk Island was due to Captain Hunter, who had lost his ship (the "Sirius") off that island; where he was afterwards detained for many months, before he had an opportunity of returning to Sydney. This had naturally given Captain Hunter a dislike to the place, and had caused him to advise that its occupation should be abandoned. Major Foveaux, however, gave such a favourable report of the island that the authorities at home ordered him immediately to return to Sydney, with the understanding that--provided the evacuation had not been proceeded with, beyond a certain extent--all further proceedings in that direction should be desisted from, and that he should resume the government of the same. On the arrival of Major Foveaux at New South Wales, he found that my expedition had been fatal to his expectations, and he, therefore, assumed the government of New South Wales as the senior officer to Major Johnston. Having assumed the government, instead of continuing the preparation of the timber for the freight of my ship, this officer gave directions that all the timber which was then ready for me should

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be employed in the erection of new barracks for the soldiers.

When I demanded payment for the services I had rendered the Government, Major Foveaux replied that I had been so long on the voyage that the ship was supposed to be lost, and that it had consequently appeared useless to provide any more timber. He said, however, that there was a quantity of timber in the dockyard, and that if I would accept that as payment in full, he would allow me to take it; if not, that he would forfeit the penalty, and give me a bill for two thousand pounds on the Treasury. I pointed out to him that the penalty had nothing to do with the freight, after it had been fairly earned; and that I had only undertaken the voyage upon the express condition that the freight was to be paid in timber, as a return cargo to the Cape. But I told him, as I found he had not provided the timber, that I would accept the amount of freight due to me in money.

Major Foveaux refused this, saying, "No; I will give you the two thousand pounds."

I wrote to him that I must decline to accept that, and that I should appeal to the Home Government. And thus after labouring hard to procure a cargo to the Cape, I was left in

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a sad dilemma, for I could not think of going round Cape Horn in an empty ship. Eventually, I was induced to make a voyage to the Fiji Islands, in hopes of procuring a cargo of sandal wood.

It was a singular thing that during all this time I had no opportunity of making any remittances to England, or to the Cape of Good Hope. There had not been a single ship by which I could send. Some time after my first arrival, a small vessel loaded with Cape produce had arrived, consigned to Mr. Robert Campbell, and this ship was, I heard, for sale. I thereupon sent for the captain, and offered to purchase her, for the purpose of sending her back to the Cape, but he told me that he had already agreed to sell her to Mr. Campbell. I was consequently compelled to leave all my letters and remittances for the Cape and for London, at Sydney, in duplicate --to be forwarded by the first opportunity that should offer.

When I came to settle with Mr. Lord, I found that he could only pay me by bills on his agent in London, to whom he had consigned large quantities of seal skins. I therefore enclosed Lord's bills to my agent in London, as well as the papers which related

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to the Norfolk Island freight, but with instructions, after paying my liabilities in London, to send the balance to Mr. Shortt at the Cape. To Shortt himself I sent all the Treasury bills which 1 had procured in Tasmania. I believe, indeed, that the nominal amounts of the Treasury bills and Lord's bills were nearly the same. There was-- as I have intimated--no ship to take any letters or remittances either to the Cape or to England, and I therefore left everything in duplicate in the hands of Mr. Lord to send by the first opportunity. My enclosures contained the first and second of the bills, and the third I took with me.

I intended to call at New Zealand for spars for the ship, and this coming to the knowledge of Governor Bligh he sent to me to request that I would take to the Bay of Islands a son of Tippahee--a young man of the name of Motara, who had made a voyage to England, where he had been treated with hospitality, and (as he said) had been introduced to King George the Third. Lord also asked me to take down to New Zealand a native of the Bay of Islands, named Metatau, who had been brought to Sydney in one of his ships. I consented to take them both, and treated both

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with great kindness, Motara being allowed to dine at my table.

On the arrival of the ship at the Bay of Islands, she anchored at Tippuna, the residence of Tippahee--the chief whom I expected to be able to provide me with spars. As Motara was dressed like a gentleman, his relatives received him with great rejoicing. His father seemed friendly, but I found there were no spars in his district, and ascertained that such as I wanted could only be procured in an adjoining district from a chief named Tupe. I therefore determined to visit that chief, who lived at some considerable distance.

With this intention I started from Tippuna, but although I left that locality at an early hour, it was late in the afternoon before I reached Kowa Kowa--the residence of Tupe. The natives crowded round me in the most friendly manner; and when I asked for Tupe, a venerable old chief, blind in one eye, advanced towards the boat; the other natives making way for him. He seized me by the collar with both hands, and after the manner of his people greeted me by joining his nose to mine. This mode of salutation was, at first, rather startling. I asked if he was Tupe? He said: "No, I am Tarra. Tupe will be here

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directly." Poor Tupe had, I found, a few European clothes, and wished to appear as respectable as possible to a stranger. At length he appeared in European garb. The natives as he came made way for him, and called out, "This is Tupe!"

I advanced towards him, but instead of joining noses, he took off his hat, made me a bow, and shook hands. I told Tupe that I wanted spars for my ship, and asked him if he could supply them? He said: "Oh yes," I then told him that the ship was at Tippuna, and asked him if he would accompany me on board as it was getting late? He stepped at once into my boat, where my fowling piece was lying on the stern-sheets. He seized the gun, and asking if it were loaded, he examined the pan and immediately discharged it. I almost suspected treachery, and ordered the men to keep their muskets in their hands. But Tupe was one of nature's gentlemen, and had only discharged the gun to show that he was well acquainted with the use of firearms. On the passage he constantly ordered the sailors to pull stronger. Other parts of his conversation were very amusing. He asked me how many wives King George had, to which I replied that he had only one. "Your

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king then," said he, "must be a poor fellow compared with Tippahee, the chief of Tippuna, who has four wives." I asked him how many he had. He replied, dryly, "Only one." "Well, Tupe," I said, "You must be as poor a fellow as King George." "Oh," replied Tupe, "when there are more wives than one, there is never any peace in the house." On our arrival at the ship some refreshment was put on the table, and Tupe sat down and partook of it, but was very moderate both in eating and drinking; and when I offered to help him to some more, he said, "No, more, I thank you, sir," politely enough.

Next day Tupe steered my ship into Kororarika, and proved himself to be an excellent pilot. He knew the depth of the water everywhere, and also every sunken rock in the harbour. I suppose he must have acquired his knowledge from fishing with hook and line.

Next day he conducted me in a boat to the spar district, which was on the banks of a creek, several miles beyond Kowa Kowa. There I found a large quantity of old dry spars in the forest. These I launched into the river, and brought them down in a raft, and made arrangements for new spars.

The ship had always leaked more or less ever

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since we left the Cape, but I had never thought it was dangerous. I found, however, that it had increased very much on the passage from Sydney to New Zealand, and I therefore thought it would be advisable to endeavour to stop the leak in Kororarika Bay. At first I was almost afraid to communicate this to the captain, officers, and men, as New Zealand was a land of savages; but when I mentioned my intentions they were all much pleased with it, and I then converted the dry spars into stages for the men to work upon. I sent the carpenters to caulk the top sides, and immediately took measures to land and protect the stores and provisions on the beach; and on informing Tupe and Tarra of what I proposed, they erected a very comfortable cottage for my residence on the shore.

I had not decided on any plan for getting at the bottom of the ship. Some of the officers proposed to beach her, but to this I objected, and relied upon being able to devise some plan for getting her hove down. Soon after, when I came on board, I found that they had given the ship a "list" to one side, by rolling two water casks to the lee side of the ship, and this gave me the idea which led to the plan which I adopted.

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I told the mate that I would heave out the keel of the ship by water casks attached to the mast heads, but he thought that the "bouncing," or jerking necessary to raise full water casks would endanger the masts. I told him that my plan was different; that I would hoist up empty water casks, and fill them afterwards with buckets and funnels, and that when it became necessary to right the ship, I would empty the casks with a spigot. The plan answered admirably. The ship was hove down and righted, like a piece of clockwork. The casks were attached to all three masts.

What a pity that this simple and easy way of getting at a ship's bottom did not occur to Captain Cook, when he repaired his ship at Endeavour River. It would have saved many lives at Batavia.

I soon found that the repairing of the ship's bottom was a more arduous matter than I had anticipated. The planking and timbers were sound, but the vessel had been, iron-fastened, and then coppered. The builder had taken every care to prevent the copper and iron from coming in contact. The heads of the iron spikes were punched into the planks, then covered with putty, and the heads of the iron bolts were covered with sheet lead; the bottom

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of the ship being covered with tarred canvas under the copper.

When the lead was removed the heads of the bolts were found to be destroyed. The iron spikes (each protected by a piece of putty) were also found to be destroyed, and the holes were filled up with black mud.

It was therefore necessary to refasten all the planking of the bottom. It so happened that a vessel from India, called the "Hebe," had been wrecked by striking on a rock at the entrance of Port Dalrymple; and shortly before I left Sydney some person had brought up to Port Jackson from Port Dalrymple a large quantity of iron spikes, obtained from the wreck of that vessel. All of these I had purchased as articles of trade for the Fiji Islands. These spikes--when passed through the hands of the blacksmiths, were as good as new ones, and were used to refasten the planks of the ship. Three or four thousand hardwood treenails were also used to refasten the bottom.

Some of the crew were able to saw timber, and I employed them to saw inch sheathing boards to sheath the bottom. About this time a whaling ship arrived in the bay. From the captain of this vessel I purchased a sufficiency

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of oil to enable me to make up cheenam to put between the planks of the ship's bottom and the sheathing, and I converted a large quantity of shells into quicklime to make the cheenam. I had no nails to fasten the sheathing to the ship's bottom, but there was a large quantity of old iron hoops in the vessel, and these the blacksmith converted into sheathing nails.

I succeeded in repairing the ship beyond my most sanguine expectations, and when she was righted she was found to be as tight as a bottle. The repairs occupied about three months; but then I had to depend upon my own resources in a land of savages, and with a motley crew it could not be expected that at all times everything would go on smoothly.

Soon after commencing the repairs of the ship, Tupe informed me that he heard a report that a fleet of canoes intended to attack my camp at Kororarika, and afterwards to take the ship; but he assured me that he and his tribe would assist me in repelling the attack.

I thanked Tupe for the information he gave, but in reality I doubted its truth, as there was great jealously between the different tribes. I consequently did not take all the precaution which I ought to have done, and I heard no more of it. I remained on board the ship until

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she was nearly on her broadside, when I went and took up my residence ashore.

The first night I spent ashore I felt very restless, perhaps from the novelty of my situation, and got out more than once to speak to the sentinals and see that all was right. The night was calm, and there was no sound to be heard but the roar of the reef. Tupe had sent two old muskets to be repaired by the blacksmith, and they had been put into my hut. At daybreak Tupe came into the hut while I was still in bed, shook hands with me, and took away his muskets. He said he was going away to his house at Kowa Kowa, but that he would be back in two or three days. Some time after, whilst I was still in bed, my Bengal servant came into the room and set down on the table a pot of hot water, for shaving purposes. Having done so, he said coolly and quietly, "There is a fleet of canoes coming round the point to attack us."

I jumped out of bed, pulled on my trousers, slipped on my coat, and, without stopping to dress myself further, ran out of the hut. I found every one on the alert, and armed; and a number of them were discharging their muskets. I ordered them to fire no more, as the canoes were too distant for the shots to

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take effect. One of the men told me that they were firing to show the people in the canoes that they were prepared to receive them, and thought that this might perhaps induce them to go away.