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CHAPTER
XII A GERMAN BASE Mana appeared on August 23rd, a week after the
warship left, and not before we had become a little anxious about her.
She had
done the passage to the mainland in eighteen days, establishing a
record, but
had had bad luck on her return journey, the voyage having taken
forty-one days.
Even after her arrival there was the usual chase to get hold of her,
and we did
not receive the mail till late one night. We had had no letters since
we left
Talcahuano the preceding February, and read them eagerly during the
small
hours; it was the greatest relief to find that at home all was well.
The yacht
had to put out again to sea before the newspapers could be landed, but
we later
received in them the accounts of the murder of the Austrian Archduke
and
Duchess; even then, of course, Ireland and labour troubles loomed much
more
largely on the political horizon. As soon as the return mail was ready,
on
September 4th, we despatched Mana
again, the instructions sent home being that everything was to be sent
to
Tahiti, as we expected to get off when she once more returned the
following
November. The Baquedano had brought
some additions to
the community on the island: one or two Europeans to work on the estate
and a
German to plant tobacco. The fact that the presence of this last
coincided with
the declaration of the war, and the subsequent use of the island by his
nation
as a naval base, gave rise later to a good deal of comment; it is
certain that
but little effort was made to grow tobacco. He left shortly before we
did. A schoolmaster
from Chile was also among the newcomers; he was sent by the Government,
and
brought an expensive school building. In this he entertained us all to
celebrate the day of Chilean Independence, September 18th, when the
natives
gave some masque dances, a fashion imported from Tahiti. It was
interesting to
notice that the women always preferred to wear for best occasions their
own
distinctive dress, rather than the smart clothes of the Baquedano, or
similar
gifts, which were relegated to every-day service; I have seen a really
beautifully embroidered underskirt used for riding astride. The native
garment
is of any washing material, preferably white for Sundays. It falls
straight and
loosely down from a yoke, and is worn unreasonably long; the sleeves
are made
to the wrist, with puffs at the top (fig. 29). This fashion is said to
be
common throughout the South Seas, presumably dating from the first
introduction
of clothes by the missionaries.1 School
was duly begun, but after a few days the children ceased to appear, the
master
declared he was "not an attendance officer," and from then till we
left, nearly a year later, no school was held; the last we saw of the
blackboard and counting-frame, they were rotting in a field some two
miles off,
where they had been taken by the French marooned sailors for use in
some
carnival pony-races. The warship also brought an epidemic of bad colds:
every
ship except Mana left some such
legacy. Now that
peace was in some measure restored, we set to work to excavate some of
the
statues which stood on the slope of the Raraku mountain. The natives
were
entirely indifferent whether they worked or not, but by paying high
wages and
giving any quantity of mutton, we were able at this time to get a
certain
amount of precarious labour for digging and camp work. The whole lot,
including
my maid-servant, went in for every week-end to the village, and it was
always a
matter of anxiety to know whether they would ever return. Our Sundays
were
spent peacefully, doing housework, taking the ponies to water in the
crater,
changing their pitches at due intervals, and similar jobs. We had
just begun the week's work on Monday, October 12th, when word was
brought that
some steamers had appeared. The whole of the native staff, of course,
at once
departed to see what could be begged from the ships. The vessels turned
out to
be a German squadron, going, they said, “from the China station to
Valparaiso." Some more turned up later, till there were twelve in all,
four or five of the number being warships, and the remainder colliers
or other
smaller vessels. They kept entire silence on the European situation. We
had
not, of course, the slightest idea that war had broken out, still less
that our
lonely island was the meeting-place, cleverly arranged by Admiral von
Spee, for
his ships from Japan — the Scharnhorst
and Gneisenau — with the other German
warships in this region; the Nürnherg
and Leipzig had turned up from the
west coast of Mexico, and the Dresden from
the other side of South America. A writer in the Cornhill
(August 1917) states "there happened to be upon it
[Easter Island] a British scientific expedition, but busied over the
relics of
the past, the single-minded men of science did not take the trouble to
cross
the island to look at the German ships." S. was, as a matter of fact,
twice over at Mataveri while they were in Cook's Bay, but it is true of
this
"single-minded" woman, who felt she had something else to do than to
ride for some four hours to gaze at the outside of German men-of-war.
What did
interest us was that presumably, after the usual manner of passing
ships, the
officers would come over to Raraku, and being intelligent Germans,
would
photograph our excavations. We therefore turned to, and with our own
hands
covered up our best things. We seized
the opportunity to write letters, which were posted on the ships, and
one of
our number went to see the doctor. To the credit of the enemy be it
said, that
almost all the letters subsequently arrived, a sad exception being a
butterfly,
addressed to Professor Poulton at Oxford, which, if, as may have been
the case,
it was retained as something valuable, presumably went down off the
Falkland
Islands. Mr. Edmunds, meanwhile, had not unnaturally rejoiced at having
his
market brought to his door, and sold the ships nearly £1,000 worth of
meat.
They offered to pay for it in gold, but it seemed common prudence to
ask
instead for an order, a decision which was later sadly lamented. On
Thursday some of our staff returned: the Germans were, it seemed, most
unpopular; they did not come on shore and had given no food, clothes,
or soap.
Kanaka sentiment at this moment would have been certainly pro-Ally. On Friday
rumours reached us that there was something mysterious going on. Why,
it was
asked, did the Germans say they had no newspapers, so rarely come on
shore, and
go out at night without lights? and why did one officer say that "in
two
months Germany would be at the top of the tree"? We discussed the
matter
and passed it off as "bazaar talk." On Sunday, however, news came
from Mataveri which we could no longer wholly discredit. The German
tobacco
planter had been on board, and the crew had disobeyed orders and
disclosed to
their countryman the fact that there was a great European war; the
combatants
were correctly stated, but much detail was added. Two hundred thousand
men
were, it was said, waiting at Kiel to invade England; the war had taken
our
country by surprise, and the German ships had already made a sudden
raid and
sunk eight or nine Dreadnoughts in the Thames; the Emperor was nearly
at Paris,
though the French continued to fight on most bravely. It was a terrible
war as
neither side would show the white flag. An army had been sent from
England to
the assistance of the French, but it had been badly defeated. The
English
Labour Party had objected to troops being sent out of the country, in
consequence of which the Asquith ministry had fallen, the House of
Lords came
in somehow; anyway, England was now a Republic, and so were Canada and
Australia; India was in flames, and two troopships had been sunk on the
way
there from Australia. We are
still inclined to think that the Germans themselves believed all these
things;
they had so often been told, by those in authority, that such would
occur on
the outbreak of war with England, that wishes had become facts. As a
small
mercy we got the news of the loss of the German colonies, but the
Scharnhorst,
which had just come from the French possession of Tahiti, said that the
natives
there having risen and killed the Germans, the warships had therefore
bombarded
the town of Papeete, which was now "no more." The reason given for
keeping us in the dark so long was, that hearing there were foreigners
on the
island, they thought that we might fight amongst ourselves. Von Spee
made exact
inquiries as to the number of whites in the place, and told the Kanakas
that
when he returned he would hold them responsible for our safety. The
real reason
of the silence maintained was most probably to prevent any question
being
raised of their use of the island as a naval base. When the news could
no
longer be concealed, the officers gave it as their opinion, that "when
Germany had conquered France, peace would be made with England, in
which case
Britain would probably gain some territory as she had such good
diplomatists," a compliment at least for Lord Grey. The reality of the
war
was brought home by the concrete fact that the ships were reliably
reported to
be in fighting trim, with no woodwork visible. That Sunday evening one
of us
saw the squadron going round in the dusk, the flagship leading. They
had said
that they would come again, but they never did. They went on their way
to
Coronel and the Falklands. On Monday
morning we met our photographer by arrangement on the road to Mataveri,
in
order to take some of the halfway terraces; he had brought two
newspapers,
which had at last been got hold of, and we sat down beneath a wall to
read
them. They were German ones, of September 15th and 17th, published in
Chile,
and contained little news; but we read between the lines that things
were going
better in France, for the Germans had made "a strategic retreat
according
to plan," and then the curtain fell on the great drama. The ground
rocked
for us, as it did at home in those first August days; it was just one
week
since we had covered up our diggings and it seemed centuries. How much
to
believe we did not know, but some of it sounded plausible, and when
later we
found that England was facing the struggle as a united whole, and that
there was
still a British Empire, we felt that the greatest nightmare of the war
had
passed. From the
personal point of view our thoughts turned, of course, to the yacht;
she would
no doubt remain in safety at Talcahuano, that was a comfort. At any
other time
it would have been a matter of anxiety that the crew should continue
indefinitely without employment, and that there was no pecuniary
arrangement
there for so long a detention; as it was, we were so absolutely
helpless that
the futility of worrying was obvious. As regards ourselves, we could
only cut
down our use of such things as flour and tea, and wait; our experience
of war
rations thus came early. The most serious threatened shortage was that
of
paper. It was intensely strange to go back to digging out statues, when
morning, noon, and night our hearts were over the seas; but that was
"our
job," there was at least no daily and hourly waiting for news, and in
the
peace of a plain duty and the absolute silence of the sea around us
there was a
certain kind of rest. For the
next few weeks life went on quietly, sheep-shearing absorbed the
energies of
the community, and the village was laid low by an attack of dysentery,
from
which in a short time there were eight deaths: the disease was either a
legacy
from the Germans, or the result of the distribution of some more Baquedano clothes which had been left
with the schoolmaster. It seemed as if we might spend the rest of our
lives on
the island, when suddenly, as things always happened in mid-Pacific, on
December ist, six weeks after the departure of the German squadron, a
little
ship turned up. She was flying the Chilean flag, but had an English
captain,
and was to take back word to Valparaiso how things were going on the
island .
She brought good news on the whole, but also the regretted tidings of
the
sinking of the Good Hope and Monmouth
on November 1st. Mr. Gillam
wrote that the yacht was, as we had expected, detained at Talcahuano
till the
passage was considered safe. The point which immediately concerned us
was the
offer of passages in this vessel to Chile should we desire them; but
she could
only by her charter stay some five days, during which time it would
have been
quite impossible, even had our work been finished, to transport our
goods from
Raraku. There was no room for hesitation: S. must go and look after Mana, and insure her against war risks.
Mr. Ritchie and the Fernandez boy had already sailed on the Baquedano,
and as the photographer's
work on the island was nearly done for the present, it seemed best he
should
accompany my husband and resume his post on the yacht. Bailey and I
were
therefore left to represent the Expedition on the island. When the
good-byes had been said, it was better not to have time to think, so we
at once
set to work, packed up such things as were necessary from our country
house,
and transferred the camp back to Mataveri. There I took up life once
more in my
tent by the grave of the murdered manager. Mr. Edmunds would, I knew,
kindly
give me assistance in case of necessity, and it was desirable to be
near the
village, for I proposed to spend the time till S. returned in
interviews with
such of the old people as could remember traditions and customs, prior
to the
coming of Christianity. This work was, however, not destined to
continue
undisturbed. On
Wednesday morning, December 23rd, another German ship came into Cook's
Bay —
the armed cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich.
The manager went on board, and returned with the information that the
Captain
had said he "would require thirty or forty beasts, but that as the crew
would be busy next day they would not take them till after Christmas."
They would give no account of themselves, nor any news of the war. It
was a
relief to realize that S. would not yet have had time to leave Chile,
and that he
and the yacht were presumably safe in harbour. That very afternoon,
however, my
writing was interrupted by a cry of congratulation from the native
girls at
work in Mr. Edmunds' kitchen, “Mana
is coming." A woman, who had been up on the high ground, had reported
that
she had seen the little vessel off the south coast and that she was now
sailing
round Rano Kao, hence making direct for Cook's Bay. It might, of
course, be a
mistake, but it was, on the other hand, just possible that Mr. Gillam
had
seized an opportunity to slip across to the island without waiting for
a reply
to his letter. The immediate question, supposing that it was indeed Mana, was how she could be stopped
walking straight into the jaws of the enemy. Bailey saddled in haste,
and rode
up to the top of the headland to try to warn her not to proceed. I
armed myself
with a towel and coat to make a two-flag signal, which denotes urgency,
and
fled down to the rocks on the coast below, selecting a point from which
it was
possible to command the furthest view, without being noticed from the
cruiser.
It was a very forlorn hope, that it might be possible to attract the
yacht's
attention before she was seen by the enemy, but it was obviously out of
the
question to continue, under a tree, copying notes while Mana
might be at the moment meeting with a watery grave. My
thoughts, while I sat there with eyes glued to the horizon, went back
to
academic discussions with Admiral Fremantle on board a P. & O.
liner only a
few years before, on the right in war-time to capture private property
at sea,
and how little it had then occurred to me that the matter would ever
become so
vitally personal. I waited for two and a half hours, not daring to
leave, but
with hope growing momentarily stronger that there was an error
somewhere.
Meanwhile, Bailey had seen the vessel from the mountain and was
confident that
it was the returning yacht, but had been unable to get into touch with
her. He
had come down and consulted with Mr. Edmunds, who had then most kindly
ridden
over to the south coast to see what could be done from there; the
nearer view
had made clear that the alarm was a false one, the vessel was not Mana but some other passing schooner,
and we breathed once more. Everyone,
however, seemed to take particular pleasure in talking to the Germans
about the
yacht and her movements, in a way which to me was more amusing than
reassuring.
As a scientific ship, she theoretically shared with Red Cross vessels
immunity
under the Hague Convention, but even in those days, as will have been
seen,
that did not bring complete confidence. One of the German officers had,
I was
told, given it as his opinion that his Captain would not touch her, but
"it was," he remarked, “a matter for individual judgment, and other
commanders might act differently." The same officer expressed his
surprise
that the manager had ventured on the cruiser, as he "might have been
made
a prisoner, as a German had been on a French ship"; whereupon Mr.
Edmunds
naturally resolved not to accept an informal invitation to attend
theatricals
to be held on board on Christmas Eve. The
reason for the occupation of the crew soon became obvious. The warship
went out
on the following morning and returned with a French barque, the Jean, which she had captured some time
before, and which, being laden with coal, she had towed most of the way
to the
island. She laid the barque alongside her in Cook's Bay and proceeded
to hoist
out the cargo (fig. 24), finally shooting away the mast sand spars in
order
that the French ship might not capsize as she gradually lost her
ballast. The
cruiser, it transpired, had also on board it the crew of an English
sailing-ship, the Kildalton, which
she had captured and sunk near the Horn; but when an attempt was made
to speak
to the men, they were ordered below. The German officers and crew then
landed
daily, rode over the island, came up to the manager's house, and
generally
behaved as if the whole place belonged to them. The officers were
courteous and
always saluted when we met, an attention with which one would have
preferred to
dispense; one of the crew penetrated to our kitchen, which he was at
once
requested to leave, in spite of Bailey's evident fear that he and I
would
immediately be ordered out for execution; the man hesitated, looked
astonished,
but obeyed. It must be remembered that there was no reason to suppose
that it
was otherwise than civilised warfare, the idea that anyone could or
would
injure non-combatants on neutral soil never seriously occurred to me:
the story
of Belgium was unknown. Indignation
was, however, roused by the fact that the Germans were remaining far
beyond the
twenty-four hours to which they were entitled in a neutral port, and
obviously
again using the island as a base. It grew to fever-heat when news came
that a signal-station
had been erected on Rano Aroi, the high central point, with an officer
and men
in charge, from which notice might be given to the cruiser below if an
"enemy" ship was sighted. I took Juan, the headman of the village who
was our usual escort, rode up to the point in question, and thus
verified the
fact of the station and men on watch. I remained at a short distance,
but Juan
went on and spoke to the Germans; he came back to me saying
impressively, “They
do not like to see you here," to which sentiment the reply naturally
was
"I dislike still more to see them." Never would the white ensign have
been more welcome! To relieve my feelings, although with a sense of
futility, I
wrote a formal protest, under the grandiloquent title of "Acting Head
of the
British Scientific Expedition," pointing out for the benefit of the
Chilean Government these abuses of neutrality. The schoolmaster had
been, since
his arrival, the formal representative of his country, and I went down
to the
village to give it to him; its presentation was delayed by his having
gone on
board the cruiser for the Christmas theatricals, where he remained over
the
next day, but it was finally handed to him. On New
Year's Eve I was coming in from a business ride about I o'clock, and,
having
breakfasted at 6, was feeling not a little hungry, when the German ship
was
seen steaming from her anchorage, looking as she did so like a great
blot on
the radiant sea. The first impression was that she was leaving the
island, but
on observing more closely, her errand was apparent; she was not alone,
but had
the graceful little barque with her, towing her side by side in a last
Judas
embrace. Naturally, one could go no farther, and for two and a half
hours a
little company, including the crew of the doomed ship, who had just
been
landed, sat spell-bound on the cliff watching the tragedy. When the
cruiser had
gone a short distance, but well within the three-mile limit, she cast
the
French vessel adrift, the small craft rolled helplessly, high out of
the water,
without ballast or cargo, and with only a mizzen-mast remaining. The
warship
then swooped round in great circles like an evil bird of prey, and
every time
that she came broadside on she fired at her victim. The first shot
missed; the
second went through the upper part of the barque into the sea the other
side.
The third shot obviously told, but the executioner fired once again and
then
ceased, satisfied with her work, for the little ship could be seen
gradually
regaining her water-line, though with an ominous list, and a ballast
never
designed by the builder. As she sank she drifted slowly southward, at
the mercy
of wind and current. The cruiser moved with her, keeping at an even
distance
and steadily watching her victim till suddenly the end came, and where
there
had been two vessels on the blue sea only one remained. Another gallant
ship
had joined the company of ghosts in the ocean Hades below. When she
had thus accomplished her work, the Eitel
Friedrich departed, having taken on board stores, which would, she
stated,
with those already in hand, last her till the following April. She kept
her
prisoners on board till almost the last, in order to serve, it was
said, as
hostages should a British warship appear, and then deposited them all
on shore.
Our feelings on thus finding our island invaded, resembled, in some
measure,
the classical ones of Robinson Crusoe on a somewhat similar occasion;
the
new-comers consisted of the captains and crews of both the English and
French
ships, forty-eight persons in all. They had been well treated on the
cruiser,
and were given on landing the remaining stores out of the sunken
barque. A camp
was made for them in the wool-shed, near the landing-place at Hanga
Piko, and
formed a great attraction to the natives who flocked there hourly to
see what
could be picked up. A room was found for the captain of the English
ship in the
manager's house, where he made a pleasant addition to the party. The
charms of
Easter Island did not appeal to him, and he was naturally concerned for
the
anxiety which would be felt at home when his ship was reported
"missing."
His great occupation was to walk, many times a day, to the top of the
knoll
behind my tent, to try to catch sight of a sail, a hope which those of
us who
were better acquainted with the island felt to be somewhat forlorn. Unfortunately,
the epidemic of dysentery which had prevailed in the island since the
previous
October, laid low some of the sailors. This was a serious anxiety, as
there was
no doctor of any kind, and the only medical stores and books were those
of the
Expedition, which had to be routed out from our camp at the other end
of the
island. One young Englishman, named Campbell, to our great regret,
succumbed to
the disease; he was "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow";
a little white cross in the Easter Island burial-ground makes yet
another
memorial of the Great War. Captain Sharp's persistent look-out was
rewarded
sooner than might have been expected; false hopes were raised by a
vessel which
went on without waiting, but when the marooned men had been with us
some two
months, a Swedish steamer appeared. She had come out of her way
attracted by
the fame of the antiquities, and it was a pleasure to show one or two
of the
officers what little could be seen of those statues near Cook's Bay.
She kindly
took on board the English crew and the greater part of the Frenchmen,
but a few
of the latter preferred to remain, on the ground that they had "sent
word
to the French Consul at Valparaiso, and must await his directions." It
was
said that, prior to leaving the Eitel
Friedrich, they had signed an undertaking never to bear arms
against
Germany, and they were consequently not anxious to find themselves
again in
France, where their position might be invidious. One of them, who
hailed from
the French West Indies, subsequently married his hostess, a lady in the
village. The wedding was celebrated in the church and largely attended;
during
a great part of the service the couple sat on a low form before the
altar, with
the arm of the bridegroom round the waist of the bride; the ceremony
was
followed by a sumptuous and decorous repast. Such an
excitement as the German visit had of course upset my grown-up
children, but we
gradually resumed our talks. The ways, means, and result of those
conversations
will come more appropriately under the heading of the scientific work.
It took,
as a rule, about the same number of hours to copy out the rough notes
of an
interview as to get the substance; if, therefore, the morning had been
given to
talk, the afternoon was spent in writing. It soon became obvious that
it was
going to be a race against time to get all the information available
before Mana returned, especially as the
interviews involved a certain amount of strain, and it was better, in
the
interests of all, to diversify them with topographical and other work.
In this
sense every day was prized which the yacht delayed her return, and
there was
little opportunity for feeling lonely, at any rate during working
hours. The
time, however, began to grow long. January changed into February, and
February
turned into March, and there was still no news of her; everyone began
to
inquire if I were "not becoming very anxious," in a manner which was
truly reassuring. And now, in approved fashion, we will turn and see
what was
happening to the other part of the Expedition. After
leaving the Raraku camp S. had ridden in to Cook's Bay, and there had
difficulties about getting on board, for the Kanakas had made one
bargain for
the use of their boat, and then wanted double; during the delay rain
came on,
and he was obliged to shelter himself and his goods in the native
boathouse by
the landing. He at length, however, reached the ship, where the captain
gave
him his own cabin under the bridge. At tea-time the first officer, who
was of
German nationality, came out of his cabin and conversed in such a way
that it
was obvious that he was not altogether sober; the captain soon came
along,
rated him for drinking, told him the curse of the sea was alcohol, and
he was
to go at once on deck. Upon which the mate ascended to the bridge,
groaning
deeply. Now the said captain had, unfortunately, on board sixteen cases
of
whisky, which he had brought to trade at Easter, but which Mr. Edmunds
had not
allowed him to land. He himself shortly began to drink steadily, and
went on
till delirium tremens supervened, and he became obsessed with the idea
that
there was an affray going on between the sailors and stewards. By the
arrangement of the vessel, the crew were berthed for'ard and the
stewards aft,
while the waist of the ship was filled by a stack of coal, which had
been left
on deck, to save the trouble of stowing it in the bunkers, and in the
pious
hope that no bad weather would supervene. On the top of this coal the
captain
now took his stand, declared that he would have no fighting on his
ship, and
hurled pieces of coal first at an imaginary crew for'ard and then at
supposititious stewards aft; though all hands were in reality carefully
lying
low to keep out of his way. S.,
meanwhile, was unfortunately confined to his cabin, having gone down,
about the
second day out, with a very severe attack of dysentery; the epidemic on
the
island had never reached our camp; he had presumably contracted it
during the
delay in starting. His position was anything but enviable: there was no
steward, only a cabin-boy, well-meaning, but languid and very dirty. He
could
get no food which he could take, and lay there helpless with the rats
eating
his clothes; if it had not been for the kindness of the chief engineer,
who
looked in occasionally, it seems doubtful if he would have lived to
reach
Chile. To this pleasing state was now added the apprehension that the
captain,
who was wandering about by day and night, might at any moment attack
him for
being in the cabin, in anticipation of which event S. kept a loaded
revolver
under his pillow. At last things got to such a state that the chief
engineer
came and asked his advice on the desirability of screwing up the
skipper,
Oxford fashion, and passing his food through the port. Before, however,
this
step could be taken, the offender had reached the stage of mental
collapse,
melted into tears and spent his time in protracted prayers, beseeching
the
engineer to put the accursed stuff overboard. S. naturally advised
taking him
at his word, when it was found that he had been drinking at the rate of
nearly
three bottles a day. All this
time the German mate had been obliged, to his great annoyance, to keep
sober
for the sake of his own safety, but as they approached Juan Fernandez
there was
much anxiety on board, for no one was very sure where it was, and they
wanted
to see it without hitting it; by good luck it was fortunately sighted
during
the hours of daylight. They managed, somehow,. to reach Valparaiso, and
S. was
at once taken to the same English hospital to which Mr. Corry had been
removed.
Here he lay for weeks, delighted to be well nursed and comfortable, and
when
convalescent, was most hospitably entertained by our friend, Mr.
Hope-Simpson,
till he was equal to going down to Talcahuano to see after the yacht. On
February 20th, 1915, Maria, now duly insured, sallied forth once more,
having
lain at Talcahuano for nearly five months. Von Spee's squadron had been
annihilated off the Falkland Islands on December 8th, and though the
exact
whereabouts of his sole remaining ship, the Dresden,
were still unknown, the coast was thought to be clear. As a matter of
fact, the
cruiser had crept out of her hiding-place in the Patagonian Channels
sixteen
days earlier, and was at this time not far from the entrance to the
bay, where
she was no doubt apprised by wireless from the shore of the movements
of all
shipping. Luckily the yacht's departure was delayed at the last by some
parting
arrangements, and she left port some hours later than had been
intended; in the
interval, according to information subsequently received, another ship
went by,
the cruiser captured her and went off. Thus did Mana
pass by in safety, and before she reached Easter Island the
Dresden had met with her doom at Juan
Fernandez. March
15th was a joyful day, when the yacht at length turned up all safe and
sound.
We rapidly decided that the best thing we could do would be to let the
British
Representative in Chile know at once of the call of the Eitel
Friedrich, and of the use made of the island by the Germans,
more particularly as there were recent reports from more than one
quarter that
a vessel with two funnels had been seen off the island. A despatch was
therefore written for our Minister at Santiago, and Mr. Gillam was
instructed
to hand it with a covering letter to the British Consul at Valparaiso.
The
enemy might turn up any day, and, in view of the gossip there had been
about
the yacht when they were here before, it was obviously desirable to
maintain
secrecy as to her whereabouts. No one save the Sailing-master,
therefore, was
informed of her destination; she lay for two nights off Hanga Roa, and
on the
third morning she was gone. On her arrival at Valparaiso the Consul
requested
Mr. Gillam to take the despatch himself to Santiago in order to answer
any
questions in his power; this he did, and had a long interview with the
British
Minister. We have subsequently received kind acknowledgment from the
Admiralty
of our efforts to be useful. The yacht then returned to the island,2
where we had been doing last things, including finishing off our
excavations,
in which we were very kindly assisted by some of the remaining members
of the
French crew; they worked for us at a rate of pay refused by the
natives. The
packing-up of specimens alone was no light business. There had turned
out to be
much more work to be done on the island than we had anticipated, and
though our
residence had been prolonged far beyond the time originally
contemplated, we had,
from the scientific point of view, been largely single-handed and had
also been
hindered by circumstances. So far as research was concerned we would
gladly
have remained for another six months, to write up results and make good
omissions; but England was at war, the three years our crew had
signed-on for
would shortly expire, our wonderful time was over, and we must go. 1 Since
writing the above, the following account has been found of dress at
Tahiti in
1877: "All the women, without exception, have their dresses cut on the
pattern of the old English sacques worn by our grandmothers. ... It is
a matter
of deep congratulation that the dress in fashion in Europe at the
period when
Tahiti adopted foreign garments should have been one so suitable." "We
may be thankful that Prince Alfred's strong commendation of the
graceful sacque
has caused it to triumph over all other varieties of changeful and
unbecoming
fashion which for a while found favour here." — Cruise in
a French Man-of-war, Miss Gordon Gumming, pp. 299 and
284. 2 Mana made seven trips in
all between
Chile and Easter Island, traversing, in this part alone of her voyage,
over
14,000 miles on her course. |