When the guards arrived with their prisoner, the boat was ordered cleared, and as the native people were rather slow to obey the command, the soldiers pricked them with their cutlasses and bayonets. I was urged into the boat, which was soon manned, and the boatmen soon pulled from the shore, while many scores of people wept aloud, shrieking out my native name, "Iatobo, Iatobo; no te Catholic te i a ne peapea" (James, James, of the Catholics this trouble). They waved handkerchiefs as long as we could see them.
As the boat was going out to the ship, it ran into what seemed to us to be hundreds or even thousands of whales. For a while the sea seemed to be black with them. At the same time the boatmen took in their oars and became pale and still as death, lest the monsters should take fright and knock us into eternity and the boat into splinters. The oarsmen were better aware of the danger than I was, and were ashy pale. Indeed, it may have been the same with me for aught I know, for I did not see my own face as I saw theirs. But I had been where cattle stampeded, where the wild buffalo was rampant, or wild mustangs were charging by thousands on the plains by night and by day; had been surrounded by packs of fierce and hungry wolves; had been in the brush when grizzly bear were thick around, or when rattlesnake and deadly viper hissed in my ears; and I had been chased by savage Indians; still I do not remember a time when I felt that every hair on my head was trying to let on end more than I did for a few moments as these great sea monsters glided past so near that we could almost put our hands on their long, black backs, while they shot by swiftly, spouting the briny spray almost in our faces. The thought of the loss of the boat did not concern me so much as it did to think how easy it was for a whale, at one stroke of its monster tail, to make of us convenient shark's food. While in this truly great peril, minutes seemed hours to us, and when it passed we breathed freely again, and soon gained the great warship that was lying off shore, for there was no harbor or anchorage at that island.
I was next required to try a new experiment, to me, that of climbing a rope ladder up the side of a ship as the latter rolled and pitched in the waves. After a struggle I succeeded in reaching the deck in safety, there to be surrounded by the marines as though I had been a wild beast. When their curiosity had been satisfied, I was ordered down on to what was called Swaltses' battery, the gun deck. There I found that as I walked my head came in uncomfortable contact with the beams of the upper deck, and at each one I had to duck my head. This greatly amused the marines, and they got a mopstick, a broomstick, or any kind of a stick. Some would press the sticks on the sides of their noses, while others held theirs back of them, poking their sticks up so as to hit the beams above. Then they would form into a squad and march by and duck heads with me, while some were giving commands which I supposed meant, "Left, duck, left duck"—at any rate, that was the action. Then they would shout and laugh.
Soon meal time came, and I was conducted into the hold of the ship, and there assigned to a small, filthy room. There was an old chair in it, and a bunk without bedding. The room swarmed with cockroaches, which seemed to be thicker than flies. I was served with a bowl of fish broth, and one small loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, for the day's rations. Then an officer called me to follow him to the upper deck and to the bow of the ship, where he made me understand, by unmistakable motions, that I was to use the chains for a water closet. In disgust I remembered that I was among Frenchmen, the most stylish, the proudest, and the most fashionable people in the world. I was an American, "honored" with two uniformed and armed French attendants, who never left me alone only when I was in my room, following me everywhere, allowing none to obstruct my path, and even being careful to keep me from falling out through the portholes, as, when I leaned over a big gun to look out upon the deep, they would take me by the arm, lead me away, and show me the big hole in the deck, and my room.
By this time the writer began to understand French courtesy, under some conditions, and to realize his own situation. He asked himself what the outcome would be, he reviewed every action performed on the island of Anaa, and could not see wherein he had trenched upon anybody's rights or done anything against the law. He failed to discover one intentional or other wrong; so he felt to trust in the Lord, and made himself as contented as possible, though he found the boards in the berth as hard as American boards, notwithstanding that they were French lumber.
CHAPTER XXX.
VOYAGE TO PAPEETE—IN A TAHITIAN DUNGEON—CRUEL TREATMENT—WRITE TO FRIENDS—KINDNESS OF THE AMERICAN HOTEL KEEPER—BROUGHT BEFORE THE GOVERNOR—FALSE CHARGES READ, AND PLEA OF NOT GUILTY ENTERED—PERJURED TESTIMONY AGAINST ME—FORBIDDEN TO LOOK AT, OR EVEN CROSS-EXAMINE WITNESSES—SECRECY OF THE ALLEGED TRIAL—DEMAND MY RIGHTS AS AN AMERICAN CITIZEN—CONFUSION OF THE GOVERNOR—RETURNED TO MY CELL—AMERICAN CONSUL TAKES UP MY CASE—GIVES BONDS THAT I WILL LEAVE THE PROTECTORATE—ELDERS AND FRIENDS CALL ON ME—MY VISITORS ALLOWED TO SAY BUT LITTLE, AND SOMETIMES EXCLUDED—DECISION OF THE GOVERNOR THAT I MUST LEAVE THE SOCIETY ISLANDS—FAIR TRIAL REFUSED ME—LETTER FROM THE AMERICAN CONSUL—TAKEN TO THE CONSUL'S OFFICE—ADVISED TO LEAVE—ELDERS DECIDE THAT I SHOULD GO OUTSIDE OF THE FRENCH PROTECTORATE—SET SAIL FROM PAPEETE.
ON November 3rd, 1851, we set sail for Tahiti, and on the 6th made the port of Papeete, having had a rough voyage. When the ship anchored, a police boat came alongside, and the prisoner was ordered to try his skill at climbing down the rope ladder. He promptly obeyed orders, and soon found himself locked up in a cobblestone dungeon, six by eight feet, quite damp, and so dark that not a ray of light penetrated it anywhere. For his bed he had a board dressed out like a washboard. He had a good mattress and pillows and blankets of his own, but they were locked up in an adjoining room and he was denied the use of them. What the object was he never learned, unless it was done to punish him. He remained in that condition fourteen hours out of the twenty-four, and was fed on bread and water that was very filthy. The water was kept in a small keg in a corner of his cell, and was thick with a green, moss-like substance. In an opposite corner was a different kind of French water closet to that he had on shipboard—a keg which was never emptied during the prisoner's stay there. Unlike the water keg, it was replenished often. As to the result of such conditions in that hot climate, I leave it to the reader to conjecture; for I had enough of it without dwelling further on the subject.
On November 7th I wrote letters to Elders Thomas Whitaker and Julian Moses, the brethren who had been assigned to labor on Tahiti. On the 8th, one Mr. Lampher, proprietor of the American hotel in Papeete, sent me a prime dinner. It was received with thanks, and was duly appreciated.
On the 10th I was called out by the turnkey; immediately an armed soldier took position on either side of me, while a sergeant stepped directly in front, then moved three steps in advance, and gave the command to forward march. In this order we passed two lines of sentinels and went to the governor's mansion, where we met another officer, who commanded a halt, and I was directed to be seated for thirty minutes. Then I was called into the governor's office, where I was confronted by his excellency and seven officers. They were in full uniform and had sidearms. Each had in his hands what appeared to be notes. I was at once ordered to be seated, and the very profligate son of a Protestant professor acted as interpreter, read the long list of charges spoken of, and asked for my plea thereto. I answered not guilty.