Poor beggars. Grateful! Of course they were, and although they were sheer lunatics—religious lunatics such as the United States produces by tens of thousands every year—we felt sincerely sorry for them when they told us their miserable story. The spokesman was an old fellow of sixty with long flowing hair—the brother-in-law of the man with the goat's face—and an enthusiast. But mad—mad as a hatter.
“The Islands Brothers' Association of Christians” had its genesis in Philadelphia. It was formed “by a few pious men to found a settlement in the South Seas, till the soil, build a temple, instruct the savages, and live in peace and happiness”. Twenty-eight persons joined and seven thousand dollars were raised in one way and another—mostly from other lunatics. Many “sympathisers” gave goods, food, etc., to help the cause (hence the awful rubbish in the hold), and at 'Frisco they spent one thousand five hundred dollars in buying “trade goods to barter with the simple natives”. At 'Frisco the Julia, then lying condemned, was bought for a thousand dollars—she was not worth three hundred dollars, and was put under the Ecuadorian flag. “God sent them friends in Captain Richards and his wife,” ambled on the old man. Richards became a “Brother” and joined them to sail the ship and find an island “rich and fertile in God's gifts to man, and with a pleasant people dwelling thereon”.
With a scratch crew of 'Frisco dead beats the brig reached Honolulu. The crew at once cleared out, and several of the “Brothers,” with their wives, returned to America—they had had enough of it. After some weeks' delay Richards managed to get four Hawaiian sailors to ship, and the vessel sailed again for the Isle Beautiful. He didn't know exactly where to look for it, but he and the “Brothers” had been told that there were any amount of them lying around in the South Seas, and they would have some trouble in making a choice out of so many.
The story of their insane wanderings after the Julia went south of the equator would have been diverting had it not been so distressing. The mate, who we gathered was both a good seaman and a competent navigator, was drowned through the capsizing of a boat on the reef of some island between the Gilbert Group and Rarotonga, and with his death what little discipline, and cohesiveness had formerly existed gradually vanished. Richards apparently knew how to handle his ship, but as a navigator he was nowhere. Incredible as it may seem, his general chart of the North and South Pacific was thirty years old, and was so torn, stained and greasy as to be all but undecipherable. As the weary weeks went by and they went from island to island, only to be turned away by the inhabitants, they at last began to realise the folly of the venture, and most of them wanted to return to San Francisco. But Richards clung to the belief that they only wanted patience to find a suitable island where the natives would be glad to receive them, and where they could settle down in peace. Failing that, he had the idea that there were numbers of fertile and uninhabited islands, one of which would suit the Brethren almost as well. But as time went on he too grew despondent, and turned the brig's head northward for Honolulu; and one day he blundered across Butaritari Island and entered the lagoon in the hope of at least getting, some provisions. And again the crew bolted and left the Brethren to shift for themselves. Week after week, month after month went by, the provisions were all gone except weevily biscuit and rotten pork, and they passed their time in wandering about the beaches of the lagoon and waiting for assistance. And yet there were two or three of them who still believed in the vision of the Isle Beautiful and were still hopeful that they might get there. “All we want is another crew,” these said to us.
Our skipper shook his head, and then talked to them plainly, calling upon me to corroborate him.
“You will never get a crew. No sailor-man would ever come to sea in a crate like this. And you'll find no islands anywhere in the Pacific where you can settle down, unless you can pay for it. The natives will chivvy you off if you try to land. I know them—you don't. The people in America who encouraged you in this business were howling lunatics. Your ship is falling to pieces, and I warn you that if you once leave this lagoon in her, you will never see land again.”
They were silent, and then the old man began to weep, and said they would there and then pray for guidance.
“All right,” said the skipper, “go ahead, and I'll get my mate and the carpenter to come and tell you their opinion of the state of this brig.”
The mate and carpenter made an examination, told Captain Richards in front of his passengers that the ship was utterly unseaworthy, and that he would be a criminal if he tried to put to sea again. That settled the business, especially after they had asked me to value their trade goods, and I told them frankly that they were literally not worth valuing, and to throw them overboard.
Ten days later the Brotherhood broke up—an American trading schooner came into the lagoon and her captain offered to take them to Jakuit in the Marshall Islands, where they were certain of getting a passage to Honolulu in some whaleship. They all accepted with the exception of Richards and his wife who refused to leave the Julia. The poor fellow had his pride and would not desert his ship. However, as his wife was ailing, he had a small house built on shore and managed to make a few hundred dollars by boat-building. But every day he would go off and have a look round the old brig to see if everything on board was all right. Then one night there came a series of heavy squalls which raised a lumpy sea in the lagoon, and when morning broke only her top-masts were visible—she had gone down at her anchors.