Here, also, on the shore side of the lagoon, was Binu, the place where the Minota was captured half a year previously and her captain killed by the bushmen.As we sailed in through the narrow entrance, a canoe came alongside with the news that the man-of-war had just left that morning after having burned three villages, killed some thirty pigs, and drowned a baby.This was the Cambrian, Captain Lewes commanding.He and I had first met in Korea during the Japanese-Russian War, and we had been crossing each ether's trail ever since without ever a meeting.The day the Snark sailed into Suva, in the Fijis, we made out the Cambrian going out.At Vila, in the New Hebrides, we missed each other by one day.We passed each other in the night-time off the island of Santo.And the day the Cambrian arrived at Tulagi, we sailed from Penduffryn, a dozen miles away.And here at Langa Langa we had missed by several hours.
The Cambrian had come to punish the murderers of the Minota's captain, but what she had succeeded in doing we did not learn until later in the day, when a Mr.Abbot, a missionary, came alongside in his whale-boat.The villages had been burned and the pigs killed.
But the natives had escaped personal harm.The murderers had not been captured, though the Minota's flag and other of her gear had been recovered.The drowning of the baby had come about through a misunderstanding.Chief Johnny, of Binu, had declined to guide the landing party into the bush, nor could any of his men be induced to perform that office.Whereupon Captain Lewes, righteously indignant, had told Chief Johnny that he deserved to have his village burned.Johnny's beche de mer English did not include the word "deserve." So his understanding of it was that his village was to be burned anyway.The immediate stampede of the inhabitants was so hurried that the baby was dropped into the water.In the meantime Chief Johnny hastened to Mr.Abbot.Into his hand he put fourteen sovereigns and requested him to go on board the Cambrian and buy Captain Lewes off.Johnny's village was not burned.Nor did Captain Lewes get the fourteen sovereigns, for I saw them later in Johnny's possession when he boarded the Minota.The excuse Johnny gave me for not guiding the landing party was a big boil which he proudly revealed.His real reason, however, and a perfectly valid one, though he did not state it, was fear of revenge on the part of the bushmen.Had he, or any of his men, guided the marines, he could have looked for bloody reprisals as soon as the Cambrian weighed anchor.
As an illustration of conditions in the Solomons, Johnny's business on board was to turn over, for a tobacco consideration, the sprit, mainsail, and jib of a whale-boat.Later in the day, a Chief Billy came on board and turned over, for a tobacco consideration, the mast and boom.This gear belonged to a whale-boat which Captain Jansen had recovered the previous trip of the Minota.The whale-boat belonged to Meringe Plantation on the island of Ysabel.Eleven contract labourers, Malaita men and bushmen at that, had decided to run away.Being bushmen, they knew nothing of salt water nor of the way of a boat in the sea.So they persuaded two natives of San Cristoval, salt-water men, to run away with them.It served the San Cristoval men right.They should have known better.When they had safely navigated the stolen boat to Malaita, they had their heads hacked off for their pains.It was this boat and gear that Captain Jansen had recovered.
Not for nothing have I journeyed all the way to the Solomons.At last I have seen Charmian's proud spirit humbled and her imperious queendom of femininity dragged in the dust.It happened at Langa Langa, ashore, on the manufactured island which one cannot see for the houses.Here, surrounded by hundreds of unblushing naked men, women, and children, we wandered about and saw the sights.We had our revolvers strapped on, and the boat's crew, fully armed, lay at the oars, stern in; but the lesson of the man-of-war was too recent for us to apprehend trouble.We walked about everywhere and saw everything until at last we approached a large tree trunk that served as a bridge across a shallow estuary.The blacks formed a wall in front of us and refused to let us pass.We wanted to know why we were stopped.The blacks said we could go on.We misunderstood, and started.Explanations became more definite.
Captain Jansen and I, being men, could go on.But no Mary was allowed to wade around that bridge, much less cross it."Mary" is beche de mer for woman.Charmian was a Mary.To her the bridge was tambo, which is the native for taboo.Ah, how my chest expanded!
At last my manhood was vindicated.In truth I belonged to the lordly sex.Charmian could trapse along at our heels, but we were MEN, and we could go right over that bridge while she would have to go around by whale-boat.
Now I should not care to be misunderstood by what follows; but it is a matter of common knowledge in the Solomons that attacks of fever are often brought on by shock.Inside half an hour after Charmian had been refused the right of way, she was being rushed aboard the Minota, packed in blankets, and dosed with quinine.I don't know what kind of shock had happened to Wada and Nakata, but at any rate they were down with fever as well.The Solomons might be healthfuller.
Also, during the attack of fever, Charmian developed a Solomon sore.
