STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 579, 31 January 1882, Page 2

STORIES OF THE PENINSULA.

No. IC—Jimmy Robinson

The collector of these histories has been fortunate indeed in procuring tbe autobiography of one of the most celebrated of our Peninsula veterans, and begs to thank the kind friend who took such pains to secure it for him. It is his intention to eventually republish a revised edition of these, tales in book form, and in the preface to that volume he intends to pay his poor tribute to those who have'assisted him, for he may truly say with a greater than he— •' I hAve here only a nosegay of cut flowers, and nothing is my own but the string that binds them."

Toe true history that follows was sent in an autobiographical form, but ifc has been thought better to alter certain portions into the narrative style.

The subject of this number, James Robinson C'lough, was a native of Bristol. How he came to drop his surname one cannot say, but he w„s universally known as Jimmy Robinson, or liapahina, ns the Maories called him. When a boy, he ran away from home and took to the sea, as is generally the case when a boy does run away. After .several years in the East India trade, be found his way across to America, and there joined a New Bedford whaler called the Roslyn Castle, which was bound south. On board this vessel he stayed three years, and met with many an adventure. Whales were much more plentiful in those days than they are now, so that at tbe end of this time the Roslyn Castle was a full ship. She had some remarkable good takes off the Solauders. and for over three weeks her lires were never out. During one of these chases our hero very nearly lost the number of his mess. A large sperm whale, a cow with a calf, had been singled out, and the chief mate's boat, in which Robinson was pulling bow oar, was the first to make fast to her. As soon as she was struck, the whale sounded, and the lints ran out fast, but she came up almost immediately, and went straight for the boat. Ti.ruing close to it, she gave one stroke with her flukes, cuttin.fr it clean in two, and killing the two midship oarsmen, tossing the others up in the air. They dropped close to the wreck, and managed to hold on to the oars and wreckage until picked up by the captain's boat. This same whale was taken two diys afterwards. It was known by the iron ii> it, and turned out a Inrge number of barrels. Calling in at Stewart's Island for wood and water, four fresh hands (Maories) were engaged, who had been atrip before, and turned out good men at thenar. After cruising about tip the east coast of New Zealand, they run into Akaroa, as their captain intended to recruit here for a month. It was blowing a gale of wind from the north-west when tbey made tbe Heads, and it was as much as they could do to work the .--hip up the harbor. Some of the squalls were terrific, and as they had her under pretty small canvas, it was no joke working her, where the tacks were so short. After getting about half way up, the wind was a good deal sleauier and the harbor wider, and they dropped anchor abreast of the present town of Aloiroa. This was in March, 1837. There were three other vessels lying there at that time, two being French, and one a Sydney whaler. The skipper laid in a good stock oi pork and potatoes, the Maories being vtry willing to trade, taking principally tobacco and .-lops for their produce. The crew were allowed to go ashore a good deal, and here it was that our hero foil in love with a young Native woman, who proved as good and fond a wife to him as any of his own countrywomen could have been. She was the daughter of a Native chief named Iwikau, a chief of the Ngatirangiamoa, and was about 20 years of age. To quote his own words —•• I was 23 myself at this time, so that we were about a match. As money was very little use here in those days. I look all I had to draw from the ship m trade, and as we had been very lucky, my share auuiuuted to over GOO dollars. Amongst my purchases wr l r, Aye <7.;"r--l whale-be*:*.'. ■A"'ci' tiie skipper would not ■.•-...•; v, t;i* until after a lot. of persuasion. I had a good stock of clothing, dungaree, colored cotton, and tobacco, so that L was looked upon as a Rangatira Pakeha. There was another white man living here at the time, known as Holy Joe, but. how he came to be called that I could not. imagine, as he was anything but what his name implied, f always looked upon him as a runaway from Van Dion-en's Land, and such lie afterwards told me he was. At this time there were over a thousand Maories living round Wangaroa Harbor, for that was the n Aive name of it. There were also tottlcments in all the bays, round as far as Port Cooper, so that there must have been about j 3000 Maories on the Peninsula, including those to the south of Akaroa." !

Jimmy Robinson was present and hid ped .to hoist the English standard in Akaroa. His own version of it, as told to our informant, was as follows :—"lt was in the year 1840, in August. I had been up to the Plead of the Bay getting a 10-nl of pipis. of which Ih" Maoriesnre very fond. I had in the boat with me my wife and her youngster, who was about a year old. and named ; Holy Joe was also with me. as I found him more useful in handling a whalehoat than the Maories. We were beating down wifh a light southwest wind, w'len I noticed a ship come round the point with a fair wind. I said to Joe, ■' We shall get some tobacco at last," as we had been out of it for some time. We then stood towards her, but when we got a bit nearer we could see her ports, and that therefore she was a man-of-war. I said so to my ma'e. and he said, " [f she is, for God's sake let me get ashore." I suppose his guilty conscience pricked him, or else he had not finished Ids time, and thought he might be recognised. To satisfy him I said I would land him, and paid her head off for the shore. I hud not got far when I heard a blank shot fired and saw some signals run up, so I thought I was wanted as a pilot perhaps, so hauled on a wind again and ran alongside. She had come to an anchor by this time a little above Green's Point, as it is now called. She turned out to be the British man-of-war Britomart, CAptain Stanley, who catne to the side and asked me to step on board, which I did. He asked me who tho female was, and I told him, so he said, '- Ask her to come on board." I could hardly persuade her, but she came at last, and squatted down on deck with the young one in her arms. The captain ordered the steward to bring her something to eat, so she soon had a good spread of pies, cakes, and fruit in front of her, but she ?ecmed so nsrvons that she could not eat them. Ihe captain asked me to come below, so I went down, and he asked me all about tho place, how long I had been here, and how many vessels had called, and their names, and how many Maories were living here. I gave him all tlie information I could about the place, so he told me that I must be sworn in as Her Majesty's interpreter, as he intended to take possession of the islands in Her Majesty's name, and wanted me to explain it to the Native". I was given a bell and a small em*jgn to roll them up next morning, which 1 promised to do. We got what we wanted in the shape of tobacco, and something to whet our whistles as well, and went ashore. I sent word all round to the Natives, and next morning there was a great muster on the sandy beach between the two townships. Three or four of the ship's boats were ashore, and a party of them were sent with me to get a flagstaff. We had not far to look, as we soon found and cut down a kahikaten as straight as a die and 40 feet long. A block and halyards were soon rigged on and a hole dug, and it was very soon up. After all the Natives were squatted down, and the chiefs set out by themselves on an old ensign, the captain commenced to read his errand here to the Natives, all of which I had to inter pret ; but there war so much of it, I forget what it was all about. I know, however, that it ended up with God save the Queen, after which the British standard was inn up and a discharge of musketry fired by the marines. A salute was also fired with the big on board, over which the Natives got in a great state of excitement. The captain invited myself and several of the chiefs on board, where he gave us a g'*and spread, and I was presented with a lieutenant's uniform, and eaeli of the chiefs had a marine's coat given to him. Next morning the French vessel arrived, and landed her colonAts, as is already' k" own. Tiie Maoris did not look upon their arrival with much favor, and, if it had not been for the presence of the ships, an attempt would iiave been made to drive them away. [The remainder of the narrative will appear in next Tuesday's issue.]