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Short Story. In Geelvink Waters.

kr'ftVellors or ti aders ‘&ns ' their way ibt6 the great waters eft Geelvink, and Vben Mfok Coogab doCicted t 6 giv© tbo district a trials be had things all to himself, A Dufccbtfe&b came dowA the Ge'elvink Straits Occasionally, add did ft bttle 'business around thd shores? bf-ffe bay, but the Were hardly o'fct prepared for him*, and Slick Cobgart sat?, a good chance before faith if he 'could establish a trading: stfet&h or''depot at Some ‘ooriVeniabt'fajtat. Mick bad hitherth'beefi 'working the Ku and Arru Islands, t 6 the north of the Dutch Pentnaulfty 'but he and hia p’arther Were for eVdr quarrelling otor the . girls, and eventually they parted, and th 6 Irishman, taking his share.of thh trade goods, Bailed his little schooner up through Dam pier Straits and rouihd into the GeelVinfc region* whecehe found % 'suitable landing place bn the west end df Jappen Island. Mick had taken the : precaution t’A pay bis Arru wife off hefore he left the did trading gihund in the south, feeling that it Would Jibe, 'fetter policy to be unbamperea fthen hb got to Geelvink. The diplomatic trader in the wilder parts of New Guinea finds it to his interest t 6 marry a daughter of the biggest chief in his neighbourhood. Thb father-in-law, of course, proceeds t$ live upon him, but niobey and trade goods moderately bestowed bpon an influential chief 'form A profitable investment.

When Mfek Vdogdh ’dropped anchor in the little vove oh Japp eh he was soon imrrotinded by canoe* loads of grizzly-haired islanders of an Squiring turn ofmidd, .but hd had been eb long a'bout Western New Guinea^ 'that he felt in nd degree embarrassed, especially '&s the rfetive - lingo ’’ he hud acquired on the Arm group .'was fairly well, understood by the Jappenese, and. he was thus able to co'rnmunioatA more or less freely 'with them. With 'f he aid of a s few appro"’ priate lessons and.... official, presentation of his card, (a bottle of gin in those parts), Mick >a« sobA on the best of terms with the head chief of Westbifn Jappen, the ma& who would nkturally be of themos! use to him in the business ams social way, The trader was tebl<> to ah-atfge for the lease of a plot'of ground slohg the beach silitable fo? his purposes, and for a srhall con’sideration got the chief to build bird a handsome bamboo'house. Thfih he Opened out bis stbck" in-trade, and in a short time wai doing a brisk "business. Who A Lan f -Poo, the chief’s niosf engaging daughter, went to Mick’s store 16 buy a hew rigi'but the wily tradei let her have all she wanted for nothing, and it is hot surprising that she Visited the place regularly after that. Also, it is not to be wondered'af that the grinning Laiii-Poo finally made her homo under Mick Coogah’s roof, and shed happiness on the lonely trader’# life.

Wheti the Dutch 'trader from ths Mohi'ocaa came down in the GeeU vmk direction again Mick bought; all of his stock-in-trade out in ond lihe, and arranged with him to bring him down regular cargoes in future. Hence before manyrabutt I were over Mick Coogan felt quite ai homo on Japp'en, brat any rate ort the western end df that picturesque island, for in thfe east there wui another chief wild ruled suprem--aud was a sort of rival to Mick > father -in - laV in the claim tb kingship of the whole islanu. Jappeuia over a hundred milet in length, so the two chiefs wer.\ well parted from each other, and i! waa Seldom that any frictiod occurred. The Jappeneso liM fighting Veil enough, hut they dj not believe in going a long jcnrnr.y for the sport. Geelvink Bay over tfro hundred miles across at its tdduth, add runs down abou? the same distance, so that Mid Coogan had a wide area of su t before him, and the monopoly ol h long line of coast for his trading operations. But the fact that A white trader had settled down ms the western end of Jappen foo} attracted general attention on th-.ii part of the pretty island. The natives came pouring down in the } canoes from Seuouted and up fr.ui Amberpur and Meoswar, frbih t; A Moor Islands and the yed-sandeo coa?t along by Warexi up to Poit.fc D’Urville. The priih&y trouh# waa that many bf them hung ab . Jappeu, attracted by the sport t- as was going on in , the district, m .PJ so lively by,the Irishman’s adv.-nh The chief of Eastern Jappen ht 4 jealously aloof for a time', but h $ degrees be and his people pugbul westward-, and this bveptualiy oni gendered trouble that for a (PtJ made Mick CobgUh tvish he ba<i never been born* or-—having heed Brought into the wbirld—bad hevo£ been tempted to try hij fortune id New Guinea. Probably tne bast shark-huntM ground in the wprjd is that fe|

Geolvink Bay. Tho man-eating monsters are thick enough in Sydney harbour, in New Caledonia' and Fiji, but they have made such a decided home in the Geelvink : waters that at times you might almost walk over the sea on top of their great carcases. Mick’s wife was a keen huntress of the eeatigers, and the trader, who was also' a bold and keen sportsman, soon became'an adept at the game. The plan was to put to sea in formidable groups when the tide! was high, drive as many sharks as' possible towards the shore before! the ebb, dance and shout before 1 them on the edges of the reef as the water receded, and so impound tho quarry in the various little lakes or ipools that would be left on che coral; flats at low tide. j Each'hunter took a bamboo buoy under one arm by way of getting'am occasional rest at sea, whilst a joocoanut would be strapped round the neck for commissariat purposes,' as the job ill ways covered many! hours, seeing that 'the turn Of the 1 tide had to be waited for. j One day, while Mick Coogan 1 with his wife and a large party' were swimming about outside the! reef rounding up sharks, they cm-' countered another crowd who turned: out to bo East-enders, out on the: same Sporting errand. | This lot had been working their way along the coast trying to corner a twenty-foot tiger-shark that promised to be a splendid prize. The West-enders joined in the chase as a matter of course, and before long tho dorsal fin of the monster was cutting its way through the rippling waters towards the beach.j As the tide turned and began to run out tho natives took their station along tho fringes of the outer Ao if, and every time the shark made an attempt to follow the receding tide out into tho “ blue water ” he was frightened back by their shout ng and capers. In the end he was left stranded in a pool on one of tho soft coral beds on the flats, and then there was an eager rush to finish him off. Dogs will snarl about a bone And play together When there e none, as we learn from tho quaint philosophy of Hudibras, and 'the chances are that these two groups of hunters from tho east and west ends of Jappeu Island would have had pleasant enough communion among themselves that day if a covetablo twenty-foot tiger-shark had not been in question between them. The brute was settled quickly enough, as it happened, but which party had tho right to ‘“ rob ” him ? You never know what you will get out of a big shark, even in this out-ol-tko-world part of tho Eastern seas, for he may have been on the prowl about Soumboyaor Batavia, Singapore, Baigon or Hong Ivong. even, for sharks are great and ramd travellers. He might have piib'n a rich Chinese comadorn or aff ,‘e t British ‘merchant, wearing ( fia uond rings and gold watches, as they do I so ostentatiously-in the Far East. He may have behn cruising about the (Australian coast and picked up a rich squatter or Queensland goldminer, also richly clad as a personal adornment. Great wealth might he inside that shark in tho way of jewellery and coin for all anyone knew, and Mick Coogan decided that be would be “first robber” of the vanquished “ tiger.” But the Jappenese from the. East-end also made up their minds that they had the prior claim, seeing that they had first found his sharkship. It was one of the finest battles ever ‘fought on ’the coast of Jappen. All were armed with good long knives, and the oozing coral in the low tide was soon coveted with blood, Mick’s wife had her throat cut early in the fray, and the trader promptly cut down the good lady’s conqueror. The Irishman himself later on in the melee lost ono of his ears, and got a slash acress the bridge of his nose that Was likely to last him for the rest of his life-. In the end victory lay with the West-enders, and Mick Coogan, after he had patched up his wounds cut the shark open and proceeded to “ rob ” him. The result was a sore disappointment, as it turned out. Neither gold watches nor diamond rings were nor, indeed, anything of what is known as of Intrinsic value. There were traces of a man, a pair of well-worn boots, a few trousers buttons, and a ’Frisco-printed copy of the “ Pilgrim’s Progress.” With all his go and enterprise that shark had only swallowed an American missionary after all !

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WDA19020301.2.4

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 172, 1 March 1902, Page 1

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,609

Short Story. In Geelvink Waters. Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 172, 1 March 1902, Page 1

Short Story. In Geelvink Waters. Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 172, 1 March 1902, Page 1

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