The Tragedy ...of the...

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 33, 24 February 1933, Page 3

The Tragedy ...of the...

JEAN

BART

HE French corvette Heroine, under Captain Cecile, , was at the Bay of Islands toward the end of the xXear 1838. On September 28 an American whaler, the Rebecca Sims, arrived. told Captain Cecille of the loss at the Chatham Islands of the Jean Bart, a French whaler. The crew had been! killed and the ship burned. The French captain requested the American ship and a French whaler. the-Adele, to guide him to the Chathams to enable him to make reprisals. The two whalers were to precede him, decoy the Maoris aboard, and hold them prisoner till the Heroine arrived next day. It was feared that if the Heroine appeared with the others the Maoris would be suspicious and refuse to come aboard at all. The three ships left the Bay of Islands on October 6 and arrived at the Chathams on October 17; but while the two whalers proceeded alone to the anchorage, the Maoris seemed suspicious, and refused to come aboard unless hostages were first sent ashore. However, Captain Ray, of the Reahaeea Sime rnerennded on hoard the Chief. Fitouna. his wife. two other

Maoris,. and four young Maori women. No others would come. Later in the day their visitors wished to go ashore, but they were arrested and detained. The Chief’s wife managed to reach the side of the ship, jumped overboard, and swam to shore. She had almost reached it when a sailor, taking her for a man escaping, shot at and killed her. This gave the alarm to those on shore; and, seeing their Chief did not return, and that at least one of their number had becn killed, they feared the worst, and started firing on the ships, but without serious result. The Heroine appeared later as arranged, and the Chief was examined~on board the corvette before the officers, when the following story was told: The Jean Bart arrived at the Chathams in the beginning of May, and as usual the Maoris thronged on board for trade. The captain did not like so many of them on board at one time, so he told Hitouna to order his men ashore, and prepared to sail out of the anchorage. Hitouna gave the order, and most of his men obeyed, only 18 remaining; but there was also a Chief, Pomare, and as Hitouna had no control over his people, they all remained. Hitouna cautioned the captain against Pomare, anid I have learned from a manuscript letter of Shand, who was for many years a resident on the Chathams, that these two chiefs were at the time on unfriendly terms, and would not move about in the vicinity of each other ‘unarmed. This accounted for many of the Maoris Weing armed when they came on board to trade, and it

was evidentiy this which caused the captain to de uneasy, for he was not, to know the relation in which the two chiefs stood to each other. EHitouna and several of his chiefs went into the cabin, and while there

heard a great noise on deck. They hurried out, but on reaching the companion-way a wounded Maori fell from the deck, and they all returned to the cabin. Soon the partition was burst, and someone tried to kill them through the opening. They seized and loaded guns to defend themselves, and killed two of the crew. At once the companion and skylight were barricaded, and

after a while all was quiet. Hitouna thought that the crew, on seeinz the Maoris had secured guns, had barricaded the openings so as to give them the chance of making off in their canoes; for when they reached the deck no one was visible. There had been killed 28 Maori men and one

wO alka AMAW SS aaaue VvVvasew woman, and 20 others wounded: nine of the killed ‘and three of the wounded belonged to Hitouna’s people; he named them all. This story is rather confused, but it is what was gathered from the chief. Next day 100 armed men from the Wuropean ships went ashore, but they failed to catch any of the people, who had taken to the bush, so they destroyed. the village and seven canoes; and by 4 in the afternoon there remained only the ashes of a settlement which had covered about three-quarters of a mile.

The destruction of the houses, While 1b would mean great labour in their reconstruction, was not so. very dreadful; but the loss caused by the burning of the canoes was irreparable. They had been brought from New Zealand, and there was was no timber on the islands sufficiently big to allow of others being built. All pigs and potatoes found were collected and taken away. All this was considered a just reprisal for the destruction of the Jean Bart, HE chief was kept on board, and he naturally wanted to know. what was to be done to him. He maintained that he himself had always dealt justly with Europeans, and Captain Ray confirmed this. He was told he was to be taken to France, and no doubt clemency would be shown him by the French King. He requested that his wife might be allowed té necompany him, but was told that their rules forbade the carrying of women on French ships of war. He was not told that his wife had been killed, and instructions were issued that he was to be kept in ignorance of this, He said good-bye to the young women, sending instruections to his people and giving keepsakes to those about to be sent ashore. Even the officers found the scene affecting. The women were then sent ashore, but the two men were kept prisoners. . In Captain Cecille’s report, he said that the Maorj reprisals too often were provoked by the aggression of white people. There was one fact he did not report, for

he did not know it. J. Busby reported 1¢ later to tTh@ Government of New South Wales. Jt was this: Two years earlier the Caroline, of Hobart, had been whaling near the Chathams, and had employed a number of Maoris cleaning bone, promising them a cask of tobacco as payment, When the work was finished, however, payment was refused, and ‘three or four of the Maoris who were on board at the time were kid~ napped and made to do sailor-work. One of the mates of the Oaroline was the man Grimwood, who was acting (Continued on inside back coverd;

Many pages of New Zealand’s early history are disfigured with accounts of shocking trag~edies such as that of the taking by the Maoris of the "Jean Bart,’’ while lying at anchor at the Chatham Islands. That the Maori was, on many such instances, merely exacting vengeance for some cruel or despicable act played on him by the whites, is maintained in this article by one of New Zealand’s foremost authorities on Maori life and history,

Johannes C.

Andersen

The first of a series of 2YA Talks

The Tragedy of the "Jean Bart"

(Continued from Page. 3.)

aS Sftiling-master on the Jean Bart. Captain Walsh, of the Adele, learned later that Captain Cecille, after leaving the Chathams, discovered that part of the crew of the Jean Bart had survived, and taken refuge on Piit Island, a small.island of the group. He visited it, but found no one there, so he returned to the Chathams and destroyed another village, but as before could capture no Maoris. The three Maoris taken over from the Rebecca Sims were taken away. The chief, in spite of the instructions to the contrary, was soon told that his wife had been killed, and the sailors had no compunction in assuring him of his own fate. How did he treat his captives-killed and ate them. Well, then, what else did he expect for himself? He committed suicide before they reached the American coast. One of his companions died off Brest just. before reaching France, while the third cams out with the French when their settlement was formed at Akaroa in 1840, but he died on another French ship, the Allier, off the coast of New Zealand, in 1842, without ever seeing his home again. This account is much condensed | from R. MecNab’s in "The Old Whaling — Days," and McNab writes: "There appeared to haye been a lingering desire on the part of the French for further reprisals against the Chatham Islanders, and it was thought that this third Maori might prove_useful." This story does not make it at all clear what actually happened on the Jean Bart; and there is another version, given by Captain Ray, of the Rebecca Sims. . On his visiting the islands as told, he was surprised that no Maoris came aboard for trade. This was quite unusual, so he went ashore to find out why.’ He was not long in learning that they had taken and burnt the Jean Bart. From what he was told, he concluded that the Maoris, intending to take the ship, had gone aboard soon after she dropped anchor, swarming over the ship in great numbers. It was thought that the Maoris had seized some of the whaling lances and other implements of the trade. and used them against the French: but many of the Maoris had wounds as if from these same implements, so if they had been employed as weapons they must have been used by both sides. Further details are obtained from a French account of the incident, in which Captain Ray is reported to haye told Captain Cecille that on the Jean Biwvt entering the bay the Maoris apand boarded her for trade in the usial way; but the French, finding them too numerous on board, ordered them ashore. Wither misunderstanding them, or wishing to trade, they hesitated; and the French suspecting their intentions, attacked them with lances and spades, killing twenty-seven and wounding many, only two Frenchmen being killed. He said that as he had twice visited the islands, and had always experienced only good treatment, he could not help thinking that the French must haye been to blame. The same French authority tells in addition quite another story, and as it is against his own countrymen it is more credible than if it had been told by the American. Whether the story was told to Captain Cecille, who ean say? The accounts hints-it more than hints-that it was so told by Isitouna. "T dare not," says the narrator, "state what Hitouna, the chief of the tribe, taken to France as a prisoner,

actually revealed as to the causes of the massacre." "As is customary in Oceania, where prostitution is not shameful," he says, "some women of the neighbouring tribe came to pass the night on board." He modifies this: Women? No; young girls, and less than young girls, poor children, sold for a few wretched articles of trade, tobacco, or biscuit! It appeared that one night a drunken sailor murdered a little girl, under particularly revolting circumstances.

The child’s cry told her companions that something more than ordinary had taken place: all the women on board broke away and leaped into the sea to gain the shore. Next day not a native came on board, and it was certain that an act of vengeance was in meditation. Orders were given to hoist sail, but the winds were still; they attempted to tow the shin, but the currents were unfavourable. The Maoris, warned by méssengers, could be seen assembling from all quarters; and while those on board saw the preparations for attack they were unable to flee from it. It seemed as though providence itself was at last set against them. Again and again they set the sails to woo the winds, again they attempted to tow the ship, but all in vain. Night came, and strict watch was kept; sailors armed with muskets were placed at bow and stern, with orders to fire on all who might approach during the night. At about one in the morning the man in the- bows heard what sounded like someone swimming, and he fired at the luminous spot where the phosphorescence of the water betrayed the presence of the swimmer, ‘The swim-

ming ceased. Hitouna himself later tokl what had happened; the swimmer’s breast was pierced: he was a chief who, feeling friendly to the pakeha, was furtively swimming to warn the captain that they were to be attacked at sunrise. "He would betray his own people," said Hitouna, "and his atua punished him for it." A tragic circumstance. More tragedy followed. As the sun rose, canoes great and small flocked to the Jean Bart from all parts, three Lundred warriors inspiring terror into the thirfy who defended the vessel. They had assembled on the deck, besides rifles and muskets, the weapons of the whalers-harpoons, lances, spades, and axes, These they would use should the attack outlast their ammunition. The fight was prolonged ; the French fought with the courage of despair; but what could thirty do against three hundred? When the last sailor had fallen, the ship was hauled ashore, looted, and burnt. moe Some months later the Rebecca Sims appeared. When they began to trade, a chronometer was one of the objects of barter, for which powder was asked, They had the muskets of the Jean Bart, but all the powder had been used up in the fight. .The American captain recognised other articles as having belonged to a French ship, and gradually learned the story. This account puts a very different complexion on the whole affair. It gives good reason for the attack; it explains how it was that some of the Maoris had wounds caused by whaling implements.

Now, if this version had been given by Captain Cecille, it would have been seen by McNab. He does refer to a story-which is probably this onewhich he had seen by a French writer, but he was waiting to verify; he may have verified it, he may not; I have not seen any reference by him beyond the mere mention in "Old Whaling Days," But what of Captain Cecille? It certainly looks as though Eitouna told him the story; why did he suppress it? Did he think the telling would throw a stain on the fair lilies of France? Then what of his own action, especially if he knew the story? But what of his own action in any event? Did not that throw a stain on the lilies? And what of the action of the American captain, who had always been well treated by these same Maoris, and who suspected that the French must have been guilty of some act of aggression. What ean be said of his action? It looks as though he wanted the reprisal to be a lesson to which he could point in future-"You dare to resent what I lo, and that is what I will bring on you." People have sometimes wondered why I speak up for the Maori people whenever I get the chance. They were called ferocious savages; I want to show that their ferocity against the whites was always called up by some eruel or dastardly act of the whites themselves, It was .a savage time; but it was made worse by savage men,