hold conference in putuhara—instructions to the saints—go to otapipi—opposition at temaraia—officials bribed by catholic priests —arrival of a french warship—the writer is arrested while expounding the scriptures to the natives—cause of arrest is false accusation by catholic priests—i plead not guilty—ordered taken to tahiti—painful prison experience—cannibals in custody—start for the ship—sympathy of the natives—hurried into the ship's boat—in a school of whales—a frightened boat load—on board the warship—uncomfortable quarters—questionable french courtesy—among cockroaches, filth, and inconveniences—soft side of a plank for a bed.
leaving the revolting subject of cannibalism, i will return to our missionary labors. peace and quiet having been restored, the people assembled in putuhara on october 5th for conference, elder james s. brown presiding. after reports of the various branches had been made, as presiding elder i reported the condition of the church generally on the island, made a few opening remarks, and called on the different elders to speak. one after another these referred to themselves and the people generally having a desire for me to write home to the church authorities, to get a missionary to each village. all spoke of their love for the gospel, and their wish to have it preached on all the adjacent islands. there was such enthusiasm among the people that it seemed unwise to hold a lengthy conference. the zeal of the people there was such that it well nigh drove them into a frenzy; so after the business of the conference had been done, i addressed them on the object of a house of worship, that it was a place in which to worship the true and living god, and not a dancehouse or a place to have lawsuits, quarreling, fighting, and worshiping of idols in, as they had been doing. a motion was made and carried that our building be kept exclusively for a house of worship. thus everything else was forbidden by the landholders. at the close of the conference eight persons were baptized and confirmed.
the schools of the different villages met on october 6th, to read and spell in friendly contest. october 7th, the school in putuhara had increased to one hundred pupils. that day the rougher element of the place assembled again in their wild dancing; they sold their jewelry for fat dogs and pigs. on the 11th, the non-mormon women of the place prepared a great feast for us, and turned it over with pride, saying, "here is a token of our love for you, and we desire you to accept it and remain in our town and teach us of the lord."
we preached on sunday, the 12th, and on that day also baptized and confirmed five persons. next day, school was opened with one hundred pupils. a great deal of sickness was reported in the town. on the 14th, school was continued in good order, and we departed in a small canoe for otapipi, where we found the people pleased to see us. the school there was intact. next day i wrote to elder alviras hanks that i had heard of his having been cast away on another island.
sunday, october 19th, i preached, and baptized two persons. on the 24th i went to temaraia, where i met with more opposition from the catholic priest, with regard to school matters, and learned that he had bribed governor telidha, also parai, the mouthpiece of the town, as he was called. having them for his backing, the priest was very bold and defiant, and no doubt thought that by keeping up an excitement the catholics would gain some support for the foul and false charges which he had made against me. by the means i have named, the priest got a decision against us, and for the first time we were compelled to yield, but much against the people's desires. still, all settled down from high excitement to peace and quiet, till october 28th, when the french frigate durance made its appearance northwest of the island.
the warship had on board the governor's aide de camp, who landed at tuuhora with his guards. on the 29th he crossed the lagoon to temaraia, where we were. at 8 p.m., while i was engaged in expounding the scriptures to a few of the natives, in came a french gen d' arme and a native officer. they presented me with a warrant, which, being in the french language, i could not read. the officers stood for a minute or so, when i gave them to understand that i was unable to decipher the document. thereupon the native officer said that it meant that i was to appear before the governor's aide de camp, down at the stockade, at 9 o'clock, and if i did not come willingly, they had orders to drag me there like a dog. they being armed with swords and pistols, i thought it wisest to go willingly, especially as there was no chance to do otherwise. the officers were quite haughty, yet somewhat nervous, for they had been told that i was prepared to make a strong resistance. of course, i accompanied them readily and without a word, and was soon ushered into the august presence of the governor's aide. i found him seated in a small room, in which were four or five other officers and a few soldiers armed with muskets and cutlasses. when i entered, the interpreter arose, read a long list of charges, and asked for my plea. i answered not guilty to each accusation.
it will be remembered by the reader that when i first landed on the island i sketched, at the request of some of the natives, a rough outline of the united states, pointing out my birthplace, also salt lake city, and where gold had been discovered in california. from that time the catholic priests had conspired to entrap me, to break my influence, and to close my schools.
the charges against me began, as near as i now remember them, and with memory refreshed from brief notes taken at the time, by an assertion that i had subverted the laws of the french protectorate; had interfered with government schools; had hoisted the american flag; had enrolled some three thousand men for the american government, to be controlled by the mormon church; had armed the men; was a civil engineer of no mean ability; had ordered the people to demolish some of the towns, and rebuild with better fortifications; that my walk and general movements indicated military ability, and undoubtedly i had been brought up at a military school in the united states; that i had mapped out plans of defense; had great power with the native people, and was capable of doing much mischief in the country. these, and many other charges of a frivolous nature, were in the list, all of them without the slightest foundation in fact, except that i had much influence with the people.
i stated that i proposed to prove myself innocent of every one of the accusations made. to this the officer made answer that they had the most positive proof to establish the charges, which were very serious. he gave me two hours to settle my business, and see friends, when i would have to return to the stockade and stay where the governor's aide thought proper. the next day i was to be taken on board the man-of-war. and go as a prisoner to tahiti, for trial.
upon receiving this information, i claimed the right to be tried where i was accused of having committed the offense, and where i had the witnesses in my behalf. "no;" said the officer, "your crime is too great to be tried before any less authority than the governor." i asked to have witnesses summoned, and the officer inquired if i had any way of taking them to tahiti. he knew, of course, that i was helpless in that regard, and being so answered, told his men to take me in charge. accordingly, they marched me to where the arrest had been made.
i gathered up some of my effects, bade goodbye to my friends, and returned to the stockade. there i was ordered to a seat under an open shed till daylight, being guarded by two lustful police, who took unwarranted liberty with some lewd females, behaving most shamefully in the prisoner's presence. my friends brought bedding for me and attempted to spread it, but were rudely driven away by the guards, who took turns at pacing in front of me, while the other interested himself with the females spoken of, who were void of shame.
that night i was mortified and disgusted as i never had been before with peace officers. at last the long night wore past, and dawn appeared. then close to my right, in a stockade, i saw about fifteen native cannibals, who could barely hide their nakedness. they had been captured by french soldiers on some island in the north, and were accused of killing, upon different occasions, the white crews of three small schooners. they were also charged with eating their victims, as well as robbing and scuttling the schooners.
i took my last glance at those fierce-looking monsters just at sunrise on october 30th, when i was called before the aide de camp to sign my name four times in english, and four times in the tahitian language. then i was ordered into a filthy old boat that was used to collect oil. the boat's crew were rough and dirty, and scoffed and jeered at me and otherwise made the sail across the lagoon to tuuhora as disagreeable as they could.
when we landed at tuuhora it was among about one hundred and fifty french marines. they, too, must jeer, and satisfy their curiosity by gathering around and impertinently staring me in the face, jabbering together and laughing, while the natives met me with sympathy expressed in their countenances. two soldiers kept close to me, however, and did not allow much opportunity for conversation with anyone. i was served with a bowl of fish broth and a small piece of bread, and when this was eaten i was ordered to the landing, to one of the boats from the warship. by this time there were probably five hundred native people gathered. these followed to the boat, declaring that where their missionary went they would go, too, and saying, "it is the catholic priests who have done this, with their lies."
the news of the arrest had been heralded during the night to every village, and boats and canoes were coming in, laden with sympathizing friends, not only church members, but full as many that did not belong to the church. they said, "e mea hama teie" (a shameful thing, this). the excitement became so general that the guard was increased to about twenty armed men, and the prisoner was urged to hurry into the boat. as the water was from shoe-top to knee-deep between the shore and the boat, i attempted to take off my shoes and turn my pants up, but i was forbidden to stop, and was crowded into the vessel. when i reached it, it was full of sympathizing men, women and children, weeping and accusing the catholic priests. fully five hundred people lined the shore, some with rolls of bedding, while others were laden down with baskets of cocoanuts.
when the guards arrived with their prisoner, the boat was ordered cleared, and as the native people were rather slow to obey the command, the soldiers pricked them with their cutlasses and bayonets. i was urged into the boat, which was soon manned, and the boatmen soon pulled from the shore, while many scores of people wept aloud, shrieking out my native name, "iatobo, iatobo; no te catholic te i a ne peapea" (james, james, of the catholics this trouble). they waved handkerchiefs as long as we could see them.
as the boat was going out to the ship, it ran into what seemed to us to be hundreds or even thousands of whales. for a while the sea seemed to be black with them. at the same time the boatmen took in their oars and became pale and still as death, lest the monsters should take fright and knock us into eternity and the boat into splinters. the oarsmen were better aware of the danger than i was, and were ashy pale. indeed, it may have been the same with me for aught i know, for i did not see my own face as i saw theirs. but i had been where cattle stampeded, where the wild buffalo was rampant, or wild mustangs were charging by thousands on the plains by night and by day; had been surrounded by packs of fierce and hungry wolves; had been in the brush when grizzly bear were thick around, or when rattlesnake and deadly viper hissed in my ears; and i had been chased by savage indians; still i do not remember a time when i felt that every hair on my head was trying to let on end more than i did for a few moments as these great sea monsters glided past so near that we could almost put our hands on their long, black backs, while they shot by swiftly, spouting the briny spray almost in our faces. the thought of the loss of the boat did not concern me so much as it did to think how easy it was for a whale, at one stroke of its monster tail, to make of us convenient shark's food. while in this truly great peril, minutes seemed hours to us, and when it passed we breathed freely again, and soon gained the great warship that was lying off shore, for there was no harbor or anchorage at that island.
i was next required to try a new experiment, to me, that of climbing a rope ladder up the side of a ship as the latter rolled and pitched in the waves. after a struggle i succeeded in reaching the deck in safety, there to be surrounded by the marines as though i had been a wild beast. when their curiosity had been satisfied, i was ordered down on to what was called swaltses' battery, the gun deck. there i found that as i walked my head came in uncomfortable contact with the beams of the upper deck, and at each one i had to duck my head. this greatly amused the marines, and they got a mopstick, a broomstick, or any kind of a stick. some would press the sticks on the sides of their noses, while others held theirs back of them, poking their sticks up so as to hit the beams above. then they would form into a squad and march by and duck heads with me, while some were giving commands which i supposed meant, "left, duck, left duck"—at any rate, that was the action. then they would shout and laugh.
soon meal time came, and i was conducted into the hold of the ship, and there assigned to a small, filthy room. there was an old chair in it, and a bunk without bedding. the room swarmed with cockroaches, which seemed to be thicker than flies. i was served with a bowl of fish broth, and one small loaf of bread and a bottle of wine, for the day's rations. then an officer called me to follow him to the upper deck and to the bow of the ship, where he made me understand, by unmistakable motions, that i was to use the chains for a water closet. in disgust i remembered that i was among frenchmen, the most stylish, the proudest, and the most fashionable people in the world. i was an american, "honored" with two uniformed and armed french attendants, who never left me alone only when i was in my room, following me everywhere, allowing none to obstruct my path, and even being careful to keep me from falling out through the portholes, as, when i leaned over a big gun to look out upon the deep, they would take me by the arm, lead me away, and show me the big hole in the deck, and my room.
by this time the writer began to understand french courtesy, under some conditions, and to realize his own situation. he asked himself what the outcome would be, he reviewed every action performed on the island of anaa, and could not see wherein he had trenched upon anybody's rights or done anything against the law. he failed to discover one intentional or other wrong; so he felt to trust in the lord, and made himself as contented as possible, though he found the boards in the berth as hard as american boards, notwithstanding that they were french lumber.
