THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE OF CHARLES DU BREIL
Less than a year ago news was received of the arrival in Noumea, in NewCaledonia, of the remainder of a party of unwashed visionaries, callingthemselves the 'United Brotherhood of the South Sea Islands.' A yearbefore they had sailed away from San Francisco in a wretched old crateof a schooner, named the _Percy Edward_ (an ex-Tahitian mail packet), toseek for an island or islands whereon they were to found a SocialisticUtopia, where they were to pluck the wild goat by the beard, pay norent to the native owners of the soil, and, letting their hair grow downtheir backs, lead an idyllic life and loaf around generally. Such a madscheme could have been conceived nowhere else but in San Francisco orParis.
In the latter city such another venture, but founded on more heroiclines of infatuation, was organised eighteen years ago by the lateCharles du Breil, Marquis de Rays, and the results ought to have madethe American enthusiasts reflect a little before they started. Buthaving got the idea that they might sail on through summer seas tillthey came to some land fair to look upon, and then annex it right awayin the sacred name of Socialism (and thus violate one of theprincipal articles of their faith), they started--only to be quicklydisillusionised. For there were no islands anywhere in the two Pacificsto be had for the taking thereof; neither were there any tracts of landto be had from the natives, except for hard cash or its equivalent.The untutored Kanakas also, with whom they came in contact, refused tobecome brother Socialists and go shares with the long-haired wanderersin their land or anything else. So from island to island the _PercyEdward_ cruised, looking more disreputable every day, until, as themonths went by, she began to resemble, in her tattered gear and dejectedappearance, her fatuous passengers. At last, after being chivvied aboutconsiderably by the white and native inhabitants of the various islandstouched at, the forlorn expedition reached Fiji. Here fifty of theidealists elected to remain and work for their living under a governmentwhich represented the base and brutal institution of Monarchy. But theremaining fifty-eight stuck to the _Percy Edward_ and her decayed saltjunk, and stinking water, and their beautiful ideals; till at last theship was caught in a hurricane, badly battered about, lost her foremast,and only escaped foundering by resting her keel on the bottom ofNoumea Harbour. Then the visionaries began to collect their senses,and denounced the _Percy Edward_ and the principles of the 'UnitedBrotherhood' as hollow frauds, and elected to go ashore and get a goodsquare meal.
The affair recalls the story of the ill-starred colony of 'NouvelleFrance,' which was given the tacit support of the French Government,the blessing of the Church, and the hard-earned savings of the wretcheddupes of French, Italian and Spanish peasantry who believed in it--untilit collapsed, and many of them died cursing it and themselves on thefever-stricken shores of New Ireland.
Early in 1879 an enticing prospectus appeared, signed 'Ch. du Breil,Director and Founder of the Free Colony of Port Breton in Oceania.' Inthis precious document the marvellous fertility, the beautiful scenery,and the healthy climate of the island of New Ireland (Tombara) weredescribed at length, while the native inhabitants came in for muchunqualified praise as simple children of nature, who were lookingforward with rapture to the advent of the colonists, and to the prospectof becoming citizens of the Free Colony, and being recognised asFrenchmen, and helping the settlers cultivate the vine, etc., and beingadmitted into the fold of Christianity.
Perhaps Du Breil believed in his impossible scheme--many people said so,when, some years afterwards, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonmentand a fine of thirty thousand francs for his share in it. But if hedid not, the French peasantry did, and money came pouring in. Ignorantpeople sold their little all and gathered together at Marseilles andother ports, where ships waited to convey them to the new paradise;in all, nearly half a million pounds was subscribed. Then awaywent emissaries to the southern parts of Italy, where the ignorantagricultural labourers bit freely and were caught wholesale. In theircase, however, the prospectus varied from that issued in France, whichwas specially designed to ensnare small capitalists, tradespeopleand farmers, as well as the poorer peasants. The various religiousfraternities in France, which hoped to benefit financially bytheir advocacy, boomed the scheme, and sermons were preached on thephilanthropy of M. le Marquis, who, like Law and Blount, was nothing ifnot magnificent. By the time the _Chandernagore_, the first ship, hadsailed from Flushing, elaborate plans were issued of the new city, withits parks and public buildings, and noble wharves and boulevards aglowwith life and excitement; while the religious wants of the settlers hadnot been neglected, for cathedrals and churches figured conspicuously.Also, it was indicated by a carefully-prepared descriptive pamphlet,that gold and diamonds and such other things only wanted looking forin the surrounding islands, where they could be obtained in quantitiessufficient to satisfy the most avaricious.
The _Chandernagore_ carried only eighty colonists, all males, and,flying the Liberian flag, after a long passage she reached the LachlanIslands, in the South Pacific, where sixteen of them elected to stay,charmed by the beauty of the place and the unconventional manners ofthe native women. Of these sixteen, five died from fever, and of theremainder two were killed and eaten by natives of other islands, andthe rest were rescued by Australian and German trading vessels. The_Chandernagore_ proceeded on her voyage, and Port Breton was reachedat last. It is on the south end of the great island of New Ireland, andwith, perhaps, the exception of the Falkland Islands, or the Crozets,or London in the month of November, the most sodden, dank, squashy andappalling place on the globe. The day after the ship anchored it beganto rain, and, as it showed no signs of clearing up at the end of threeweeks, the captain was besought to look out for another site for thecity where it was not quite so wet. He took them to a better place,named Liki Liki Bay, near Cape St George, and, after a preliminary orgieon board, the enthusiastic colonists set to work house-building andclearing the primaeval forest for the grape and fig crop. But as therewere about two thousand and ninety trees to the hectare, and every treewas joined to its neighbours by vines as thick as a ship's main-mast,the work proceeded but slowly. Considerable time was lost, also, by eachman dropping his axe twice in ten seconds to kill the mosquitoes whichstung him severely. After a few days of this the founders of New Francedecided to return to Europe, and, duly arming themselves, went on boardand interviewed the captain. The captain, MacLachlan, was a Scotchmanby birth, but a naturalised Frenchman. He was also a humorist in a grimsort of way. On the voyage out he and M. de Villacroix, who was thetemporary Governor, found that the eighty gentlemen colony founders werea pretty rough lot, who wanted to take charge of the ship. MacLachlan,who was a man of energy, brought them to reason by tricing seven of themup to the rigging by their thumbs, and promised to 'deal severely' withthem next time. So when they boarded the _Chandernagore_ and informedhim that he must take them back to France, he answered by hunting themashore again, landing six months' provisions, and sailing for Sydney,according to instructions from the Marquis. On arriving at Sydneyhe chartered a schooner, loaded her with provisions and agriculturalmachinery, and despatched her to Liki Liki Bay. Rough and cruel ashe may appear, MacLachlan was the right sort of man to masterinsubordination and mutiny. I knew the man well, and know that he knewthe ruffianly element he had to deal with in the first lot of colonists,and dealt with it in a proper and summary manner. Had there been half adozen more such men as himself and Villacroix to back him up, the tragicending of the ill-fated expedition would have been averted.
But meantime the second contingent was preparing to leave, and thesteamer _Genii_ was bought by the Marquis to load another cargo ofdeluded emigrants at Marseilles and Barcelona. Like Villacroix andMacLachlan, her captain (Rabardy) was a man in whom he reposed implicittrust; and, indeed, Du Breil seems to have been at least fortunate inthe choice of his sea-leaders to conduct his deplorable colonists totheir Paradise. Under other and less determined men the loss of lifewould have been terrible. MacLachlan's letters from Sydney had warnedhim of
one source of danger--mutiny--and Du Breil decided to sendout with the second contingent a military guard. From the Italian andSpanish 'settlers' there was nothing to fear. Whatever they sufferedthey suffered in silence, like sheep; and the presence of severalpriests (going out to preach in the handsome stone cathedrals andchurches before mentioned), whom they looked up to with simplereverence, was a surer safeguard for their good conduct than a companyof troops. The married men among the French contingent of the secondlot were like them in this respect; but, all through the course of thedisastrous expedition, it was cursed by the inclusion of a number ofunmarried man, whose ruffianism proved too strong to be checked; thenthere were a number of _nymphes du pavi_, recruited from the streets ofMarseilles and Toulon. 'They came on board as unmarried women, but an"arrangement" in each case was made with one of the single men to playM. le Mari,' said one of the leaders, to the writer, when he lay dyingof fever in the _Genil's_ stifling saloon at Duke of York Island. Whocan wonder at the collapse of the 'colony,' when practices such asthese were tolerated? But it is typical of the system, or rather want ofsystem, of French colonisation generally. On March 16th the _Genii_left Barcelona with over two hundred and fifty colonists--men, womenand children. Some of the Italians were from the north--these werehard-working and intelligent--some from Calabria--little better thanbeasts of the field--and the Spaniards came from Valencia and Catalonia.The military guard consisted of a Spanish captain and lieutenant andan Italian lieutenant, while the rank and file were of variousnationalities. Before the crazy old _Genii_ reached Port Said the guardthemselves made matters warm, and, with the first and second engineersand second officer, refused to proceed. Rabardy, the captain, gladly letthem go at Port Said and made for the Maldive Islands, where he engagedthirty Arabs. Later on he put these ashore at Point de Galle. AtSingapore the vessel remained six weeks, waiting for instructions,and then reached Liki Liki Bay fifteen days later--to find the placeabandoned and the beach covered with the stores left there by the_Chandernagore_ party, who had escaped to Australia; this he learned twodays later from the white traders at Mioko, the settlement on Duke ofYork Island, twenty or thirty miles away. Rabardy was at his wit's end.He knew that another steamer was due in a month or two, and determinedto wait and consult with the new Governor, who was coming out with afresh batch of three hundred people. No work at settlement was begun,for Rabardy considered the former site could be bettered. Meanwhile,there arrived a barque of one thousand tons, the _Marquis de Rays_,deeply laden with cotton and sugar machinery, stores, provisionsand medicines, and a large amount of trade goods for barter with thenatives. These latter, although not cannibals like the people of theneighbouring Island of New Britain, were a very low type of savages, andtheir mode of life was disgusting in the extreme; whilst their wild andferocious appearance was in harmony with their stark nudity. Still the_Genil's_ people established friendly relations with them, and weresupplied with fruit and vegetables, such as yams and taro.
On October 17th the steamer _India_ arrived with her emigrants, and thenew Governor, M. de Prevost, nothing daunted by the unfortunate previousexperiences of the colony and its mismanagement, set to work withCaptain Rabardy to get things in order.
A fresh site was chosen for the actual settlement, and the new arrivals,joining heartily with the _Genil's_ people, began to clear and build.The Italians and Spaniards toiled, in happy expectation of futureprosperity, with their French fellow-settlers, and hope ran high. Butalready the deadly malaria had begun its work, and ere long more thanhalf of the many hundreds of colonists were suffering from fever, andsoon some died. Then suddenly the Governor, who hitherto had cheeredthem up by his example and energy, announced his intention of going toSydney in the _Genii_ (the _India_ had sailed for France) to procurecattle and a fresh stock of provisions. He never returned. Months andmonths went by, and the colonists waited and waited, while the fevercarried off someone every few days; and then their hearts failed them,and they longed for the lands they had left for a chimera. A sadtwo months passed, and then one day another steamer--the _NouvelleBretagne_--came into Liki Liki Bay. She had brought out some threehundred more colonists, Spanish people, who listened, with dolefulfaces, to the tale of those who had preceded them to the Utopia ofCharles du Breil. Rabardy, of the _Genil_, who, a month later, was todie of fever, game to the last, consulted with Captain Henry, ofthe _Nouvelle Bretagne_ and, as they talked on the poop deck of thenewly-arrived steamer, a cry came from the people on shore that anothership was in sight. An hour later a black-painted, unobtrusive-lookingsteamer came slowly into the bay and dropped anchor. She looked like acollier, and flew the red ensign of England; but Henry knew her. She wasthe _Legaspi_, Spanish gunboat from Manila, and had chased him from thePhilippines. As her cable rattled through her hawsepipes, down went thered ensign and up went the Spanish colours, and a boat full of armed mendashed alongside the _Nouvelle Bretagne_, and in another five minutesCaptain Henry was a prisoner, handcuffed, and on his way to the warship.What he had done at Manila was a daring deed enough, and is a story initself, and nothing much to his discredit. His ship had been preventedfrom putting to sea by the Spanish authorities, and Henry, who had manysick on board, and was greatly harassed in mind, suddenly slipped hiscable and steamed off, although there was a Spanish guard on board.These he landed on the coast of Luzon.
That evening the commander of the _Legaspi_ called the Spanish emigrantstogether and addressed them. 'The colony is a failure; the French,Italian and Spanish Governments have repudiated it. Those of you wholike to return with the _Legaspi_ to Manila can do so; those who do notmay remain here, to die of starvation or be eaten by the savages.'
Next morning the _Legaspi_ steamed out of Liki Liki Bay with the_Nouvelle Bretagne_ in tow, taking; all the Spanish colonists with her.Then, to the aid of the despairing French and Italian colonists, cameone Tom Farrell, an English trader on the Duke of York Island. He gavethem provisions, advanced them money, and treated them well, taking careto get possession of the _Genil_ and the barque _Marquis de Rays_.The _Genil_ he sent to Australia under command of an English captain(Rabardy was dead by then, and his dying words to the writer ofthis sketch, as he grasped his hand for the last time, were, 'I havetried--and failed. I had not one competent officer with me to help me tomaintain my authority or shoot some of the ruffians who have ruined theexpedition'). Her unfortunate passengers were generously treated by theNew South Wales Government, who settled many of them on the RichmondRiver, in the northern portion of the colony. Here they founded aprosperous little settlement, and are to this day happy and contented,and thank their stars that they left a spurious Utopia to dwell in acountry where the conditions of climate are like those of their ownsunny Italy. Perhaps, however, they think sometimes of those of theirformer comrades who died out there in the savage 'colony' of Charles duBreil. At Liki Liki there died nine; at Duke of York Island, thirteen;at New Britain, twenty-one; and six were eaten by the cannibals of theislands thereabouts. Of a score or so of others who remained in theNorth-West Pacific there is no record. Probably they succumbed tofever, or went down under the clubs and spears of the wild people ofNew Britain, New Guinea and the Admiralty Group. Such was the end of thevision of Charles du Breil and the Colony of New France.