Rascals in Paradise by James A. Michener & A. Grove Day

Author:James A. Michener & A. Grove Day [Michener, James A. & Day, A. Grove]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780804151511
Publisher: Random House LLC
Published: 2014-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

* Actually the Quirós report was apparently set down by a young poet, Luis de Belmonte Bermudez, who acted as the Chief Pilot’s amanuensis aboard ship.

7

Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer

An amazing American tore back and forth across the Pacific during the middle years of the last century, terrorizing nearly half a world and leaving in his wake a forecastle full of horrifying stories. He was charged with murder and piracy and bigamy and blackbirding, and the foul destruction of his entire family. His name was whispered at night on lonely atolls to frighten children. Native chiefs prayed to ancient gods that they might be spared visits from this terrible man. Police and warships of many nations tried to track him down, but he either eluded them or talked his way to freedom, and after thirty years of unparalleled depravity he died of natural causes—that is, he was murdered and thrown to the sharks by his cook, whom he had bullied once too often.

Today, looking soberly at the career of this unbelievable man, it is almost impossible to separate fact from legend, for there is no true account of his desperate adventures and upon a slim thread of proven incident has been hung all the romantic canvas of a great ocean. Nevertheless, an honest attempt should be made to isolate the true history before the sifting of legend becomes completely hopeless.

From the first day on which the present authors, in their separate ways, embarked upon the alluring Pacific, they have been haunted by stories of this sometimes diabolical, sometimes ridiculous man. From the wilds of New Zealand, where he roamed, to the loneliest islets of the farthest reef, where he marauded, they have heard improbable stories of his outrageous career. Never, so far as they can recall, have they ever heard a dull yarn, and they now welcome this opportunity to review the available sources. With the rollicking echo of the great ocean setting the rhythm for them, they herewith present all that is nowadays known about William Henry Hayes.

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1829, son of a grogshop keeper. As a boy he stole $4,000 from his father, it is said, and ran away to become a sailor on the Great Lakes. He married early. This woman, whose name we do not know, was his official wife, but when he became involved in a horse-stealing affair he left town hurriedly with a tarnished reputation and a strange lady he had picked up near his father’s saloon. There is some evidence that he skipped out of New York as a passenger on the ship Canton on March 4, 1853, and here the confusion really begins.

For into the port of Singapore, the capital of rascaldom, the Canton moved smartly on July 11, 1853, under the command of twenty-four-year-old Captain Bully Hayes. How he had got control of the ship no one knows, and whether he was then the rightful owner is uncertain, but as we shall see, this matter of

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