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Historical Records of New Zealand South

[Introduction]

page 151

Sydney Gazette, April 5, 1817:—"Captain Coffin, of the American ship Enterprise, gives information of his having met three men on one of the small islands called the Snares, off New Zealand, who were some years since left there by the Adventure (schooner, Captain Keith, of London), under the following circumstances, as represented by them to Captain Coffin:—The Adventure had been sealing among the islands, and, falling short of provisions, her captain submitted to their choice, whether they would go on shore, or starve afloat, stating it to be impossible for the provisions to hold out for the whole of the crew; that they went on shore, much against their will, taking a few potatoes, which they planted, and had since lived on the produce of, together with birds and seals, which occasionally fell in their way; that their number was originally four, but one had died, and all had the same dreary prospect before them, but Providence had been kinder than their expectations, and miraculously preserved them. These men had written discharges from the captain of the Adventure, as Captain Coffin assures us; and when it is considered that that vessel might, by calling at either of the settlements of Van Diemen's Land, have avoided the necessity of leaving four unhappy men in a condition so truly deplorable, we either must discredit their report or bestow upon them a portion of the sympathy to which unmerited misfortune prefers an undoubted claim."

[The three men referred to were subsequently identified as escaped convicts from Norfolk Island, whither they had been deported from Sydney early in the century. One of them furnished an interesting account of the adventure, which has been incorporated in an MSS. history of Norfolk Island in Hobart Museum.]

The narrator was a man-o'-war's man, dismissed the service for some nautical offence. He took to the roads, and became a highwayman. In due course he was taken, tried, and sent out to Sydney. There he absconded, was re-taken, and subsequently assaulted his ganger. He reached Norfolk Island in 1804, and while working in a road gang made the acquaintance of his companions. Finding them of congenial temperament, they hatched a scheme for escape. They were working an outlying station, to reach which they had to put off in a boat. The gang only returned to headquarters once a week. Watching their opportunity, the conspirators overpowered the guard, handling one man so roughly that he died. Six prisoners took an active part in the revolt, the others remaining passive, refusing to assist one way or the other. The six, getting possession of the guard's firearms and ammunition, made away in the boat. It was some days before tidings of the escape reached headquarters, and by that time pursuit was considered hopeless. The weather being boisterous, it was believed they had perished. Their intention was to make an island a day or a day and a-halfs sail from Norfolk. The weather prevented them reaching it for ten or fourteen days, their sufferings in the meantime being so great, they could not state the exact period. The provisions they took were so trifling that, first one of their comrades and then another, was sacrificed to the pangs of hunger. One or two falls of rain relieved the thirst, otherwise their sufferings, which must have been awful, would have become unsupportable. Long before they made the land they had abandoned all hope of rescue, and but for the fact each had to be on the alert for fear of being knocked on the head by the other for sustenance purposes, they would have sunk into a state of utter listlessness. The boat was allowed to drift without supervision for, they could not tell, how long. At daylight the morning of their rescue they were roused from their state of lethargy by discovering themselves on the coast of am island, which they ascertained to be Philip Island—the place they were in page 152search of. A few hours' coasting off-shore and they got into a landing-place. The night prior to this is noted as being an absolute terror—one of their greatest extremities. During its hours of darkness they despatched the second victim, and some of the miserable wretches lay down alongside the body, gnawing its vitals. Theretofore, sensuality had deadened sensibility; but now that their proximity to land, with flocks of birds hovering over it, appeared in sight, sickening disgust overtook them. The bottom of the boat was a mass of blood and viscera, torn from the dead man's body. Although in a manner ignorant as to how it might yet fare with them, they hove the remains overboard, otherwise, the narrator avers, they could not have survived the feeling. Being bird-nesting season, they had no difficulty collecting a sufficiency of legitimate food. Looking about, they saw signs of recent occupation. They discovered a try-pot, cut timber, and sundry fittings. They lived a Robinson Crusoe life nearly five months, when the whaler turned up. She had lost some of her hands—supposed to have deserted on the coast of New Zealand,—and the skipper was glad of their services. They remained with the whaler a couple of years, and when she was filled up and ready to go Home they were, at their own request, landed at the South Cape, Stewart Island. There they joined a seal party, and became expert sealers. When the season was over and the party returned to Sydney, they elected to remain on the island, and subsequently consorted with the natives. The Adventure put into the island short-handed, and they joined her. Six or seven years having elapsed, and Norfolk Island settlement abandoned, they had less fear of being re-taken as absconders. The agreement made with Captain Keith was that, when he filled up, they should be taken on in the ship to England. Instead of doing so, Keith landed them on the Snares, where, after a residence of two years, they were found as related by Captain Coffin. They were originally a party of four, but one of the number died under tragic circumstances. He fell into a state of melancholia, and latterly absented himself from the others for weeks at a time. They traced him in these seclusions to a cave in the face of a rock, overhanging a deep, ocean-cliff. Superstitious dread took possession of them. They professed to believe their poor, demented comrade had supernatural visitations, asserting that at midnight strange lights were seen playing round the entrance to his cave. The phosphorescence of these southern seas had probably to do with that illusion. So alarmed did they become that they resolved upon the poor creature's death. Getting hold of him at the edge of the cliff, they thrust him over the precipice. When next seen it was found the body had caught on a ledge, and hung there suspended. In that position it was attacked by the sea-brood, and the flesh picked away, piecemeal. It must have been a horrid sight. So deep was the impression left on the others that they took the first opportunity for getting away from the island, and facing the terror of the convict authorities.

They cultivated their potatoes to good advantage. Between sea-fowls, seal flesh, and potatoes they were never at a loss for food. When they took their departure from the island they left nearly an acre and a-half in crop, besides providing the Enterprise with an abundant supply. The cultivation can be traced at the present day, and, as for the tuber, it has run riot all over the neighbourhood.

[Re potato culture: This is the second time it is mentioned as having been cultivated in the south. In 1813 a flax-dresser named Williams, acting on behalf of Sydney merchants, landed at Awarua, and he speaks of finding considerably more than 100 acres under cultivation, for barter with the whaleships (see "New River").]

[The story of John Rutherford is well known in New Zealand history. In the light of information related above, Rutherford's story completely explodes. He tells us he was on board the Agnes (a Yankee whaler, commanded by page 153Captain Coffin), and that on March 6, 1816, the Agnes was seized by Poverty Bay natives, and her skipper—Captain Coffin—killed. The Records know nothing about the Agnes—she is never mentioned,—and we have here Captain Coffin, skipper of the American whaler Enterprise, alive, and rescuing others thirteen months after the date of his alleged death, as given by Rutherford. Furthermore, in 1819 Captain Coffin, as skipper of the Syren, opened Japan whale fisheries, so that Rutherford's story is open to the gravest possible doubts.]

Amongst the few natural gifts bestowed on the habitable island of the Snares group, Nature has succeeded in working out a boat harbour, or landing-place. It is at best precarious, and affords only partial shelter from prevailing winds. It appears to have been dug out by some mighty avalanche, operating from west to east. It has ploughed a deep furrow or fressure down the centre of the island. It must then have dropped over a cataract into the harbour channel, leaving a protecting lap or promontory, in the passage out to sea. Inland, the harbour channel penetrates a deep cavern, running into the bowels of the earth. It has a narrow entrance, with a lofty dome-shaped aperture inside. There are shelving rocks round its walls, to which the hair-seal herds of the island appear to be partial. An exciting adventure, culminating in sad tragedy, occurred in the year 1831. The Currency Lass, of 90 tons (Bucknell, master), left a gang of ten men with two boats. In prosecution of their sealing operations, one boat containing two men, shot into the cave for the purpose of disturbing the seals, while the other boat remained at the entrance, ready to club them as they came out. The disturbing party was only too successful, as the whole herd came tumbling down, en masse. The clubbing boat was caught in an awkward fix at the mouth of the cave and upset, its occupants, seven in number, thrown into the water, under and amongst the herd of infuriated sea-lions. In a short time the water was dyed red with blood, showing the men must have been terribly ripped. The other boat—which by this time had got well up into the cave—pulled back vigorously to the rescue, but only managed to recover four men, the others being carried away, by the receding tide—which was running strong,—as also by the force of the retreating seals. One man was observed holding on, or being hugged tightly by, an immense lion, and the trail of blood which followed showed too plainly the fearful lacerations going on. One dead body was recovered, the other being floated, or Carried by the seals, out to sea.—Sydney Customs Records, November 5, 1831.