This gave rise to much discontent, and eventually the blacks, in desperation, openly rose and mutinied.Arming themselves with heavy pieces of firewood they proceeded to attack their masters, and some of them succeeded in getting at the water, in spite of the whites, by simply knocking the bungs out of the casks.The captain thereupon went down to parley with them, but was met by a shower of blows from the heavy sticks I have just mentioned.Half-stunned, he dashed out of the hold, got his musket, and fired down among the mutineers, hitting one black-fellow in the throat, and killing him instantly.Far from infuriating the rest, as would most certainly have been the case with any other race, this course of action terrified the blacks, and they barricaded themselves down below.
Eventually the whites again sought them and made peace, the blacks promising to conduct themselves more obediently in the future.It may here be said that the ship had called specially at Jacky Jacky's home on the coast to kidnap the natives.
On arriving at the pearling settlement, the blacks found themselves among a number of other unfortunate creatures like themselves, and all were compelled to go out in pearling vessels just as the exigencies of the industry required.Jacky Jacky himself was kept at this work for upwards of three years; and he told me many terrible stories of the white man's indescribable cruelty and villainy.He and his companions were invariably chained up during the night and driven about like cattle in the daytime.Many of his mates at the pearling settlement had been kidnapped from their homes in a cruel and contemptible manner, and herded off like sheep by men on horseback armed with formidable weapons.
Their sufferings were very great because, of course, they were totally unused to work of any kind.The enforced exile from home and the dreary compulsory labour made the life far worse than death for these primitive children of Nature.Then, again, they were exiled from their wives, who would, of course, be appropriated in their absence--another tormenting thought.They were frequently beaten with sticks, and when they attempted to run away they were speared as enemies by other tribes; whilst, in the event of their escaping altogether, they would not have been recognised even when they returned to their own homes.One day Jacky Jacky's ship came into a little bay on the mainland for water, and then my enterprising friend, watching his opportunity, struck inland for home and liberty, accompanied by several other companions in misery.These latter the coast natives promptly speared, but Jacky Jacky escaped, thanks probably to his knowledge of the white man's wiles.He soon reached the more friendly mountain tribes in the interior, where he was received as a man and a brother.You see, he had stolen a revolver from his late masters, and this mysterious weapon created great terror among his new friends.Altogether he posed as quite a great man, particularly when his story became known.He worked his way from tribe to tribe, until at length he got to the ranges where I met him--quite a vast distance from the coast.
Many parts of the extensive country I traversed on my southward journey, after the death of the girls, were exceedingly rich in minerals, and particularly in gold, both alluvial and in quartz.
As I was making my way one day through a granite country along the banks of a creek, I beheld some reddish stones, which I at once pounced upon and found to be beautiful rubies.Having no means of carrying them, however, and as they were of no value whatever to me, I simply threw them away again, and now merely record the fact.
