As For The Mowree,
The Authorities Refusing To Let Him Be Put Ashore, He Was Carried To
Sea In Irons, Down In The Hold.
What eventually became of him we
never heard.
Ropey, poor poor Ropey, who a few days previous had fallen sick, was
left ashore at the sailor hospital at Townor, a small place upon the
beach between Papeetee and Matavai. Here, some time after, he
breathed his last. No one knew his complaint: he must have died of
hard times. Several of us saw him interred in the sand, and I planted
a rude post to mark his resting-place.
The cooper, and the rest who had remained aboard from the first, of
course, composed part of the Julia's new crew.
To account for the conduct, all along, of the consul and captain, in
trying so hard to alter our purpose with respect to the ship, the
following statement is all that is requisite. Beside an advance of
from fifteen to twenty-five dollars demanded by every sailor shipping
at Tahiti, an additional sum for each man so shipped has to be paid
into the hands of the government, as a charge of the port. Beside
this, the men - with here and there an exception - will only ship for
one cruise, thus becoming entitled to a discharge before the vessel
reaches home; which, in time, creates the necessity of obtaining
other men, at a similar cost. Now, the Julia's exchequer was at
low-water mark, or rather, it was quite empty; and to meet these
expenses, a good part of what little oil there was aboard had to be
sold for a song to a merchant of Papeetee.
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