An Old Fool
pp. 31-32 · Read in the full issue
“PIM” Short Story
A Story of Old Samoa told by A.M.G.
WE were sitting one afternoon on the verandah of the International Hotel. It was the usual afternoon crowd of beach acquaintances, drinking lager beer or whisky, and discussing the topics of the day—the copra price, news of traders, arrivals of coastal vessels, the latest scandals talked about on scandal mongering Apia beach.
An undersized, shrivelled, pale-skinned Malay came on the verandah. He was of indeterminate age, ragged and dusty, clad in an old pair of dungaree pants and a not-too-clean singlet. Throwing a specu lative glance at our group at the large round table he passed on and sat down on the verandah steps, bidding us a “good evening.”
“Hullo,” called Schluter, captain of the “Anna Godeffroy,” “where do you come from? And who are you, The Malay removed his smoke-stained old clay pipe, on which he had been sucking, made some vague movement with his hand and, emitting a stream of tobacco juice from between his blackened teeth, replied quietly, “Oh, from some where!”
We suspected he had run away from some vessel. Against that view, however, was the fact that during the last four weeks no ship had called at Apia or anywhere in the neighbourhood. But it came out later that we were right. The Malay told Charley Oswald that he came from a Swedish brig, which had loaded guano at Baker Island and that, when the brig passed the Samoan coast, he had jumped overboard and swum ashore about 20 miles above Apia. On his way to town, the Samoans of the various villages had supplied him with ample food.
“What is your name?” asked Schluter.
“Rex,” said the stranger.
“What do you want here?”
“Oh, just a bit of tobacco and a few dollars; I’ll pay all back soon.”
“Oh, you will —and when?” continued Schluter, while Hamilton, the pilot, shook his head incredulously.
Rex made again that vague movement with his hand holding the clay pipe.
“Well, to-morrow night, maybe before.”
WE gave the old fellow some tobacco and matches, and -also presented him with four half-dollar pieces.
Whereupon, after thanking us, he at once hurriedly repaired across the road to Neumann’s general trading store and bar.
“Aha!” laughed Hamilton, “now he will invest the money in a bottle of Geneva.”
“And he has well earned it!” said Oswald. “A man of his age, who manages to jump overboard from his ship, and swim to this rotten country, should be given a whole case of Geneva —and also a knife to cut his throat, after having drunk all the Geneva.”
After awhile, the old fellow came out
of Neumann’s store. He had bought some strong fishing lines, a lew packets of fish-hooks, ana some biscuits. He grinned at us as he passed the Inter national; and then he sat down in the grass, close by, and started to prepare his fishing tackle.
The old chap worked quickly and cleverly, with his slender brown nngers.
Apparently, he was no beginner at the fishing game.
“Where are you going to fish?’’ asked Oswald.
“Oh, far outside the reef, in about 70 or 80 fathoms of water.’’
Charley left him and went back on board his schooner, one of the oldest vessels of the “Firm” (the old German “long-handle” concern, of Apia).
About half an hour later, Rex paddled off in a small, fragile-looking canoe, with an outrigger, which appeared in danger of dropping off, all the time. He passed Charley’s schooner, and twisted his face into what was meant as a friendly grin, when he saw the young master standing at the railing. Then he went straight on through the narrow passage leading out of the harbour, through the reef and the boiling surf beating on it, out into the open sea.
IT was about 10 o’clock that evening, and Charley Oswald and his super cargo were sitting in the small cabin of their schooner, having a nip of gin before turning in, when they heard canoe paddles. Rex had brought his canoe alongside, and now he climbed on deck.
He had two large bonito of about 10 lb. each in his hands, and he threw these down, pointing at them with his finger, “Plenty more of them in the canoe,” he said, “plenty more. Want me to fetch them?”
Charley went to the rail and looked down. The canoe was filled to the brim with large fish,, of a kind which the lazy, indolent natives of Apia rarely manage to catch.
The next morning, he paid back his loan, and showed Charley 15 more dollar pieces, which he had made as a result of his first night of work in Samoa.
The saloon-keepers and barmen con sidered Rex a wonderful fellow, as fish were rare in Apia at the time and hard to obtain, even for good pay. Rex was a hard worker, and made so much money that he was able to enter the holy and desirable state of matrimony on the Sun day following his arrival at Apia. The ceremony took place at the Tongan Church, at Matafele, Apia, and with com mendable taste, Rex had chosen a very pretty and attractive Samoan damsel, with a fairly good reputation. The parents of the bride probably considered the old boy a worthy son-in-law, whose
money-making abilities promised the family unlimited advantages, and untold dollars. , The merry wedding feast was embel lished with numerous innocent porkers, cooked in the delicate Samoan fashion.
It was assisted further by a battery of Geneva bottles, and by the somewhat noisy and not always melodious tunes of a Samoan string band —the members of which, when sufficiently fortified with Geneva, seemed to violently disagree amongst each other as to what tune they were playing at the one time. Charley Oswald was the guest of honour. He presented the bride with a kiss and a gold five-dollar piece after he had arranged with the happy, if slightly in
u i^ d fr^ 1 t 0 return the moneys value m fish. rnHE relations of the young wife now X came together and built for the young married couple a large and roomy Samoan house at Matautu Point.
After its completion, Rex gave a feast for the family and all friends, which
oojji mm d 5 dollars. ,
The news of the feast and the liberal ways of the new member of the commumty spread like wildfire in the usual way of the Samoan beach. From all sides came the various remote halfuncles, half-aunts, half-cousins, nephews, nieces and in-laws, of the young wife of Rex in a great hurry to participate in Rexs splendid hospitality.
Rex, at first, did what he could. But, very soon, he sadly remarked that he would be unable to catch sufficient fish for all requirements in his miserable small canoe. If only he had a real boat he would undertake to earn at least 50 dollars a week; and, with an income of 50 dollars a week, he would be able to entertam all relations of his dear wife in a way befitting such excellent people A family council was held. The family agreed it would be a paying investment, and they all contributed, and bought a boat—not paying cash, of course, but takmg it out on credit, mortgaging as security a piece of land. Then they presented the boat to Rex. with all due ceremony and with long and elaborate sP A^ nes ‘ j . , .
Afterwards they met again and. in Rex’s absence, laughed and hugged each other with joy at the prospect—how the old fool should in fpture work for them, and how they had outwitted him by their smartness.
American Consul. With the aid ot some faded and dirty-looking official documents he introduced himself as a citizen of the United States. He asked for the protection of the great Republic against the family of his wife, who intended to swindle him out of the possession of the boat, which they had just wa^theTega 8 ! ° f WhiCh he was tne legal owner.
1116 Consul afc once made out an im portant-looking and lengthy document, warning 11 “damned 1l kanaka°s’’ tl to keep their hands off the boat and informing them that Rex would from now on dwell under the protection of the whole Ameri can Navy Rex then, with great satisfaction, re turned to his home, gave his young wife _by means of a handy canoe-paddle—a thorough hiding, threw her out of the house, and then turned the whole crowd 0 f relations out, uttering wild and blood curdling threats and curses in assorted languages and swinging in his hand an impressive-looking kukri (large cane knife). This done, he left Apia’s inhos pitable shore, got into his boat, and set sail for Falealili, on the south coast of the island, where he sold the boat to a trader J or 200 dollars. He then returned to Apid, went on board Charley Oswald’s vessel and asked him to give him a pas sage to Tutuila. Charley wds willing to take him and Rex remained on board The German firm had meanwhile seized the piece of land mortgaged for the boat, as no payment had been made within the terms of the agreement. The family had assembled on the beach. Wildly excited and disappointed, they ran about uttering wi i d threats, and with murder in their hearts against the elusive and slippery Rex . He, meanwhile, was sitting quietly and contentedlv at the rail of Charley’s sh i p , the 200 dollars in hard cash in his pocket, and between half-closed eyelids he was watching the excitement of his ex relations and their fruitless efforts of intimidation /"IHARLEY took him to Leone Bay, on the west point Qf Tutuilaj and t j iere had his good points In Leone a fertile district nf Tntniia Rex settled down and opened a trading station buying coura from the natives The Samoans soon’were attracted by the way he did business and by his conscien tious wav of dealing with them and the store flourished g wei^ their Co P ra he used an old beam scale, hanging the baskets
of copra from a hook on the beam of the scale, which was made for a load up to 150 10. He always used to point out to the Samoan seller of copra the numbers on the beam showing the weight of the copra, when he moved the weight along on the beam, so that they might convince themselves that every thing was in best order.
But one day an inquisitive Samoan, who had been educated at the Pago Pago School, looked more closely at the weight on the scale and then impudently claimed, that this weight came originally from a 400 lb. scale. Rex felt very much offended by such an unwarranted in sinuation, he jumped into his boat, paddled out through the reef and dropped scale, weight and all the fittings into the blue Pacific where it was 50 fathoms deep.
Returning home, he took a sad fare well of his wife—he had married a Leone girl—and also of all his good friends and acquaintances. He said he would be un able to remain longer; the malicious calumnies of a base Samoan pig, which had been taught a bit to read in a mis sion school, had broken his tender heart.
He would now return to his beloved Apia.
ABOUT midnight, Rex’s house and trading station were burned to the ground in a sudden, unexpected out burst of flame. The unfortunate owner, Rex. followed by his wife, despairingly shouting the Samoan call of exaspera tion: “Fia ola! Fia ola!” rushed out to the beach, jumped into the water, climbed into their boat and rowed as fast as pos sible out to sea. The Leone people, be lieving that the two had gone crazy through their misfortune, shook their heads and peered after them till the boat disappeared on the horizon, then they hurried to attempt to save from the burning house anything of value remain ing.
Rex and his wife —who was a great, fat woman named Taumafa when out of sight of Leone, set sail along the coast to a remote bay, where they went ashore and dug a hole in the sand, hiding away a bag with 700 dollars and some of their more valuable belongings, which they had removed to the boat before the outbreak of the fire. Then they set sail again for Apia, to obtain their rights from the American Consul.
With a very serious face the Consul lis tened to their story of woe, then stated that here indeed was a. case requiring severe atonement. The captain of the USS “Adirondack,” lying in Apia har bour, was of the same opinion, and so it happened that the cruiser, with the poor insulted Rex and his wife on board, de parted for Leone Bay, where the captain sent the surprised villagers an ultimatum.
They were to decide whether they pre ferred to pay 1,000 dollars damages in hard cash to Rex, or to see their village razed. They paid 600 dollars in the end, all they could collect, then they sat down on the beach and, not compre hending anything, stared dumbly, and stunned by misfortune, out to the “Adirondack,” now steaming back to Apia.
Rex gave his wife a small share of the “takings” and sent her back to her people. Rex disappeared from sight for a long time.
One day, when I met my friend Char ley, he told me that he had found Rex at Levuka, in Fiji. There he was the owner of a boarding-house, had married a young local girl, and had a houseful of children. He seemed to prosper ex ceedingly, and was overjoyed to meet Charley again, and offered, in his exalta tion, to give him board and lodging free for a whole year.