Part 24 (1/2)

Captain Watson's journal is preserved at the Ade on the south-eastern side of the island, and stated that he had belonged to the Stedcombe Mr Volshawn also declared that he had seen there articles which had been taken from the Stedcombe

Captain Watson decided to try and rescue his countryman, and on March 31st, 1839, when off Timor Laut he stood in for the island The plan he proposed to adopt in order to carry out the rescue was to entice a chief or Orang Kaire on board and hold hilish sailor was produced As his shi+p came in shore three canoes under Dutch colours put out to meet him with twelve to thirteen men in each In answer to Captain Watson's inquiries whether there was a white rise; Louron,” which was translated as lishside the Essington, whose crew had been put under ar Kaire was allowed to come on board Captain Watson writes: ”Noas the ti Kaire if he would bring hiive him a quantity of trade which was shown hireat faith was placed in his assertion, Watson then told hilishman, when he would receive his reward, but if they did not bring his prisoner he would be hung frouns on the village” The shi+p was now surrounded by canoes and no one was allowed to co a very friendly chief This man immediately pulled from his bosom a small basket of papers which were found to consist of loose scraps written by the crew of the Charles Eaton ( The Charles Eaton recked in Torres Strait in 1834) Beside these the basket contained a letter written by Lieutenant Owen Stanley, of HMS

Brito that he had called here and had exa on the canoes were dis Kaire who had first arrived The other chief was anxious to remain on board with him, but Mr

Watson would not allow hi the deck, the chiefoff the few gar to juht abreast of Louron Not a canoe hove in sight until nine o'clock, when two belonging to the prisoner cao on shore This request Captain Watson refused, and shortly afterwards the friendly Orang, who again visited the shi+p, prolish the Essington, in one of which was the captive He was dressed as a native, and when they drew close to the shi+p it was seen that he was in a most miserable condition He was of fair co, was ”triced up in native custoht yellow colour ”it researments were a sort of waistcoat without sleeves and a blue and white dungaree girdle round his loins He looked delicate, and his face wore a woebegone expression, which apparently was habitual, while his body was covered with numberless scars and sores The sinews of his knee-joints were very contracted, because, he told Captain Watson, he had to sit fishi+ng so long in one position in the hot sun so that he was almost unable to walk His ears had been perforated after the custom of the natives, and in the lobe of each he wore a piece of bamboo at least an inch in dia been fourteen years on the island, he had ale and with difficulty could ive the following account of his life there The Stedcoone to Timor Laut for live stock and had e, then proceeded on shore with the crew, leaving on board the steward, a boy named John Edwards, and himself As Mr Bastell and the crew did not return he (Forbes) looked through the glass and then beheld their bodies stretched out on the beach--the heads severed fro the shi+p, he proposed to the steward and to John Edwards that they should arm: but the former paid no attention to him He then proposed that he and John Edwards should punch one of the bolts out of the cable and liberate the shi+p They were in the act of doing this when the natives, a Kaire whom Watson had detained, boarded the Stedcombe The unfortunate steas killed on the spot, and the two boys, expecting to share his fate, betook the and were only induced to descend upon repeated proe to say, the natives kept their pro the shi+p they burnt her The boys were kept in the capacity of ordinary slaves until about four years before the coton, when Edwards died, and since that time Forbes had been unable to s The scars were caused by the natives when he incurred their displeasure One of their common modes of punishment was to take hot embers from the fire and place them on some part of his body until it was severely burned When asked hoas treated generally, he replied ”Trada Bergouse,”very badly So the of the chief of Louron, he reround”

which was thought to ied hiht the chief would have hi as the vessel remained at the island This explains why Lieutenant Stanley did not see him when he called in HMS

Britomart Some of the crew of the Charles Eaton had come there and wished him to leave with them, but permission was refused Lastly a Chinese trader had wished to purchase hiown pieces” as the price, but this offer too was declined When Kolff called with two Dutchto do with hiave accounts ofbeen cut off by these pirates but only two clear accounts--the one of a China junk which they boarded, murdered and plundered the crew, and eventually burnt, and the other a schooner manned with blackthe men He also said that a whaler had been cast away seven o, and that thale-boats and one jolly-boat with only five people in all arrived at Timor Laut This story, however, was confused and incoherent

When Captain Breator about the saton, he had Forbes placed in the hospital there and wrote to the Ad for inquiries to be made about his relatives and to inform them of his existence In his despatch Captain Bremer remarked that even Forbes's features seemed to have ”assimilated themselves” to those of the islanders

The kindly chief was afterwards rewarded, as was Captain Watson, by the Ad Kaire of Louron seeton as Forbes was being brought on board Forbes afterwards retired to Williamstown, Victoria, where he spent the rest of his life as a fisherman, and it is said that he never quite recovered froe

The last news of the Lady Nelson was brought to Sydney some time after her capture by a shi+p called the Faith, which reported that the hull of the Lady Nelson was still to be seen with her name painted on the stern at the island of Baba

It was an unworthy end to a very gallant shi+p, but the record of the useful work that she accomplished survives and will have its place in every history of Australia

APPENDIX