Lastly a
Chinese trader had wished to purchase him and had offered several "gown
pieces" as the price, but this offer too was declined. When Kolff called
with two Dutch men-of-war, he and his men would have nothing to do with
him, nor would they assist him to escape.
Forbes gave accounts of many ships having been 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 black men, which they plundered afterwards
liberating the men. He also said that a whaler had been cast away seven
moons ago, and that two whale-boats and one jolly-boat with only five
people in all arrived at Timor Laut. This story, however, was confused
and incoherent.
When Captain Bremer arrived at Sydney in H.M.S. Alligator about the same
time as the Essington, he had Forbes placed in the hospital there and
wrote to the Admiralty asking 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
Admiralty. The Orang Kaire of Louron seems to have escaped scot free,
having left the Essington 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
from the effects of his harsh bondage.
The last news of the Lady Nelson was brought to Sydney some time after
her capture by a ship 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 ship, but the record of the
useful work that she accomplished survives and will have its place in
every history of Australia.
APPENDIX.
H.M.S. BUFFALO: SHIP'S MUSTER, 1801 TO 1805.
No separate muster of the ship's company of the Lady Nelson can be found
among the Public Records, but during the period that she was attached to
H.M.S. Buffalo in New South Wales the names of her crew and of the
supernumeraries sailing in her were inscribed in the books of that ship,
four pages from which are here reproduced. The first three of these give
the names of the officers and seamen who composed the complement of the
Lady Nelson in 1801, 1803 and 1804. The fourth page is an extract from
the Buffalo's own muster-roll when she conveyed the first Norfolk Island
settlers to Port Dalrymple in 1805, the Government having decided to
break up their settlement.
