only way to save them now was an attack on the canoes. This time Campbell sent a larger boat, with two Lascars facing away from the canoes dressed as the dead chiefs, and with an armed party lying concealed in the bottom boards. Unfortunately they were all so keyed up that when the helmsman cried out a warning of a reef ahead the seamen took it as a signal to attack and showed themselves too soon.
However, they poured a withering musket fire into the canoes, which had the Fijians jumping overboard each time the guns were discharged. The Fijians thus escaped some of the musket balls but others found their mark, and the surrounding sea was soon reddened with the stain of their blood. Berry escaped and was able to swim over to the boat, but Lockerby was unable to free himself from his bonds and had to jump overboard still bound. There he was grabbed by a huge Fijian, dragged under water, and nearly drowned until the hail of musket fire drove off his attacker and he surfaced to be rescued by the boat's crew.
Having been worsted by a mere boat's crew, it was obvious that the invasion fleet could not now force the bay, particularly after they had permanently forfeited the goodwill of the men in the ships. Under the protection of the guns, Tui Bua was safe, as the canoe fleet, still impressive, sailed away.
Many minor chiefs of the Bua coast who had defected to the enemy now came to Tui Bua and made their sora or obeisance and asked for forgiveness. Secure in the protection of his friends, the Tui generously gave this after a few words of warning as to future loyalties. But the warriors of Tacilevu and Korovatu, although paying their tribute to Tui Bua, warned that they would kill any of the ships' men who ventured ashore. When they were told that the attack on their forts had taken place only after they had joined the enemy who held the seamen prisoner, they surlily renewed their threats.
The sandalwood trade was now, more than ever, at a standstill because of the certain fate of men sent to collect the wood. The ships' captains decided to make an all-out attack on the Tacilevu fort, and Tui Bua, still unforgiving despite his smooth words to the defenders, agreed to assist the ships. The forces of the Tui numbered about 1,800, and Lockerby commanded one of the boats of the General Wellesley with sixteen European seamen. The boat was armed with a twelve-pounder carronade and a four-pounder fitted forward. The boat of the recently arrived Tonquin was commanded by the mate Brown and was fitted with similar guns. As Brown and his men had just arrived they had none of the bitterness or reasons for revenge that prompted Lockerby and his followers. It is probably for that reason that it was later reported that the Tonquin did not "engage heartily."
After the men hauled the boats close inshore at high tide, an irregular fire was opened on the forts without causing any visible damage to the wickerwork stockade. The falling tide made it necessary to move out into deeper water for fear of grounding the boats and leaving them vulnerable to attack. As the boats withdrew, many of the Bua warriors attacked while some of their number were set to clearing the undergrowth from the approaches to the fort.
The Korovatu adherents of the defenders had arrived and occupied an adjacent hilltop, but were prevented from making contact with their allies by the disposition of the Bua warriors who had surrounded the fort.
Lockerby now set up his guns in the newly cleared approaches and undertook a brisk attack on the fortifications. In an attempt to suppress the accurate gunfire the Tacilevu warriors made a sortie from the fort at the same time as their allies launched a fierce attack from the hilltop. Weathering a hail of cannister shot and musket balls, they almost reached the guns but were met in time by the men of Bua. A fierce hand-to-hand contest followed in which the now silent guns were saved by the Tui's men.
Breaking off the engagement after a heavy loss of life, the defenders again retired to their fort on the hilltop. The guns' ammunition supply was now hurriedly replenished from the boats, with the work completed just in time for the guns to be ready to counter the next attack. Learning from past mistakes and losses, the Tacilevu launched a fiercer and better coordinated attack, causing the Bua warriors to fall back nearly to the water's edge. The guns were in danger of capture before the sortie was broken off and the defenders once more retired.
Lockerby, partly to restore morale and also to show that his men who had so far served the guns could also fight, led an attack of six volunteers to the gate of the fort. Reaching the moat surrounding the stockade, the seamen were able to start several fires with the aid of lighted bamboo. But this was a type of attack that was well understood by the Tacilevu men, and the fires were just as quickly extinguished.
Rushing the gate, the seamen now started to fire through the narrow opening and were able to pick off their victims. Seeking a counter to this new threat, the defenders pulled down a section of the fence and poured through this large opening to take their attackers from the rear. Lockerby ordered his men to retreat and stayed with Berry to cover them. In a desperate battle he barely made his way back to the guns, wounded in the side. Berry was killed as he attempted to follow Lockerby's example.
In the confusion the fort defenders attacked again with a desperate rally but were content to break out to their hilltop allies and leave the fort deserted. Their resistance at last broken, they divided themselves into small groups and dispersed.
The battle, by the Fijian standards of that time, was now over. All that remained was to loot and fire the fort and collect the bodies of enemies for the cooking pots. When the men of Bua at last entered the fort they were finally convinced of the efficacy of firearms. Strewn around the defences were the bodies of more than two hundred defenders killed in positions where they would have been completely safe from all types of Fijian weapons.
During the huge cannibal feast that followed, the men from the ships gave Berry a Christian burial. The enemy being not only bested, but dispersed, the sandal-wood trade could now continue, and the thoughts of the sailors switched rapidly from conquest to commerce.
Lockerby procured a cargo for the Favourite and, when she sailed, stayed on to perform a like function for the General Wellesley. He was well paid by both ships. After an arduous collecting voyage during which he was nearly lost when his boat was driven on a reef during a gale, he finally departed from Fiji in the latter ship.
As though the period on the sandalwood coast were not sufficient for his adventurous spirit, he left the ship at Canton and shipped as first lieutenant on a Chinese river gunboat, and then returned to Boston to claim his wages from Dorr and Company, where he met his former captain and was formally paid off.
He sold a chart of Sandalwood Bay which he had surveyed. The original has been lost but it may have been the basis of the chart of Bligh's Islands produced in 1814 by Arrowsmith of London. With a rough outline of some of the islands and the tracks of Bligh on his two voyages and of the missionary vessel Duff, the chart shows Sandalwood Bay in some detail.
Lockerby was therefore present at the first full-scale use of firearms in Fijian wars. He could probably have stayed on and become a great chief, but he preferred to return home where he ended his days, a prosperous merchant, writing his memoirs and leaving a description of this early use of powder ball and shot.
Sa duidui na kaiualagi. White men are different from each other indeed, and not all men would lose the chance to lead the Fijians in battle, or to take the honours and titles that would follow.
Soldier of Fortune (1808-13)
Lockerby and the men of the sandalwood ships had shown the Fijians the power of the musket and the cannon and their advantages over the primitive weapons of the Fijians. But the seamen had used their ammunition in such a wasteful way that no Fijian chief could think of employing this new arm himself, without a shipful
