The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THREE.

  THE LONELY ISLAND SIGHTED.

  It is pleasant to turn for a time from the dark doings of evil men tothe contemplation of innocent infancy.

  We return to the _Bounty_, and solicit the reader's attention to a plumpbrown ball which rolls about that vessel's deck, exhibiting a markedtendency to gravitate towards the lee scuppers. This brown ball isSally, the Otaheitan infant.

  Although brown, Sally's face is extremely pretty, by reason of theregularity of her little features, the beauty of her little white teeth,and the brilliancy of her large black eyes, to say nothing of herluxuriant hair and the gleeful insolence of her sweet expression.

  We cannot say how many, or rather how few, months old the child is, but,as we have already remarked, she is a staggerer. That is to say, shehas begun to assert the independence of her little brown legs, andprogresses, even when on shore, with all the uncertainty of a drunkenwoman. Of course, the ship's motion does not tend to remedy thisdefect. Sally's chief delight is wallowing. No matter what part of theship's deck she may select for her operations--whether the scuppers, thequarter-deck, or the forecastle--she lays her down straightway for aluxurious wallow. If the spot be dirty, she wallows it clean; if it beclean, she wallows it dirty. This might seem an awkward habit to anEnglish mother; but it is a matter of supreme indifference to Sally'smother, who sits on a gun-carriage plaiting a mat of cocoa-nut fibre,for Sally, being naked, requires little washing. A shower of rain or adash of spray suffices to cleanse her when at sea. On shore she lives,if we may say so, more in the water than on the land.

  The day is fine, and the breeze so light that it scarce ruffles the faceof the great ocean, though it manages to fill the topsails of the_Bounty_, causing her to glide quietly on. Some of the mutineers areseated on the deck or bulwarks, patching a canvas jacket or plaiting agrass hat. Others are smoking contemplatively. John Adams is windingup the log-line with McCoy. Edward Young stands gazing through atelescope at something which he fancies is visible on the horizon, andFletcher Christian is down in the cabin poring over Carteret's accountof his voyage in the Pacific.

  There were goats on board. One of these, having become a pet with thecrew, was allowed to walk at liberty, and became a grand playmate forSally. Besides the goats, Christian had taken care to procure a numberof hogs and poultry from Otaheite; also a supply of youngbreadfruit-trees and other vegetable products of the island, wherewithto enrich his new home when he should find it. All the animals wereconfined in cribs and pens with the exception of Sally's playmate.

  "Take care!" exclaimed John Adams as he left the quarter-deck with hishands in his pockets; "your mate'll butt you overboard, Sal, if youdon't look-out."

  There was, indeed, some fear of such a catastrophe, for the precociousinfant had a tendency to scramble on any object which enabled her tolook over the low bulwarks, and the goat had a propensity to advance onits hind legs with a playful toss of its head and take its playmate bysurprise, in truth, what between the fore-hatch, the companion-hatch,and the low bulwarks, it may be said that Sally led a life of constantand imminent danger. She was frequently plucked by the men out of thevery jaws of death, and seemed to enjoy the fun.

  While attempting to avoid one of the goat's playful assaults, Sallystumbled up against Matthew Quintal, deranged the work on which he wasengaged, and caused him to prick his hand with a sail-needle, at whichWilliam McCoy, who was beside him, laughed.

  "Get out o' that, you little nigger!" exclaimed Quintal, angrily, givingthe child a push with his foot which sent her rolling to the side of theship, where her head came in contact with an iron bolt. Sally openedher mouth, shut her eyes, and howled.

  Quintal had probably not intended to hurt the child, but he expressed noregret. On the contrary, seeing that she was not much injured, helaughed in concert with McCoy.

  These two, Quintal and McCoy, were emphatically the bad men of theparty. They did not sympathise much, if at all, with human suffering--certainly not with those whom they styled "niggers;" but there was onewitness of the act whose heart was as tender towards the natives asQuintal's was hard.

  "If you ever dare to touch her so again," said Young, striding up toQuintal, "I'll kick you into the pig-sty."

  The midshipman seemed to be the last man on board whose naturaldisposition would lead him to utter such a threat, and Quintal was quitetaken aback; but as Young was a powerful fellow, perfectly capable ofcarrying his threat into execution, and seemed, moreover, thoroughlyroused, the former thought it best to hold his tongue, even thoughlugubrious Isaac Martin chuckled audibly, and Ohoo, one of the natives,who stood near, displayed his fine teeth from ear to ear.

  Lifting up Sally with much tenderness, Young carried her to her mother,who, after a not very careful examination of the bruised head, set herdown on the deck, where she immediately began to wallow as before.Rising on her brown little feet, she staggered forward a few paces, andthen seated herself without bending her knees. From this position sherolled towards the starboard side of the ship and squeezed herselfbetween a gun-carriage and the bulwarks, until she got into theporthole. Thrusting her head over the edge of this, she gazed at theripples that rolled pleasantly from the side. This was paradise! Thesun glittered on these ripples, and Sally's eyes glittered in sympathy.A very gentle lurch of the ship soon after sent Sally head foremost intothe midst of the ripples.

  This event was nothing new to Sally. In her Otaheitan home her motherhad been wont to take her out for a swim as British mothers take theiroffspring for a walk. Frequently had that mother pitched Sally off hershoulders and left her to wabble in the water, as eagles are said totoss their eaglets into the air, and leave them to flutter until failingstrength renders aid advisable.

  No doubt when Sally, falling from such a height, and turning so as tocome flat on her back, experienced a tingling slap upon her skin, shefelt disposed to shed a salt tear or two into the mighty ocean; but whenthe smart passed away, she took to wallowing in the water, by way ofmaking the most of her opportunities. Both Christian and Young heardthe plunge. The former leaped up the companion ladder, the latter ranto the stern of the ship, but before either could gain the side one ofthe Otaheitan men, who had witnessed the accident, plunged into the seaand was soon close to Sally. The playful creature, after giving him akick in the face, consented to be placed on his shoulders.

  The ship of course was brought up to the wind and her topsails backed asquickly as possible, but the swimmers were left a considerable distanceastern before this was accomplished.

  "No need to lower a boat," remarked Christian, as he drew out the tubesof his telescope; "that fellow swims like a fish."

  "So do all his countrymen," said Young.

  "And the women and children too," added John Adams, who was at the helm.

  "She's tugging at the man's woolly head as if it were a door mat," saidChristian, laughing; "and I do believe--yes--the little thing is nowreaching round--and pulling his nose. Look at them, Young."

  Handing the glass to the midshipman, he turned to inquire for thechild's mother, and to his astonishment found that brown lady sitting onthe deck busy with her mat-making, as unconcerned as if nothing unusualwere going on.

  The fact was, that Sally's mother thought no more of Sally falling intothe sea than a white mother might of her child falling on its nose--notso much, perhaps. She knew that the ship would wait to pick her up.She also knew that Sally was an expert swimmer for her age, and that theman who had gone to her rescue was thoroughly able for the duty, having,like all the South Sea Islanders, been accustomed from infancy to spendhours at a time in the water.

  In a few minutes he came alongside, with Sally sitting astride his neck,holding on to both sides of his head, and lifting her large eyes with agaze of ecstasy to those who looked over the vessel's side. Sheevidently regarded the adventure as one of the most charming that had upto that time gladdened her brief career. Not only so, but, no soonerhad she been hauled on
board with her deliverer, than she made straightfor the porthole from which she had fallen, and attempted to repeat themanoeuvre, amid shouts of laughter from all who saw her. After that thevarious portholes had to be closed up, and the precocious baby to bemore carefully watched.

  "I have come to the conclusion," said Christian to Young, as they pacedthe deck by moonlight that same night, "that it is better to settle onPitcairn's Island than on any of the Marquesas group. It is farther outof the track of ships than any known island of the Pacific, and ifCarteret's account of it be correct, its precipitous sides will inducepassers-by to continue their voyage without stopping."

  "If we find it, and it should turn out to be suitable, what then!" askedYoung.

  "We shall land, form a settlement, and live and die there," answeredChristian.

  "A sad end to all our bright hopes and ambitions," said Young, as ifspeaking to himself, while he gazed far away on the rippling pathwaymade by the sun upon the sea.

  Christian made no rejoinder. The subject was not a pleasant one tocontemplate. He thought it best to confront the inevitable in silence.

  Captain Carteret, the navigator who discovered the island and named itPitcairn, after the young officer of his ship who was the first to seeand report it, had placed it on his chart no less than three degrees outof its true longitude. Hence Christian cruised about unsuccessfully insearch of it for several weeks. At last, when he was on the point ofgiving up the search in despair, a solitary rock was descried in the fardistance rising out of the ocean.

  "There it is at last!" said Christian, with a sigh that seemed toindicate the removal of a great weight from his spirit.

  Immediately every man in the ship hurried to the bow of the vessel, andgazed with strangely mingled feelings on what was to be his future home.Even the natives, men and women, were roused to a feeling of interestby the evident excitement of the Europeans, and hastened to parts of theship whence they could obtain a clear view. By degrees tongues began toloosen.

  "It's like a fortress, with its high perpendicular cliffs," remarkedJohn Adams.

  "All the better for us," said Quintal; "we'll need some place that'sdifficult to get at and easy to defend, if one o' the King's shipsshould find us out."

  "So we will," laughed McCoy in gruff tones, "and it's my notion thatthere's a natural barrier round that island which will go further todefend us agin the King's ships than anything that we could do. Isn'tthat white line at the foot o' the cliffs like a heavy surf, boys?"

  "It looks like it," answered John Mills, the gunner's mate; "an'wherever you find cliffs rising like high walls out o' the sea, you maybe pretty sure the water's too deep for good anchorage."

  "That's in our favour too," returned Quintal; "nothin' like a heavy surfand bad anchorage to indooce ships to give us a wide berth."

  "I hope," said William Brown the botanist, "that there's some vegetationon it. I don't see much as yet."

  "Ain't it a strange thing," remarked long-legged Isaac Martin, in a morethan usually sepulchral tone, "that land-lubbers invariably shows a fundof ignorance when at sea, even in regard to things they might besupposed to know somethin' about?"

  "How have I shown ignorance just now?" asked Brown, with a smile, for hewas a good-humoured man, and could stand a great deal of chaffing.

  "Why, how can you, bein' a gardener," returned Martin, "expect to seewegitation on the face of a perpindikler cliff?"

  "You're right, Martin; but then, you know, there is generally aninterior as well as a face to a cliffy island, and one might expect tofind vegetation there, don't you see."

  "That's true--to _find_ it," retorted Martin, "but not to _see_ itthrough tons of solid rock, and from five or six miles out at sea."

  "But what if there's niggers on it?" suggested Adams, who joined theparty at this point.

  "Fight 'em, of coorse," said John Williams.

  "An' drive 'em into the sea," added Quintal.

  "Ay, the place ain't big enough for more than one lot," said McCoy. "Itdon't seem more than four miles long, or thereabouts."

  An order to shorten sail stopped the conversation at this point.

  "It is too late to attempt a landing to-night," said Christian to Young."We'll dodge off and on till morning."

  The _Bounty_ was accordingly put about, and her crew spent the remainderof the night in chatting or dreaming about their future home.