The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  THE ISLAND EXPLORED.

  A bright and pleasant morning forms a powerful antidote to the evils ofa cheerless night. Few of the mutineers slept soundly on the night oftheir arrival off Pitcairn, and their dreams of that island were more orless unpleasantly mingled with manacles and barred windows, and mendangling from yard-arms. The blessed sunshine dissipated all this,rousing, in the hearts of some, feelings of hope and forgiveness, in thebreasts of others, only those sensations of animal enjoyment which manshares in common with the brutes.

  "Lower away the boat there," said Fletcher Christian, coming on deckwith a more cheerful air than he had worn since the day of the mutiny;"we shall row round the island and search for a landing-place. You willtake charge, Mr Young, during my absence. Put muskets and ammunitioninto the boat, John Adams; the place may be inhabited--there's nosaying--and South Sea savages are not a hospitable race as a rule. Nowthen, look sharp, lads."

  In a few minutes, Adams, Martin, McCoy, Brown, and Quintal were in theboat, with two of the Otaheitan men.

  "Won't you take cutlasses?" asked Young, looking over the side.

  "Well, yes, hand down half-a-dozen; and don't go far from this end ofthe island, Mr Young. Just keep dodging off and on."

  "Ay, ay, sir," said the middy, touching his cap from the mere force ofhabit.

  "Shove off," said Christian, seating himself at the helm.

  In a few minutes the boat was skimming over the calm water towards theshore, while the _Bounty_, wearing round, went slowly out to sea.

  As the boat neared the shore it soon became evident that it would beextremely difficult to effect a landing. Nothing could be seen but highprecipitous cliffs without any sign of a harbour or creek sufficientlylarge or safe to afford anchorage for the ship. Worst of all, the onlyspot that seemed to offer any prospect of a landing-place, even for aboat, was guarded by tremendous breakers that seemed to bid defiance toman's feeble powers. These great waves, or rollers, were not the resultof storm or wind, but of the mere ocean-swell of the great Pacific,which undulates over her broad breast even when becalmed. No signs ofthe coming waves were visible more than a few hundred yards from theshore. There, each roller gradually and silently arose when theundulating motion of the sea caught the bottom. A little farther in itassumed the form of a magnificent green wall of liquid glass, whichbecame more and more vast and perpendicular as it rolled on, until itcurled over and rushed with a mighty roar and a snowy crest towards thebeach. There it dashed itself in tumultuous foam among the rocks.

  "Give way, lads," said Christian, sitting down after a prolonged gaze atthis scene; "we may find a better spot farther on."

  As they proceeded they were received with wild and plaintive cries byinnumerable sea-birds, whose homes were on the cliffs, and who evidentlyresented this intrusion of strangers.

  "Shall we give 'em a shot, sir?" asked McCoy, laying his hand on amusket.

  "No, time enough for that," replied Christian, shortly.

  They pulled right round the island without seeing a single spot moreavailable for a landing than the place they had first approached.

  It was a very little bay, with a small clump of six cocoa-nut trees nearthe water's edge on the right, and a single cocoa-nut tree on the left,about two hundred yards from the others. Above these, on a hill alittle to the westward, there was a grove of the same species.

  "We'll have to try it, sir," said John Adams, looking at his leaderinquiringly.

  "We're sure to capsize," observed McCoy.

  "No matter," said Christian; "we have at last reached _home_, and I'mbound not to be baffled at the door. Come, Ohoo, you know somethingabout beaching canoes in a surf; there can't be much difference with aboat. Get up in the bow and direct me how to steer."

  He spoke to one of the native in the imperfect jumble of Otaheitan andEnglish with which the white men had learned to communicate with thenatives. Ohoo understood, and at once went to the bow of the boat, thehead of which was now directed towards a place in the cliffs where thereseemed to be a small bay or creek. The native gave directions with hisarms right or left, and did not require to speak. Christian steeredwith one of the oars instead of the rudder, to give him more power overthe boat.

  Soon they began to feel the influence of the in-going wave. It was amoment of intense anxiety. Christian ordered the men to cease rowing.Ohoo made a sudden and violent indication with his left arm. Christianobeyed.

  "Give a gentle pull, boys," he said.

  They rose as he spoke on the top of a wave so high that they could lookdown for a moment on the seething foam that raged between them and thebeach, and Christian was about to order the men to pull hard, when thenative looked back and shook his head excitedly. They had not gotsufficiently into the grasp of that wave; they must wait for the next.

  "Back all!" shouted the steersman. The boat slid back into the troughof the sea, while the wave went roaring inward.

  The succeeding wave was soon close astern. It seemed to curl over them,threatening destruction, but it lifted them, instead, on its highshoulders. There was a slight appearance of boiling on the surface ofthe moving billow as it caught them. It was about to break, and theboat was fairly in its grasp.

  "Give way!" shouted Christian, in a sharp, loud voice.

  A moment more, and they were rushing grandly in on a mountain of snow,with black rocks rising on either side. It was nervous work. A littleto the right or a little to the left, and their frail bark would havebeen dashed to pieces. As it was, they were launched upon a strip ofsand and gravel that lay at the foot of the towering cliffs.

  "Hurrah!" cried Martin and Brown, in wild excitement, as they leapedover the bow after the natives, while Christian, Adams, Quintal, andMcCoy went over the stern to prevent the boat being dragged back by therecoiling foam, and pushed it high and dry on the beach.

  "Well done! Here we are at last in Bounty Bay!" exclaimed Christian,with a look of satisfaction, giving to the spot, for the first time,that name which it ever afterwards retained. "Make fast the painter--there; get your arms now, boys, and follow me."

  At the head of the bay there was a hill, almost a cliff, up which therewound something that had the appearance of a path, or the almost dry bedof a water-course. It was exceedingly steep, but seemed the only routeby which the interior of the island could be reached. Up the tangledpass for about three hundred yards the explorers advanced in singlefile, all except Quintal, who was left in charge of the boat.

  "It looks very like a path that has been made by men," said Christian,pausing to breathe, and turning round when half-way up the height;"don't you think so, Brown?"

  Thus appealed to, the botanist, whose eyes had been enchained by theluxuriant and lovely herbage of the place, stooped to inspect the path.

  "It does look a little like it, sir," he replied, with some caution,"but it also looks not unlike a water-course. You see it is a littlewet just hereabouts. Isn't it? What think you, Isaac Martin?"

  "I don't think nothin' about it," returned Martin, solemnly, turningover the quid of tobacco that bulged his cheek; "but if I might ventur'for to give an opinion, I should say it don't much matter what it is,one way or another."

  "That's true, Isaac," said Christian, with a short laugh, as he resumedhis march up the cliff.

  On the way they were shaded and kept pleasantly cool by the neighbouringprecipices but on gaining the top they came into a blaze of sunshine,and then became suddenly aware that they had discovered a perfectparadise. They stood on a table-land which was thickly covered withcocoa-nut trees. A quarter of a mile farther on lay a beautiful valley,the slopes and mounds of which were clothed with trees and beautifulflowering herbage of various kinds, in clumps and groves of picturesqueform, with open glades and little meadows between, the whole beingbacked by a grand mountain-range which traversed the island, and rose toa height of more than a thousand feet.

  "It is heaven upon earth!" exclaimed Brow
n, as they began to push intothe heart of the lovely scene.

  "Humph! It's not all gold that glitters," growled McCoy, with asarcastic smile.

  "It's pretty real, nevertheless," observed Isaac Martin; "I only hopethere ain't none o' the rascally niggers livin' here."

  Christian said nothing, but wandered on, looking about him like one in adream.

  Besides cocoa-nut palms and other trees and shrubs, there werebanyan-trees, the branches of which dropped downwards to the earth andthere took root, and other large timber-trees, and plantains, bananas,yams, taro-roots, mulberry, tee-plant, and other fruit-bearing plants ingreat profusion. Over this richly varied scene the eyes of WilliamBrown wandered in rapture.

  "Magnificent!" he exclaimed; "a perfect garden!"

  "Rich enough soil, eh?" said Martin, turning some of it up with thepoint of his shoe.

  "Rich enough, ay; couldn't be finer," said Brown. "I should think, fromits deep red colour, that it is chiefly decomposed lava. The island isevidently volcanic in its origin. I hope we shall find fresh water.We've not seen much yet, but it's sure to be found somewhere, for suchmagnificent vegetation could not exist without it."

  "What have we here?" said Christian, stooping to pick up something. "Astone implement of some kind, like a spear-head, I think. It seems tome that the island must have been inhabited once, although it does notappear to be so now."

  After they had wandered about for some time, examining the land, andpassing many a commentary, both grave and humorous, they turned toretrace their steps, when Brown, who had gone on in advance, was heardto cheer as he waved his hat above his head. He had discovered aspring. They all hastened towards the spot. It lay like a clear gem inthe hollow of a rock a considerable distance up the mountain. It wasunanimously named "Brown's Pool," but it did not contain much water atthe time.

  "Can we do better than dine here?" said Isaac Martin. "There's lots o'food around us."

  This was true, for of the various fruits which grew wild in the island,the cocoa-nut, plantain, and banana were to be had all the year round.

  Brown had brought a small hatchet with him, which enabled them to breakopen several cocoa-nuts, whose hard outer husks would not have yieldedeasily to a clasp-knife.

  While they sat thus enjoying themselves beside Brown's Pool, a smalllizard was observed to run over a rock near to them. It stopped for amoment to raise its little head and look at the visitors, apparentlywith great surprise. A rat was also seen, and chased without success,by Isaac Martin.

  A small species of fly-catcher, of a whitey-brown colour, was likewiseobserved, and those creatures, it was afterwards ascertained, were theonly living things to be found on the island, with the exception of avariety of insects and the innumerable gulls already mentioned.

  "Here, then," said Christian, raising a piece of the cocoa-nut shellfilled with water to his lips, "I drink to our health and happiness inour island home."

  There was a strange mingling of pathos with heartiness in his tone,which did not fail to impress his companions, who cheerfully respondedto the toast.

  "I only wish we had something stronger than water to drink it in," saidMcCoy.

  "Better without strong drink," remarked John Adams, who was naturally atemperate man.

  "Worse without it, _I_ think," growled McCoy, who was naturallycontentious and quarrelsome; "don't it warm the heart and raise thespirits and strengthen the frame, and--"

  "Ay, and clear the brain," interrupted Martin, with one of his mostlugubrious looks, "an' steady the gait, specially w'en one's pretty fargone, an' beautify the expression, an'--an'--clear the int'leck, an'(hic) an' gen'r'ly in--in--tenshify sh' powers (hic) of c-converzashun,eh?"

  Martin was a pretty fair mimic, and illustrated his meaning so well, notonly with his tongue but with his solemn countenance, that the wholeparty burst into a laugh, with the exception of McCoy, who replied withthe single word, "Bosh!"

  To which Martin returned, "Bam!"

  "Just so," said Christian, as he stooped to refill the cocoa-nut shell;"you may be said to have reduced that spirited question to an essence,which is much beyond proof, and closed it; we will therefore return tothe shore, get on board as quickly as possible, and make arrangementsfor anchoring in the bay."

  "I doubt it's too deep for anchoring," remarked Adams, as they walkeddown the hill.

  "Well, then, we shall run the ship on shore," said Christian, curtly,"for here we must remain. There is no other island that I know of inthese regions. Besides, this one seems the very thing we want. It haswood and water in abundance; fruits and roots of many kinds; a splendidsoil, if we may believe our eyes, to say nothing of Brown's opinion; badanchorage for ships, great difficulty and some danger in landing even infine weather, and impossible to land at all, I should think, in bad;beautiful little valleys and hills; rugged mountains with passes sodifficult that a few resolute men might defy a host, and caves to whichwe might retreat and sell our lives dearly if hard pushed. What morecould we wish for?"

  In a short time they reached the little narrow strip of shingly beachwhere the boat had been left in charge of Quintal. Here they had toencounter the great difficulty of forcing their way through the surfwhich had borne them shoreward in such grand style. The chief dangerlay in the liability of the boat to be caught by the bow, turnedbroadside to the great tumbling billows, and overturned. Safety andsuccess lay in keeping the boat's bow straight "end-on" to the seas, andpulling hard. To accomplish this, Fletcher Christian again took an oarto steer with, in preference to the rudder. Besides being the mostpowerful man of the party, he was the best boatman, and the most agilein his movements.

  "Steady, now!" he said, as the boat lay in the seething foam partiallysheltered by a rock, while the men sat with oars out, ready for instantaction.

  A bigger wave than usual had just hurled itself with a thunderous roaron the reverberating cliffs, and the great sheet of foaming water hadjust reached that momentary pause which indicated the turning-pointprevious to the backward rush, when Christian shouted--

  "Give way!"

  The boat leaped out, was kept end-on by a powerful stroke of thesteersman, rushed on the back-draught as if down a cataract, and met thesucceeding billow fairly. The bow was thrown up so high that it seemedas if the boat were standing on end, and must inevitably be thrown rightover, but the impetus given by the willing men forced her half throughand half over the crest of the watery mountain.

  "With a will, boys, with a will!" cried Christian.

  Another moment and they slid down the billow's back into the troughbetween the seas. A few more energetic strokes carried them over thenext wave. After that the danger was past, and in less thanhalf-an-hour they were once more on board the _Bounty_.