The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER VIII.

  The beauties of the bottom of the sea tempt Peterkin to dive--How he didit--More difficulties overcome--The water garden--Curious creatures ofthe sea--The tank--Candles missed very much, and the candle-nut treediscovered--Wonderful account of Peterkin's first voyage--Cloth foundgrowing on a tree--A plan projected, and arms prepared for offence anddefence--A dreadful cry.

  Our encounter with the shark was the first great danger that had befallenus since landing on this island, and we felt very seriously affected byit, especially when we considered that we had so often unwittinglyincurred the same danger before while bathing. We were now forced totake to fishing again in the shallow water, until we should succeed inconstructing a raft. What troubled us most, however, was, that we werecompelled to forego our morning swimming excursions. We did, indeed,continue to enjoy our bathe in the shallow water, but Jack and I foundthat one great source of our enjoyment was gone, when we could no longerdive down among the beautiful coral groves at the bottom of the lagoon.We had come to be so fond of this exercise, and to take such an interestin watching the formations of coral and the gambols of the many beautifulfish amongst the forests of red and green sea-weeds, that we had becomequite familiar with the appearance of the fish and the localities thatthey chiefly haunted. We had also become expert divers. But we made ita rule never to stay long under water at a time. Jack told me that to doso often was bad for the lungs, and, instead of affording us enjoyment,would ere long do us a serious injury. So we never stayed at the bottomas long as we might have done, but came up frequently to the top forfresh air, and dived down again immediately. Sometimes, when Jackhappened to be in a humorous frame, he would seat himself at the bottomof the sea on one of the brain corals, as if he were seated on a largepaddock-stool, and then make faces at me, in order, if possible, to makeme laugh under water. At first, when he took me unawares, he nearlysucceeded, and I had to shoot to the surface in order to laugh; butafterwards I became aware of his intentions, and, being naturally of agrave disposition, I had no difficulty in restraining myself. I usedoften to wonder how poor Peterkin would have liked to be with us; and hesometimes expressed much regret at being unable to join us. I used to domy best to gratify him, poor fellow, by relating all the wonders that wesaw; but this, instead of satisfying, seemed only to whet his curiositythe more, so one day we prevailed on him to try to go down with us. But,although a brave boy in every other way, Peterkin was very nervous in thewater, and it was with difficulty we got him to consent to be taken down,for he could never have managed to push himself down to the bottomwithout assistance. But no sooner had we pulled him down a yard or sointo the deep clear water, than he began to struggle and kick violently,so we were forced to let him go, when he rose out of the water like acork, gave a loud gasp and a frightful roar, and struck out for the landwith the utmost possible haste.

  Now, all this pleasure we were to forego, and when we thought thereon,Jack and I felt very much depressed in our spirits. I could see, also,that Peterkin grieved and sympathized with us, for, when talking aboutthis matter, he refrained from jesting and bantering us upon it.

  As, however, a man's difficulties usually set him upon devising methodsto overcome them, whereby he often discovers better things than those hemay have lost, so this our difficulty induced us to think of searchingfor a large pool among the rocks, where the water should be deep enoughfor diving yet so surrounded by rocks as to prevent sharks from gettingat us. And such a pool we afterwards found, which proved to be very muchbetter than our most sanguine hopes anticipated. It was situated notmore than ten minutes' walk from our camp, and was in the form of a smalldeep bay or basin, the entrance to which, besides being narrow, was soshallow that no fish so large as a shark could get in, at least notunless he should be a remarkably thin one.

  Inside of this basin, which we called our Water Garden, the coralformations were much more wonderful, and the sea-weed plants far morelovely and vividly coloured, than in the lagoon itself. And the waterwas so clear and still, that, although very deep, you could see theminutest object at the bottom. Besides this, there was a ledge of rockwhich overhung the basin at its deepest part, from which we could divepleasantly and whereon Peterkin could sit and see not only all thewonders I had described to him, but also see Jack and me creeping amongstthe marine shrubbery at the bottom, like, as--he expressed it,--"twogreat white sea-monsters." During these excursions of ours to the bottomof the sea, we began to get an insight into the manners and customs ofits inhabitants, and to make discoveries of wonderful things, the like ofwhich we never before conceived. Among other things, we were deeplyinterested with the operations of the little coral insect which, I wasinformed by Jack, is supposed to have entirely constructed many of thenumerous islands in Pacific Ocean. And, certainly, when we consideredthe great reef which these insects had formed round the island on whichwe were cast, and observed their ceaseless activity in building theirmyriad cells, it did at first seem as if this might be true; but then,again, when I looked at the mountains of the island, and reflected thatthere were thousands of such, many of them much higher, in the SouthSeas, I doubted that there must be some mistake here. But more of thishereafter.

  I also became much taken up with the manners and appearance of theanemones, and star-fish, and crabs, and sea-urchins, and such-likecreatures; and was not content with watching those I saw during my divesin the Water Garden, but I must needs scoop out a hole in the coral rockclose to it, which I filled with salt water, and stocked with sundryspecimens of anemones and shell-fish, in order to watch more closely howthey were in the habit of passing their time. Our burning-glass also nowbecame a great treasure to me, as it enabled me to magnify, and so toperceive more clearly the forms and actions of these curious creatures ofthe deep.

  Having now got ourselves into a very comfortable condition, we began totalk of a project which we had long had in contemplation,--namely, totravel entirely round the island; in order, first, to ascertain whetherit contained any other productions which might be useful to us; and,second, to see whether there might be any place more convenient andsuitable for our permanent residence than that on which we were nowencamped. Not that we were in any degree dissatisfied with it; on thecontrary, we entertained quite a home-feeling to our bower and itsneighbourhood; but if a better place did exist, there was no reason whywe should not make use of it. At any rate, it would be well to know ofits existence.

  We had much earnest talk over this matter. But Jack proposed that,before undertaking such an excursion, we should supply ourselves withgood defensive arms, for, as we intended not only to go round all theshore, but to ascend most of the valleys, before returning home, weshould be likely to meet in with, he would not say dangers, but, atleast, with everything that existed on the island, whatever that mightbe.

  "Besides," said Jack, "it won't do for us to live on cocoa-nuts andoysters always. No doubt they are very excellent in their way, but Ithink a little animal food, now and then, would be agreeable as well asgood for us; and as there are many small birds among the trees, some ofwhich are probably very good to eat, I think it would be a capital planto make bows and arrows, with which we could easily knock them over."

  "First rate!" cried Peterkin. "You will make the bows, Jack, and I'lltry my hand at the arrows. The fact is, I'm quite tired of throwingstones at the birds. I began the very day we landed, I think, and havepersevered up to the present time, but I've never hit anything yet."

  "You forget," said I, "you hit me one day on the shin."

  "Ah, true," replied Peterkin, "and a precious shindy you kicked up inconsequence. But you were at least four yards away from the impudentparoquet I aimed at; so you see what a horribly bad shot I am."

  "But," said I, "Jack, you cannot make three bows and arrows before to-morrow, and would it not be a pity to waste time, now that we have madeup our minds to go on this expedition? Suppose that you make one bow andarrow for yourself, and we can take our clubs?"

&
nbsp; "That's true, Ralph. The day is pretty far advanced, and I doubt if Ican make even one bow before dark. To be sure I might work byfire-light, after the sun goes down."

  We had, up to this time, been in the habit of going to bed with the sun,as we had no pressing call to work o' nights; and, indeed, our workduring the day was usually hard enough,--what between fishing, andimproving our bower, and diving in the Water Garden, and rambling in thewoods; so that, when night came, we were usually very glad to retire toour beds. But now that we had a desire to work at night, we felt a wishfor candles.

  "Won't a good blazing fire give you light enough?" inquired Peterkin.

  "Yes," replied Jack, "quite enough; but then it will give us a great dealmore than enough of heat in this warm climate of ours."

  "True," said Peterkin; "I forgot that. It would roast us."

  "Well, as you're always doing that at any rate," remarked Jack, "we couldscarcely call it a change. But the fact is, I've been thinking over thissubject before. There is a certain nut growing in these islands which iscalled the candle-nut, because the natives use it instead of candles, andI know all about it, and how to prepare it for burning--"

  "Then why don't you do it?" interrupted Peterkin. "Why have you kept usin the dark so long, you vile philosopher?"

  "Because," said Jack, "I have not seen the tree yet, and I'm not surethat I should know either the tree or the nuts if I did see them. Yousee, I forget the description."

  "Ah! that's just the way with me," said Peterkin with a deep sigh. "Inever could keep in my mind for half an hour the few descriptions I everattempted to remember. The very first voyage I ever made was caused bymy mistaking a description, or forgetting it, which is the same thing.And a horrible voyage it was. I had to fight with the captain the wholeway out, and made the homeward voyage by swimming!"

  "Come, Peterkin," said I, "you can't get even _me_ to believe that."

  "Perhaps not, but it's true, notwithstanding," returned Peterkin,pretending to be hurt at my doubting his word.

  "Let us hear how it happened," said Jack, while a good-natured smileoverspread his face.

  "Well, you must know," began Peterkin, "that the very day before I wentto sea, I was greatly taken up with a game at hockey, which I was playingwith my old school-fellows for the last time before leaving them. Yousee I was young then, Ralph." Peterkin gazed, in an abstracted andmelancholy manner, out to sea! "Well, in the midst of the game, myuncle, who had taken all the bother and trouble of getting me bound'prentice and rigged out, came and took me aside, and told me that he wascalled suddenly away from home, and would not be able to see me aboard,as he had intended. 'However,' said he, 'the captain knows you arecoming, so that's not of much consequence; but as you'll have to find theship yourself, you must remember her name and description. D'ye hear,boy?' I certainly did hear, but I'm afraid I did not understand, for mymind was so taken up with the game, which I saw my side was losing, thatI began to grow impatient, and the moment my uncle finished hisdescription of the ship, and bade me good-bye, I bolted back to my game,with only a confused idea of three masts, and a green painted tafferel,and a gilt figure-head of Hercules with his club at the bow. Next day Iwas so much cast down with everybody saying good-bye, and a lot o' myfemale friends cryin' horribly over me, that I did not start for theharbour, where the ship was lying among a thousand others, till it wasalmost too late. So I had to run the whole way. When I reached thepier, there were so many masts, and so much confusion, that I felt quitehumblebumbled in my faculties. 'Now,' said I to myself, 'Peterkin,you're in a fix.' Then I fancied I saw a gilt figure-head and threemasts, belonging to a ship just about to start; so I darted on board, butspeedily jumped on shore again, when I found that two of the mastsbelonged to another vessel, and the figurehead to a third! At last Icaught sight of what I made sure was it,--a fine large vessel justcasting off her moorings. The tafferel was green. Three masts,--yes,that must be it,--and the gilt figure-head of Hercules. To be sure ithad a three-pronged pitchfork in its hand instead of a club; but thatmight be my uncle's mistake; or perhaps Hercules sometimes varied hisweapons. 'Cast off!' roared a voice from the quarter-deck. 'Hold on!'cried I, rushing frantically through the crowd. 'Hold on! hold on!'repeated some of the bystanders, while the men at the ropes delayed for aminute. This threw the captain into a frightful rage; for some of hisfriends had come down to see him off, and having his orders contradictedso flatly was too much for him. However, the delay was sufficient. Itook a race and a good leap; the ropes were cast off; the steam-tug gavea puff, and we started. Suddenly the captain was up to me: 'Where didyou come from, you scamp, and what do you want here?'

  "'Please, sir,' said I, touching my cap, 'I'm you're new 'prentice comeaboard.'

  "'New 'Prentice,' said he, stamping, 'I've got no new 'prentice. My boysare all aboard already. This is a trick, you young blackguard. You'verun away, you have;' and the captain stamped about the deck and sworedreadfully; for, you see, the thought of having to stop the ship andlower a boat and lose half an hour, all for the slake of sending a smallboy ashore, seemed to make him very angry. Besides, it was blowin' freshoutside the harbour, so that, to have let the steamer alongside to put meinto it was no easy job. Just as we were passing the pier-head, whereseveral boats were rowing into harbour, the captain came up to me,--

  "'You've run away, you blackguard,' he said, giving me a box on the ear.

  "'No I haven't,' said I, angrily; for the box was by no means a lightone.

  "Hark'ee, boy, can you swim?'

  "'Yes,' said I.

  "'Then do it,' and, seizing me by my trousers and the nape of my neck, hetossed me over the side into the sea. The fellows in the boats at theend of the pier, backed their oars on seeing this; but observing that Icould swim, they allowed me to make the best of my way to the pier-head.So, you see, Ralph, that I really did swim my first homeward voyage."

  Jack laughed and patted Peterkin on the shoulder. "But tell us about thecandle-nut tree," said I; "you were talking about it."

  "Very true," said Jack, "but I fear I can remember little about it. Ibelieve the nut is about the size of a walnut; and I think that theleaves are white, but I am not sure."

  "Eh! ha! hum!" exclaimed Peterkin, "I saw a tree answering to thatdescription this very day."

  "Did you?" cried Jack. "Is it far from this?"

  "No, not half a mile."

  "Then lead me to it," said Jack, seizing his axe.

  In a few minutes we were all three pushing through the underwood of theforest, headed by Peterkin.

  We soon came to the tree in question, which, after Jack had closelyexamined it, we concluded must be the candle-nut tree. Its leaves wereof a beautiful silvery white, and formed a fine contrast to thedark-green foliage of the surrounding trees. We immediately filled ourpockets with the nuts, after which Jack said,--

  "Now, Peterkin, climb that cocoa-nut tree and cut me one of the longbranches."

  This was soon done, but it cost some trouble, for the stem was very high,and as Peterkin usually pulled nuts from the younger trees, he was notmuch accustomed to climbing the high ones. The leaf or branch was a verylarge one, and we were surprised at its size and strength. Viewed from alittle distance, the cocoa-nut tree seems to be a tall, straight stem,without a single branch except at the top, where there is a tuft offeathery-looking leaves, that seem to wave like soft plumes in the wind.But when we saw one of these leaves or branches at our feet, we found itto be a strong stalk, about fifteen feet long, with a number of narrow,pointed leaflets ranged alternately on each side. But what seemed to usthe most wonderful thing about it was a curious substance resemblingcloth, which was wrapped round the thick end of the stalk, where it hadbeen cut from the tree. Peterkin told us that he had the greatestdifficulty in separating the branch from the stem, on account of thissubstance, as it was wrapped quite round the tree, and, he observed,round all the other branches, thus forming a strong support to the largeleaves while
exposed to high winds. When I call this substance cloth Ido not exaggerate. Indeed, with regard to all the things I saw during myeventful career in the South Seas, I have been exceedingly careful not toexaggerate, or in any way to mislead or deceive my readers. This cloth,I say, was remarkably like to coarse brown cotton cloth. It had a seamor fibre down the centre of it, from which diverged other fibres, aboutthe size of a bristle. There were two layers of these fibres, very longand tough, the one layer crossing the other obliquely, and the whole wascemented together with a still finer fibrous and adhesive substance. Whenwe regarded it attentively, we could with difficulty believe that it hadnot been woven by human hands. This remarkable piece of cloth westripped carefully off, and found it to be above two feet long, by a footbroad, and we carried it home with us as a great prize.

  Jack now took one of the leaflets, and, cutting out the central spine orstalk, hurried back with it to our camp. Having made a small fire, hebaked the nuts slightly, and then pealed off the husks. After this hewished to bore a hole in them, which, not having anything better at handat the time, he did with the point of our useless pencil-case. Then hestrung them on the cocoa-nut spine, and on putting a light to the topmostnut, we found to our joy that it burned with a clear, beautiful flame;upon seeing which, Peterkin sprang up and danced round the fire for atleast five minutes in the excess of his satisfaction.

  "Now lads," said Jack, extinguishing our candle, the sun will set in anhour, so we have no time to lose. "I shall go and cut a young tree tomake my bow out of, and you had better each of you go and select goodstrong sticks for clubs, and we'll set to work at them after dark."

  So saying he shouldered his axe and went off, followed by Peterkin, whileI took up the piece of newly discovered cloth, and fell to examining itsstructure. So engrossed was I in this that I was still sitting in thesame attitude and occupation when my companions returned.

  "I told you so!" cried Peterkin, with a loud laugh. "Oh, Ralph, you'reincorrigible. See, there's a club for you. I was sure, when we left youlooking at that bit of stuff, that we would find you poring over it whenwe came back, so I just cut a club for you as well as for myself."

  "Thank you, Peterkin," said I. "It was kind of you to do that, insteadof scolding me for a lazy fellow, as I confess I deserve."

  "Oh! as to that," returned Peterkin, "I'll blow you up yet, if you wishit--only it would be of no use if I did, for you're a perfect mule!"

  As it was now getting dark we lighted our candle, and placing it in aholder made of two crossing branches, inside of our bower, we seatedourselves on our leafy beds and began to work.

  "I intend to appropriate the bow for my own use," said Jack, chipping thepiece of wood he had brought with his axe. "I used to be a pretty fairshot once. But what's that you're doing?" he added, looking at Peterkin,who had drawn the end of a long pole into the tent, and was endeavouringto fit a small piece of the hoop-iron to the end of it.

  "I'm going to enlist into the Lancers," answered Peterkin. "You see,Jack, I find the club rather an unwieldy instrument for my delicately-formed muscles, and I flatter myself I shall do more execution with aspear."

  "Well, if length constitutes power," said Jack, "you'll certainly beinvincible."

  The pole which Peterkin had cut was full twelve feet long, being a verystrong but light and tough young tree, which merely required thinning atthe butt to be a serviceable weapon.

  "That's a very good idea," said I.

  "Which--this?" inquired Peterkin, pointing to the spear.

  "Yes;" I replied.

  "Humph!" said he; "you'd find it a pretty tough and matter-of-fact idea,if you had it stuck through your gizzard, old boy!"

  "I mean the idea of making it is a good one," said I, laughing. "And,now I think of it, I'll change my plan, too. I don't think much of aclub, so I'll make me a sling out of this piece of cloth. I used to bevery fond of slinging, ever since I read of David slaying Goliath thePhilistine, and I was once thought to be expert at it."

  So I set to work to manufacture a sling. For a long time we all workedvery busily without speaking. At length Peterkin looked up: "I say,Jack, I'm sorry to say I must apply to you for another strip of yourhandkerchief, to tie on this rascally head with. It's pretty well tornat any rate, so you won't miss it."

  Jack proceeded to comply with this request when Peterkin suddenly laidhis hand on his arm and arrested him.

  "Hist, man," said he, "be tender; you should never be needlessly cruel ifyou can help it. Do try to shave past Lord Nelson's mouth withouttearing it, if possible! Thanks. There are plenty more handkerchiefs onthe cocoa-nut trees."

  Poor Peterkin! with what pleasant feelings I recall and record his jestsand humorous sayings now!

  While we were thus engaged, we were startled by a distant but moststrange and horrible cry. It seemed to come from the sea, but was so faraway that we could not clearly distinguish its precise direction. Rushingout of our bower, we hastened down to the beach and stayed to listen.Again it came quite loud and distinct on the night air,--a prolonged,hideous cry, something like the braying of an ass. The moon had risen,and we could see the islands in and beyond the lagoon quite plainly, butthere was no object visible to account for such a cry. A strong gust ofwind was blowing from the point whence the sound came, but this died awaywhile we were gazing out to sea.

  "What can it be?" said Peterkin, in a low whisper, while we allinvoluntarily crept closer to each other.

  "Do you know," said Jack, "I have heard that mysterious sound twicebefore, but never so loud as to-night. Indeed it was so faint that Ithought I must have merely fancied it, so, as I did not wish to alarmyou, I said nothing about it."

  We listened for a long time for the sound again, but as it did not come,we returned to the bower and resumed our work.

  "Very strange," said Peterkin, quite gravely. "Do you believe in ghosts,Ralph?"

  "No," I answered, "I do not. Nevertheless I must confess that strange,unaccountable sounds, such as we have just heard, make me feel a littleuneasy."

  "What say you to it, Jack?"

  "I neither believe in ghosts nor feel uneasy," he replied. "I never sawa ghost myself, and I never met with any one who had; and I havegenerally found that strange and unaccountable things have almost alwaysbeen accounted for, and found to be quite simple, on close examination. Icertainly can't imagine what _that_ sound is; but I'm quite sure I shallfind out before long,--and if it's a ghost I'll--"

  "Eat it," cried Peterkin.

  "Yes, I'll eat it! Now, then, my bow and two arrows are finished; so ifyou're ready we had better turn in."

  By this time Peterkin had thinned down his spear and tied an iron pointvery cleverly to the end of it; I had formed a sling, the lines of whichwere composed of thin strips of the cocoa-nut cloth, plaited; and Jackhad made a stout bow, nearly five feet long, with two arrows, featheredwith two or three large plumes which some bird had dropt. They had nobarbs, but Jack said that if arrows were well feathered, they did notrequire iron points, but would fly quite well if merely sharpened at thepoint; which I did not know before.

  "A feathered arrow without a barb," said he, "is a good weapon, but abarbed arrow without feathers is utterly useless."

  The string of the bow was formed of our piece of whip-cord, part ofwhich, as he did not like to cut it, was rolled round the bow.

  Although thus prepared for a start on the morrow, we thought it wise toexercise ourselves a little in the use of our weapons before starting, sowe spent the whole of the next day in practising. And it was well we didso, for we found that our arms were very imperfect, and that we were farfrom perfect in the use of them. First, Jack found that the bow was muchtoo strong, and he had to thin it. Also the spear was much too heavy,and so had to be reduced in thickness, although nothing would inducePeterkin to have it shortened. My sling answered very well, but I hadfallen so much out of practice that my first stone knocked off Peterkin'shat, and narrowly missed making a second
Goliath of him. However, afterhaving spent the whole day in diligent practice, we began to find some ofour former expertness returning--at least Jack and I did. As forPeterkin, being naturally a neat-handed boy, he soon handled his spearwell, and could run full tilt at a cocoa nut, and hit it with greatprecision once out of every five times.

  But I feel satisfied that we owed much of our rapid success to theunflagging energy of Jack, who insisted that, since we had made himCaptain, we should obey him; and he kept us at work from morning tillnight, perseveringly, at the same thing. Peterkin wished very much torun about and stick his spear into everything he passed; but Jack put upa cocoa nut, and would not let him leave off running at that for amoment, except when he wanted to rest. We laughed at Jack for this, butwe were both convinced that it did us much good.

  That night we examined and repaired our arms ere we lay down to rest,although we were much fatigued, in order that we might be in readiness toset out on our expedition at daylight on the following morning.