Palm Tree Island

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE FIFTH

  OF CLAMS AND COCOA-NUTS AND SUNDRY OUR DISCOVERIES; AND OF OURREFLECTIONS ON OUR FORLORN STATE

  I think I lay for a time in a kind of lethargy, for I was perfectlyunconscious of anything that might be happening about me, and it seemedto me that my mind was a total blank. Whether it was the heat of thesun, which had mounted well-nigh to the zenith, or the pangs of hungerthat roused me, I know not; but when I did arise I was aware of aprodigious aching in my inwards, which was very natural, seeing that Ihad not eaten for sixteen or twenty hours. And then I discovered thatBilly had risen first; indeed he told me that he had not lain long,being not near so much overcome as I was, his harder life havingindurated as well his feelings as his skin. When I beheld him he was ahundred yards or more away, sitting on a low flat rock, and eating witha great appearance of relish. Seeing me get to my feet, he called tome to come and eat likewise, and when I reached his rock I found agreat array of shells beside him, some broke apart and empty, othersstill closed up.

  [Sidenote: Clams and Cocoa-nuts]

  "They ain't bad, master," he said, for so he commonly called me, "butthey do make a body uncommon dry."

  I was amazed, and indeed almost angry, because he seemed socomfortable, not reflecting that after the dog's life he had led aboardthe _Lovey Susan_ his present posture was, at least, one of ease andsecurity, the mountain having done no harm as yet. My gorge rose whenI saw him take out the slimy inhabitants of the shells and eat themraw; I had never eaten shell-fish at all, much less uncooked, and forall my famishment my stomach refused this sort of food. The horror ofour situation smote upon my mind: here were we, little more than boys,left on a strange shore with no food but what we could pick up, noclothes but what we stood in--and they were but shirt and breeches, forthe coats we had used as a sail had been washed from the raft when thegreat wave struck us--and no implements or tools of any kind, not somuch as a jack-knife. As yet we knew nothing of the land whereupon wehad been cast, though I guessed it must be an island, but whether largeor small, peopled or desolate, fertile or barren, all remained to bediscovered. The sum of our knowledge was that we were at the foot of aburning mountain, and that was a very terrible thing to contemplate.The thought of it drew me to look aloft at the summit, where therestill hung a cloud of steam, though not so large as before, and thefire and smoke had ceased, but a stream of hot water was still flowingdown the side, yet not in a great volume.

  The sky was now very clear, and my head being uncovered, I found theheat of the sun very discommoding, and withal my throat was parched,and I had a great thirst, though Billy's must have been greater afterthe salt things he had been eating. When he saw me turn from them withloathing, he got up and said that we had better find a spring of freshwater, so we walked along the hard beach, going to the right hand withthe design to ascend to the woods above, where I thought we might finda spring, and certainly shelter from the sun. Billy groaned as thesharp edges cut his bare feet; nevertheless he would not suffer me togo alone, for which I was sorry, for when we had gone a little way wecame to some cliffs, which rose up so straight and forbidding that wedid not think fit to scale them, at least until we had sought an easierway. Accordingly we went back again, crossing the stream of hot water,which was now only trickling, and so continued until the lava ended atthe strip of sandy beach. I was now minded to strike up from theshore, but was a little timid of approaching so near the course of thehot flood, not knowing but that we might meet another torrent andsuffer a scalding. But, having come to the end of the sand, we arrivedat more cliffs, which, though not so high as the first, were no lesssteep, so that we had to make a choice between scaling them andascending by the lava slope. Taking counsel with Billy, I determinedto venture on this latter, hoping that before we had gone far, we mightfind a means of reaching the woods either on the right hand or the left.

  When we had gone a good way up, very toilsomely, I saw with greatthankfulness a slope to our left hand, which seemed to lead away fromthe barren lava to living soil. We struck up this and found ourselvesby and by on a mossy plateau, on which Billy danced, so joyful was heat feeling so soft a carpet beneath his feet. The wood was just beyondus, not above a hundred yards away. When we came to it we were prettywell blown, and exceeding hot, having never rested nor even looked backsince we left the beach. But now we bethought us to turn and gaze overthe sea, having some hope--at least I had--that the seamen might evenat the last have repented and put back to take us off. We saw the boatindeed, but it was a mere speck, and the raft we could not see at all,being in doubt whether it had sunk, or whether it was only the distancethat made it invisible. But far beyond the boat, we saw a dark linewhich a landsman might have supposed to be a cloud, but which we, oureyes being accustomed to ranging over wide spaces, knew at once to beland. It did not seem likely that the seamen could yet have discoveredit, since it had escaped us when we were at the sea level; I consideredit to be a happy chance for them that they had directed their course sotruly, though when I said so to Billy, he said he hoped they would findthe land full of cannibals, who would cook and eat them all, andHoggett first. This mention of cannibals set up an apprehensiveness inmy mind, and I was chary of entering the wood, lest we came uponsavages, but Billy said very sturdily, that savages or no savages, hemust drink, and so went on among the trees, with me close at his heels.

  We looked about us eagerly, both for water and for fruits wherewith tostay our hunger: but as for the former we saw none, and for the latter,though we saw many plants bearing berries, and some trees with fruitshanging upon them, we did not recognize at first any that we had seenon the island where we recruited, and durst not, hungry as we were,attempt anything strange lest they should be poisonous, and our firstmeal prove our last. At one point we were startled by a small animalleaping across our path, and Billy, crying it was a rabbit, withoutthinking dashed after it, a very useless thing to do; but it had thisgood result, that, tumbling headlong over something, he picked himselfup ruefully, and then shouted with delight, the obstacle being a largecocoa-nut which had fallen from a tree. We were in a quandary at firsthow to break it open, having no knife or other tool to pierce the husk;but Billy bethought him of the buckles on our belts, and taking theseoff, we cut and scraped at the husk until we came to the inner nut, andthen broke this open by hammering it very hard against the tree-trunk,finding it the more easily breakable because it was over ripe; andthough we lost some of the liquid thereby, there remained enough tofurnish us with a very refreshing draught.

  While I was digging my teeth ravenously into the kernel, Billy shinnedup the stem, which was straight like the mast of a ship, to obtain somemore of this precious fruit. Having cast down two or three at my feet,he cried out that he was going to the masthead to take a look round.He went almost to the very top, and when he came down, told me that thehill we were on was not the highest in the island, the highest beingthe mountain, whose peak was still covered by the cloud of steam; butexcept what might be hidden by this mountain, he could see all the restof the island, which by his reckoning could not be above two mileslong. He told me of the high red rock which we had seen through thearchway as we approached the land, and which lay now on our right hand.On the left he discovered a little bay, with a strip of yellow sand,though he could not tell how wide this was because of the cliffs.Beyond the bay the land went to a point, and beyond this again, somedistance out in the sea, were two red rocks, not very large, standingup like the posts of a gate, or, as I thought when I myself saw them,like sentinels. All the country to the left of the burningmountain--that is, to the west--was covered with vegetation, eitherwoods or grasses, which I was very glad to hear, since there waspromise of food, at least of the vegetable kind. I concluded that thestreams of lava cast forth by the mountain had flowed only towards thebeach at which we had landed, or at any rate had flowed no other wayfor a long time, since otherwise the land could not have been sofruitful. I asked Billy anxiously whether he had seen any wild b
easts,or any sign of the habitation of men; but he said that he had seenneither the one nor the other, but only some birds, at which I wasvastly relieved.

  We sat for some while appeasing our appetites, scarcely speaking, forBilly was not a talkative boy, and I was still too much under theoppression of our lonely situation. All at once I set up a laugh, atwhich Billy stopped munching at his cocoa-nut and looked at me inastonishment.

  "Oh, Billy," I said, "if you had catched that rabbit, what could wehave done with it?"

  "Why, eat it, to be sure," says Billy. "I like rabbit meat."

  (We knew afterwards that there were no rabbits on the island, andthought the animal we had seen must be a rat, though it did not runlike one.)

  "But how could we cook it?" I said.

  At that he looked startled, and felt again in his pocket, which, as Ihave said, was empty. He had quite forgot that we had neither flint,steel, nor tinder, so that we had no means of making a fire. He lookedvery sober for a space, and then reminded me that we had seen thesavages make fire at the island where we stayed, by the very rapidtwirling of a stick, and he was sure he could do the like. However,there was no need of a fire at that time, for the very good reason thatwe had nothing to cook, and so we fell to again on our cocoa-nuts, andate a great quantity before we were satisfied. We saw that we had comeinto a grove of those useful trees, and with their fruit, and theshell-fish on the shore, which if it came to a pinch I must eat raw, asBilly had done, we should be in no immediate danger of famishing. Wesaw about us, too, many birds which we might eat if we could only snarethem and make a fire, though they were quite strange to both of us,excepting parrots. The most of them were something larger than asparrow, but with brighter plumage, and they came flying about us verytamely, yet never near enough to catch.

  Though we had no anxiety for the present in the matter of food, I wasstill far from easy in mind about our situation, for there might bewild beasts and men on the island, though we had not as yet seen any,and I was troubled about our utter defencelessness. So after we hadeaten our fill and rested a while, I thought it behoved us to gothrough the wood and see what there might be on the other side.Accordingly we got up, feeling plaguy stiff from the many wettings wehad had, though the sun had dried our clothes, and went on until wecame to the edge of the wood, where we found another slope very muchsteeper than the first, fairly open, but with saplings growing here andthere. Before we descended I bethought me it were well to have someweapon in our hand in case we should meet any enemy, man or beast, soBilly swarmed up a tree and broke off two branches, which, whenstripped of their twigs and leaves, made very fair clubs, though to besure of a rough appearance, and little likely to avail us much if weencountered men in any wise armed. Still they were better thannothing, and with these in our hands we descended the slope until wecame to another thick wood, which stretched on our right hand half wayor more to the summit of the smoking mountain. We went through thiswood, which differed very little from the first, and then all at oncewe came upon a shining sheet of water, above two hundred yards long andnear as broad, with a few ducks swimming on it. The moment Billy sawthis he let forth a great shout, and bounded towards it, falling on hisknees and drinking very heartily. I was as glad as he was, for thejuice of cocoa-nuts is very agreeable, but not near so good as waterfor quenching the thirst; but I was not so quick as Billy, nor did Igulp it so eagerly, but took a mouthful and tasted it before drinkingmore. The water was cool and seemed to me good to drink, though it hada taste like the sulphur water my aunt Susan always gave to us in thespring; she said it cleared our skin. I drank a few mouthfuls more,and then we went on, skirting the base of the mountain on the furtherside.

  [Sidenote: Wood and Water]

  We found the ground here very rough; indeed, nowhere on the island, aswe afterwards discovered when we came to explore it thoroughly, did wefind a stretch of level ground above twenty yards in length, even inthe parts where the vegetation was thickest. There were not many treesgrowing on this side of the mountain, but we continued our journey inas near a straight line as we could, observing more woods on our righthand which I thought to examine another day. At length we came to ahigh cliff overlooking the sea, and when we came to the top of it,suddenly we saw towering over us the monstrous red rock of which we hadalready had a glimpse when we first drew near to the shore. It rosesheer out of the sea to the height of four or five hundred feet, as Iguessed, and was very broad too; at least, the side that fronted uswas, being full a quarter of a mile long. Between the rock and thecliff on which we stood there was a narrow strait, through which thesea rushed at a furious pace. I felt quite dizzy as I gazed down uponit from our great height, though Billy, being used to climbing to themasthead, went to the very edge of the cliff and stood there withoutthe least tremor. Indeed, he gave me a fright by saying that he wouldleap across the strait to a ledge that jutted out from the rock towardsour island, approaching so near to it that he declared he could do iteasy; but I sprang to him and pulled him back, overcome with horror atthe thought of the terrible risk he would run and his dreadful death ifhe missed his footing, and also of my solitude if I lost my onlycompanion.

  I now saw that his face was very pale, and I thought that he wasfrightened at his own daring; but he suddenly bent his body double, andwhen I asked him what was the matter he said that he had a very badpain.

  "That comes of eating those slimy things raw," I said. "I didn't eatany."

  He made no answer, but flung himself on the ground, groaning, and Istood over him, condoling with him, and very much concerned lest he waspoisoned. I had stood thus for the space of a minute or two, when allat once I felt a terrible pain myself, and soon was beside him,groaning full as loud as he. Since I had eaten none of the shell-fish,and cocoa-nuts had never done us any harm before, I concluded, when Iwas able to think, that our sufferings were caused by the sulphurouswater of the lake, which indeed turned out to be the true explanation;for after we had drunk of it next day we were both afflicted with thesame violent colic, so that we resolved never to taste it again. Billywas worse than me, having drunk the greater quantity, and it was a goodwhile before we were able to stand, and then we trembled so much andfelt so weak that we wished for nothing but to lie down and sleep. Andthat put us on thinking of what we should do in the night. We had comeso slowly across the island that the sun was already sinking, and wemust needs find some secure place for repose before darkness fell uponus. We were both used to discomforts aboard the _Lovey Susan_, butthere we had at least a bunk or a hammock and security from all but thestorm, whereas here there was no shelter save the woods, and we did notknow what strange perils might beset us there. And I know not whether'twas the oncoming of the dark that made me more fearful, but certainit is that I found myself looking about me timorously, and at one pointI was so sure that I saw a man that I clutched Billy hard by the armand whispered him to look too. Which doing, he cried out in aperfectly loud voice, "Why, master, 'tis but an old stump of a tree.'Tain't nothing to be scared on." Billy, I will say now, was neveraffrighted at imaginary perils so much as at real ones.

  [Sidenote: Night]

  We had to consider, I say, of how we should pass the night. I was notthe least disposed to trudge back over the island, and indeed there wasno need, for no part, so far as I knew, was better than any other; inshort, we were both pretty tired, so that we determined to take shelterin a small wood on the edge of the cliff on the opposite side of theburning mountain from that where the lava had flowed. Our entrancecaused a great disturbance among the birds, which flew out in greatflocks and making shrill cries. We saw some brown rats, too,scuttering among the undergrowth, and these put Billy in mind of therats in the _Lovey Susan_, which sometimes ran across the face of theseamen in the forecastle when they slept.

  "I don't like them things, master," he said, "and we'd best climb upinto a tree and sleep on a bough."

  But it seemed to me that a bough of a tree would be a most uneasyresting-place;
I should assuredly lose my balance and topple to theground, though Billy, being accustomed to dizzy perches in the riggingof the _Lovey Susan_, might find it comfortable enough. Yet I had nomind for a lodging on the ground, without any defence from rats, to saynothing of wild animals, of which there might be some on the island,though we had not seen any. We talked about it for some time, and theend of it was that we set about collecting some broken branches thatlay on the ground, and snapped off others that were within our reach,and so piled up a little shelter round about a thick trunk. By thetime we had finished this work it was perfectly dark within the wood.We sat ourselves down on the mossy carpet, with our cudgels close toour hands, and then, bethinking us of the custom of setting watches onboard ship, we determined that one of us should watch while the otherslept. Being the older, I took the first watch, and Billy was soonfast asleep, and I sat very melancholy by him, thinking of our lonelysituation, and of my good uncle and aunt at home, whose thoughts were,I doubt not, fondly busy about me.

  There was no way whereby I might tell the time, and it might have beentwo hours or three had passed when, feeling my head very heavy, I wakedBilly and told him to take his turn, which he did very willingly,though he rubbed his eyes and yawned in the manner of one who has nothad his sleep out. In the midst of my slumber I was wakened by Billygrasping my arm, and when I sat up, he whispered to me, as if greatlyaffrighted, to listen. Since I heard nothing but the rustling of thewind in the trees, it having got up while I slept, I thought that Billymust have fallen into a doze and been visited by a nightmare. But allat once there came a strange howling sound, that seemed to be near athand, and then it went into the distance, at one moment being quite lowand soft, the next very loud, though it never altered in pitch. Weclutched our cudgels and sat very close to each other, and Billywhispered that he felt a cold shiver running down his back, as I myselfdid, but I forbore to tell him so. The sound was very dreadful, as ofsome creature in agony, though it was not the least like any sound Ihad ever heard before, except once, when I heard a man tuning, as theysay, the organ in our parish church; and falling upon our ears inpitchy darkness it made us very uneasy, as you may think. We were toomuch affrighted to rise and seek for the cause of it, even if it hadbeen possible to find it in the dark; and so we listened to it, huddledthus together, for a very long time, as it seemed, until, being quiteovercome with fatigue, we both fell asleep, and so remained untilmorning light without keeping any guard.

  [Sidenote: Wild Dogs]

  I awoke first, and was instantly aware of a scratching at some part ofour barricade of branches. I sat up, grasping my cudgel, and in amoment, it being broad daylight, I saw a little opening in thebarricado, and the nose of some animal pushing through it. I lifted upmy cudgel and, thrusting myself forward, aimed a blow at the intruderso well that I hit him clean upon the point of the nose. There was asudden yelp and a snarl, and the nose withdrew itself, and when wesprang to our feet--Billy having wakened at the sound--we spied a packof small dogs, above a score, at some little distance from our shelter.They were of a strange kind, the like of which neither Billy nor I hadever seen, being of a yellowish brown in colour, and with smooth coats,not hairy like our dogs at home. Billy roared at them, asking whetherit was they that had made such uproar in the night; and when they didnot budge, but only looked at him without the least alarm, we bothsprang over our fence and ran towards them, brandishing our cudgels andshouting very fiercely. Then they turned tail, and ran away yelpingand snarling; but as soon as we stopped, thinking that we had put themto flight, instantly they stopped also, and sitting upon theirhaunches, gazed at us very solemnly again.

  They did not offer to attack us, and, being of a small size, we did notfear them as if they were great hounds or mastiffs; but the very numberof them making us somewhat uneasy, we set forward again to drive themaway. It happened as at first: they ran while we ran, but the momentwe stopped, they came to a stand also and gazed upon us in the samesaucy manner as before. Billy shook his fist at them, and called themby a foul name which he had learnt, I suppose, from the rough seamen ofthe _Lovey Susan_; but I will say this, that on my telling him it wasnot a pretty word, he immediately promised never to use it again, sinceit offended me, and I never heard it from his lips but once after,which I will speak of in course, if I remember.

  But to return to our dogs: when we saw that it was useless to pursuethem, though we could scare them easily enough, we determined to go onour way as if they were not there. And as you may believe, we set ourcourse first for the cocoa-nut grove, being amazing hungry, and as wewent thither we saw some trees of the bread-fruit, and Billy climbedone of them, the trunk being no more than two feet thick, and threw onefruit at me and another at the dogs, which had still followed us,dogging us, as we say. They scampered after it as it rolled down thehill, like as kittens chase a ball of worsted, which amused Billy verymuch. As for me, I picked up the fruit he had cast at my feet--it wasnear two pounds weight, I should think--and having broken the rind, notwithout difficulty, for it was very tough, I tasted the milky juice andafterwards the pulp, but found them both so unpleasing that I cast itfrom me, very sorrowfully, for it seemed that we should never have anyother food but cocoa-nuts, unless we could devise some means ofcooking. We went on thence until we came to the palms, the dogsfollowing us again, except two that found the fruit I had thrown away,and they stayed for a while sniffing at it, but finding it asunpalatable as I had done, they by and by left it and joined the pack.I observed that when Billy climbed up the cocoa-nut palm they drew incloser, as if they guessed him to be more violent than me, and supposedit no longer needful to keep at so great a distance. Indeed, when heflung down a cocoa-nut, they dashed towards it, as if he did it merelyfor their sport; but then I ran among them, striking at them smartlywith my cudgel, though I never hit them, for they immediately fled, butcame back when Billy and I sat down upon the ground to eat the fruit,and watched us with such gravity that I could not contain myself, butlaughed very heartily.

  When we had finished our breakfast, we went down the hill to drink atthe lake, and the dogs still following at our heels, we began to feelit a persecution, and resolved to make another attempt to rid ourselvesof them. The ground, as I have said before, was rough, and at one sideof the lake, nearest the mountain, we saw many pieces of rock scatteredabout, and having collected them in a heap we began to throw them verybriskly at the dogs, which kept so close together that we could notfail of hitting several. These ran yelping away, and after a whilethose that were not hit became aware of the discomfiture of theirfellows and withdrew to a greater distance; but I observed that theywent no farther than the range of our cast, from which I concluded thatthey were possessed of a certain intelligence. However, since theirhovering was now at a more convenient distance, we paid them no furtherattention, and had freedom to think of other things.

  We had been so much taken up with these creatures that we had givenscarce a thought to our situation; but now, casting my eyes towards thesummit of the mountain, I saw with great delight that the cloud ofsteam was altogether gone.

  "See, Billy," I cried, "we are not like to be burnt alive. Themountain is quiet; yesterday's work has tired him out."

  "He's only pretending, belike," says Billy.

  But then I told him of what I had read in my lesson-book--I likedreading the Latin part, but did not much relish the putting the Englishback into Latin--about the mountain Vesuvius, that had been quiet solong as that people made great cities at its base, and lived there verymerrily, the story being told very well by Plinius.

  "This is a different sort, then," says Billy, "because there ain't nocities here, nor people neither."

  [Sidenote: The Mountain]

  I laughed at this, and then proposed that we should climb up themountain from the place where we stood, namely, the edge of the lake,in which we had already drunk. For a great while Billy would not bepersuaded, but I prevailed with him at last, and we set off up themountain side, finding it
a great toil, so steep was it, and rugged;and being shod myself, I did not think enough of the pain to Billy'sbare feet, which he endured nevertheless without a murmur. There weremany pieces of jagged flint lying on the mountain-side, and Billyseeing one that was flat and had a sharp edge, he picks it up and slipsit in his pocket, saying that we could break open our cocoa-nuts moreeasily with it than by striking them against the tree-trunks or therocks. We had not gone above half way up the mountain when we wereseized with the same violent pains I have before mentioned, which madeus helpless for some while, and caused us, as I have said, to forswearthe water of the lake. But recovering by and by, we continued on ourway, and, taking heart from the perfect stillness, there being norumbling nor any shoot of boiling water as on the day before, we cameat last to the very top, and stood at the brink of the cup, or thecrater, as we say.

  We were so much terrified at our own boldness that, having reached thetop, we immediately ran some way down the slope, as if some dreadfulmonster were at our heels. But coming to our senses again, weresolutely made our way once more to the summit, and, holding eachother by the hand, we crept to the edge and peeped over. I own I wasvery much surprised at the seeming innocence of the crater. The wallswere very steep, and made of some massive sort of stone, and so jaggedthat we could easily have climbed down, as on steps, for a depth of twohundred feet at least. But then the sides of the crater drew intowards the centre, and we could see that it had no floor, but a holethat looked very black and terrible; and the thought that one slipmight hurl us down, we knew not how far, into the bowels of themountain amid fire and brimstone, made us shrink back. Our curiositywas satisfied, and I do not remember that we ever looked into thatyawning pit again, though we had occasion to climb the mountain morethan once.

  We then turned about and looked back over the island and across the seabeyond. It was a magnificent fair day, the sky of a light blue colourand very clear, and from our high perch we could see a prodigious greatdistance on every side. Far away, like a cloud on the horizon, andsouth-by-east, as we knew by the sun, was the island whereto the seamenhad set their course, and the remembrance of them set Billy in a rage,and he cried out on them for taking away our raft. To the westward wespied two or three islands close together, and nearer to us, though notmuch, than the island to the south-east. I could not think that allthese islands were uninhabited, and became again not a little uneasy inmy mind, for supposing our own island had no people on it, of which Iwas by no means assured, yet it might be visited sometimes by savagesfrom other islands, and it would be a fearsome thing for us if anyshould land and discover us. Billy scoffed when I spoke out my thought.

  "Why," he said, "d'ye think, master, they'd be such fools as to comehere to this old smoker? And water what gives you the gripes too! No,we shan't see nobody, black or white, never no more, and we shall livehere for ever and ever, if we gets enough to eat and drink, and thenwhen we're very old we'll be dead, and no one to put us away decent,"and at that he burst into tears, and begged me not to die first,because he couldn't bear it. I was a good deal touched by the honestboy's trouble, but I bid him cheer up, for we were both sound and well,though I own I felt a great lump in my throat as I thought of ourpresent solitude and of my dear friends at home. To divert histhoughts, and my own too, I pointed to the big red rock of which I havespoken before, and which seemed more monstrous still, seen from thisside. There were birds sunning themselves on its bare top, and thesight of them set me thinking that there were many birds on our island,and there must also be eggs, which we could use for food, though Iremembered afterwards that having no fire we could not cook them, and Icould not eat them raw as I had seen some do.

  We walked round about the crater, observing, but not at first with anyminuteness, the many rocks and boulders of strange shape that werescattered about, having been cast up at some time, I suppose, from thedepths of the mountains. Billy laid his hand on one great boulder, andimmediately started back in a fright, crying that it was burning hot,which somewhat alarmed me too, not supposing that the mountain sentforth aught now but hot water. But in a moment I saw that we had nocause for terror, for the sun was by this time high in the heavens, andthe stone was made hot thereby, and by nothing else. When I said thisto Billy he was in a rage with the stone for giving him a start, andshoved it very hard, and it being poised insecurely, it set offa-rolling down very fast until it struck another boulder of evengreater size, and split with a mighty crash. "Serves you right," saysBilly, and we both clambered down to see what had happened to it. Wewere surprised to see some bright streaks in the rock where it had beenfractured, and Billy declared that there must be iron in it; indeed, itwas of the brightness of steel. This set me on to think of the greatwealth that might lie a-hiding in our island, and of the great delightit would have given my uncle if his adventure had gone as he wished;but the discovery brought no comfort to us in our helpless situation;indeed, it only made me the more sad.

  We had gone but a little farther when we saw a spring of hot waterbubbling out of the rock and running down in a cloud of steam. Wefollowed its course, picking our way very slowly, for the side of themountain was steep, until we came to a place where it dropped over asheer cliff, and fell a perfect cascade into the sea. Then we creptround from this side of the mountain until we overlooked the long slopeof blackish rock that ran down to the beach on which we had landed, andwe descended slowly on the left side until we came to a strip ofwoodland. Here we found more bread-fruit trees, at which we were notso well pleased as if they had been cocoa-nut palms, because we had nopresent means of making a fire for cooking. Billy offered to make firein the native way, but I said that he might do that afterwards, as Iwished to see what this end of the island was like. So we went throughthe wood, and came out at the edge of a cliff, and saw below us thepromontory with the archway through it, of which I have spoken. Here,too, we had another view of the monster rock, and observed that thisface also was steep and straight like the others, so that it must bequite impossible to scale the rock unless its seaward face were morepracticable.

  PALM TREE ISLAND]

  [Sidenote: Reflections]

  We had now traversed the whole of our island except the north-eastcorner, and having seen no living things except birds and smallanimals, we began to be pretty sure that we were the only human beingsupon it. This, while it put away from us the present fear of beingslain by savages, or despitefully used, yet brought home to us the fullmeaning of our loneliness. We sat down on the cliff, and looking overthe sea, which stretched away without any sign of land, nor even thesail of a ship, we gave ourselves up to gloomy meditation. I knew thatbut few ships ever ventured into this southern ocean, and the chancethat any ship would sight this tiny island was very small indeed.Still less was it likely that a vessel would draw in so close as toobserve any signal that we might make. I remembered how AlexanderSelkirk had lived four years on his desolate island before a friendlyship hove in sight, and that island was near the mainland, whereas ourswas in the midst of a vast ocean, remote as well from populous lands asfrom the track of merchant ships. It seemed to me that we were doomedto a lifelong imprisonment, and though I had before bid Billy to be ofgood cheer, I was now myself utterly cast down, as one without hope.

  Being thus a prey to wretchedness I sat with my head in my hands, notheeding the heat of the sun, which was now beating fiercely down uponus, until I felt very sick and dizzy, and then I got up and looked forBilly, who had disappeared. But he had only gone into the wood to findfood, it being nigh dinner-time. He came back and told me that therewas nothing but bread-fruit, and that we could not eat, so we had tomake our way to the cocoa-nut wood, which we did by descending to thebeach and climbing up the slope as before. In going along the beachBilly picked up two or three shell-fish which he called clams, thepurple kind, not the larger sort, which were very heavy; indeed, one ofthem would have made a meal for a family. We saw, too, several crabsof a very large size, some above two feet long; and B
illy, idly pokinghis cudgel into a hole beside a rock, he could not draw it back, andwhen he peeped in to see what held it, he cried out that it had beenseized by a great crab, and though he pulled very hard, he could notdraw it out. When we came to our wood we ate cocoanuts and quenchedour thirst with the juice, Billy striking them open with the sharpflint he had in his pocket; but I could not forbear wondering how wewere to live without fresh water, of which we had seen none but whatwas in the lake, and that was a medicine we were by no means inclinedto. Having appeased our hunger and thirst we were too listless to walkany more, and too miserable to talk to each other, and so we laidourselves down and fell asleep.

  [Sidenote: Weapons]

  When I awoke I saw that Billy had been fashioning for himself a newclub in place of that which had been seized by the robber crab, onlythis time he had made a better one. Having observed that the sharpflint, of which I have before spoken, had two notches on its bluntside, he had conceived the notion of binding it to his club, and sousing it as an axe-head. At first he was much exercised, as he toldme, how to fasten the two together, and sighed for some iron-wire, orat least some stout cord; but glancing around he spied a creeping plantwith very long and slender tendrils, which he proved to be very tough,and breaking off some lengths of this with his flint, he had nearlyfinished binding the flint to his club.

  "What d'ye think of that, master?" says he, very proud of hisachievement. I told him it was a villainous, murdering instrument, andasked him what he purposed doing with it. "Why," says he, "fight, tobe sure. It would kill a savage, or even a lion." At this I laughed,saying that we had seen no lions or other wild beasts, and as forsavages, if we encountered them they would certainly shoot him withtheir arrows or pierce him with spears before ever he was near enoughto strike them with his club. But he answered stoutly that a club wasbetter than bare fists, and an axe than a club, and as for itsugliness, he would like to see me make a prettier one, on which I saidno more.

  Billy's Axe]

  I had fallen into a doze again, when I was suddenly awakened by Billy,who shook me by the shoulder and when I sat up, pointed through thetrees to a little open space at the edge of the wood. I looked and sawa number of little pigs--strange little creatures, with heads very muchtoo large for their bodies--grubbing in the ground with their snouts,and a monstrous big sow near by. Billy springs up, and whispers hewill catch one of the piglets, and then he starts off and begins tosteal quickly through the wood towards the family group. I got up onmy feet to follow him, and seizing the club that lay nearest, foundthat I had taken Billy's instead of my own, he having taken mine in hisexcitement. Billy had just arrived at the open space when, being verysimple in his nature, he gave a great shout, and instantly the pigs setoff scampering away, with him hot-foot after them. However, he hadgone but half-way across the clearing when I saw a great boar withmonstrous curved tusks charging from the left-hand side. Billy caughtsight of the beast just in time, and turning about, he brought my clubdown upon the beast's head very sharply; but it was not heavy enough todo any great mischief, and, indeed, though it caused the boar to turn alittle aside, it did but increase its fury. The beast wheeled about,and rushed upon Billy, who, though he smote it again, was carried offhis feet and lay sprawling, the club being struck from his hand as hefell.

  "THE BEAST WHEELED ABOUT, AND RUSHED UPON BILLY."]

  [Sidenote: Billy has a Fall]

  When I saw the unhappy posture of my companion, I ran towards him asfleetly as ever I could, being in a terrible fright lest the boarshould rend him with its tusks before I could come up with him. Myvery speed incommoded me when, coming to the spot where Billy lay onthe ground, with the boar over him, I brought the flint-headed clubdown upon the beast's skull, for the blow was not near as straight andheavy as it might have been had my rush not been so headlong. However,it served to make the boar turn round to spy at its new adversary; andhaving now come to a standstill and collected myself, I dealt it such ablow behind the ear, with a full swing of the club, that it fell oversideways, and I did not observe that it made any movement after. Ipicked Billy up, and saw with great trouble that the boar had rent agreat hole in his breeches and made a gash in his leg, which wasbleeding very freely. "That's nothing, master," says he, when I askedhim if he was much hurt; "but what d'ye say about my ugly murdering axenow? Ain't it a good one?" he asked triumphantly. "Wouldn't it kill alion or a savage?" I owned that it had proved a very serviceableinstrument indeed, and said that I would certainly make one like it formyself; but first I begged Billy to bathe his wounded leg in the lake,which he did, and in a little the bleeding stopped, and we went back tothe wood, Billy declaring that he would certainly make fire in thenative fashion, and we should have pork for supper. But when we gotback to the dead boar, we found it already surrounded by a pack ofdogs, which were tearing its flesh very gluttonously. They snarled andgrowled savagely when we essayed to drive them away, and knowing thatit is an ill matter to part a dog from his bone, I did not think itprudent to provoke the rage of such a fierce regiment, though Billycried out valorously that he would fight them all sooner than allowthem to eat his pork. However, he gave in to my entreaty, vowing thathe would have pork to eat before many days were past, and as for thedogs, he would teach them a lesson, that he would.