CHAPTER TEN.
A SAIL.
THE CACHELOT AND HIS ASSAILANTS--THE COURSE--NEW ACQUAINTANCES.
"Strange creatures round us sweep: Strange things come up to look at us, The monsters of the deep."
The first thought that flashed through my mind with returningconsciousness, in the morning, was, "This is the last day for hope--unless relief comes to-day in some shape, we must perish." I was thefirst awake, and glancing at the faces of my companions lying about inthe bottom of the boat, I could not help shuddering. They had a strangeand unnatural look--a miserable expression of pain and weakness. Allthat was familiar and pleasant to look upon, had vanished from thosesharpened and haggard features. Their closed eyes seemed singularlysunken; and their matted hair, sunburned skin, and soiled clothing,added something of wildness to the misery of their appearance.
Browne, who had slept beside me, was breathing hard, and started everynow and then, as if in pain. Johnny slumbered so peacefully, andbreathed so gently, that for a moment I was alarmed, and doubted whetherhe was breathing at all, until I stooped down and watched him closely.There were still no indications of a breeze. A school of whales wasvisible about a quarter of a mile to the westward, spouting and pursuingtheir unwieldy sport; but I took no interest in the sight, and leaningover the gunwale, commenced bathing my head and eyes with the sea-water.While thus engaged I was startled by seeing an enormous cachelot, (thesperm-whale), suddenly break the water within fifteen yards of the boat.Its head, which composed nearly a third of its entire bulk, seemed amountain of flesh. A couple of small calves followed it, and cameswimming playfully around us. For a minute or two, the cachelot floatedquietly at the surface, where it had first appeared, throwing a slenderjet of water, together with a large volume of spray and vapour into theair; then rolling over upon its side, it began to lash the sea with itsbroad and powerful tail, every stroke of which produced a sound like thereport of a cannon. This roused the sleepers abruptly, and just as theysprang up, and began to look around in astonishment, for the cause of sostartling a commotion, the creature cast its misshapen head downwards,and, throwing its immense flukes high into the air, disappeared. Wewatched anxiously to see where it would rise, conscious of the perils ofsuch a neighbourhood, and that even a playful movement, a random sweepof the tail, while pursuing its gigantic pastime, would be sufficient todestroy us. It came to the surface at about the same distance asbefore, but on the opposite side of the boat, throwing itself half outof the water as it rose: again it commenced lashing the sea violently,as if in the mere wanton display of its terrible strength, until fararound, the water was one wide sheet of foam. The calves stillgambolled near us, chasing each other about and under the yawl, and wemight easily have killed one of them, had we not been deterred by thealmost certain consequences of arousing the fury of the old whale.Meantime, the entire school seemed to be edging down towards us. Therewas not a breath of air, and we had no means of getting out of the wayof the danger, to which we should be exposed, if among them, except bytaking to the oars; and this, nothing short of the most pressing andimmediate peril could induce us to do. But our attention was soonwithdrawn from the herd, to the singular and alarming movements of theindividual near us. Rushing along the surface for short distances, itthrew itself several times half clear of the water, turning after eachof these leaps, as abruptly as its unwieldy bulk would permit, andrunning a tilt with equal violence in the opposite direction. Once, itpassed so near us, that I think I could have touched it with an oar, andwe saw distinctly its small, dull eye, and the loose, wrinkled, folds ofskin, about its tremendous jaws. For a minute afterwards, the boatrolled dangerously in the swell caused by the swift passage of so vastan object. Suddenly, after one of these abrupt turns, the monsterheaded directly towards us, and came rushing onward with fearfulvelocity, either not noticing us at all, or else mistaking the boat forsome sea-creature, with which it designed to measure its strength.There was no time for any effort to avoid the danger; and even had therebeen, we were too much paralysed by its imminence, to make such aneffort. The whale was scarcely twelve yards off--certainly not twenty.Behind it stretched a foaming wake, straight as an arrow. Its vastmountainous head ploughed up the waves like a ship's cutwater, pilinghigh the foam and spray before it. To miss us was now a sheerimpossibility and no earthly power could arrest the creature's career.Instant destruction appeared inevitable. I grew dizzy, and my headbegan to swim, while the thought flashed confusedly through my mind,that infinite wisdom had decreed that we must die, and this manner ofperishing had been chosen in mercy, to spare us the prolonged horrors ofstarvation. What a multitude of incoherent thoughts and recollectionscrowded upon my mind in that moment of time! A thousand littleincidents of my past life, disconnected and trivial--a shadowy throng offamiliar scenes and faces, surged up before me, vividly as objectsrevealed for an instant by the glare of the lightning, in the gloom of astormy night. Closing my eyes, I silently commended my soul to God, andwas endeavouring to compose myself for the dreadful event when Mortonsprang to his feet, and called hurriedly upon us to shout together. Allseemed to catch his intention at once, and to perceive in it a gleam ofhope; and standing up we raised our voices in a hoarse cry, that soundedstrange and startling even to ourselves. Instantly, as it seemed, thewhale drove almost perpendicularly downwards, but so great was itsmomentum, that its fluked tail cut the air within an oar's length of theboat as it disappeared.
Whether the shout we had uttered, caused the sudden plunge to which weowed our preservation, it is impossible to decide. Notwithstanding itsbulk and power, the cachelot is said to be a timid creature, except wheninjured or enraged, and great caution has to be exercised by whalers inapproaching them. Suddenly recollecting this, the thought ofundertaking to scare the formidable monster, had suggested itself toMorton, and he had acted upon it in sheer desperation, impelled by thesame instinct that causes a drowning man to catch even at a straw.
But, however obtained, our reprieve from danger was only momentary. Thewhale came to the surface at no great distance, and once more headedtowards us. If frightened for an instant, it had quickly recovered fromthe panic, and now there was no mistaking the creature's purpose: itcame on, exhibiting every mark of rage, and with jaws literally wideopen. We felt that no device or effort of our own could be of anyavail. We might as well hope to resist a tempest, or an earthquake, orthe shock of a falling mountain, as that immense mass of matter,instinct with life and power, and apparently animated by brute fury.
Every hope had vanished, and I think that we were all in a great measureresigned to death, and fully expecting it when there came, (as it seemedto us, by actual miracle), a most wonderful interposition.
A dark, bulky mass, (in the utter bewilderment of the moment we notednothing distinctly of its appearance), shot perpendicularly from the seatwenty feet into the air, and fell with a tremendous concussion,directly upon the whale's back. It must have been several tons inweight, and the blow inflicted was crushing. For a moment the whaleseemed paralysed by the shock, and its vast frame quivered with agony;but recovering quickly, it rushed with open jaws upon its strangeassailant which immediately dived, and both vanished. Very soon, thewhale came to the surface again; and now we became the witnesses of oneof those singular and tremendous spectacles, of which the vast solitudesof the tropical seas are doubtless often the theatre, but which humaneyes have rarely beheld.
The cachelot seemed to be attacked by two powerful confederates, actingin concert. The one assailed it from below, and continually drove it tothe surface, while the other--the dark bulky object--repeated itssingular attacks in precisely the same manner as at first, whenever anypart of the gigantic frame of the whale was exposed, never once missingits mark, and inflicting blows, which one would think, singly sufficientto destroy any living creature. At times the conflict was carried on sonear us, as to endanger our safety; and we could see all of thecombatants with the utmost distinctness, though not at the same t
ime.The first glimpse which we caught of the second antagonist of the whale,as it rose through the water to the attack, enabled us at once toidentify it as that most fierce and formidable creature--the PacificSword-fish.
The other, as I now had an opportunity to observe, was a fish of fullone third the length of the whale itself, and of enormous bulk inproportion; it was covered with a dark rough skin, in appearance notunlike that of an alligator. The cachelot rushed upon its foesalternately, and the one thus singled out invariably fled, until theother had an opportunity to come to its assistance; the sword-fishswimming around in a wide circle at the top of the water, when pursued,and the other diving when chased in its turn. If the whale followed thesword-fish to the surface, it was sure to receive a stunning blow fromits leaping enemy; if it pursued the latter below, the sword-fish thereattacked it fearlessly, and, as it appeared, successfully, forcing itquickly back to the top of the water.
Presently the battle began to recede from us, the whale evidently makingtowards the school, which was at no great distance; and strange as thesight was, we watched it with but a languid interest, as soon as oursafety appeared to be no longer involved. The whale must have beenbadly hurt for the water which it threw up on coming to the surface andspouting, was tinged with blood. After this I saw no more of thesword-fish and his associate; they had probably abandoned the attack.[See note.] As nearly as I can recollect, we did not, either during theprogress of the fight, or after it was over, exchange a single word onthe subject, so dumb and apathetic had we become. After a while theschool of whales appeared to be moving off, and in half an hour more, welost sight of them altogether.
All this while, Johnny had continued to sleep soundly, and his slumbersseemed more natural and refreshing than before. When at length heawoke, the delirium had ceased, and he was calm and gentle, but so weakthat he could not sit up without being supported. After thedisappearance of the whales, several hours passed, during which we layunder our awning without a word being spoken by any one. Throughoutthis day, the sea seemed to be alive with fish; myriads of them were tobe seen in every direction; troops of agile and graceful dolphins;revolving black-fish, chased by ravenous sharks; leaping albatross,dazzling the eye with the flash of their golden scales, as they shotinto the air for a moment; porpoises, bonito, flying-fish, and a hundredunknown kinds which I had never seen or heard of. At one time we weresurrounded by an immense shoal of small fishes, about the size ofmackerel, so densely crowded together that their backs presented analmost solid surface, on which it seemed as if one might walk dry-shod.None, however, came actually within our reach, and we made no effort toapproach them.
From the time of our wonderful escape from being destroyed by the whale,until the occurrence which I am about to relate, I remember nothingdistinctly--all seems vague and dream-like. I could not say withconfidence, from my own knowledge, whether the interval consisted ofseveral days, or of only a few feverish and half-delirious hours; norwhether the sights and sounds of which I have a confused recollection,were real, or imaginary. I think, however, that it must have been inthe afternoon of the same day, (Arthur is confident that it was), thatMorton came to me as I lay in the bottom of the boat in a state of utterdesperation and self-abandonment and aroused me, saying in a hoarse andpainful whisper, that there was a vessel in sight. Even thisannouncement hardly sufficed to overcome the stupor into which I hadsunk, and it was with a reluctant effort, and a feeling akin toannoyance at being disturbed, that I sat up and looked around me. Myeyes were so much inflamed that I could see nothing distinctly.
The first thing that I observed, was, that the calm was at an end. Abreeze had sprung up, and was blowing gently but pretty steadily fromthe south. The surface of the sea was slightly ruffled, and its deadstagnant aspect, had given place to one of breezy freshness. In thischange there was something reviving and strengthening. Far to thesouth, where Morton pointed out the vessel which he had discovered, Icould just distinguish a white speck upon the water, which seemed morelike the crest of a wave than any thing else. Morton had already calledArthur's attention to it, and he was watching it intently. Gradually itbecame more distinct, and in half an hour, I too, could make it outplainly, to be a small sailing vessel of some description. As she wascoming directly down before the wind, there seemed to be no need ofdoing any thing to attract her attention. I now hastened to reanimateMax and Browne, by communicating to them the intelligence that reliefwas probably at hand. In three-quarters of an hour more, the strangesail was near enough to enable us to see that she was a large doublecanoe, such as is used by some of the islanders of the South Pacific, intheir trading voyages. It had two masts, with large triangularmat-sails, and appeared to contain six or seven persons only, whom wesupposed to be natives of some neighbouring island. As soon as theywere within speaking distance, one of them, to our great astonishmenthailed us in French. Arthur undertook to answer in the same language,when the other, probably perceiving that the French was not his nativetongue, spoke to us in tolerable English, but with a strong Frenchaccent. It was easy to perceive, now that our attention wasparticularly called to him, that the spokesman was a European. Thoughalmost naked like the rest, and elaborately tattooed upon the chest andshoulders, his light hair and beard, and florid though sun-burnt skin,sufficiently distinguished him from them. Of course the first thingwith us, was to make known our wants, and to ask for food, and above allfor water. As soon as they could bring the canoe near enough, theFrenchman watching his opportunity, reached out to us a large gourdcontaining water, of which we drank plentifully, passing it roundseveral times. Arthur hastened to pour a little into Johnny's mouth,and the effect was astonishing: he seemed to revive almostinstantaneously, and, sitting up, he seized the gourd himself and drankeagerly as long as Arthur would let him. The Frenchman next tossed ussomething wrapped in banana leaves, a thick, dark-coloured paste of somekind. It was enough that it was an article of food, and we devoured itwithout pausing for any very close examination, though its appearancewas by no means inviting, and it had a crude and slightly acid taste.He threw us also several thin, hard cakes, similar in taste and colourto the other substance. Both were probably preparations of thebread-fruit, the latter being dried and hardened in the sun, or by fire.Ravenously hungry as we were, these supplies were divided andapportioned with the most scrupulous exactness. On finding that thenatives were well supplied with water, having several large gourds full,we passed the calabash round again, until we had drained it dry, whenthey gave us another gourd. Meanwhile, though we were too busy to lookabout us much, the canoe's people watched us very narrowly, and in sucha manner as to make me feel uneasy and doubtful as to their intentions,notwithstanding their kindness thus far. As soon as the first cravingsof hunger and thirst were satisfied, I began to return their scrutiny,and I now observed that they differed in many respects from theTahitians, and from all the other Polynesian tribes of which I knew anything. Their complexion was a clear olive; their faces oval, withregular features; their hair straight and black; their eyes large, andthe general expression of their countenances simple and pleasing, thoughthere were several keen, crafty-looking faces among them. All weretattooed, more or less profusely, the chests of some resemblingchecker-boards, and others being ornamented with rosettes, andrepresentations of various natural objects, as birds, fishes, trees,etcetera. Their only clothing consisted of the maro, a strip of tappa,or native cloth, tied round the loins. A wave happening to throw theboats nearly together, one of the natives caught hold of our gunwale atthe stern, and another at the bow, and thus kept the canoe alongside.
They now began to cast searching glances at us, and at every thing inthe yawl. I observed the Frenchman intently eyeing the handle of one ofthe cutlasses, which protruded from beneath a fold of canvass. Heinquired eagerly whether we had any fire-arms, and seemed greatlydisappointed to find that we had not. He next asked for tobacco, withno better success, which apparently surprised him very much, for heshrugged his shoulders,
and raised his thick eyebrows with a doubtfuland incredulous look. At this moment the gilt buttons upon Max's jacketseemed to strike the fancy of one of our new friends, and excited hiscupidity to such a degree, that after fixing upon them a long andadmiring gaze, he suddenly reached over and made a snatch at them. Hegot hold of one, and in trying to pull it off came very near jerking Maxoverboard. Morton, who was sitting next to Max, interfered, and caughtthe man by the arm, with a look and manner that made me fear he might dosomething imprudent. The savage, who was an athletic fellow,obstinately maintained his hold of Max's jacket, and casting a ferociousglance at Morton, snatched up a short, thick paddle, and brandished itover his head as if about to strike. Arthur appealed to the Frenchmanto interpose, but before he could do so, one of the natives, a handsomeboy, who was seated cross-legged upon a platform between the masts,spoke to the man in a raised voice, and with an air of authority,whereupon, to my surprise, he immediately dropped the paddle, andsullenly desisted from his attempt. This lad, who seemed to be sopromptly obeyed, did not look to be more than thirteen or fourteen yearsof age. His voice was soft and girlish; he had a remarkably open andpleasing countenance, and surveyed us with an air of friendly interest,very different from the sinister and greedy looks of several of theothers, including the Frenchman himself. In answer to the questions ofthe latter, Arthur told him that we were Americans, and related verybriefly how we had come into our present situation. He then informed usin turn, that he had been cast away, some six years before, in a Frenchbarque engaged in the tortoise-shell traffic, upon an uninhabitedisland, about forty miles from the one where he and those with him, nowlived. After remaining there for more than a year, he and hiscompanions, having reason to believe that they were in the neighbourhoodof a group occasionally visited by trading vessels, had set out insearch of it, in a small boat. Their belief as to the existence andsituation of these islands proved to be well founded; they had finallysucceeded in reaching them, had been hospitably received and treated bythe natives, among whom they had acquired considerable influence, buthad as yet had no opportunity of returning home.
They were now, he said, on their return from a trading voyage to aneighbouring island, where they had just disposed of a cargo of mats andtappa, in exchange for baskets of native manufacture, and sharks' teeth.Having been becalmed all the preceding day and night, they feared thatthey had drifted out of their course, since, otherwise, they ought,after making full allowance for the calm, to have already reached theirown island. He finished by assuring us, that we might calculate withconfidence, upon enjoying perfect security and kind treatment amongthese people.
The conference being concluded, he directed us to put up our sail, andsteer after the canoe; adding that he expected to reach the group beforemidnight if the wind held fair. He spoke with the air of one deliveringa command, and evidently considered us entirely under his control. Butof course we felt no disposition to object to what he directed. Thefact, that the natives had treated him and his companions so well, wasan encouragement to us, as affording some proof of their friendly andpeaceful character, and we supposed that he could have no possiblemotive for using his influence to our prejudice. Even had there beenany other course for us to choose, to escape perishing, we were in nocondition to make any effectual opposition to the will of our newacquaintances.
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Note. This fish story has several rather astonishing features--at leastto an inexperienced landsman. The sword-fish and thresher are said toseek and attack the right whale together; but a nautical friend, whom Ihave consulted on the subject, says he has never heard of theirinterfering with the cachelot, or sperm-whale, which would, he thinks,be very likely to make mince-meat of them both, should they be guilty ofsuch temerity: the right whale uses no other weapon than his powerfultail; whereas the cachelot goes at an adversary with open jaws. Upon myinquiry whether threshers, "of several tons weight," and jumping "twentyfeet into the air," were common, my friend the captain, seemed piqued atmy implied scepticism as to marine monsters, and briefly made answer,that there were more strange creatures in the sea, than were dreamed ofin my philosophy, and that "many an old sailor could give more realinformation on the subject, than all the natural history books in theworld."
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