Typee

by Herman Melville

  CHAPTER III

  State of affairs aboard the ship--Contents of her larder--Length of South Seamen's voyages--Account of a flying whale-man--Determination to leave the vessel--The bay of Nukuheva--The Typees.

  It was in the summer of 1842, that we arrived at the islands. Our ship hadnot been many days in the harbour of Nukuheva, before I came to thedetermination of leaving her. That my reasons for resolving to take thisstep were numerous and weighty, may be inferred from the fact that I choserather to risk my fortunes among the savages of the island than to endureanother voyage on board the _Dolly_. To use the concise, point-blankphrase of the sailors, I had made up my mind to "run away." Now, as ameaning is generally attached to these two words no way flattering to theindividual to whom they are applied, it behoves me, for the sake of my owncharacter, to offer some explanation of my conduct.

  When I entered on board the _Dolly_, I signed, as a matter of course, theship's articles, thereby voluntarily engaging and legally binding myselfto serve in a certain capacity for the period of the voyage; and, specialconsiderations apart, I was of course bound to fulfil the agreement. Butin all contracts, if one party fail to perform his share of the compact,is not the other virtually absolved from his liability? Who is there whowill not answer in the affirmative?

  Having settled the principle, then, let me apply it to the particular casein question. In numberless instances had not only the implied but thespecified conditions of the articles been violated on the part of the shipin which I served. The usage on board of her was tyrannical; the sick hadbeen inhumanly neglected; the provisions had been doled out in scantyallowance; and her cruises were unreasonably protracted. The captain wasthe author of these abuses; it was in vain to think that he would eitherremedy them, or alter his conduct, which was arbitrary and violent in theextreme. His prompt reply to all complaints and remonstrances was--thebutt-end of a hand-spike, so convincingly administered as effectually tosilence the aggrieved party.

  To whom could we apply for redress? We had left both law and equity on theother side of the Cape; and unfortunately, with a very few exceptions, ourcrew was composed of a parcel of dastardly and mean-spirited wretches,divided among themselves, and only united in enduring without resistancethe unmitigated tyranny of the captain. It would have been mere madnessfor any two or three of the number, unassisted by the rest, to attemptmaking a stand against his ill usage. They would only have called downupon themselves the particular vengeance of this "Lord of the Plank," andsubjected their shipmates to additional hardships.

  But, after all, these things could have been endured awhile, had weentertained the hope of being speedily delivered from them by the duecompletion of the terms of our servitude. But what a dismal prospectawaited us in this quarter! The longevity of Cape Horn whaling voyages isproverbial, frequently extending over a period of four or five years.

  Some long-haired, bare-necked youths, who, forced by the united influencesof a roving spirit and hard times, embark at Nantucket for a pleasureexcursion to the Pacific, and whose anxious mothers provide them withbottled milk for the occasion, oftentimes return very respectablemiddle-aged gentlemen.

  The very preparations made for one of these expeditions are enough tofrighten one. As the vessel carries out no cargo, her hold is filled withprovisions for her own consumption. The owners, who officiate as caterersfor the voyage, supply the larder with an abundance of dainties. Delicatemorsels of beef and pork, cut on scientific principles from every part ofthe animal, and of all conceivable shapes and sizes, are carefully packedin salt, and stored away in barrels; affording a never-ending variety intheir different degrees of toughness, and in the peculiarities of theirsaline properties. Choice old water too, decanted into stout six-barrelcasks, and two pints of which is allowed every day to each soul on board;together with ample store of sea-bread, previously reduced to a state ofpetrifaction, with a view to preserve it either from decay or consumptionin the ordinary mode, are likewise provided for the nourishment andgastronomic enjoyment of the crew.

  But not to speak of the quality of these articles of sailors' fare, theabundance in which they are put on board a whaling vessel is almostincredible. Oftentimes, when we had occasion to break out in the hold, andI beheld the successive tiers of casks and barrels, whose contents wereall destined to be consumed in due course by the ship's company, my hearthas sunk within me.

  Although, as a general case, a ship unlucky in falling in with whalescontinues to cruise after them until she has barely sufficient provisionsremaining to take her home, turning round then quietly and making the bestof her way to her friends, yet there are instances when even this naturalobstacle to the further prosecution of the voyage is overcome byheadstrong captains, who, bartering the fruits of their hard-earned toilsfor a new supply of provisions in some of the ports of Chili or Peru,begin the voyage afresh with unabated zeal and perseverance. It is in vainthat the owners write urgent letters to him to sail for home, and fortheir sake to bring back the ship, since it appears he can put nothing inher. Not he. He has registered a vow: he will fill his vessel with goodsperm oil, or failing to do so, never again strike Yankee soundings.

  I heard of one whaler, which after many years' absence was given up forlost. The last that had been heard of her was a shadowy report of herhaving touched at some of those unstable islands in the far Pacific, whoseeccentric wanderings are carefully noted in each new edition of the SouthSea charts. After a long interval, however, the _Perseverance_--for thatwas her name--was spoken somewhere in the vicinity of the ends of theearth, cruising along as leisurely as ever, her sails all bepatched andbequilted with rope-yarns, her spars fished with old pipe staves, and herrigging knotted and spliced in every possible direction. Her crew wascomposed of some twenty venerable Greenwich-pensioner-looking old salts,who just managed to hobble about deck. The ends of all the running ropes,with the exception of the signal halyards and poop-down-haul, were rovethrough snatch-blocks, and led to the capstan or windlass, so that not ayard was braced or a sail set without the assistance of machinery.

  Her hull was encrusted with barnacles, which completely encased her. Threepet sharks followed in her wake, and every day came alongside to regalethemselves from the contents of the cook's bucket, which were pitched overto them. A vast shoal of bonetas and albicores always kept her company.

  Such was the account I heard of this vessel, and the remembrance of italways haunted me; what eventually became of her I never learned; at anyrate she never reached home, and I suppose she is still regularly tackingtwice in the twenty-four hours somewhere off Buggerry Island, or theDevil's-Tail Peak.

  Having said thus much touching the usual length of these voyages, when Iinform the reader that ours had as it were just commenced, we being onlyfifteen months out, and even at that time hailed as a late arrival, andboarded for news, he will readily perceive that there was little toencourage one in looking forward to the future, especially as I had alwayshad a presentiment that we should make an unfortunate voyage, and ourexperience so far had justified the expectation.

  I may here state, and on my faith as an honest man, that some time afterarriving home from my adventures, I learned that this vessel was still inthe Pacific, and that she had met with very poor success in the fishery.Very many of her crew, also, left her; and her voyage lasted about fiveyears.

  But to return to my narrative. Placed in these circumstances, then, withno prospect of matters mending if I remained aboard the _Dolly_, I at oncemade up my mind to leave her: to be sure, it was rather an ingloriousthing to steal away privately from those at whose hands I had receivedwrongs and outrages that I could not resent; but how was such a course tobe avoided when it was the only alternative left me? Having made up mymind, I proceeded to acquire all the information I could obtain relatingto the island and its inhabitants, with a view of shaping my plans ofescape accordingly. The result of these inquiries I will now state, inorder that the ensuing narrative may be the bett
er understood.

  The bay of Nukuheva, in which we were then lying, is an expanse of waternot unlike in figure the space included within the limits of a horse-shoe.It is, perhaps, nine miles in circumference. You approach it from the seaby a narrow entrance, flanked on either side by two small twin isletswhich soar conically to the height of some five hundred feet. From thesethe shore recedes on both hands, and describes a deep semicircle.

  From the verge of the water the land rises uniformly on all sides, withgreen and sloping acclivities, until from gently rolling hillsides andmoderate elevations it insensibly swells into lofty and majestic heights,whose blue outlines, ranged all around, close in the view. The beautifulaspect of the shore is heightened by deep and romantic glens, which comedown to it at almost equal distances, all apparently radiating from acommon centre, and the upper extremities of which are lost to the eyebeneath the shadow of the mountains. Down each of these little valleysflows a clear stream, here and there assuming the form of a slendercascade, then stealing invisibly along until it bursts upon the sightagain in larger and more noisy waterfalls, and at last demurely wandersalong to the sea.

  The houses of the natives, constructed of the yellow bamboo, tastefullytwisted together in a kind of wickerwork, and thatched with the longtapering leaves of the palmetto, are scattered irregularly along thesevalleys beneath the shady branches of the cocoa-nut trees.

  Nothing can exceed the imposing scenery of this bay. Viewed from our shipas she lay at anchor in the middle of the harbour, it presented theappearance of a vast natural amphitheatre in decay, and overgrown withvines, the deep glens that furrowed its sides appearing like enormousfissures caused by the ravages of time. Very often when lost in admirationat its beauty, I have experienced a pang of regret that a scene soenchanting should be hidden from the world in these remote seas, andseldom meet the eyes of devoted lovers of nature.

  Besides this bay the shores of the island are indented by several otherextensive inlets, into which descend broad and verdant valleys. These areinhabited by as many distinct tribes of savages, who, although speakingkindred dialects of a common language, and having the same religion andlaws, have from time immemorial waged hereditary warfare against eachother. The intervening mountains, generally two or three thousand feetabove the level of the sea, geographically define the territories of eachof these hostile tribes, who never cross them, save on some expedition ofwar or plunder. Immediately adjacent to Nukuheva, and only separated fromit by the mountains seen from the harbour, lies the lovely valley ofHappar, whose inmates cherish the most friendly relations with theinhabitants of Nukuheva. On the other side of Happar, and closelyadjoining it, is the magnificent valley of the dreaded Typees, theunappeasable enemies of both these tribes.

  These celebrated warriors appear to inspire the other islanders withunspeakable terrors. Their very name is a frightful one; for the word"Typee" in the Marquesan dialect signifies a lover of human flesh. It israther singular that the title should have been bestowed upon themexclusively, inasmuch as the natives of all this group are irreclaimablecannibals. The name may, perhaps, have been given to denote the peculiarferocity of this clan, and to convey a special stigma along with it.

  These same Typees enjoy a prodigious notoriety all over the islands. Thenatives of Nukuheva would frequently recount in pantomime to our ship'scompany their terrible feats, and would show the marks of wounds they hadreceived in desperate encounters with them. When ashore they would, try tofrighten us by pointing to one of their own number, and calling him aTypee, manifesting no little surprise that we did not take to our heels atso terrible an announcement. It was quite amusing, too, to see with whatearnestness they disclaimed all cannibal propensities on their own part,while they denounced their enemies--the Typees--as inveterate gormandizersof human flesh; but this is a peculiarity to which I shall hereafter haveoccasion to allude.

  Although I was convinced that the inhabitants of our bay were as arrantcannibals as any of the other tribes on the island, still I could not butfeel a particular and most unqualified repugnance to the aforesaid Typees.Even before visiting the Marquesas, I had heard from men who had touchedat the group on former voyages some revolting stories in connection withthese savages; and fresh in my remembrance was the adventure of the masterof the _Katherine_, who only a few months previous, imprudently venturinginto this bay in an armed boat for the purpose of barter, was seized bythe natives, carried back a little distance into their valley, and wasonly saved from a cruel death by the intervention of a young girl, whofacilitated his escape by night along the beach to Nukuheva.

  I had heard, too, of an English vessel that many years ago, after a wearycruise, sought to enter the bay of Nukuheva, and arriving within two orthree miles of the land, was met by a large canoe filled with natives, whooffered to lead the way to the place of their destination. The captain,unacquainted with the localities of the island, joyfully acceded to theproposition--the canoe paddled on and the ship followed. She was soonconducted to a beautiful inlet, and dropped her anchor in its watersbeneath the shadows of the lofty shore. That same night the perfidiousTypees, who had thus inveigled her into their fatal bay, flocked aboardthe doomed vessel by hundreds, and at a given signal murdered every soulon board.