The Coral Island

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

  A MONSTER WAVE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES--THE BOAT LOST AND FOUND--PETERKIN'STERRIBLE ACCIDENT--SUPPLIES OF FOOD FOR A VOYAGE IN THE BOAT--WE VISITPENGUIN ISLAND, AND ARE AMAZED BEYOND MEASURE--ACCOUNT OF THE PENGUINS.

  One day, not long after our little boat was finished, we were sitting onthe rocks at Spouting Cliff, and talking of an excursion which weintended to make to Penguin Island the next day.

  "You see," said Peterkin, "it might be all very well for a stupid fellowlike me to remain here and leave the penguins alone; but it would bequite inconsistent with your characters as philosophers to remain anylonger in ignorance of the habits and customs of these birds, so thesooner we go the better."

  "Very true," said I. "There is nothing I desire so much as to have acloser inspection of them."

  "And I think," said Jack, "that you had better remain at home, Peterkin,to take care of the cat; for I'm sure the hogs will be at it in yourabsence, out of revenge for your killing their great-grandmother sorecklessly."

  "Stay at home!" cried Peterkin. "My dear fellow, you would certainlylose your way, or get upset, if I were not there to take care of you."

  "Ah, true!" said Jack gravely; "that did not occur to me. No doubt youmust go. Our boat does require a good deal of ballast; and all that yousay, Peterkin, carries so much weight with it that we won't need stonesif you go."

  Now, while my companions were talking, a notable event occurred, which,as it is not generally known, I shall be particular in recording here.

  While we were talking, as I have said, we noticed a dark line, like alow cloud or fog-bank, on the seaward horizon. The day was a fine one,though cloudy, and a gentle breeze was blowing; but the sea was notrougher, or the breaker on the reef higher, than usual. At first wethought that this looked like a thundercloud, and as we had had a gooddeal of broken weather of late, accompanied by occasional peals ofthunder, we supposed that a storm must be approaching. Gradually,however, this line seemed to draw nearer without spreading up over thesky, as would certainly have been the case if it had been a storm-cloud.Still nearer it came, and soon we saw that it was moving swiftlytowards the island; but there was no sound till it reached the islandsout at sea. As it passed these islands we observed, with no littleanxiety, that a cloud of white foam encircled them, and burst in sprayinto the air; it was accompanied by a loud roar. This led us toconjecture that the approaching object was an enormous wave of the sea;but we had no idea how large it was till it came near to ourselves.When it approached the outer reef, however, we were awestruck with itsunusual magnitude; and we sprang to our feet, and clambered hastily upto the highest point of the precipice, under an indefinable feeling offear.

  I have said before that the reef opposite Spouting Cliff was very nearto the shore, while just in front of the bower it was at a considerabledistance out to sea. Owing to this formation, the wave reached the reefat the latter point before it struck at the foot of Spouting Cliff. Theinstant it touched the reef we became aware, for the first time, of itsawful magnitude. It burst completely over the reef at all points with aroar that seemed louder to me than thunder, and this roar continued forsome seconds while the wave rolled gradually along towards the cliff onwhich we stood. As its crest reared before us we felt that we were ingreat danger, and turned to flee; but we were too late. With a crashthat seemed to shake the solid rock, the gigantic billow fell, andinstantly the spouting-holes sent up a gush of waterspouts with suchforce that they shrieked on issuing from their narrow vents. It seemedto us as if the earth had been blown up with water. We were stunned andconfused by the shock, and so drenched and blinded with spray that weknew not for a few moments whither to flee for shelter. At length weall three gained an eminence beyond the reach of the water. But what ascene of devastation met our gaze as we looked along the shore! Thisenormous wave not only burst over the reef, but continued its way acrossthe lagoon, and fell on the sandy beach of the island with such forcethat it passed completely over it and dashed into the woods, levellingthe smaller trees and bushes in its headlong course.

  On seeing this, Jack said he feared our bower must have been swept away,and that the boat, which was on the beach, must have been utterlydestroyed. Our hearts sank within us as we thought of this, and wehastened round through the woods towards our home. On reaching it wefound, to our great relief of mind, that the force of the wave had beenexpended just before reaching the bower; but the entrance to it wasalmost blocked up by the torn-up bushes and tangled heaps of seaweed.Having satisfied ourselves as to the bower, we hurried to the spot wherethe boat had been left; but no boat was there. The spot on which it hadstood was vacant, and no sign of it could we see on looking around us.

  "It may have been washed up into the woods," said Jack, hurrying up thebeach as he spoke. Still no boat was to be seen, and we were about togive ourselves over to despair when Peterkin called to Jack and said:

  "Jack, my friend, you were once so exceedingly sagacious and wise as tomake me acquainted with the fact that cocoa-nuts grow upon trees. Willyou now be so good as to inform me what sort of fruit that is growing onthe top of yonder bush? for I confess to being ignorant, or at leastdoubtful, on the point."

  We looked towards the bush indicated, and there, to our surprise, beheldour little boat snugly nestled among the leaves. We were very muchoverjoyed at this, for we would have suffered any loss rather than theloss of our boat. We found that the wave had actually borne the boat onits crest from the beach into the woods, and there launched it into theheart of this bush, which was extremely fortunate; for had it beentossed against a rock or a tree, it would have been dashed to pieces,whereas it had not received the smallest injury. It was no easy matter,however, to get it out of the bush and down to the sea again. This costus two days of hard labour to accomplish.

  We had also much ado to clear away the rubbish from before the bower,and spent nearly a week in constant labour ere we got the neighbourhoodto look as clean and orderly as before; for the uprooted bushes andseaweed that lay on the beach formed a more dreadfully confused-lookingmass than one who had not seen the place after the inundation couldconceive.

  Before leaving the subject I may mention, for the sake of those whointerest themselves in the curious natural phenomena of our world, thatthis gigantic wave occurs regularly on some of the islands of thePacific once, and sometimes twice, in the year. I heard this stated bythe missionaries during my career in those seas. They could not tell mewhether it visited all of the islands, but I was certainly assured thatit occurred periodically in some of them.

  After we had got our home put to rights, and cleared of the debris ofthe inundation, we again turned our thoughts to paying the penguins avisit. The boat was therefore overhauled and a few repairs done. Thenwe prepared a supply of provisions, for we intended to be absent atleast a night or two--perhaps longer. This took us some time to do;for, while Jack was busy with the boat, Peterkin was sent into the woodsto spear a hog or two, and had to search long, sometimes, ere he foundthem. Peterkin was usually sent on this errand when we wanted a porkchop (which was not seldom), because he was so active and could run sowonderfully fast that he found no difficulty in overtaking the hogs; butbeing dreadfully reckless, he almost invariably tumbled over stumps andstones in the course of his wild chase, and seldom returned home withouthaving knocked the skin off his shins. Once, indeed, a more seriousaccident happened to him. He had been out all the morning alone, anddid not return at the usual time to dinner. We wondered at this, forPeterkin was always very punctual at the dinner-hour. As supper-timedrew near we began to be anxious about him, and at length sallied forthto search the woods. For a long time we sought in vain; but a littlebefore dark we came upon the tracks of the hogs, which we followed upuntil we came to the brow of a rather steep bank or precipice. Lookingover this, we beheld Peterkin lying in a state of insensibility at thefoot, with his cheek resting on the snout of a little pig, which waspinned to the earth by the spear. We wer
e dreadfully alarmed, buthastened to bathe his forehead with water, and had soon the satisfactionof seeing him revive. After we had carried him home, he related to ushow the thing had happened.

  "You must know," said he, "I walked about all the forenoon, till I wasas tired as an old donkey, without seeing a single grunter--not so muchas a track of one; but as I was determined not to return empty-handed, Iresolved to go without my dinner, and--"

  "What!" exclaimed Jack, "did you _really_ resolve to do that?"

  "Now, Jack, hold your tongue," returned Peterkin. "I say that Iresolved to forego my dinner and to push to the head of the smallvalley, where I felt pretty sure of discovering the hogs. I soon foundthat I was on the right scent, for I had scarcely walked half-a-mile inthe direction of the small plum-tree we found there the other day when asqueak fell on my ear. `Ho, ho,' said I, `there you go, my boys;' and Ihurried up the glen. I soon started them, and singling out a fat pig,ran tilt at him. In a few seconds I was up with him, and stuck my spearright through his dumpy body. Just as I did so, I saw that we were onthe edge of a precipice--whether high or low, I knew not; but I had beenrunning at such a pace that I could not stop, so the pig and I gave ahowl in concert and went plunging over together. I remembered nothingmore after that till I came to my senses, and found you bathing mytemples, and Ralph wringing his hands over me."

  But although Peterkin was often unfortunate in the way of gettingtumbles, he was successful on the present occasion in hunting, andreturned before evening with three very nice little hogs. I also wassuccessful in my visit to the mud-flats, where I killed several ducks.So that when we launched and loaded our boat at sunrise the followingmorning, we found our store of provisions to be more than sufficient.Part had been cooked the night before, and on taking note of thedifferent items, we found the account to stand thus:

  10 Bread-fruits (two baked, eight unbaked). 20 Yams (six roasted, the rest raw). 6 Taro-roots. 50 Fine large plums. 6 Cocoa-nuts, ripe. 6 Ditto, green (for drinking). 4 Large ducks and two small ones, raw. 3 Cold roast pigs, with stuffing.

  I may here remark that the stuffing had been devised by Peterkinspecially for the occasion. He kept the manner of its compounding aprofound secret, so I cannot tell what it was; but I can say, with muchconfidence, that we found it to be atrociously bad, and after the firsttasting, scraped it carefully out and threw it overboard. We calculatedthat this supply would last us for several days; but we afterwards foundthat it was much more than we required, especially in regard to thecocoa-nuts, of which we found large supplies wherever we went. However,as Peterkin remarked, it was better to have too much than too little, aswe knew not to what straits we might be put during our voyage.

  It was a very calm, sunny morning when we launched forth and rowed overthe lagoon towards the outlet in the reef, and passed between the twogreen islets that guarded the entrance. We experienced some difficultyand no little danger in passing the surf of the breaker, and shipped agood deal of water in the attempt; but once past the billow, we foundourselves floating placidly on the long, oily swell that rose and fellslowly as it rolled over the wide ocean.

  Penguin Island lay on the other side of our own island, at about a milebeyond the outer reef, and we calculated that it must be at least twentymiles distant by the way we should have to go. We might, indeed, haveshortened the way by coasting round our island inside of the lagoon, andgoing out at the passage in the reef nearly opposite to Penguin Island;but we preferred to go by the open sea--first, because it was moreadventurous, and secondly, because we should have the pleasure of againfeeling the motion of the deep, which we all loved very much, not beingliable to sea-sickness.

  "I wish we had a breeze," said Jack.

  "So do I," cried Peterkin, resting on his oar and wiping his heatedbrow; "pulling is hard work. Oh dear, if we could only catch a hundredor two of these gulls, tie them to the boat with long strings, and makethem fly as we want them, how capital it would be!"

  "Or bore a hole through a shark's tail and reeve a rope through it, eh?"remarked Jack. "But, I say, it seems that my wish is going to begranted, for here comes a breeze. Ship your oar, Peterkin.--Up with themast, Ralph; I'll see to the sail. Mind your helm; look out forsqualls!"

  This last speech was caused by the sudden appearance of a dark-blue lineon the horizon, which, in an incredibly short space of time, swept downon us, lashing up the sea in white foam as it went. We presented thestern of the boat to its first violence, and in a few seconds itmoderated into a steady breeze, to which we spread our sail and flewmerrily over the waves. Although the breeze died away soon afterwards,it had been so stiff while it lasted that we were carried over thegreater part of our way before it fell calm again; so that when theflapping of the sail against the mast told us that it was time to resumethe oars, we were not much more than a mile from Penguin Island.

  "There go the soldiers!" cried Peterkin as we came in sight of it. "Howspruce their white trousers look this morning! I wonder if they willreceive us kindly?--D'you think they are hospitable, Jack?"

  "Don't talk, Peterkin, but pull away, and you shall see shortly."

  As we drew near to the island, we were much amused by the manoeuvres andappearance of these strange birds. They seemed to be of differentspecies: for some had crests on their heads, while others had none; andwhile some were about the size of a goose, others appeared nearly aslarge as a swan. We also saw a huge albatross soaring above the headsof the penguins. It was followed and surrounded by numerous flocks ofsea-gulls. Having approached to within a few yards of the island, whichwas a low rock, with no other vegetation on it than a few bushes, we layon our oars and gazed at the birds with surprise and pleasure, theyreturning our gaze with interest. We now saw that their soldierlikeappearance was owing to the stiff erect manner in which they sat ontheir short legs--"bolt-upright," as Peterkin expressed it. They hadblack heads, long, sharp beaks, white breasts, and bluish backs. Theirwings were so short that they looked more like the fins of a fish, andindeed we soon saw that they used them for the purpose of swimming underwater. There were no quills on these wings, but a sort of scalyfeathers, which also thickly covered their bodies. Their legs wereshort, and placed so far back that the birds, while on land, wereobliged to stand quite upright in order to keep their balance; but inthe water they floated like other water-fowl. At first we were sostunned with the clamour which they and other sea-birds kept up aroundus that we knew not which way to look, for they covered the rocks inthousands; but as we continued to gaze, we observed several quadrupeds(as we thought) walking in the midst of the penguins.

  "Pull in a bit," cried Peterkin, "and let's see what these are. Theymust be fond of noisy company to consort with such creatures."

  To our surprise, we found that these were no other than penguins whichhad gone down on all fours, and were crawling among the bushes on theirfeet and wings, just like quadrupeds. Suddenly one big old bird, thathad been sitting on a point very near to us, gazing in muteastonishment, became alarmed, and scuttling down the rocks, plumped orfell, rather than ran, into the sea. It dived in a moment, and, a fewseconds afterwards, came out of the water far ahead with such a spring,and such a dive back into the sea again, that we could scarcely believeit was not a fish that had leaped in sport.

  "That beats everything!" said Peterkin, rubbing his nose, and screwingup his face with an expression of exasperated amazement. "I've heard ofa thing being neither fish, flesh, nor fowl; but I never did expect tolive to see a brute that was all three together--at once--in one! Butlook there!" he continued, pointing with a look of resignation to theshore--"look there! there's no end to it. What has that brute got underits tail?"

  We turned to look in the direction pointed out, and there saw a penguinwalking slowly and very sedately along the shore with an egg under itstail. There were several others, we observed, burdened in the same way;and we found afterwards that these were a species of penguin that alwayscarried their eggs so. Indeed, they had a
most convenient cavity forthe purpose, just between the tail and the legs. We were very muchimpressed with the regularity and order of this colony. The islandseemed to be apportioned out into squares, of which each penguinpossessed one, and sat in stiff solemnity in the middle of it, or took aslow march up and down the spaces between. Some were hatching theireggs, but others were feeding their young ones in a manner that causedus to laugh not a little. The mother stood on a mound or raised rock,while the young one stood patiently below her on the ground. Suddenlythe mother raised her head and uttered a series of the most discordantcackling sounds.

  "She's going to choke," cried Peterkin.

  But this was not the case, although, I confess, she looked like it. Ina few seconds she put down her head and opened her mouth, into which theyoung one thrust its beak and seemed to suck something from her throat.Then the cackling was renewed, the sucking continued, and so theoperation of feeding was carried on till the young one was satisfied;but what she fed her little one with we could not tell.

  "Now, just look yonder!" said Peterkin in an excited tone. "If thatisn't the most abominable piece of maternal deception I ever saw! Thatrascally old lady penguin has just pitched her young one into the sea,and there's another about to follow her example."

  This indeed seemed to be the case, for on the top of a steep rock closeto the edge of the sea we observed an old penguin endeavouring to enticeher young one into the water; but the young one seemed very unwilling togo, and notwithstanding the enticements of its mother, moved very slowlytowards her. At last she went gently behind the young bird and pushedit a little towards the water, but with great tenderness, as much as tosay, "Don't be afraid, darling; I won't hurt you, my pet!" But nosooner did she get it to the edge of the rock, where it stood lookingpensively down at the sea, than she gave it a sudden and violent push,sending it headlong down the slope into the water, where its mother leftit to scramble ashore as it best could. We observed many of thememployed in doing this, and we came to the conclusion that this is theway in which old penguins teach their children to swim.

  Scarcely had we finished making our remarks on this, when we werestartled by about a dozen of the old birds hopping in the most clumsyand ludicrous manner towards the sea. The beach here was a slopingrock, and when they came to it some of them succeeded in hopping down insafety, but others lost their balance and rolled and scrambled down theslope in the most helpless manner. The instant they reached the water,however, they seemed to be in their proper element. They dived, andbounded out of it and into it again with the utmost agility; and so,diving and bounding and sputtering--for they could not fly--they wentrapidly out to sea.

  On seeing this, Peterkin turned with a grave face to us and said, "It'smy opinion that these birds are all stark, staring mad, and that this isan enchanted island. I therefore propose that we should either putabout ship and fly in terror from the spot, or land valorously on theisland and sell our lives as dearly as we can."

  "I vote for landing; so pull in, lads!" said Jack, giving a stroke withhis oar that made the boat spin. In a few seconds we ran the boat intoa little creek, where we made her fast to a projecting piece of coral,and running up the beach, entered the ranks of the penguins, armed withour cudgels and our spear. We were greatly surprised to find thatinstead of attacking us, or showing signs of fear at our approach, thesecurious birds did not move from their places until we laid hands onthem, and merely turned their eyes on us in solemn, stupid wonder as wepassed. There was one old penguin, however, that began to walk slowlytowards the sea; and Peterkin took it into his head that he would try tointerrupt its progress, so he ran between it and the sea and brandishedhis cudgel in its face. But this proved to be a resolute old bird. Itwould not retreat; nay, more, it would not cease to advance, but battledwith Peterkin bravely, and drove him before it until it reached the sea.Had Peterkin used his club he could easily have felled it, no doubt;but as he had no wish to do so cruel an act merely out of sport, he letthe bird escape.

  We spent fully three hours on this island in watching the habit of thesecurious birds; but when we finally left them, we all three concluded,after much consultation, that they were the most wonderful creatures wehad ever seen, and further, we thought it probable that they were themost wonderful creatures in the world!