The Coral Island

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

  BLOODY BILL--DARK SURMISES--A STRANGE SAIL, AND A STRANGE CREW, AND ASTILL STRANGER CARGO--NEW REASONS FOR FAVOURING MISSIONARIES--AMURDEROUS MASSACRE, AND THOUGHTS THEREON.

  Three weeks after the conversation narrated in the last chapter I wasstanding on the quarter-deck of the schooner, watching the gambols of ashoal of porpoises that swam round us. It was a dead calm--one of thosestill, hot, sweltering days so common in the Pacific, when nature seemsto have gone to sleep, and the only thing in water or in air that provesher still alive is her long, deep breathing in the swell of the mightysea. No cloud floated in the deep blue above, no ripple broke thereflected blue below. The sun shone fiercely in the sky, and a ball offire blazed with almost equal power from out the bosom of the water. Sointensely still was it, and so perfectly transparent was the surface ofthe deep, that had it not been for the long swell already alluded to, wemight have believed the surrounding universe to be a huge, blue, liquidball, and our little ship the one solitary material speck in allcreation floating in the midst of it.

  No sound broke on our ears save the soft puff now and then of aporpoise, the slow creak of the masts as we swayed gently on the swell,the patter of the reef-points, and the occasional flap of the hangingsails. An awning covered the fore and after parts of the schooner,under which the men composing the watch on deck lolled in sleepyindolence, overcome with excessive heat. Bloody Bill, as the meninvariably called him, was standing at the tiller; but his post for thepresent was a sinecure, and he whiled away the time by alternatelygazing in dreamy abstraction at the compass in the binnacle and bywalking to the taffrail in order to spit into the sea. In one of theseturns he came near to where I was standing, and leaning over the side,looked long and earnestly down into the blue wave.

  This man, although he was always taciturn and often surly, was the onlyhuman being on board with whom I had the slightest desire to becomebetter acquainted. The other men, seeing that I did not relish theircompany, and knowing that I was a protege of the captain, treated mewith total indifference. Bloody Bill, it is true, did the same; but asthis was his conduct to every one else, it was not peculiar in referenceto me. Once or twice I tried to draw him into conversation, but healways turned away after a few cold monosyllables. As he now leanedover the taffrail, close beside me, I said to him:

  "Bill, why is it that you are so gloomy? Why do you never speak to anyone?"

  Bill smiled slightly as he replied, "Why, I s'pose it's because I hain'tgot nothin' to say!"

  "That's strange," said I musingly. "You look like a man that couldthink, and such men can usually speak."

  "So they can, youngster," rejoined Bill somewhat sternly; "and I couldspeak too if I had a mind to, but what's the use o' speakin' here? Themen only open their mouths to curse and swear, and they seem to find itentertainin'; but I don't, so I hold my tongue."

  "Well, Bill, that's true, and I would rather not hear you speak at allthan hear you speak like the other men. But I don't swear, Bill; so youmight talk to me sometimes, I think. Besides, I'm weary of spending dayafter day in this way, without a single soul to say a pleasant word to.I've been used to friendly conversation, Bill, and I really would takeit kind if you would talk with me a little now and then."

  Bill looked at me in surprise, and I thought I observed a sad expressionpass across his sunburned face.

  "An' where have you been used to friendly conversation?" said Bill,looking down again into the sea. "Not on that Coral Island, I take it?"

  "Yes, indeed," said I energetically. "I have spent many of the happiestmonths in my life on that Coral Island;" and without waiting to befurther questioned, I launched out into a glowing account of the happylife that Jack and Peterkin and I had spent together, and relatedminutely every circumstance that befell us while on the island.

  "Boy, boy," said Bill in a voice so deep that it startled me, "this isno place for you!"

  "That's true," said I. "I am of little use on board, and I don't likemy comrades; but I can't help it, and at any rate I hope to be freeagain soon."

  "Free?" said Bill, looking at me in surprise.

  "Yes, free," returned I. "The captain said he would put me ashore afterthis trip was over."

  "_This trip_! Hark'ee, boy," said Bill, lowering his voice, "what saidthe captain to you the day you came aboard?"

  "He said that he was a trader in sandal-wood, and no pirate, and told methat if I would join him for this trip he would give me a good share ofthe profits, or put me on shore in some civilised island if I chose."

  Bill's brows lowered savagely as he muttered, "Ay, he said truth when hetold you he was a sandal-wood trader, but he lied when--"

  "Sail ho!" shouted the lookout at the masthead.

  "Where away?" cried Bill, springing to the tiller; while the men,startled by the sudden cry, jumped up and gazed round the horizon.

  "On the starboard quarter, hull down, sir," answered the lookout.

  At this moment the captain came on deck, and mounting into the rigging,surveyed the sail through the glass. Then sweeping his eye round thehorizon, he gazed steadily at the particular point.

  "Take in topsails!" shouted the captain, swinging himself down on thedeck by the main-back stay.

  "Take in topsails!" roared the first mate.

  "Ay, ay, sir-r-r!" answered the men as they sprang into the rigging andwent aloft like cats.

  Instantly all was bustle on board the hitherto quiet schooner. Thetopsails were taken in and stowed, the men stood by the sheets andhalyards, and the captain gazed anxiously at the breeze, which was nowrushing towards us like a sheet of dark blue. In a few seconds itstruck us. The schooner trembled, as if in surprise at the suddenonset, while she fell away; then, bending gracefully to the wind, asthough in acknowledgment of her subjection, she cut through the waveswith her sharp prow like a dolphin, while Bill directed her coursetowards the strange sail.

  In half-an-hour we neared her sufficiently to make out that she was aschooner, and from the clumsy appearance of her masts and sails wejudged her to be a trader. She evidently did not like our appearance,for the instant the breeze reached her she crowded all sail and showedus her stern. As the breeze had moderated a little, our topsails wereagain shaken out; and it soon became evident--despite the proverb, "Astern chase is a long one"--that we doubled her speed, and wouldoverhaul her speedily. When within a mile we hoisted British colours,but receiving no acknowledgment, the captain ordered a shot to be firedacross her bows. In a moment, to my surprise, a large portion of thebottom of the boat amidships was removed, and in the hole thus exposedappeared an immense brass gun. It worked on a swivel, and was elevatedby means of machinery. It was quickly loaded and fired. The heavy ballstruck the water a few yards ahead of the chase, and ricochetting intothe air, plunged into the sea a mile beyond it.

  This produced the desired effect. The strange vessel backed hertopsails and hove-to, while we ranged up and lay-to about a hundredyards off.

  "Lower the boat!" cried the captain.

  In a second the boat was lowered and manned by a part of the crew, whowere all armed with cutlasses and pistols. As the captain passed me toget into it he said, "Jump into the stern-sheets, Ralph; I may wantyou." I obeyed, and in ten minutes more we were standing on thestranger's deck. We were all much surprised at the sight that met oureyes. Instead of a crew of such sailors as we were accustomed to see,there were only fifteen blacks, standing on the quarter-deck, andregarding us with looks of undisguised alarm. They were totallyunarmed, and most of them unclothed. One or two, however, wore portionsof European attire. One had on a pair of duck trousers, which were muchtoo large for him, and stuck out in a most ungainly manner; another worenothing but the common, scanty, native garment round the loins and ablack beaver hat; but the most ludicrous personage of all, and one whoseemed to be chief, was a tall, middle-aged man, of a mild, simpleexpression of countenance, who wore a white cotton shirt, aswallow-tailed coat, and
a straw hat, while his black, brawny legs weretotally uncovered below the knees.

  "Where's the commander of this ship?" inquired our captain, stepping upto this individual.

  "I is cap'in," he answered, taking off his straw hat and making a lowbow.

  "You!" said our captain in surprise. "Where do you come from, and whereare you bound? What cargo have you aboard?"

  "We is come," answered the man with the swallow-tail, "from Aitutaki; wewas go for Rarotonga. We is native miss'nary ship; our name is de_Olive Branch_; an' our cargo is two tons cocoa-nuts, seventy pigs,twenty cats, and de Gosp'l."

  This announcement was received by the crew of our vessel with a shout oflaughter, which, however, was peremptorily checked by the captain, whoseexpression instantly changed from one of severity to that of frankurbanity as he advanced towards the missionary and shook him warmly bythe hand.

  "I am very glad to have fallen in with you," said he, "and I wish youmuch success in your missionary labours. Pray take me to your cabin, asI wish to converse with you privately."

  The missionary immediately took him by the hand, and as he led him awayI heard him saying, "me most glad to find you trader; we t'ought you bepirate. You very like one 'bout the masts."

  What conversation the captain had with this man I never heard; but hecame on deck again in a quarter of an hour, and shaking hands cordiallywith the missionary, ordered us into our boat and returned to theschooner, which was immediately put before the wind. In a few minutesthe _Olive Branch_ was left far behind us.

  That afternoon, as I was down below at dinner, I heard the men talkingabout this curious ship.

  "I wonder," said one, "why our captain looked so sweet on yonswallow-tailed supercargo o' pigs and Gospels? If it had been anordinary trader, now, he would have taken as many o' the pigs as herequired and sent the ship with all on board to the bottom."

  "Why, Dick, you must be new to these seas if you don't know that!" criedanother. "The captain cares as much for the Gospel as you do (an'that's precious little); but he knows, and everybody knows, that theonly place among the southern islands where a ship can put in and getwhat she wants in comfort is where the Gospel has been sent to. Thereare hundreds o' islands, at this blessed moment, where you might as welljump straight into a shark's maw as land without a band o' thirtycomrades armed to the teeth to back you."

  "Ay," said a man with a deep scar over his right eye. "Dick's new tothe work. But if the captain takes us for a cargo o' sandal-wood to theFeejees, he'll get a taste o' these black gentry in their nativecondition. For my part, I don't know, and I don't care, what the Gospeldoes to them; but I know that when any o' the islands chance to get it,trade goes all smooth and easy. But where they ha'n't got it, Beelzebubhimself could hardly desire better company."

  "Well, you ought to be a good judge," cried another, laughing, "foryou've never kept any company but the worst all your life!"

  "Ralph Rover!" shouted a voice down the hatchway; "captain wants you,aft."

  Springing up the ladder, I hastened to the cabin, pondering as I wentthe strange testimony borne by these men to the effect of the Gospel onsavage natures--testimony which, as it was perfectly disinterested, Ihad no doubt whatever was strictly true.

  On coming again on deck I found Bloody Bill at the helm, and as we werealone together, I tried to draw him into conversation. After repeatingto him the conversation in the forecastle about the missionaries, Isaid:

  "Tell me, Bill: is this schooner really a trader in sandal-wood?"

  "Yes, Ralph, she is; but she's just as really a pirate. The black flagyou saw flying at the peak was no deception."

  "Then how can you say she's a trader?" asked I.

  "Why, as to that, she trades when she can't take by force; but she takesby force when she can, in preference. Ralph," he added, lowering hisvoice, "if you had seen the bloody deeds that I have witnessed done onthese decks, you would not need to ask if we were pirates. But you'llfind it out soon enough. As for the missionaries, the captain favoursthem because they are useful to him. The South Sea Islanders are suchincarnate fiends that they are the better of being tamed, and themissionaries are the only men who can do it."

  Our track after this lay through several clusters of small islets, amongwhich we were becalmed more than once. During this part of our voyagethe watch on deck and the lookout at the masthead were more than usuallyvigilant, as we were not only in danger of being attacked by the natives(who, I learned from the captain's remarks, were a bloody and deceitfultribe at this group), but we were also exposed to much risk from themultitudes of coral reefs that rose up in the channels between theislands--some of them just above the surface, others a few feet belowit. Our precautions against the savages, I found, were indeednecessary.

  One day we were becalmed among a group of small islands, most of whichappeared to be uninhabited. As we were in want of fresh water, thecaptain sent the boat ashore to bring off a cask or two. But we weremistaken in thinking there were no natives; for scarcely had we drawnnear to the shore when a band of naked blacks rushed out of the bush andassembled on the beach, brandishing their clubs and spears in athreatening manner. Our men were well armed, but refrained from showingany signs of hostility, and rowed nearer in order to converse with thenatives; and I now found that more than one of the crew couldimperfectly speak dialects of the language peculiar to the South SeaIslanders. When within forty yards of the shore we ceased rowing, andthe first mate stood up to address the multitude; but instead ofanswering us, they replied with a shower of stones, some of which cutthe men severely. Instantly our muskets were levelled, and a volley wasabout to be fired when the captain hailed us in a loud voice from theschooner, which lay not more than five or six hundred yards off theshore.

  "Don't fire!" he shouted angrily. "Pull off to the point ahead of you!"

  The men looked surprised at this order, and uttered deep curses as theyprepared to obey; for their wrath was roused, and they burned forrevenge. Three or four of them hesitated, and seemed disposed tomutiny.

  "Don't distress yourselves, lads," said the mate, while a bitter smilecurled his lip. "Obey orders. The captain's not the man to take aninsult tamely. If Long Tom does not speak presently, I'll give myselfto the sharks."

  The men smiled significantly as they pulled from the shore, which wasnow crowded with a dense mass of savages, amounting probably to five orsix hundred. We had not rowed off above a couple of hundred yards whena loud roar thundered over the sea, and the big brass gun sent awithering shower of grape point-blank into the midst of the living mass,through which a wide lane was cut; while a yell, the like of which Icould not have imagined, burst from the miserable survivors as they fledto the woods. Amongst the heaps of dead that lay on the sand just wherethey had fallen, I could distinguish mutilated forms writhing in agony;while ever and anon one and another rose convulsively from out the mass,endeavoured to stagger towards the wood, and ere they had taken a fewsteps, fell and wallowed on the bloody sand. My blood curdled within meas I witnessed this frightful and wanton slaughter; but I had littletime to think, for the captain's deep voice came again over the watertowards us: "Pull ashore, lads, and fill your water-casks!" The menobeyed in silence, and it seemed to me as if even their hard hearts wereshocked by the ruthless deed. On gaining the mouth of the rivulet atwhich we intended to take in water, we found it flowing with blood; forthe greater part of those who were slain had been standing on the banksof the stream, a short way above its mouth. Many of the wretchedcreatures had fallen into it; and we found one body, which had beencarried down, jammed between two rocks, with the staring eyeballs turnedtowards us, and his black hair waving in the ripples of the blood-redstream. No one dared to oppose our landing now, so we carried our casksto a pool above the murdered group, and having filled them, returned onboard. Fortunately a breeze sprang up soon afterwards, and carried usaway from the dreadful spot; but it could not waft me away from thememory of what I had seen.

&nbs
p; "And this," thought I, gazing in horror at the captain, who, with aquiet look of indifference, leaned upon the taffrail, smoking a cigarand contemplating the fertile green islets as they passed like a lovelypicture before our eyes--"this is the man who favours the missionariesbecause they are useful to him and can tame the savages better than anyone else can do it!" Then I wondered in my mind whether it werepossible for any missionary to tame _him_!