The Coral Island

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THIRTY.

  THE VOYAGE--THE ISLAND, AND A CONSULTATION IN WHICH DANGER IS SCOUTED ASA THING UNWORTHY OF CONSIDERATION--RATS AND CATS--THE NATIVE TEACHER--AWFUL REVELATIONS--WONDERFUL EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY.

  Our voyage during the next two weeks was most interesting andprosperous. The breeze continued generally fair, and at all timesenabled us to lie our course; for being, as I have said before,clipper-built, the pirate schooner could lie very close to the wind andmake little leeway. We had no difficulty now in managing our sails, forJack was heavy and powerful, while Peterkin was active as a kitten.Still, however, we were a very insufficient crew for such a vessel; andif any one had proposed to us to make such a voyage in it before we hadbeen forced to go through so many hardships from necessity, we wouldhave turned away with pity from the individual making such proposal asfrom a madman. I pondered this a good deal, and at last concluded thatmen do not know how much they are capable of doing till they try, andthat we should never give way to despair in any undertaking, howeverdifficult it may seem--always supposing, however, that our cause is agood one, and that we can ask the Divine blessing on it.

  Although, therefore, we could now manage our sails easily, wenevertheless found that my pulleys were of much service to us in somethings, though Jack did laugh heartily at the uncouth arrangement ofropes and blocks, which had, to a sailor's eye, a very lumbering andclumsy appearance. But I will not drag my reader through the details ofthis voyage. Suffice it to say that, after an agreeable sail of aboutthree weeks, we arrived off the island of Mango, which I recognised atonce from the description that the pirate Bill had given me of it duringone of our conversations.

  As soon as we came within sight of it, we hove the ship to and held acouncil of war.

  "Now, boys," said Jack as we seated ourselves beside him on the cabinskylight, "before we go further in this business we must go over thepros and cons of it; for although you have so generously consented tostick by me through thick and thin, it would be unfair did I not seethat you thoroughly understand the danger of what we are about toattempt."

  "Oh, bother the danger!" cried Peterkin. "I wonder to hear you, Jack,talk of danger! When a fellow begins to talk about it, he'll soon cometo magnify it to such a degree that he'll not be fit to face it when itcomes--no more than a suckin' baby."

  "Nay, Peterkin," replied Jack gravely, "I won't be jested out of it. Igrant you that when we've once resolved to act, and have made up ourminds what to do, we should think no more of danger. But before we haveso resolved, it behoves us to look it straight in the face, and examineinto it, and walk round it; for if we flinch at a distant view, we'resure to run away when the danger is near.--Now, I understand from you,Ralph, that the island is inhabited by thorough-going, out-and-outcannibals, whose principal law is, `Might is right, and the weakest goesto the wall?'"

  "Yes," said I; "so Bill gave me to understand. He told me, however,that at the southern side of it the missionaries had obtained a footingamongst an insignificant tribe. A native teacher had been sent there bythe Wesleyans, who had succeeded in persuading the chief at that part toembrace Christianity. But instead of that being of any advantage to ourenterprise, it seems the very reverse; for the chief Tararo is adetermined heathen, and persecutes the Christians--who are far too weakin numbers to offer any resistance--and looks with dislike upon allwhite men, whom he regards as propagators of the new faith."

  "'Tis a pity," said Jack, "that the Christian tribe is so small, for weshall scarcely be safe under their protection, I fear. If Tararo takesit into his head to wish for our vessel, or to kill ourselves, he couldtake us from them by force. You say that the native missionary talksEnglish?"

  "So I believe."

  "Then, what I propose is this," said Jack. "We will run round to thesouth side of the island, and cast anchor off the Christian village. Weare too far away just now to have been descried by any of the savages,so we shall get there unobserved, and have time to arrange our plansbefore the heathen tribes know of our presence. But in doing this werun the risk of being captured by the ill-disposed tribes, and beingvery ill-used, if not--a--"

  "Roasted alive and eaten!" cried Peterkin. "Come, out with it, Jack!According to your own showing, it's well to look the danger straight inthe face."

  "Well, that _is_ the worst of it, certainly. Are you prepared, then, totake your chance of that?"

  "I've been prepared and had my mind made up long ago," cried Peterkin,swaggering about the deck with his hands thrust into his breechespockets. "The fact is, Jack, I don't believe that Tararo will be soungrateful as to eat us, and I'm quite sure that he'll be too happy togrant us whatever we ask; so the sooner we go in and win the better."

  Peterkin was wrong, however, in his estimate of savage gratitude, as thesequel will show.

  The schooner was now put before the wind, and after making a long run tothe southward, we put about and beat up for the south side of Mango,where we arrived before sunset, and hove-to off the coral reef. Here weawaited the arrival of a canoe, which immediately put off on ourrounding-to. When it arrived, a mild-looking native, of apparentlyforty years of age, came on board, and taking off his straw hat, made usa low bow. He was clad in a respectable suit of European clothes; andthe first words he uttered, as he stepped up to Jack and shook handswith him, were:

  "Good-day, gentlemen. We are happy to see you at Mango. You areheartily welcome."

  After returning his salutation, Jack exclaimed, "You must be the nativemissionary teacher of whom I have heard--are you not?"

  "I am. I have the joy to be a servant of the Lord Jesus at thisstation."

  "You're the very man I want to see, then," replied Jack; "that's lucky.Come down to the cabin, friend, and have a glass of wine. I wishparticularly to speak with you. My men there"--pointing to Peterkin andme--"will look after your people."

  "Thank you," said the teacher as he followed Jack to the cabin; "I donot drink wine or any strong drink."

  "Oh! then there's lots of water, and you can have biscuit."

  "Now, 'pon my word, that's cool!" said Peterkin; "his _men_, forsooth!Well, since we are to be men, we may as well come it as strong overthese black chaps as we can.--Hallo, there!" he cried to the half-dozenof natives who stood upon the deck, gazing in wonder at all they saw,"here's for you;" and he handed them a tray of broken biscuit and a canof water. Then thrusting his hands into his pockets, he walked up anddown the deck with an enormous swagger, whistling vociferously.

  In about half-an-hour Jack and the teacher came on deck, and the latter,bidding us a cheerful good-evening, entered his canoe and paddled to theshore. When he was gone, Peterkin stepped up to Jack, and touching hiscap, said:

  "Well, captain, have you any communications to make to your _men_?"

  "Yes," cried Jack: "ready about, mind the helm, and clew up your tongue,while I con the schooner through the passage in the reef. The teacher,who seems a first-rate fellow, says it's quite deep, and good anchoragewithin the lagoon close to the shore."

  While the vessel was slowly advancing to her anchorage, under a lightbreeze, Jack explained to us that Avatea was still on the island, livingamongst the heathens; that she had expressed a strong desire to join theChristians; but Tararo would not let her, and kept her constantly inclose confinement.

  "Moreover," continued Jack, "I find that she belongs to one of theSamoan Islands, where Christianity had been introduced long before hercapture by the heathens of a neighbouring island; and the very day aftershe was taken she was to have joined the church which had been plantedthere by that excellent body, the London Missionary Society. Theteacher tells me, too, that the poor girl has fallen in love with aChristian chief, who lives on an island some fifty miles or so to thesouth of this one, and that she is meditating a desperate attempt atescape. So, you see, we have come in the nick of time.--I fancy thatthis chief is the fellow whom you heard of, Ralph, at the island ofEmo.--Besides all this, the heathen savages are at war among t
hemselves,and there's to be a battle fought the day after to-morrow, in which theprincipal leader is Tararo; so that we'll not be able to commence ournegotiations with the rascally chief till the day after."

  The village off which we anchored was beautifully situated at the headof a small bay, from the margin of which trees of every descriptionpeculiar to the tropics rose in the richest luxuriance to the summit ofa hilly ridge, which was the line of demarcation between the possessionsof the Christians and those of the neighbouring heathen chief.

  The site of the settlement was an extensive plot of flat land,stretching in a gentle slope from the sea to the mountain. The cottagesstood several hundred yards from the beach, and were protected from theglare of the sea by the rich foliage of rows of large Barringtonia andother trees which girt the shore. The village was about a mile inlength, and perfectly straight, with a wide road down the middle, oneither side of which were rows of the tufted-topped ti-tree, whosedelicate and beautiful blossoms, hanging beneath their plume-crestedtops, added richness to the scene. The cottages of the natives werebuilt beneath these trees, and were kept in the most excellent order,each having a little garden in front, tastefully laid out and planted,while the walks were covered with black and white pebbles.

  Every house had doors and Venetian windows, painted partly withlamp-black made from the candle-nut, and partly with red ochre, whichcontrasted powerfully with the dazzling coral lime that covered thewalls. On a prominent position stood a handsome church, which was quitea curiosity in its way. It was a hundred feet long by fifty broad, andwas seated throughout to accommodate upwards of two thousand persons.It had six large folding-doors, and twelve windows with Venetian blinds;and although a large and substantial edifice, it had been built, we weretold by the teacher: in the space of two months! There was not a singleiron nail in the fabric, and the natives had constructed it chiefly withtheir stone and bone axes and other tools, having only one or two axesor tools of European manufacture. Everything around this beautiful spotwore an aspect of peace and plenty; and as we dropped our anchor withina stone's-cast of the substantial coral wharf, I could not avoidcontrasting it with the wretched village of Emo, where I had witnessedso many frightful scenes. When the teacher afterwards told me that thepeople of this tribe had become converts only a year previous to ourarrival, and that they had been living before that in the practice ofthe most bloody system of idolatry, I could not refrain from exclaiming,"What a convincing proof that Christianity is of God!"

  On landing from our little boat we were received with a warm welcome bythe teacher and his wife, the latter being also a native, clothed in asimple European gown and a straw bonnet. The shore was lined withhundreds of natives, whose persons were all more or less clothed withnative cloth. Some of the men had on a kind of poncho formed of thiscloth, their legs being uncovered; others wore clumsily fashionedtrousers, and no upper garment except hats made of straw and cloth.Many of the dresses, both of women and men, were grotesque enough, beingvery bad imitations of the European garb; but all wore a dress of somesort or other. They seemed very glad to see us, and crowded round us asthe teacher led the way to his dwelling, where we were entertained, inthe most sumptuous manner, on baked pig and all the varieties of fruitsand vegetables that the island produced. We were much annoyed, however,by the rats: they seemed to run about the house like domestic animals.As we sat at table, one of them peeped up at us over the edge of thecloth, close to Peterkin's elbow, who floored it with a blow on thesnout from his knife, exclaiming as he did so:

  "I say, Mister Teacher, why don't you set traps for these brutes?Surely you are not fond of them!"

  "No," replied the teacher with a smile. "We would be glad to get rid ofthem if we could; but if we were to trap all the rats on the island, itwould occupy our whole time."

  "Are they, then, so numerous?" inquired Jack.

  "They swarm everywhere. The poor heathens on the north side eat them,and think them very sweet. So did my people formerly; but they do noteat so many now, because the missionary who was last here expresseddisgust at it. The poor people asked if it was wrong to eat rats; andhe told them that it was certainly not wrong, but that the people ofEngland would be much disgusted were they asked to eat rats."

  We had not been an hour in the house of this kind-hearted man when wewere convinced of the truth of his statement as to their numbers; forthe rats ran about the floors in dozens, and during our meal two menwere stationed at the table to keep them off!

  "What a pity you have no cats!" said Peterkin; and he aimed a blow atanother reckless intruder, and missed it.

  "We would indeed be glad to have a few," rejoined the teacher, "but theyare difficult to be got. The hogs, we find, are very good rat-killers;but they do not seem to be able to keep the numbers down. I have heardthat they are better than cats."

  As the teacher said this, his good-natured black face was wrinkled witha smile of merriment. Observing that I had noticed it, he said:

  "I smiled just now when I remembered the fate of the first cat that wastaken to Rarotonga. This is one of the stations of the LondonMissionary Society. It, like our own, is infested with rats, and a catwas brought at last to the island. It was a large black one. On beingturned loose, instead of being content to stay among men, the cat tookto the mountains and lived in a wild state, sometimes paying visitsduring the night to the houses of the natives; some of whom, living at adistance from the settlement, had not heard of the cat's arrival, andwere dreadfully frightened in consequence, calling it a `monster of thedeep,' and flying in terror away from it. One night the cat--feeling adesire for company, I suppose--took its way to the house of a chief whohad recently been converted to Christianity, and had begun to learn toread and pray. The chief's wife, who was sitting awake at his sidewhile he slept, beheld with horror two fires glistening in the doorway,and heard with surprise a mysterious voice. Almost petrified with fear,she awoke her husband, and began to upbraid him for forsaking his oldreligion and burning his god, who, she declared, was now come to beavenged of them. `Get up and pray! get up and pray!' she cried. Thechief arose, and on opening his eyes, beheld the same glaring lights andheard the same ominous sound. Impelled by the extreme urgency of thecase, he commenced, with all possible vehemence, to vociferate thealphabet, as a prayer to God to deliver them from the vengeance ofSatan! On hearing this, the cat, as much alarmed as themselves, fledprecipitately away, leaving the chief and his wife congratulatingthemselves on the efficacy of their prayer."

  We were much diverted with this anecdote, which the teacher related inEnglish so good that we certainly could not have supposed him a nativebut for the colour of his face and the foreign accent in his tone. Nextday we walked out with this interesting man, and were much entertainedand instructed by his conversation as we rambled through the cool, shadygroves of bananas, citrons, limes, and other trees, or sauntered amongthe cottages of the natives, and watched them while they laboureddiligently in the taro-beds or manufactured the tapa, or native cloth.To some of these Jack put questions, through the medium of themissionary; and the replies were such as to surprise us at the extent oftheir knowledge. Indeed, Peterkin very truly remarked that "they seemedto know a considerable deal more than Jack himself!"

  Among other pieces of interesting information that we obtained was thefollowing, in regard to coral formations:

  "The islands of the Pacific," said our friend, "are of three differentkinds or classes. Those of the first class are volcanic, mountainous,and wild--some shooting their jagged peaks into the clouds at anelevation of ten and fifteen thousand feet. Those of the second classare of crystallised limestone, and vary in height from one hundred tofive hundred feet. The hills on these are not so wild or broken asthose of the first class, but are richly clothed with vegetation, andvery beautiful. I have no doubt that the Coral Island on which you werewrecked was one of this class. They are supposed to have been upheavedfrom the bottom of the sea by volcanic agency; but they are notthemselves
volcanic in their nature, neither are they of coralformation. Those of the third class are the low coralline islands,usually having lagoons of water in their midst. They are very numerous.

  "As to the manner in which coral islands and reefs are formed, there arevarious opinions on this point. I will give you what seems to me themost probable theory--a theory, I may add, which is held by some of thegood and scientific missionaries. It is well known that there is muchlime in salt water; it is also known that coral is composed of lime. Itis supposed that the polypes, or coral insects, have the power ofattracting this lime to their bodies, and with this material they buildtheir little cells or habitations. They choose the summit of a volcano,or the top of a submarine mountain, as a foundation on which to build,for it is found that they never work at any great depth below thesurface. On this they work. The polypes on the mountain-top, ofcourse, reach the surface first; then those at the outer edges reach thetop sooner than the others between them and the centre, thus forming thecoral reef surrounding the lagoon of water and the central island.After that, the insects within the lagoon cease working. When thesurface of the water is reached, these myriads of wonderful creaturesdie. Then birds visit the spot, and seeds are thus conveyed thither,which take root and spring up and flourish. Thus are commenced thosecoralline islets of which you have seen so many in these seas. Thereefs round the large islands are formed in a similar manner. When weconsider," added the missionary, "the smallness of the architects usedby our heavenly Father in order to form those lovely and innumerableislands, we are filled with much of that feeling which induced theancient king to exclaim, `How manifold, O Lord, are Thy works! in wisdomhast Thou made them all.'"

  We all heartily agreed with the missionary in this sentiment, and feltnot a little gratified to find that the opinions which Jack and I hadbeen led to form, from personal observation on our Coral Island, werethus to a great extent corroborated.

  The missionary also gave us an account of the manner in whichChristianity had been introduced among them. He said: "Whenmissionaries were first sent here, three years ago, a small vesselbrought them; and the chief, who is now dead, promised to treat well thetwo native teachers who were left with their wives on the island. Butscarcely had the boat which landed them returned to the ship than thenatives began to maltreat their guests, taking away all they possessed,and offering them further violence, so that when the boat was sent inhaste to fetch them away, the clothes of both men and women were tornnearly off their backs.

  "Two years after this the vessel visited them again, and I, being inher, volunteered to land alone, without any goods whatever, begging thatmy wife might be brought to me the following year--that is, _this_ year;and, as you see, she is with me. But the surf was so high that the boatcould not land me; so with nothing on but my trousers and shirt, andwith a few catechisms and a Bible, besides some portions of theScripture translated into the Mango tongue, I sprang into the sea, andswam ashore on the crest of a breaker. I was instantly dragged up thebeach by the natives; who, on finding I had nothing worth having uponme, let me alone. I then made signs to my friends in the ship to leaveme, which they did. At first the natives listened to me in silence, butlaughed at what I said while I preached the Gospel of our blessedSaviour Jesus Christ to them. Afterwards they treated me ill,sometimes; but I persevered, and continued to dwell among them, anddispute, and exhort them to give up their sinful ways of life, burntheir idols, and come to Jesus.

  "About a month after I landed, I heard that the chief was dead. He wasthe father of the present chief, who is now a most consistent member ofthe Church. It is a custom here that when a chief dies his wives arestrangled and buried with him. Knowing this, I hastened to his house toendeavour to prevent such cruelty if possible. When I arrived, I foundtwo of the wives had already been killed, while another was in the actof being strangled. I pleaded hard for her, but it was too late; shewas already dead. I then entreated the son to spare the fourth wife,and after much hesitation, my prayer was granted; but in half-an-hourafterwards this poor woman repented of being unfaithful, as she termedit, to her husband, and insisted on being strangled, which wasaccordingly done.

  "All this time the chief's son was walking up and down before hisfather's house with a brow black as thunder. When he entered I went inwith him, and found, to my surprise, that his father was _not_ dead!The old man was sitting on a mat in a corner, with an expression ofplacid resignation on his face.

  "`Why,' said I, `have you strangled your father's wives before he isdead?'

  "To this the son replied, `He is dead. That is no longer my father. Heis as good as dead now. He is to be _buried alive_.'

  "I now remembered having heard that it is a custom among the FeejeeIslanders that when the reigning chief grows old and infirm, the heir tothe chieftainship has a right to depose his father, in which case he isconsidered as dead, and is buried alive. The young chief was now aboutto follow this custom, and despite my earnest entreaties and pleadings,the old chief was buried that day before my eyes in the same grave withhis four strangled wives! Oh, my heart groaned when I saw this! and Iprayed to God to open the hearts of these poor creatures, as He hadalready opened mine, and pour into them the light and the love of theGospel of Jesus. My prayer was answered very soon. A week afterwardsthe son, who was now chief of the tribe, came to me, bearing his god onhis shoulders, and groaning beneath its weight. Flinging it down at myfeet, he desired me to burn it!

  "You may conceive how overjoyed I was at this. I sprang up and embracedhim, while I shed tears of joy. Then we made a fire and burned the godto ashes, amid an immense concourse of the people, who seemed terrifiedat what was being done, and shrank back when we burned the god,expecting some signal vengeance to be taken upon us; but seeing thatnothing happened, they changed their minds, and thought that our Godmust be the true one after all. From that time the mission prosperedsteadily; and now, while there is not a single man in the tribe who hasnot burned his household gods and become a convert to Christianity,there are not a few, I hope, who are true followers of the Lamb, havingbeen plucked as brands from the burning by Him who can save unto theuttermost. I will not tell you more of our progress at this time; butyou see," he said, waving his hand around him, "the village, and thechurch did not exist a year ago!"

  We were indeed much interested in this account, and I could not helpagain in my heart praying to God to prosper those missionary societiesthat send such inestimable blessings to these islands of dark and bloodyidolatry. The teacher also added that the other tribes were veryindignant at this one for having burned its gods, and threatened todestroy it altogether; but they had done nothing yet. "And if theyshould," said the teacher, "the Lord is on our side; of whom shall we beafraid?"

  "Have the missionaries many stations in these seas?" inquired Jack.

  "Oh yes. The London Missionary Society have a great many in the Tahitigroup, and other islands in that quarter. Then the Wesleyans have theFeejee Islands all to themselves, and the Americans have many stationsin other groups. But still, my friend, there are hundreds of islandshere, the natives of which have never heard of Jesus, or the good wordof God, or the Holy Spirit; and thousands are living and dying in thepractice of those terrible sins and bloody murders of which you havealready heard.--I trust, my friends," he added, looking earnestly intoour faces--"I trust that if you ever return to England, you will tellyour Christian friends that the horrors which they hear of in regard tothese islands are _literally true_, and that when they have heard theworst, the `_half has not been told them_;' for there are perpetratedhere foul deeds of darkness of which man may not speak. You may alsotell them," he said, looking around with a smile, while a tear ofgratitude trembled in his eye and rolled down his coal-blackcheek--"tell them of the blessings that the Gospel has wrought _here_!"

  We assured our friend that we would certainly not forget his request.On returning towards the village, about noon, we remarked on thebeautiful whiteness of the cottages.
/>
  "That is owing to the lime with which they are plastered," said theteacher. "When the natives were converted, as I have described, I setthem to work to build cottages for themselves, and also this handsomechurch which you see. When the framework and other parts of the housewere up, I sent the people to fetch coral from the sea. They broughtimmense quantities. Then I made them cut wood, and piling the coralabove it, set it on fire.

  "`Look! look!' cried the poor people in amazement; `what wonderfulpeople the Christians are! He is roasting stones! We shall not needtaro or bread-fruit any more; we may eat stones!'

  "But their surprise was still greater when the coral was reduced to afine, soft, white powder. They immediately set up a great shout, andmingling the lime with water, rubbed their faces and their bodies allover with it, and ran through the village screaming with delight. Theywere also much surprised at another thing they saw me do. I wished tomake some household furniture, and constructed a turning-lathe to assistme. The first thing that I turned was the leg of a sofa, which was nosooner finished than the chief seized it with wonder and delight, andran through the village exhibiting it to the people, who looked upon itwith great admiration. The chief then, tying a string to it, hung itround his neck as an ornament! He afterwards told me that if he hadseen it before he became a Christian, he would have made it his god!"

  As the teacher concluded this anecdote we reached his door. Saying thathe had business to attend to, he left us to amuse ourselves as we bestcould.

  "Now, lads," said Jack, turning abruptly towards us, and buttoning uphis jacket as he spoke, "I'm off to see the battle. I've no particularfondness for seein' bloodshed; but I must find out the nature o' thesefellows and see their customs with my own eyes, so that I may be able tospeak of it again, if need be, authoritatively. It's only six milesoff, and we don't run much more risk than that of getting a rap with astray stone or an overshot arrow. Will you go?"

  "To be sure we will," said Peterkin.

  "If they chance to see us, we'll cut and run for it," added Jack.

  "Dear me!" cried Peterkin; "_you_ run! I thought you would scorn to runfrom any one."

  "So I would, if it were my duty to fight," returned Jack coolly; "but asI don't want to fight, and don't intend to fight, if they offer toattack us I'll run away, like the veriest coward that ever went by thename of Peterkin. So come along."