The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont

by Louis de Rougemont

  CHAPTER IV

  I try to revive my visitors--Demonstrations of amazement--A varietyentertainment--Evil spirits in the mirror--"The star above myhome"--"Preliminary canter" with the boat--A joyful procession--"Good-byeto my island home"--Nearing the main--Among the cannibals--Smoketelegraphy--A weird audience--A nation meets me--My first palace.

  My state of mind was perfectly indescribable. Here, I thought, are somepoor shipwrecked creatures like myself; and I prayed to God that I mightbe the means of saving them. The prospect of having at length some oneto converse with filled me with unutterable joy, and I could hardlyrestrain myself from rushing into the water and swimming out to thecatamaran, which was still several hundred yards away from me. Would it_never_ draw near? I thought, wild with impatience. And then, to myhorror, I saw that it was closely followed by a number of sharks, whichswam round and round it expectantly. Seeing this, I could contain myselfno longer. Sternly commanding my dog not to follow me, I waded into thewaves and then swam boldly out to the catamaran, taking good care,however, to make a great noise as I swam, by shouting and splashing inorder to frighten away the sharks. When eventually I did come up to thefloating platform of logs, I found that there were four blacks upon it--aman, a woman, and two boys. All were lying quite prostrate throughexhaustion, apparently more dead than alive. The sharks still hung onpersistently, but at length I drove them away by beating the water withmy oar, with which I then proceeded to paddle the catamaran ashore. Yousee, the oar I grasped when Bruno came to give the alarm proved ofinestimable value; and so all through my marvellous years of sojournamong the cannibals an undeniable Providence guided my every action. Butthis will be seen from my narrative in a hundred amazing instances. Iclimbed aboard the catamaran and paddled it into shallow water; and then,jumping overboard again I pulled it right up on to the beach, and carriedthe four blacks one by one into my hut. They were in a most pitiablestate of collapse. Their tongues were swollen and protruding out oftheir mouths, and for a long time I could get nothing down their throats.First of all I tried to revive them with cold water, but found they couldnot swallow.

  Then I remembered the rum I had saved from the wreck all this time, andprocuring some I rubbed their bodies with it, tied wet bandages roundtheir necks, and rolled them about in wet sails, in the hope that in thisway their bodies might absorb the necessary liquid. You see I had anidea that they were dying from want of water. All four were terriblyemaciated, and in the last stages of exhaustion. After two or threehours' treatment, the two boys recovered consciousness, and some littletime later the man also showed signs of reviving, but the woman did notcome to until the afternoon. None of them, of course, were able to walk;and in the meantime they did nothing but drink water. They seemed not torealise what had happened or where they were until the following day, andthen their surprise--mainly at the sight of me--was beyond alldescription. Their first symptom was one of extreme terror, and in spiteof every kind action I could think of, they held out for a long timeagainst my advances--although I signed to them that I was their friend,patting them on the shoulders to inspire confidence, and trying to makethem understand that I had saved them from a terrible death. I fancythey all thought they had died and were now in the presence of themysterious Great Spirit! At any rate, it was not until they began to eatfreely that they grew in some measure accustomed to me. Then anungovernable curiosity manifested itself. From gazing at me unceasingly,they took to feeling me and patting my skin. They made queer, gutturalsounds with their mouths, evidently expressive of amazement; they slappedtheir thighs, and cracked their fingers.

  Next, my belongings came in for inspection, and everything excitedwonderment and delight to such a degree, that I blessed Providence forsending me so much entertaining society. My hut, with its curiousthatched roof, excited vast interest; and it was amusing to see the twoboys, aged respectively about twelve and fourteen, following theirparents about, jabbering incessantly, and giving me sly, half-terrifiedglances as they examined my implements and utensils. The woman was thefirst to get over her fear of me, and she soon grew to trust meimplicitly; whereas her husband never ceased to view me with inexplicablesuspicion until we regained his own country. He was a big, repulsive-looking savage, with a morose and sullen temper; and although he nevershowed signs of open antagonism, yet I never trusted him for a momentduring the six long months he was my "guest" on the little sand-bank! Itseems I unwittingly offended him, and infringed the courtesy common amonghis people by declining to take advantage of a certain embarrassing offerwhich he made me soon after his recovery.

  It may not be anticipating too much to say here that the woman wasdestined to play a vitally important part in the whole of my life, andwith her I went through adventures and saw sights more weird andwonderful than anything I had ever read of, even in the wildestextravagances of sensational fiction. But the ruling passion was verystrong, and one of the first things I did was to take my black friendsdown to the beach and show them my precious boat floating idly in thelagoon. Oddly enough, I had in the meantime always taken the greatestcare of the boat, keeping her bottom clean and generally furbishing herup--having, however, no particular object in view in doing this, exceptperhaps that it gave me something to do. The poor little "home-made"boat threw the blacks into a perfect frenzy of astonishment, and theyconcluded that I must have come from a very distant part of the world inso enormous a "catamaran." As a matter of fact, from that moment theylooked upon me as most certainly a kind of Supreme Spirit from anotherworld; they may have had doubts before. Next I showed them the wreck,which was now only a bare skeleton of rotting woodwork, but still plainlydiscernible among the coral rocks. I tried to explain to them that itwas in the larger boat that I had come, but they failed to understand me.

  On returning to the hut I put on my clothes for their benefit, whereupontheir amazement was so great that I seriously contemplated discontinuingmy list of wonders, lest they should become absolutely afraid to remainwith me. The clothes they considered part of myself--in fact, a kind ofsecondary skin! They were terribly frightened and distressed, and notone of the four dared approach me.

  The blacks did not build themselves any place of shelter, but merelyslept in the open air at night, under the lee of my hut, with a largefire always burning at their feet. I offered them both blankets andsails by way of covering, but they refused them, preferring to liehuddled close together for warmth. In the morning the woman wouldprepare breakfast for them, consisting of fish (mainly mullet), birds'and turtles' eggs, and sea-fowl; to which would perhaps be added somelittle luxury from my own stock. They only had two meals a day--one inthe morning and the other in the afternoon. Their favourite food wasturtle, of which they could eat enormous quantities, especially the fat.Bruno was a long time before he took kindly to the new arrivals, probablybecause they manifested such extraordinary emotion whenever he lifted uphis voice and barked.

  I think the only thing that roused the father of the family from hissullen moods was my extraordinary acrobatic performances, which alsothrew the two little nigger boys into hysterics of delight. Father,mother, and children tried to imitate my somersaults, "wheels," andcontortions, but came to grief so desperately (once the morose man nearlybroke his neck) that they soon gave it up. The man would sit and watchour gambols for hours without moving a muscle. I was never actuallyafraid of him, but took good care not to let him get possession of any ofmy weapons; and as I had also taken the precaution to break up and throwinto the sea the spears he had brought with him on his catamaran, I feltpretty sure he could not do much mischief even if he were so disposed.After seeing me bring down birds with my bow and arrow he began to holdme in absolute fear, probably because he had some idea that his own skinmight be jeopardised if he did not accommodate himself to circumstances.I repeatedly told him that with my boat I might perhaps some day help himto get back to his own country, and I must say that this suggestionroused him somewhat from his lethargy, and he appeared profoundlyg
rateful.

  Gradually I acquired a slight acquaintance with the extraordinarylanguage of the blacks, and had many a chat with the woman, who alsopicked up a few words of comical English from me. She was a woman ofaverage height, lithe and supple, with an intelligent face and sparklingeyes. She was a very interesting companion, and as I grew moreproficient in her queer language of signs, and slaps, and clicks, Ilearnt from her many wonderful things about the habits and customs of theAustralian aborigines, which proved extremely useful to me in afteryears. Yamba--for that was her name--told me that when I rescued themthey had been blown miles and miles out of their course and away fromtheir own country by the terrible gale that had been raging about afortnight previously. It seems that they had originally started out onan expedition to catch turtles on a little island between Cambridge Gulfand Queen's Channel, but the storm carried them out to sea. They driftedabout for many days, until at length they reached my little island. Theonly food they had during the whole of this time was turtle, but theywere entirely without water. One would think that they must inevitablyhave died of thirst, but the blacks are wonderful people for goingwithout water for prolonged periods. Moreover, they find a mouthful ofsalt water occasionally quite sustaining.

  One of my most amusing experiences with the blacks was one day when,quite accidentally, Yamba caught sight of herself for the first time inthe little oval looking-glass I had hanging up in the hut near myhammock. She thoughtlessly took it down and held it close up to herface. She trembled, felt the surface of the glass, and then lookedhurriedly on the back. One long, last, lingering look she gave, and thenflew screaming out of the hut.

  Oddly enough, she overcame her fears later, and, woman-like, would comeand look in the mirror for an hour at a stretch, smacking her lips allthe while in wonderment, and making most comical grimaces and contortionsto try various effects. Her husband, however (Gunda, as I called him),was very differently affected, for the moment his wife showed him his ownreflection in the glass he gave a terrific yell and bolted to the otherend of the little island, in a state of the most abject terror. He neverquite overcame his terror and distrust of the mirror, which he evidentlyconsidered possessed of life, and in reality a kind of spirit to befeared and avoided.

  But, of course, the two boys found the glass a never-ending source ofamazement and wonder, and were not in the least afraid of it after thefirst natural shock of surprise. Altogether, I thanked God for sendingme my new companions; and, as you may suppose, they afforded me as muchentertainment and gratification as I and my belongings did them.

  Every evening, before retiring to rest, the family squatted round thefire and indulged in a mournful kind of chant--singing, as I afterwardslearnt, the wonders they had seen on the white man's island; my mirrorcoming in for special mention. This was the only approach to a"religious service" I ever saw, and was partly intended to propitiate orfrighten away the spirits of the departed, of whom the Australian blackshave a great horror.

  The blacks had been with me two or three weeks, when one evening the manapproached and intimated in unmistakable terms that he wanted to get awayfrom the island and return to his own land. He said he thought he andhis family could easily return to their friends on the mainland by meansof the catamaran that had brought them.

  And Yamba, that devoted and mysterious creature, solemnly pointed out tome a glowing star far away on the horizon. There, she said, lay the homeof her people. After this I was convinced that the mainland could not bemore than a couple of hundred miles or so away, and I determined toaccompany them on the journey thither, in the hope that this might formone of the stepping-stones to civilisation and my own kind. We lost notime. One glorious morning we three--Yamba, her husband, andmyself--repaired to the fatal lagoon that hemmed in my precious boat, andwithout more ado dragged it up the steep bank by means of rollers run onplanks across the sand-spit, and then finally, with a tremendous splashand an excited hurrah from myself, it glided out into the water, a thingof meaning, of escape, and of freedom. The boat, notwithstanding itslong period of uselessness, was perfectly water-tight and thoroughlyseaworthy, although still unpleasantly low at the stern. Gunda wasimpatient to be off, but I pointed out to him that, as the windpersistently blew in the wrong direction day after day, we should becompelled perforce to delay our departure perhaps for some months. Yousee, Gunda was not a man who required to make much preparation: hethought all we should have to do was to tumble into the boat and set sailacross the sunlit sea. "I can paddle my catamaran against both wind andtide; why cannot you do the same?" he would say. He did not understandthe advantage or uses of sails. He had lost his own paddles in thestorm, otherwise he would in all probability have left the island on hisown account. He was like a fish out of water when the novelty of hissituation wore off. On the other hand, I thought of water, provisions,and other equally vital necessaries. So Gunda had to rest content for atime, and he grew, if possible, more morose and sullen than ever.

  During this period of impatient waiting, we made many experimentalvoyages out to sea, and generally got the boat into capital trim for thegreat and eventful journey. I saw to it that she was thoroughly wellprovisioned with tinned stuffs--long put on one side for the purpose; andI may say here that at the last moment before starting I placed on boardthree large live turtles, which supplied us with meat until we reachedthe Australian main. I also took a plentiful supply of water, in bagsmade from the intestines of birds and fishes; also a small caskcontaining about ten gallons of the precious fluid, which was placed nearthe mast. In short, as far I was able, I provided everything that wasnecessary for this most important journey. But consider for a moment thehorrible doubts and fears that racked me. I _fancied_ the mainland wasnot very far away, but you must remember I was not at all certain howlong it would take us to reach it; nor could I be sure, therefore,whether I had taken a sufficient supply of food and water. Ourprovisions, which included tinned meats, corn in the cob and loose,turtles' flesh and intestines, flour, rice, beans, &c., would, however,on a fairly liberal allowance, last a little over three weeks. We alsocarried some blankets, nails, tar, and other requisites. Of my books Ionly took my Bible with me. This I wrapped up in parchment made frompelican skin, together with four photographs of a certain young ladywhich I carried about with me throughout the whole of my wanderings. Thepropulsive power was, of course, the big lug-sail, which was always heldloosely in the hand, and never made fast, for fear of a sudden capsize.

  Six months had passed away since the advent of my visitors, when onemorning we all marched out from the hut and down to the beach; the twoboys fairly yelling with joy, and waving bunches of green corn pluckedfrom my garden. Their mother skipped gaily hither and thither, and Imyself was hardly able to control my transports of excitement andexhilaration. Even Gunda beamed upon the preparations for our release. Idid not demolish my hut of pearl shells, but left it standing exactly asit had been during the past two and a half years. Nor must I omit tomention that I buried my treasure of pearls deep in the sand at one endof the island, and in all human probability it is there at this moment,for I have never returned for them, as I fondly hoped to be able to do soat some future date. It is, of course, possible that the precious boxhas been washed away in a storm, but more probably the contrary is thecase, and still deeper layers of sand have been silted over this greattreasure. I dared not carry anything oversea that was not vitallynecessary, and what good were pearls to me on my fearful journey,convoying four other people out into the unknown in a crazy, home-madeboat? Even masses of virgin gold were of very little use to me in theyears that followed; but of this more anon. My condition, by the way, atthis time was one of robust health; indeed, I was getting quite stoutowing to the quantity of turtle I had been eating, whilst Yamba's husbandwas positively corpulent from the same reason.

  That glorious morning in the last week of May 1866 will ever be graven inmy memory. As I cast off from that saving but cruel shore, I thanked myMaker for havi
ng preserved me so long and brought me through such awfulperils, as well as for the good health I had always enjoyed. As the boatbegan to ripple through the inclosed waters of the lagoon, the spirits ofthe four blacks rose so high that I was afraid they would capsize thelittle craft in their excitement.

  There was a strong, warm breeze blowing in our favour, and soon my islandhome was receding swiftly from our view. The last thing to remain insight was the shell hut, but this, too, disappeared before we had coveredthree miles. It would have been visible from a big ship at a muchgreater distance, but no one would ever imagine what it really was. Yambasat near me in the stern, but her husband curled himself up at theopposite end of the boat; and from the time we reached the open seapractically until we gained the main, he did not relax his attitude ofreserve and dogged silence. He ate and drank enormously, however. Youwould have thought we were in a land flowing with milk and honey, insteadof an open boat with limited provisions and an unknown journey in frontof us. He did exert himself sufficiently on one occasion, however, todive overboard and capture a turtle. He was sitting moodily in the prowof the boat as usual one afternoon, when suddenly he jumped up, and witha yell took a header overboard, almost capsizing our heavily laden boat.At first I thought he must have gone mad, but on heaving to, I saw himsome little distance away in the water struggling with a turtle. Hemanaged to get it on its back after a time, and though I felt annoyed athis recklessness, I could not help laughing at his antics and the comicalefforts made by the turtle to escape. The turtle was duly hauled aboard,and we then continued our voyage without delay. I was dreadfully afraidof being caught in a storm. Our boat must inevitably have foundered hadthe seas been at all rough.

  Fortunately never once did the wind change, so that we were able to sailon steadily and safely night and day, without deviating in the least fromour course. We travelled fully four knots an hour, the wind and currentbeing nearly always in our favour. It was, however, a painfullymonotonous and trying experience to sit thus in the boat, cramped up aswe were, day after day and night after night. About the fifth day wesighted a small island--probably Barker Island, in the vicinity ofAdmiralty Gulf--and landed upon it at once solely for the purpose ofstretching our aching limbs. This little island was uninhabited, andcovered to the very water's edge with dense tropical vegetation. It wasa perfectly exhilarating experience to walk about on real earth oncemore. We cooked some turtle meat and stayed a few hours on the island,after which we entered the boat and put off on our journey again. Justbefore leaving I stored a quantity of corn, cobs, seeds, &c., in a littlecairn in case we might be compelled to return. I always steered, keepingeast by north, but Yamba relieved me for a few hours eachevening--generally between six and nine o'clock, when I enjoyed a briefbut sound sleep. Gunda never offered to take a spell, and I did notthink it worth while to trouble him.

  Thus night and day we sailed steadily on, occasionally sighting sharksand even whales. We passed a great number of islands, some of themwooded and covered with beautiful jungle growths, whilst others werenothing but rock and sand. None of them seemed to be inhabited. The seawas smooth all the time, but occasionally the currents carried us out ofour course among the islands, and then we had to land and wait till thetide turned. No matter how the wind was, if the tide was not also in ourfavour we had to land. We cruised in and out among the islands for tendays or more, when we rounded Cape Londonderry and then steered S. by E.The current, however, carried us straight for Cambridge Gulf. One littleisland I sighted between Cambridge Gulf and Queen's Channel had a curioushouse-like structure built in one of the trees on the coast. The trunkof this tree was very large and tapering, and the platform arrangementwas built amongst the branches at the top, after the manner adopted bythe natives of New Guinea.

  You may imagine my feelings when, early one morning, Yamba suddenlygripped my arm and murmured, "We are nearing my home at last." I leapedto my feet, and a few minutes afterwards the mainland came hazily intoview. Instead of heading straight for it, however, we made for abeautiful island that stood in the mouth of a large bay, and here welanded to recuperate for a day or so. Immediately on our arrival, Yambaand her husband lit some fires, and made what were apparentlysmoke-signals to their friends on the main. They first cut down aquantity of green wood with my tomahawk and arranged it in the form of apyramid. Next they obtained fire by rubbing together two pieces of acertain kind of wood; and as the smoke ascended we saw answering smoke-signals from the opposite shore. The smoke was allowed to ascend inpuffs which were regulated by the manipulation of boughs. Not long afterthis curious exchange of signals (and the practice is virtually universalthroughout the whole of aboriginal Australia), we saw three catamarans,or floats, each carrying a man, shooting across towards our island. Thesecatamarans merely consisted of a broad plank with a stick placedtransversely at the prow, on which the black placed his feet. Hesquatted down on the plank and then paddled forward. I viewed theirapproach with mixed sensations of alarm and hope. I was in the power ofthese people, I thought. They could tear me limb from limb, torture me,kill and eat me, if they so pleased; I was absolutely helpless. Thesefears, however, were but momentary, and back upon my mind rushed the calmassurances I had obtained from my clear-eyed mentor, Yamba, to saynothing about the mysterious message of hope and consolation that hadstartled the solemn stillness of that tropical night. I knew thesepeople to be cannibals, for, during the long talks we used to have on theisland, Yamba had described to me their horrid feasts after a successfulwar. Nevertheless, I awaited the arrival of the little flotilla with allthe complacency I could muster, but at the same time I was careful to letYamba's husband be the first to receive them.

  And he advanced to meet them. The newcomers, having landed, squatteddown some little distance away from the man they had come to meet, andthen Gunda and they gradually edged forwards towards one another, untilat length each placed his nose upon the other's shoulder. This wasapparently the native method of embracing. Later Gunda brought hisfriends to be introduced to me, and to the best of my ability I wentthrough the same ridiculous ceremony. I must say my new friends evincedan almost uncontrollable terror at the sight of me. Gunda, however, madeit clear that I was _not_ a returned spirit, but a man like themselves--agreat man certainly, and a mysterious man, but a man all the same.Although by this time my skin had become tanned and dark, there wasseemingly no end to the amazement it caused the blacks. They timidlytouched and felt my body, legs, and arms, and were vastly anxious to knowwhat the covering was I had round my body. In due time, however, theexcitement subsided somewhat, and then the newcomers prepared more smoke-signals to their friends on the mainland--this time building fiveseparate fires in the form of a circle.

  It was interesting to watch this remarkable method of communication. Eachfire was set smoking fiercely a few seconds after its neighbour hadstarted. Finally, the columns of smoke united, and ascended together inthe form of a huge pyramid, going up a tremendous height into the still,hot air. The meaning of these signals was explained to me. Theyindicated to the people on the mainland that the advance guard had foundGunda and his family; that they had a great man with them; and that,furthermore, they might expect us to return all together almostimmediately. By this time, thanks to Yamba's able and intelligentlessons, I was able to speak the queer language of the blacks with someshow of fluency, and I could understand them well enough when they didnot jabber too quickly.

  The next phase of our arrival was that "smokes" were ascending in alldirections on the mainland, evidently calling the tribes from far andnear. How these smoke-signals gave an idea of the white man and hiswonders I am utterly at a loss to imagine. In the meantime Yamba hadprepared a great feast for the visitors, the principal dish being ourremaining big turtle, of which the blacks ate a prodigious quantity. Iafterwards told them that I was in need of a prolonged rest, my longjourney having wearied me, and after this explanation I retired, andslung my hammock in a shady nook, where I slep
t undisturbed from shortlybefore noon until late in the day, when my ever-faithful Yamba, who hadbeen keeping a careful watch, woke me and said that the festivities priorto our departure were about to take place.

  Much refreshed, I rejoined the blacks, and, to their unbounded delightand amazement, entertained them for a few minutes with some of myacrobatic tricks and contortions. Some of the more emulous among themtried to imitate my feats of agility, but always came dismally to grief--aperformance that created even more frantic merriment than my own. Aftera little while the blacks disappeared, only to come forth a few minuteslater with their bodies gorgeously decorated with stripes of yellow ochreand red and white pigments. These startling preparations preceded agreat _corroboree_ in honour of my arrival, and in this embarrassingfunction I was, of course, expected to join. The ceremony was kept upwith extraordinary vigour the whole night long, but all I was required todo was to sit beating sticks together, and join in the general uproar.This was all very well for a little while, but the monotony of the affairwas terrible, and I withdrew to my hammock before midnight.

  In the morning I saw a great fleet of catamarans putting off from themainland, and in a very short time between fifty and sixty natives joinedour party on the island. Then followed the usual greetings and comicalexpressions of amazement--of course, at the sight of me, my boat, andeverything in it. A few hours later the whole crowd left the island, ledby me in the big boat--which, by the way, attracted as much interest as Idid myself. The natives forced their catamarans through the water atgreat speed, using only one paddle, which was dipped first on one sideand then on the other in rapid succession, without, however, causing theapparently frail craft to swerve in the slightest degree.

  As we approached the new country, I beheld a vast surging crowd ofexcited blacks--men, women, and children, all perfectly naked--standingon the beach. The moment we landed there was a most extraordinary rushfor my boat, and everything on board her was there and then subjected tothe closest scrutiny.

  The people seemed to be divided into clans, and when one clan was busyinspecting my implements and utensils, another was patiently waiting itsturn to examine the white man's wonders. I sat in the boat for sometime, fairly bewildered and deafened by the uproarious jabberings andshrill, excited cries of amazement and wonder that filled the air allround me. At last, however, the blacks who had come out to meet us onthe island came to my rescue, and escorted me through the crowd, withvisible pride, to an eminence overlooking the native camping-ground. Ithen learnt that the news of my coming had been smoke-signalled in everydirection for many miles; hence the enormous gathering of clans on thebeach.

  The camping-ground I now found myself upon consisted of about thirtyprimitive shelters, built of boughs in the most flimsy manner, and onlyintended to break the force of the wind. These shelters, or"break-winds," were crescent-shaped, had ho roof, and were not in any wayclosed in in front. There were, however, two or three grass huts ofbeehive shape, about seven feet high and ten feet in diameter, with aqueer little hole at the base through which the occupier had to crawl.The inside was perfectly dark.

  I was told I could have either a break-wind of boughs or a beehive hut,and on consideration I chose the latter. It would, I reflected, ensuresomething approaching privacy. My indefatigable Yamba and a few of herwomen friends set to work then and there, and positively in less than anhour the grass hut was ready for occupation! I did not, however, stay towitness the completion of the building operations, but went off with someself-appointed cicerones to see the different camps; everywhere I wasreceived with the greatest enthusiasm and manifestations of respect andfriendship. My simple loin-cloth of crimson Japanese silk occasionedmuch astonishment among the blacks, but curiously enough the men were farmore astonished at my _footprints_ than any other attribute I possessed.It seems that when they themselves walk they turn their feet sideways, sothat they only make a half impression, so to speak, instead of a fullfootprint. On the other hand, I of course planted my feet squarely down,and this imprint in the sand was followed by a crowd of blacks, whogravely peered at every footprint, slapping themselves and clicking inamazement at the wonderful thing!