Perseverance Island; Or, The Robinson Crusoe of the Nineteenth Century

by Douglas Frazar

  CHAPTER VIII.

  Rainy day. Reflections concerning climate, season of the year, tides, etc. Plant several varieties of my seeds. Make a pocket compass, and prepare for my exploration of the island.

  "Man proposes, but God disposes." This was what I thought when I wokein the morning and looked out upon a foggy, drizzling day; not verymuch wind, but a regular Scotch mist, and with every look of settlinginto a real downright rain. I could not well complain, for I had beenblessed with pleasant weather since my arrival, and it was but naturalthat all days should not be as pleasant; and the fast-approachingappearance of rain delighted me in another sense, for I was not at allsure about my supply of fresh water, and I was not sorry to see thatthe island was visited with rain, which I foresaw that in the futureI could utilize should all other methods fail. My nautical experiencehad been correct; in less than an hour the rain fell freely, and thewind got up quite strong from the northward and eastward. I saw that Imust put aside all idea of exploring my island for this day, and I wasnot sorry, as I had several things that I desired to complete first,and my great fear of not being able to obtain plenty of water of a goodquality was fast being dissipated. I got to my fire and started itbriskly, so that it would not be disturbed by the rain, and for moresecurity lighted a small one inside my hut under cover, so as to run norisks at all. Although I felt confident that I had the means at presentof starting a new fire at any time, I was morbid on this subject, andcould not prevail upon myself to allow any of the three flames to beextinguished, namely, the lamps, the regular fire, and the small one inmy hut, so fearful was I about it. Up to the present time fire was notonly fire to me, but it was water. Once secure concerning the latter Ifelt that I could allow my fires to go out with better faith. I foundduring this day my hut a great comfort, and blessed my stars that Ihad completed it so luckily before this storm commenced. The rain wasnot cold, being from the direction of the equator; and I therefore,throughout the day, moved about in it in my flannel shirt and drawers,with my broad-brimmed hat and shoes and stockings, leaving my otherclothing dry in the hut. I was pleased to observe that the thatchingwas a perfect success, and the interior as dry and nice as possible.My first task was to go and get the other half of the sea-oystershell that I had placed under my shark's livers and bring it near thehouse. I had no fears of the rain interfering with the former, for Iknew that, although exposed, the rain would not mix with the oil, butwould, if anything, purify it, and that I could easily skim off everyparticle with a clam-shell when the weather became again clear. Havinggot my sea-oyster shell, which would hold some gallons, placed underone of the dripping eaves of my hut, I sat down to breakfast, which Imade very pleasantly of turtle steaks and eggs. After breakfast I drewforth from my trousers pocket my precious piece of tobacco, and lookedwith grief at its diminished proportions, but, urged on by solitudeand the rain, I could not resist filling my pipe and taking a goodlong smoke. Whilst smoking, the following thoughts of what I had seen,and what I might expect ran through my head, and I repeated them tomyself to fix them in my memory, so that they might serve me in thefuture. In the first place I calculated that this day, the thirteenthof November, must in this part of the world represent the thirteenthof May in the northern hemisphere, and that therefore I was in thevery spring-time of the year, and at a proper season to plant some ofmy seeds and note the result. Although I did not know how far south Iwas, still I knew within a degree or so by the reckoning that I had onboard of the "Good Luck." I felt assured that I was somewhere betweenthe fortieth and forty-fifth parallel of latitude, and that the climatemust therefore be somewhat like that of countries situated between thesame parallels of north latitude, like that of England, France, or theNew England States of America. Knowing this I had a sort of generalknowledge of what seeds would probably prosper, and also what kind of awinter I might expect. Surrounded as I was, as I suspected, by water, Ithought that the winter ought to be milder than those of the northernhemisphere, and for the same reason the summers milder. I rememberedthat many fruits would mature in England, in latitude 52 deg. north, thatwould not grow in the open air in New England in only 42 deg. north. Inimagination I gave my island a climate even milder than England, firston account of its being nearer the equator, and next on account of its,as I supposed, small extent, completely surrounded by water. I was alsoled to this belief by the balmy, spring-like, and warm air of the daysI had already passed upon the island, and the advancement in vegetationthat I saw upon all sides of me; the latter completely satisfying methat the springs must be very early, and that the winters could notbe very severe. I had also noticed that the rise and fall of the tidewas considerable; I should say at a venture at least ten feet. I hadno doubt but what I could wade almost across the gulf separating mefrom the breakwater at mean low tide, at any rate a few strokes only ofswimming would be necessary, I felt convinced. From these subjects Ipassed to thinking of my lonely fate, and made up my mind to cross overagain to the breakwater this very day and examine anew the scene of mydisaster. What a miserable fate was reserved for me. Here was I onlythirty-two years of age, in the very prime of my life, cut off fromintercourse with all my fellow-men; cast upon a desert island, withouteven the comforts and necessities that my predecessor in history hadgiven him to his hands, with nothing but the few miserable trifles thatI have enumerated; cast on shore, to care for myself, protect myself,and live for whatever God might have in store for me. The bitter tearsran through my fingers at the desolate picture my imagination hadconjured up. Why was I punished in this manner? what had I done thatI should be imprisoned in this solitude? But then, on the other hand,what should prevent me from building in the future a boat or raft andescaping from my prison, or why should I despair of some day seeing avessel within sight of my island that I could hail?

  My greatest fear, I found in consultation with myself, was the fearof savages; that the island was inhabited. This made me shudder withfright; I felt that I should never rest easy till I had explored itfrom end to end; I felt that I must do this, and at the very earliestmoment. I knew, too, that I ought each day to have crossed to thebreakwater and to have looked for some passing ship, but my fire andwater and weapons had taken all my time and attention. I made up mymind to attend to this better in future, but then again my sailor'sknowledge gave me little to hope for from this source; nothing but theaccident of the ocean, or exploration, or discovery, would, I feltconfident, ever bring a vessel in this direction. This gave me thehorrors again, for my mind convinced me that I might live my lifetimeon this island without any reasonable hope of ever seeing a vesselapproach it. The very fact of its not being laid down on any chart inso late a year as 1865 proved to me conclusively two facts,--one thatit must be quite small in extent, and the other that it was wholly andcompletely, as I felt that it was, out of the course of vessels engagedin any pursuit, and the chances of its discovery exceedingly small.

  My meditations were abruptly ended by the hissing of the ashes in theheel of my pipe, and I sadly arose and placed it carefully away, andbetook myself to my labors for the day. I knew that it must be at thistime about low water, and as the clothing I had on was already quitewet, I started forth, without undressing, to the beach, and, armedwith my harpoon, waded in and headed for the breakwater. I found, asI supposed, that with the exception of about fifteen or twenty yardsin the middle, which I was compelled to swim, I could wade the wholedistance. I soon arrived at the opposite side and clambered up therocks. I could see but little way seaward on account of the rain andslight fog, but at my feet was the same uneasy, treacherous sea, thathad swallowed up my shipmates. I could find no sign of the boat or ofthem, and I knew that whatever articles lay at the base of these rockswould by this time either be buried deep from human eye or destroyed bythe everlasting motion of the undertow. The bottom also, to judge bythe sides of the rocks, was no doubt covered with kelp and rock-weed,amongst which, even on land, it would be almost impossible to findanything; how much more so at the bottom of the ocean! I gave up allthough
t of ever recovering anything more from the boat, and sadly andsilently retook my way back to my hut. This trip, and looking aftermy fresh water and lamps and fire and wood, took up my forenoon andbrought me to dinner, which, although lonely, I enjoyed. I took thisopportunity to also cook some spare pieces of the turtle and to gatherthem together in layers, with salt between, to serve me for food in myproposed exploration. I cooked and prepared quite a quantity, as I didalso of the boiled eggs. After dinner and the cooking and preparing ofthese rations, I started forth upon a more important business. I wentto my field in the rear of the hut, and picking out one corner wherethe soil seemed fair, I, by the aid of the fluke of my anchor, turnedup the soil in some twenty-five or thirty places, in a circular form,some twenty-four inches in diameter, and carefully removed the turf.I knew that with my tools I could not expect to plough or spade upany portion of great extent, so I took this means. I left the swardintact, except in these circular places, some six or eight feet apart,which I prepared for my seeds, and sparingly from each I planted thefollowing: in five of them, apple seeds; in another five of them,pear seeds; in another five, grape seeds; and in the same and otherones, cucumbers, beans, squashes, celery, blackberries, strawberries,tomatoes, lettuce, etc. My wheat, rye, and rice, I carefully kept onhand, with the exception of one plat that I sowed with wheat wholly,simply as a precaution to preserve the seed if it should mature. Havingfinished this labor, I commenced upon another task, one that was totax my ingenuity, namely, a compass. I did not feel like undertakingthe examination of the island without this useful instrument. I firstprocured some nice, strong, birch-bark, sound and well seasoned, ofwhich there was plenty in the grove, and by means of my sharpened nailawl and manilla thread soon had formed a nice little box of about threeinches in diameter and two high, with a good-fitting cover to same.By means of a piece of manilla thread held firmly by my thumb on anice, flat piece of bark, and the awl fastened to the other extremity,I had no difficulty in marking out a disc that would fit within thecircumference of my box. I soon cut this out with my knife, and bymeans of a straight stick and a small piece of charcoal and somelittle measurement, soon had it marked off into thirty-two points;making the north point with an arrow-head to distinguish it, and theother cardinal points large and black. I soon had quite a respectablecompass-card before me. I then took one of the wrought nails from theboat-planking, and, in spite of the rain, soon had it beaten out onmy anvil into a narrow ribbon, which I hardened and converted intosteel of the length of the diameter of my compass-card or disc. Byrepeated poundings and drawing this ribbon over my knife from heel topoint, I magnetized it so that it would adhere to iron or steel quiteforcibly. I fastened this upon the underside of my compass-cover withfine manilla thread near each extremity. I should have said that whilstthis ribbon was red hot, I had forced, with another nail, quite alarge hole, perhaps three-eighths of an inch in diameter, through itscentre. I broke out one of the teeth of my horn hair-comb and lashed itfirmly for an upright into the centre of my box, and over the centreof my compass-card I cut out a hole of about an inch in diameter, andover this fastened a little cone about the size of a woman's thimble,only coming to a peak, instead of a round head, and about an inch inheight, also made of bark. Into this cone I forced a small piece of thepolished lip of one of my sea shells, as an agate or face upon whichmy horn pivot was to rest and the disc rotate. Passing the disc intothe box and the horn pivot up through the hole in the magnet into theinverted cup or cone containing the small portion of shell, I foundthat I had a real, quick, and good compass. The card had to be balancedby placing, with my glue, small portions of bark on its underneathsurface till it floated evenly upon its pivot, and my task was done. Ifelt that with this implement I could not get lost in my explorations,and although rude in construction, its value was as sterling as onemade of brass and with paper disc. I filled the whole box with the softcotton of my milkweed pods, both above and below the card, and put onthe cover so that there could be no motion to wear the pivot. I only,of course, intended to use it in case of necessity, and I had then onlyto carefully open it, remove the card and cotton, and set it back uponits pivot, after placing it carefully on the ground and protecting itfrom any sudden blast of wind. I was proud of my instrument, and feltmuch more secure, in its possession, as to my ability to explore theisland successfully.

  This ended my day's work, and the setting sun gave signs of a pleasantday for the morrow. I felt pleased that I had planted my seeds duringthe rain, which would give them a good start, and sat down to my supperwith a feeling that I had again overcome some of the difficultiesthat surrounded me. I visited my oyster-shell outside the eaves, andalthough the sky had been for an hour or two fast clearing up, I sawthat I had several gallons of pure rain water, for which I was, Ihope, duly thankful. I meditated upon the morrow. Upon my explorationdepended all my security for the future. Should I find the islandinhabited, a long farewell to all content. If uninhabited, I could,I felt certain, take care of myself till it pleased God to removeme from the solitude to which I was tied. I envied the old RobinsonCrusoe, to whom I likened myself, and thought, why could not I havebeen as fortunate as he; if the "Good Luck" must be destroyed whycould she not have come ashore on this island where I could have savedsomething from her, and, more precious yet, some of the lives of myshipmates? How many years must I stagnate on this island? But I amyoung and determined to improve my position. Have I not a book of allthe practical sciences to aid me in forcing Nature to give up hersecrets? Why should I not be able to improve my condition far beyondthat which my predecessor in history had been able to do? He had notthe education of the nineteenth century to aid him; he knew nothingabout the science of steam, railroads, steamboats, telegraphs, etc,whilst I had a book treating of these and a thousand other subjectsof infinite interest. I could not help thinking that if I could findiron, I could do almost anything, and why should I not be able to findit? I knew that it was a metal like gold, disseminated throughout allparts of the earth. By my labors as a boy in it I felt that I could,as a mechanic, do almost anything if I could discover this ore, andcoal to smelt it. If I found water, I felt assured of the future, and Icould not but believe that my exploration would enable me to discoverthat. It was impossible that so large an area as my eye could gatherin should be without it. Once found, I felt no fears for food. I feltassured of my physical well-being, and the climate, I felt convinced,could not be very severe in the winter months with such delightfulweather in this spring month of November. I could in time build somekind of a boat, and reach the Society Islands to the northward of me,or the South American coast to the eastward, or even New Zealand to thewestward. I was not without hope, and, although far from cheerful in mydreadful solitude, I could not but think that I should be comparativelyhappy and contented if I felt sure of my island being uninhabited; butI dreaded, in my exploration about to be undertaken, to come suddenlyupon some savage village, that would destroy all my desire to stilllive, and almost put me in a mood to take my own life with my ownhands.

  My nerves were unstrung now all the time, and the slightest noisecaused my heart to palpitate with fear, as it had never before done inthe severest gale at sea or in face of the greatest practical dangers.I was fast becoming a coward, and felt that I should continue to beone till my problem was solved; then, if successful in ascertainingthe extent of the island and its freedom from savages, I felt that Icould resign myself with fortitude to the designs that Providence hadin my behalf. These thoughts brought me well into the evening, and,commending myself to the divine care, I lay down upon my sea-weed couchand dropped to sleep.