float and serveto preserve my treasures, even should the raft be capsized. Iaccordingly, having prepared them as I proposed, put in the boxes ofpearls, and having lashed them securely, lowered them on to the raft,loading it with a number of other articles, which I thought would beuseful. Shoving off, I made the best of my way towards the rock where Ihad left poor Bill; it was time I did, for the weather was again, Ifeared, about to change, and heavy rain was falling. Hoping that hemight have revived, I expected to see him looking out for me.
"While making good way through the water, suddenly I found my raft touchground. The current striking against it drove it further and further onto the reef. To prevent it capsizing, I had to stand up and press mypole against the bottom. There I stood, the rain coming down faster andfaster. I shouted to Bill, hoping that he might hear me, and perhaps beable to wade out to my assistance, but no answer came. I might easilyhave got off by casting the chest and the other articles adrift, but Icould not bring myself to do that, not knowing where they and theirprecious contents might be carried to. At last I thought of mooring theraft, and trying to reach the rock by wading. I had a large axe whichwould serve as an anchor. I made a rope fast to it, and stuck itsecurely, as I thought, in a cleft of the coral reef. I then, with thepole in my hand, made my way towards the rock. Reaching it at last, notwithout difficulty, I looked about for Bill. What was my dismay not tosee him! The provisions and water, and the other things I left with himwere there, but he was gone. Whether he had fancied I was going todesert him, and had attempted to swim to the mainland, or in his madnesshad thrown himself into the sea, I could not tell. I climbed to the endof the rock nearest to the shore, shouting at the top of my voice, andstill hoping to see him, but not a soul appeared on the beach. I hadtaken a liking to him, and I felt more unhappy than I had ever feltbefore, at the thoughts that he was lost. `It cannot be helped,' I saidto myself. `I'll go back and tow the chests one by one to the rock, andso get the raft afloat, and in time reach the shore.' At once I wentback to the outer end of the rock, and began to wade towards where I hadleft the raft. The breeze had got up, and there was some sea on. Itstruck me that the water was deeper than at first. I hadn't made manysteps when, looking at the raft, I felt convinced that it was moving. Itried to hurry on, but found myself floundering in the water almost upto my neck, and had to scramble back to the rock to save my life. Theraft went faster and faster. I shouted, I shrieked to it to stop; thepearls which would have made my fortune were every instant gettingfurther from my reach. Then a wave took it and turned it right over,another struck it and dashed it against a rock, and away floated thepieces with the chests in the direction the current was making.
"On getting back to the rock I sat down and cried like a child. I feltas if I was done for. At last I got better and began to hope that thechests might be washed on shore, and that I might secure them after all.
"How was I to reach the land? there was the question. I was a badswimmer, and if I had been a good one the chances were that I should bepicked off by a shark. My only remaining hope was that the nativesmight not be cannibals, and that some of them coming off to fish mightsee me, and carry me to their island. Still perhaps some days mightpass before any one might come out so far. I knew therefore that I musthusband my provisions to make them last me as long as possible.Fortunately the rain had filled some hollows in the rock. I drank asmuch as I wanted of that, and bailed the remainder into the cask I hadleft with Bill.
"The day passed by and no one appeared, and not only that day butseveral others went by, and I was still on the rock. I had eaten up allthe ham and drunk up nearly every drop of water. I had no means ofstriking a light, and if I had there was no fuel except my pole, and Icould not live long on the raw shell fish which stuck to the rock.
"My last hour I thought was come. I lay down expecting to die, and soondropped off into a sort of stupor. I was aroused by hearing voices, andlooking up I saw a canoe with three brown girls in her, paddling up tothe rock. I just lifted my head and made signs that I was very ill;they understood me, and instead of running away managed together to liftme into their canoe. One poured water down my throat, and another fedme with yam. They had been out fishing, and were returning home. Theytook me to their father's hut, and fed and nursed me till I recovered.My thoughts were running on the chests with the pearls, but I could hearnothing of them, nor of poor Bill either, nor have I from that day tothis."
CHAPTER FOUR.
"I was just well, and thinking what I should do, when a South Sea whalerput into a harbour close by for provisions and water. She wanted hands,and I shipped aboard her. She was not long out from Sydney, to whichport she belonged.
"While I served in her I was again nearly lost. We were after a bigwhale which had already been struck when the creature caught the boat Iwas in with its flukes, stove in the bows, and turned her right over,while I and the rest of the crew were left struggling in the water. Imanaged to climb up on the boat's stern, and hailed another boat whichwas under sail, but so eager were those in her in pursuit of the monsterthat they did not see for some time what had occurred. The rest of mymates had sunk before she came up, and I was taken on board so exhaustedthat I could not have hung on many minutes longer.
"When the cruise was up the whaler returned to Sydney, and I thoughtthat I would stop on shore, and with the money I had saved try what Icould do for a living. My cash was gone, however, before I could welllook round; my old friends the crimps got most of it.
"Remembering how I had before been shipped on board a craft withoutknowing it, I determined that such a trick should not be played meagain. Perhaps the crimps thought I was too old to be worth much andwould not let me run up a score.
"I was standing one day on the quay with my hands in my pockets, whenthe skipper of the last sandal-wood trader I had sailed in came up tome. He knew me and I knew him, and a bigger villain I never set eyeson; still considering that my last shilling was gone, I could not beparticular about my acquaintances.
"`Boas, old ship,' says he. `You know the South Sea Islands as well asmost men. I want a few fellows like you for a cruise which is sure tobe profitable, and you will come back in a short time with your pocketslined with gold, and be able to live at your ease, if you have a mind todo so, like a gentleman.'
"I asked him to tell me what was the object of the voyage.
"`I don't mind telling you the truth. If you were to ask at the CustomHouse you would hear we were starting on a voyage after cocoa-nut oiland sea slugs, but there's poor profit in that compared to what we arereally after. We do not call ours a slaving voyage, but our intentionis to get as many natives as we can stowed away in our hold, by fairmeans or foul, and to run them across to Brisbane or some other port inQueensland. The order we receive from our owner is to visit thedifferent islands, and to persuade as many natives as we can to come andwork for the settlers. They want labourers, and will pay good wages,and the natives are only to be engaged for three years, and to becarried back again at the end of that time if they happen to be alive,and wish it, to their own islands.'
"I told him that was very like the sort of trade I had been engaged insome years before, when we collected natives and carried them to Peru towork in the mines, and how the French didn't approve of our taking thepeople from their islands, and had captured a number of our vessels.`But,' says I, `as I suppose that there are no mines in Queensland, theIndians will like Australia better than they did Peru, and won't die sofast as they did there. But what does the Government say to the matter?Maybe they'll call it slaving.'
"`Oh we have got a regular licence from the Queensland Government,'answered the skipper. `It's all shipshape and lawful, provided we treatthe natives kindly, and don't take them unless they wish to go, and makethem clearly understand the agreement they enter into.'
"`If that's the case, Captain Squid, I'm your man,' says I. `I am notover particular; but in my old age I have taken a liking to what islawful and right.'
"`Very wise too,' says the skipper, giving me a wink. `You will findall our proceedings perfectly lawful, and we run no risk whatever. Ifthe natives get harder worked than they like when they reach Queensland,that's no business of ours.'
"To make a long story short, I that evening found myself on board the`Pickle,' schooner of about eighty tons. She hadn't much room forstowage 'tween decks, but as the passage between Queensland and theislands where she was to get the natives was short, and as I supposedonly a few at a time would be taken, I had no scruples on that score.At all events, it could not be anything like the middle passage betweenAfrica and America.
"Next morning we were at sea running to the eastward, after which westood away northward, towards the islands which extend between the lineand
Kidnapping in the Pacific; Or, The Adventures of Boas Ringdon Page 13