Men Against the Sea

by Charles

  "We could add fresh water to make more of it. There'll not be enough to go round."

  "Not enough, with a full pint each?" said Bligh impatiently. "If it will do for me, it will do for yourself, sir."

  Fryer said no more.

  Presently the stew was ready. It was served out in Bligh's own coconut shell, known to hold exactly a pint. My own shell held double that, and when I had been served I wished with the master that the amount might have been more. The crumbled bits of bread had boiled down to mingle with the liquor from the oysters and the fat pork, forming a sauce an alderman might not have despised. I tasted a small quantity with a little spoon I had whittled out of a bit of driftwood.

  "Damme, sir!" said Bligh, turning to Nelson. "Many's the time I've eaten worse than this on His Majesty's ships."

  "And many a better meal you have enjoyed less, I dare say," Nelson replied.

  "I've served on ships," said Fryer, "where we'd not such a meal for six months together."

  "Aye," said the captain. "Hunger's the only sauce. It was damn near worth starving for a month to have such a relish for victuals...Do you mind what day it is, Mr. Nelson?"

  "What day? I could not be sure of telling you within a week."

  "It is Friday, the twenty-ninth of May: the anniversary of the Restoration of King Charles the Second. We shall call this Restoration Island, in his memory. The name will serve in a double sense. We have been restored, God knows!"

  Employing some self-restraint, I managed to eat my share so as to take a full half hour to finish it. Fryer, I observed, gulped his down in an instant, and held out his shell for the few spoonfuls left over for every man. Purcell and Lenkletter played the gluttons as well, and I was forced to warn Simpson, still in a very weak state, against swallowing his food too fast.

  Nelson and I felt so much revived after dinner that we set out for a tottering walk into the island. We found it rocky, with a barren soil, supporting a growth of stunted trees. There were many of the small palms whose hearts we had found good to eat; I recognized the purau , of Otaheite, in a stunted form; and there were other trees which Nelson informed me resembled the poisonous manchineel of the West Indies. About the summit of the island, not above one hundred and fifty feet in height, great numbers of parrots and large pigeons were feeding on the berries here growing in abundance, but though we tried to knock them down with stones, the birds were as hard to approach as partridges in England. We gathered a quantity of the better sort of berries, which eat very well indeed, and as we wandered toward the eastern side of the island we came upon two tumbled-down huts of the Indians. These were ruder than any Indian habitations I had seen. Nelson stooped over the blackened stones of a fireplace to take up a roughly fashioned spear, with the sharp end hardened in the fire.

  At that moment I perceived in the sand the tracks of some large animal, unlike the footprints of any beast known to me. Nelson examined the tracks with interest.

  "I think I can name the beast," he said: "Mr. Gore, Captain cook's lieutenant, shot one at Endeavour River, south of here. It was as great as a man, mouse-coloured, and ran hopping on its hind legs. The Indians called it kanguroo ."

  "How could it have come here?" I asked. "Do they swim?"

  "That I don't know. Perhaps; or it may be that the Indians stock these islands with young ones, where they may be easily caught when required."

  "Is the flesh fit for food?"

  "Cook thought it was good as the best mutton. The beasts are said to be timid, and to run faster than a horse."

  As we approached the rocky shore on the east side of the island, Nelson chose himself a long, wide palm frond, and sat down, Indian fashion, to plait a basket. I admired the deftness of his fingers as they wove the leaflets swiftly this way and that; in ten minutes he had completed a stout basket, handle and all, fit to hold a full bushel.

  "Now for the shellfish!" he remarked, as he rose shakily to his feet. "Gad, Ledward! I feel a new man to-day!"

  I set to work with the cutlass, opening the oysters growing here and there on the rocks below highwater mark; with his Indian spear, Nelson waded among the pools. I soon had three or four dozen oysters in the basket. Nelson added two large cockles of the Tridacna kind to our bag: the pair of them a meal for a man. It was midafternoon when we took up our burdens and trudged back to the encampment, halting frequently to rest.

  Our stew that afternoon was a noble one--oysters, cockles, and chopped-up heart of palm. This latter was added at Nelson's suggestion, and was the cause of some murmuring.

  "Are we to have no bread, sir?" asked the carpenter sourly.

  "No," replied Captain Bligh; "we shall save our bread. Mr. Nelson says these palm hearts are as good cooked as raw."

  Fryer stood by with a gloomy face. "It will ruin the stew," he said. "The bread was the making of it at dinner time."

  "Aye, sir," put in Purcell, "give us but half the full amount. It'll be poor stuff without the bread."

  Bligh turned away impatiently. "Damn it, no!" he replied. "You're grown queasy as young ladies on the island here! Wait till you taste the stew, if you must complain."

  Our meal was soon pronounced done, and each man received a full pint and a half. The sauce seemed to me even better than that we had eaten at dinner, and once the men tasted it all murmuring ceased.

  At sunset, when it fell dead calm, we observed several columns of smoke at a distance of two or three miles on the main. Bligh ordered some of the people to pass the night in the boat, and a watch was kept on shore.

  "We must be on our guard," he said; "though I believe there is small danger of the Indians visiting us to-night. Our fire made no smoke, and they cannot have seen the boat."

  As darkness came on, Bligh went down to the beach, where Cole was on watch, and remained for a long time seated on the sand chatting with him, while the rest of us retired to our sleeping places.

  Nelson was asleep almost at once; but returning strength had left me wakeful, and I lay for a long time gazing at the starlit sky. Purcell and the master lay close by, conversing in low tones. Perhaps they thought me asleep; in any event, I could not avoid overhearing what they said. After a time, I perceived that their talk had turned to the mutiny.

  "Ungrateful?" the carpenter was saying. "Damn my eyes! What had they to be grateful for? Christian was treated worse than a dog half the time. I excuse none of 'em, mind! I'd be pleased to see every man of the lot swinging at a yardarm; but I'll say this: If ever a captain deserved to lose his ship, ours did."

  "If that's your feeling, why didn't you join with Christian?" said Fryer.

  "It's no love for Captain Bligh that kept me from it, I'll promise you that," said Purcell. "He's himself to thank for the mutiny, and so I'll say if we've the luck to get home."

  "He has his faults," said Fryer. "He trusts none of his officers to perform their duties, but must have a hand in everything. But if you think him a Tartar, you should sail with some of the captains I've served under. There was old Sandy Evans! The last topman off the yard got half a dozen with a colt. He called it 'encouraging' them."

  "I'd rather be flogged than cursed before my own men," growled Purcell. "You mind what he called me before my mates in Adventure Bay? And what he said to Christian, with all the people about, the day before they seized the ship?"

  "He's overfree with his tongue," admitted Fryer. "But what captain is not? The Navy's no place for thin skins. Hard words and floggings are what seamen understand." He paused for a moment. "I've served under easier captains," he added. "He's a hard man to please. But where would we be without him now? Tell me that. Whom would you wish in his place in the launch?"

  "I'm not saying he lacks his good points," the carpenter admitted grudgingly.

  When I fell asleep at last, their voices were still murmuring on. I awoke feeling better than for many days past. Nelson was already up, and a party was setting out down the beach in search of new beds of oysters. Bligh was speaking to Purcell.

  "I s
aw some good purau trees near the summit of the island," he said. "Take your axe and see if you can find us a pair of spare yards." He turned to the boatswain. "Mr. Cole, see that the casks are all filled and placed in the boat."

  I went off oystering with Nelson, both of us able to walk pretty well by now. When we returned, preparations for dinner were under way. Mr. Bligh held in his hand the last of our pork, a piece of about two pounds' weight, well streaked with lean. He handed it to Hall, motioning him to cut it up for the pot.

  "We'll sail with full bellies," he remarked. "Since some villain robbed his mates of their pork, we'll put it out of his power to play that scurvy trick again."

  He looked hard at Lamb as he spoke, and it seemed to me that the man hung his head with some slight expression of guilt.

  With plenty of oysters, about a couple of ounces of pork for each man, and the usual ration of bread, we dined sumptuously; had we had a little pepper to season it, the stew would have been pronounced excellent anywhere. We had scarce finished eating when the captain spoke:--

  "We shall set sail about two hours before sunset. With this moon coming on, we can avoid the danger of canoes by traveling as much as possible by night. Mr. Nelson and I will remain to guard the launch; the rest of you gather oysters for a sea store."

  The master had just stretched out for a siesta after his dinner, and he sat up with a gloomy expression at Bligh's words.

  "Can we not rest this afternoon, sir?" he asked. "None of us has his full strength as yet, and surely we shall find oysters at every landing place."

  "Aye," growled Purcell. "You promised us we should touch at many islands before clearing Endeavour Straits."

  "I did," said the captain; "but what assurance have you that we shall find oysters on them? We know that there are plenty here." He flushed, controlling his temper with some difficulty. "We've naught but bread now, and little enough of that. Fetch what oysters you wish, or none at all! I'm tired of your damned complaints!" He turned his back and walked away as if fearing to lose control of himself. Shamed into acquiescence, Fryer and the carpenter now joined the others setting out along the shore.

  The captain's clerk was strolling southward with a basket on his arm, and I joined him, since Nelson was to remain with the boat.

  "You know your Bible, Mr. Ledward," remarked Samuel, when we were out of earshot of the others. "Do you recollect the passage concerning Jeshurun who waxed fat, and kicked?"

  "Aye; and it falls pat on Restoration Island!"

  Samuel smiled. "Where would they be, where would we all be, without Captain Bligh? Yet they must murmur the moment their bellies are full! I've no patience with such men."

  "Nor I." Glancing at the clerk's formerly plump body, now reduced to little more than skin and bones, and clad in rags, I could not repress a smile.

  "Though we kick," I said, "none of us could be accused of waxing fat!"

  Toward four o'clock we returned with what shellfish we had been able to secure, and found all in readiness to sail. We took our places in the launch, the grapnel was weighed, and we were getting sail on her, when about a score of Indians appeared on the opposite shore of the main, shouting loudly at us. The heads of many others were discernible above the ridge behind them; but, to our great content, they seemed to be unprovided with canoes. Owing to this fortunate circumstance, we were able to pass pretty close to them, with a fresh breeze at E.S.E. They carried long, slender lances in their right hands, and in their left hands some sort of weapon or implement of an oval shape and about two feet long.

  These Indians were unlike any we had seen in the South Sea; they were coal black, tall, and remarkably thin, with long, skinny legs. Two of the men stood leaning on their spears, with one knee bent, and the sole of the foot pressed against the inside of the other thigh--an attitude comical as it was uncouth. Though too far off to distinguish their features clearly, they seemed to me quite as ugly as the natives of Van Diemen's Land.

  The breeze freshened as we drew out of the lee, and the launch footed it briskly to the north, while the hallooing of savages grew fainter and finally died away.

  CHAPTER X

  Restoration Island had proved well worthy of its name. It might as truthfully have been called Preservation Island, for there is no doubt whatever that, had we been delayed a day or two longer in reaching it, several of our number must have succumbed. Nelson and I would have been two of these; we were drawing upon our last reserves of strength when we passed through the channel into the great lagoons of New Holland. But, after three days of rest and a sufficiency of food, we were wonderfully restored; so much so, that we could take interest and pleasure in the scenes before us.

  Ours was, in fact, a great privilege, and I was grateful for the fact that I had recovered strength enough to recognize it. We were coasting the shores of a mighty continent, through waters and among islands all but unknown to white men. Indeed, in so far as I knew, Captain Cook alone had passed this way before us. On our left lay the main, stretching away, we knew not how many hundreds or thousands of leagues, and wrapped in a silence that seemed to have lain there since the beginning of time--a deep, all-pervading stillness like that of mid-ocean on a calm day. Not one of us, I think, but felt the vastness of this presence.

  We had in view a low, barren-looking coast that appeared a complete solitude, uninhabited and uninhabitable; and yet we knew, from our experience of the day before, that a few bands of savages, at least, must find sustenance there. We saw more of them before we had sailed many miles.

  A number of small islands were in sight to the northeast. Captain Bligh directed our course between them and the main. The strait was no more than a mile wide, and as we were passing through it, a small party of savages like those we had already seen came down to the foreshore on our left hand and stood regarding us.

  "Now," said Bligh, "I mean to have a closer view of those fellows."

  Accordingly, we steered inshore and laid the boat as close as was prudent to the rocks. Meanwhile, the savages, observing our intent, had run away to a distance of about two hundred yards.

  Bligh shouted: "Come aboard, there!" and stood in the stern sheets waving a shirt aloft; but not a foot would they stir from their places. They were without a vestige of cloathing, and their bodies looked as black as ink in the clear morning light, against a background of sand and naked rocks. Their timidity was encouraging in our unarmed and weakened condition; we felt that we had little to fear from any small bands of these people.

  "They'll never come," said Nelson, after we had lain at our oars shouting and beckoning to them. "It's a pity, too, for they seem harmless enough, and they must have ways of getting food that would be most valuable to us could we learn what they are."

  "No, we may as well proceed," said Bligh. "I should like to see them near at hand. Sir Joseph Banks is most anxious to have a description of the savages of New Holland. He shall have to be content with the little I can tell him of their general appearance."

  "That is a curious-looking instrument they carry in their left hands," I observed. "What can its purpose be?"

  "In my opinion, it is some sort of a spear thrower," said Nelson. "One thing you can tell Sir Joseph," he added: "There are probably no savages in all the South Sea more ugly and uncouth than these. What a contrast they make to the Indians of Otaheite!"

  We again hoisted sail, and steered for an island in view before us and about four miles distant from the main. This we reached in about an hour's time. The shore was rocky, but the water smooth. We made a landing without difficulty, and secured our boat in a little basin, where it rode in complete safety. We brought everything ashore, that the boat might be thoroughly cleaned and dried--putting our water vessels and the carpenter's chest, with its precious supply of bread, in the shelter of some overhanging rocks.

  When we had scrubbed out the boat, Mr. Bligh told off two parties to go in search of shellfish. Purcell was placed in charge of one of these; the other members were Tinkler, Samuel, Sm
ith, and Hall. These men stood waiting for the carpenter, who had seated himself on the beach with the air of one who meant to pass the day there. The other party, in Peckover's charge, had already gone southward along the beach. Captain Bligh, who had accompanied them a little distance, now returned to where the boat lay.

  "Come, Mr. Purcell," he said brusquely; "set out at once with your men. We have no time to lose here."

  The carpenter remained seated. "I've done more than my share of work," he said, in a surly voice. "You can send someone else with this party."

  Bligh glared down at him. "Do you hear me?" he said. "Get you gone, and quickly!"

  The carpenter made no motion to obey. "I'm as good a man as yourself," he replied; "and I'll stay where I am."

  Nelson, the master, and myself, besides the members of the foraging party, were the witnesses of this scene. I had long expected something of the sort to happen, and had only wondered that an open break between Captain Bligh and the carpenter had not come before this time. There was a deep and natural antagonism between the two men; they were too much alike in character ever to have been anything but enemies.

  Bligh strode across the beach to where the carpenter's chest had been placed, with two of the cutlasses lying upon it. Seizing the weapons, he returned to where Purcell sat and thrust one of them into his hand.

  "Now," he said. "Stand up and defend yourself. Stand up, I say! If you are as good a man as myself, you shall prove it, here and now!"

  There was no doubt of the seriousness of Bligh's intent. Despite the gravity of the situation, as I think of it now, there was something faintly comic in it as well. In the mind's eye I have the scene clearly in mind: The sandy spit of beach, backed by the naked rocks; the little group of spectators, their cloathes hanging in rags on their emaciated bodies, looking on at these two, who, despite starvation and hardships incredible, still had fight in them. At least, so I thought at first; but the carpenter quickly showed that his relish for it was faint indeed. He rose, holding his cutlass slackly, and gazed at Bligh with a frightened expression.