Adrift in the Pacific-Two Years Holiday

by Jules Verne

  ‘And for twenty months,’ said Evans, ‘no ship has been sighted from the island?’

  ‘Not one,’ answered Briant.

  ‘Have you got any signals?’

  ‘Yes; a mast at the top of the cliff.’

  ‘And it was not seen?’

  ‘No,’ said Donagan, ‘but then we took it down six weeks ago, so that it should not attract Walston’s attention.’

  ‘And you did well, my boys. But now he knows where you are, and night and day you must be on your guard.’

  ‘Why,’ said Gordon, ‘should we have to do with such rascals instead of the honest folks we should be so glad to have come and help us? Our colony is not too strong! Henceforth a fight is in store for us, a fight for our very lives, and none can say what will be the issue.’

  ‘Heaven has protected you till now, my children,’ said Kate, ‘and will not abandon you now. Here has this man been sent.’

  ‘You can depend on me, my boys, and I depend on you; and I promise you we will not make a bad defence of it.’

  ‘But,’ said Gordon, ‘is it not possible to avoid fighting altogether, if Walston would agree to leave the island?’

  ‘What do you mean, Gordon?’ asked Briant.

  ‘I mean that he and his friends would have gone already if they had been able to use their boat! Is that not so, Mr. Evans?’

  ‘Certainly.’

  ‘Well, then, if you were to enter into negotiations with them, and give them the tools they want, would they accept the offer? I know it may be repugnant to you to enter into negotiations with the murderers of the Severn, but to get rid of them, to avoid an attack that may cause much bloodshed, it might be worth our while. What do you say, Mr. Evans?’

  Evans had listened attentively. Gordon’s proposition showed a practical mind, and a character that could calmly look at the situation on every side. He thought—and he was not deceived—that here was the real leader of the colony, and that what he said was worth serious consideration.

  ‘Anything you could do,’ said Evans, ‘to get rid of these wretches would be worth doing. And if they would agree to go, it would be better to help them repair their boat than to engage in a struggle with them, of which the end must be doubtful. But is it possible to put any trust in Walston? When you were negotiating with him, would he not try to surprise French Den, and seize on what is yours? Would he not think that you had saved money from the wreck? Believe me, the scoundrels would only seek to do you harm for all the good you might do them. In such minds there is no place for gratitude! To treat with them is to give yourselves over to them.’

  ‘No,’ said Baxter and Donagan; and ‘No!’ said Briant ‘We will have nothing to do with Walston and his gang.’

  ‘And besides,’ said Evans, ‘it is not only tools they want, but ammunition! That they have enough to attack you is true; but to go away to other lands they would want much more. They will ask for it! They will demand it! Will you give it to them?’

  ‘Certainly not,’ said Gordon.

  ‘Well, then, they will seek to take it by force. You will only postpone the fight and have it with worse chances for yourselves.’

  ‘You are right, Mr. Evans,’ said Gordon. ‘Let us keep on the defensive, and wait.’

  ‘That is the best thing to do. Besides, there is another reason, which affects me quite as much as the other.’

  ‘What is that?’

  ‘Listen. Walston, you know, cannot leave the island without the boat.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Briant.

  ‘The boat can be repaired, I am sure, and Walston has only given up repairing her for want of tools.’

  ‘If it hadn’t been for that he would have been far away before now,’ said Baxter.

  ‘As you say, my boy; now, if you help Walston to repair his boat and even suppose he does not pillage French Den, he will be off without troubling about you.’

  ‘Well, and what if he does?’ asked Service.

  ‘Why,’ said Evans, ‘how can you do the same if the boat is no longer there?’

  ‘What!’ said Gordon. ‘Do you trust to the boat to take us off the island?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘To regain New Zealand? To cross the Pacific?’ asked Donagan.

  ‘The Pacific? No, my boys; but to reach a place not so far off, where we could wait for a chance of getting back to Auckland.’

  ‘Is that true?’ asked Briant.

  ‘How,’ asked Baxter, ‘can that boat be made to carry us several hundred miles?’

  ‘Several hundred miles!’ exclaimed Evans. ‘Only thirty, you mean!’

  ‘Is it not the sea, then, that extends all round this island?’ asked Donagan.

  ‘On the west yes,’ said Evans; ‘but on the south, north, and east only channels that you can cross in a few hours.’

  ‘Then we were not wrong in thinking land was near us?’ asked Gordon.

  ‘No,’ said Evans. ‘And there is a good-sized land to the east.’

  ‘Yes!’ said Briant ‘In the east where I saw the white patch, and the glare—’

  ‘A white patch, did you say? That was a glacier.

  And a glare? That was the flame of a volcano, whose position is given on the maps. You know where you are, don’t you?’

  ‘On one of the isolated islands of the Pacific Ocean,’ said Gordon.

  ‘On an island? Yes! Isolated? No! It belongs to one of the numerous archipelagoes off the coast of South America! And as you have given names to the capes and bays, and streams, I suppose you have named the island. What do you call it?’

  ‘Charman Island, after the name of our school,’ said Donagan.

  ‘Charman Island!’ replied Evans. ‘Well, then, it has two names, for it is already called Hanover Island!’

  CHAPTER XII—DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.

  THE Straits of Magellan, discovered by the illustrious Portuguese navigator in 1520, are about three hundred and eighty miles long. They extend from Cape Virgins, on the Atlantic, to Cape Pillar on the Pacific. They have a very varied coast-line, commanded by mountains rising three thousand feet above the sea, and broken by many bays, with many harbours rich in springs where ships can renew their water, bordered by thick forests where game abounds, and echoing with the roar of the waterfalls that pour in thousands into their innumerable creeks. They are chosen by ships coming eastwards or westwards, being a shorter passage than the Straits of Lemaire between Tierra del Fuego and Staten Island.

  The Spaniards, who for half a century alone visited the Magellanic district, founded on the Brunswick Peninsula the settlement of Port Famine. The Spaniards were succeeded by the English under Drake, Cavendish, Chidley, and Hawkins; then came the Dutch under De Weert, De Cord, De Noort, with Lemaire and Schouten, who in 1610 discovered the Strait by Staten Island. Then, between 1696 and 1712, came the French, with Degennes, Beauchesne-Gouin, and Frezier, and after them came the most celebrated navigators of the eighteenth century, Anson, Cook, Byron, and others.

  From that time the Straits of Magellan became a high- way between the oceans, particularly since the advent of steam navigation, which is independent of unfavourable winds and contrary currents.

  Such was the channel which, on the 28th of November, Evans pointed out on the map to Briant and his companions.

  Patagonia, the most southerly province of South America, King William Land, and the Brunswick Peninsula form the northern coast of the Straits. On the south is the Magellanic Archipelago, comprising the large islands of Tierra del Fuego, Desolation Land, Clarence Island, Hoste Island, Gordon Island, Navarin Island, Wollaston Island, Stewart Island, and others of less importance, extending south to the Hermits, of which the outermost is the last of the long Cordillera of the Andes, and bears the name of Cape Horn.

  On the east the Straits of Magellan open between Cape Virgins and Cape Espiritu-Santo. On the west there are innumerable channels, amid hundreds of islets, islands, and archipelagoes, and the main opening is between Cape Pillar and the sout
hern point of Queen Adelaide Island. North of that island is a long series of archipelagoes, extending from Lord Nelson Strait up to the Chonos and Chiloe Island, on the Chilian coast.

  ‘And now,’ said Evans, ‘you see beyond the Straits of Magellan an island separated from Cambridge Island on the south, and Madre de Dios and Chatham on the north. That island, at the fifty-first degree of south latitude is Hanover Island, to which you have given the name of Charman Island, and on which you have been living for the last twenty months.’

  Briant, Gordon, and Donagan bent over the map, and gazed with curiosity at the island, which they had thought was so far away from any other land, and which was so near the American coast.

  ‘What!’ said Gordon, ‘we are only separated from Chili by that arm of the sea?’

  ‘Yes, boys,’ said Evans. ‘But between Hanover Island and the mainland there are only desert islands like this. And once we reached the mainland we should have to travel hundreds of miles before we reached a settlement of Chili or the Argentine Republic! And it would be a laborious journey, to say nothing of the danger from Puelche Indians, who swarm over the Pampas, and are particularly inhospitable! I think it was for the best that you did not abandon your island, where you had the means of living; but now, with God’s help, I hope we will leave it together.’

  And so the different channels that surrounded Hanover Island were, in certain places, not more than from fifteen to twenty miles across, and in fine weather Moko might easily have crossed them in the yawl. That Briant and the rest had not seen these islands in their excursions was because they all lie low. The white spot was a distant glacier, and the mountain in eruption was one of the Magellanic volcanoes.

  Besides, as Briant observed, their expeditions had led them to those parts of the coast most distant from the neighbouring islands. When Donagan reached Severn Shore he might it is true, have seen the southern coast of Chatham Island, had it not been that the horizon was clouded by the vapour of the storm. From Deception Bay, which deeply indents Hanover Island and Bear Rock at the mouth of East River, nothing could be seen of the islet in the east, nor of Espérance Island twenty miles away. To sight the neighbouring land the boys would have to go to North Cape, whence the end of Chatham Island, or Madre de Dios would be visible across Conception Strait, or to South Cape, whence they could see Queen Adelaide Island or Cambridge Island, or to the end of Down Lands, whence they might catch a glimpse of Owen Island, and the glaciers to the south-east.

  But the boys had never pushed their explorations as far as these distant points. As to Baudoin’s, map Evans could not explain why these islands and lands had not been shown. It might have been that the shipwrecked Frenchman had not been able to make out exactly the configuration of Hanover Island. And perhaps the fogs and mist had limited his view.

  And now, supposing they could obtain possession of the boat and repair it where would Evans make for?

  That was what Gordon wanted to know.

  ‘I should neither go north nor east’ said Evans; ‘with a favourable breeze, we might reach a Chilian port, where we would be welcomed. But the sea is very rough on these coasts, while the channels through the archipelagoes would give us an easy passage.’

  ‘But are there any settlements in these parts?’ asked Briant. ‘Is there any place from which we could get home?’

  ‘I think so,’ said Evans. ‘Look at the map. After passing through Queen Adelaide Archipelago we should go down Smyth Channel into the Straits of Magellan. At the entrance to the Straits is Tamar Haven on the Land of Desolation, and there we should be on the road home.’

  ‘And if we do not meet a ship, shall we have to wait till one passes?’ asked Briant.

  ‘No. Follow me further down the Straits. You see the Brunswick Peninsula. At the bottom of Fortescue Bay, look, is Port Gallant, where ships often put in. If we go beyond that and double Cape Froward, we have Saint Nicolas Bay, or Bougainville Bay, where nearly all the ships put in. Further along still is Port Famine, and then Punta Arena.’

  The sailor was right. Once they got into the Straits, there would be many places for them to put in at. Their return home was assured. If Port Tamar, Port Gallant, and Port Famine did not yield much to support them, there was Punta Arena, where all the necessaries of life could be obtained. It is a large settlement, founded on the coast by the Chilian Government, and is now quite a town, with a beautiful church, whose spire rises among the superb trees of Brunswick Peninsula. It is in the full tide of prosperity, while Port Famine, which dates from the end of the tenth century, is now but a village in ruins.

  In addition to these, then, there existed more to the south other settlements visited by scientific expeditions, such as the station of Liwya, on Navarin Island, and Ooshooia, on Beagle Channel, south of Tierra del Fuego. The last, thanks to the devotion of English missionaries, doing much towards increasing the knowledge of those distant lands.

  The boys would thus be safe if they could only reach the Straits. To get there, they would have to repair the boat, and to repair it they must get possession of it—and that would only be possible after Walston and his accomplices had been settled with.

  If the boat had remained where Donagan had seen it they might have tried to carry it off. Walston, fifteen miles away at East River, would know nothing of the attempt. What he had done Evans could do, that is, tow the boat, not to Bear Rock, but to Zealand River, and even bring it up the river to French Den. Then she could be repaired under the best conditions, and, rigged and loaded, she could be off from the island before the mutineers could stop her.

  Unfortunately this plan was not feasible. The question could only be solved by force, either by taking the offensive, or remaining on the defensive. Nothing could be done until Walston had been defeated.

  The boys felt full confidence in Evans. Kate had spoken of him in such enthusiastic terms. Now that his hair and beard were cut, he was really a bold, handsome-looking fellow. If he was energetic and brave, they felt that he was also good-natured, and of a resolute character, capable of any amount of self-sacrifice. In truth, as Kate said, ‘Heaven had sent a ‘man’ to help the boys.’

  The first thing Evans did was to take stock of the force and material under his command. Store-room and hall seemed to him to be well adapted for defence. One commanded the river, the other the lake. The embrasures allowed of the defenders firing from cover. With their eight guns the besieged could keep their assailants, at a distance, and with the two little cannons, they could rain bullets on them if they came closer. Revolvers, axes, cutlasses, were there for all to use if it came to a hand- to-hand fight.

  Inside the defenders were strong; outside they were weak. There were but six biggish boys against seven active men, accustomed to the use of arms, and desperate enough not to shrink from murder.

  ‘You consider them desperate scoundrels?’ asked Gordon.

  ‘Yes,’ said Evans, ‘very desperate.’

  ‘Except one, who is not quite as bad as the rest’ said Kate. ‘That’s Forbes, who saved my life.’

  ‘Forbes?’ said Evans. ‘Well, whether he was led away by evil counsel, or by fear of his mates, he none the less took part in the massacre. It was he and Rock who came after me. He it was who shot at me as if I was a wild beast. Wasn’t he the one who was so glad I was at the bottom of the river? Eh, Kate? I don’t think he is any better than the others. He spared you because he knew you could be of use to them, and he won’t be behind when the attack comes.’

  Nevertheless, several days went by. Nothing suspicious had been reported from the guard on Auckland Hill, and this much to Evans’s surprise. Knowing Walston’s plans, and the importance to him of not wasting time, he wondered why nothing had been done between the 27th and 30th of November. Then the idea occurred to him that Walston was endeavouring to get into French Den by strategy, and not by force.

  ‘While we are in the cave,’ said he to Briant, ‘Walston would have to force his way in through one of the doors, unless
somebody opened them for him! He will try to get in by some dodge—’

  ‘How?’ asked Gordon.

  ‘This way, perhaps. You see there are only Kate and I who could denounce him as the chief of a gang of robbers seeking to capture your colony, and he fancies Kate died at the wreck. As for me, I am drowned in the river, you know. He does not know you know anything—not even that he is on the island. If he was to come as if he had been wrecked, he may think you would receive him; and once he got into the cave, he could let in his companions, when resistance would be impossible.’

  ‘Well,’ said Briant, ‘if Walston, or any of them, came asking shelter, we would shoot—’

  ‘Or take our hats off? Which?’ asked Gordon.

  ‘That might be better,’ said the sailor.

  ‘Diamond cut diamond, eh? Let us talk it over.’

  Next morning passed without adventure. Evans, with Donagan and Baxter, went out for half a mile, as far as Trap Woods, keeping well under the trees, at the base of Auckland Hill They saw nothing unusual, and Fan, who accompanied them, gave no alarm.

  But in the evening, just before sunset, Webb and Cross came in hurriedly from their post on the hill, and announced the approach of two men along the south side of the lake on the other side of Zealand River.

  Kate and Evans, not wishing to be observed, at once hurried into the store-room, and, looking through the embrasures, soon caught sight of Rock and Forbes.

  ‘Evidently,’ said the sailor, ‘they are going to try treachery. They are coming as shipwrecked sailors—’

  ‘What shall we do?’ asked Briant.

  ‘Take them in!’ said Evans.

  ‘Welcome those scoundrels?’ said Briant ‘I never can—’

  ‘I can,’ said Gordon.

  ‘Well, then, do so I’ said Evans. ‘But don’t let them have a suspicion of our presence. Kate and I will appear when it is time.’

  Evans and Kate retired into the cupboard in the passage between the rooms.

  A few minutes afterwards Gordon, Briant, Donagan, and Baxter ran out on to the river-bank. The two men, now close to the other side, feigned immense surprise when they saw them. And Gordon looked even more surprised.