‘I never tell lies,’ said I, firmly.
The captain received this reply with a cold sarcastic smile, and bade me answer his questions.
I then told him the history of myself and my companions from the time we sailed till the day of his visit to the island, taking care, however, to make no mention of the Diamond Cave. After I had concluded, he was silent for a few minutes; then, looking up, he said: ‘Boy, I believe you.’
I was surprised at this remark, for I could not imagine why he should not believe me. However, I made no reply.
‘And what,’ continued the captain, ‘makes you think that this schooner is a pirate?’
‘The black flag,’ said I, ‘showed me what you are; and if any further proof were wanting I have had it in the brutal treatment I have received at your hands.’
The captain frowned as I spoke, but subduing his anger he continued: ‘Boy, you are too bold. I admit that we treated you roughly, but that was because you made us lose time and gave us a good deal of trouble. As to the black flag, that is merely a joke that my fellows play off upon people sometimes in order to frighten them. It is their humour, and does no harm. I am no pirate, boy, but a lawful trader – a rough one, I grant you, but one can't help that in these seas, where there are so many pirates on the water and such murderous blackguards on the land. I carry on a trade in sandal-wood with the Feejee Islands; and if you choose, Ralph, to behave yourself and be a good boy, I'll take you along with me and give you a good share of the profits. You see, I'm in want of an honest boy like you, to look after the cabin and keep the log, and superintend the traffic on shore sometimes. What say you, Ralph, would you like to become a sandal-wood trader?’
I was much surprised by this explanation, and a good deal relieved to find that the vessel, after all, was not a pirate; but instead of replying I said: ‘If it be as you state, then why did you take me from my island, and why do you not now take me back?’
The captain smiled as he replied: ‘I took you off in anger, boy, and I'm sorry for it. I would even now take you back, but we are too far away from it. See, there it is,’ he added, laying his finger on the chart, ‘and we are here – fifty miles at least. It would not be fair to my men to put about now, for they have all an interest in the trade.’
I could make no reply to this; so, after a little more conversation, I agreed to become one of the crew, at least until we could reach some civilized island where I might be put ashore. The captain assented to this proposition, and after thanking him for the promise, I left the cabin and went on deck with feelings that ought to have been lighter, but which were, I could not tell why, marvellously heavy and uncomfortable still.
23
Three weeks after the conversation narrated in the last chapter, I was standing on the quarterdeck of the schooner watching the gambols of a shoal of porpoises that swam round us. It was dead calm. One of those still, hot, sweltering days, so common in the Pacific, when Nature seems to have gone to sleep, and the only thing in water or in air that proves her still alive, is her long, deep breathing, in the swell of the mighty sea. No cloud floated in the deep blue above; no ripple broke the reflected blue below.
No sound broke on our ears save the soft puff now and then of a porpoise, the slow creak of the masts, as we swayed gently on the swell, the patter of the reef-points, and the occasional flap of the hanging sails. An awning covered the fore and after parts of the schooner, under which the men composing the watch on deck lolled in sleepy indolence, overcome with excessive heat. Bloody Bill, as the men invariably called him, was standing at the tiller, but his post for the present was a sinecure, and he whiled away the time by alter-nately gazing in dreamy abstraction at the compass in the binnacle, and by walking to the taffrail in order to spit into the sea. In one of these turns he came near to where I was standing, and, leaning over the side, looked long and earnestly down into the blue wave.
This man, although he was always taciturn and often surly, was the only human being on board with whom I had the slightest desire to become better acquainted. The other men, seeing that I did not relish their company, and knowing that I was a protégé of the captain, treated me with total indifference. Bloody Bill, it is true, did the same; but as this was his conduct towards every one else, it was not peculiar in reference to me. Once or twice I tried to draw him into conversation, but he always turned away after a few cold monosyllables. As he now leaned over the taffrail close beside me, I said to him:
‘Bill, why is it that you are so gloomy? Why do you never speak to anyone?’
Bill smiled slightly as he replied: ‘Why, I s'pose it's because I haint got nothin' to say!’
‘That's strange,’ said I, musingly; ‘you look like a man that could think, and such men usually speak.’
'So they can, youngster,' rejoined Bill, somewhat sternly; 'and I could speak too if I had a mind to, but what's the use o' speakin' here? The men only open their mouths to curse and swear, an' they seem to find it entertainin'; but I don't, so I hold my tongue.'
‘Well, Bill, that's true, and I would rather not hear you speak at all than hear you speak like the other men; but I don't swear, Bill, so you might talk to me sometimes, I think. Besides, I'm weary of spending day after day in this way, without a single soul to say a pleasant word to. I've been used to friendly conversation, Bill, and I really would take it kind if you would talk with me a little now and then.’
Bill looked at me in surprise, and I thought I observed a sad expression pass across his sunburnt face.
‘An' where have you been used to friendly conversation,’ said Bill, looking down again into the sea; ‘not on that Coral Island, I take it?’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said I, energetically: ‘I have spent many of the happiest months in my life on that Coral Island’; and without waiting to be further questioned, I launched out into a glowing account of the happy life that Jack and Peterkin and I had spent together, and related minutely every circumstance that befell us while on the island.
‘Boy, boy,’ said Bill, in a voice so deep that it startled me, ‘this is no place for you.’
‘That's true,’ said I; ‘I'm of little use on board, and I don't like my comrades; but I can't help it, and at any rate I hope to be free again soon.’
‘Free?’ said Bill, looking at me in surprise.
‘Yes, free,’ returned I; ‘the captain said he would put me ashore after this trip was over.’
‘This trip! Hark'ee, boy,’ said Bill, lowering his voice, ‘what said the captain to you the day you came aboard?’
‘He said that he was a trader in sandal-wood and no pirate, and told me that if I would join him for this trip he would give me a good share of the profits or put me on shore in some civilized island if I chose.’
Bill's brows lowered savagely as he muttered: ‘Ay, he said truth when he told you he was a sandal-wood trader, but he lied when –’
‘Sail ho!’ shouted the look-out at the mast-head.
‘Where away?’ cried Bill, springing to the tiller; while the men, startled by the sudden cry, jumped up and gazed round the horizon.
‘On the starboard quarter, hull down sir,’ answered the look-out.
At this moment the captain came on deck, and mounting into the rigging, surveyed the sail through the glass. Then sweeping his eye round the horizon he gazed steadily at a particular point.
‘Take in top-sails!’ shouted the captain, swinging himself down on the deck by the main-back stay.
‘Take in top-sails!’ roared the first mate.
‘Ay, ay, sir-r-r!’ answered the men as they sprang into the rigging and went aloft like cats.
Instantly all was bustle on board the hitherto quiet schooner. The top-sails were taken in and stowed, the men stood by the sheets and halyards, and the captain gazed anxiously at the breeze which was now rushing towards us like a sheet of dark blue. In a few seconds it struck me. The schooner trembled as if in surprise at the sudden onset, while she fell away, then bending gra
cefully to the wind, as though in acknowledgement of her subjection, she cut through the waves with her sharp prow like a dolphin, while Bill directed her course towards the strange sail.
In half an hour we neared her sufficiently to make out that she was a schooner, and, from the clumsy appearance of her masts and sails we judged her to be a trader. She evidently did not like our appearance, for, the instant the breeze reached her, she crowded all sail and showed us her stern. As the breeze had moderated a little our top-sails were again shaken out, and it soon became evident that we doubled her speed and would overhaul her speedily. When within a mile we hoisted British colours, but receiving no acknowledgement, the captain ordered a shot to be fired across her bows. In a moment, to my surprise, a large portion of the bottom of the boat amidships was removed, and in the hole thus exposed appeared an immense brass gun. It worked on a swivel and was elevated by means of machinery. It was quickly loaded and fired. The heavy ball struck the water a few yards ahead of the chase, and, ricochetting into the air, plunged into the sea a mile beyond it.
This produced the desired effect. The strange vessel backed her top-sails and hove-to, while we ranged up and lay-to, about a hundred yards off.
‘Lower the boat,’ cried the captain.
In a second the boat was lowered and manned by a part of the crew, who were all armed with cutlasses and pistols. As the captain passed me to get into it, he said: ‘Jump into the stern sheets, Ralph, I may want you.’ I obeyed, and in ten minutes more we were standing on the stranger's deck. We were all much surprised at the sight that met our eyes. Instead of a crew of such sailors as we were accustomed to see, there were only fifteen blacks standing on the quarterdeck and regarding us with looks of undisguised alarm. They were totally unarmed and most of them unclothed; one or two, however, wore portions of European attire. One had a pair of duck trousers which were much too large for him and stuck out in a most ungainly manner. Another wore nothing but the common scanty native garment round the loins, and a black beaver hat. But the most ludicrous personage of all, and one who seemed to be chief, was a tall middle-aged man, of a mild, simple expression of countenance, who wore a white cotton shirt, a swallow-tailed coat, and a straw hat, while his black brawny legs were totally uncovered below the knees.
‘Where's the commander of this ship?’ inquired our captain, stepping up to this individual.
‘I is capin,’ he answered, taking off his straw hat and making a low bow.
‘You!’ said our captain, in surprise. ‘Where do you come from, and where are you bound? What cargo have you aboard?’
‘We is come,’ answered the man with the swallowtail, ‘from Aitutaki; we was go for Rarotonga. We is native miss'nary ship; our name is de Olive Branch; an' our cargo is two tons coconuts, seventy pigs, twenty cats, and de gosp'l.’
This announcement was received by the crew of our vessel with a shout of laughter, which, however, was peremptorily checked by the captain, whose expression instantly changed from one of severity to that of rank urbanity as he advanced towards the missionary and shook him warmly by the hand.
‘I am very glad to have fallen in with you,’ said he, ‘and I wish you much success in your missionary labours. Pray take me to your cabin, as I wish to converse with you privately.’
The missionary immediately took him by the hand, and as he led him away I heard him saying: ‘Me most glad to find you trader; we t'ought you be pirate. You very like one 'bout the masts.’
What conversation the captain had with this man I never heard, but he came on deck again in a quarter of an hour, and, shaking hands cordially with the missionary, ordered us into our boat and returned to the schooner, which was immediately put before the wind. In a few minutes the Olive Branch was left far behind us.
That afternoon, as I was down below at dinner, I heard the men talking about this curious ship.
‘I wonder,’ said one, ‘why our captain looked so sweet on yon swallow-tailed super-cargo o' pigs and gospels. If it had been an ordinary trader, now, he would have taken as many o' the pigs as he required and sent the ship with all on board to the bottom.’
‘Why, Dick, you must be new to these seas if you don't know that,’ cried another. ‘The captain cares as much for the gospel as you do (an' that's precious little), but he knows, and everybody knows, that the only place among the southern islands where a ship can put in and get what she wants in comfort, is where the gospel has been sent to. There are hundreds o' islands, at this blessed moment, where you might as well jump straight into a shark's maw as land without a band o' thirty comrades armed to the teeth to back you.’
‘Ay,’ said a man with a deep scar over his right eye, ‘Dick's new to the work. But if the captain takes us for a cargo o' sandal-wood to the Feejees he'll get a taste o' these black gentry in their native condition. For my part I don't know, an' I don't care, what the gospel does to them; but I know that when any o' the islands chance to get it, trade goes all smooth an' easy; but where they ha'nt got it, Beelzebub himself could hardly desire better company.’
‘Well, you ought to be a good judge,’ cried another, laughing, ‘for you've never kept any company but the worst all your life!’
‘Ralph Rover!’ shouted a voice down the hatchway. ‘Captain wants you, aft.’
On coming again on deck I found Bloody Bill at the helm, and as we were alone together I tried to draw him into conversation. After repeating to him the conversation in the forecastle about the missionaries, I said:
'Tell me, Bill, is this schooner really a trader in sandal-wood?
‘Yes, Ralph, she is; but she's just as really a pirate. The black flag you saw flying at the peak was no deception.’
‘Then how can you say she's a trader?’ asked I.
‘Why, as to that, she trades when she can't take by force, but she takes by force, when she can, in preference. Ralph,’ he added, lowering his voice, ‘if you had seen the bloody deeds that I have witnessed done on these decks you would not need to ask if we were pirates. But you'll find it out soon enough. As for the missionaries, the captain favours them because they are useful to him. The South Sea islanders are such incarnate fiends that they are the better of being tamed, and the missionaries are the only men who can do it.’
Our track after this lay through several clusters of small islets, among which we were becalmed more than once. During this part of our voyage the watch on deck and the look-out at the masthead were more than usually vigilant, as we were not only in danger of being attacked by the natives, who, I learned from the captain's remarks, were a bloody and deceitful tribe at this group, but we were also exposed to much risk from the multitudes of coral reefs that rose up in the channels between the islands, some of them just above the surface, others a few feet below it. Our precautions against the savages I found were indeed necessary.
One day we were becalmed among a group of small islands, most of which appeared to be uninhabited. As we were in want of fresh water the captain sent the boat ashore to bring off a cask or two. But we were mistaken in thinking there were no natives; for scarcely had we drawn near to the shore when a band of naked blacks rushed out of the bush and assembled on the beach, brandishing their clubs and spears in a threatening manner. Our men were well armed, but refrained from showing any signs of hostility, and rowed nearer in order to converse with the natives; and I now found that more than one of the crew could imperfectly speak dialects of the language peculiar to the South Sea islanders. When within forty yards of the shore, we ceased rowing, and the first mate stood up to address the multitude; but, instead of answering us, they replied with a shower of stones, some of which cut the men severely. Instantly our muskets were levelled, and a volley was about to be fired, when the captain hailed us in a loud voice from the schooner, which lay not more than five or six hundred yards off the shore.
‘Don't fire!’ he shouted angrily. ‘Pull off to the point ahead of you.’
The men looked surprised at this order, and uttered deep c
urses as they prepared to obey, for their wrath was roused and they burned for revenge. Three or four of them hesitated, and seemed disposed to mutiny.
‘Don't distress yourselves, lads,’ said the mate, while a bitter smile curled his lip. ‘Obey orders. The captain's not the man to take an insult tamely. If Long Tom does not speak presently I'll give myself to the sharks.’
The men smiled significantly as they pulled from the shore, which was now crowded with a dense mass of savages, amounting, probably, to five or six hundred. We had not rowed off above a couple of hundred yards when a loud roar thundered over the sea, and the big brass gun sent a withering shower of grape point-blank into the midst of the living mass, through which a wide lane was cut, while a yell, the like of which I could not have imagined, burst from the miserable survivors as they fled to the woods. Amongst the heaps of dead that lay on the sand, just where they had fallen, I could distinguish mutilated forms writhing in agony, while ever and anon one and another rose convulsively from out the mass, endeavoured to stagger towards the wood, and ere they had taken a few steps, fell and wallowed on the bloody sand. My blood curdled within me as I witnessed this frightful and wanton slaughter; but I had little time to think, for the captain's deep voice came again over the water towards us: ‘Pull ashore, lads, and fill your water casks.’ The men obeyed in silence, and it seemed to me as if even their hard hearts were shocked by the ruthless deed. On gaining the mouth of the rivulet at which we intended to take in water, we found it flowing with blood, for the greater part of those who were slain had been standing on the banks of the stream, a short way above its mouth. Many of the wretched creatures had fallen into it, and we found one body, which had been carried down, jammed between two rocks, with the staring eyeballs turned towards us and his black hair waving in the ripples of the blood-red stream. No one dared to oppose our landing now, so we carried our casks to the pool above the murdered group, and having filled them, returned on board. Fortunately a breeze sprang up soon afterwards and carried us away from the dreadful spot; but it could not waft me away from the memory of what I had seen.
The Coral Island Page 16