The Islands of Unwisdom

by Robert Graves

  In a small shed adjoining the hut, which served as a kitchen, I picked up a roll of tutao that had been baked to a rich golden colour; I tasted it and found it good, though somewhat tart. It seemed to me a food that would keep well and I took a piece of it away to show the General. Two hens, not unlike those of Spain, lay in a corner, their legs tied as if ready for the pot, and the fore-quarter of a black pig hung from a peg; but I found no evidence of cannibalism.

  I went on to the assembly-house which, though much larger, otherwise closely resembled the hut I had just visited; here were gourds filled with a fermented liquor of agreeable taste. Next, I came to the store-house, raised on posts to keep out vermin; it contained a great heap of almonds, and piles of coconuts and turnip-like roots. Two emaciated old men, naked and completely bald, were dozing on mats at the entrance. They took no notice of me, being evidently senile, and I went away without disturbing them.

  The Colonel found little to interest him in the village. He had gone to the temple, but seeing that the idol was adorned with neither jewels nor pearls and that the food offerings made him consisted of bread-porridge in plain wooden dishes, thought that this was a poor place, unworthy even of destruction. As he left he put the writhing native out of pain with a casual thrust of his sword, rallied the troops and, now that the water-jars had been dragged back to the boat and hauled aboard by the sailors, ordered us to re-embark. Carlotta’s jaws were rosy with blood.

  The noise of our volley had been heard on the flagship, and the General, fearing that we were in trouble, ordered the Chief Pilot to take the San Geronimo into the harbour at once; who though reluctant to obey because of the concealed rocks, could not dissuade him from his intention. With shortened sail and his most reliable man at the helm, he brought the ship in; but the wind died away under the land, a wave of unusual size caught us abeam and rolled us to within a lance’s length of a sharp rock, with fifty fathoms of water close by. A yell of terror arose from all who saw the peril. Immediately the Chief Pilot let fall his foresail and it pleased God to send a breeze to fill it, so that the ship obeyed her helm again and stood off. Don Alvaro, convinced at last that the port was a bad one, ordered her to be put about, and was lucky to escape disaster; but the sailors blamed the Chief Pilot, declaring that he should have refused to hazard the ship, whatever his orders.

  When we returned in the long-boat, the Boatswain’s mate at once went to Don Alvaro and complained that his men were overworked, that they had been made to haul water-jars in addition to their labours at the oars, the soldiers not stirring a finger to help them, and that this was no way to treat seamen. Don Lorenzo took him up sharply, saying that the soldiers were excused all menial labour; since no natives were available, and since Don Alvaro had not taken advantage of the powers given him in his letters patent to bring out slaves for such purposes as these, the crew must see to the watering.

  ‘Your Excellency,’ expostulated the other, ‘this is worse than the Egyptian bondage! My men have been on duty since dawn, they have broken their backs in hauling and heaving; and now their trick will be on them again before they have had time to breakfast or snatch a little sleep. Would to God, my father had apprenticed me to a tailor or a tinker! I warn your Excellency that no sailor will consent to haul water all day in this tropical heat, while soldiers take their ease in the shade.’

  Don Alvaro was grieved. ‘Friend Damian,’ he said gently, ‘every man to his trade. Surely, the soldiers’ first duty was to guard you, and had they failed in this—’

  But he would not be cozened by fine words. ‘If it was their duty to kill unarmed men, who brought gifts and were ready to help us—if it was their duty to make the entire island hate us—then they have performed it to admiration. Now I’ve said my say, and I trust that your Excellency will forgive my rough speech; when I see injustice done, I denounce it.’

  ‘Your feelings do you credit, my friend,’ Don Alvaro answered soothingly, ‘and I shall look for a remedy. But since it appears that the natives are disinclined to fetch or carry for us, except under threat of fire-arms—’

  ‘You will pardon me again: one volley, and they fly screaming to the highest crag of their mountains, whence it would take a small army to dislodge them.’

  ‘Well, then, since they cannot be persuaded even by force, we must sail on without fresh water or fire-wood. What we have left will suffice for the next few days.’

  The Chief Pilot interposed with some heat. We had still some five hundred leagues to travel, which was well-nigh the width of the Atlantic Ocean from Spain to the Brazils; should the wind fail us, or should we be blown off our course by a hurricane, lack of water might undo us. Barely enough for a fortnight remained in the San Geronimo and, as for fire-wood, the soldiers were already chipping pieces from the upper works of the ship and the sergeants either could not or would not discover the culprits.

  Don Alvaro spread out his hands in a gesture of helplessness: ‘But, man,’ he exclaimed, ‘what are we to do if we cannot find a port?’

  ‘Let us return to La Magdalena,’ said the Chief Pilot, ‘and take shelter behind the headland where the frigate anchored. I believe that if we treat the natives kindly, and do nothing more to exasperate them, they will gladly bring water in bamboo joints to the ship itself—the canoes we saw could have supplied the whole flotilla in one day, given the will. They are now aware that we can deal death at a distance; their last act was to send a flag of truce with an invitation to land. We might also persuade them to tow out logs suitable for burning.’

  ‘I will not revisit La Magdalena!’ he replied obstinately. ‘I have sworn never to go back on my course until we reach the Isles.’

  ‘Then why can we not search for another anchorage in this island?’ the Chief Pilot demanded. ‘Yesterday I warned the Colonel that the harbour he found was not suited to your purpose, yet back he must go to prove himself right and nearly lose us the galleon!’

  ‘It would be better, my lord,’ Don Lorenzo broke in, ‘if you sent me instead of the Colonel. He has twice failed us now because he despises the Pilot’s judgement.’

  Don Alvaro was timid. ‘Alas,’ he said, ‘while he obeys my orders, I dare do nothing to hurt his pride. He is a man quick to take offence and the common soldiers respect him.’

  In effect, the Colonel went out once more, this time taking the Boatswain’s watch; and within the hour they had entered a wide bay of horse-shoe shape, which the Boatswain pronounced a safe anchorage, spacious enough to shelter the whole flotilla. He found a bottom of sand at thirty fathoms near the entrance, in the middle at twenty-four, and at twelve close to the shore. This bay, which we called after the Blessed Mother of God—her name be praised!—lies in nine degrees, thirty minutes below the Equator, sheltered from all winds except the west, which does not, however, blow here. It is recognized from the sea by a steep, triple-peaked hill rising to the south, and by an overhanging cliff to northward. Wooded ravines converge towards the harbour and a smaller hill divides the beach into equal parts; from the northern side of this gushes a spring of good water, as thick as a man’s arm, at a handy height for the filling of jars. Near by, a stream of equally good water flows past a village built on two sides of a square, backed by a plantation of tall trees.

  Chapter 10

  THE CROSS IN SANTA CRISTINA

  After breakfast on the next day, the 29th of July, two companies of soldiers having already landed and taken up positions around the village, the rest of us went ashore with the General and Doña Ysabel, leaving only twenty men to guard the flotilla. We knelt down in rows on the beach, our faces to the east. Presently we heard the sound of singing. It was Vexilla Regis prodeunt, and along came the priests clad in rich vestments and bearing the elements of the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance under a brocaded canopy; their acolytes were pages, two of whom swung censers while another displayed a silken banner painted with the likeness of the Mother of God. Myn, who had pleaded for this honour, led the procession, struggling under t
he weight of a wooden cross three times his height.

  That morning, the Colonel had been instructed to land under a flag of truce and present the leading villagers with cloth and beads. The natives took courage from his kindness and, when they saw us performing an act of worship, participated in it from natural courtesy. Falling on their knees, their men in a row with our men, their women with ours, they showed respectful sobriety; and did exactly as we did, even to making the sign of the cross and singing ah! ah! in tune with the psalm. A native girl, who knelt on the right hand of Doña Ysabel, had such fine red hair that she wished to snip off a few locks as a keepsake, and stealthily drew a pair of scissors from her purse; but the girl cried out in alarm, so she desisted. The girl slipped away and was not seen again. It may be that her hair was dyed, or bleached with lime.

  Mass being over, the same pious procession followed the Cross to the top of the knoll whence the spring flowed, Don Alvaro and his suite walking behind in order of precedence. It had been the General’s intention that each officer’s wife should accompany her husband, but since the presence of the Admiral made this undesirable, Doña Ysabel and the other ladies remained on the beach. When the procession reached the summit, a deep hole was dug in the turf, and Don Alvaro solemnly lowered the Cross into it.

  Lifting his hand for silence, he declaimed in a high voice: ‘Be witnesses the skies, the earth, the waters, with all the creatures that in them dwell, and all men and women here assembled, that in these islands hitherto hidden from Christian man, I, Alvaro de Mendaña y Castro, do now plant the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on which He gave His life in ransom for the whole human race, calling upon His name, the name of the Most Holy Trinity and that of the Blessed Virgin Mary! And on this day, the Feast of Saint Martha, in the year of Our Lord 1595, being present as witnesses all the military and naval officers, besides many noble ladies, I add this island, with its several sister islands, to the dominions of Christendom; with the solemn intent that every inhabitant of these parts shall in due process of time have the Word of God preached to him zealously and clearly.’

  He then called for the Standard, which was in the keeping of Don Toribio de Bedeterra, the Ensign-Royal, and planting it beside the Cross, he continued: ‘Be witnesses, furthermore, all lords and ladies here assembled, that I seize this island, now christened Santa Cristina, with its several sister islands, and take possession of them in the name of our sovereign lord Philip II of Castile, King of the Spains, to be part and parcel of his possessions in these South Seas, and to remain for all time his inheritance and that of his princely successors!’

  A breeze caught the folds of the Standard, exposing the royal arms to full view, and we raised a resounding cheer. Our musicians struck up a lively march, to which the savages, who had advanced up the knoll as far as the guards would permit them, kept time with beating of drums and clapping of hands; and even imitated the tune on outlandish musical instruments of their own, such as single-stringed bows, jew’s harps, flutes played with both the mouth and the nose, and wooden trumpets.

  The General dismissed the troops and went down to the village, which differed little from the other that I had inspected, but had two well-paved streets and, standing a little apart, a tall-roofed building, protected by palisades, where an oracle was housed. He visited the assembly-house, where the Chieftain waited to receive him, squatting on his haunches at the entrance and flanked by aged councillors. This person won my admiration by his expression of perfect composure, inclined to severity; when Don Alvaro came up he did not move a muscle of his tattooed face, but scrutinized him with a steady gaze. He wore a head-dress of cock-feathers and drooping golden plumes; a heavy, tasselled kilt of dark-brown cloth; a wooden ruff encrusted with bright red seeds; two necklaces of large boars’ tusks; anklets and bracelets made from the white beards of old men plaited on coconut fibre; and ear-rings of whales’ teeth. His right hand grasped a tall carved paddle sharpened at one end for use as a spear.

  When ceremoniously presented with a clasp-knife and a red cotton kerchief which bore the legend ‘I serve King Philip,’ he accepted these with a scarcely perceptible nod, neither deigning to examine them, nor expressing any sign of pleasure, and motioned to one of the councillors to lay them by. Then he asked many questions in a staccato voice, which the General was unable to answer, and having rewarded him with a carved whale’s tooth, waved towards the huts, as if to say: ‘This is your village, my lord.’ He rose and entered the house, to signify that the audience was at an end; but one of his servants fetched a fine black pig for the General’s dinner.

  Seeing a garden not far off, from which a crop of roots had just been cleared, Don Alvaro walked over to it and, in the presence of the villagers, sowed three rows of maize seed; assuring them by signs that, if the plot were fenced against hogs and fowls, these would grow into strong plants and yield a hundredfold. They understood, smiled, rubbed their stomachs, and repeatedly cried kai-kai, which is their word for food.

  So far, all had gone well; but the news of his intention to colonize this island with about thirty married settlers travelled from mouth to mouth and exasperated those whom it concerned. ‘We didn’t come to colonize this poor country,’ they said. ‘We volunteered for service in the Isles of Solomon; they and they only will satisfy us. The General means to abandon us here, so that when he reaches his goal he needn’t part with the estates promised us, but can keep them for himself.’

  While Don Alvaro was looking around for objects of interest, the Admiral approached him courteously to whisper something in his ear; but appeared by no means satisfied with the halting reply that he got. He turned on his heel, strode angrily back to the beach and, neither doffing his hat to the General’s lady, nor granting Doña Mariana even the solace of a smile, stepped at once into his skiff and was rowed to the Santa Ysabel. Those who stood by conjectured that a land now having been reached which was thought suitable for settling, he had asked that his wife might join him, but been met with either an evasion or a downright refusal.

  Distressed by the Admiral’s unseemly conduct, Don Alvaro retired to the flagship with such of the sailors as were now wanted for duty, leaving the ladies on the beach to eat their dinner of fruit and fried pork in the shade of leaning palm-trees. He instructed the Colonel that the water-casks were to be filled and several boatloads of fire-wood collected, but without compelling the assistance of the natives by either threats or force: if they could not be persuaded by gifts, our people must do the work—sailors and settlers first, then such of the soldiers as could be spared. The crew of the galeot might be exempted, because they were cutting and shaping timber for her repair; on the previous day she had fouled the bowsprit of the San Geronimo, and showed a ragged hole below the starboard rails.

  Being assigned the task of setting down the General’s speech for the archives of the Indies Council, I accompanied him aboard; but while he dictated to me in the Great Cabin, several shots rang out from the shore. I laid down my pen and looked at him enquiringly, in the expectation that he would return at once to prevent further bloodshed. But ‘It is nothing,’ he said uneasily, ‘there cannot be a quarrel. Our people are only displaying their marksmanship…. I repeat: “with its several sister islands, and take possession of them…”’

  He deceived himself, as usual, and I sighed for the poor Indians: besides stray shots, at least three volleys had been fired. Going ashore that evening, I found that a conflict had arisen between the soldiers and the natives, and the village was now quite empty. The trouble had begun when, tired of watching the casks being filled at the spring, the Colonel had gone off to a near-by grove, escorted by his negro, ‘to pay a call on the fair ladies,’ as he said, and left Don Luis Moran in command. The Major presented a pair of shears to a tall native named Terridiri, who was distinguished from all the rest by a green palm-branch worn upright on his brow, and by the long spear he carried, at the top of which a carved shark’s head grinned with real teeth. The gift was made in the underst
anding that Terridiri, who had been seen to issue from the oracle-house and was evidently its priest, would make the villagers roll the full casks down to the beach and help in the hauling away of whatever trees we might fell. He accepted the present with an air of complaisance, whispered something to the shark’s head and, pretending to listen for a response, conferred a blessing on us; then he hung the shears across his breast by a cord of plaited hair, and strolled away. His people were reminded of the honour done to him, and urged to set about their task; but shrugged their shoulders, smiled, and stayed where they were, importunately holding out their hands.

  The Major shook his head. ‘Uai!’ he said—this word, meaning ‘water,’ being the only one that he had learned—and pointed to the casks. ‘Uai,’ they echoed genially, pretending not to understand what he expected of them. At a loss how to proceed, since he might not use force, he told his adjutant, Captain Diego de Vera, that he must persuade the savages to fulfil their part of the bargain. When one of them conveyed to the Captain in sign-language that Terridiri had accepted the shears in payment for the blessing which the shark conferred on the casks, he in turn made signs to the effect that this was to no purpose: since they would not help us, they must return the shears. He then sent two targeteers after the priest, who was no longer to be found.

  Our drummer beat a tattoo, and Captain de Vera announced in a fierce voice and with much gesticulation that he needed the shears at once; but what was everyone’s business was no one’s business, and there the matter rested. Had I been in his place, I should have taken my complaint to the Chieftain; but the Captain was a man of little patience. Seizing a young boy whose richly carved adornments and delicate skin showed him to be the son of some notable, he bound him tightly to a tree (which made the child cry out for fear) and offered to release him when the shears were handed back, but not before. At this a warrior who stood near reached for his spear and brandished it indignantly. The impetuous Captain roared out: ‘Shoot that man!’ and he fell dead, struck by three balls. The natives ran to arms and battle was joined.