The Islands of Unwisdom

by Robert Graves

  Major Moran and the three company-commanders abstained from comment. Captain Lopez enquired in what direction San Cristobal was held to lie: whether to the east or to the west.

  When called upon for a reply, the Chief Pilot considered that it would be disrespectful to the memory of Don Alvaro to maintain that the Isles of Solomon lay to the westward, and therefore begged to be excused from giving an opinion. Upon Captain Lopez’s objecting to this that the Council should not be kept in the dark about matters of such importance, he proposed that a W.S.W. course be followed until a latitude of eleven degrees South were reached and that, if no land had by then been encountered, they should proceed on a north-westerly course to the Philippines.

  No other officer having any comment to make, the proposal was put to the vote, carried unanimously, reduced to writing and signed by all present.

  Doña Ysabel next desired the Chief Pilot to report on the seaworthiness of the flotilla; who stated that the flagship’s bottom was foul and much of her rigging decayed, and that the San Felipe galeot and the Santa Catalina frigate were in no better condition, besides being dangerously undermanned because of the sickness. He advised the abandonment of the smaller vessels, after stripping them of sails, cordage and the like and transferring their crew and cargo to the San Geronimo.

  Doña Ysabel asked Captain de Vera, commander of the frigate in place of Captain Alonzo de Leyva deceased, and Captain Corzo, commander and owner of the galeot, whether they were in agreement.

  Captain de Vera replied that he would obey orders, but thought that it might be advantageous to keep the frigate for the navigation of waters where the flagship ought not to be hazarded. Captain Corzo, rejecting the proposal outright, declared that ‘it would be rank cannibalism for the galleon to feed on the carcases of her sisters’; he then alleged that the Chief Pilot had depreciated the San Felipe spitefully and wished to rob him of a ship worth two thousand pesos at the least.

  The Chief Pilot said that Captain Corzo overrated her value: if the flagship ever reached Manila, he undertook to find him a better vessel for two hundred pesos.

  The Governeress asked the company whether Captain Corzo should be ordered to abandon the San Felipe for the common good; to which he himself replied: ‘I still carry my wood-knife.’

  Ensign Don Luis Barreto stated that it would be a great injustice to deprive the Captain of his command after the loyal service he had rendered; but for him, the Colonel would still be alive and crowing, and the Barretos thrown to the sharks.

  Since the Chief Pilot would not retreat from his view, no agreement could be reached. Doña Ysabel then ordered that Captain Corzo should keep his ship, and upon Don Luis’s assertion that Captain Leyva had made a nuncupative Will bequeathing him a third-interest in the frigate, granted his plea that this vessel too should be allowed to sail.

  A proposal was put forward by Captain Don Diego, supported by Major Moran and Don Luis, that the sick in the San Geronimo who had not yet reached the crisis of their fever should be transferred to the Santa Catalina: thus the health of those who had so far escaped infection would be protected, and others who were still weak would not be kept awake at night by their delirium.

  This was resisted by Captain de Vera, who said that he would not have accepted his command, had he known that the frigate was to be turned into a floating lazar-house. The Ensign-Royal, who was under orders to sail with him in exchange for Ensign Don Diego Torres, made the same objection. The Chief Pilot remarked that, though his own task would be lightened if the proposal were accepted, he regarded it as cruel and uncatholic. He pleaded that the sick should not be deprived of the few comforts that could be provided for them in the flagship, such as shelter from the glare of the sun, rain and night air, and forced into the frigate where they would have to lie on deck.

  At this juncture Captain Don Diego absented himself, but returned almost at once.

  Major Don Luis Moran suggested that an old sail could be rigged on the Santa Catalina’s deck as a protection against the elements, and said that the sea breeze was far healthier than the foetid airs of a forecastle.

  The Chief Pilot objected that any such contrivance would interfere with navigation and that the sudden fall in temperature at sunset, always accompanied by an increase of fever in the patients, would prove fatal in most cases. He appealed to Doña Ysabel’s charity.

  It was ordered that the sick should remain in the flagship.

  Doña Ysabel desired the Chief Pilot to find crews for the two smaller vessels, also food and water proportionate to their numbers, and further to provide their pilots with charts and sailing instructions; both of which duties he undertook to perform.

  The Chief Pilot then asked permission to absent himself from the Council, on the ground that he had heard a man cry out for his help. This was granted, and business was suspended until he returned, when he informed the Governeress that Sergeant Luis Andrada, allegedly on instructions from Captain Don Diego, was lowering the dangerously sick into the long-boat for transference to the frigate.

  The Governess ordered the mistake to be corrected at once; whereupon the Council was dismissed.

  Chapter 22

  NORTHWARD ACROSS THE EQUATOR

  When we set sail for San Cristobal on the 18th of November, our people shook their fists at the retreating shore and shouted ten thousand imprecations at the inhabitants, as though our stay there had not been sufficient curse to them already. We had ninety-one souls on board the flagship, and the two smaller vessels carried thirty more. No canoes put out to speed us on our way with arrows or sling-bolts; which showed prudence, because the ships’ guns had been charged and gunners were standing ready with lighted matches. The wind blowing fair from the south-east, we cleared the Bay without difficulty, but the San Geronimo’s gear was so rotten that the falls carried away no less than three times while we were hoisting the long-boat aboard; and though I am no sailor, I could see that not much of a gale would be needed to strip us of every stitch we carried aloft. We dropped the Vicar’s body overboard as Santa Cruz sank below a horizon red with angry flashes from the volcano Tinahula. Three of the sailors who had taken part in the forage now showed signs of fever, and a fourth had poisoned his foot by treading on a spined sea-shell.

  Our course was W.S.W. On the 19th the Chief Pilot took the sun and found that we were in latitude eleven South. Meanwhile, the Boatswain and another four seamen had fallen sick, which left us only five healthy men besides the Boatswain’s mate; the remainder of our crew of thirty having been distributed between the Santa Catalina and the San Felipe. Damian grumbled that we were mad to plod on, close-hauled, in search of San Cristobal which, even if it could be found, promised us no better hospitality than we had abused in Santa Cruz—why did we not turn and run free for the Philippines? The Chief Pilot was vexed with him until suddenly the mainstay—that stout cable running from the maintop to the foot of the foremast to take the strain of sails—broke like a thread and the mainmast was sprung at the step. Then he was converted to Damian’s view, whom he sent to supervise the splicing of the mainstay, but confessed that he would not give the mast a three days’ warranty; and this happened when we were still some nine hundred leagues from the nearest Christian port.

  At his urgent representations, and having no strong hope of finding the Santa Ysabel, the Governeress, though with some reluctance, agreed to make for Manila. Don Luis, Captain Lopez and certain other officers, well apprised of the danger we were in, helped her to bear down Don Diego’s opposition who stubbornly refused to credit that anything was amiss with our ship and still had dreams of enriching himself for life at King Solomon’s gold-mines.

  On the 20th of November, therefore, a north-westerly course was shaped and when it became known for what port we were bound, the news had better effect than any physic. The crosses in my register, now forty-seven, did not increase in number for a while, the Boatswain and all the sick seamen making a swift recovery. That night at the common table Pedro Ferna
ndez remarked that we could not be far distant from the vast Island of New Guinea, the northern coast of which he felt an inordinate ambition to chart, and that he refrained from doing so only at Doña Ysabel’s command. The truth was: certain clouds sighted that day far ahead of us on the port bow seemed to him piled along the crest of a high mountain range—the Isles of Solomon, at last, stretching north-west through nearly five degrees of latitude! But to quiet Don Diego, who might have insisted that we should turn and land, he took advantage of his ignorance and beguiled him with talk of New Guinea, which lay some two hundred leagues farther west.

  Doña Mariana, worn out by the care of nursing her brothers and by hidden grief for Don Jacinto, fell an easy victim to the fever. She had always been wild at heart and possessed most of the faults of her family, namely pride, greed and duplicity, but was not altogether bad and, had a priest been by, might well have turned contrite and died devout. But many unconfessable sins weighed heavily on her conscience, and she began to conceive a hatred for the sister who had tempted her into evil and who now, for fear of taking the infection, kept away from her. She wondered bitterly whether the Chief Pilot was hooked, or already drawn out of the water.

  For a week past, Pedro Fernandez had been in so strange a mood, alternately blithe and glum, amiable and quarrelsome, that on the evening after we sailed I accepted the Purser’s offer to rent the cabin in which the Vicar had died. It was airy, with a good bed, and had the advantage of a padlock fitted on the door by Juan de la Isla. I did not doubt that Don Gaspar bad been told by Doña Ysabel to make me this offer; my removal from the Chart-room would clear the way for her.

  It was not until many months later that I learned the details of what happened that same night. About three hours before dawn, when her maids were asleep, she stole into the Chart-room, wrapped in a long black cloak, and softly closed the door after her. Pedro Fernandez started up and, the lantern burning dim, drew a dagger from under his pillow, mistaking her for an assassin sent by Don Diego. ‘Ah, Pedro, no!’ she whispered. ‘Would you kill the one you love best?’

  Half-asleep, and overcome by confusion, he whispered back: ‘Forgive me, my protectress, my angel, my one hope!’ She gently took the weapon from him and laid it out of reach, then came to sit on the bed. He pressed his lips to her hand, unable to conceal his emotion.

  ‘Is it so with you?’ she asked, trembling. ‘So it also is with me.’

  He made no reply, but stared at her, wild-eyed.

  ‘I have a hunger to speak with you, my love,’ she said, ‘but my teeth are chattering for cold. For God’s sake, let me come into your bed.’

  Since he did not answer, she shed her cloak and, clad only in a silken shift, slipped under the coverlet between him and the wall, and ‘Take me in your strong arms and comfort me,’ she said. ‘I am lonely and chilled to the marrow.’

  He embraced her as reverently as though she were a wonder-working image, and said: ‘Let this never be accounted a sin. Heaven knows that I love you with all my heart, and that I would never do you wrong; it is a joy beyond expression that I can at last tell you so face to face.’

  ‘Pedro,’ she breathed, ‘when the year of my widowhood has elapsed, will you marry me? We shall both be free then, as free as air, and this kiss is a token that I am yours for ever.’ She pressed her lips to his.

  He returned the kiss, weeping for wonder.

  ‘Am I not beautiful?’ she asked presently. ‘Don Alvaro despised my beauty.’

  ‘God forgive him!’ he answered. ‘He must have been stark mad.’

  ‘Feel this smooth, tender belly,’—here she seized his hand—‘nay, do not shrink! Was it not cruel to deny a living soul houseroom here? And these firm, round breasts, was it not a sin to deny them their natural function?’

  He trembled, and was nearly over the edge of the chasm, but made a valiant effort to regain his footing. ‘In the Virgin’s name, let me go!’ he said between clenched teeth. ‘Being so virtuous yourself, you cannot guess how sorely my flesh is tried.’

  She released him, and lay sobbing as though her heart would break; until pretty soon he thought better of his resolution, hugged her close to him again and assaulted her with passionate kisses, which she did not resent.

  It was as though he had seduced her, yet she gloried in what had been done, declaring that they were now one flesh in the sight of God, and that unless He had intended this, He would never have smoothed away the difficulties that beset them; and that she was the happiest woman alive. He, though by no means convinced, took courage from her shining eyes and answered that, at the worst, theirs was a venial sin and could be remedied by honourable marriage at Manila, and that the statutory year ordained to prevent a widow, already with child, from lying with a new husband did not touch their case. And ‘My love,’ she said, ‘if, as a fruit of this night’s pleasure a son be born to us, he will be rightful heir to the Marquisate. You will have raised up seed for your brother, as Our Saviour did not forbid, and by this means we shall fulfil the desire nearest our hearts, which must redound to God’s greater glory.’

  He consented in this false and heretical reasoning. They kissed, clasped, and comforted each other until dawn, agreeing to meet again next night at the same hour; but she warned him that meanwhile she would treat him with scorn and severity, the better to conceal her love from watchful eyes, and would continue to do so until they reached Manila.

  Her maid Elvira, becoming aware of her nightly absences, grew alarmed. She confided in none but Jaume, whom she asked to give the Chief Pilot this secret warning: that if the Barretos discovered what visitor he entertained at night, he might expect cold steel between his shoulders, and who then would bring the flotilla safely into harbour? Jaume came covertly to me, as being intimate with Pedro Fernandez, and asked me to pass on the message; but pretended that it concerned a conspiracy to seize the ship. ‘Their lives are their own,’ said I at once, to show him that I was not deceived, ‘and who am I, to warn him against keeping a mistress? What hope have I of convincing him that there is danger? If he does not feel the indecency of lying with her so soon after the funeral of her husband, and so soon after receiving news of his own bereavement, he must be infatuated indeed.’

  ‘Then you will not intervene?’

  ‘I do not think so. To keep silence is dangerous, I agree, yet to speak seems more dangerous still. He believes whatever she tells him, as though she were a fifth Evangelist, and would be far from thanking a well-intentioned friend who sought to acquaint him with her true character. If I tell him no more than that his amour is discovered, he will pass the news on to her and cite me as his informant; and she, to cover her tracks, will find means to silence me for ever. Let me be frank with you, Jaume: in the pursuit of her ends Doña Ysabel is capable of any baseness and, what is more, she holds us all in her power. Has Elvira discussed the affair with her friend?’

  ‘With Belita? No; Belita knows nothing. Don Diego and Don Luis now share her fraternally, so she is never to be found in the Great Cabin between midnight and dawn. Elvira confided only in me.’

  ‘Then tell her that her secret must not travel any farther. It is safe with us two, but unless she cares to be pushed over the taffrail one moonless night…’

  ‘You are right, Don Andrés,’ he said. ‘Well I dare say, the Devil had better have his fling.’

  ***

  We were now making about twenty leagues a day, and on the 27th of November the look-out sighted a floating tree-trunk and a large tangled mass of river weeds, among which, when we came up with it, we saw almonds, half-burned thatch and a couple of snakes. Pedro Fernandez took the sun and, for Don Diego’s benefit, reported that we had already reached latitude five degrees South; but we were still in latitude seven, cruising wide of the northernmost Isles of Solomon. The wind had veered to the south-west, bringing squalls and showers, which proved, he said, that New Guinea was not far distant. A heavy ground-swell met us head-on; the ship began to pitch sullenly, and then to
roll as another array of toppling waves struck at us from starboard. This buffeting strained her timbers and aggravated our sufferings; but it also discouraged Doña Ysabel from further nightly visits to the Chart-room, for even the most passionate love finds its match in sea-sickness. Thus we passed by and left the Isles of Solomon unvisited and even unsighted. No white man has set foot upon them to this day and their position remains a secret known to few.

  The winds grew variable, and sometimes ceased altogether, but the swell persisted disagreeably; our daily run decreased to eight leagues or less as we approached the Line, which we did not cross until the 13th of December. Saint Lucia, whose day this is, heals sore eyes and restores dim vision; when her sun arose, the skies were clear, the air quiet, the sea smooth, but not the keenest-sighted man in the world could have descried the least sign of land on the cloudless horizon.

  Pedro Fernandez expected Doña Ysabel to show him marked disdain, and for a while the harsher her words, the more he rejoiced. When she discontinued her nightly visits to the Chart-room, he guessed that sea-sickness was the cause, and pitied her. But she recovered and still did not come; and though they might happen to be alone in the Great Cabin, her manner towards him remained as cold and severe as a judge’s who tries a man for his neck. He did not grow impatient, supposing that the flowers were upon her, but she continued to hold him at arm’s length, and what could he do? Having pledged himself not to reveal their secret by word, look or act, he waited discreetly upon her pleasure.

  Jaume and I noticed the alteration in him. He looked like one who has been smuggled into Heaven by the back-door and then thrust out of the window without warning, to fall head over heels through space, like Vulcan in the fable, and never know when he will strike the hard earth. It may well be imagined that he did not complain to me or to anyone else. He had work in abundance to occupy his mind and keep him from brooding, being both pilot and master of a ship that was undermanned, ill-provisioned, and unseaworthy in the extreme. He took his place at the common table among a dwindled company consisting of the Governeress, her two brothers, Major Moran, Captain Lopez, Ensign Torres and myself. Luisa, Juan de Buitrago’s widow, should have been with us or, at least, allowed her dole of food, being now great-bellied; but Doña Ysabel owed nothing, she said, to the relict of a proven traitor, who must be content with her former humble station.