CHAPTER 20
THE chief was as good as his word, and we were soon plentifully suppliedwith fresh provisions. We found the tortoises as fine as we had everseen, and the ducks surpassed our best species of wild fowl, beingexceedingly tender, juicy, and well-flavoured. Besides these, thesavages brought us, upon our making them comprehend our wishes, a vastquantity of brown celery and scurvy grass, with a canoe-load of freshfish and some dried. The celery was a treat indeed, and the scurvy grassproved of incalculable benefit in restoring those of our men who hadshown symptoms of disease. In a very short time we had not a singleperson on the sick-list. We had also plenty of other kinds of freshprovisions, among which may be mentioned a species of shellfishresembling the mussel in shape, but with the taste of an oyster.Shrimps, too, and prawns were abundant, and albatross and other birds’eggs with dark shells. We took in, too, a plentiful stock of the fleshof the hog which I have mentioned before. Most of the men found it apalatable food, but I thought it fishy and otherwise disagreeable. Inreturn for these good things we presented the natives with blue beads,brass trinkets, nails, knives, and pieces of red cloth, they being fullydelighted in the exchange. We established a regular market on shore,just under the guns of the schooner, where our barterings were carriedon with every appearance of good faith, and a degree of order whichtheir conduct at the village of _Klock-klock_ had not led us to expectfrom the savages.
Matters went on thus very amicably for several days, during whichparties of the natives were frequently on board the schooner, andparties of our men frequently on shore, making long excursions into theinterior, and receiving no molestation whatever. Finding the ease withwhich the vessel might be loaded with _biche de mer_, owing to thefriendly disposition of the islanders, and the readiness with which theywould render us assistance in collecting it, Captain Guy resolved toenter into negotiations with Too-wit for the erection of suitable housesin which to cure the article, and for the services of himself and tribein gathering as much as possible, while he himself took advantage of thefine weather to prosecute his voyage to the southward. Upon mentioningthis project to the chief he seemed very willing to enter into anagreement. A bargain was accordingly struck, perfectly satisfactory toboth parties, by which it was arranged that, after making the necessarypreparations, such as laying off the proper grounds, erecting a portionof the buildings, and doing some other work in which the whole ofour crew would be required, the schooner should proceed on her route,leaving three of her men on the island to superintend the fulfilment ofthe project, and instruct the natives in drying the _biche de mer_. Inregard to terms, these were made to depend upon the exertions of thesavages in our absence. They were to receive a stipulated quantity ofblue beads, knives, red cloth, and so forth, for every certain number ofpiculs of the _biche de mer_ which should be ready on our return.
A description of the nature of this important article of commerce, andthe method of preparing it, may prove of some interest to my readers,and I can find no more suitable place than this for introducing anaccount of it. The following comprehensive notice of the substance istaken from a modern history of a voyage to the South Seas.
“It is that _mollusca_ from the Indian Seas which is known to commerceby the French name _bouche de mer_ (a nice morsel from the sea). If Iam not much mistaken, the celebrated Cuvier calls it _gasteropedapulmonifera_. It is abundantly gathered in the coasts of the Pacificislands, and gathered especially for the Chinese market, where itcommands a great price, perhaps as much as their much-talked-of ediblebirds’ nests, which are properly made up of the gelatinous matter pickedup by a species of swallow from the body of these molluscae. They haveno shell, no legs, nor any prominent part, except an _absorbing_ andan _excretory_, opposite organs; but, by their elastic wings, likecaterpillars or worms, they creep in shallow waters, in which, when low,they can be seen by a kind of swallow, the sharp bill of which, insertedin the soft animal, draws a gummy and filamentous substance, which, bydrying, can be wrought into the solid walls of their nest. Hence thename of _gasteropeda pulmonifera_.
“This mollusca is oblong, and of different sizes, from three to eighteeninches in length; and I have seen a few that were not less than two feetlong. They were nearly round, a little flattish on one side, which liesnext to the bottom of the sea; and they are from one to eight inchesthick. They crawl up into shallow water at particular seasons of theyear, probably for the purpose of gendering, as we often find them inpairs. It is when the sun has the most power on the water, rendering ittepid, that they approach the shore; and they often go up into places soshallow that, on the tide’s receding, they are left dry, exposed tothe beat of the sun. But they do not bring forth their young in shallowwater, as we never see any of their progeny, and full-grown ones arealways observed coming in from deep water. They feed principally on thatclass of zoophytes which produce the coral.
“The _biche de mer_ is generally taken in three or four feet of water;after which they are brought on shore, and split at one end with aknife, the incision being one inch or more, according to the size of themollusca. Through this opening the entrails are forced out by pressure,and they are much like those of any other small tenant of the deep. Thearticle is then washed, and afterward boiled to a certain degree, whichmust not be too much or too little. They are then buried in the groundfor four hours, then boiled again for a short time, after which they aredried, either by the fire or the sun. Those cured by the sun are worththe most; but where one picul (133 1/3 lbs.) can be cured that way, Ican cure thirty piculs by the fire. When once properly cured, they canbe kept in a dry place for two or three years without any risk; but theyshould be examined once in every few months, say four times a year, tosee if any dampness is likely to affect them.
“The Chinese, as before stated, consider _biche de mer_ a very greatluxury, believing that it wonderfully strengthens and nourishes thesystem, and renews the exhausted system of the immoderate voluptuary.The first quality commands a high price in Canton, being worth ninetydollars a picul; the second quality, seventy-five dollars; the third,fifty dollars; the fourth, thirty dollars; the fifth, twenty dollars;the sixth, twelve dollars; the seventh, eight dollars; and the eighth,four dollars; small cargoes, however, will often bring more in Manilla,Singapore, and Batavia.”
An agreement having been thus entered into, we proceeded immediately toland everything necessary for preparing the buildings and clearingthe ground. A large flat space near the eastern shore of the bay wasselected, where there was plenty of both wood and water, and within aconvenient distance of the principal reefs on which the _biche de mer_was to be procured. We now all set to work in good earnest, and soon, tothe great astonishment of the savages, had felled a sufficient number oftrees for our purpose, getting them quickly in order for the frameworkof the houses, which in two or three days were so far under way thatwe could safely trust the rest of the work to the three men whom weintended to leave behind. These were John Carson, Alfred Harris, and___ Peterson (all natives of London, I believe), who volunteered theirservices in this respect.
By the last of the month we had everything in readiness for departure.We had agreed, however, to pay a formal visit of leave-taking to thevillage, and Too-wit insisted so pertinaciously upon our keeping thepromise that we did not think it advisable to run the risk of offendinghim by a final refusal. I believe that not one of us had at this timethe slightest suspicion of the good faith of the savages. They haduniformly behaved with the greatest decorum, aiding us with alacrity inour work, offering us their commodities, frequently without price, andnever, in any instance, pilfering a single article, although thehigh value they set upon the goods we had with us was evident by theextravagant demonstrations of joy always manifested upon our making thema present. The women especially were most obliging in every respect,and, upon the whole, we should have been the most suspicious of humanbeings had we entertained a single thought of perfidy on the part of apeople who treated us so well. A very short while sufficed to prove thatthis apparent kindness
of disposition was only the result of a deeplylaid plan for our destruction, and that the islanders for whom weentertained such inordinate feelings of esteem, were among the mostbarbarous, subtle, and bloodthirsty wretches that ever contaminated theface of the globe.
It was on the first of February that we went on shore for the purpose ofvisiting the village. Although, as said before, we entertained not theslightest suspicion, still no proper precaution was neglected. Sixmen were left in the schooner, with instructions to permit none of thesavages to approach the vessel during our absence, under any pretencewhatever, and to remain constantly on deck. The boarding-nettings wereup, the guns double-shotted with grape and canister, and the swivelsloaded with canisters of musket-balls. She lay, with her anchor apeak,about a mile from the shore, and no canoe could approach her in anydirection without being distinctly seen and exposed to the full fire ofour swivels immediately.
The six men being left on board, our shore-party consisted of thirty-twopersons in all. We were armed to the teeth, having with us muskets,pistols, and cutlasses; besides, each had a long kind of seaman’s knife,somewhat resembling the bowie knife now so much used throughout ourwestern and southern country. A hundred of the black skin warriors metus at the landing for the purpose of accompanying us on our way. Wenoticed, however, with some surprise, that they were now entirelywithout arms; and, upon questioning Too-wit in relation to thiscircumstance, he merely answered that _Mattee non we pa pa si_--meaningthat there was no need of arms where all were brothers. We took this ingood part, and proceeded.
We had passed the spring and rivulet of which I before spoke, and werenow entering upon a narrow gorge leading through the chain of soapstonehills among which the village was situated. This gorge was veryrocky and uneven, so much so that it was with no little difficulty wescrambled through it on our first visit to Klock-klock. The whole lengthof the ravine might have been a mile and a half, or probably twomiles. It wound in every possible direction through the hills (havingapparently formed, at some remote period, the bed of a torrent), in noinstance proceeding more than twenty yards without an abrupt turn. Thesides of this dell would have averaged, I am sure, seventy or eightyfeet in perpendicular altitude throughout the whole of their extent, andin some portions they arose to an astonishing height, overshadowing thepass so completely that but little of the light of day could penetrate.The general width was about forty feet, and occasionally it diminishedso as not to allow the passage of more than five or six persons abreast.In short, there could be no place in the world better adapted for theconsummation of an ambuscade, and it was no more than natural that weshould look carefully to our arms as we entered upon it. When I nowthink of our egregious folly, the chief subject of astonishment seemsto be, that we should have ever ventured, under any circumstances, socompletely into the power of unknown savages as to permit them to marchboth before and behind us in our progress through this ravine. Yet suchwas the order we blindly took up, trusting foolishly to the force ofour party, the unarmed condition of Too-wit and his men, the certainefficacy of our firearms (whose effect was yet a secret to the natives),and, more than all, to the long-sustained pretension of friendship keptup by these infamous wretches. Five or six of them went on before, asif to lead the way, ostentatiously busying themselves in removing thelarger stones and rubbish from the path. Next came our own party. Wewalked closely together, taking care only to prevent separation. Behindfollowed the main body of the savages, observing unusual order anddecorum.
Dirk Peters, a man named Wilson Allen, and myself were on the right ofour companions, examining, as we went along, the singular stratificationof the precipice which overhung us. A fissure in the soft rock attractedour attention. It was about wide enough for one person to enter withoutsqueezing, and extended back into the hill some eighteen or twenty feetin a straight course, sloping afterward to the left. The height of theopening, is far as we could see into it from the main gorge, was perhapssixty or seventy feet. There were one or two stunted shrubs growing fromthe crevices, bearing a species of filbert which I felt some curiosityto examine, and pushed in briskly for that purpose, gathering five orsix of the nuts at a grasp, and then hastily retreating. As I turned, Ifound that Peters and Allen had followed me. I desired them to go back,as there was not room for two persons to pass, saying they should havesome of my nuts. They accordingly turned, and were scrambling back,Allen being close to the mouth of the fissure, when I was suddenly awareof a concussion resembling nothing I had ever before experienced, andwhich impressed me with a vague conception, if indeed I then thought ofanything, that the whole foundations of the solid globe were suddenlyrent asunder, and that the day of universal dissolution was at hand.
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3 Page 21