by Jules Verne
Chapter 3
The next day, the 30th of October, all was ready for the proposedexploring expedition, which recent events had rendered so necessary. Infact, things had so come about that the settlers in Lincoln Island nolonger needed help for themselves, but were even able to carry it toothers.
It was therefore agreed that they should ascend the Mercy as far asthe river was navigable. A great part of the distance would thus betraversed without fatigue, and the explorers could transport theirprovisions and arms to an advanced point in the west of the island.
It was necessary to think not only of the things which they should takewith them, but also of those which they might have by chance to bringback to Granite House. If there had been a wreck on the coast, as wassupposed, there would be many things cast up, which would be lawfullytheir prizes. In the event of this, the cart would have been of more usethan the light canoe, but it was heavy and clumsy to drag, and thereforemore difficult to use; this led Pencroft to express his regret that thechest had not contained, besides "his halfpound of tobacco," a pairof strong New Jersey horses, which would have been very useful to thecolony!
The provisions, which Neb had already packed up, consisted of a storeof meat and of several gallons of beer, that is to say enough to sustainthem for three days, the time which Harding assigned for the expedition.They hoped besides to supply themselves on the road, and Neb took carenot to forget the portable stove.
The only tools the settlers took were the two woodmen's axes, whichthey could use to cut a path through the thick forests, as also theinstruments, the telescope and pocket-compass.
For weapons they selected the two flint-lock guns, which were likelyto be more useful to them than the percussion fowling-pieces, the firstonly requiring flints which could be easily replaced, and the latterneeding fulminating caps, a frequent use of which would soon exhausttheir limited stock. However, they took also one of the carbines andsome cartridges. As to the powder, of which there was about fifty poundsin the barrel, a small supply of it had to be taken, but the engineerhoped to manufacture an explosive substance which would allow them tohusband it. To the firearms were added the five cutlasses well sheathedin leather, and, thus supplied, the settlers could venture into the vastforest with some chance of success.
It is useless to add that Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb, thus armed, wereat the summit of their happiness, although Cyrus Harding made thempromise not to fire a shot unless it was necessary.
At six in the morning the canoe put off from the shore; all hadembarked, including Top, and they proceeded to the mouth of the Mercy.
The tide had begun to come up half an hour before. For several hours,therefore, there would be a current, which it was well to profit by, forlater the ebb would make it difficult to ascend the river. The tide wasalready strong, for in three days the moon would be full, and it wasenough to keep the boat in the center of the current, where it floatedswiftly along between the high banks without its being necessaryto increase its speed by the aid of the oars. In a few minutes theexplorers arrived at the angle formed by the Mercy and exactly at theplace where, seven months before, Pencroft had made his first raft ofwood.
After this sudden angle the river widened and flowed under the shade ofgreat evergreen firs.
The aspect of the banks was magnificent. Cyrus Harding and hiscompanions could not but admire the lovely effects so easily producedby nature with water and trees. As they advanced the forest elementdiminished. On the right bank of the river grew magnificent specimens ofthe ulmaceae tribe, the precious elm, so valuable to builders, and whichwithstands well the action of water. Then there were numerous groupsbelonging to the same family, among others one in particular, the fruitof which produces a very useful oil. Further on, Herbert remarked thelardizabala, a twining shrub which, when bruised in water, furnishesexcellent cordage; and two or three ebony trees of a beautiful black,crossed with capricious veins.
From time to time, in certain places where the landing was easy, thecanoe was stopped, when Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Pencroft, theirguns in their hands, and preceded by Top, jumped on shore. Withoutexpecting game, some useful plant might be met with, and the youngnaturalist was delighted with discovering a sort of wild spinach,belonging to the order of chenopodiaceae, and numerous specimens ofcruciferae, belonging to the cabbage tribe, which it would certainly bepossible to cultivate by transplanting. There were cresses, horseradish,turnips, and lastly, little branching hairy stalks, scarcely more thanthree feet high, which produced brownish grains.
"Do you know what this plant is?" asked Herbert of the sailor.
"Tobacco!" cried Pencroft, who evidently had never seen his favoriteplant except in the bowl of his pipe.
"No, Pencroft," replied Herbert; "this is not tobacco, it is mustard."
"Mustard be hanged!" returned the sailor; "but if by chance you happento come across a tobacco-plant, my boy, pray don't scorn that!"
"We shall find it some day!" said Gideon Spilett.
"Well!" exclaimed Pencroft, "when that day comes, I do not know whatmore will be wanting in our island!"
These different plants, which had been carefully rooted up, were carriedto the canoe, where Cyrus Harding had remained buried in thought.
The reporter, Herbert, and Pencroft in this manner frequentlydisembarked, sometimes on the right bank, sometimes on the left bank ofthe Mercy.
The latter was less abrupt, but the former more wooded. The engineerascertained by consulting his pocket-compass that the direction of theriver from the first turn was obviously southwest and northeast, andnearly straight for a length of about three miles. But it was to besupposed that this direction changed beyond that point, and that theMercy continued to the north-west, towards the spurs of Mount Franklin,among which the river rose.
During one of these excursions, Gideon Spilett managed to get holdof two couples of living gallinaceae. They were birds with long, thinbeaks, lengthened necks, short wings, and without any appearance ofa tail. Herbert rightly gave them the name of tinamous, and itwas resolved that they should be the first tenants of their futurepoultry-yard.
But till then the guns had not spoken, and the first report which awokethe echoes of the forest of the Far West was provoked by the appearanceof a beautiful bird, resembling the kingfisher.
"I recognize him!" cried Pencroft, and it seemed as if his gun went offby itself.
"What do you recognize?" asked the reporter.
"The bird which escaped us on our first excursion, and from which wegave the name to that part of the forest."
"A jacamar!" cried Herbert.
It was indeed a jacamar, of which the plumage shines with a metallicluster. A shot brought it to the ground, and Top carried it to thecanoe. At the same time half a dozen lories were brought down. The loryis of the size of a pigeon, the plumage dashed with green, part ofthe wings crimson, and its crest bordered with white. To the young boybelonged the honor of this shot, and he was proud enough of it. Loriesare better food than the jacamar, the flesh of which is rather tough,but it was difficult to persuade Pencroft that he had not killed theking of eatable birds. It was ten o'clock in the morning when the canoereached a second angle of the Mercy, nearly five miles from its mouth.Here a halt was made for breakfast under the shade of some splendidtrees. The river still measured from sixty to seventy feet in breadth,and its bed from five to six feet in depth. The engineer had observedthat it was increased by numerous affluents, but they were unnavigable,being simply little streams. As to the forest, including Jacamar Wood,as well as the forests of the Far West, it extended as far as the eyecould reach. In no place, either in the depths of the forests or underthe trees on the banks of the Mercy, was the presence of man revealed.The explorers could not discover one suspicious trace. It was evidentthat the woodman's axe had never touched these trees, that the pioneer'sknife had never severed the creepers hanging from one trunk to anotherin the midst of tangled brushwood and long grass. If castaways hadlanded on the island, they coul
d not have yet quitted the shore, and itwas not in the woods that the survivors of the supposed shipwreck shouldbe sought.
The engineer therefore manifested some impatience to reach the westerncoast of Lincoln Island, which was at least five miles distant accordingto his estimation.
The voyage was continued, and as the Mercy appeared to flow not towardsthe shore, but rather towards Mount Franklin, it was decided that theyshould use the boat as long as there was enough water under its keelto float it. It was both fatigue spared and time gained, for they wouldhave been obliged to cut a path through the thick wood with their axes.But soon the flow completely failed them, either the tide was goingdown, and it was about the hour, or it could no longer be felt at thisdistance from the mouth of the Mercy. They had therefore to make use ofthe oars. Herbert and Neb each took one, and Pencroft took the scull.The forest soon became less dense, the trees grew further apart andoften quite isolated. But the further they were from each other the moremagnificent they appeared, profiting, as they did, by the free, pure airwhich circulated around them.
What splendid specimens of the flora of this latitude! Certainlytheir presence would have been enough for a botanist to name withouthesitation the parallel which traversed Lincoln Island.
"Eucalypti!" cried Herbert.
They were, in fact, those splendid trees, the giants of theextratropical zone, the congeners of the Australian and New Zealandeucalyptus, both situated under the same latitude as Lincoln Island.Some rose to a height of two hundred feet. Their trunks at the basemeasured twenty feet in circumference, and their bark was covered by anetwork of farrows containing a red, sweet-smelling gum. Nothing is morewonderful or more singular than those enormous specimens of the order ofthe myrtaceae, with their leaves placed vertically and not horizontally,so that an edge and not a surface looks upwards, the effect being thatthe sun's rays penetrate more freely among the trees.
The ground at the foot of the eucalypti was carpeted with grass, andfrom the bushes escaped flights of little birds, which glittered in thesunlight like winged rubies.
"These are something like trees!" cried Neb; "but are they good foranything?"
"Pooh!" replied Pencroft. "Of course there are vegetable giants as wellas human giants, and they are no good, except to show themselves atfairs!"
"I think that you are mistaken, Pencroft," replied Gideon Spilett, "andthat the wood of the eucalyptus has begun to be very advantageouslyemployed in cabinet-making."
"And I may add," said Herbert, "that the eucalyptus belongs to a familywhich comprises many useful members; the guava-tree, from whose fruitguava jelly is made; the clove-tree, which produces the spice; thepomegranate-tree, which bears pomegranates; the Eugeacia Cauliflora,the fruit of which is used in making a tolerable wine; the Ugui myrtle,which contains an excellent alcoholic liquor; the Caryophyllus myrtle,of which the bark forms an esteemed cinnamon; the Eugenia Pimenta, fromwhence comes Jamaica pepper; the common myrtle, from whose buds andberries spice is sometimes made; the Eucalyptus manifera, which yieldsa sweet sort of manna; the Guinea Eucalyptus, the sap of which istransformed into beer by fermentation; in short, all those trees knownunder the name of gum-trees or iron-bark trees in Australia, belongto this family of the myrtaceae, which contains forty-six genera andthirteen hundred species!"
The lad was allowed to run on, and he delivered his little botanicallecture with great animation. Cyrus Harding listened smiling, andPencroft with an indescribable feeling of pride.
"Very good, Herbert," replied Pencroft, "but I could swear that allthose useful specimens you have just told us about are none of themgiants like these!"
"That is true, Pencroft."
"That supports what I said," returned the sailor, "namely, that thesegiants are good for nothing!"
"There you are wrong, Pencroft," said the engineer; "these giganticeucalypti, which shelter us, are good for something."
"And what is that?"
"To render the countries which they inhabit healthy. Do you know whatthey are called in Australia and New Zealand?"
"No, captain."
"They are called 'fever trees.'"
"Because they give fevers?"
"No, because they prevent them!"
"Good. I must note that," said the reporter.
"Note it then, my dear Spilett; for it appears proved that the presenceof the eucalyptus is enough to neutralize miasmas. This natural antidotehas been tried in certain countries in the middle of Europe and thenorth of Africa where the soil was absolutely unhealthy, and thesanitary condition of the inhabitants has been gradually ameliorated. Nomore intermittent fevers prevail in the regions now covered with forestsof the myrtaceae. This fact is now beyond doubt, and it is a happycircumstance for us settlers in Lincoln Island."
"Ah! what an island! What a blessed island!" cried Pencroft. "I tellyou, it wants nothing--unless it is--"
"That will come, Pencroft, that will be found," replied the engineer;"but now we must continue our voyage and push on as far as the riverwill carry our boat!"
The exploration was therefore continued for another two miles in themidst of country covered with eucalypti, which predominated in the woodsof this portion of the island. The space which they occupied extended asfar as the eye could reach on each side of the Mercy, which wound alongbetween high green banks. The bed was often obstructed by long weeds,and even by pointed rocks, which rendered the navigation very difficult.The action of the oars was prevented, and Pencroft was obliged to pushwith a pole. They found also that the water was becoming shallowerand shallower, and that the canoe must soon stop. The sun was alreadysinking towards the horizon, and the trees threw long shadows on theground. Cyrus Harding, seeing that he could not hope to reach thewestern coast of the island in one journey, resolved to camp at theplace where any further navigation was prevented by want of water. Hecalculated that they were still five or six miles from the coast, andthis distance was too great for them to attempt during the night in themidst of unknown woods.
The boat was pushed on through the forest, which gradually becamethicker again, and appeared also to have more inhabitants; for if theeyes of the sailor did not deceive him, he thought he saw bands ofmonkeys springing among the trees. Sometimes even two or three of theseanimals stopped at a little distance from the canoe and gazed at thesettlers without manifesting any terror, as if, seeing men for the firsttime, they had not yet learned to fear them. It would have been easyto bring down one of these quadramani with a gunshot, and Pencroft wasgreatly tempted to fire, but Harding opposed so useless a massacre.This was prudent, for the monkeys, or apes rather, appearing to be verypowerful and extremely active, it was useless to provoke an unnecessaryaggression, and the creatures might, ignorant of the power of theexplorers' firearms, have attacked them. It is true that the sailorconsidered the monkeys from a purely alimentary point of view, for thoseanimals which are herbivorous make very excellent game; but since theyhad an abundant supply of provisions, it was a pity to waste theirammunition.
Towards four o'clock, the navigation of the Mercy became exceedinglydifficult, for its course was obstructed by aquatic plants and rocks.The banks rose higher and higher, and already they were approaching thespurs of Mount Franklin. The source could not be far off, since it wasfed by the water from the southern slopes of the mountain.
"In a quarter of an hour," said the sailor, "we shall be obliged tostop, captain."
"Very well, we will stop, Pencroft, and we will make our encampment forthe night."
"At what distance are we from Granite House?" asked Herbert.
"About seven miles," replied the engineer, "taking into calculation,however, the detours of the river, which has carried us to thenorthwest."
"Shall we go on?" asked the reporter.
"Yes, as long as we can," replied Cyrus Harding. "To-morrow, at break ofday, we will leave the canoe, and in two hours I hope we shall cross thedistance which separates us from the coast, and then we shall have thewhole day in which to explore the
shore."
"Go ahead!" replied Pencroft.
But soon the boat grated on the stony bottom of the river, which wasnow not more than twenty feet in breadth. The trees met like a boweroverhead, and caused a half-darkness. They also heard the noise of awaterfall, which showed that a few hundred feet up the river there was anatural barrier.
Presently, after a sudden turn of the river, a cascade appeared throughthe trees. The canoe again touched the bottom, and in a few minutes itwas moored to a trunk near the right bank.
It was nearly five o'clock. The last rays of the sun gleamed throughthe thick foliage and glanced on the little waterfall, making the spraysparkle with all the colors of the rainbow. Beyond that, the Mercy waslost in the bushwood, where it was fed from some hidden source. Thedifferent streams which flowed into it increased it to a regular riverfurther down, but here it was simply a shallow, limpid brook.
It was agreed to camp here, as the place was charming. The colonistsdisembarked, and a fire was soon lighted under a clump of trees, amongthe branches of which Cyrus Harding and his companions could, if it wasnecessary, take refuge for the night.
Supper was quickly devoured, for they were very hungry, and then therewas only sleeping to think of. But, as roarings of rather a suspiciousnature had been heard during the evening, a good fire was made up forthe night, so as to protect the sleepers with its crackling flames. Neband Pencroft also watched by turns, and did not spare fuel. They thoughtthey saw the dark forms of some wild animals prowling round the campamong the bushes, but the night passed without incident, and the nextday, the 31st of October, at five o'clock in the morning, all were onfoot, ready for a start.