Typee: A Romance of the South Seas
Page 4
CHAPTER TWO
PASSAGE FROM THE CRUISING GROUND TO THE MARQUESAS--SLEEPY TIMES ABOARDSHIP--SOUTH SEA SCENERY--LAND HO--THE FRENCH SQUADRON DISCOVERED ATANCHOR IN THE BAY OF NUKUHEVA--STRANGE PILOT--ESCORT OF CANOES--AFLOTILLA OF COCOANUTS--SWIMMING VISITORS--THE DOLLY BOARDED BYTHEM--STATE OF AFFAIRS THAT ENSUE
I CAN never forget the eighteen or twenty days during which the lighttrade-winds were silently sweeping us towards the islands. In pursuit ofthe sperm whale, we had been cruising on the line some twenty degreesto the westward of the Gallipagos; and all that we had to do, when ourcourse was determined on, was to square in the yards and keep the vesselbefore the breeze, and then the good ship and the steady gale did therest between them. The man at the wheel never vexed the old lady withany superfluous steering, but comfortably adjusting his limbs at thetiller, would doze away by the hour. True to her work, the Dolly headedto her course, and like one of those characters who always do best whenlet alone, she jogged on her way like a veteran old sea-pacer as shewas.
What a delightful, lazy, languid time we had whilst we were thus glidingalong! There was nothing to be done; a circumstance that happilysuited our disinclination to do anything. We abandoned the fore-peakaltogether, and spreading an awning over the forecastle, slept, ate,and lounged under it the live-long day. Every one seemed to be under theinfluence of some narcotic. Even the officers aft, whose duty requiredthem never to be seated while keeping a deck watch, vainly endeavouredto keep on their pins; and were obliged invariably to compromise thematter by leaning up against the bulwarks, and gazing abstractedly overthe side. Reading was out of the question; take a book in your hand, andyou were asleep in an instant.
Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the generallanguor, still at times I contrived to shake off the spell, and toappreciate the beauty of the scene around me. The sky presented aclear expanse of the most delicate blue, except along the skirts of thehorizon, where you might see a thin drapery of pale clouds which nevervaried their form or colour. The long, measured, dirge-like well ofthe Pacific came rolling along, with its surface broken by little tinywaves, sparkling in the sunshine. Every now and then a shoal of flyingfish, scared from the water under the bows, would leap into the air,and fall the next moment like a shower of silver into the sea. Then youwould see the superb albicore, with his glittering sides, sailing aloft,and often describing an arc in his descent, disappear on the surface ofthe water. Far off, the lofty jet of the whale might be seen, and nearerat hand the prowling shark, that villainous footpad of the seas, wouldcome skulking along, and, at a wary distance, regard us with his evileye. At times, some shapeless monster of the deep, floating on thesurface, would, as we approached, sink slowly into the blue waters, andfade away from the sight. But the most impressive feature of thescene was the almost unbroken silence that reigned over sky and water.Scarcely a sound could be heard but the occasional breathing of thegrampus, and the rippling at the cut-water.
As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appearance ofinnumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in spiral tracks, theywould accompany the vessel, and at times alight on our yards andstays. That piratical-looking fellow, appropriately named theman-of-war's-hawk, with his blood-red bill and raven plumage, wouldcome sweeping round us in gradually diminishing circles, till youcould distinctly mark the strange flashings of his eye; and then, as ifsatisfied with his observation, would sail up into the air and disappearfrom the view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to the land wereapparent, and it was not long before the glad announcement of its beingin sight was heard from aloft,--given with that peculiar prolongation ofsound that a sailor loves--'Land ho!'
The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily for hisspy-glass; the mate in still louder accents hailed the masthead with atremendous 'where-away?' The black cook thrust his woolly head from thegalley, and Boatswain, the dog, leaped up between the knight-heads, andbarked most furiously. Land ho! Aye, there it was. A hardly perceptibleblue irregular outline, indicating the bold contour of the lofty heightsof Nukuheva.
This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas, is by somenavigators considered as forming one of a distinct cluster, comprisingthe islands of Ruhooka, Ropo, and Nukuheva; upon which three theappellation of the Washington Group has been bestowed. They form atriangle, and lie within the parallels of 8 degrees 38" and 9 degrees32" South latitude and 139 degrees 20" and 140 degrees 10" Westlongitude from Greenwich. With how little propriety they are to beregarded as forming a separate group will be at once apparent, whenit is considered that they lie in the immediate vicinity of the otherislands, that is to say, less than a degree to the northwest of them;that their inhabitants speak the Marquesan dialect, and that their laws,religion, and general customs are identical. The only reason why theywere ever thus arbitrarily distinguished may be attributed to thesingular fact, that their existence was altogether unknown to the worlduntil the year 1791, when they were discovered by Captain Ingraham, ofBoston, Massachusetts, nearly two centuries after the discovery of theadjacent islands by the agent of the Spanish Viceroy. Notwithstandingthis, I shall follow the example of most voyagers, and treat of them asforming part and parcel of Marquesas.
Nukuheva is the most important of these islands, being the only oneat which ships are much in the habit of touching, and is celebrated asbeing the place where the adventurous Captain Porter refitted his shipsduring the late war between England and the United States, and whence hesallied out upon the large whaling fleet then sailing under the enemy'sflag in the surrounding seas. This island is about twenty miles inlength and nearly as many in breadth. It has three good harbours on itscoast; the largest and best of which is called by the people livingin its vicinity 'Taiohae', and by Captain Porter was denominatedMassachusetts Bay. Among the adverse tribes dwelling about the shores ofthe other bays, and by all voyagers, it is generally known by the namebestowed upon the island itself--Nukuheva. Its inhabitants have becomesomewhat corrupted, owing to their recent commerce with Europeans, butso far as regards their peculiar customs and general mode of life, theyretain their original primitive character, remaining very nearly in thesame state of nature in which they were first beheld by white men. Thehostile clans, residing in the more remote sections of the island, andvery seldom holding any communication with foreigners, are in everyrespect unchanged from their earliest known condition.
In the bay of Nukuheva was the anchorage we desired to reach. We hadperceived the loom of the mountains about sunset; so that after runningall night with a very light breeze, we found ourselves close in withthe island the next morning, but as the bay we sought lay on its fartherside, we were obliged to sail some distance along the shore, catching,as we proceeded, short glimpses of blooming valleys, deep glens,waterfalls, and waving groves hidden here and there by projecting androcky headlands, every moment opening to the view some new and startlingscene of beauty.
Those who for the first time visit the South Sea, generally aresurprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from the sea.From the vague accounts we sometimes have of their beauty, many peopleare apt to picture to themselves enamelled and softly swelling plains,shaded over with delicious groves, and watered by purling brooks, andthe entire country but little elevated above the surrounding ocean. Thereality is very different; bold rock-bound coasts, with the surf beatinghigh against the lofty cliffs, and broken here and there into deepinlets, which open to the view thickly-wooded valleys, separated by thespurs of mountains clothed with tufted grass, and sweeping down towardsthe sea from an elevated and furrowed interior, form the principalfeatures of these islands.
Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance go the harbour, and at lastwe slowly swept by the intervening promontory, and entered the bay ofNukuheva. No description can do justice to its beauty; but that beautywas lost to me then, and I saw nothing but the tri-coloured flag ofFrance trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black hulls andbristling broadsides proclaimed their warlike ch
aracter. There theywere, floating in that lovely bay, the green eminences of the shorelooking down so tranquilly upon them, as if rebuking the sternness oftheir aspect. To my eye nothing could be more out of keeping than thepresence of these vessels; but we soon learnt what brought themthere. The whole group of islands had just been taken possession ofby Rear-Admiral Du Petit Thouars, in the name of the invincible Frenchnation.
This item of information was imparted to us by a most extraordinaryindividual, a genuine South-Sea vagabond, who came alongside of us ina whale-boat as soon as we entered the bay, and, by the aid of somebenevolent persons at the gangway, was assisted on board, for ourvisitor was in that interesting stage of intoxication when a man isamiable and helpless. Although he was utterly unable to stand erect orto navigate his body across the deck, he still magnanimously profferedhis services to pilot the ship to a good and secure anchorage. Ourcaptain, however, rather distrusted his ability in this respect, andrefused to recognize his claim to the character he assumed; butour gentleman was determined to play his part, for, by dint of muchscrambling, he succeeded in getting into the weather-quarter boat,where he steadied himself by holding on to a shroud, and then commencedissuing his commands with amazing volubility and very peculiar gestures.Of course no one obeyed his orders; but as it was impossible to quiethim, we swept by the ships of the squadron with this strange fellowperforming his antics in full view of all the French officers.
We afterwards learned that our eccentric friend had been a lieutenant inthe English navy; but having disgraced his flag by some criminal conductin one of the principal ports on the main, he had deserted his ship,and spent many years wandering among the islands of the Pacific, untilaccidentally being at Nukuheva when the French took possession ofthe place, he had been appointed pilot of the harbour by the newlyconstituted authorities.
As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed off from thesurrounding shores, and we were soon in the midst of quite a flotillaof them, their savage occupants struggling to get aboard of us, andjostling one another in their ineffectual attempts. Occasionally theprojecting out-riggers of their slight shallops running foul of oneanother, would become entangled beneath the water, threatening tocapsize the canoes, when a scene of confusion would ensue that bafflesdescription. Such strange outcries and passionate gesticulations I nevercertainly heard or saw before. You would have thought the islanders wereon the point of flying at each other's throats, whereas they were onlyamicably engaged in disentangling their boats.
Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen numbers ofcocoanuts floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing upand down with every wave. By some inexplicable means these cocoanutswere all steadily approaching towards the ship. As I leaned curiouslyover the side, endeavouring to solve their mysterious movements, onemass far in advance of the rest attracted my attention. In its centrewas something I could take for nothing else than a cocoanut, but whichI certainly considered one of the most extraordinary specimens of thefruit I had ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing about among the restin the most singular manner, and as it drew nearer I thought it bore aremarkable resemblance to the brown shaven skull of one of the savages.Presently it betrayed a pair of eyes, and soon I became aware that whatI had supposed to have been one of the fruit was nothing else than thehead of an islander, who had adopted this singular method of bringinghis produce to market. The cocoanuts were all attached to one anotherby strips of the husk, partly torn from the shell and rudely fastenedtogether. Their proprietor inserting his head into the midst of them,impelled his necklace of cocoanuts through the water by striking outbeneath the surface with his feet.
I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of nativesthat surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen. At that time Iwas ignorant of the fact that by the operation of the 'taboo' the use ofcanoes in all parts of the island is rigorously prohibited to the entiresex, for whom it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled onshore; consequently, whenever a Marquesan lady voyages by water, sheputs in requisition the paddles of her own fair body.
We had approached within a mile and a half perhaps of this foot ofthe bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had managed toscramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their canoes, directed ourattention to a singular commotion in the water ahead of the vessel. Atfirst I imagined it to be produced by a shoal of fish sporting on thesurface, but our savage friends assured us that it was caused by a shoalof 'whinhenies' (young girls), who in this manner were coming off fromthe shore to welcome is. As they drew nearer, and I watched the risingand sinking of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm bearingabove the water the girdle of tappa, and their long dark hair trailingbeside them as they swam, I almost fancied they could be nothing elsethan so many mermaids--and very like mermaids they behaved too.
We were still some distance from the beach, and under slow headway,when we sailed right into the midst of these swimming nymphs, and theyboarded us at every quarter; many seizing hold of the chain-plates andspringing into the chains; others, at the peril of being run over bythe vessel in her course, catching at the bob-stays, and wreathing theirslender forms about the ropes, hung suspended in the air. All of themat length succeeded in getting up the ship's side, where they clungdripping with the brine and glowing from the bath, their jet-blacktresses streaming over their shoulders, and half enveloping theirotherwise naked forms. There they hung, sparkling with savage vivacity,laughing gaily at one another, and chattering away with infinite glee.Nor were they idle the while, for each one performed the simple officesof the toilette for the other. Their luxuriant locks, wound up andtwisted into the smallest possible compass, were freed from the brinyelement; the whole person carefully dried, and from a little roundshell that passed from hand to hand, anointed with a fragrant oil: theiradornments were completed by passing a few loose folds of white tappa,in a modest cincture, around the waist. Thus arrayed they no longerhesitated, but flung themselves lightly over the bulwarks, and werequickly frolicking about the decks. Many of them went forward, perchingupon the headrails or running out upon the bowsprit, while others seatedthemselves upon the taffrail, or reclined at full length upon the boats.What a sight for us bachelor sailors! How avoid so dire a temptation?For who could think of tumbling these artless creatures overboard, whenthey had swum miles to welcome us?
Their appearance perfectly amazed me; their extreme youth, thelight clear brown of their complexions, their delicate features, andinexpressibly graceful figures, their softly moulded limbs, and freeunstudied action, seemed as strange as beautiful.
The Dolly was fairly captured; and never I will say was vessel carriedbefore by such a dashing and irresistible party of boarders! The shiptaken, we could not do otherwise than yield ourselves prisoners, and forthe whole period that she remained in the bay, the Dolly, as well as hercrew, were completely in the hands of the mermaids.
In the evening after we had come to an anchor the deck was illuminatedwith lanterns, and this picturesque band of sylphs, tricked out withflowers, and dressed in robes of variegated tappa, got up a ball ingreat style. These females are passionately fond of dancing, and in thewild grace and spirit of the style excel everything I have ever seen.The varied dances of the Marquesan girls are beautiful in the extreme,but there is an abandoned voluptuousness in their character which I darenot attempt to describe.