The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

  THE WAR CANOES.

  Our breakfast that morning consisted of bananas, mangoes, and coconuts,all of which the island seemed to produce in profusion, as well, nodoubt, as many other fruits, when we should have time to seek for them.At present our main concern was to establish ourselves in a shelter ofsome sort, where we should find complete protection in every kind ofweather; and all expressed themselves as eager to inspect the cavern ofwhich I had been telling them. To do this effectually torches wereneeded, and the means to kindle them. The latter was fortunately athand in the shape of a large and powerful magnifying lens, with whichJulius was fond of amusing himself and which he habitually carried inhis pocket. With regard to torches--well, doubtless dry branches couldbe found lying about under the trees; or, failing these, flambeaux couldbe made of dry grass bound up into bundles. We decided that drybranches would best serve our purpose, and accordingly Julius and Iplunged into the nearest clump of timber in search of what we required,quickly returning with a bundle each, as big as we could convenientlycarry, bound together with long strips of "monkey rope", of which thereseemed to be an inexhaustible quantity in the woods. It was necessaryto carry our fire with us, since the path we should have to traverse toreach the cave, as well as the cave itself, lay in a deep ravine, intowhich the sun's rays struck only for about three hours during the courseof a day. We therefore collected a little heap of dry grass and leaves,set fire to it by concentrating the sun's rays upon it through Julius'sburning-glass, and from it ignited a branch, which I carried along withus.

  The distance from our temporary camp to the cave was about a mile and aquarter, but we took nearly an hour to cover it, for directly we enteredthe gorge there were frequent pauses to admire the splendid vistas whichevery bend of the path opened out. But in due time we reached thecavern and entered it, when other torches were kindled, so that eachmember of the party might be provided with a light.

  It soon became apparent that the cavern was spacious enough toaccommodate a very much larger party than ours. It was so extensive,indeed, that we were obliged to defer its complete exploration for lackof a sufficient number of torches; but we saw enough of it to determineus to enter upon its occupation forthwith. Accordingly I made my way tothe beach where we had left the boat, and proceeded to transfer our fewbelongings from her to the cavern. Those belongings were not very many,consisting, in fact, merely of the empty water breaker, the arms andammunition, the carpenter's chest, and the few planks that I had foundafloat in the lagoon after the sinking of the wreck; and I succeeded ineffecting the transfer of the whole before sunset.

  Thus far I had been much too busy to attempt anything in the nature ofan exploration of the entire island; but now that a safe shelter hadbeen found for the party--and one capable of being very effectivelydefended, too, if the necessity should arise--I felt it was high time tomake myself fully acquainted with our new home and its capabilities asat least a temporary abode. I was especially anxious to ascertainbeyond all question whether it harboured any other inhabitants thanourselves; therefore, on the morning after we had installed ourselves inthe cavern, I took a rifle, filled my pockets with cartridges, and setout with the intention of making the complete circuit of the island. Ileft Julius in charge, and warned my companions not to be anxious on myaccount, should I not return by nightfall, as I meant to take my timeand explore the island thoroughly before returning.

  Starting from the cavern immediately after breakfast, I proceededsouthward, and, descending to the beach, indulged in a swim as apreliminary. Then, returning to the top of the cliff, I continued myway southward until I reached a point overlooking the harbour entrance,from which I struck inland toward one of the two inferior elevationspreviously mentioned.

  The base of this mound was completely surrounded by trees, intermingledwith an undergrowth so dense that it was only with difficulty I wasenabled to force a way through it. I wished to reach the top of themound, if possible, because it appeared to be a very suitable spot uponwhich to build a big flare for the purpose of attracting the attentionof ships, should any such chance to heave in sight; I thereforepersevered, and eventually came out at the base of the elevation, whichwas clear of trees. Then I started to climb, and after an hour'sarduous toil reached its summit, the sides being exceedingly steep andconsisting for the most part of fine ashes, from which I suspected thatI was climbing the cone of an extinct volcano. This suspicion was fullyverified when I arrived at the top; for I found myself upon a narrowplatform, roughly elliptical in shape and some half a dozen yards wide,from which I gazed down into the interior of a crater some two hundredfeet deep, the sides of which were nearly vertical, while the bottom wasapparently a shallow pool of stagnant water.

  The rim would serve admirably as a site upon which to build a bonfire;but the sides were so steep and the soil so loose that I foresaw itwould be difficult, almost to the point of impossibility, to climb themwith a load. I therefore decided to see whether the peak near thecentre of the island offered better facilities. But before descending Itook a good long look round the horizon, and was not very greatlysurprised to discover that there were no less than seven separate anddistinct indications of land to the northward, the nearest of which Ijudged could not be very far away.

  I walked round the rim of the crater to its northern side and made mydescent there, _en route_ for the peak near the centre of the island,having first fully satisfied myself that the sea all round was entirelybare of craft of any description. My way now lay again through timberand more or less dense scrub, beyond which I found a small patch of opengrass land, and then more timber. But now, for some inscrutable reason,there was little or no scrub. The trees were more lofty and widerapart, and intermingled with what I may term the timber trees were afair number bearing fruit, among which I found several specimens of thebreadfruit, and an abundance of mangoes, guavas, custard and starapples, plantains, bananas, and a few other varieties; thus there wasthe assurance of an ample supply of food so long as we might becompelled to remain upon the island.

  It was past noon when I reached the base of the peak; and I had nosooner come to it than I perceived, from the ashes and scoriae thatthickly strewed its sides, that it also was a volcano. Yet I wasdetermined to climb to its summit, if possible, if only for the perfectpanorama of the entire island that I knew I should obtain from there; soI rested for a little while, utilising the time by making a good meal offruit, and then addressed myself to my task.

  The sides of this volcano were not nearly so steep as those of theother; the dust and ashes, however, were just as fine, rendering thetask of climbing the slope extremely difficult. But I had learnedwisdom by this time, and instead of attempting the ascent in a straightline from base to summit, I described a spiral round the peak, and inthis way accomplished the ascent in almost as short a time as, and withfar less fatigue than, if I had attempted to go up by the shortest way.

  My conviction that this peak also was the vent of a volcano was verifiedthe moment that I reached the summit, the general aspect and characterof this and the other being almost identical. The rim on which I nowstood was, however, quite three hundred feet higher than the first; theview from it was consequently much more extensive, and in addition tothe seven indications of land seen from the top of the mound, I was nowable to trace three more quite distinctly, while in the farthestdistance I thought I could descry the faint loom of still more land.This, however, was not all, for far away to the northward--so far as tobe no more than just visible--I caught a hint of a faint, pearly gleamon the horizon, which I felt certain could only be that of the sun on aship's white sails; and my heart swelled with thankfulness, for here wasan unmistakable assurance that craft of some sort occasionally visitedthese waters.

  Having at length thoroughly searched the entire circle of the horizon, Iturned my gaze nearer home and proceeded to view the island, the wholeof which lay spread out beneath me like a large-scale relief map.

  I scarce
ly know how to describe it. The nearest thing to which I cancompare the shape of its plan, is a Ghoorka's _khookri_, or heavy knife,the point directed northward, the edge facing west, with a widening ofthe blade near its junction with the handle, this widening being brokeninto by the little harbour at the upper end of which our boat lay. Thesurface of the island was very irregular, and was almost completelycovered with trees of various kinds, interspersed with small patches ofopen grass land. The island rose sheer from the sea everywhere exceptin one spot inside the harbour, where the grass sloped down to thewater's edge, and at another spot on the north-western shore, where, fora length of about a mile, the land sloped seaward to a strip of whitebeach.

  The source of the rivulet which discharged into the sea appeared to besituated about three-quarters of a mile south of the spot whereon Istood; and from that point it was easy for the eye to follow its coursepast our cavern and down its steep, rocky course to the harbour. Thewhole of the ravine which it traversed lay open to my gaze, and I wasnow able to assure myself with full conviction that our cavern couldonly be approached from one direction, namely, the narrow ledge which wehad traversed to reach it.

  The island was to all appearance uninhabited, save by ourselves. Therewere no canoes on the beach to the north-west, nor any sign of smokeindicating the existence of a village; yet, if not near the harbour,that is where a village would certainly be, since it was the only placewhere men could possibly beach their canoes--and the idea of inhabitantsof an island without canoes was unthinkable. Nevertheless, although Ifelt convinced that our party were the only people on the island, Idetermined to make my exploration complete. Accordingly, after a long,last, lingering look round me, I plunged down the northern slope of thecone, and pushed northward through the forest; arriving at the mostnorthern extremity of the island, dead tired, about sunset.

  I camped in the open that night, finding abundance of food wherewith tosatisfy my hunger, but no water. This latter, however, was of trivialimportance, since the fruit staved off any excessive feeling of thirst;yet it tended to confirm my conviction that there were no natives to befound in this part of the island. On the following morning I followedthe western line of the cliffs until I reached the beach aforementioned,when I descended to it and most carefully examined its whole surface insearch of human footprints. I found not the slightest trace of one onthe entire stretch of beach; therefore, perfectly satisfied at last thatwe had the whole island to ourselves, I shaped a course for "home", as Ialready began mentally to name the cavern, reaching it aboutmid-afternoon.

  I found that during my absence the others had been busying themselves ina variety of ways to make our cavern comfortably habitable. Julius, forinstance, had collected a quantity of stones, which he had so arrangedat the mouth of the cavern that the V-shaped floor had been nicelylevelled up and made smooth, so that it was now possible to pass in andout without the risk of badly spraining one's ankles; while the womenhad collected enough dry fern to make comfortable beds for us all.Also, the interior of the cavern had been more carefully andsystematically examined, with the result that three separate anddistinct but adjoining chambers had been found, two of which would serveadmirably for sleeping apartments, while a third and very lofty one hada large hole in its roof, situated apparently in the midst of a clump oftrees, admitting sufficient light to make it quite pleasantly habitableas a general living and working room.

  This, of course, was all very well and quite as we would have it; it wasa wise and reasonable policy to make ourselves as comfortable as wecould during our sojourn upon the island. But how long was that sojournto last? That was the matter now uppermost in my thoughts. Were we tosit down and wait patiently until something should come along and takeus off, or were we to take the initiative and, while availing ourselvesof the hospitality of the island, contrive some means whereby, failingother help, we might effect our own rescue by making our way to somecivilised spot from which it would be possible to return to ourrespective homes? I had been thinking a good deal of late about my poormother in her little house at Newton Ferrers. It was now over fivemonths since the _Stella Maris_ had been cast away, and more than sixsince I had last written home; and I knew that by this time the dearsoul would be fretting her heart out with anxiety on my account. I wastherefore growing every day more eager and determined to find a way ofdeliverance, if only that the maternal anxiety might be allayed.

  But what could I do? There was the boat, certainly; but after ourrecent dreadful experiences in her I knew that nothing would induce MrsVansittart to undertake another boat voyage. She had already said sowith much emphasis, and the others had echoed her resolution; and,indeed, I could not blame them. A single experience of that kind wasquite enough for a lifetime. Had we possessed a sail, matters mighthave been different, for despite the queer model of our craft she hadproved to be an excellent sea boat, quite as good, indeed, as a boat ofthe usual shape; but to be at sea in her without a sail was to be simplyat the mercy of wind and wave. I racked my brains to distraction in theeffort to evolve some practicable plan for obtaining a sail, even goingto the length of endeavouring to weave one of grass; but it was no good,for as soon as the grass dried it became so tender and brittle that itwould never have borne the pressure of even a very moderate breeze, muchless a gale.

  About a month later, when after numerous experiments I had found myselfobliged to abandon all hope in that direction, chance--or rather,investigation in another direction--revived my hopes, and I began tobelieve that I could see my way.

  It was about two months from the time when we were driven out of thewreck and compelled to commit ourselves and our fortunes to the mercy ofthe open sea, and by this time our clothing had become so dilapidatedthat the necessity for something to replace it was growing urgent.Therefore, while I busied myself daily upon the task of conveyingcombustible material to the summit of the Peak--as we had named thehighest point on the island--that we might be able to kindle a fire andraise a big smoke in the event of a sail heaving in sight, and whileJulius undertook to find a daily supply of food for the party, the womenexplored the island in search of some material that might be convertedinto clothing.

  By the merest accident they at length found what they believed mightserve. It was the inner bark of a certain tree, and consisted of longwhite threads or filaments which, after being steeped in water for sometime, could be separated from each other, and which proved to be soexceedingly tough that we were able to make excellent fishing lines ofthem, and so secure a most welcome addition to our daily diet. Thethreads were rather coarse, but we believed that they might be worked upinto a kind of sheeting which, while perhaps rather stiff anduncomfortable when fashioned into garments, would make a very good sail;and I devoted every moment of my spare time to the gathering andpreparation of the stuff, my idea being that after I had made a suit ofsails for the boat, if the others still refused to undertake a secondboat voyage, they might agree to my going away alone in search of help.

  But about a month later, when the four women were busily and laboriouslyengaged upon the tedious task of weaving by hand our stock of threadinto a coarse, tough cloth, a dramatic interruption of our laboursoccurred which, but for the mercy of God, might have had a most tragicending.

  I had by this time accumulated upon the top of the Peak a sufficientquantity of material to make a blaze and smoke that might be seen inclear weather at least thirty miles away, and I had therefore ceased todevote my whole time to adding to the pile, employing myself instead inindustriously collecting the thread-like bark out of which we weremaking our cloth. Nevertheless it was a habit of mine to wend my way tothe summit every morning immediately after breakfast, in order to take agood look round on the chance of a sail being in sight; and I repeatedthe excursion daily after our midday meal, collecting a load ofcombustibles on my way and carrying them up with me, in order that inany case my journey might not be quite useless.

  It was during my afternoon journey on the day in question that,
havingreached the summit of the Peak and sent a long, searching, but fruitlesslook round the horizon, I turned to descend by a short cut which myfrequent passages down had beaten in the loose, friable soil, when I wasarrested in the very act of plunging down the slope, and my blood turnedto ice, by the sight of a great war canoe crowded with natives, justemerging from under the cover of the western cliffs and headingsouthward, as though bound for our little harbour. As I still stoodgaping at her, scarcely able to credit the evidence of my eyes, another,and another, and another followed, making four in all, each manned bysome forty or fifty natives. They had been creeping along so closeinshore that at first they had been invisible to me, hidden by the highcliffs; but a curve of the shore line had caused them to head out alittle farther to the westward, and so brought them within my range ofvision.

  Suddenly I became aware of signs of commotion in the leading canoe.There was a cessation of paddling, arms were uplifted and flourished,and the next moment I realised with horror that my figure, standing outclear and clean-cut against the pure azure of the sky, had beendetected. The natives were pointing and directing each other'sattention to me; indeed, I almost believed that I could catch, above thesoft sough of the wind, the faint sound of their voices shouting to eachother as they pointed. Then the gesticulating suddenly ceased, thepaddles were resumed, churning the water into foam with the energythrown into each stroke, and the canoes raced forward at fully doubletheir original speed.

  Waiting to see no more, I plunged recklessly down the slope, running,sliding, stumbling, and once rolling headlong in my frantic haste to getback to the cavern. I felt assured that, whatever their originalpurpose might have been, those savages would now most assuredly land, ifonly to hunt for me and secure my head as a trophy. It would be a racebetween them and me as to who could reach the cavern first; moreover,there was the horrid possibility that some of the women, or Julius,might be abroad and fall into their hands; in which case, God help them!