In the isle of Napoleon's exile--Two lectures--A guest in the
ghost-room at Plantation House--An excursion to historic
Longwood--Coffee in the husk, and a goat to shell it--The _Spray's_
ill luck with animals--A prejudice against small dogs--A rat, the
Boston spider, and the cannibal cricket--Ascension Island.
It was about noon when the _Spray_ came to anchor off Jamestown, and
"all hands" at once went ashore to pay respects to his Excellency the
governor of the island, Sir R. A. Sterndale. His Excellency, when I
landed, remarked that it was not often, nowadays, that a
circumnavigator came his way, and he cordially welcomed me, and
arranged that I should tell about the voyage, first at Garden Hall to
the people of Jamestown, and then at Plantation House--the governor's
residence, which is in the hills a mile or two back--to his Excellency
and the officers of the garrison and their friends. Mr. Poole, our
worthy consul, introduced me at the castle, and in the course of his
remarks asserted that the sea-serpent was a Yankee.
Most royally was the crew of the _Spray_ entertained by the governor.
I remained at Plantation House a couple of days, and one of the rooms
in the mansion, called the "west room," being haunted, the butler, by
command of his Excellency, put me up in that--like a prince. Indeed,
to make sure that no mistake had been made, his Excellency came later
to see that I was in the right room, and to tell me all about the
ghosts he had seen or heard of. He had discovered all but one, and
wishing me pleasant dreams, he hoped I might have the honor of a visit
from the unknown one of the west room. For the rest of the chilly
night I kept the candle burning, and often looked from under the
blankets, thinking that maybe I should meet the great Napoleon face to
face; but I saw only furniture, and the horseshoe that was nailed over
the door opposite my bed.
St. Helena has been an island of tragedies--tragedies that have been
lost sight of in wailing over the Corsican. On the second day of my
visit the governor took me by carriage-road through the turns over the
island. At one point of our journey the road, in winding around spurs
and ravines, formed a perfect W within the distance of a few rods. The
roads, though tortuous and steep, were fairly good, and I was struck
with the amount of labor it must have cost to build them. The air on
the heights was cool and bracing. It is said that, since hanging for
trivial offenses went out of fashion, no one has died there, except
from falling over the cliffs in old age, or from being crushed by
stones rolling on them from the steep mountains! Witches at one time
were persistent at St. Helena, as with us in America in the days of
Cotton Mather. At the present day crime is rare in the island. While I
was there, Governor Sterndale, in token of the fact that not one
criminal case had come to court within the year, was presented with a
pair of white gloves by the officers of justice.
Returning from the governor's house to Jamestown, I drove with Mr.
Clark, a countryman of mine, to "Longwood," the home of Napoleon. M.
Morilleau, French consular agent in charge, keeps the place
respectable and the buildings in good repair. His family at Longwood,
consisting of wife and grown daughters, are natives of courtly and
refined manners, and spend here days, months, and years of
contentment, though they have never seen the world beyond the horizon
of St. Helena.
On the 20th of April the _Spray_ was again ready for sea. Before going
on board I took luncheon with the governor and his family at the
castle. Lady Sterndale had sent a large fruit-cake, early in the
morning, from Plantation House, to be taken along on the voyage. It
was a great high-decker, and I ate sparingly of it, as I thought, but
it did not keep as I had hoped it would. I ate the last of it along
with my first cup of coffee at Antigua, West Indies, which, after all,
was quite a record. The one my own sister made me at the little island
in the Bay of Fundy, at the first of the voyage, kept about the same
length of time, namely, forty-two days.
After luncheon a royal mail was made up for Ascension, the island next
on my way. Then Mr. Poole and his daughter paid the _Spray_ a farewell
visit, bringing me a basket of fruit. It was late in the evening
before the anchor was up, and I bore off for the west, loath to leave
my new friends. But fresh winds filled the sloop's sails once more,
and I watched the beacon-light at Plantation House, the governor's
parting signal for the _Spray_, till the island faded in the darkness
astern and became one with the night, and by midnight the light itself
had disappeared below the horizon.
When morning came there was no land in sight, but the day went on the
same as days before, save for one small incident. Governor Sterndale
had given me a bag of coffee in the husk, and Clark, the American, in
an evil moment, had put a goat on board, "to butt the sack and hustle
the coffee-beans out of the pods." He urged that the animal, besides
being useful, would be as companionable as a dog. I soon found that my
sailing-companion, this sort of dog with horns, had to be tied up
entirely. The mistake I made was that I did not chain him to the mast
instead of tying him with grass ropes less securely, and this I
learned to my cost. Except for the first day, before the beast got his
sea-legs on, I had no peace of mind. After that, actuated by a spirit
born, maybe, of his pasturage, this incarnation of evil threatened to
devour everything from flying-jib to stern-davits. He was the worst
pirate I met on the whole voyage. He began depredations by eating my
chart of the West Indies, in the cabin, one day, while I was about my
work for'ard, thinking that the critter was securely tied on deck by
the pumps. Alas! there was not a rope in the sloop proof against that
goat's awful teeth!
It was clear from the very first that I was having no luck with
animals on board. There was the tree-crab from the Keeling Islands. No
sooner had it got a claw through its prison-box than my sea-jacket,
hanging within reach, was torn to ribbons. Encouraged by this success,
it smashed the box open and escaped into my cabin, tearing up things
generally, and finally threatening my life in the dark. I had hoped to
bring the creature home alive, but this did not prove feasible. Next
the goat devoured my straw hat, and so when I arrived in port I had
nothing to wear ashore on my head. This last unkind stroke decided his
fate. On the 27th of April the _Spray_ arrived at Ascension, which is
garrisoned by a man-of-war crew, and the boatswain of the island came
on board. As he stepped out of his boat the mutinous goat climbed into
it, and defied boatswain and crew. I hired them to land the wretch at
once, which they were only too willing to do, and there he fell into
the hands of a most excellent Scotchman, with the chances that he
would never get away. I was destined to sail once more into the depths
of solitude, but these experiences had no bad effect upon me; on the
contrary, a spirit of charity and even benevolence grew stronger in my
nature through the meditations of these supreme hours on the sea.
In the loneliness of the dreary country about Cape Horn I found myself
in no mood to make one life less in the world, except in self-defense,
and as I sailed this trait of the hermit character grew till the
mention of killing food-animals was revolting to me. However well I
may have enjoyed a chicken stew afterward at Samoa, a new self
rebelled at the thought suggested there of carrying chickens to be
slain for my table on the voyage, and Mrs. Stevenson, hearing my
protest, agreed with me that to kill the companions of my voyage and
eat them would be indeed next to murder and cannibalism.
As to pet animals, there was no room for a noble large dog on the
_Spray_ on so long a voyage, and a small cur was for many years
associated in my mind with hydrophobia. I witnessed once the death of
a sterling young German from that dreadful disease, and about the same
time heard of the death, also by hydrophobia, of the young gentleman
who had just written a line of insurance in his company's books for
me. I have seen the whole crew of a ship scamper up the rigging to
avoid a dog racing about the decks in a fit. It would never do, I
thought, for the crew of the _Spray_ to take a canine risk, and with
these just prejudices indelibly stamped on my mind, I have, I am
afraid, answered impatiently too often the query, "Didn't you have a
dog!" with, "I and the dog wouldn't have been very long in the same
boat, in any sense." A cat would have been a harmless animal, I dare
say, but there was nothing for puss to do on board, and she is an
unsociable animal at best. True, a rat got into my vessel at the
Keeling Cocos Islands, and another at Rodriguez, along with a centiped
stowed away in the hold; but one of them I drove out of the ship, and
the other I caught. This is how it was: for the first one with
infinite pains I made a trap, looking to its capture and destruction;
but the wily rodent, not to be deluded, took the hint and got ashore
the day the thing was completed.
It is, according to tradition, a most reassuring sign to find rats
coming to a ship, and I had a mind to abide the knowing one of
Rodriguez; but a breach of discipline decided the matter against him.
While I slept one night, my ship sailing on, he undertook to walk over
me, beginning at the crown of my head, concerning which I am always
sensitive. I sleep lightly. Before his impertinence had got him even
to my nose I cried "Rat!" had him by the tail, and threw him out of
the companionway into the sea.
As for the centiped, I was not aware of its presence till the wretched
insect, all feet and venom, beginning, like the rat, at my head,
wakened me by a sharp bite on the scalp. This also was more than I
could tolerate. After a few applications of kerosene the poisonous
bite, painful at first, gave me no further inconvenience.
From this on for a time no living thing disturbed my solitude; no
insect even was present in my vessel, except the spider and his wife,
from Boston, now with a family of young spiders. Nothing, I say, till
sailing down the last stretch of the Indian Ocean, where mosquitos
came by hundreds from rain-water poured out of the heavens. Simply a
barrel of rain-water stood on deck five days, I think, in the sun,
then music began. I knew the sound at once; it was the same as heard
from Alaska to New Orleans.
Again at Cape Town, while dining out one day, I was taken with the
song of a cricket, and Mr. Branscombe, my host, volunteered to capture
a pair of them for me. They were sent on board next day in a box
labeled, "Pluto and Scamp." Stowing them away in the binnacle in their
own snug box, I left them there without food till I got to sea--a few
days. I had never heard of a cricket eating anything. It seems that
Pluto was a cannibal, for only the wings of poor Scamp were visible
when I opened the lid, and they lay broken on the floor of the
prison-box. Even with Pluto it had gone hard, for he lay on his back
stark and stiff, never to chirrup again.
Ascension Island, where the goat was marooned, is called the Stone
Frigate, R. N, and is rated "tender" to the South African Squadron. It
lies in 7 degrees 35' south latitude and 14 degrees 25' west
longitude, being in the very heart of the southeast trade-winds and
about eight hundred and forty miles from the coast of Liberia. It is a
mass of volcanic matter, thrown up from the bed of the ocean to the
height of two thousand eight hundred and eighteen feet at the highest
point above sea-level. It is a strategic point, and belonged to Great
Britain before it got cold. In the limited but rich soil at the top of
the island, among the clouds, vegetation has taken root, and a little
scientific farming is carried on under the supervision of a gentleman
from Canada. Also a few cattle and sheep are pastured there for the
garrison mess. Water storage is made on a large scale. In a word, this
heap of cinders and lava rock is stored and fortified, and would stand
a siege.
Very soon after the _Spray_ arrived I received a note from Captain
Blaxland, the commander of the island, conveying his thanks for the
royal mail brought from St. Helena, and inviting me to luncheon with
him and his wife and sister at headquarters, not far away. It is
hardly necessary to say that I availed myself of the captain's
hospitality at once. A carriage was waiting at the jetty when I
landed, and a sailor, with a broad grin, led the horse carefully up
the hill to the captain's house, as if I were a lord of the admiralty,
and a governor besides; and he led it as carefully down again when I
returned. On the following day I visited the summit among the clouds,
the same team being provided, and the same old sailor leading the
horse. There was probably not a man on the island at that moment
better able to walk than I. The sailor knew that. I finally suggested
that we change places. "Let me take the bridle," I said, "and keep the
horse from bolting." "Great Stone Frigate!" he exclaimed, as he burst
into a laugh, "this 'ere 'oss wouldn't bolt no faster nor a turtle. If
I didn't tow 'im 'ard we'd never get into port." I walked most of the
way over the steep grades, whereupon my guide, every inch a sailor,
became my friend. Arriving at the summit of the island, I met Mr.
Schank, the farmer from Canada, and his sister, living very cozily in
a house among the rocks, as snug as conies, and as safe. He showed me
over the farm, taking me through a tunnel which led from one field to
the other, divided by an inaccessible spur of mountain. Mr. Schank
said that he had lost many cows and bullocks, as well as sheep, from
breakneck over the steep cliffs and precipices. One cow, he said,
would sometimes hook another right over a precipice to destruction,
and go on feeding unconcernedly. It seemed that the animals on the
island farm, like mankind in the wide world, found it all too small.
On the 26th of April, while I was ashore, rollers came in which
rendered launching a boat impossible. However, the sloop being
securely moored to a buoy in deep water outside of all breakers, she
was safe, while I, in the best of quarters, listened to well-told
stories among the officers of the Stone Frigate. On the evening of the
29th, the sea having gone down, I went on board and made preparations
to start again on my voyage early next day, the boatswain of the
island and his crew giving me a hearty handshake as I embarked at the
jetty.
For reasons of scientific interest, I invited in mid-ocean the most
thorough investigation concerning the crew-list of the _Spray_. Very
few had challenged it, and perhaps few ever will do so henceforth; but
for the benefit of the few that may, I wished to clench beyond doubt
the fact that it was not at all necessary in the expedition of a sloop
around the world to have more than one man for the crew, all told, and
that the _Spray_ sailed with only one person on board. And so, by
appointment, Lieutenant Eagles, the executive officer, in the morning,
just as I was ready to sail, fumigated the sloop, rendering it
impossible for a person to live concealed below, and proving that only
one person was on board when she arrived. A certificate to this
effect, besides the official documents from the many consulates,
health offices, and customhouses, will seem to many superfluous; but
this story of the voyage may find its way into hands unfamiliar with
the business of these offices and of their ways of seeing that a
vessel's papers, and, above all, her bills of health, are in order.
The lieutenant's certificate being made out, the _Spray_, nothing
loath, now filled away clear of the sea-beaten rocks, and the
trade-winds, comfortably cool and bracing, sent her flying along on
her course. On May 8, 1898, she crossed the track, homeward bound,
that she had made October 2, 1895, on the voyage out. She passed
Fernando de Noronha at night, going some miles south of it, and so I
did not see the island. I felt a contentment in knowing that the
_Spray_ had encircled the globe, and even as an adventure alone I was
in no way discouraged as to its utility, and said to myself, "Let what
will happen, the voyage is now on record." A period was made.