As soon as I could disconnect my tackle from the dead fish, I turned my
face homewards, and struck out manfully for the shore; luckily I did
not observe any sharks. I landed safely without further adventure, and
immediately sought my kind friend and companion, whom I found, as
usual, industriously employed in endeavouring to secure me additional
comforts. If she was not engaged in ordinary women's work, making,
mending, cleaning, or improving, in our habitation, she was sure to be
found doing something in the immediate neighbourhood, which, though
less feminine, shewed no less forethought, prudence, and sagacity.
Our garden had prospered wonderfully under her hands. The ground seemed
now stocked with various kinds of vegetation, of which I neither knew
the value, nor the proper mode of cultivation; and we seemed about to
be surrounded with shrubs and plants--many of very pleasing
appearance--that must in a short time entirely change the aspect of the
place.
She heard my adventure with a good deal of interest, only remonstrating
with me upon my want of caution, and dwelling upon the fatal
consequences that must have ensued to herself, had I been drowned or
disabled by falling from the rock, or devoured by the sharks.
"You may consider yourself, my dear son," she observed, with serious
earnestness, "to have been under the Divine care. Nothing can be
clearer than that a wise and kind Providence is continually watching
over his creatures when placed in unusual or perilous circumstances. He
occasionally affords them manifestations of his favour, to encourage
them when engaged in good works. This shews the comprehensive eye of
the master of many workmen, who overlooks the labours of his more
industrious servants, and indicates to them his regard for their
welfare and appreciation of their labours."
"But surely," I interposed, "if I had been under the superintendence of
the Providence of which you speak, I should not have been obliged to
abandon so capital a fish, when I had endured such trouble to capture
it, and when its possession was so necessary to our comfort, nay, even
to our existence."
"The very abandonment of so unwieldy a creature," she replied, "is
unanswerable evidence of a Divine interposition in your favour; for had
you persisted in your intention of carrying it to the shore, there is
but little doubt that its weight would have overpowered you, and that
you would have been drowned; and then what would have become of me? A
woman left in this desolate spot to her own resources, must soon be
forced to give up the struggle for existence, from want of physical
strength. Nevertheless, there are numerous instances on record, of
women having surmounted hardships which few men could endure. Supported
by our Heavenly Father, who is so powerful a protector of the weak, and
friend of the helpless, the weakest of our weak sex may triumph over
the most intolerable sufferings. I, however, am not over confident of
being so supported, and therefore, I think it would be but shewing a
proper consideration for your fellow exile, to act in every emergency
with as much circumspection and prudence as possible."
I promised that for the future I would run no such risks, and added
many professions of regard for her safety. They had the desired effect;
I pretended to think no more of my disappointment, nevertheless, I
found myself constantly dwelling on the size of my lost fish, and
lamenting my being obliged to abandon him to his more voracious
brethren of the deep. These thoughts so filled my mind that at night I
continued to dream over again the whole incident, beginning with my
patient angling from the rock, and concluding with my disconsolate swim
to shore--and pursued my scaly antagonist quite as determinedly in my
sleep as I had done in the deep waters.
I rose early after having passed so disturbed a night, and soon made my
way to the usual haunt of Nero, whom I discovered in the sea near the
rocks making all sorts of strange tumblings and divings, apparently
after some dark object that was floating in the water. I called him
away, to examine what it was that had so attracted his attention, and
my surprise may be imagined when I made out the huge form of my enemy
of the preceding day. My shouts and exclamations of joy soon brought
Mrs Reichardt to the scene, and when she discovered the shape of this
prodigious fish, her surprise seemed scarcely less than my own.
How to land him was our first consideration; and after some debate on
the ways and means, I got a rope and leaped into the water with it,
fastened a noose round his gills, and then swimming back and climbing
the rock; we jointly tried to pull him up on to the shore. We hauled
and tugged with all our force for a considerable time, but to very
little effect; he was too heavy to pull up perpendicularly. At last we
managed to drag him to a low piece of rock, and there I divided him
into several pieces, which Mrs Reichardt carried away to dry and
preserve in some way that she said would make the fish capital eating
all the year round.
It was very palatable when dressed by her, and as she changed the
manner of cooking several times, I never got tired of it. By its
flavour, as far as I could judge from subsequent knowledge, the
creature was something of the sturgeon kind of fish, but its proper
name I never could learn; nor was I ever able to catch another,
therefore, I must presume that it was a stranger in those seas.
Nevertheless, he proved most acceptable to us both, for we should have
fared but ill for some time, had it not been for his providential
capture.
It was one afternoon, when we had been enjoying a capital meal at the
expense of our great friend, that I led the subject to Mrs Reichardt's
adventures, subsequently to where she broke off in the story of herself
and the poor German boy; and though not without considerable
reluctance, I induced her to proceed with her narrative.