The stretch of water that lay between the raft and the burning vessel
glittered under the yellow light like a sea of molten gold. On its calm
surface the blazing barque was mirrored, as though another was on fire
below; but the perfect image was broken by occasional rippling, as if
some living creatures were stirring through the water. The very
intensity of the light, dazzling our eyes, prevented us from scanning
the surface with any degree of minuteness. It was like looking against
the sun as the bright orb rises or sets over the sea. The strong light
glancing along the water produced a sheen and a sparkle that
half-blinded us; and, although we had observed an occasional eddy or
rippling motion upon the surface, we had not thought of the cause until
that moment.
Now, however, that our attention was called to this moving of the waters
we had no difficulty in making out the cause. It was the sharks that
were darting about--now rushing impatiently from point to point; now
lying in wait, silent and watchful, like cats, ready to spring upon
their prey. Here and there we could see their huge dorsal fins standing
like gaff-topsails above the surface, now cleaving the water like huge
blades of steel, anon dipping below to appear again at some point nearer
to their expected prey.
From the number of these fins that we observed above water, we came to
the conclusion that there must be hundreds of these voracious creatures
around the blazing barque. In fact there was a perfect "school" of
them, like porpoises or minnows--for the longer we gazed the greater
number of fins and rippling eddies were detected, until at times it
appeared as if the whole surface was thickly covered with these preying
fish!
Their numbers, too, seemed to be continually increasing. On looking out
to sea others might be noticed swimming up, as if they had come from a
distance. No doubt that red conflagration was a signal that summoned
them from afar. Like enough the sight was not new to them--it was not
the first time they had witnessed the burning of a ship and had been
present at the spectacle; before now they had assisted at the
denouement, and were ever after ready to welcome such a catastrophe, and
hasten towards it from afar.
I really could not help thinking that these monsters of the deep
possessed some such intelligence, as they swam around the fated barque--
casting towards it their ogreish expecting looks.
They came around the raft as well--indeed, they appeared to be thicker
there than elsewhere--as though we who stood upon it were to be the prey
that would first fall into their ravenous jaws. So thick were they,
that two or three could be seen side by side, swimming together as
though they were yoked; and at each moment they grew bolder and came
nearer to the timbers. Some already swam so close to the raft, that
they were within reach of a blow from the handspikes, but not any one
attempted to touch them. On the contrary, the word was passed round for
no one to strike or assail them in any way. Just then they were doing
good work; they were to be let alone!
Little as the sailors would have liked to see such shoals of these
dreaded creatures at any other time--for between sailor and shark there
is a constant antipathy--just then the sight was welcome to them. They
knew that they themselves were out of reach of the hideous monsters; and
at a glance they had comprehended the advantage they were deriving from
their presence. They saw that they were the guardians of the raft--and
that, but for them, the blacks would long since have taken to the water
and followed it. The fear of the sharks alone restrained them; and no
wonder it did, for the whole surface of the sea between the blazing
vessel and the raft now seemed alive with these horrid creatures!
It was no longer wondered at that the negroes had not precipitated
themselves into the water and swam after us. It would have been a bold
leap for any of them to have taken--a leap, as it were, into the very
jaws of death.
And, yet, death was behind them--death quick and sure, and, perhaps, of
all others the most painful--death by fire. In setting the poor
wretches free, I had been under the humane impression that I had given
them the easier alternative of being drowned. I now saw that I was
mistaken. No such alternative was in their power. There was no longer
a choice between burning and drowning. It now lay between burning and
being devoured by the sharks!