RADACK CHAIN.--WATERING AT OCEAN ISLAND.--INCIDENTS OF THE RUN TO
SYDNEY, N. S. W.
We continued working to the eastward until we were in longitude 170
degrees east, but the captain, not wishing to visit the Sandwich
Islands, determined to leave this ground early, and finish out the
season among the groups, recruiting at some island where he could
drive a barter trade, in which our stock of tobacco and cloth could
be made available. Up to the middle of August we had taken about
five hundred barrels since leaving Strong's Island. In company with
our old consort, the Leonidas, we steered to the southward, working
down through those intricate and dangerous archipelagoes known as the
Radack and Ralick chains of islands, where we carried sail days, and
lay to nights with two men in the foretopmast crosstrees, and all the
rest of the watch above the rail. Ragged reefs of coral, little more
than flush with the surface of the sea, stretched here and there in
unexpected directions, and sunken rocks waylaid us at every turn. At
times we seemed to be embayed among these dangers, seeming the more
formidable from the unpronounceable Russian names on the charts, while
ever and anon a green islet with cocoanut trees popped into view, as if
it had been forced up from the depths of the sea, while we had been
looking for hidden dangers in another quarter of the horizon, and two
or three canoes would dodge out from a lagoon, whence the only passage
of egress seemed to us to have been by a submarine route under the
reef of rocks. The old saying among us, "Where there's a cocoanut tree
there's a Kanaka," though not infallible, held good through all this
labyrinth. Sperm whales were seen several times, and in one instance we
took two small whales and cut them with canoes alongside of us from a
pretty little island, nestled among ugly reefs which stretched out like
antennæ to draw luckless mariners into destruction. What it was called
by the Russian officers I cannot now remember, but the name itself
was ragged enough to bring a ship up all standing. We were not sorry
when we had wound our way clear of these perils without accident, and
emerged into a comparatively open sea.
We struck the equator between the longitudes of Ocean and Pleasant
Islands, where we got a "cut" of a hundred and fifty barrels, and
stood in under the lee of Ocean Island to get a few casks of water.
We bargained with one of the white "beach-combers" to fill them by
contract at so many heads of tobacco for each cask. I went ashore in
the boat, with the second mate, having the casks in tow. We rolled them
up on the reef and then high and dry on the beach. I was conscious all
the time of a strange, giddy feeling, which seemed to be occasioned by
the odors from the land, and as I went up from the reef to the soil
and drew near to the cocoanut grove near the landing, this feeling
overpowered me, my strength seemed to have left me all at once, I felt
a tingling pain in my legs, and fell helpless to the ground. I was
surprised, and rather indignant withal, to perceive that Mr. Dunham was
laughing at me.
"Ah!" said he, "it's well for you that you came ashore. It's time we
all had a land cruise and a good run among the fruit trees. We shall
all be better for this day's work."
"Why," I asked, "what do you suppose ails me?"
"It's the scurvy working out of you, I suppose," said he. "That's what
we call it. I have seen the same phenomenon once or twice before in men
who had shown no symptoms of the disease while at sea, but the first
contact with the land affected them as it does you now. That will soon
pass off and you will feel better than ever."
His prediction proved true. In a few minutes a slight attack of
vomiting relieved me, and I rose to my feet. The dizziness gradually
passed away, and I felt stronger and fresher than when I landed.
The casks, in the mean time, had been rolled in a tier with the bungs
out, I saw no watering-place from which they were to be filled. I
naturally asked, "where is the water?"
"O," said Dan, the white man, "the water here is away up inland, in a
sort of cave under ground."
"Is that the only fresh water here?" I inquired.
"That's all," said he. "I shall put on my gang to bring it down. Here's
some of 'em; they're beginning to muster now."
To my further astonishment, his "gang," as he termed them, were all of
the female "persuasion."
"You don't mean to say that these woman are going to lug all this water
two or three miles?"
"Yes, certainly," said he. "The men are too lazy to do any such
drudgery, and think women were born expressly for it, and not fit for
much else. Besides, only women are allowed to enter the water-cave.
Gentlemen are not admitted."
Each of these women brought some half a dozen cocoanut shells, slung
with short strings, so as to be carried, two or three in each hand.
"Why don't you get the ship's buckets?" I asked.
"O, they don't want buckets," said Dan: "they wouldn't use 'em if they
had 'em. You must let 'em work in their own way."
They _did_ work their own way; and all day long, and day after day, for
it took them several days to fill twenty casks. The battalion of women,
in Indian file, could be seen on their winding way as they carried
their burdens to the beach, inverted their cocoanut shells over the
tunnel, and retraced their weary steps to the subterranean pool, while
the men looked complacently on, and Dan, the contractor, lay drunk the
best part of the time on fire-water of his own manufacture.
As a consequence of his carelessness, he was obliged to fill four or
five casks the second time, as we found the water salt on taking it
on board, and the captain refused to pay the tobacco until he had
fulfilled his contract. It was evident the women had gone astray in
their wanderings, and filled some of their shells at the ocean instead
of at the inland lake.
The manufacture of intoxicating liquor follows close upon the advent of
white men as settlers or dwellers among savage tribes; indeed the sight
of a whiskey still would have been as satisfactory evidence to the
shipwrecked mariner of the presence of civilized men, as, it is said,
was that of the gallows. With a rude apparatus, a liquor is distilled
from the sap of the cocoanut tree, which is warranted to "kill at as
many yards" as any article of tangle-foot dispensed over the bar of the
most notorious "chainlocker" in New York or London. The exhilarating
cordial, known among seamen by the name of "dent" (the word being a
contraction of the Spanish aguardiente), is smuggled on board at almost
every island where a white man has located himself; and it is well
known that Jack will "suck the monkey" in whatever form or wherever he
presents himself, as well in the Pacific as at the West Indies.
Here we parted company with our friends of the Leonidas, she being
bound to Otaheite, to examine the head of her mainmast, which had been
discovered to be rotten to a considerable depth. We worked slowly down
to the westward, hauling to the wind during the night, and running
off under easy sail in the daytime, so as to look the ground over
carefully. We picked up another hundred barrels of oil before we
reached the parallel of 160 degrees east, and as we had now twenty-one
hundred, the remainder of our voyage was a sort of running cruise
towards our last port and home.
In this longitude we hauled on the southern tack, running near Lord
Howe's group and through the Solomon Archipelago. We took three small
whales so near to one of the former, that, when the third one turned
up, he was within less than a hundred yards of the reef, the savages
yelling at us from the shore. The ship was about a mile and a half
from us, with two whales fluked alongside, and carrying sail to hold
her position. As the old man dared not run off to take the third whale
alongside, he sent the other two boats to our assistance, with orders
to tow the whale on a wind. We set our sails and took the oars, and
accompanied by howling barbarians both on shore and in canoes, we towed
the whale about ten miles to the southward, until clear of the island
and adjacent reefs, so that the ship could come down to us without
danger. During the four or five hours that we were thus employed, those
in the canoes kept within a short distance outside of us, while their
comrades on the beach, women, children, and all, travelled along shore
abreast of us, an infernal serenade rising on both sides of us without
cessation. They would have attacked us if they had dared; but, though
of course constantly on our guard, we did not much fear them. They
mustered about fifty canoes, containing between two and three hundred
warriors, but dared not venture within reach of our whaling weapons.
They at one time seemed to be making preparations to give us a volley
of stones, at long shot, but the captain, seeing a suspicious movement
among them, fired the six-pounder, which was kept trained upon them
all the time, and sent a shot whizzing over their heads, which had
the effect of cooling their ardor. They were more wary after this,
and made no further hostile demonstrations, but escorted us the whole
distance, and lay on their paddles until the ship had approached quite
near us, evidently waiting in the hope that some accident or turn of
fortune would place us in their power. As a general rule, savages will
not make an attack, unless all the circumstances are overwhelmingly in
their favor. We saved our three whales, and made a safe offing with the
ship, before night, but the wild din of their voices seemed to ring in
my ears for a week afterwards. These people had the gristles of their
noses split, and many of them had inserted large ornaments (?) of
shell or bone, which hung down, so as in a great measure to hide their
mouths. They were a hideous looking race, and I confess to a decided
reluctance to becoming a subject of their tender mercies.
At San Cristoval, one of the Solomon Islands, we drove a smart trade
for yams and fruit, the currency used here being hoop-iron, cut into
pieces a few inches long, like the money of the ancient Spartans in
the days of Lycurgus. Here, for the first time, we met with people
possessing the characteristic of the African, for there are two
great families of races in Polynesia. These Ethiops of the Pacific,
or Oceanic negroes as they are called, are even more repulsive in
appearance than the wearers of the ponderous nasal ornaments at Lord
Howe's group. Their hair, or wool, has the true African kink in it,
both ends seeming to grow into the skull, and is turned a dull reddish
color by the application of lime, or something of that nature, giving
them the appearance of having the head protected by what seamen call
a "thrummed mat." The teeth are colored or discolored by the use of
the betel-nut, till they are darker than their skins; in fact those
of men past middle age are jet black. But they seem well-disposed to
whites, and inoffensive, and our intercourse with them was marked by
no unpleasant occurrence. The canoes used by these people are very
light, and neatly ornamented, giving evidence of considerable taste
and skill in their construction, while the dexterity of the natives in
balancing and managing them seems perfectly miraculous, as they have no
beam to spare and no outriggers; yet they come off several miles to sea
in them, keeping their equilibrium seemingly without difficulty, and
jeered and shouted with true negro delight at our bungling attempts to
manage them.
We pressed through Indispensable Straits, continuing our running cruise
towards the coast of Australia, but without taking any more oil till we
reached the latitude of twenty-two degrees, being about midway between
Booby Shoal and Cato's Bank, when two large sperm whales were raised in
the morning, and down we went in pursuit. The waist boat got the lead
and was soon fast to one of them and her line going out of the tub at a
rate that promised soon to empty it. Seeing this state of things, our
line was cast off from the craft, and I stood ready to throw the end
into the other boat; but the second mate, anxious to "drown him out"
without bending on another line, snubbed him too hard and parted. We
pulled ahead in pursuit of the whale, but when he came up again he was
pushing to the windward much faster than any boat could pull. There was
nothing for us but to return to the ship and take the boats up, very
ill-satisfied with our forenoon's work, for we had lost an iron and
nearly a tubful of line, and had nothing to show for it.
We made sail on a wind, and soon after raised a whale on the weather
beam coming to leeward. From his actions, as at times he lashed the
water into foam, we were satisfied that it was the same whale that we
had struck. Soon another was seen off the lee beam coming to windward.
We hauled aback and lowered away again, spreading our chances well.
The two whales came together, and jogged to leeward in company. The
next chance fell to our boat, and, as the mate called me up to dart, I
perceived that the whale with the iron hanging at his side was farthest
from me, and, seeing not much choice in them for size, I pitched my
iron into the other one. The other boats were on hand to assist us,
and we soon killed and secured this whale, while the wounded one again
escaped, spouting strong and clear.
We had light airs for three or four days succeeding this, and were
not slow to express our discontent, as we made but little progress
towards Sydney, the port we were all so anxious to see. We had cut
and boiled out our first whale, and still the wind was lighter than
ever, almost gone entirely, while our ship, seeming as impatient as
ourselves, lay rolling on the glassy sea, when a black object was seen
from the masthead, five or six miles off, abeam of us, tossing into
view on the swell, and disappearing again; and, after examining it
through the spyglass, we were satisfied that it was a dead whale. So
our boat was lowered away to examine him, and found a large whale, but
little blasted, having been dead, apparently about forty-eight hours.
We cut out the iron from his side and found, as we expected, the name
"Arethusa," underrun our line, and saved the whole of it, set a waif
for the other boats, and towed him down to the ship in triumph. We now
had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the light airs that had been
the occasion of so much growling, and instead of having lost a line,
with nothing to show for it, as at one time seemed to be the result of
our attack upon these two whales, we had saved it, and added a hundred
and fifty barrels of sperm oil to our cargo.
The next day we got the breeze, and trimmed to it as soon as we had
finished cutting. A few days found us running down the coast of New
Holland, with the land well aboard and a fair wind, only thirty miles
between us and the entrance to our port, and every prospect of being
at anchor before night. But we were doomed to disappointment, for the
wind suddenly shifted to the southward, heading us off, and blew up a
gale about as fast as we were able to strip the canvas off the ship.
Noon saw us lying to, on the off-shore tack, under a goose-winged
maintopsail and storm staysails. The wind still increased, and we
rode out a wild night under this short sail, while the wind, meeting
a counter current which sets to the southward along this coast,
occasioned a short, chopping sea, which knocked us about rather
roughly, and, in one of her heavy lurches, the waist boat was rolled
under and lost. This was the only accident we met with, however; the
gale blew out in twenty-four hours and the wind having settled light
from the southward, we were compelled to make out our log for four
or five days at least. So we made all sail, and boarded our tacks,
standing off and on.
While we were beating here, having stood well in on the inshore
stretch, a small steamer, which plied as a packet between Sydney and
Newcastle, passed us, shearing nearer as she approached, enough to
read the name on our stern. The sight of a steamboat was, of itself,
a sufficient novelty to fix the attention of every man on deck, but
what a burst of emotion greeted the appearance of a woman on the deck
of the steamer! The word was passed below, and the other watch were
all on deck in a twinkling to look at her. She appeared to be the only
lady passenger on board, or at least the only one who was able to show
herself on the upper deck. At that distance, it was difficult to say
whether she was young and beautiful, or otherwise, but she was at least
a white woman in a civilized dress, an object which had not greeted
our eyes for more than two years. We had taken our last look at a
phenomenon of this kind when we left Talcahuano, four months out.
"Well, Mr. Grafton," said the old man, as they both drew a long breath
after the vision had passed out of view, "how do you feel? homesick?"
"Well, yes, sir," replied the mate; "I suppose that's what you may call
it. The sight of a woman of our own color and race, after we have been
outcasts so long, _does_ have a humanizing influence, and starts up
associations of home, and of near and dear ones left there."
"Yes, that's true," said the captain. "That lady, who ever she is, may
safely boast that she has created a sensation at least once in her
life. Here's Mr. Dunham has lost half his watch below on her account,
and Cooper has dropped a shook that he had half-raised in the hoop, and
seems in no hurry to pick up the staves again. There are two boys up in
the fore-rigging, trying to get another look at her yet."
The two boys, still so called, were Obed B. and Kelly; no longer boys,
but broad-chested, muscular young men, worthy representatives of the
ocean chivalry of their native island, and still as inseparable as
ever, the very Pythias and Damon of our little circle.
We got a slant of wind the next day after this incident, and worked up
near the headlands of Port Jackson, so that we took a pilot. But having
the wind light, it was late in the day before we passed inside the
heads, and from there we had seven miles to work up, to the anchorage
before the town. The whole British navy might find ample room to moor
in this beautiful bay, and might all ride in safety, under any ordinary
circumstances. It was a fine moonlight evening when we went in, and
as we shot handsomely into our berth among the fleet of vessels, it
was difficult to realize that we had actually arrived among civilized
white men. The whole thing seemed like enchantment, coming, as we did,
from recent contact with howling savages, the echo of whose infernal
gibberish had hardly ceased ringing in our ears. Our anchor rattled
merrily to the bottom for the first time in eight months, and we furled
our sails leisurely, lingering on the yards to look wonderingly on the
numerous lights in the town, and to listen to the pealing of a sweet
chime of bells, for it was Sunday evening on shore, though Saturday by
our reckoning.
As the reality of it all came home to our minds, as we gradually became
assured that the unwonted sounds and sights were no dream, but tangible
truth, a good influence was exerted upon all. No noisy demonstrations
hailed the event so ardently looked forward to, but a feeling of
tranquil happiness and gratitude seemed to pervade the whole ship's
company. No night of the voyage was spent more quietly on board the
Arethusa, certainly none more happily, than the first night after her
canvas was furled in the last Pacific port.