HARRY A MEMBER OF OUR MESS--HE RAPIDLY IMPROVES--ANCHOR OFF A VOLCANIC
ISLAND--OUR BOAT-CRUISE ROUND THE ISLAND--CHASE A WHALER--A HURRICANE--
RUN BEFORE IT--DRIVEN ON AN ISLAND--BOAT DAMAGED--FIND COCOA-NUTS--
SEARCH FOR FOOD--THE BIRD ISLAND--WE FORM A CAMP, AND GO TO SLEEP.
I must not stop to describe our run to the westward, the islands we
sighted, the narrow escapes we had of knocking our bows in against coral
reefs, or the gales we encountered in the falsely so-called Pacific,--
not but that it is pacific enough at times, when long calms prevail; and
on two such occasions we lay basking, or rather sweltering, under the
rays of a tropical sun, scarcely cooled even during the night. Still we
all retained our health, being amply supplied with lime-juice and
preserved vegetables, calculated to keep the much-dreaded scurvy at bay.
Harry at once became a favourite on board; for though he had been cowed
by his task-masters, his spirit had not been broken. He was grateful
for all kindness shown him, and anxious to learn, so that he in a short
time was as civilised as any one on board. He also rapidly acquired a
knowledge of English,--or, I may say, regained it, for so quickly did he
pick up the more simple words, that it was clear he must have known them
before. As he did so, recollections of the past seemed to come back to
his mind; and when he was able to speak his thoughts, he mentioned
numerous circumstances which convinced us of what the commander had from
the first suspected.
I took a great liking to him, as he did to me; and taking care not to
suggest ideas to him which might have led him into error, I frequently
got him to tell me the recollections of his early days. He remembered
his mother, whom he described as very beautiful, as he naturally thought
her, and very like what Mrs Hudson must have been; and he spoke of his
father as being a great chief, who commanded a number of men; and also
of being on board a ship, which he said was very much larger than the
_Heroine_, and had a great number of men and boats. He spoke, also, of
enormous fish being caught, and brought alongside, and cut up and
burned; so that, of course, I knew she must have been a whaler. At
length he said he recollected being carried into a boat and rowed away
from the ship, which he had never seen again; and now I had not a shadow
of doubt that he was indeed the long-lost child of Captain and Mrs
Hudson. He had no recollection of the murder of the crew, however; but
he next remembered finding himself among dark-skinned savages, with whom
he had ever afterwards remained. Possibly he might have been in an
unconscious state, from want of food, when the boat was seized by the
savages, and had so escaped witnessing the murder of her crew.
As soon as I made this out, I told the commander; who took great pains
to cross-question Harry, and ultimately arrived at the same conclusion
that I had done. He therefore at once told Harry that his surname was
Hudson, and that he would spare no pains to restore him to his father
and mother, who had long mourned him as lost. Harry seemed much
affected by this, and often expressed to me his wish to see his mother
again, declaring that he should know her at once; and he thought, also,
that he could recognise his father. I reminded him that his mother
would look much older than when he had been parted from her, as grief
and sickness had paled her cheek; but that I felt sure she would
recognise him, and that he must do his best to be like us, so that she
might find him a real English boy.
The commander, on thus ascertaining who he was, asked us if we would
receive him in the midshipmen's berth,--charging us at the same time to
set him a good example, by avoiding anything that was wrong, and by
teaching him only what was right. Without a dissentient voice we all
agreed to the commander's proposal, and Harry Hudson forthwith became a
member of our mess. Some of the men, and Dick Tillard especially, were
at first rather jealous of this. When I told him what the commander had
said, he replied,--"It's all right, Mr Rayner; and if you follow his
advice, it will do you as much good as it will Harry; and we'll all be
ready to serve him as much as before."
The commander also spoke on the subject to Harry; who, however, did not
require his lecture, as he took the greatest possible pains to imitate
us, as well as to speak correctly. We began also to teach him to read
and write; but I think he must have known his letters before, from the
rapid way in which he learned them--he knew them all in a couple of
days, and in a week could read short words; indeed, it was evident that
he was possessed of great natural intelligence, and an amiable
disposition. Yet, had he lived on with the savages, he would have
remained as wild and ignorant as they were.
The commander, who was a truly religious man, frequently had him in to
talk to him about God, and to tell him how man, being sinful, had
separated from God, and had become a rebel to him; how God,
notwithstanding, loved him, and yet how, being a God of justice, he must
punish sin, and could not therefore forgive him unless he had allowed
another--his own sinless Son--to be punished instead of sinful man.
Harry thought over what the commander told him; and a day or two
afterwards he repeated to me all that had been said, and observed that
he was convinced it was just the plan to suit man's wants, and that he
would henceforth try to serve so good and merciful a God, and love that
dear Son who had been punished instead of him. Thus Harry became a
Christian; and, I believe, a much better Christian than very many on
board. Of course, when we found him his mind was imbued with the same
dark heathenism as were the minds of the savages among whom he had
lived.
A sharp look-out was kept for a sail; and our earnest wish was, that as
we got to the westward we should fall in with Captain Hudson's ship, as
he had intended to proceed in that direction. We were not so likely, it
was feared, to fall in with any of the abominable Chilian kidnappers;
they would probably only attempt to carry off the brown natives from the
islands on the eastern side of the Pacific.
We were now, it will be understood, approaching the region inhabited by
the black-skinned races. We had stood to the southward, and visited
Samoa or Navigator's Islands, inhabited by an intelligent brown-skinned
race, far more advanced in civilisation than the people we now expected
to meet with; but I must not stop to describe them.
We had been some days at sea, still running to the westward, when we
sighted a small island ahead. The captain considered that it was the
northernmost of a chain of volcanic islands extending from the Friendly
group; and, as it was not marked on the chart, he wished to survey it,
so we accordingly stood on. As we approached nearer, we saw that it
consisted of a range of conical peaks,--many of the hills rising sheer
out of the water, while others were bordered by low cliffs or beaches.
It had also several deep bays or inlets. Though it was surrounded by a
coral reef, two openings were perceived in it, through which it appeared
that there would be no difficulty in taking the ship, when we might find
secure anchorage in one of the bays within it. A passage nearly the
eighth of a mile wide appearing ahead of us, we entered, having
look-outs as usual aloft, to warn us in time of any hidden reefs in our
course, while the lead was also kept going.
The wind being light, it was evening before we came to an anchor; and
darkness soon coming on, displayed to our eyes the magnificent spectacle
of a volcano sending forth masses of flame, with hot lava running down
the sides of the mountain in broad streams, some making their way
towards the bay in which we lay, others being lost to sight in a deep
gully, apparently on the other side. Now and then loud rumbling sounds
were heard, like the discharge of big guns in rapid succession or the
rattling of thunder; and the watch on deck declared they felt the ship
shake, as if there had been an earthquake. Once, also, a shower of
ashes fell on the ship's deck, the wind having shifted, and blowing from
off the land. The commander, however, did not consider there was any
danger, so we remained quietly at anchor.
The next morning, when the commander and master were preparing to set
off to commence their survey, Mudge asked me if I should like to make a
trip along the coast. Of course I said Yes. As Tom and Harry begged
that they might accompany us, Mudge got leave to take the jolly-boat,
with Tillard, Tamaku, and Popo to assist in pulling. We provided
ourselves with food to last us for the day, put four muskets and a
cutlass apiece into the boat; though, as the island did not appear to be
inhabited, we did not expect to meet with natives. We might, however,
we thought, get a shot at some wild-fowl; and we intended landing
somewhere and lighting a fire to cook our provisions.
Fully expecting to have a pleasant day, we pulled away from the ship.
Shortly afterwards a breeze sprang up, and we made sail, running swiftly
along the shore. Mudge and I had our note-books, in which we noted down
the points and inlets, with the computed distances.
We soon got to the extreme end of the island, and had just doubled it
when I caught sight of a vessel in the offing. I pointed her out to
Mudge. He looked at her through his spy-glass. "She is becalmed," he
observed; "and, Rayner, do you just look at her, and tell me what you
think she is; but speak in a low voice, because I don't want Harry to
hear."
I took the glass, and made out that the vessel was barque-rigged; and
though she was hull down, I felt sure that she was a whaler.
"From the appearance of her sails, I shouldn't be surprised if she was
the _Hopewell_," said Mudge. "I am sure that the commander would wish
us to try and communicate with her, and restore that poor lad to his
parents; and even if it should fall dark before we can get back, the
volcano will serve to guide us."
Of course I was very willing to do as Mudge proposed. We agreed,
however, not to say anything to Harry, lest we should disappoint him.
"We are going to board yonder barque," said Mudge aloud; "there is an
opening through the reef just abreast of us, and we shall have no
difficulty in reaching her."
"Orders are orders," said Tillard; "I never knew any good come of
disobeying them."
Mudge, however, did not hear him; and I, looking forward to the pleasure
of seeing Harry restored to his parents,--and it may be that I just
thought of the pretty young lady I had seen on board,--did not repeat
what he had said.
As there was a light breeze off the land, we hoisted our sail, that we
might benefit by it as long as it lasted. Our only fear was that the
barque might get the breeze also, and stand away from us. We kept
rowing, therefore, to increase our speed. On we pulled, but in my
eagerness it appeared that we were no nearer the barque than at first.
I saw by Harry's countenance that he was as eager as we were, and I
could not help thinking that he suspected the object of our trying to
board the barque. At last he asked, looking at me intently, "Do you
think that my father's ship?"
"We have some hopes that she is; but, you know, we may be mistaken,
Harry," said Mudge; "so you must not raise your expectations too high.
Even if she is, we may not reach her; but, at all events, we'll do our
best to get on board."
Soon after this, on looking through the glass I observed the barque's
sails fill out, though the wind came from a different quarter to that
from which we got it.
"We may still cut her off, though we must steer rather more to the
westward than we are doing," remarked Mudge, altering the boat's course.
We immediately afterwards got a much stronger breeze; and the boat ran
merrily over the waves, which, as we got from under the lee of the land,
were somewhat higher than they had before been. Still Mudge, in his
eagerness, did not seem to notice this, nor, I confess, did I; having
our eyes fixed on the vessel, we did not look astern. We had been
standing on for some distance, when an exclamation from Tillard made me
look towards the land, over which hung a dense black cloud. Directly
afterwards, a loud rushing noise reached our ears, resembling the
continuous roar of thunder, mingled with the sound of a downpour of
rain. It was the voice of the hurricane. Tillard sprang to the
halyards, and, without waiting for Mudge's orders, lowered the sail half
down.
"Keep her before the wind, Mr Mudge; it's our only chance now!" he
exclaimed.
Mudge, seeing that this was the best thing to be done, followed his
advice; and the wind striking us the instant afterwards, away we flew
directly before it. Had the seas been higher, we might have attempted
to keep the boat's head to wind, and our chance of escape would have
been small indeed; as it was, fast as we flew through the seething
ocean, we hardly escaped being pooped, the crests of the seas
continually breaking over the stern and compelling all hands to keep
baling. I looked for the barque, but could nowhere see her; indeed, the
masses of spray which filled the atmosphere, mingled with showers of
dust and ashes which came from the volcano, completely obscured all
objects at a distance; and in a short time we entirely lost sight of the
land itself. We all felt that we were in a most perilous position: did
the sea get up more, we should in all probability be swamped; or did the
gale continue and we live through it, we should be driven far away from
the island. There might be others ahead, but they were certain to be
surrounded by reefs, on which the boat would probably be dashed to
pieces. All we could do was to keep the sail hoisted a few feet up, and
to bale out the water as fast as it washed over the gunwale.
Night now came on, adding to the horrors of the scene. On and on we
went, Mudge sitting at the helm, and steering the boat in a way which a
good seaman only could have done. Tillard offered to relieve him.
"No," he answered; "I got you into this mess, and it is my business to
get you out of it if I can. The hurricane will come to an end at
last,--maybe before daybreak,--and then we must do our best to make our
way back to the island."
In spite of our dangerous position, we were all getting very hungry; we
had been about to land in order to cook our dinner, when we saw the
barque, and after that we were too eager to think of eating. I got some
biscuits out of our basket, which I served round to all hands; and I
then found a bottle of wine.
"We must economise that," observed Mudge, when he found what I was
about; "half a glass to each person is as much as we ought to take--it
may be longer than you suppose before we get back over the ground we
have come."
The food somewhat revived our spirits. Harry sat wonderfully quiet and
calm; Tommy Peck's teeth chattered a little, as if he did not like it;
but neither Popo nor Tamaku uttered a word. The storm gave no signs of
breaking, and on and on we went, rushing through the darkness. At any
moment we might find ourselves, we knew, cast upon a reef, and the boat
dashed to pieces; but that risk, fearful as it was, must be run.