I had not forgotten my uncle's wish to obtain another nautilus, but the
weather had prevented us going on the water for some days. It having
again moderated, I consulted Ali, through Mr Hooker, on the subject,
and got him to explain what we proposed doing. We could not, however,
make him understand clearly what we wanted. That morning he, Oliver,
and I, with Potto Jumbo, went down to the beach to procure shell-fish.
We had been some time on the rocks, when I saw an object floating in
towards the shore. As it drew nearer, I discovered to my satisfaction
that it was the empty shell of a nautilus. In my eagerness I was about
to throw off my clothes and jump in to fetch it, when Potto Jumbo drew
me back. "Take care, Massa Walter," he said; "shark about here! Never
swim out in open place like dis." I, however, pointed out the shell to
Ali, and tried to make him understand that it was that of which we were
in search. He seemed to fancy that I wanted him to swim off for it,
and, thoughtless about the sharks, he was on the point of doing so.
Potto stopped him also, and by waiting patiently, the nautilus shell
gradually floated in towards us, and seizing it eagerly, I returned with
it to the house. Mr Hooker had now no difficulty in explaining to Ali
that it was the creature in its shell which he so much desired, and Ali
told him that he had great hopes of capturing one.
That evening Ali, Dick Tarbox, and I, went out to fish in our boat in
the line of cliffs near which my uncle had shot the frigate-birds.
First, however, we pulled out some way, and laid down our fish-pots at a
spot where Ali seemed to think it was possible we might capture one of
the much-wished-for nautili. It was at this place Ali made us
understand that we were more likely to catch fish than any other. He
came prepared with hooks, which he himself had manufactured from
brass-wire, some of which had been found in the wreck. He had attached
about a fathom of wire to each hook, at the upper end of which the line
was fastened; this was in order to prevent the sharp teeth of the fish
cutting the line. He had caught a few fish in a hand net for bait.
Having anchored our boat by a stone sufficient to hold her, we lowered
down our lines. To each hook a sort of sling of palm-leaf was fastened,
and in this sling was a small stone, so arranged that on reaching the
bottom it fell out. We very soon got bites, and Ali was the first to
haul up a fine large fish. Immediately afterwards I got one, and Tarbox
before long caught another. In the meantime, however, Ali hauled up a
couple; indeed, to each of ours he managed somehow or other to get two.
Their names I do not remember, but I know I never had better sport in my
life. Gradually the rocks above our heads grew higher and higher in the
gloom of approaching night, which seemed to soften the faint outlines of
the landscape, and to increase the size of the objects round us. A
little way from us was an opening in the cliffs, beyond which we could
see the dark forest. From it there issued various sounds, which seemed
to echo backwards and forwards among the rocks. Among them we could
distinguish the moaning cries of monkeys--one seeming to be calling to
the other for help in piteous tones. The effect was curious, and had a
peculiarly melancholy sound; indeed we might easily have supposed them
to be the cries of captive slaves, or perhaps a more fanciful person
might describe them as disembodied spirits in some haunted island.
Meanwhile the night wind, sighing through the lofty trees, came moaning
down towards us. At length darkness compelled us to give up our sport,
and, with an abundant supply of fish, we pulled slowly back towards our
usual landing-place, where, having unladen our boat, we hauled her up to
a safe spot above high-water mark.
I felt an unusual melancholy steal over me, why I cannot tell, while, by
the light of a lamp fed by cocoa-nut oil manufactured by my uncle and
his factotum Tanda, I sat writing these lines of my journal:--"To-morrow
morning Ali and I are going off in the hopes of obtaining a nautilus,
and he feels confident that we shall get one, probably at a reef which
he knows of at some distance, almost out of sight of the island. It is
so far off that, had he not mentioned it, we should not have been aware
of its existence."