SPIES OF CANAAN.
Day dawned in crimson and gold; up rose the sun, and showed us the
Haunted Island.
There was a narrow shore of white sand, curving and twisting with
stupendous cliffs, the sheer and beetling fronts of which could not
have had less than fifteen hundred feet. A little to the left we spied
an opening, wherein a river ran spating down to the sea, making a great
indraught of the water, and occasioning, no doubt, the current that had
horsed us in.
It was now flood of tide; yet the depth of water was increased but
little, and, to our dismay, the ship remained fast.
On seeing this, Wallis, the new Captain, caused great store of heavy
gear to be hove overboard to lighten her. Yet ’twas all one: the ship
would not budge. Thereupon we got out the boats and fastened tow-lines,
to have rowed her off; but we could not. Nay, it had been all one even
if we could have floated her; for soon the land-breeze sunk, and then
the wind came from the sea.
So they gave over the attempt; and, their anxiety being somewhat abated
with the labour, they turned in to breakfast.
I fared with Wallis in the great cabin, his mate--one Peter
Burrows--remaining with the watch on deck. Wallis was very moody and
cross, and I dwelt heavily on the death of my brother; so that the
meal passed with but scant speech. Wallis, afterwards going to the
quarter-deck, called lustily for all hands; and, when they were come
together, he made them a sort of rambling speech.
“Shipmates,” said he, “there a’n’t no manner of need for me to tell
you how we lay. You know what fell yester-night, that there be dark
things hatching yonder. We be fallen in on the Devil’s island by the
look on’t. Ay, but we don’t properly know that yet! We a’n’t got the
bearings of this business; and maybe we’re like children frighted with
tricks and shows.
“Howsoever, this here a’n’t no sort o’ berth for you and me, and I’d
scamper away full-sail if I could. But I can’t. We be stuck here as
fast as so many limpets; and when the wind rises she’ll split, and
we’ll be scurrying ashore like rats!
“Well, then, I’m for leaving of her now, afore the break-up comes--ay,
and afore the night comes, too! There be the boats; but this here a’n’t
the English Channel, and yonder a’n’t the cliffs of Dover, and what we
mought look for in the boats a’n’t pleasant to think. No, there’s no
way out on’t that course, sure! So I gives my vote for going ashore and
boarding ’em while there’s light.... And then the treasure!--you a’n’t
forgot the treasure, mates, as we’ve come so far for to get it? Well,
then, who’ll offer for a shore-party to spy ’em out?”
The words were brave and mettlesome enough. But there was no weight in
them. All was hollow; and the seamen listening were nothing slow to
divine this. The speech fell short of the mark, moving no man. Wallis,
indeed, was weighed in the balance and found wanting there and then;
for, when a seaman asked, “And would you go along with us, Wallis?” he
halted out, “Nay, shipmate, for I must mind the ship”--an answer which
put a period to that enterprise.
The seamen held off glum and murmuring, no man offering. If, however,
they had no stomach for the work, Thalass and I were even eager to set
foot on the island; and, when Wallis and the rest perceived this, they
were nothing backward to encourage us, giving us good words, proffering
us small-arms and ammunition, whilst some ran to the cook-room to fetch
victuals for us, and others put themselves into the jolly-boat to row
us ashore.
Surgeon Burke would have gone with us, but it seemed to him, and to us
also, that his duty lay rather in remaining on the ship.
Our first care on landing was to search the parts of shore for the dead
body of the Captain, for we doubted not that he was dead; but found
nothing.
After that, we turned alongshore to the southward, looking out for an
opening into the island. Thalass told me that he was able to guide
me to the habitation of the pirates, but, however, that it was far
distant at the south side of the island, and the journey and return not
possibly to be accomplished before night, to say nothing of the risk
we would run by attempting it. I answered that therefore we should not
attempt it, but take instead a random course, making what discoveries
we could.
We advanced warily, having each of us a loaded pistol in his hand; and,
coming round an elbow of the cliff beneath a gigantic headland, we lost
sight of the ship. The character of the prospect remained unchanged,
the bleached white sands stretching away to the next bend, the towering
cliffs frowning upon us. The Indian marched briskly at my side,
perfectly at his ease, as it should seem, and fearing no evil; but I
went harassed with a thousand apprehensions, and was sometimes brought
to a stand by fantastical alarms.
The dreadful death-cry of my brother still sounded in my ears, and even
more than the apparition on the shore, it put a fear on me. One while
glancing back fearfully over my shoulder, another while looking aloft
at those stupendous summits, I went, indeed, like a haunted man.
At length, being gotten about a league along the shore, we spied that
we were looking out for--an opening in the cliffs. For, a little in
advance of us, as we coasted round beneath a headland, the cliffs were
quite broken off about two ships’ lengths, leaving an inlet of the
island indeed!
A spacious and gentle valley it was, sloping from the shore between the
ends of the cliffs, which were all hung about with vines, and adorned
with waving groves and rustling tall tufted grasses and flowers crimson
blue and green. We immediately began to ascend, making towards a
colossal boulder of rock near forty feet in height. Coming up to it, we
climbed, by jagged ridges, creepers and rockweed, to the top, and there
stood to view the country.
’Twas a charming panorama--champaign, woody, and rocky in grateful
alternation, or confused and intermingled as in some silent conflict;
but of man, or man’s habitation, not a trace! I asked Thalass whether
this part of the island was really uninhabited; he answered after his
broken manner:
“This side only him spirit, great, big; look.” (Here he made a grimace
that gave me a scare, so like it was to that dreadful visage), “and him
little spirit, sing:
Stay not in the land of sighing,
Stay not in the vale of tears....”
But hereupon I cut him short; for, indeed, he sang so marvellously
mimicking that other voice, that I could not bear it.
We descended the great boulder; and, the hour being about midday and
the sun shining hot, we looked out for a place to rest in, and found it
beneath the shade of a banana tree. The tree was full of fruit, and we
ate of it very deliciously, and quenched our thirst at a clear spring
that was near.
We returned to our journey, or rather ramble, of discovery, but
lighted on nothing remarkable; nor saw we any appearance of man. So,
the afternoon beginning to be far spent, and we a great way from the
shore, I thought it time to be jogging from thence; for this finding
no men in the island had in no wise allayed, but rather increased, my
apprehensions, and the thought of being overtaken by night there went
very much against my inclination.
Accordingly, we turned about, stepping out briskly towards the shore;
meanwhile the sky became overcast with clouds. We came through the
ravine to the shore, and soon, to our great content, in sight of the
ship.
Drawing near, I hailed her. But there came no answer, nor could we
descry a man upon her decks. I thought this looked very strangely: I
hallooed a second time; but again no answer.
And now a nameless fear began to take hold on me; but, stepping to the
marge of the shore, I tried a third time, giving a great halloo. Yet
came there no answer: there was no sound nor motion; there was not a
sign of life on the ship!
But twilight had fallen this while, and the clouds looked black; and,
even as my voice yet echoed from the cliff, there fell a shadow vast
and vague, and dark shut down upon us like a lid!
Then grew I afraid, indeed, drawing closer to the Indian, who, too, I
think, felt the terror now.
“The place is enchanted,” said I, “we are lost!”
But the cock-boat lay where the Captain had left her upon the shore;
and, getting her down, we launched forth, intending to row out in a
bee-line and shoot for the ship. For, though concealed by the darkness,
we knew how she lay.
We began to row, steering with the greatest heed, until, by our
reckoning, we had made way enough, and should be up to the ship. Yet no
ship appeared.
We went a little farther; yet no sign of her.
Peering fearfully into the darkness, we ceased to row. I took my pistol
and fired it in the air, listening for an answering hail or gunshot;
but none came.
’Tis a wonder I never thought to contrive a flare with some tinder or
other and my flint and steel; but the truth is, my mind was completely
over-run and confused with innumerable fluttering thoughts and whimsies
and frightful apprehensions. It came to me, indeed, that the ship was
no longer there, but had been spirited away by enchantment. Nor, in
view of the dreadful mysteries of the place, will the reader be likely
to censure me.
Thalass thrust his hand into the sea. It was immediately whelmed, the
water gushing up over his wrist: _the boat was being borne along by a
swift current!_
The night was very dark, the sea moderately calm. It was becoming cold,
so that we were very glad of the liquor in our flasks; for, each
taking a dram, it warmed and spirited us.
Soon I observed the Indian to nod, for his eyes were heavy; and I
told him that he might sleep, for I would watch. He sunk to slumber
immediately. But I was sore fatigued, and the cock-boat rocked with a
gentle motion: sleep stole upon me like an enemy, making at the last,
as it were, a stealthy spring; in short, before ever I could take
thought to have waked the Indian, I, too, slept.
Suddenly we were awakened.
There had come a great sound of cannonading on the sea; the last of it
was still in my waking ears. It seemed to have come from close by. The
night drew on towards the dawn, and was not so pitchy dark; I thought I
made out the loom of a large ship. Ay, it was a ship!
But not for long! Scarce, indeed, had she hazily taken form before our
eyes, but, with a prodigious sound, she blew up.
Stunned by the concussion, I swooned in the boat.