THE PIONEERS--EXCURSION TO COROMANDEL--HINDOO FANCIES--A CAGED
HUNTER--LOUIS XI. AND CARDINAL BALUE--A FURLONG OF NEWS--CARNAGE--THE
BARONET AND HIS SEVENTEEN TIGERS--FIFTY-FOUR FEET OF CELEBRITY--STERNE'S
WINDOW--PROMENADE OF THE CONSCIENCES--EMULATION AND VANITY.
When a country is released from the presence of an enemy that annoyed
and harassed them, the people feel as if a weight had been taken off
their shoulders; so the inhabitants of New Switzerland had breathed
more freely since the capture of the chimpanzee.
The works at Falcon's Nest were completed, and the two families had
taken possession of their aerial dwellings, where they were perched
like a pair of rookeries within call of each other.
The confined air of towns has a tendency to plunge men into lethargy
and indolence, and to precipitate the decadence of a constitution in
which the seeds of disease have been sown; whilst, on the other hand,
the pure air of the country braces the nerves, excites a healthy
action in the system, and invigorates a shattered frame; so it was
with Mr. Wolston--under the benign influences of the genial climate
and the refreshing sea breeze, he gradually, but steadily, recovered
health and strength.
A larger breadth of land had been cleared and fitted for receiving
grain, which it was susceptible of reproducing a hundred-fold. Such is
the sublime contract God has made with man, that, in exchange for his
labor and skill, a single grain of wheat will produce seven or eight
stalks, each bearing an ear containing fifty grains; a single grain
has been known to yield twenty-eight ears, and Pliny states that Nero
received a grain bearing the enormous number of three hundred and
sixty ears. Strange that such a singular instance of fecundity should
present itself during the domination of a man, or rather monster, who
dared to wish that the Roman people had only one head, so that he
might cut it off at a single blow!
Willis and the Wolstons were as yet ignorant of the extent and limits
of the colony; there were two inclosed and cultivated sections, named
respectively Waldeck and Prospect Hill, which they had not yet
inspected. With a view to enable them to form a more accurate
conception of the boundaries of the territory they inhabited, a grand
excursion was decided upon that would enable them leisurely to
investigate every nook and cranny of the settlement.
The storehouse was accordingly overhauled, and the ladies called in to
prepare viands for the journey; they were likewise invited to furnish
a supply of certain enchanted travelling bags, in which the gentlemen
were often astonished to find, during their distant expeditions, a
thousand and one useful things that they would never have dreamt of
bringing with them of their own accord.
Becker, Wolston, Ernest, and Frank set about the construction of a
vehicle on four wheels for the luggage and the ladies; they did not
contemplate erecting a machine with elastic springs and gilded panels,
like the Lord Mayor's state coach--their object was to produce a
machine that would ease, without dislocating, the limbs of the
travellers, and that would move at least more gently than a gardener's
cart, loaded with hampers of greens for Covent Garden Market. It may
readily be supposed that Ernest's Latin was not of much service in
these operations, for even Wolston's mechanical skill was sorely tried
in elaborating the design.
Fritz, Willis, and Jack had already started as pioneers of the
expedition to examine the buildings, and to see that no more apes or
other piratical marauders had established themselves on their
premises; and, in compliance with a request made by Willis, who
strongly objected to becoming a bushranger, they had gone by water. It
was further arranged that, on their return, all should start
together--the entire community in one cavalcade, like an army on the
march.
The young ladies were as much pleased in anticipation with this
journey as if the destination of the travellers had been Brighton or
Ramsgate. To children of their age, change is always pleasing. Often,
in consequence of a death, the collapse of a bank, the loss of a
law-suit, or some dire disaster of that sort, parents have seen
themselves compelled to abandon the home of their fathers, endeared to
them by many gentle recollections, perhaps to embark for some far
distant land; they stifle their sighs, and bid a mute farewell to each
stone and each tree, familiar to them as household words; they depart
with reluctance, and often turn to cast a lingering look behind at
objects so dear to their memory. Not so the children; they issue from
the door like a flock of caged pigeons just let loose; they sing and
leap and laugh with glee; the old house has no charms for them, they
are as glad to depart as their elders are wishful to stay; the trunk
desires to multiply its roots on the soil, but the buds prefer to blow
elsewhere--for the latter life resolves itself into the word FUTURE,
and for the former into the word PAST.
Leaving Wolston, Becker, and his two sons hard at work on the
carriage, let us turn to the pinnace which was now making its way
along the shore under the guidance of the Pilot.
"I should like much," said Fritz, "to present Mr. and Mrs. Wolston
with a couple of bear, leopard, or tiger skins."
"So should I," said Jack.
"I wish you could think of some other sort of gift," suggested Willis;
"what do you say to a couple of seal or shark skins?"
"Won't do," replied both Fritz and Jack in one voice. "What objections
have you to the others?"
"Well, you are in some sort consigned to my care; I should like you to
return to your parents with your own skins entire."
"Then you think it is a terrific affair to kill a tiger or two? You
have been accustomed to the sea, and fancy landsmen are good for
nothing but shooting crows and wild-cats; that is a mistake, however;
we are familiar with larger game."
"Shiver my timbers! do you call bears and tigers game?"
"I am afraid, Willis, you are a bit of a milksop."
"Avast heaving there, Master Fritz! as it is, I am a half-hanged man
already, so death has now no terrors Dov me; it is the first pang that
is most felt."
"Yes; but in the case of tigers, they never give you time to feel a
second pang; miss your aim, and it is all over with you."
"True; and therefore I wish you would give up the project. As for
myself, I would face anything with a four-pounder, but rifle practice
on board ship is mostly confined to the marines; it is not that,
however, I am troubled about; I am certain your worthy father would
never forgive me if I countenance this project."
"You need not tell him anything about it."
"Where, then, are the skins to come from? Can you say you bought them
at the furrier's? You must really hit upon some other fancy."
"But it is not a fancy, Willis, it is a necessity; it is not our own
amusement we are consulting. Just imagine yourself what will happen
during the excursion now being arranged. Our parents will, of course,
offer their bear skins to Mr. and Mrs. Wolston; there will be refusals
on the one side and entreaties on the other."
"And, as is usual in these sort of discussions," added Jack, "Mrs.
Wolston will call her carriage."
"Yes," continued Fritz, "and my mother will most certainly deprive
herself of a covering that is absolutely indispensable during the cold
nights of this climate."
"There is reason in what you say," observed Willis, scratching his
ear.
"You see, Willis, the thing ought and must be done."
"As you put it, yes; but it will take time to prepare the skins."
"They will not be ready in time for this expedition certainly, and my
mother must do without her skin this journey; but it is our duty to
prevent anything of the sort happening in future."
"Were I to consent to this project," said Willis, "there is still
something more required."
"What, Willis?"
"Why, the tigers and what's-a-names; it is necessary to find the brute
before you can get its skin."
"Granted; there would be a difficulty in the case had we not here
quite handy a magnificent covering of wild animals, all ready to kill
or to be killed. Just steer a point to the east, Willis; there, that
will do. Just beyond that bluff you see yonder, there is a low flat
plain covered with brushwood and tufted with trees; on the left, this
prairie is bounded by a chain of low hills, and on the right a broad
river, which last we have named the St. John, because it bears some
resemblance to a stream of that name in Florida; beyond this plain
there is a swamp."
"And," added Jack, "behind this swamp there is a magnificent forest of
cedars, peopled with the finest furs imaginable, but garnished,
however, with formidable claws and rows of teeth."
"I was not aware," said Willis, "that we were within reach of such
amiable neighbors."
"Oh, they cannot reach us; thanks to the conformation of that chain of
hills you see yonder, there is only one pass that opens into our
settlement, and that we have taken care to shut up and fortify."
"It appears then," said Willis, "that there will be no difficulty in
finding the animals, but--"
"Come, Willis, no more buts; you hunt in your own way from morning
till night, let us for once hunt in ours."
"I go a-hunting?"
"Yes, there you are, charging your piece just now."
"Oh, my pipe you mean; but look at the difference; mosquitoes bite
human beings, they don't eat them!"
"And, you may add, their skins don't make bed-clothes. Besides, if my
mother takes rheumatism or the ague, it will be you that is to blame."
"I would rather face all the tigers in Bengal and all the lions in
Africa than incur such a responsibility. I will, therefore, take a
part in your cruise, and if any accident happens to either of you, I
shall stay in the forest till nothing is left of me but my cap and my
bones. In this way I will escape all reproach in this world, and I may
as well, after all, rejoin my old commander, Captain Littlestone, by
this road as by any other."
In the meantime, they had reached the coast of Waldeck, and having
landed, they found the outhouses and sheds that had been erected there
in satisfactory order; the apes had not forgotten a battue that had
once been got up for their special behoof, as not an individual was to
be seen in the neighborhood. A morass of the district that had been
converted into a rice plantation, promised an abundant crop; and the
cotton plants, that Frank had once mistaken for flakes of snow, reared
their woolly blossoms, looking for all the world like the powdered
heads of our ancestors. After a slight repast, the pinnace was once
more in motion, and the party steering for Prospect Hill.
"Ah," sighed Willis, "I wish we had only Sir Marmaduke Travers' cage
here."
"Cage!" cried Fritz, laughing, "what, to shut up the game first and
shoot it afterwards?" "No, quite the reverse: to shut up the hunters."
"Ah, you would serve us in the same way as Louis XI. served Cardinal
Balue."
"I know nothing of either Louis XI. or Cardinal Balue; but the cage I
speak of was an excellent invention, for all that."
"Which you would like to prove to us by caging ourselves, eh?"
"Sir Marmaduke Travers," continued Willis, "was an English gentleman,
and he was travelling in Coromandel, no one knew why or for what
purpose."
"For the fun of the thing, probably," suggested Jack; the English are
said to be great oddities."
"At that time there happened to be a Hindoo widow somewhere in those
parts. This lady was very rich, very young, very beautiful, and very
fond of tormenting her admirers. And, as fate would have it, the
travelling Englishman was completely taken captive by this dark
beauty; and taking advantage of the hold she had obtained upon his
heart, she amused herself by making him do all sorts of out of the way
things. Sometimes she would bid him let his moustache grow, then she
would order him to cut it off; he had to worship Brahma, adopt the
fashion of the Hindoos, and had even to undergo the indignity of
having his head tied up in a dirty pocket-handkerchief."
"That is to say," remarked Jack, "that the lady, not having a pug or a
monkey, made Sir Marmaduke a substitute for both."
"Very likely, but still Sir Marmaduke was no fool; he was, on the
contrary, a gentleman and a philosopher."
"I doubt that," said Jack.
"You are wrong, then. You have been brought up in an out of the way
part of the world, and are not familiar with the usages of civilized
society. When once a man has allowed the tender passion to take root
in his breast, it cannot afterwards be extinguished at will; it grows
and grows like an oil spot, so that what might easily have been
mastered at first, makes us in time its devoted slave."
"I cannot admit," said Fritz, "that any sensible man would allow
himself to be treated in the way you state."
"The wisest and bravest have often, for all that, been obliged to bend
their heads to such circumstances; in fact, those only escape whose
hearts have been steeled by time or adversity. Well, nothing would
please the lady in one of her caprices short of Sir Marmaduke's going
alone to the jungle and killing a tiger or two for her. This caused
him some little uneasiness."
"I should think so," remarked Jack, "unless he had been accustomed to
face the animals."
"However, the widow's hand was to be the reward of the achievement,
and the thing must consequently be done. Being, however, as I have
said, a bit of a philosopher, he considered with himself that if, by
chance, he should perish in the attempt he would lose the widow all
the same, and that he could not think of with any thing like
equanimity. To extricate himself from this dilemma he sent a despatch
to an enterprising friend of his, then stationed with his regiment at
Calcutta, requesting his advice."
"And this friend, no doubt, sent him a couple of tigers all ready
trussed?"
"No, better than that; he sent him a strong iron cage fifteen feet
square, very solid. This was shipped on board a cutter commanded by
Captain Littlestone, and I was entrusted with the task of erecting it
on shore, whilst an express was sent off to Sir Marmaduke."
"Ah!" said Jack, "I begin to understand now."
"Well, he rigged himself in tiger-hunting costume, went and bade the
lady good-bye, who coolly wished him good sport, mounted a horse, and
rode off to conquer a lady who, as a proof of her affection, had so
cavalierly consigned him to the tender mercies of the wild beasts."
"Why, it was dooming him to certain destruction," said Fritz.
"In the meantime the cage had been conveyed to a valley surrounded
with mountains, the caves of which were known to shelter entire
colonies of tigers. Here also came Sir Marmaduke. The cage was firmly
embedded in the soil, the exterior was thickly studded over with sharp
spikes screwed into the bars; inside were placed a table and a sofa,
with crimson velvet cushions."
"A lady's boudoir in the wilderness," said Jack.
"In one corner there was a case containing a dozen bottles of pale
ale, and as many of champagne; in another was a second case containing
curry pies and a variety of preserved meats; in a third case were five
and twenty loaded rifles, together with a complete magazine in
miniature of powder and shot. On the table were sundry cases of
havannahs, a box of _allumettes_, the last number of the _Edinburgh
Review_, and a copy of the _Times_."
"What is the _Times_?" inquired Jack.
"It is a furlong of paper, folded up and covered with news,
advertisements, and letters from the oldest inhabitant of everywhere.
Leaving, then, Sir Marmaduke seated in the centre of his cage, we
towards night returned to the cutter, first scattering two or three
quarters of fresh beef in the vicinity of the cage."
"That should have assembled all the tigers in Coromandel," said
Fritz.
"Anyhow, it brought enough. Towards midnight Sir Marmaduke could count
thirty noble brutes capering in the moonlight and feasting upon the
beef that had been provided for them."
"What did the Englishman do then?"
"He took aim at the most magnificent specimen of the herd and fired.
No sooner had he done this than the whole pack came scampering towards
the cage, thinking, doubtless, they had nothing to do but scrunch the
bones of the solitary hunter. This was the signal for a regular
slaughter. Sir Marmaduke discharged his rifles point blank in the
noses of the animals that environed him on all sides; those who were
not wounded by the balls were severely injured by the spikes of the
cage in their furious efforts to seize their enemy. The howling,
yelling, and fury was quite a new sensation for Sir Marmaduke; he
rather enjoyed the thing whilst the excitement lasted. However, all
things must have an end; when the sun appeared on the horizon the
wounded retired, leaving the dead masters of the situation."
"I suppose, in the meantime," remarked Fritz, "that the amiable Hindoo
was considering whether or not, under the circumstances, she should
wear mourning for her defunct cavalier."
"Be that as it may, the defunct made his appearance, safe and sound,
that same day, whilst the cutter stood out to sea with every vestige
of the cage except the dead tigers. Shortly after, the widow was
astonished to see an army of coolies marching in procession towards
her door, all, like the slaves of Aladdin, heavily laden; and she was
not awakened from her surprise till the master of the ceremonies had
placed the following letter in her hands:
"Madam,--With this you will receive seventeen fall-grown tigers, which
I have had the honour of shooting for you.
"Marmaduke Travers."
"That was a choice bijou for a lady," said Jack.
[Illustration]
"Yes," added Fritz; "and if the ladies of Coromandel have stands in
their drawing-rooms, to display the tributes to their charms, Sir
Marmaduke's present afforded abundant material for adorning those of
the widow."
"Well, the consequence was, that Sir Marmaduke's name rung from one
end of India to the other. The feat of killing, single-handed,
seventeen tigers, converted him into a hero of the first magnitude. No
festival was complete without him, he was courted by the fashionables
and worshipped by the mob; some enthusiasts even proposed to erect a
tomb for him, that being the way they honor their great men in eastern
nations."
"Every country," remarked Fritz, "has its own peculiarities in this
respect. The memory of the illustrious men of Greece and Rome was
perpetuated in the intrinsic merit of the works of art erected in
their names. In England quantity takes the place of quality; there is
said to be in London a statue of a hero disguised as Achilles, six
yards in height, and perched upon a pedestal twelve yards high."
"Making in all," remarked Jack, "exactly eighteen yards of fame."
"The handsome Hindoo," continued Willis, "was proud of the feat her
charms had inspired. She gloried in showing off the redoubtable
tiger-slayer at her _réunions_, and ended in being completely
fascinated herself with her former slave. The match that she had
formerly sneezed at she now earnestly desired, and, as Sir Marmaduke
did not declare himself so speedily as she desired, she determined to
give him a little encouragement by sending one of the most inviting
and most odoriferous of notes."
"Sir Marmaduke must then have considered himself one of the happiest
of men," said Fritz.
"Well," continued Willis, "neither man nor woman can, in affairs of
this kind, depend upon themselves for two consecutive hours. The
aspirations of a whole life-time may be dispelled in five minutes, and
the wishes of to-day may become the detestations of to-morrow. The new
sensations awakened in Sir Marmaduke by the affair of the cage--his
recollection of the ferocious brutes as they clung with expiring
energy to the bars of the cage, their streaked skins streaming with
blood, the fearful howling and terrific death yells, the formidable
claws that were often within an inch of his face--had, somehow or
other, chased the passion he had felt for the widow completely out of
his breast."
"Oh, the scamp of a Travers!" said Jack, energetically.
"He began to ask himself coolly what a lady, who had made such
extraordinary demands upon him before marriage, might not require him
to do after; and the result of his cogitations is expressed in the
following reply that he sent to the now smiling widow:--
"'Sir Marmaduke Travers is highly flattered by the charming note of
the adorable daughter of Brahma; he shall gladly continue to bask in
the sunshine of her smiles, out his ambition desires and will accept
nothing more.'"
"Flowery and laconic," said Fritz.
"Well," inquired Willis, "was I not right in wishing to have the cage
of Sir Marmaduke here?"
"Yes, but we cannot get it. We have no ingenious trend at Calcutta to
send us such a machine, and furnish it with crimson-cushioned sofas
and pale ale, so we shall have to rest satisfied with our own
ingenuity, tact, and agility."
Fritz and Jack were justified in relying upon their own resources.
They had been often sorely tried, and never had been found wanting in
cases of emergency. Since the arrival of the Wolstons their courage
had become almost temerity; previous to that event, they had been
content to meet danger bravely when it was inevitable, and never went
deliberately in search of it. Now, however, if we apply the glass of
which Sterne speaks to their breasts and spy what is passing therein,
we shall fad that an imperious desire to become heroes had taken
possession of their inward souls--a determination to make themselves
conspicuous at all hazards was burning within them; that, in fact,
they were courting the admiration of the new audience that Providence
had sent to the colony, the praise of which found more favor in their
hearts than the paternal admonitions.
This was far from being commendable; but, although emulation and
vanity have some features in common, still they must not be
confounded: the former consists in generous efforts to equal or
surpass some one in something praiseworthy; the second is a kind of
self-love, that seeks to purchase respect or flattery at no matter
what cost;--the one is a vice, the other a virtue.
Fritz and Jack were not actuated by vanity; they were urged on by
their impulses, without weighing the circumstances that gave them
rise; and indeed they were not even conscious of being more desirous
of renown now than they had been hitherto.
The temperament of Ernest and Frank was of another kind. Their natures
were much less excitable, and it did not appear that the recent
arrivals had altered their outward demeanor in the slightest degree;
they continued calm, staid, and reflective, as they had ever been.
All four were a singular mixture of the child and the man--knowing
many things that young people are ignorant of, they were yet almost
totally unacquainted with the ordinary attributes of social
life--unsophisticated and naive to an extreme degree, they would have
appeared in a fashionable drawing-room downright fools. On the other
hand, they possessed great clearness of perception, presence of mind
in danger, promptitude in action, and the utmost coolness in the face
of apparently insurmountable obstacles--qualities that would have
utterly confounded the young men who shine in the saloons of Europe,
whose chief merit often consists in their being familiar with the
unmeaning conventionalisms of fashionable life.
At Prospect Hill they found the outhouses and plantations in much the
same position as at Waldeck. Here the crimson flowers of the caper
plant, the white flowers of the tea plant, and the rich blossoms of
the clove tree, perfumed the air and promised a fragrant harvest. This
was a charming caravansary, all ready with its smiles to welcome the
illustrious colonists as soon as they presented themselves.
These points being settled to the satisfaction of the three pioneers,
a sheep was taken on board the pinnace at the request of Willis--who
seemed to have taken a violent fancy for mutton chops--and they set
sail towards the east.
In the first instance they made for a projecting head-land that seemed
to bar their progress in that direction, and, much to the astonishment
of the Pilot, they entered a cavern that formed the entrance to a
natural tunnel. This, besides being an interesting feature in the
coast scenery, was one of the treasures of the colony, for it
contained vast quantities of edible birds' nests, so much prized by
the Chinese. The voyagers did not, however, tarry here; these were not
the objects they were now in search of. Nautilus Bay and the Bay of
Pearls were likewise traversed unheeded, nor could the attractive
banks of the St. John, fringed with verdant foliage, divert them from
the project they had in contemplation.
Wise men, when they indulge in folly, are often more foolish than real
fools; so it was with Willis: now that he had joined in the scheme, he
evinced more ardor in its execution than the young men themselves. He
said that it would not be enough to capture skins for Mr. and Mrs.
Wolston, they must also capture one a-piece for Mary and Sophia
likewise, and talked as if the adventure of Sir Marmaduke and his
seventeen tigers had been a bagatelle.
Some hours before dark they landed at a spot well known to both Fritz
and Jack; it was a place where Becker and his sons had some time
before been engaged in deadly conflict with a herd of lions, and where
one of their dogs had fallen a victim to the enraged monarchs of the
forest.
"My plan," said Willis, "is to kill the sheep and place the quarters
on the shore, just as bait is thrown into the water to bring the fish
within the net."
"A reminiscence of Sir Marmaduke," said Jack.
"Then," continued Willis, "we shall light a fire to take the place of
the sun, who is about to retire for the night. This done, I propose
that we should return to the pinnace, keep the mutton within rifle
range, and riddle the skins that come to feast upon it."
After some opposition on the part of Fritz and Jack, who preferred to
encounter their antagonists on more equal terms, the proposal of
Willis was ultimately agreed to.