THE SAILORS
I had been sleeping, pleasantly enough, though dreaming of a noisy
clanging of hammers in a forest. I awoke to find myself stretched
lazily upon the sand, to hear the lapping of waves and look out upon
blue waters to the westward, it must be, for it seemed afternoon and
the sun was not far above the waters, a little to the left as I faced
it. I rose to my feet and looked toward the east and there saw a host
of palm trees, beyond them green hills, and beyond these, mountains.
From the beach the land lay level to the hills and, not far from the
shore and among the palm trees, were many huts with people moving about
among them. Near where I had been lying were a number of boats hauled
out upon the sand, which boats I studied curiously. They did not seem
unknown to me, but I was still half-sleeping, for the sea and the air
and the day were drowsy, and the leaves upon the palm trees were idle.
Not from the trunk of some great tree had any one of these boats
been hewn and hollowed. They were made in quite another manner, with
a framework, and keel and ribs of heavy wood, and a sheathing, with
the seams made water-tight by caulking, and carried oars instead of
paddles. Very good boats they seemed to me, and fit for riding rough
water, and, as my sleep-clogged senses cleared, I knew, for had I not
helped to build them? Most excellent boats they were, and I could see
still larger and finer ones drawn to the beach at a greater distance
from me, and others riding the waters of the fair harbour made by the
semicircling curve of land. From where the larger boats were hauled up
to the shore there came a shout:
“Haste thee, Scar; we go out for the fishing!”
I hurried toward the boat, for I knew what was my present duty since
there were but six of us to man the boat, which made but a scanty crew.
We were not to row far, however, only to a place nearby the islands
where the fishing was most promising, so that all the oarsmen usual
were not needed. My companions were already in their places when I
reached them, and lightly chided me for my delay. I took my seat upon
the rowing bench and grasped an oar and soon we were sweeping toward
a passage between the islands. There were in all the world no better
seamen than we of the Phœnicia which had begun to live fairly with the
founding of our village, Akko.
We were not great people as compared with these who were behind the
mountains of Lebanon, which protected us on the east--there were as
yet but some five thousand of us to occupy the narrow land between the
mountains and the sea--but we had prospered greatly since venturing
from the home of our forefathers, where the great Euphrates finds the
southern ocean. It was well for us that we had found this palm and wild
vine-clad country, rock-walled and safe as might be from invasion, and
had taken up our abode here, and sent to our kindred telling them of
the soil’s richness and of the many spoils of the sea, and so they
were following us, band after band, forming new villages to the north
along the coast. Of these were Sidon and Tyre, though as yet they
were but hamlets. As for us in Akko, we could ask no better fortune
than was already ours. We were possessors of only this close-bounded
and curtailed domain--but what a land! Never was one fairer or richer
or better suited to the needs of such as we. The palms which grew in
forests along the sea-lapped sand and wide beaches supplied abundant
timber for our houses, while for our ships!--already our great biremes
were becoming stately--there were the cedars of Lebanon thick upon
the range behind us, and oak and other woods of strength. Back of the
sandy coast belt was the fertile plain, yet to become a region of
gardens and orchards and cornfields, a land for the pomegranate and
the orange. Still further back rose the green, low-lying hills, great
slopes whereon would grow most healthily the vine, the olive and the
mulberry, all of which we cultivated zealously, and then, as the hills
rose into mountains, came the ruder spaces clothed here and there with
forests of oaks, chestnut, sycamore and terebinth, and, best of all,
the mighty cedars, of which I have already told. There were harbours
at points along the coast, made naturally by the many small islands
which formed a barrier against the incoming sea. We were settled in a
land of abundance and one also of safety and security, for from the
mountains at the south ran out a great promontory ending in a precipice
at the sea and rounded by only a narrow path, while to the north were
defences, raised by nature, not less formidable. To the west of us in
our front lay the great sea, the Mediterranean, as men learned to call
it, blue as the sky above it, teeming with the fish we needed, and
treasure-bottomed because of the rare things which, by lucky happening,
we found there. Far in the offing above the tideless waters could be
seen a dim blue speck where the sky and water blended, the island
Yatnan--the Cyprus of the future--an island of kindly people to be some
time followed by others called the Greeks, with whom we were already
beginning to do a little trading.
For we were traders! Traders, boat-builders and sea adventurers were
we, above all other peoples. The world had learned to barter, it may be
from those who had first discovered copper, which all men needed and
for which they would exchange that which they had, and we were those
who had already made bartering our chief and earnest occupation. This
had been the way with us even at the mouth of the Euphrates, whence we
had come and where between contemptuous Babylonian and rude Assyrian
we had been much oppressed, and so had fled to find this treasure
strip. Warriors we had never been, though sometimes, at bay, we had
fought well, nor had we been skilful hunters within the memory of our
generation. Dark-haired and swarthy, sprouted from an ancient race to
the south, some said, we had come to this new land to make, if we might
be favoured of our dark god, a better future. Most skilled were we in
the many arts, but better still, for us, in traffic in that which we
made. We dealt much with the stronger races which endured but did not
mingle with us. Now we were to trade from our own land as a vantage
ground. The outcome was what no man could dream.
We had built our houses at Akko and had sowed our fields and planted
our trees and vines and had builded our boats, and in them had already
begun to range the coasts for such trade as might be found, though not
so far at first, because as yet we had few goods for barter save the
fine linen which the women wove so well, and wool, and cedar timber,
and besides, we were not yet acquainted with the strange shores. Our
first trade, as I have said, was with the people of the large island
Yatnan, which was so near to us, and from this alone arose in time a
mighty business of ours, for in Yatnan was much copper, and the people
were such we did not fear. Soon, too, there came to us such aid from
what the sea gave us, that our traffic, we were assured, must surpass
all we had hoped for, our fabrics having given to them suddenly a value
never known before.
The bireme in which we went to the fishing was shared with me in its
ownership by my comrades Aradnus and Malchus, and it was to Malchus
that our people owed a part of their coming vast good fortune. Malchus
had many fancies, and among these was one for a collection of the
glittering different shells we found upon the shore or in the waters we
dredged for shell-fish, of which there were many edible and nourishing.
Once in an oyster he had found a pearl of quality, and so it came
that he was ever curious to learn what his shells might hold. Much we
derided him for his useless searching, but he made answer only that
there were many things yet to be learned, and the issue proved him
right. Among the shell-fish counted useless by us, because we found
them tasteless, were two kinds, each of spiral form and ending in a
rounded head, but one sort more rough and spinous than the other.
It was after breaking one of each sort of these twisted shells that
Malchus discovered a curious thing.
With a stone, Malchus cracked the shells apart upon a smooth rock where
he could observe them closely. That of one sort thus broken and the
creature within it shown, there appeared a shell-fish having a sort of
sac behind its head, this sac extending into a sort of vein traversing
the body, the whole filled with a liquid whitish in colour and having
the smell of garlic. This liquid chanced to gather in a tiny pool in
the surface of the rock and, even as Malchus studied it, wondering
what its use to the fish might be, it changed before his eyes, as the
air reached it, from yellow-white to green, then blue and red, then a
deep purple-red and, finally, to crimson, which last colour did not
pass away. In the shell of the rougher kind he found a creature with a
sac which showed also changing colours, though somewhat different of
shade. Much Malchus wondered and, at last, he sought a piece of linen
and dipped it in the liquid and found he had a cloth of brighter colour
than ever known before. He had discovered a wondrous dye! More of the
shell-fish were soon collected and there was much experiment with the
dyeing, for we all were full of interest now, and it was found, in the
end, that by first dyeing with the matter in the sac of the smoother
shell-fish, which was abundant on the rocks near shore, and later with
that from the rougher kind, which was found in deeper water, there was
gained a purple so royal and brilliant that no other in the world could
by any means compare with it. Dark and rich it was, like red blood
cooled, and, as it was shifted in the light, a blazing crimson. The
rocks and the sea-bottom were covered with myriads of these strange
shell-fish, which we caught with baited basket traps let down, and soon
our varied cloths gleamed with such hues as would command the desire of
all who might look upon them. A marvellous new thing had we for barter,
and in the end it brought great fortune, though not all of it remained
to Akko. There came a time when vast beds of the shell-fish, and of
even more productive quality, were found near swiftly expanding Tyre,
and great dyeing was done there, and trade came widely in the colouring
and its fabrics until priests, senators, emperors, and the great of all
the known world must garb themselves in Tyrian purple as most worthy
of their dignity. Surely never were a people’s fortunes so affected as
were ours by what might be deemed so small a thing as the juice in the
head of a sea creature!
But this discovery of the purple dye had but lately come and diverted
us only a little from a host of things of greater purport. Our boats
and our plans for our sea-roving as we might extend it, were what
absorbed us chiefly. Nowhere were better boats than those we had
already learned to build, but we were ever seeking their improvement,
since our fortunes were dependent upon them. Biremes, as our boats or
ships of the better sort were called, were better than those owned by
our fathers, not short and rounded and caulked with bitumen, as had
been the boats of only a little time before us, but longer and caulked
with tar, which we had learned to make, and, in our latest ventures,
double-decked so that the oarsmen could work below while their masters
were above them. Good ships were these, riding the rough seas well,
and much we prized them. Our only lack was in the oarsmen. We needed
galley-slaves, and had but few, and oftentimes the trader and his
people must needs take care to the oars themselves. As for me and my
companions in sea ventures, we had but two, dark creatures we had found
castaways upon a bare island some distance to the south, and certainly
of some poor tribe, for the broken canoe we found with them was
crude of form and by no means fitted for a sea trip. Blown away they
doubtless were from the great continent which bounded the sea on the
south, a land almost unknown to us, though we were somewhat acquainted
with the people, ancient almost as we, who dwelt on the shores of a
great river with many mouths which came into the sea not far from
its eastern end. Intelligent the captives proved, in a slow way, and
docile enough, though possessed of enormous appetites, which we must
gratify or else lose of their strength in the rowing, but which were
nevertheless somewhat of a burden on us. However, we hired them to the
husbandmen when not upon a voyage, and so regained a little of their
keeping cost. We were ever thrifty, we Phœnicians!
More slaves we must have certainly, and it had been resolved, not
only by us of the _Spearhead_--for so we had named our sharp-prowed
boat--but by others of the traders, that cruises must be made with
that end alone in mind, and it was considered that we might find what
we sought in some of the islands which lay beyond blue Yatnan, some
of them very small and having on them, very probably, so few people
that we might make our foray safely and bring away as many captives as
our ships would carry. For this we were to band together in a fleet
and join our forces in whatever conflict came, afterward dividing the
captives by lot or in any other way we might agree upon. It was while
preparations were making for this same expedition that happenings came
which greatly changed our plan and had a mighty bearing on our future
ways.
One of those who were to take part in the expedition was a most daring
and reckless captain having the name of Neco, who but a little before
this time had made a voyage to the southward and brought back with him
to Akko a cargo of hides, for among us were skilled tanners and cunning
workers in leather who supplied many things for our trading, and hides
were always desired by them. It so chanced that upon the return voyage
of Neco some of the hides which were green and like to spoil were
stretched between poles set upright on the deck of the vessel, and that
the wind from the south, bearing hardly upon them, pressed the boat
most swiftly homeward, the craft requiring only to be steered. And this
gave Neco a great thought, and he swore by Moloch that henceforth the
wind should serve him and that the labour of the rowing should be so
avoided. So vaunting was he in this that he declared that he would yet
reach Yatnan and thus return, and the marvel of it was that he did as
he had boasted, sailing one day when the wind blew strongly from the
east, and returning when it had shifted to the west. Now his pride
became overweening, and, having made a great sheet from broad strips of
linen sewed together, he spread it nailed between tall uprights and set
sail to the southward with a fierce rising wind behind him. His ship
disappeared amid the mist and spindrift and nevermore was seen of man.
The blast must have been too much for the fixed sail, and the vessel
must have buried itself beneath the waves which rolled high upon the
day which was the last of Neco.
It would seem as if the fate of this wild adventurer should have
brought pause to any who had thought to do even as he, and to call
upon the wind in aid in passage of the sea paths, but with me it was
not so. Eagerly had I noted the feats of Neco, and it had been borne
in upon me that there was a degree of wisdom in his madness. Even his
death, of which we became assured, brought me no fear. I, too, would
seek to learn what might be done to make the wind our servant, and
I set about this swiftly, being to my wonder well supported by both
Malchus and Aradnus, who sometimes showed less hardihood than I, but
who now, strangely enough, became as deeply lost in this dream of a new
conquest for the toilers of the sea. We devised a curious plan whereby
we thought we might try the issue with less risk of our lives than had
been faced by Neco.
We knew that the greater danger from the wind was that the boat might
capsize in a storm, and our first care was to avoid this risk as best
we might, though we were resolved to test these dreaded sea-blasts
to the utmost. Truly we were half mad, but the zest of the thing had
grown upon us. If the risk were great, the stake was great as well, and
we fell together under some sort of spell of joyous madness over the
prospect of we knew not what. And this was our crafty plan!
[Illustration: “I, too, would seek to learn what might be done to make
the wind our servant”]
Often when ships laden with timber had been cast upon the rocks and
crushed, those in dire peril had escaped by lashing together as
many of the floating beams as they could, making a raft which would
not easily overturn, and so drifting by good fortune to some place of
safe landing. Our ship, so we devised, should be a raft; yet more than
that; it should be a sort of boat as well, but one unsinkable, and thus
we built it, working long with our two slaves, and hewing and spiking
the seasoned cedar timbers, of which there was a great store at hand
for purchase and of which we owned a part. For many days we hewed and
shaped and fashioned until we had a great raft some thirty forearm
cubits long, more than seven times the length of a tall man, and more
than half its length in width. Of double depth were the dried timbers
and so mortised and interset and spiked together that the whole was as
one great piece of wood not to be torn apart by the mightiest seas.
Caulked it was, though needlessly, for we knew that the water would
often come aboard, and all about the sides was raised a stout timbered
wall of the height of a man and having many openings at its bottom
that the water might escape and we might walk dry shod when seas were
calm. So much we allowed the strange craft the nature of a boat that
it was tapered to a prow at either end and, furthermore, was hewn so
that each prow swept upward from beneath, that the boat might rise on
any sloping shore. At each end provision was made for a long steering
oar such as we used on the biremes. Upon either side, amidships, was
erected a stout mast between which the broad sail of strongest linen
was stretched flatly, and in the centre was a shorter mast to which
were bound many things which were to form our cargo. There were other
short posts as well, placed here and there to serve a like purpose.
We carried our arms and much food, and many lashed casks of water we
provided, and certain chests of trinkets and some of more worthy things
to barter; for we could not guess what might be our landing-place
should our plans fail. It was decided to attempt the voyage to Yatnan
and thence homeward as our first venture. So, one afternoon when the
sun shone most fairly and the wind was from the east, we cast off the
long mooring-rope and were blown gently away to sea, while half of Akko
stood looking upon us curiously or jeering at our uncouth vessel.
We were steering for Yatnan, as we thought, but many are the things in
the laps of the gods.
Like how many things is the sea! It is like a woman, soft and smiling
and caressing, at least upon the surface; it is like a stallion pawing
and tossing his white mane; it is like a green forest bending and
heaving before the wind; it is like an unbounded sheet of shimmering,
supple glass, supine beneath a calm; and, at last, it is like a herd
of wild beasts, roaring and hungry and devouring. Let none count our
Mediterranean as harmless as compared with the mighty western ocean.
The leopard is more treacherous than the lion! Much we knew already of
the changing sea, but much more were we to learn!
The eastern wind, still strong and even, bore us steadily, though far
from swiftly, away from our own coast until the shore line became dim,
and, since it was so squarely astern of us, we found no difficulty in
steering straight for Yatnan. Even with our laggard movement we should
reach the island by daybreak, and this sailing seemed, in sooth, an
easy matter. My companions laughed and jested, and the two slaves,
relieved of all rowing, were agrin and happy. Then the breeze abated
somewhat and the wind began veering here and there, and the raft-ship
lost something of its headway, while the oar with which I myself was
steering became more and more an ineffective thing. Most irresponsive
to guidance was yet our new ship upon which we had so laboured in the
building. There arose a little black cloud in the far northwest, and,
somehow, I liked it not. I wished for the bireme!
At last the breeze died away altogether and we lay there rocked as
gently as a first-born by its mother. The little cloud in the northwest
was becoming somewhat too lusty for my taste, but as yet there was
no sign of really dangerous weather. So we swung and swayed until
the sun was low down in the west, and then the lightness changed to
something more sombre very quickly, for the cloud had extended itself
ambitiously, and the sun’s last slanting rays we failed to get. The
breeze, too, had returned, coming this time from the north and having
a greater and increasing vigour to it. The raft began to act with
even less obedience to the steering oar, strain I ever so hardly, for
the sail now took the wind endwise alone, and this could not avail.
Not long did this continue. The waves had begun to rise, though by no
means roughly, and the end of the vessel where I laboured was caught
and twirled by one of them so smartly that it lay in a new way, and in
a moment the wind had caught a hold upon the sail again and we were
turned fairly about and headed for the south, stern foremost, if,
indeed, we might be said to have a stern, since the ends of the craft
were alike in every way. We had but one resource. The steering oar
was shifted from what had been the stern to the end now made so, and
we were sailing again, with oaths or prayers in our mouths according
to the impulse of each. My own mood was not greatly either for oath or
prayer now. As the uncouth sail filled or tautened and the boat leaped
forward as clumsily as it did strenuously, the wild, fierce sense of
abandon and utter daring came back upon me in a wave and I whooped
aloud in zest of it, my comrades catching the wild unction and yelling
as loudly in the same headstrong spirit. Often since have I thought
of that audacious moment and wondered if such lifted moods might not
be sometimes but the flaming out of a new man and a greater one, to
make the most of dangerous opportunity? Have not the best deeds been
often but the issue of an outbreak, foolhardy and desperate it may have
seemed, of some strong man inspired by that for which he could give no
reason? And, launched into some course of hazard, has not man often
been so sustained throughout it that he has won his way, laughing or
cursing at every jeopardy, until he has accomplished that which was
good for him and for his kind as well? Truly the gods have curious ways!
So drove we southward half through the night, when again the wind
changed, this time carrying us to the westward, though so gradually
that Malchus, who had replaced me at the oar while I lay sleeping, held
it so skilfully and firmly that the stern was still the stern, with
which feat he was much delighted. With the morning the sun was shining
again, though the wind had not abated.
All day we ran westward upon that sea of low-rolling waves, a sea so
smooth that no water came over our boarded sides, and farther and
farther we were carried from land or means of succour in any greater
peril, but I lost none of my heedless ardour nor did either of my
companions fail me. Especially was I delighted with the usually silent
and thoughtful Aradnus, who, strangely enough, seemed to enter most
fully and delightedly into the spirit of the trying of the sail.
“It is well,” he shouted to me, as the thing bellied as far as it might
before the wind, and the foam arose a little beneath our low prow. “We
are getting much wisdom, and more is coming to us! Mark what it does!”
And well indeed marked I that sail. I did naught but study it and note
its tremendous promise, and its failings and its menace. As I studied,
there came to me slowly a new perception. Why were we so helplessly
at the mercy of this spread of linen when the wind blew? Why had we
stretched it thus immovably across our raft-ship? As I looked upon
it there came such comprehension as made me laugh at myself in sheer
derision. Man, not the sail, should be the master, and there must be a
way to make it so!
This I had noticed, that when the wind changed but a little, and so
smote the sail somewhat aslant, the raft still held by the steering
oar, kept straightly on its course, but when the shift was greater,
so that the pressure came more nearly abeam, there ensued a sudden
stoppage and we washed about unsteerable until there came another
change. This, then, I had learned, that it was not necessary that the
wind should bear squarely on the sail, but that a slanting pressure
would do almost as well and still allow us to direct our course. Then,
why not have the sail so that we could get such pressure at all times
if we willed and so have ever steerage-way? Much I pondered upon this
and at last I perceived what I thought might be the remedy.
I have not yet told, save generally, of what we had on board lashed
to the many posts, for there had been abundant room and I had made
provision for many things. There was one long chest in which I had
placed, besides our weapons, a goodly number of tools such as we
sailors used, with the thought that, should we be cast ashore, we could
build shelters for ourselves, and glad I was now that I had been so
provident. More time we would not waste before I had carried out my new
design, and so I explained its nature to the others, who comprehended
what I had in mind and who at once began the labour with me.
The two masts to which the sail was nailed were set deeply in holes
mortised squarely through the timber on either side, but, though
tightly, not so that they might not be lifted out by the heaving of
good men. Now we took chisels and hammers from the long chest and began
the making of similar square holes in a great circle amidships, the
diameter of which was the width of the broad sail. It was a task which
took us long, but the sea was calm, the chisels sharp and the hammers
heavy, and it was done at last. Just as we had the task completed it
chanced that the wind shifted so that it came squarely over one of our
sides and left us wallowing again. It was not for long. We strainingly
lifted the two masts from their sockets and so replaced them in the
new receptacles that the wind, though coming over our side, struck
them obliquely and thus again propelled us while the helm oar kept us
straightly upon our course. It was a revelation. The sail was being,
for the first time, tamed! But there was more to come, and that at once.
I sat upon one of the chests after our first moment of jubilation and
watched with pride the issue of the conquest we had made, when there
came to me a new idea beside which the first, so carried out, seemed
only a beginning! We were ploughing merrily westward now, but westward
it was not my wish to go. If, now, the wind, coming from one side of
us and pushing upon our sail obliquely could so carry us, as it were,
athwart its course, why could it not, in the same way, take us to the
eastward, were the sail turned so that the pressure of the wind would
press in the opposite direction? I leaped to my feet shoutingly and
told of what I had conceived, and forthwith we acted. The masts, or,
rather, one of them, was raised and so shifted that when it was planted
the sail took the wind upon the other side, and at once we lost headway
quiveringly, and soon were sailing eastward! Truly it was a great day
in the history of sailing, and one of vast moment to all traders and
sea-rovers!
Of where we were, save that we were far from land, I had slight
knowledge. Full half the way across the sea we must have come, for the
north wind had been a strong one while it prevailed and had hurried us
for many a league despite the heaviness of our sailing. The westward
course, as well, had been with a southward trend and it seemed to me
that it were much easier to find a port on the African shore than
otherwise. But what manner of port might await us in that strange
region? Most barbarous tribes, so the Egyptians had told, inhabited
the long reaches of sandy or rocky coast, and luckless were those who
landed there. I had no plan we were undetermined of mind as the gulls
which swept about us, but land of some sort all men who eat and drink
must some time find or perish, and we were not equipped for very long.
I counselled with Malchus and Aradnus and, in the end, we acted not
unwisely, as the event proved, though there was much to come between.
Somewhat we knew of the Egyptians, for between their land and that by
the Euphrates there had been a little trade, vast as was the distance
to be traversed, including the passage of the strait between the seas,
and we knew them as advanced in ways of learning and as generally
peaceful. They were unlikely to set upon such weak adventurers as we
and of a race which they knew. So it was decided that we should bear to
the southeastward straightly as we might and seek one of the mouths of
the great river which we call the Nile.
The wind held as it was, and slowly, though steadily, we moved toward
the east all through the afternoon of this day when I had devised the
shifting of the sail, and toward nightfall at a swifter rate, for the
sky was now becoming overcast and the wind was rising. Soon there were
mounting waves, and the raft-ship, as I have called it for want of a
better name, began to rise and fall in its now more hurried progress
and to occasionally dip its prow into the sea and take aboard much
water, which did not harm us, since it at once washed out again. We
would have been content with this mood of the wind and sea had it but
remained the same, but that was not to be. The storm-god was abroad
that night, and drunken!
There be certain men among us Phœnicians who have great gift of words
such as I have not, and who can write most eloquently--for we have
letters and learning which other peoples lack--some one of whom might,
it may be, have described fittingly the storm of that dread night had
he but been aboard our raft and had not died of fright, but much I
doubt it. There is not stylus to trace the tale of such storm as that
in letters! Whereas at the beginning I longed for our staunch bireme
beneath our feet, yet long before the morning I thanked the gods that
we were lashed firmly to the posts upon our strange new vessel. What a
sea-mew proved our riding craft that night!
The wind became a gale, and the gale a most tremendous one. Each man
of us was firmly lashed to a stout post, else we would have been
inevitably lost. Down one great wave we rode or up or through another,
and that we did not drown was only that between the billows we had a
chance to gasp for breath. For hours we were thus hurled forward, and
when, toward morning, the storm somewhat abated, the change came none
too soon, for we were spent to the verge of certain death. Now the
raft riding naturally so lightly and so easily, no longer buried its
low prow in the oncoming surge, and we could at least breathe steadily
again. The worst was over, yet by no means all the trial, though we had
no fear. Our wondrous raft had shown its worth in that it could not
sink nor capsize. What more could reckless adventurers ask? Still we
climbed the towering waves and still rode down them, rushing to the
southeast, but we feared now less the water than the land. It was not
a proper sea in which to find a threatening coast. Very narrow was the
slant of canvas we now allowed to catch the wind, though to shift the
sail with such foothold as that uptilting or descending deck afforded
was a feat of catlike merit.
Exhausted, we slept by turns, as best we might, still lashed for
safety’s sake; and when, at noon, I was aroused by Malchus I looked
with pleasure out upon a sea which was not threatening. More, too, I
saw. To the southeast appeared afar a blue haze which, as we sailed,
revealed itself as a low-lying coast, and, furthermore, a coast
revealing the mouth of a broad river, one which could be nothing else
than one of the outlets of the mighty Nile! I could not be mistaken,
and for that mouth we steered. Our fortune had brought us as fairly to
our aim as if our course had been directed by the nicest seamanship!
The river entered the sea through the lowlands made by the silt of
countless ages, and, for a league at least, we sailed up the deep
stream between flat marshland. Gradually the banks became higher and
palms showed in the distance, and at last we moved slowly up toward
a place where were trees on the river’s western side, and there we
contrived to land, one of the slaves swimming ashore with a rope by
which we hauled in our raft, mooring it stoutly by other ropes tied
to our posts. Far up the river we could perceive buildings of stone,
and I knew it for a port of some importance of which I had been often
told. The slaves we left to guard our vessel, knowing they would not
venture to desert us in this strange land, and then we three--Aradnus,
Malchus, and I--after having washed ourselves and donned fresh array
from our scantily filled chest, fared forth to learn what Egypt should
prove to us. We had no fears, because these were a people civilized,
even as we, though not such daring wanderers. Already, through many
centuries, had the sun shone on the great cities of the Nile, and the
climax of the power of Egypt’s rulers was nearly at its zenith now. We
reached the city, not a great one like Thebes, Memphis, or other cities
of the upper river, but a prosperous out-lying port with promise of
future trading for us.
There were many people in the streets, but we had not thought of
recognition. Ever comes the unexpected. Conceive then how surprised I
was to hear a call to us in the Phœnician language, as there advanced
to me a swarthy man of middle age, a man of good appearance, who spoke
smilingly:
“Welcome, Phœnician! Whence came you here?”
I could not understand, yet all was simple. The merchant, for such
he was, explained to me that he had for years gone with the caravan
to Babylonia, and had so in time acquired the Phœnician language.
He declared also that he could at once distinguish a Phœnician by
his appearance, which was, however, no marvellous thing, since the
Phœnician face was racially distinct, and since we had traits of garb,
trifling, it is true, but sufficient to make us somewhat apart in dress
as in complexion and demeanour. There was much talk between us and,
when we had done, it seemed to me as if that which could not be had
taken place.
Here were I and my companions, who but a few hours ago were tossing
about in a wild venture upon an unknown sort of craft, facing death
in raging waves and doubtful of our future and our fortunes, now in
peaceful harbourage, and, more than that, in a fair way to attain such
ends as would enrich us and our people in the future. The merchant had
promised much, and it was borne in upon me that he spoke honestly.
At this port of Egypt, he said, there were not he alone, but various
other merchants who would gladly trade with us Phœnicians; that they
had learned of our occupation of the new land and of our prosperity and
that they well knew of our ways of trading along strange coasts, so
bringing to its market many wares which could not otherwise be gained.
Readily would they deal with us and buy of us such things as would add
to the merchandise transported by their caravans either up the great
Nile to Memphis and to ancient Luxor and other places, or else would be
taken with the rarer caravans to the rich marts of the cities of the
Euphrates. What a prospect was this for us in Phœnicia, who were now
seeking such broader ways of traffic! Gladly I assured the merchant of
our constant future sailing with goods for Egypt, and so it soon came
that I and my companions, through this helpful first acquaintance, met
other merchants and made divers business pledges to them for the time
to come. And one business of much profit and great promise came on the
moment.
I have said that our sore need in Phœnicia was of more galley slaves,
that we might be equipped for the trade we should soon command. Of this
I spoke to the merchant, Thomes, he whom I had first met, and from him
learned that he and his friends could furnish me sturdy slaves at such
price as made foolish long voyages to gain them, such as we in Phœnicia
had in contemplation. Gold we had with us, for I had counselled with my
companions that we bring with us such of our wealth as we could carry,
and we had it bestowed in belts about our bodies. Upon this store we
now drew and therewith purchased twenty lusty slaves at a price which
seemed to us but half, and forthwith bestowed them upon our boat and
there provided them with subsistence while we awaited the time of our
departure some days hence, for I had certain thoughts in mind which
were of import. I had more to do with the sail!
Ever, when not engaged in the trading or informing ourselves in such
things as might serve us in the future of the ways of these Egyptians,
were we considering how the sail might be made a greater thing, and
how a portion of the huge labour of its shifting might be avoided, or
made more easy; and from these debates and from many earnest hours of
puzzling and deep thinking, came at last some birth from my poor head.
Our trading--for we bought certain Egyptian goods for sale in Akko--and
our communing with the merchants ended, we left the port and set up
tents on the shore beside our vessel and there began the labour which
must follow my new thought concerning the handling of the sail and
making it more subservient to swift occasion.
The labour had been great of moving the masts about upon our deck, and
this labour it now came to me was needless, for by means of a single
mast the sail could much more easily be shifted. And this, with much
shrewd counsel from Aradnus, was what I now devised.
First, we raised amidship, though a little toward the bow, a single
sturdy mast, and next we stretched the sail upon a strong frame, which
frame was hung upon the mast, securely held by encircling thongs
supported on outstanding pegs and so sustained that it might be swung
in all directions, hanging thus firmly and flatly. To the middle of
this frame at either side were attached long ropes to be pulled from
the deck by the slaves, thus giving us the power to slant or hold the
sail in any way the wind might call for. It was but a rude device--much
better way did we later find for the sail-shifting--but it served us
very well. I was resolved to return to Akko in our strange ship, though
the merchants made ready proffer of one of their great rowing vessels
to carry us by oars alone along the great stretch of coast. This would
not serve us. Our slaves must be trained to the rowing, and so I had
provided oars and the fastening oar thongs and seats along each side of
our vessel. We might thus make our tedious way by oars alone, but we
would not. The sail must have its further testing, and its control must
be learned by all of us. Henceforth we must be sailors!
What need to tell the story of that grand voyage! The sail served well,
though truly not as it came to serve us a little later, and the new
slaves had learned their oarsmanship before we came into the bay of
Akko. What need, either, to tell of the manner of our reception by our
citizens? There was no longer scoffing, and when our tale was known
to all there came excitement among all the captains concerning the
trade with Egypt and there were made preparations for many sailings.
As for us, we moved both mast and slaves to our bireme and prepared
for much adventure. Soon, too, the other biremes, as well as vessels
of lighter sort, were bearing sails, and, though crews were lost at
first through too great recklessness in time of storm or through great
ignorance, yet the age of long voyages by rowing had passed forever.
Both I and my companions throve and, after some profitable trade with
Egypt in glorious purple fabrics and in other things, and when we had
builded another and greater vessel, a trireme, requiring many galley
slaves, there came to each of us who had once faced the danger of the
sea together a desire for new adventure and, it might be, graver peril.
The lust of far roving had come upon us, and we would not be denied!
We loaded the trireme with many goods and an abundance of arms and
thus set sail to the west and north, for we would explore the shores
of the vast continent there lying and harbouring, as we knew, a host
of many different peoples, how barbarous we could not tell. We knew,
though, that they had no boats with sails, and that we could flee that
which we could not face. No man aboard but was gleaming of face when
the _Seeker_, with white sail outspread and not a single oar outthrust,
save those for steering, swept bravely from the harbour.
Never was voyage more curiously doubtful from day to day than this,
and never one to prove more the index of vast happenings in the
future, though that we could not know. We sailed at first discreetly,
for we had some knowledge from the people of Yatnan concerning those
of the islands beyond them, and with these we did not wish to have
acquaintance at this time, for they had no cities nor any goods of
value. It was the continent upon which we placed our hopes, for there
were legends of ancient kingdoms there, and of peoples living upon
the shores of the far western sea who were as old and as wise as any
in the world, and owned fair cities and much riches. I may, even now,
tell that we found none of these, yet there still exists the tale of
an ancient country beyond the westward strait between the sea and the
ocean, and which tells of how the ancient land, Atlantis, was swallowed
by the waves. Of all this I know nothing, and doubt if it is known of
any man.
So we skirted the many islands west of Yatnan and the mainland reaching
down among them, and laid our course more straightly northward, soon
to find ourselves in a long and narrow sea branching far upward from
our own beside a long peninsula shaped like a boot. A great distance up
this sea’s eastern shore we sailed, passing mostly rocky coasts, and
rounding its far extremity and returning upon the western shore, where
we found life indeed, but life of an almost savage sort. There came to
the beach to meet us when we made a landing a band of scores of people,
men and women, clad in skins and most abundantly tattooed in strange
designs. Yet were not these people altogether savage and they were
peacefully inclined. They had little for which we cared to barter even
trinkets, and so we left them. Then came another sort of sailing and it
was well for us that we were most skilful seamen now, for surely the
voyage had its perils.
Westward, rounding the tip of the great boot of the peninsula, we
turned, and entered a passage between it and a big island upon which a
huge volcano was vomiting its fire and smoke. Here all our skill and
courage found their test, for more desperate and dangerous passage
could not be than that between the island and the mainland: fierce,
treacherous currents threatening to cast us upon terrifying rocks on
one side or the other. Very content were we when we came into the
open sea again and laid our course upward along the western shore of
this great boot. It proved a pleasant land enough, though we passed
another huge volcano in eruption and rearing its sombre plume high in
the heavens; and on making landing we found a people made up chiefly
of villages of harmless fishermen whom we liked well, but who had as
little to barter as those upon the other shore. So we voyaged still
farther northward, and entered a river, up which we sailed but a league
or two, seeking the reason for a smoke which arose there and which,
we thought, might betoken some home of man. We were not mistaken.
There were men and women there, lusty and vigorous, of two tribes in
alliance and occupying a straggling double village scattered over seven
close-grouped hills, through which the river ran. Here we lingered for
several days, learning much of the people of this village--Roma, as
they called it,--and of the ways of those who lived in it. They were a
rugged people, most full of enterprise, and chiefly engaged, it seemed,
in raiding the tribes about them. With us they became upon good terms
and we made trade for such tremendous store of wolfskins as must make
our voyage profitable. Little we could divine that in centuries to come
Phœnicians should find here one of their greatest markets, and that
Sidonian broidery should bedeck the robes of Roma’s fair women and
Tyrian purple band the togas of senators and nobles and of emperors.
We sailed away well satisfied. Not much farther did we make this
voyage reach, though sailing a day or two westward toward the strait
leading to the unknown ocean, and finding naught to induce a landing.
Then straight toward Akko we laid our course, conveying with us to our
people new knowledge and many worthy wolfskins!
No more need I tell of our increasing trade of far-flung sails.
Phœnicia was growing in prosperity as never land had grown before.
Yatnan had become Phœnician and we worked its copper mines, and had a
temple in its city, Paphos; the fame of Tyre and Sidon was extending
throughout the lands of Egypt and the Euphrates, and our ships and
caravans carried such wares as might tempt all peoples. As for we
three, Aradnus, Malchus, and I, we were now among Phœnicia’s richest
men. Of the rest, it appertains chiefly to me alone, and is not as I
would have it!
Of Elissa, fairest of Paphian women, I have no complaint to make. The
gods will judge her, but not the gods whose nostrils fed upon the
sacrifice. There was none like unto her in all the Yatnan city, and we
inclined to each other, and, after much earnest wooing, she became my
wife. Proud I was and prouder still when she bore me a son, lusty and
comely, who soon had twined his little fingers round my heartstrings
and whom, after the way of doting fathers, I deemed the fairest child
in all the world. They were golden days which followed, until I sailed
away again upon a voyage--and then came Baal!
Of the religion of the Phœnicians I have not yet spoken, and only in
rage or shame may one tell of its quality. Of its origin I know nothing
save that the great Baal, or Moloch, as one with him, was as the
creating and yet burning and destroying sun, and that he must have his
worship and his sacrifices. Lightly was this religion held by such as I
and the other sea-rovers, in whose faces blew the pure winds of the sea
and who had seen and who knew of things beyond wild superstitions, but
with the people of the cities and the fierce, unknowing rabble this was
not so, and they were under the dominion of priests as bloody-minded
and full of frenzy as the savage cannibal creatures who dwelt in
distant places. At this time, too, the worship had grown up into an
idolatry of the most wanton and abandoned character, and celebrations
were made common, ending in wild lascivious orgies wherein men ceased
to be men and women no longer women, and wherein, as a beginning,
there was burnt great quantities of incense, and bulls and horses were
sacrificed in honour of the god, and finally--the horror of it--little
children were given to the flames!
The image of Moloch in the temple was a beastly human figure of metal,
with a huge bull’s head and outreaching, receiving arms. In the
grossly protruding belly of the monster was a door through which a
fire was built within him, that children laid in his arms might roll
thence into the red consuming furnace beneath! What strange madness
of faith may have misled and impelled them in their superstition who
may describe, but, incredible indeed, there were those who thus gave
up their children willingly, even the first-born and the only one! If
it cried, the mother would fondle and kiss the child--for the victim
must not weep--and the pitiful sound would be drowned in the clamour of
flutes and kettle-drums. Silent and unmoved must the mother stand, for
if she wept or sobbed she lost the honour of the act and its reward,
and the child was sacrificed, notwithstanding! Could there have been
no other and stronger and more merciful gods, and where were they when
such things came to pass? But of these horrors I must not take account.
I avoided them, and we lived our happy life remote, my wife and child
and I. I went to sea content, and eager only for swift trade and swift
return. Scarce knew I even of the existence of Phalos, the dark-visaged
high priest of Moloch.
How it came about it was fated I should never know, but I can dimly
reason. Ever, since religion began, have the priests of every faith
used woman, credulous, yielding, and fatuous, as the chief instrument
for promotion of their sinister dominion. Gentle and faithful was my
Elissa, but somewhat inclined to dreaminess and observing the prayers
to the gods, though partaking in none of the rites of the fanatics.
Most resolute she was, too, when a matter became fixed in her mind,
though to me she always yielded. Yet in the body of this fair and
gentle creature might lie, ready for distorted moulding, the soul of a
new zealot, deadly and sacrificing. Alas for me!
Most profitable had been my voyage, the winds were with me on the
return, and I was full of the joy of the thought of the welcome which
awaited me, when, one afternoon, a sail showed far in our front and
swiftly nearing us, which I soon recognized as that of Marinus, captain
and trader like myself and one of my closest and most sturdy friends.
Soon he made signals that we should check our course, and then was
rowed aboard us. His aspect was black and ominous.
“Strain every sail!” was all he said when first he spoke.
Then came the hideous story! How or when he knew not, but my wife had
passed under the grim spell of the priesthood, especially under that of
Phalos, the high priest, a man overbearing and ruthless and ambitious.
Counting on my absence, and of the force which might be raised to
face me and my allies on my return, my only one, the man-child of my
heart, was to be made a sacrifice to Moloch on the morrow, and so the
too truculent and irreligious captains be taught, through me, a needed
lesson! Swiftly as he might, Marinus, trusty friend, had put to sea to
warn me, and now he would sail back with me to aid me in what might
come.
I answered not. I could but grasp his hand. At last my voice came and
then but broke forth in a bellow to spread every sail and man every oar
and drive forward the ship as never ship was driven before! How they
sprang to do my will! What look of deadly import came upon the faces of
Malchus and Aradnus! Marinus departed for his own ship, to follow in
our course.
What sudden freedom and happiness must not madness sometimes bring! How
good to change, relieved from agony of mind, into unknowing, babbling
forgetfulness! But no kindly madness came to me in those long hours
when the ship, though so forced upon her way that Marinus was left
behind, yet seemed to me to only creep along the hindering waves. So
passed the long night; sullenly through it all I could hold converse
with none, though my companions would comfort me in my affliction
and so sought, in vain. With morning the wind still held us, and with
mid-afternoon we entered the harbour of fair Paphos. Even as we swung
inward a boat darted forth from the land bringing a messenger from
another of the captains--for my vessel had been awaited by my friends
as Marinus had arranged. Then fell the blow! Now, even now, the rites
in the great temple were in progress and my child about to be offered
as the sacrifice!
Then, with need so ghastly, the better gods gave back my reasoning
strength. We would invade the temple and would make a rescue, if it
were within the power of man. I took swift and stern command anew.
I would lead with Malchus and Aradnus next and a portion of my crew
as well, the others remaining to hold the ship in instant readiness
for sailing. It was the counsel of the wise Aradnus that, should the
child be saved, we should sail at once for Egypt, where were a host of
friends, and where priests of Baal had sometimes been flayed alive.
I looked upon my brown-faced crew and knew that I could trust them,
even the sun-burnt galley slaves. How many times had all these ranged
dangerously beside me in times of struggle with the savages! I took
from my weapon chest a certain Assyrian axe I cherished, short-hafted
but broad and keen of edge and heavy. I kissed the axe and laid it
against my cheek and then thrust it in the bosom of my tunic. We landed
swiftly and rushed toward the temple. Vast was the throng about the
structure, and inside I knew must be as dense, save for the great open
space before the place of sacrifice. Wedge-shaped we struck the heaving
mass and drove through it as wild boars through reeds, straight past
the entrance, even to the inner circle of the mad worshippers, and,
as I leaped clear of them, my eyes were smitten with the whole dread
picture! There, before the altar and the beastly red-heated image of
the leering god, side by side stood Elissa and Phalos, the grim high
priest, he stern in his power so manifested, she proud and erect as
she passed my child into his waiting hands. How a blasting picture can
transform a man!
In all the world of living men there was not another then so strong
as I; in all the wastes and desert places of the vast forests there
was not a wild beast more ferocious; in all the earth or in the
heavens above there was no being with more swift and certain mission!
I bounded across the space between us, leaping to Phalos even as he
took the child and was about to face the grinning idol, and then, as
he turned at my hoarse shout and our eyes met glaringly, I drove that
Assyrian axe down through that head, down through that crafty brain,
down sheer between the hating eyes, and, as I caught the child, he
fell crumplingly as any poled bull of one of his own sacrifices! I saw
but as an instant’s vision Elissa sink to earth in a white swoon, and
bounded with my child toward the entrance where the fray was raging,
while about and behind me rose first the groan and then the yell of
vengeance of the frenzied worshippers. Naught for the moment checked
me with my circling axe seeking more blood. I reached nearly to my
followers, so near to Aradnus that I tossed the child to him over the
intervening heads and had the joy of seeing him, upon my shout, bound
away with it toward our vessel and so preserve its safety. Nearer
and nearer to my own men I struggled, but I could not reach them. The
fierce guards of the priest were all about me now and a thousand of
the mob were crowding savagely behind them. I felt a spear thrust in
my side, and then another, and so went down most happily. My man-child
would become a man in Egypt!