THE FOOD SUPPLY.
The sun was well up the eastern sky when I awoke in the morning, so numb
and stiff that I could with difficulty unbury myself from the sand, the
weight of which had almost stopped the circulation in some parts of the
body. My clothing, which I had spread on the sand, had completely dried.
After some chafing and rubbing I dressed myself and felt more
comfortable than at any time since the loss of the sloop. The first
thing to do was to get something to eat. I walked to the brook, bathed
my face, and took a long drink of water, and began to be more and more
impressed with the fact that the diet was thin. There were a number of
cocoanut palms near by, growing within a few rods of the sea, and plenty
of nuts on them, as could be plainly seen. But though I searched the
ground with hungry glance I could find only one nut that had not been
operated on by the land crabs, which are able in an ingenious manner to
extract the contents through the three little eyes or holes in the
shell. This one nut, the exterior husk of which had not been disturbed,
I broke open by pounding it upon a rock, and found it to my bitter
disappointment blackened, rancid, and quite unfit for food.
I had noticed a flock of gulls, or some species of shore birds, wheeling
about and lighting and running on the beach near by. With a shotgun it
would have been an easy matter to creep near and bag half a dozen at a
shot. I watched them a little while and concluded that though it might
prove a tough and unpalatable dish I must have one, or starve. It would
be a good plan, I thought, to gather a dozen pebbles weighing three or
four ounces apiece and try the effect of a shot into the thick of the
flock from as near a point as I could reach. But as there would be no
chance for more than one trial, I determined to fire the stones in a
volley. To do this effectively I gathered some tough reeds and tied one
to each stone until I had half a dozen stones so provided. By swinging
these missiles at the end of the reeds they could be thrown a
considerable distance with great velocity.
Trembling with expectation and excitement, I crept down toward the
flock, keeping out of sight behind some rocks until I was as near as it
was possible to go, when I let fly my volley of improvised slung-shots
as well as I could direct them into the thickest of the birds. Running
forward immediately, I found two lying on the sand struggling. One was
hit squarely on the wing with a stone, and the other had a reed wound
once around its neck. I secured both and wrung their necks. The idea at
once occurred to me that the next time I had occasion to hunt gulls, I
would contrive a bolas by tying a stone to each end of a cord; it seemed
to me that this would prove even a more effectual instrument of
destruction than the sling volley, as it would be almost certain to
entangle one or more of the flock.
These birds were nearly as large as a guillemot, but of what species I
do not know. As I had no fire to cook with, I immediately ate one of
them raw. The other I cut into strips and shreds and laid them on a rock
in the hot sun to dry. The experience of eating a raw unseasoned gull
was such as to turn my thoughts forcibly to the necessity of some means
for procuring both fire and salt. The salt would not be difficult to
obtain, for if it could not be found somewhere along the shore or in the
salt marsh near by, it would not be difficult to make some sort of a
salt pan provided I could find clay or other impermeable soil with which
to confine a shallow pool of sea water somewhere in the sunshine. The
evaporation would speedily give the small quantity I should require.
In my vest pocket was a small metal match-box half full of matches, such
as every smoker carries. But on examination it proved, as might be
expected, that all the matches were wet and useless. Nevertheless when I
got back to the landing-place, I laid them carefully out in the sun on a
stone to dry, thinking that possibly one of them might be made to light.
I now turned my attention to the chest. This chest was one of four that
contained my baggage; but which one of the four, or what this particular
one contained, I could not conjecture. So I set about untying the rope
wound around it, and soon had it free. There was fully forty feet of
strong hempen halyard stuff in the line, and this in itself was a
possession of value. The bunch of keys in my pocket enabled me without
trouble to open the lock. When I raised the lid I found to my bitter
disappointment that the chest contained those articles which would be of
least value to me under the present circumstances. The contents
consisted chiefly of books, stationery, sketching appliances, drawing
tools and materials, and a photographic camera and outfit. Everything
was, of course, soaked with water, and I hardly had the heart to take
the things out to dry. The books and paper, as well as the photographic
plates, were in a sad condition. The bellows of the camera came to
pieces. I spread out the contents of the chest on the hot sand to dry,
putting stones on such things as might blow away when they became
dried. The lens of the camera I unscrewed, intending to use it as a
burning-glass to start a fire, so that there might be no further need to
eat raw gull. The burning-glass, which was of priceless value to me, and
the rope were practically all the chest yielded that could be put to
use, as I then supposed. The chest itself would of course be useful to
me.
Eager to try the burning-glass, I collected some dry branches, leaves,
and other fuel. In a ball or nest of dry grass, of the size of my two
fists, I placed a little bunch of silky seed fibres collected from a
weed. Upon this fibre I brought to bear the focus of the lens,
concentrating the sun’s rays to an intense white spot, which almost
immediately began to smoke with the heat. Presently the material
commenced to burn, and I whirled the ball rapidly around through the
air, whereupon the whole burst into a flame, which being placed among
the fuel was speedily a roaring fire. In this manner I obtained fire as
long as I remained on the island. As a mere matter of curiosity I tried
some of the matches which had been laid out so carefully to dry, but, as
might have been expected, not a single one would light. It was very
fortunate, therefore, that I had the lens, as otherwise I should have
been reduced to the necessity of rubbing sticks together in the manner
of the savages, and probably without being able to get fire as they are
said to do. Of course I did not need the fire to keep me warm, for the
air was excessively hot. But it seemed so like a new-found friend that I
built it high, and when there was a mass of embers, carefully covered
them with sand and ashes that they might last and be ready for future
use.
It was now nearly noon and my stomach became more clamorous than ever. I
therefore cooked and ate the flesh of the other gull, which had been
laid on the rocks to be cured. Although the flies had begun to attack
the meat, it was, as yet, in no wise tainted, nor very dry. By dipping
the pieces into the sea water I gave it, as I fancied, a perceptible
flavor of salt. At any rate, though tough and a little rank in flavor,
it tasted good enough and my only regret was that there was not more of
it. I could perceive the gulls in great numbers flying about out at sea,
but none on the shore, and concluded that they came to the land only at
certain stages of the tide,--probably at low tide, when their food would
be exposed.
Determined to lay in a store of provisions, I next turned my attention
to the cocoanut palms and made another search for fallen nuts, but
without any success, though I sought the whole length of the beach
beneath the trees. It became quite evident that to get the nuts I should
have to climb for them. As the nut-bearing trees were from fifty to
seventy-five feet high, without a branch on their cylindrical stems from
the base up to the feathery crown, the climb was likely to prove a
difficult if not a dangerous task. However, selecting a palm with plenty
of nuts on it, I made the attempt to “shin”--as the sailors call it,--up
the stem. It was hard work, and the heat was so oppressive that I had to
stop several times and rest on the way up and was very glad when I found
myself at the top. I broke off and threw down a score of the nuts in all
stages of ripeness, and then descended in safety.
The fruit of the cocoanut palm grows in clusters of a dozen to twenty
nuts in each bunch, which hang immediately under the crown of leaves.
Upon the trees they by no means present the globular hard-shelled
appearance which is familiar to our eyes. Each nut is encased in a thick
fibrous rind or husk; exteriorly this husk is of a sub-triangular form,
about twelve inches long and six inches broad. Of the fibre of this
exterior husk the well-known cocoanut matting is made, and also the
coarse yarn called cöir; it is also used for cordage.
I carried the nuts to a shady place and stripped off the husk by means
of a pointed piece of rock set upright in the ground. The smaller ones
not yet entirely ripe were full of a sweet liquid, and the meat was soft
enough to have been scooped out with a spoon; the older ones were also
very good, not nearly so dry and hard as we find them in our northern
markets. For the first time since the shipwreck I ate until my hunger
was fully appeased. What the result of a long-continued diet upon such
food would be I could not of course forecast, but it seemed probable
that I need not starve while the nuts were plentiful. Those which were
left from this meal I carried to the landing-place and laid them on the
chest, where the land crabs would probably not get at them.
With this ample supply of food, presumably nutritious and certainly
quite palatable, my anxiety was greatly relieved. Animal food I could
probably obtain from time to time as the island appeared to abound with
birds of various kinds, if I could have time to contrive some method of
ensnaring or killing them. Then too there were doubtless fish to be
caught, and probably turtle. In some of the islands, I knew, there were
wild pigs, as it was a common thing for the people of Martinique to come
to these small isolated islands on pig-hunting expeditions. I sincerely
hoped that these animals might be found on Key Seven; for I felt quite
confident of my ability to think of some plan for killing or capturing
them. But there was no immediate need to go fishing or hunting for birds
or pigs.
I determined to find, if possible, some means of getting a supply of
salt before I sought for flesh food of any kind. With this end in view,
as the afternoon was still young, I began looking about for a suitable
place to serve as a salt pan. I walked along the beach for a mile each
way, but could find no suitable spot. The requirements were a shallow
basin near the sea, with the bottom impervious to water, which should
hold in a shallow depth at least five or ten barrels of water. There was
plenty of rock of a coralline limestone variety, and an abundance of
shells; and the idea occurred to me that I might burn a supply of lime
and thus make a mortar or cement of slaked lime and sand. With this
material it would be possible to construct just above high-water mark
such a pan or cavity as I desired. If I used shells to make the lime,
there would probably be no need of erecting a kiln, as heat enough could
be attained in a large open fire, by building it of several alternate
layers of dry wood and shells.
I immediately set about collecting shells with which the beach was most
plentifully strewn in all directions. As I had nothing in which to carry
them, I adopted the expedient of throwing them one at a time into heaps.
This was very hard and fatiguing work, and it was four o’clock or later
in the afternoon before I had gathered into about twenty different heaps
the four or five bushels of shells which I thought enough for a burning.
It still remained for me to collect the scattered heaps together, and
gather the wood for fuel.
But it was high time now to stop work and prepare for the night. Some
sort of sleeping-place must be contrived in the two or three hours of
daylight that remained, for I had no fancy to try again the sort of
couch I had last slept in. I went to the stream and drank a good draught
of water, a welcome refreshment after my exertion in the hot sun. I then
gathered a quantity of dry grass for a bed and carried it down to the
sand near the landing-place, which seemed a sort of home to me, although
I had resolved speedily thereafter to move my property nearer to the
brook. The contents of the chest were now dry excepting the books, which
presented a sad appearance. I gathered all of these things together and
covered them up as well as I could with the focussing-cloth that
belonged to the camera, piling stones around the edge to secure it. The
empty chest I turned up on its side, hinges uppermost, and propped up
the lid in a nearly horizontal position. This would afford me shelter
for the upper portion of the body. Under the shelter thus improvised I
piled the dry grass for a couch, and my sleeping-place was ready. I then
gathered a fresh supply of fuel and built up a fire on the landward,
which would presently be the leeward side of my shelter.
By the time these arrangements were all complete, the sun was setting.
Tired out, I lay down and watched the fire, thinking over my situation
and planning what to do and how to do it. No doubt, sooner or later some
vessel would pass in sight or land on the island and take me off. It was
not as though I were on a remote or inaccessible place; the native
sloops and small vessels occasionally visited these islands for wood or
turtle, or on pig-hunting expeditions, and I fancied it would not be
long before an opportunity offered for my escape. In the meantime, while
thus a prisoner, be the time long or short, it would be necessary to
keep up my health and strength. For this purpose food and shelter were
necessary, and occupation, too, that I might not brood over my situation
and worry at the delay in my plans. There was likely to be plenty of
occupation, however, in providing myself with the bare necessities of
life. If there should be any spare time on my hands I would devote it
to the construction of a boat, a raft, or a vessel of some other sort,
with which to get away. But with only a pocket knife how could I expect
ever to build a boat capable of navigating more than a hundred miles of
sea? How could I carry fresh water enough to last during the voyage?
These problems were indeed difficult of solution. I ran over in my mind,
as far as I could recollect them, all the different kinds of boats,
canoes, kayaks, etc., known to primitive man. There was the ancient
coracle, used by the old Britons, woven in basket fashion from willows
and coated with clay or lined with a hide,--a thing good enough in an
emergency to ferry one over a stream, but utterly useless to me. There
was the canoe or pirogue, hollowed from a single tree-trunk,--called
also the dugout. Possibly by the aid of fire I might with patience
construct such a thing by months of hard work; and by adding an
outrigger log or float, after the manner of the South-Sea islanders,
such a canoe could possibly be rendered capable of navigating the sea in
favorable weather. Then again there was the whole class of skin boats
such as the Esquimaux use; the Greenlander’s kayak made of skins
stretched over a framework, and “decked over” like a modern canoe. But
how could I build a boat without tools to work with?
I lay thus for an hour or two watching the embers and thinking over one
plan after another, until I felt inclined to sleep. When I turned over
with my back to the fire, I could see along the beach where the
moonlight glinted and sparkled on the sand and shells and pebbles,
tinging each wave with liquid silver, as it ran up in graceful curves
upon the sand.
I was looking on this scene of magic beauty with the soft fingers of
sleep just ready to press down my eyelids when I saw what I thought was
a rock just in the wash of the breakers, begin slowly to move. Was this
a fancy or was it a fact?
I roused myself and watched the object intently. Yes, it was slowly
moving out of the water upon the sand. I realized instantly that it was
a turtle making for the sand in order to lay her eggs. Here was a good
supply of meat which could be kept an indefinite time, to be obtained by
the simple process of turning the creature on its back.
I watched the creature crawl slowly up in the moonlight until it was
four or five rods from the water, and waited a minute to see if it would
go further. Then I quietly reached for a piece of wood which might be
used as a lever to help me turn it over, and ran as swiftly as I could
for about three hundred yards so as to get between it and the sea. But
the turtle did not seem to comprehend the situation, at least it did not
move until I ran close up to it and thrust the stick beneath it. Then it
began to walk away, and as it did so it rose up on its fins to such a
height that my lever slipped and turned, and I could get no purchase on
it. I immediately made up my mind that turtle are not to be turned with
a lever. So dropping the stick, I seized the shell with both hands and
with a mighty effort heaved the creature over on its back as skilfully
as though I had been a veteran turtle-turner.
As soon as I had regained my breath, I scraped away the stones and sand
until there was a level space around the turtle, so that it could not
possibly work itself over again, and then contemplated my prize. It was
a magnificent specimen of the hawk’s-bill variety of sea turtle, and
would doubtless weigh one hundred and fifty pounds. Visions of turtle
soup and steaks floated through my mind. But I could not afford to kill
this great creature until I had salt with which to preserve the meat;
otherwise I could not hope to consume a tenth of it before it would
spoil.
Quite content with this piece of good-luck, I returned to my shelter
and, lying down, kept watch for another such prize; but none came, and
after an hour or two my eyelids grew heavy again,--and the glitter of
the moonlight on the sand, and the ceaseless motion of the waves, seemed
to mingle together in a swimming confusion, until I lost myself and the
moonlit waves and shore together in a dreamless sleep.