PIG-HUNTING.
Among the photographic appliances there was a sort of haversack or bag
with a shoulder-strap, designed to contain plate-holders. This I emptied
and stored with a supply of fried turtle meat and a small bottle of
water.
About seven o’clock I started up the bed of the brook, as affording the
easiest path by which to penetrate the forest that, coming down nearly
to the beach, extended on each hand as far as I could see. To the south
was a stretch of low land, perhaps twenty acres in extent, covered for
the most part with grass, and in the lowest portion with reeds and
rushes. Just as the brook emerged from the forest it was shadowed by a
dense mass of tall canes. The grass I had used in the construction of my
house was a coarse variety growing from two and a half to three feet in
height. On the higher ground grew a slenderer variety with heavy seed
heads, a sample of which I gathered as it seemed to resemble canary
seed, and might serve as food. Great quantities of this grass grew
thickly on the knolls and higher parts of the upland. The water deepened
where I waded through the canebrake, and ran with a sluggish current. I
gathered a great bundle of rushes, and laid them on the bank, intending
to pick them up on my return. They would be useful in weaving me a
substitute for a hat, a convenience which I lacked at that time.
Just at the farther border of the canebrake, there was a muddy place
where pigs had evidently been wallowing, for I found thousands of
tracks about. Here was a favorite resort for them, not above a quarter
of a mile from my house; but I wasted no time then hunting for this
game, as I had formed no plan for its capture.
One thing I wanted to find was a bed of clay, which could be put to many
valuable uses, especially the building of a fireplace and chimney. There
was reason to believe that plenty was to be had on the island, which was
of volcanic formation, and moreover the water of the brook, swollen by
the recent rain, was stained as though with clay.
As I neared the line of cliff and rocks that formed the central ridge or
back-bone of the island, the course of the stream bent to the north, and
the forest was interspersed with small open glades where the great
butterflies floated across through the sunshine, the metallic satiny
blue of their lustrous wings glancing in the light. A flock of parrots
with green, red, and blue plumage were chattering and screaming noisily
in the bordering trees, and an occasional little green lizard would dash
along the fallen trunks or over the rocks like a flash of emerald light.
In one of these glades I found a quantity of shrubs growing about ten
feet high and loaded with berries about the size of pepper-corns. The
outside of these berries seemed covered with a greenish white wax. The
leaf was somewhat like the myrtle. A sample of this, and of several
other varieties of vegetation which were strange to me, I gathered to
take home for identification in my manual of botany. I may here state
that this berry-bearing shrub turned out to be the wax myrtle (_Myrica
cerifera_ of the botanists), and that the waxy coating of the berries
was what is known as bay-berry tallow. This wax can be readily collected
by boiling the drupes and skimming it off as it rises to the surface of
the water; and a bushel of the berries will yield from four to five
pounds of the wax, which can be employed to make excellent candles.
Near the cliffs I came upon a fine bed of clay, and I was so delighted
with this discovery that I immediately began casting about for means of
transporting a good supply to my house. The bed was distant from the
house, as nearly as I could judge, about two miles, and the labor of
carrying such heavy material would be very great. The best plan would be
to knock together a raft of dry wood and float the clay down stream as a
cargo. Vines and creepers to serve as cordage to tie the dead wood
together were abundant, nor did it take me long to collect the wood and
fashion the raft. Indeed, the harder task proved to be the digging out
of the tough clay, as the only implements I had for this purpose were
pointed sticks. But I finally cut a sharp, heavy stake of hard wood, and
by driving this into the clay, was able to pry off large chunks, and
soon had a load ready. On the raft I laid some broad leaves and pieces
of bark to serve as a deck, and on this placed the clay in a great heap,
as much as the raft would carry in the shallow water. Tying a long
creeper to the raft, by which to pull, guide, or hold it back, as the
navigation might require, I started it off into the current, and wading
in the shallow stream, followed it down, holding on to the line as it
floated away. Barring an occasional grounding in the shallow places, my
raft floated serenely along at a good pace, and soon reached port, where
I unloaded the clay and drew out the raft to serve as firewood.
This was a good job well done, and I more than once regretted the time I
had wasted in the lime-burning task, for had I found this clay sooner, a
much better salt pan could have been made with it than with the mortar.
This thought caused me to go and examine the salt pan. I found the
mortar on the bottom dry and hard, so I opened the gate that the sea
water might flow in at the next tide and fill it.
The first use to be made of the clay was in the building of a fireplace
and chimney for the house. My plan was to build up the structure of
sticks, cob-house fashion, and then chink and plaster it with a good
coating of clay. Before this could be done, however, it would be
necessary to put the clay through some pugging process by which it could
be rendered soft and plastic. This I accomplished by trampling the clay
with my naked feet, adding a sprinkling of water now and then, until I
had a mass of soft, mortar-like consistency. Then on the outside of the
house I built up the fireplace close against the wall, and carried the
chimney up about a foot above the highest part of the roof, plastering
the sticks inside thoroughly with the soft clay. When this was done I
cut through the wall to the fireplace, and plastered clay on the jambs
to make all tight. The hearth I formed of harder clay, well pounded down
and mixed with the sand. If no wind came until the structure was dry, it
would become hard and strong enough to resist anything short of a
hurricane. That the drying might be more rapid, I immediately built a
good fire in it, and was rejoiced to find the draught excellent and the
effect of the bright firelight upon the interior quite pleasant and
homelike. This work occupied the whole day.
In the evening I brought a good supply of clay into the house, and using
the chest as a work-bench, busied myself until bedtime with moulding
several vessels of different shapes and sizes for use in cooking and
about the house. I fashioned a rude pot capable of holding about five
gallons; a smaller one to hold a gallon or thereabouts; a water-jar with
two handles by which it might be swung with a cord from the ridgepole,
to contain drinking-water; and others of various shapes and sizes. All
these I dusted over inside and out with dry sand and set aside where
they might dry ready for burning.
That night I slept for the first time in my hammock, and the change was
a comfortable one, though in the early morning hours I felt the need of
some warm covering. For however hot the days might be, the nights on the
island were always cool. However, when it got chilly I turned out and
heaped the dry grass of my former bed into the hammock, and was soon
warm enough.
In the morning, after setting my vessels out in the sun, I turned to the
careful examination of all the samples of vegetation which I had
collected, carefully looking them up in the Botany to find their names
and properties, and also in the Dispensatory. The seed-bearing grass was
undoubtedly canary grass. Besides this and the wax-bearing myrtle, the
only other notable sample was a species of india-rubber-bearing
artocarpus. As the canary grass was ripe, I thought I could not do
better than to harvest a good supply of it at once. The whole of that
day and the next were spent in gathering it and stacking it up near the
house. The labor was very great, as my knife was a poor substitute for a
sickle; but the necessity of some sort of farinaceous food spurred me
on. I gathered in all a great stack ten feet in diameter and twelve feet
high at the peak. This I thatched with grass, just as I had seen grain
stacks thatched at home, that it might be protected from the wet. Great
flocks of small birds were feeding upon this seed where it grew, and I
trapped a dozen or more by unhinging the chest lid and using it propped
up with a stick as a trap.
To try the character of the seed as food, I parched a pint of it over
the fire and then crushed it in a great bivalve shell with a round stone
into a coarse meal. This meal I mixed with water and salt, and it made a
very good sort of cold gruel. This, with the birds broiled on the coals,
made quite the best meal I had so far eaten on the island. The salt pan
had already begun to yield salt, which was crystallizing along the edges
as the water evaporated. The smoked turtle meat continued good, and I
relished it very much. The weather remained fine from day to day, and I
had strong hopes that a vessel might heave in sight at any moment. As a
preparation for such a chance I laid a pile of wood ready to make a
signal fire, and as a permanent signal selected an isolated palm-tree
and denuding it of its leaves, tied a great stick across it near the
top,--an arrangement which, I hoped, might attract the attention of a
passing vessel should I fail to see it. Of material to make a flag I had
nothing to spare except the square of black focussing-cloth belonging to
the camera,--and this I needed every night as a covering, as it was all
I had for that purpose.
As soon as my pots and other vessels were thoroughly dry I built a great
pile of dry wood over them and set fire to it. I greatly feared some of
them might crack with the heat, but fortunately they all came out in a
serviceable condition though by no means very hard. Now that I had a
large vessel in which water could be boiled, I bethought me of the wax
berries and made several trips to gather a store of them. These I boiled
in my large pot, and skimmed off the wax until I had collected fully
forty pounds of it, the product of about ten bushels of the berries. Of
this wax I made candles, or rather rushlights, by dipping dry rushes
into the melted wax and letting it cool on them. When one coat of wax
set I would dip the rush again, and so on, until each rush had four
good coats. One of these candles would burn about four hours and give a
good steady light without sputtering or guttering, though the rush wick
required occasional snuffing. These lights were a great comfort to me at
night, for I could read and do light work until bedtime without the
necessity of keeping up a hot fire.
It was by candle-light that I made me a hat out of rushes as follows:
Selecting about fifty of the cleanest and slenderest I could find, and
all of about equal length, I tied them firmly together by a cord wound
tightly around near the butts. Then I interwove stalks of the tough,
heavy grass, spreading the rushes out into a conical shape until large
enough to fit comfortably on my head. This was the body of the hat. The
brim was produced in the same manner by bending out the ends of the
rushes to a common horizontal plane and then interweaving the grass as
before, finishing the edge of the brim with a grass selvage. This made a
light, cool structure, sufficient to keep the sun off my head, and far
more comfortable than the handkerchief I had worn wound about it as my
sole head-covering up to this time.
Now that the salt pan was doing its work, and a supply of salt within a
few days was considerably more than a mere possibility, I felt justified
in endeavoring to obtain a store of meat. My mind turned to the turtle
and the pigs, especially the latter; for if I could by any means capture
a pig, there would be several weeks’ rations, at least, of fresh,
salted, and smoked pork. Visions of broiled ham and bacon troubled my
dreams. I made an effort to capture another turtle, watching the beach
for the good part of a night; but I saw none. The next morning, I
determined to go upon a regularly organized pig-hunt. The only method of
capturing them was by means of a lasso or the bolas. The forty-foot
line that came ashore around the chest would make an excellent lasso,
and I rigged it at once with a slip noose. I also cut a hard-wood pole
about eight feet in length, charred the end in the fire to harden it,
and made it sharp for use as a lance. A bolas was contrived out of two
stones tied, one at each end, to a stout cord six feet long. Thus
accoutred, I struck off from the creek and made a détour through the
dense jungle so as to force the game into the stream, or at least to be
upon higher ground if they should prove to be in the mud, as I hoped
would be the case. The labor of penetrating the dense scrub was very
great, and the heat intense; not a breath of air could reach these
fastnesses, and perspiration poured from me as though I were in a
Turkish bath.
After a two-hours struggle I found myself nearing the place, and it
became necessary to move with the greatest caution. Every few minutes I
would stop and listen. Presently I could hear the murmur of the brook,
and crawling along cautiously, I came to a fallen tree, the trunk of
which reached quite to the stream. By following this down carefully, I
came to a point where I could see the wallowing-place. There, sure
enough, were the pigs, a score or more in number, mostly lying asleep
and half buried in the mud. I studied the whole situation rapidly but
thoroughly. It seemed probable from the lay of the ground that if
something could frighten the animals from the other side, they would
naturally rush under the fallen tree just below me. Indeed, there was a
well-beaten track at this place going under the trunk, which was at this
point about five feet from the ground, and the stream, the canebrake,
and the dense jungle made this by far the easiest route for the pigs.
My plan was made instantly, thus: I would throw the bolas at a
half-grown pig that was rooting about near the jungle on the farther
side of the group, and take my chance of the herd coming this way when
they broke. I unrolled my lasso and laid it ready for instant use,
placed my lance where it could be grasped, and cautiously rising, that I
might have free play, swung the bolas around twice and let it fly.
Gyrating like twin planets, the stones sped fairly through the air, true
to the mark; one passed under the pig, and the other swung behind him,
wrapping the cords around the hind-quarters and legs, and bowling him
over like a ten-pin. The little fellow set up a squeal, and then, whoof!
whoof! with a grunt and a squeal, the whole herd sprang up, looked
around, saw their overturned and struggling companion, and started
directly toward my place of concealment. In the mean time I had crouched
down out of view, and spread my noose ready for business. Underneath
they ran squealing and snorting in great panic, and I let them pass as I
had my eye on a great boar who was very deliberate in his movements and
appeared to disdain undignified flight. He slowly advanced, however,
champing his tusks until they frothed, and shaking his great head. I
thought it best, in view of his great size and weight, to take a turn of
the lasso around a limb and give it a hitch as a holdfast, as my own
strength would not be enough to stop the brute. I had scarcely done this
when his head came under the tree, and I swung the noose deftly over it
as he emerged, and then hauled in the slack. The astonished beast sprang
forward with a great bound and jerked the rope from my hands with such
violence that I was thrown to the ground.
When I scrambled up I saw the rope tighten until it sung in the air like
a bowstring, and then slacken again. I could not see the boar, as he was
hidden in the long grass; but I seized my sharpened stick lance and ran
toward where he ought to be. Suddenly the great brute emerged from the
grass, facing me, and charged toward me, evidently bent on mischief, the
flakes of froth flying from his tusks. There was no time to get out of
the way, nor even get the lance around into position, and I thought I
should speedily feel his sharp tusks. He was almost upon me before I
could realize the situation. Just at this critical juncture I felt the
lasso fly up under my feet, throwing me over backward, and I caught a
glimpse of the boar as he turned a half-somersault and plunged down on
his side. When he fell he was not two feet from me. The lasso had been
doubled around a bush and had thus brought the desperate creature up
just in time to save me. The lance was still in my grasp, and I got to
my feet before my enemy could recover. Now it was my turn. Knowing he
could not reach me on this side, I came close up to him as he was making
the dirt fly with his legs in a vain endeavor to get up, and drove the
sharpened stick with all my force and weight into his side, just back of
the shoulder.
This ended the battle as the stick went half-way through him. Panting
for breath and with the perspiration fairly running into my eyes, I
turned away and left him to die in peace, and went to look after the
pig, thinking I had been a great fool to tackle the boar at all. I found
the pig still struggling with the bolas wrapped around him. I
immediately determined to keep this one alive. To do this, I must get my
lasso loose from the dying boar. When I went back I found him just
kicking his last. With the lasso I secured the pig in such manner that
he could not get away, and then removed the bolas and let him up, giving
him very little rope as I had no mind to let him run into the brush and
entangle himself. I then proceeded to flay the boar, cutting off the
hams and choicer parts, and securing as much of the lard and fat as I
was able. I carried this down the bed of the creek to the house. I then
went back for the pig and endeavored to get him home alive; but I found
it utterly impossible to do so, as the vicious, obstinate brute could
not be made to go in any but the wrong direction. So I was finally
obliged to haul him tight up against a tree and kill him.
I now had a great store of pork, and the next thing was to cure it. Salt
was now the important thing, and I went to my salt pan to see what the
prospect was. To my great satisfaction, I found the water all dried up,
leaving a fine layer of glistening salt, thickest in the lower part of
the basin and gradually thinning away to a mere frosting at the edges.
It was quite dry and caked, so that there was no trouble to get it up
from the bottom, and when I had heaped it together in the centre, there
were, I should judge, over fifty pounds. This precious commodity I
carried at once to the house so that it might be under shelter from the
dew and rain.
I turned to at once to “dry-salt” the pork, rubbing each piece
thoroughly on all sides, and piling the whole up in the now empty turtle
shell with the breast plate weighed down on it with heavy stones. The
only place where I could store this meat was in the single room of my
house. But I determined to remedy this by building as soon as possible a
lean-to at the back of the house, which I could use first as a
smoke-house, and then as a storeroom for my provisions. The turtle meat,
now perfectly cured, I stored temporarily in the chest.
That night I lay in my hammock in position to see the starlit ocean
through one of the ventilators, and thought over my situation. I could
not now complain of lack of food, for there was a supply sufficient to
last me two months at least, and there was reason to suppose that it
would not be at all difficult to replenish the store. In my porous
earthen jar, slung at the head of my hammock in the cool air-current,
and by its slow evaporation cooling the liquid contents, was pure, cool,
sweet water to drink, and outside was a running brook from which to fill
it as often as required. I could safely hope to support myself here as
long as might be necessary. But as I had no desire to remain
indefinitely a prisoner on this island, I began to turn my thoughts
persistently upon the problem of building a boat to get away in. If in
the mean time a vessel of some sort should heave in sight I was prepared
to take advantage of the chance; and if none came I would still have my
work started and no time unnecessarily lost.
Before I went to sleep that night I had planned a method of building a
boat which I thought would be within the possibility of accomplishment,
and had determined to begin work on the morrow.