THE WATER-GLASS.
The morning broke fair with a gentle breeze from the west, which would
enable me to make the run easily in a couple of hours. I put on board
two light poles which might, if necessary, serve for oars, and rigged a
couple of loops on the washboard at each side, through which to thrust
them when they were to be used. After taking on board a supply of water,
and food enough for several days in case I should chance to be blown out
to sea, and not forgetting my lasso and burning-glass, I called Duke on
board, hoisted the sail, and cast off. Out through the creek mouth, over
the bar, and through its breakers slid the little craft, and as soon as
we were fairly outside I bore up and ran straight for the north cape,
with a fair beam wind. The fresh morning air, the dew still wet on the
boat, the sun scarce a span above the sea, the cool, blue water sliding
by, the breaking of the surf as it ran angling along the strand, all
acted like a cordial to my spirits. Duke sat up in the bottom of the
boat eyeing the whole proceeding with a critical air, hardly willing to
yield an entirely unqualified approval, and yet not ready to advance any
positive objection. I fairly burst into a laugh at his quizzical
expression. He sprang up wagging his tail and came to me and laid his
head on my knee, as much as to say, “It is all right, I see.”
Before reaching the cape I eased off a little with the intention of
running approximately over the region where the sunken galleon was
supposed to lie. The spot, according to the admiral’s account, was about
a mile east of north from the rocky point, and I wanted to sound as far
out in this direction as my forty-foot line would allow, if, as I hoped,
there should chance to be any shallow that would allow me to reach
bottom at all near the shore. The yellowish color of the water off the
cape gave token of an extensive shoal in this direction, as did also the
peculiar action of the swell, which seemed half inclined to break as it
passed. With a stone tied to the line, I sounded as soon as I passed the
cape, and found at two hundred yards from shore not over twenty feet of
water. This depth increased very gradually until the full length of the
line, forty feet or thereabouts, ran out at a distance of an eighth of a
mile from the shore, showing that there was a long shoal or submerged
spit extending out from the north end of the island.
As soon as I left the immediate vicinity of the shore, where the
breakers stirred up the bottom, the water became beautifully clear and
transparent, so that at my last sounding I saw, or fancied I saw, the
gleam of the bright sand shining up from below. I now lowered the sail
to test if there was any current running, but beyond a slight movement,
I could detect nothing. I was now far enough from the cape so that I
could take a slant to the southwest and easily clear the rocks. So I
hauled up the sail and brought her head around. Soon we were spinning
along the western shore, and in an hour were off the “Farm Haven,”
toward which I turned, and running into the mouth of the little stream
moored the boat safely and landed.
There was a busy day before me, and I lost no time in beginning work.
First of all, I threw the ballast overboard to make room for a cargo of
yams and potatoes. I next wove out of willow branches a rough basket,
or rather a sort of shallow tray, to carry them to the boat. I dug and
loaded fully five bushels of fine, clean sweet potatoes and a number of
large yams, and the supply remaining in the ground would have filled my
boat a half-dozen times. I next turned my attention to the dry peas and
beans, and gathered about a bushel of each, besides a number of great
scarlet pepper-pods. Then I took down the tent and put it aboard, as
well as the axe, the shovel, the hoe, and the sail and blankets. I
boiled a lot of yams for dinner, and this being over at about three in
the afternoon, I called Duke and went up the gully path to the top and
looked about a little to see what prospect there might be for a path
over the island to the other side. In a straight east and west line the
distance could not be over three and a half to four miles.
There was a ridge running back from the cliff to the central plateau,
which I thought might afford an easy path, and I knew that once on this
central plateau I could descend to the stream and so reach home. Having
seen this much I returned to the boat, and casting off poled out as far
as possible to get an offing. By short tacks I managed finally to get
far enough to venture on my northern slant. But the sun was almost down
when I rounded the north cape and started down the other shore.
Just as I came opposite the mouth of the creek, the wind died away, and
I hastened to get out my rude poles and row into the harbor. This was a
terrible task, and if the wind had not gone down I much doubt whether I
could have done it at all until the tide turned. But at last we made the
creek and moored the boat safely with its precious cargo. I was too
tired that night to do more than unload the tools, blankets, canvas,
and cooking utensils, leaving the vegetables on board till morning. That
night being oppressively warm, I swung my hammock under the open
work-shed, and lulled by the music of the breakers, slept soundly until
broad day.
The first work on hand was the care of my cargo of potatoes. These with
the beans and peas I carried up to the dark, dry store-room. Some of the
potatoes I buried in the dry sand, to test its preservative properties.
As a future provision I turned up with the spade a little patch of soil
near the creek and planted half a dozen hills of yams and potatoes in a
favorable spot, and a row of the beans and peas, guarding the latter
from the birds with a layer of brush. This occupied the greater part of
the day.
In the afternoon I drew a wire nail out of the chest, with which to make
a fish-hook. The back of the axe formed a good anvil, and the shank of
the hoe, the wooden handle being removed, did fairly well for a hammer.
With these tools I fashioned the red-hot nail into hook form, using for
tongs a pair of clam shells. I drew the point out sharp, bent the hook,
and cut a barb over the edge of the axe. The head of the nail was left
intact to secure the line. As this was my first effort at blacksmithing
the hook was not perhaps as elegant as it might have been, but it looked
as though it might work satisfactorily. For a line, I unlaid and
retwisted some pieces of hempen rope that had formed reef points on the
sail of the tent, and coated them well with candle-berry wax. I made a
wooden float for a bob and fitted a stone for a sinker, so that by
bed-time, my fishing-tackle was finished, together with a good hundred
feet of stout line.
That night a rain set in, and it continued steadily for three days
without ceasing, varying only between a violent downpour and a fine,
driving mist from the northeast. I could not work out of doors in such
weather; so, gathering a great quantity of cocoanut husks, I busied
myself hour after hour spinning cöir. I wanted to make a good, strong,
sounding-line at least a hundred fathoms long, and a line of equal
length by which to anchor a buoy as a guide in the submarine search
operations. Thus the time was by no means lost, though the confinement
was exceedingly irksome. Duke made an occasional dash out into the wet,
and once returned carrying in his mouth an armadillo rolled up tight in
a ball, which afforded us a variation in diet.
But the sky finally cleared and I hastened out to try my fishing-tackle.
Anchoring the boat just beyond the breakers at the mouth of the creek, I
baited my hook with a shell-fish and cast it over, letting the line run
slowly out as the hook sank toward the bottom, and then hauling it up
and repeating the operation. Presently I got a tremendous bite, and drew
in a fish that weighed about fifteen pounds. It was a red snapper, and
proved most excellent eating. This was fishing enough for once, and I
pulled to shore and set about cooking part of my prize. Soon the air was
redolent with the odor of fried fish, and both Duke and I regaled
ourselves with fish and potatoes, washing them down with pure, sweet
water cool from the porous water-jar.
I now set about the construction of an apparatus by the aid of which I
hoped to be able to make a reconnaissance of the bottom of the shallow
sea, where the sunken galleon was supposed to lie. I went out with my
axe to the upland and cut down a fine cedar tree. This I split until I
procured four rough but slight slabs, an inch thick and about a foot in
width, sawing them to a length of about three feet. I pinned these
securely together in the form of a rectangular tube a foot in diameter
and three feet long, and in one end of the tube fitted a tight cedar
bottom. In this bottom I cut an aperture just large enough to receive
one of my glass photograph plates, five inches by seven, and after
cleaning off the sensitive gelatine coating securely fitted it in place
like a window. With melted pitch I payed freely all the joints and
seams, so that the structure was perfectly water-tight, and then
blackened the wood on the inside with a mixture of pulverized charcoal
and hot wax, so that it would reflect no light.
Before this was finished the rains set in again and continued for a
whole week. I concluded that the annual rainy season must now be at
hand. For though the sky would occasionally clear for a day or part of a
day, the showers were so frequent that the house grew damp and
unwholesome, and I was obliged to air it every day with a rousing fire
in the fireplace, the heat of which drove me to seek shelter under the
work-shed. The weather was so uncertain that I did not dare to venture
out in the boat further than a few hundred feet, and then with a line
fast to the shore; this I occasionally did for the purpose of fishing,
and always with good luck, catching the red snappers, rock cod, and
various other varieties, all of which found their way to the larder.
It was on one of these occasions that I tried my new-made contrivance,
the water-glass. When the closed end of this was submerged over the side
of the boat, by looking in at the open upper end I could plainly see the
bottom and the fish swimming about my hook. Of course I was very anxious
to try the apparatus in deeper water to ascertain how far the vision
could penetrate. But the weather would not render it possible without
too great risk. The value of such a device would depend entirely upon
the clearness and depth of the water. I knew from written accounts that
the sponge fishers use a similar contrivance,--frequently a wooden
bucket with a pane of glass in the bottom, which they call a “sponge
glass,” and with which they search for sponges and conch shells in the
Bermudas, employing it with perfect success, in clear water, even at a
considerable depth. The sponge glass enables the operator to overcome
the surface agitation and reflection of the water, just as a thin
transparent sheet of ice sometimes renders the bottom of a deep pond
visible to a skater.
One morning, when there was an almost perfect calm, I noticed on the
surface of the sea a long streak extending from a point about half a
mile from shore away toward the eastern horizon until it was lost in the
distance. This appearance was so curious and inexplicable that after
gazing at it for a while, both from the beach and from the top of a
palm, I finally rowed the boat out to it, and found that it was muddy
water, with leaves, grass, and vegetation floating in it, and a great
number of cocoanuts bobbing about among the other fragments and
detritus. It looked precisely as though the contents of some slack water
lagoon connecting with the sea had been suddenly swept out by a freshet
or some extraordinary current. Among the floating matter were
innumerable sea beans, as they are called,--a sort of nut or seed that
is sometimes used as an ornament for watch chains,--also little scarlet,
egg-shaped seeds, like those that are picked up in such quantities on
the Florida beaches. But there was no sea-weed with the other detritus.
This mass of matter slowly travelled along the surface and by the next
day was out of sight. I suppose to a more skilled observer the
phenomenon might have proven a valuable aid in determining the set of
the currents, or other natural facts worthy of note.
While out on this excursion I several times tried the water-glass, but
found the sea so charged with matter and so cloudy and milky that I
could see but indistinctly and to no great depth. This, however, did not
discourage me, as I knew the water was likely to change in this respect
from week to week.
There came upon the island at this time great numbers of pelicans. They
would light on the beach in large flocks, and sit there for hours,
apparently resting from a long flight; then all together, as by a
concerted signal, they would rise and in an irregular body wing their
way to the south. Duke took great delight in hunting these birds, and
would watch by the hour for their arrival. As soon as a flock appeared
in the northern sky he would prick up his ears, all attention, and wait
until, circling about, they alighted. Then he would begin a deliberate
attempt to stalk them, creeping along, belly to the ground, until nearly
up to them, then making a bold rush, but always without success, the
birds on such occasions merely rising and circling to another
resting-place. He would come in after this sport wet with the rain and
panting with exertion, and appeared to look with reproach at my lack of
interest in the game, as though he would say, “Where is your gun, you
idle fellow?” But I had no use for pelicans. Indeed, I still had too
vivid a remembrance of the peculiar flavor of gull meat to hanker after
fish-eating birds of any sort, as food. The white crane, or heron, and
the beautiful pink and white ibis also made their appearance
occasionally in flocks; but they were so shy and difficult to approach
that I could never get within a hundred yards of them.
Penetrating one morning, in spite of the drizzling rain, to a part of
the forest just under the rocky plateau, I came upon some trees about
thirty or forty feet in height having flowers variegated with purple,
yellow, green, and red, and bearing at the same time fruit in the form
of great gourds. This I found was what is known as the calabash tree
(_Crescentia cujete_). I collected a number, of different sizes, and
carried them home through the rain. The hard, wood-like shells could
readily be cut with the knife and saw, yet they were strong and tough.
With this raw material, already partially shaped to hand, I set about
making various kinds of vessels,--domestic and culinary utensils, a
water-bottle to carry on my tramps and excursions, etc. With four great
gourds lashed together I constructed a buoy for subsequent use in my
marine explorations, and with a number of small ones I made a
life-preserver as a part of my boat equipment. It was a great comfort to
have a dish to eat from once more. Indeed, I had often regretted that I
did not bring with me the two halves of the broken dish which I had seen
at the “Farm Haven.” My two developing-trays with their deep sides had
proved but inconvenient substitutes; besides, they were generally kept
for other uses. Taken altogether there was no single vegetable product
of the island that contributed more to my comfort than the calabash
tree.
As I now had plenty of canvas I concluded to rig my boat anew and change
it from the awkward latteen rig to that of a sloop with mainsail and
jib. The want of a needle and thread to sew the sails was a great
drawback, but I made shift to use an awl made out of a leg of a compass
belonging to my drawing instruments, and for thread a slender cord made
of cöir. I rigged the jib with a traverse so that it needed no special
attention except to be hauled aft when I went about, and the mainsail
with a gaff and throat halliards, that it might be lowered by the run
upon emergency; I also provided both jib and mainsail with three rows
of reef points, that I might show little or much canvas, as the slate of
the wind should require. With axe and saw and knife I fashioned a good
pair of cedar oars, light and strong, and fitted thole-pins in the
gunwales to receive them; I put a pair of thole-pins in the stern for
sculling, and had a spare oar for use in case of breakage.
The weather continued stormy, with rain nearly every day, and frequently
for several days together without cessation. I passed most of the time
under the boat-shed, and generally slept there at night, as the climate
was very mild and warm notwithstanding the rains. Moreover, I had now
two blankets to sleep in at night, and lay quite warm and comfortable in
my hammock. The house I used as a kitchen, dining-room, store-room, and
library. It was quite impossible to read elsewhere at night, for the
candle could not be kept alight in the open-sided shed. I read all the
books through deliberately, including the German Word-book. I would lie
in my swinging hammock by the hour during the day-time and read even the
Dispensatory faithfully through while the rain pattered on the roof,
with an occasional “swish, swish,” as the eddying wind drove it with
greater or less violence against the house. That I should find the dry
details of a Dispensatory sufficiently interesting to make the
continuous reading of them even endurable expresses well the desperate
dulness of my lonesome surroundings. Duke slept much, and I envied him
his capacity for slumber. He would lie in a dry spot and snooze for
fifteen minutes at a time, get up and gape and stretch, then lie down
and shiver and drop to sleep with one eye open, and so alternating pass
the day. Sometimes I would practice on him with German words from the
Word-book, which he understood, so far as I could see, quite as well as
English. At any rate, when I spoke he wagged his tail, and thus
demonstrated that he was a good fellow and not disposed in any degree to
criticise or find fault with the personal peculiarities or the language
of a friend.
At last one clear, bright morning, when the birds were noisily rejoicing
and the butterflies were out in their gala dresses, I undertook an
expedition by land to the “Farm Haven.” The creek was swollen deep with
the rains, so that I could not conveniently travel up the bed. Therefore
I made my way north along the beach for a mile, and struck west through
the jungle at the most open place I saw. By an occasional use of the axe
I forced a path through to the rocks, which happened here to be low, and
speedily gained the central plateau. At the point where I mounted the
rocks I found great quantities of ripe whortleberries growing on low
bushes, and of large size and exquisite flavor. I ate my fill of these
and pressed on along the plateau looking for the connecting ridge. The
walking was not bad on this upland, as there was no tangled mass of
undergrowth, and the trees grew well apart. The ridge was not difficult
to find and proved easily passable, so that I made shift to reach the
cliffs long before noon.
Being near them I went to the Brazil-nut trees and gathered a peck or
more of the nuts, filling my haversack quite full as well as my pockets.
Duke here chased a little animal which I fancied must be what is called
an agouti; but as he did not catch him I could not know positively.
However, this persistent hunter soon after managed to tree an animal
which I had no difficulty in recognizing as the familiar raccoon. I had
no idea until I saw this specimen that this plantigrade was to be found
in the Caribbean islands. There was, however, no mistaking the identity
of the species. It was undoubtedly a genuine “coon.” The silver-tipped
fur, the pointed snout, the barred tail all spoke in favor of a true
descent and a perfect relationship with the animal which I had so often
hunted on moonlight nights in the woods at home. It was an undoubted
“case of coon.” When I found him he was in a slender sapling, with Duke
barking below. I laid the axe to the trunk and speedily felled it to the
ground. Duke seized his victim before he could recover, and shook him as
a terrier would a rat. Running to his assistance I speedily put an end
to the combat with my knife, and bagged the game. Here was material for
a feast, for I well knew by experience that roast coon is a morsel fit
for an epicure.
Farm Haven looked beautifully fresh from the rains. I found the garden
still more choked with weeds, and the potatoes mostly gone to seed. I
gathered a few to roast in the embers for my dinner, but most of them
had begun to decay. The Indian corn was ripe, and I took this occasion
to gather it all, a good heap of perhaps ten bushels, which I carried
little by little to a sheltered nook under the rocks and piled up
without removing the husks. I started a good fire to roast some corn and
potatoes. After dressing the coon I swung it by a cord in front of the
fire where it was slowly turned by the twist of the cord first in one
direction and then in the other, requiring only an occasional twirl to
keep it going.
While the dinner was cooking, Duke and I looked about the valley to see
what could be found. We went over to the north of the mouth of the
rivulet among some willows, to gather a few wands for basket-making. As
soon as we reached the other side of the stream I noticed a strong
stench as of decayed animal matter. The source of this smell was soon
disclosed in a great heap of oysters. Great bivalves, some of them eight
or more inches across, lay rotting in a pile on the pebbly shore. All
about were heaps of open shells and decayed shell-fish. It occurred to
me at once that I had chanced upon the headquarters of a pearl fishery;
and this accounted most satisfactorily for the encampment, but not for
the hurried departure of the campers. There was at least a ton of
unopened oysters lying in the rotting drying-heap, and I determined to
examine them as soon as we had finished dinner.