PASS INTO EREWHON
This book has already become longer than I intended, but I will ask the
reader to have patience while I tell him briefly of my own visit to the
threshold of that strange country of which I fear that he may be already
beginning to tire.
The winding-up of my father’s estate was a very simple matter, and by the
beginning of September 1891 I should have been free to start; but about
that time I became engaged, and naturally enough I did not want to be
longer away than was necessary. I should not have gone at all if I could
have helped it. I left, however, a fortnight later than my father had
done.
Before starting I bought a handsome gold repeater for the Mayor, and a
brooch for Yram, of pearls and diamonds set in gold, for which I paid
£200. For Yram’s three daughters and for Mrs. Humdrum’s grand-daughter
I took four brooches each of which cost about £15, 15s., and for the
boys I got three ten-guinea silver watches. For George I only took a
strong English knife of the best make, and the two thousand pounds
worth of uncoined gold, which for convenience’ sake I had had made into
small bars. I also had a knapsack made that would hold these and
nothing else--each bar being strongly sewn into its place, so that none
of them could shift. Whenever I went on board ship, or went on shore, I
put this on my back, so that no one handled it except myself--and I can
assure the reader that I did not find it a light weight to handle. I
ought to have taken something for old Mrs. Humdrum, but I am ashamed to
say that I forgot her.
I went as directly as I could to the port of which my father had told
me, and reached it on November 27, one day later than he had done in
the preceding year.
On the following day, which was a Saturday, I went to the livery
stables from which my father had bought his horse, and found to my
great delight that Doctor could be at my disposal, for, as it seemed to
me, the very reasonable price of fifteen shillings a day. I shewed the
owner of the stables my father’s order, and all the articles he had
left were immediately delivered to me. I was still wearing crape round
one arm, and the horse-dealer, whose name was Baker, said he was afraid
the other gentleman might be dead.
“Indeed, he is so,” said I, “and a great grief it is to me; he was my
father.”
“Dear, dear,” answered Mr. Baker, “that is a very serious thing for the
poor gentleman. He seemed quite unfit to travel alone, and I feared he
was not long for this world, but he was bent on going.”
I had nothing now to do but to buy a blanket, pannikin, and billy, with
some tea, tobacco, two bottles of brandy, some ship’s biscuits, and
whatever other few items were down on the list of requisites which my
father had dictated to me. Mr. Baker, seeing that I was what he called a
new chum, shewed me how to pack my horse, but I kept my knapsack full of
gold on my back, and though I could see that it puzzled him, he asked no
questions. There was no reason why I should not set out at once for the
principal town of the colony, which was some ten miles inland; I,
therefore, arranged at my hotel that the greater part of my luggage
should await my return, and set out to climb the high hills that back the
port. From the top of these I had a magnificent view of the plains that
I should have to cross, and of the long range of distant mountains which
bounded them north and south as far as the eye could reach. On some of
the mountains I could still see streaks of snow, but my father had
explained to me that the ranges I should here see, were not those
dividing the English colony from Erewhon. I also saw, some nine miles or
so out upon the plains, the more prominent buildings of a large town
which seemed to be embosomed in trees, and this I reached in about an
hour and a half; for I had to descend at a foot’s pace, and Doctor’s many
virtues did not comprise a willingness to go beyond an amble.
At the town above referred to I spent the night, and began to strike
across the plains on the following morning. I might have crossed these
in three days at twenty-five miles a day, but I had too much time on my
hands, and my load of gold was so uncomfortable that I was glad to stay
at one accommodation house after another, averaging about eighteen miles
a day. I have no doubt that if I had taken advice, I could have stowed
my load more conveniently, but I could not unpack it, and made the best
of it as it was.
On the evening of Wednesday, December 2, I reached the river which I
should have to follow up; it was here nearing the gorge through which it
had to pass before the country opened out again at the back of the front
range. I came upon it quite suddenly on reaching the brink of a great
terrace, the bank of which sloped almost precipitously down towards it,
but was covered with grass. The terrace was some three hundred feet
above the river, and faced another similar one, which was from a mile and
a half to two miles distant. At the bottom of this huge yawning chasm,
rolled the mighty river, and I shuddered at the thought of having to
cross and recross it. For it was angry, muddy, evidently in heavy fresh,
and filled bank and bank for nearly a mile with a flood of seething
waters.
I followed along the northern edge of the terrace, till I reached the
last accommodation house that could be said to be on the plains--which,
by the way, were here some eight or nine hundred feet above sea level.
When I reached this house, I was glad to learn that the river was not
likely to remain high for more than a day or two, and that if what was
called a Southerly Burster came up, as it might be expected to do at any
moment, it would be quite low again before three days were over.
At this house I stayed the night, and in the course of the evening a
stray dog--a retriever, hardly full grown, and evidently very much down
on his luck--took up with me; when I inquired about him, and asked if I
might take him with me, the landlord said he wished I would, for he knew
nothing about him and was trying to drive him from the house. Knowing
what a boon the companionship of this poor beast would be to me when I
was camping out alone, I encouraged him, and next morning he followed me
as a matter of course.
In the night the Southerly Burster which my host anticipated had come up,
cold and blustering, but invigorating after the hot, dry, wind that had
been blowing hard during the daytime as I had crossed the plains. A mile
or two higher up I passed a large sheep-station, but did not stay there.
One or two men looked at me with surprise, and asked me where I was
going, whereon I said I was in search of rare plants and birds for the
Museum of the town at which I had slept the night after my arrival. This
satisfied their curiosity, and I ambled on accompanied by the dog. In
passing I may say that I found Doctor not to excel at any pace except an
amble, but for a long journey, especially for one who is carrying a
heavy, awkward load, there is no pace so comfortable; and he ambled
fairly fast.
I followed the horse track which had been cut through the gorge, and in
many places I disliked it extremely, for the river, still in fresh, was
raging furiously; twice, for some few yards, where the gorge was wider
and the stream less rapid, it covered the track, and I had no confidence
that it might not have washed it away; on these occasions Doctor pricked
his ears towards the water, and was evidently thinking exactly what his
rider was. He decided, however, that all would be sound, and took to the
water without any urging on my part. Seeing his opinion, I remembered my
father’s advice, and let him do what he liked, but in one place for three
or four yards the water came nearly up to his belly, and I was in great
fear for the watches that were in my saddle-bags. As for the dog, I
feared I had lost him, but after a time he rejoined me, though how he
contrived to do so I cannot say.
Nothing could be grander than the sight of this great river pent into a
narrow compass, and occasionally becoming more like an immense waterfall
than a river, but I was in continual fear of coming to more places where
the water would be over the track, and perhaps of finding myself unable
to get any farther. I therefore failed to enjoy what was really far the
most impressive sight in its way that I had ever seen. “Give me,” I said
to myself, “the Thames at Richmond,” and right thankful was I, when at
about two o’clock I found that I was through the gorge and in a wide
valley, the greater part of which, however, was still covered by the
river. It was here that I heard for the first time the curious sound of
boulders knocking against each other underneath the great body of water
that kept rolling them round and round.
I now halted, and lit a fire, for there was much dead scrub standing that
had remained after the ground had been burned for the first time some
years previously. I made myself some tea, and turned Doctor out for a
couple of hours to feed. I did not hobble him, for my father had told me
that he would always come for bread. When I had dined, and smoked, and
slept for a couple of hours or so, I reloaded Doctor and resumed my
journey towards the shepherd’s hut, which I caught sight of about a mile
before I reached it. When nearly half a mile off it, I dismounted, and
made a written note of the exact spot at which I did so. I then turned
for a couple of hundred yards to my right, at right angles to the track,
where some huge rocks were lying--fallen ages since from the mountain
that flanked this side of the valley. Here I deposited my knapsack in a
hollow underneath some of the rocks, and put a good sized stone in front
of it, for I meant spending a couple of days with the shepherd to let the
river go down. Moreover, as it was now only December 3, I had too much
time on my hands, but I had not dared to cut things finer.
I reached the hut at about six o’clock, and introduced myself to the
shepherd, who was a nice, kind old man, commonly called Harris, but his
real name he told me was Horace--Horace Taylor. I had the conversation
with him of which I have already told the reader, adding that my father
had been unable to give a coherent account of what he had seen, and that
I had been sent to get the information he had failed to furnish.
The old man said that I must certainly wait a couple of days before I
went higher up the river. He had made himself a nice garden, in which he
took the greatest pride, and which supplied him with plenty of
vegetables. He was very glad to have company, and to receive the
newspapers which I had taken care to bring him. He had a real genius for
simple cookery, and fed me excellently. My father’s £5, and the
ration of brandy which I nightly gave him, made me a welcome guest, and
though I was longing to be at any rate as far as the foot of the pass
into Erewhon, I amused myself very well in an abundance of ways with
which I need not trouble the reader.
One of the first things that Harris said to me was, “I wish I knew what
your father did with the nice red blanket he had with him when he went up
the river. He had none when he came down again; I have no horse here,
but I borrowed one from a man who came up one day from down below, and
rode to a place where I found what I am sure were the ashes of the last
fire he made, but I could find neither the blanket nor the billy and
pannikin he took away with him. He said he supposed he must have left
the things there, but he could remember nothing about it.”
“I am afraid,” said I, “that I cannot help you.”
“At any rate,” continued the shepherd, “I did not have my ride for
nothing, for as I was coming back I found this rug half covered with sand
on the river-bed.”
As he spoke he pointed to an excellent warm rug, on the spare bunk in his
hut. “It is none of our make,” said he; “I suppose some foreign digger
has come over from the next river down south and got drowned, for it had
not been very long where I found it, at least I think not, for it was not
much fly-blown, and no one had passed here to go up the river since your
father.”
I knew what it was, but I held my tongue beyond saying that the rug was a
very good one.
The next day, December 4, was lovely, after a night that had been clear
and cold, with frost towards early morning. When the shepherd had gone
for some three hours in the forenoon to see his sheep (that were now
lambing), I walked down to the place where I had left my knapsack, and
carried it a good mile above the hut, where I again hid it. I could see
the great range from one place, and the thick new fallen snow assured me
that the river would be quite normal shortly. Indeed, by evening it was
hardly at all discoloured, but I waited another day, and set out on the
morning of Sunday, December 6. The river was now almost as low as in
winter, and Harris assured me that if I used my eyes I could not miss
finding a ford over one stream or another every half mile or so. I had
the greatest difficulty in preventing him from accompanying me on foot
for some little distance, but I got rid of him in the end; he came with
me beyond the place where I had hidden my knapsack, but when he had left
me long enough, I rode back and got it.
I see I am dwelling too long upon my own small adventures. Suffice it
that, accompanied by my dog, I followed the north bank of the river till
I found I must cross one stream before I could get any farther. This
place would not do, and I had to ride half a mile back before I found one
that seemed as if it might be safe. I fancy my father must have done
just the same thing, for Doctor seemed to know the ground, and took to
the water the moment I brought him to it. It never reached his belly,
but I confess I did not like it. By and by I had to recross, and so on,
off and on, till at noon I camped for dinner. Here the dog found me a
nest of young ducks, nearly fledged, from which the parent birds tried
with great success to decoy me. I fully thought I was going to catch
them, but the dog knew better and made straight for the nest, from which
he returned immediately with a fine young duck in his mouth, which he
laid at my feet, wagging his tail and barking. I took another from the
nest and left two for the old birds.
The afternoon was much as the morning and towards seven I reached a place
which suggested itself as a good camping ground. I had hardly fixed on
it and halted, before I saw a few pieces of charred wood, and felt sure
that my father must have camped at this very place before me. I hobbled
Doctor, unloaded, plucked and singed a duck, and gave the dog some of the
meat with which Harris had furnished me; I made tea, laid my duck on the
embers till it was cooked, smoked, gave myself a nightcap of brandy and
water, and by and by rolled myself round in my blanket, with the dog
curled up beside me. I will not dwell upon the strangeness of my
feelings--nor the extreme beauty of the night. But for the dog, and
Doctor, I should have been frightened, but I knew that there were no
savage creatures or venomous snakes in the country, and both the dog and
Doctor were such good companionable creatures, that I did not feel so
much oppressed by the solitude as I had feared I should be. But the
night was cold, and my blanket was not enough to keep me comfortably
warm.
The following day was delightfully warm as soon as the sun got to the
bottom of the valley, and the fresh fallen snow disappeared so fast from
the snowy range that I was afraid it would raise the river--which,
indeed, rose in the afternoon and became slightly discoloured, but it
cannot have been more than three or four inches deeper, for it never
reached the bottom of my saddle-bags. I believe Doctor knew exactly
where I was going, for he wanted no guidance. I halted again at midday,
got two more ducks, crossed and recrossed the river, or some of its
streams, several times, and at about six, caught sight, after a bend in
the valley, of the glacier descending on to the river-bed. This I knew
to be close to the point at which I was to camp for the night, and from
which I was to ascend the mountain. After another hour’s slow progress
over the increasing roughness of the river-bed, I saw the triangular
delta of which my father had told me, and the stream that had formed it,
bounding down the mountain side. Doctor went right up to the place where
my father’s fire had been, and I again found many pieces of charred wood
and ashes.
As soon as I had unloaded Doctor and hobbled him, I went to a tree hard
by, on which I could see the mark of a blaze, and towards which I thought
I could see a line of wood ashes running. There I found a hole in which
some bird had evidently been wont to build, and surmised correctly that
it must be the one in which my father had hidden his box of sovereigns.
There was no box in the hole now, and I began to feel that I was at last
within measureable distance of Erewhon and the Erewhonians.
I camped for the night here, and again found my single blanket
insufficient. The next day, i.e. Tuesday, December 8, I had to pass as I
best could, and it occurred to me that as I should find the gold a great
weight, I had better take it some three hours up the mountain side and
leave it there, so as to make the following day less fatiguing, and this
I did, returning to my camp for dinner; but I was panic-stricken all the
rest of the day lest I should not have hidden it safely, or lest I should
be unable to find it next day--conjuring up a hundred absurd fancies as
to what might befall it. And after all, heavy though it was, I could
have carried it all the way. In the afternoon I saddled Doctor and rode
him up to the glaciers, which were indeed magnificent, and then I made
the few notes of my journey from which this chapter has been taken. I
made excuses for turning in early, and at daybreak rekindled my fire and
got my breakfast. All the time the companionship of the dog was an
unspeakable comfort to me.
It was now the day my father had fixed for my meeting with George, and my
excitement (with which I have not yet troubled the reader, though it had
been consuming me ever since I had left Harris’s hut) was beyond all
bounds, so much so that I almost feared I was in a fever which would
prevent my completing the little that remained of my task; in fact, I was
in as great a panic as I had been about the gold that I had left. My
hands trembled as I took the watches, and the brooches for Yram and her
daughters from my saddle-bags, which I then hung, probably on the very
bough on which my father had hung them. Needless to say, I also hung my
saddle and bridle along with the saddle-bags.
It was nearly seven before I started, and about ten before I reached the
hiding-place of my knapsack. I found it, of course, quite easily,
shouldered it, and toiled on towards the statues. At a quarter before
twelve I reached them, and almost beside myself as I was, could not
refrain from some disappointment at finding them a good deal smaller than
I expected. My father, correcting the measurement he had given in his
book, said he thought that they were about four or five times the size of
life; but really I do not think they were more than twenty feet high, any
one of them. In other respects my father’s description of them is quite
accurate. There was no wind, and as a matter of course, therefore, they
were not chanting. I wiled away the quarter of an hour before the time
when George became due, with wondering at them, and in a way admiring
them, hideous though they were; but all the time I kept looking towards
the part from which George should come.
At last my watch pointed to noon, but there was no George. A quarter
past twelve, but no George. Half-past, still no George. One o’clock,
and all the quarters till three o’clock, but still no George. I tried to
eat some of the ship’s biscuits I had brought with me, but I could not.
My disappointment was now as great as my excitement had been all the
forenoon; at three o’clock I fairly cried, and for half an hour could
only fling myself on the ground and give way to all the unreasonable
spleen that extreme vexation could suggest. True, I kept telling myself
that for aught I knew George might be dead, or down with a fever; but
this would not do; for in this last case he should have sent one of his
brothers to meet me, and it was not likely that he was dead. I am afraid
I thought it most probable that he had been casual--of which unworthy
suspicion I have long since been heartily ashamed.
I put the brooches inside my knapsack, and hid it in a place where I was
sure no one would find it; then, with a heavy heart, I trudged down again
to my camp--broken in spirit, and hopeless for the morrow.
I camped again, but it was some hours before I got a wink of sleep; and
when sleep came it was accompanied by a strange dream. I dreamed that I
was by my father’s bedside, watching his last flicker of intelligence,
and vainly trying to catch the words that he was not less vainly trying
to utter. All of a sudden the bed seemed to be at my camping ground, and
the largest of the statues appeared, quite small, high up the mountain
side, but striding down like a giant in seven league boots till it stood
over me and my father, and shouted out “Leap, John, leap.” In the horror
of this vision I woke with a loud cry that woke my dog also, and made him
shew such evident signs of fear, that it seemed to me as though he too
must have shared my dream.
Shivering with cold I started up in a frenzy, but there was nothing, save
a night of such singular beauty that I did not even try to go to sleep
again. Naturally enough, on trying to keep awake I dropped asleep before
many minutes were over.
In the morning I again climbed up to the statues, without, to my
surprise, being depressed with the idea that George would again fail to
meet me. On the contrary, without rhyme or reason, I had a strong
presentiment that he would come. And sure enough, as soon as I caught
sight of the statues, which I did about a quarter to twelve, I saw a
youth coming towards me, with a quick step, and a beaming face that had
only to be seen to be fallen in love with.
“You are my brother,” said he to me. “Is my father with you?”
I pointed to the crape on my arm, and to the ground, but said nothing.
He understood me, and bared his head. Then he flung his arms about me
and kissed my forehead according to Erewhonian custom. I was a little
surprised at his saying nothing to me about the way in which he had
disappointed me on the preceding day; I resolved, however, to wait for
the explanation that I felt sure he would give me presently.