A bright and pleasant morning forms a powerful antidote to the evils of
a cheerless night. Few of the mutineers slept soundly on the night of
their arrival off Pitcairn, and their dreams of that island were more or
less unpleasantly mingled with manacles and barred windows, and men
dangling from yard-arms. The blessed sunshine dissipated all this,
rousing, in the hearts of some, feelings of hope and forgiveness, in the
breasts of others, only those sensations of animal enjoyment which man
shares in common with the brutes.
"Lower away the boat there," said Fletcher Christian, coming on deck
with a more cheerful air than he had worn since the day of the mutiny;
"we shall row round the island and search for a landing-place. You will
take charge, Mr Young, during my absence. Put muskets and ammunition
into the boat, John Adams; the place may be inhabited--there's no
saying--and South Sea savages are not a hospitable race as a rule. Now
then, look sharp, lads."
In a few minutes, Adams, Martin, McCoy, Brown, and Quintal were in the
boat, with two of the Otaheitan men.
"Won't you take cutlasses?" asked Young, looking over the side.
"Well, yes, hand down half-a-dozen; and don't go far from this end of
the island, Mr Young. Just keep dodging off and on."
"Ay, ay, sir," said the middy, touching his cap from the mere force of
habit.
"Shove off," said Christian, seating himself at the helm.
In a few minutes the boat was skimming over the calm water towards the
shore, while the _Bounty_, wearing round, went slowly out to sea.
As the boat neared the shore it soon became evident that it would be
extremely difficult to effect a landing. Nothing could be seen but high
precipitous cliffs without any sign of a harbour or creek sufficiently
large or safe to afford anchorage for the ship. Worst of all, the only
spot that seemed to offer any prospect of a landing-place, even for a
boat, was guarded by tremendous breakers that seemed to bid defiance to
man's feeble powers. These great waves, or rollers, were not the result
of storm or wind, but of the mere ocean-swell of the great Pacific,
which undulates over her broad breast even when becalmed. No signs of
the coming waves were visible more than a few hundred yards from the
shore. There, each roller gradually and silently arose when the
undulating motion of the sea caught the bottom. A little farther in it
assumed the form of a magnificent green wall of liquid glass, which
became more and more vast and perpendicular as it rolled on, until it
curled over and rushed with a mighty roar and a snowy crest towards the
beach. There it dashed itself in tumultuous foam among the rocks.
"Give way, lads," said Christian, sitting down after a prolonged gaze at
this scene; "we may find a better spot farther on."
As they proceeded they were received with wild and plaintive cries by
innumerable sea-birds, whose homes were on the cliffs, and who evidently
resented this intrusion of strangers.
"Shall we give 'em a shot, sir?" asked McCoy, laying his hand on a
musket.
"No, time enough for that," replied Christian, shortly.
They pulled right round the island without seeing a single spot more
available for a landing than the place they had first approached.
It was a very little bay, with a small clump of six cocoa-nut trees near
the water's edge on the right, and a single cocoa-nut tree on the left,
about two hundred yards from the others. Above these, on a hill a
little to the westward, there was a grove of the same species.
"We'll have to try it, sir," said John Adams, looking at his leader
inquiringly.
"We're sure to capsize," observed McCoy.
"No matter," said Christian; "we have at last reached _home_, and I'm
bound not to be baffled at the door. Come, Ohoo, you know something
about beaching canoes in a surf; there can't be much difference with a
boat. Get up in the bow and direct me how to steer."
He spoke to one of the native in the imperfect jumble of Otaheitan and
English with which the white men had learned to communicate with the
natives. Ohoo understood, and at once went to the bow of the boat, the
head of which was now directed towards a place in the cliffs where there
seemed to be a small bay or creek. The native gave directions with his
arms right or left, and did not require to speak. Christian steered
with one of the oars instead of the rudder, to give him more power over
the boat.
Soon they began to feel the influence of the in-going wave. It was a
moment of intense anxiety. Christian ordered the men to cease rowing.
Ohoo made a sudden and violent indication with his left arm. Christian
obeyed.
"Give a gentle pull, boys," he said.
They rose as he spoke on the top of a wave so high that they could look
down for a moment on the seething foam that raged between them and the
beach, and Christian was about to order the men to pull hard, when the
native looked back and shook his head excitedly. They had not got
sufficiently into the grasp of that wave; they must wait for the next.
"Back all!" shouted the steersman. The boat slid back into the trough
of the sea, while the wave went roaring inward.
The succeeding wave was soon close astern. It seemed to curl over them,
threatening destruction, but it lifted them, instead, on its high
shoulders. There was a slight appearance of boiling on the surface of
the moving billow as it caught them. It was about to break, and the
boat was fairly in its grasp.
"Give way!" shouted Christian, in a sharp, loud voice.
A moment more, and they were rushing grandly in on a mountain of snow,
with black rocks rising on either side. It was nervous work. A little
to the right or a little to the left, and their frail bark would have
been dashed to pieces. As it was, they were launched upon a strip of
sand and gravel that lay at the foot of the towering cliffs.
"Hurrah!" cried Martin and Brown, in wild excitement, as they leaped
over the bow after the natives, while Christian, Adams, Quintal, and
McCoy went over the stern to prevent the boat being dragged back by the
recoiling foam, and pushed it high and dry on the beach.
"Well done! Here we are at last in Bounty Bay!" exclaimed Christian,
with a look of satisfaction, giving to the spot, for the first time,
that name which it ever afterwards retained. "Make fast the painter--
there; get your arms now, boys, and follow me."
At the head of the bay there was a hill, almost a cliff, up which there
wound something that had the appearance of a path, or the almost dry bed
of a water-course. It was exceedingly steep, but seemed the only route
by which the interior of the island could be reached. Up the tangled
pass for about three hundred yards the explorers advanced in single
file, all except Quintal, who was left in charge of the boat.
"It looks very like a path that has been made by men," said Christian,
pausing to breathe, and turning round when half-way up the height;
"don't you think so, Brown?"
Thus appealed to, the botanist, whose eyes had been enchained by the
luxuriant and lovely herbage of the place, stooped to inspect the path.
"It does look a little like it, sir," he replied, with some caution,
"but it also looks not unlike a water-course. You see it is a little
wet just hereabouts. Isn't it? What think you, Isaac Martin?"
"I don't think nothin' about it," returned Martin, solemnly, turning
over the quid of tobacco that bulged his cheek; "but if I might ventur'
for to give an opinion, I should say it don't much matter what it is,
one way or another."
"That's true, Isaac," said Christian, with a short laugh, as he resumed
his march up the cliff.
On the way they were shaded and kept pleasantly cool by the neighbouring
precipices but on gaining the top they came into a blaze of sunshine,
and then became suddenly aware that they had discovered a perfect
paradise. They stood on a table-land which was thickly covered with
cocoa-nut trees. A quarter of a mile farther on lay a beautiful valley,
the slopes and mounds of which were clothed with trees and beautiful
flowering herbage of various kinds, in clumps and groves of picturesque
form, with open glades and little meadows between, the whole being
backed by a grand mountain-range which traversed the island, and rose to
a height of more than a thousand feet.
"It is heaven upon earth!" exclaimed Brown, as they began to push into
the heart of the lovely scene.
"Humph! It's not all gold that glitters," growled McCoy, with a
sarcastic smile.
"It's pretty real, nevertheless," observed Isaac Martin; "I only hope
there ain't none o' the rascally niggers livin' here."
Christian said nothing, but wandered on, looking about him like one in a
dream.
Besides cocoa-nut palms and other trees and shrubs, there were
banyan-trees, the branches of which dropped downwards to the earth and
there took root, and other large timber-trees, and plantains, bananas,
yams, taro-roots, mulberry, tee-plant, and other fruit-bearing plants in
great profusion. Over this richly varied scene the eyes of William
Brown wandered in rapture.
"Magnificent!" he exclaimed; "a perfect garden!"
"Rich enough soil, eh?" said Martin, turning some of it up with the
point of his shoe.
"Rich enough, ay; couldn't be finer," said Brown. "I should think, from
its deep red colour, that it is chiefly decomposed lava. The island is
evidently volcanic in its origin. I hope we shall find fresh water.
We've not seen much yet, but it's sure to be found somewhere, for such
magnificent vegetation could not exist without it."
"What have we here?" said Christian, stooping to pick up something. "A
stone implement of some kind, like a spear-head, I think. It seems to
me that the island must have been inhabited once, although it does not
appear to be so now."
After they had wandered about for some time, examining the land, and
passing many a commentary, both grave and humorous, they turned to
retrace their steps, when Brown, who had gone on in advance, was heard
to cheer as he waved his hat above his head. He had discovered a
spring. They all hastened towards the spot. It lay like a clear gem in
the hollow of a rock a considerable distance up the mountain. It was
unanimously named "Brown's Pool," but it did not contain much water at
the time.
"Can we do better than dine here?" said Isaac Martin. "There's lots o'
food around us."
This was true, for of the various fruits which grew wild in the island,
the cocoa-nut, plantain, and banana were to be had all the year round.
Brown had brought a small hatchet with him, which enabled them to break
open several cocoa-nuts, whose hard outer husks would not have yielded
easily to a clasp-knife.
While they sat thus enjoying themselves beside Brown's Pool, a small
lizard was observed to run over a rock near to them. It stopped for a
moment to raise its little head and look at the visitors, apparently
with great surprise. A rat was also seen, and chased without success,
by Isaac Martin.
A small species of fly-catcher, of a whitey-brown colour, was likewise
observed, and those creatures, it was afterwards ascertained, were the
only living things to be found on the island, with the exception of a
variety of insects and the innumerable gulls already mentioned.
"Here, then," said Christian, raising a piece of the cocoa-nut shell
filled with water to his lips, "I drink to our health and happiness in
our island home."
There was a strange mingling of pathos with heartiness in his tone,
which did not fail to impress his companions, who cheerfully responded
to the toast.
"I only wish we had something stronger than water to drink it in," said
McCoy.
"Better without strong drink," remarked John Adams, who was naturally a
temperate man.
"Worse without it, _I_ think," growled McCoy, who was naturally
contentious and quarrelsome; "don't it warm the heart and raise the
spirits and strengthen the frame, and--"
"Ay, and clear the brain," interrupted Martin, with one of his most
lugubrious looks, "an' steady the gait, specially w'en one's pretty far
gone, an' beautify the expression, an'--an'--clear the int'leck, an'
(hic) an' gen'r'ly in--in--tenshify sh' powers (hic) of c-converzashun,
eh?"
Martin was a pretty fair mimic, and illustrated his meaning so well, not
only with his tongue but with his solemn countenance, that the whole
party burst into a laugh, with the exception of McCoy, who replied with
the single word, "Bosh!"