"Just so," said Christian, as he stooped to refill the cocoa-nut shell;
"you may be said to have reduced that spirited question to an essence,
which is much beyond proof, and closed it; we will therefore return to
the shore, get on board as quickly as possible, and make arrangements
for anchoring in the bay."
"I doubt it's too deep for anchoring," remarked Adams, as they walked
down the hill.
"Well, then, we shall run the ship on shore," said Christian, curtly,
"for here we must remain. There is no other island that I know of in
these regions. Besides, this one seems the very thing we want. It has
wood and water in abundance; fruits and roots of many kinds; a splendid
soil, if we may believe our eyes, to say nothing of Brown's opinion; bad
anchorage for ships, great difficulty and some danger in landing even in
fine weather, and impossible to land at all, I should think, in bad;
beautiful little valleys and hills; rugged mountains with passes so
difficult that a few resolute men might defy a host, and caves to which
we might retreat and sell our lives dearly if hard pushed. What more
could we wish for?"
In a short time they reached the little narrow strip of shingly beach
where the boat had been left in charge of Quintal. Here they had to
encounter the great difficulty of forcing their way through the surf
which had borne them shoreward in such grand style. The chief danger
lay in the liability of the boat to be caught by the bow, turned
broadside to the great tumbling billows, and overturned. Safety and
success lay in keeping the boat's bow straight "end-on" to the seas, and
pulling hard. To accomplish this, Fletcher Christian again took an oar
to steer with, in preference to the rudder. Besides being the most
powerful man of the party, he was the best boatman, and the most agile
in his movements.
"Steady, now!" he said, as the boat lay in the seething foam partially
sheltered by a rock, while the men sat with oars out, ready for instant
action.
A bigger wave than usual had just hurled itself with a thunderous roar
on the reverberating cliffs, and the great sheet of foaming water had
just reached that momentary pause which indicated the turning-point
previous to the backward rush, when Christian shouted--
"Give way!"
The boat leaped out, was kept end-on by a powerful stroke of the
steersman, rushed on the back-draught as if down a cataract, and met the
succeeding billow fairly. The bow was thrown up so high that it seemed
as if the boat were standing on end, and must inevitably be thrown right
over, but the impetus given by the willing men forced her half through
and half over the crest of the watery mountain.
"With a will, boys, with a will!" cried Christian.
Another moment and they slid down the billow's back into the trough
between the seas. A few more energetic strokes carried them over the
next wave. After that the danger was past, and in less than
half-an-hour they were once more on board the _Bounty_.