While the dark plots referred to in the last chapter were being hatched,
another life was introduced into the little community in the form of a
third child to Fletcher Christian,--a little girl. Much though this man
loved his two boys, a tenderer, though not, perhaps, a deeper region of
his heart was touched by his daughter. He at once named her Mary. Who
can tell the multitude of old memories and affections which were revived
by this name? Might it not have been that a mother, a sister, some lost
though not forgotten one, came forcibly to mind, and accounted, in some
degree at least, for the wealth of affection which he lavished on the
infant from the day of her birth? We cannot tell, but certain it is
that there never was a more devoted father than this man, who in England
had been branded with all that was ferocious, mean, desperate,--this
hardened outlaw, this chief of the mutineers.
Otaheitan mothers are not particular in the matter of infant costume.
Little Mary's dress may be described in one word--nothing. Neither are
such mothers much troubled with maternal anxieties. Long before a
European baby would have been let out of the hands of mother or nurse,
even for a moment, little Molly Christian was committed to the care of
her delighted father, who daily bore her off to a favourite resort among
the cliffs, and there played with her.
One day, on reaching his place of retirement, he was surprised to find a
man in possession before him. Drawing nearer, he observed that the man
also had a baby in his arms.
"Why, I declare, it's Edward Young!" he exclaimed, on going up.
"Of course it is," said the midshipman, smiling, as he held his own
little daughter Jane aloft. "Do you think you are to have it all to
yourself? And do you imagine that yours is the only baby in the world
worth looking at?"
"You are right, Young," returned Christian, with the nearest approach to
a laugh he had made for years. "Come now," he added, sitting down on a
rock, and placing little Moll tenderly in the hollow of his left arm, so
as to make her face his friend, "let's set them up, and compare notes;
isn't she a beauty?"
"No doubt of it whatever; and isn't mine ditto?" asked the midshipman,
sitting down, and placing little Poll in a similar position on his right
arm.
"But, I say, if you and I are to get on amicably, we mustn't praise our
own babies. Let it be an agreement that you praise my Poll, and I'll
praise your Moll. Don't they make lovely _pendants_! Come, let us
change them for a bit."
Christian agreeing to this, the infants were exchanged, and thereupon
these two fathers lay down on the soft grass, and perpetrated practical
jokes upon, and talked as much ineffable nonsense to, those two
whitey-brown balls, as if they had been splendid specimens of orthodox
pink and white. It was observed, however, by the more sagacious of the
wondering gulls that circled round them, that a state of perfect
satisfaction was not attained until the babies were again exchanged, and
each father had become exclusively engrossed with his own particular
ball.
"Now, I say, Fletcher," remarked Young, rising, and placing himself
nearer his friend, "it's all very well for you and me to waste our time
and make fools of ourselves here; but I didn't merely come to show off
my Polly. I came to ask what you think of that rumour we heard last
night, that there has been some sort of plotting going on among the
Otaheitan men."
"I don't think anything of it at all," replied Christian, whose
countenance at once assumed that look of gravity which had become
habitual to him since the day of the mutiny. "They have had too good
reason to plot, poor fellows, but I have such faith in their native
amiability of disposition, that I don't believe they will ever think of
anything beyond a brief show of rebellion."
"I also have had faith in their amiability," rejoined Young; "but some
of us, I fear, have tried them too severely. I don't like the looks
they sometimes give us now. We did wrong at the first in treating them
as servants."
"No doubt we did, but it would have been difficult to do otherwise,"
said Christian; "they fell so naturally into the position of servants of
their own accord, regarding us, as they did, as superior beings. We
should have considered their interests when we divided the land, no
doubt. However, that can't well be remedied now."
"Perhaps not," remarked Young, in an absent tone. "It would be well,
however, to take some precautions."
"Come, we can discuss this matter as we go home," said Christian,
rising. "I have to work in my yam-plot to-day, and must deliver Molly
to her mother."
They both rose and descended the slope that led to the village, chatting
as they went.
Now, although the native men were of one mind as to the slaying of the
Englishmen, they seemed to have some difference of opinion as to the
best method of putting their bloody design in execution. Menalee,
especially, had many objections to make to the various proposals of his
countrymen. In fact, this wily savage was deceitful. Like Quintal and
McCoy among the whites, he was among the blacks a bad specimen of
humanity.
The consequence was that Timoa and Nehow, being resolved to submit no
longer to the harsh treatment they had hitherto received, ran away from
their persecutors, and took refuge in the bush.
To those who have travelled much about this world, it may sound absurd
to talk of hiding away in an island of such small size; but it must be
borne in mind that the miniature valleys and hills of the interior were,
in many places, very rugged and densely clothed with jungle, so that it
was, in reality, about as difficult to catch an agile native among them
as to catch a rabbit in a whin-field.
Moreover, the two desperate men carried off two muskets and ammunition,
so that it was certain to be a work of danger to attempt their
recapture. In these circumstances, Christian and Young thought it best
to leave them alone for a time.
"You may be sure," said the former, as they joined their comrades, "that
they'll soon tire of rambling, especially when their ammunition is
spent."
Quintal, who stood with all the other men by the forge watching John
Williams as he wrought at a piece of red-hot iron, and overheard the
remark, did not, he said, feel so sure of that. Them niggers was fond
o' their liberty, and it was his opinion they should get up a grand
hunt, and shoot 'em down off-hand. There would be no peace till that
was done.
"There would be no peace even after that was done," said Isaac Martin,
with a leer, "unless we shot you along wi' them."
"It's impossible either to shoot or drown Matt Quintal, for he's born to
be hanged," said McCoy, sucking viciously at his cocoa-nut-loaded pipe,
which did not seem to draw well.
"That's true," cried Mills, with a laugh, in which all the party except
Christian joined more or less sarcastically according to humour.
"Oh, mother," exclaimed Otaheitan Sally, going into her hut on tiptoe a
few minutes later, with her great eyes dilated in horror, "the white
mens is talkin' of shootin' Timoa and Nehow!"
"Never mind, dear," replied her mother in her own language, "it's only
talk. They'll never do such a thing. I'm sure Mr Young did not agree
to help in such a deed, did he?"
"O no, mother," answered Sally, with tremendous emphasis; "he said it
would be very _very_, wicked to do such tings."
"So it would, dear. No fear. It's only talk."
Satisfied with this assurance, Sally went off with a cleared visage to
superintend some operation in connection with her ever-increasing
infantry charge, probably to pay some special attention to her favourite
Charlie, or to chaff "that booby" Thursday October, though, to say
truth, Thursday was no booby, but a smart intelligent fellow.
The very next day after that, Timoa and Nehow came down to Edward Young
as he was at work alone in his yam-field. This field was at a
considerable distance from the settlement, high up on the mountain-side.
The two men had left their weapons behind them.
"We's comed for give you a helpin' hand, Missr Yong, if you no lay hands
on us," said Nehow.
"I have no wish to lay hands on you," replied Young; "besides, I have no
right to do so. You know I never regarded you as slaves, nor did I
approve of your bad treatment. But let me advise you to rejoin us
peaceably, and I promise to do what I can to make things go easier."
"Nebber!" exclaimed Nehow, fiercely.
"Well, it will be the worse for yourselves in the long-run," said Young,
"for Quintal and McCoy will be sure to go after you at last and shoot
you."
The two men looked at each other when he said that, and smiled
intelligently.
"However, if you choose to help me now," continued Young, "I'll be
obliged to you, and will pay you for what you do."
The men set to work with a will, for they were fond of the kindly
midshipman; but they kept a bright look-out all the time, lest any of
the other Englishmen should come up and find them there.
For two or three evenings in succession Timoa and Nehow came to Young's
field and acted in this way. Young made no secret of the fact, and
Quintal, on hearing of it, at once suggested that he and McCoy should go
up and lie in ambush for them.
"If you do," said Young, with indignation, "I'll shoot you both. I
don't jest. You may depend on it, if I find either of you fellows
skulking near my field when these men are at work there, your lives
won't be worth a sixpence."
At this Quintal and McCoy both laughed, and said they were jesting.
Nevertheless, while walking home together after that conversation, they
planned the carrying out of their murderous intention.
Thus, with plot and counterplot, did the mutineers and Otaheitans render
their lives wretched. What with the bitter enmity existing between the
whites and blacks, and the mutual jealousies among themselves, both
parties were kept in a state of perpetual anxiety, and the beautiful
isle, which was fitted by its Maker to become a paradise, was turned
into a place of torment.
Sometimes the other native men, Tetaheite and Menalee, joined Nehow and
Timoa in working in Young's garden, and afterwards went with them into
the bush, where they planned the attack which was afterwards made.
At last the lowering cloud was fully charged, and the thunderbolt fell.