Proverbial philosophy teaches us that misfortunes seldom come singly.
Newfoundland, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, does not seem
to have been a place of refuge from the operation of that law.
On the morning of the day in which the explorers meant to commence the
return journey, a storm of unwonted rigour burst upon them, and swept
over the land with devastating violence--overturning trees, snapping off
mighty limbs, uplifting the new-fallen snow in great masses, and hurling
it in wild confusion into space, so that earth and sky seemed to
commingle in a horrid chaos.
The first intimation the travellers had of the impending storm was the
rending of a limb of the tree under which they reposed. The way in
which Oliver Trench received the rude awakening might, in other
circumstances, have raised a laugh, for he leaped up like a harlequin,
with a glare of sudden amazement, and, plunging headlong away from the
threatened danger, buried himself in the snow. From this he instantly
emerged with an aspect similar to that of "Father Christmas," minus the
good-natured serenity of that liberal-hearted personage.
"Daddy!" he gasped, "are you there?"
The question was not uncalled for, the captain having made a plunge like
that of his son, but unlike his son, having found it difficult to
extricate himself quickly.
Paul and Hendrick had also sprung up, but the latter, remaining close to
the stem of the tree, kept his eye watchfully on the branches.
"Come here--quick!" he cried--"the stem is our safeguard. Look out!"
As he spoke his voice was drowned in a crash which mingled with the
shrieking blast, and a great branch fell to the ground. Fortunately the
wind blew it sufficiently to one side to clear the camp. The air was so
charged with snow particles that the captain and his son seemed to
stagger out of a white mist as they returned to their comrades who were
clinging to the weather-side of the tree.
"D'ye think it will go by the board?" asked the captain, as he observed
Hendrick's anxious gaze fixed on the swaying tree.
"It is a good stout stick," replied his friend, "but the blast is
powerful."
The captain looked up at the thick stem with a doubtful expression, and
then turned to Hendrick with a nautical shake of the head.
"I never saw a stick," he said, "that would stand the like o' that
without fore an' back stays, but it may be that shoregoin' sticks are--"
He stopped abruptly, for a terrific crash almost stunned him, as the
tree by which they stood went down, tearing its way through the adjacent
branches in its fall, and causing the whole party to stagger.
"Keep still!" shouted Hendrick in a voice of stern command, as he
glanced critically at the fallen tree.
"Yes," he added, "it will do. Come here."
He scrambled quickly among the crushed branches until he stood directly
under the prostrate stem, which was supported by its roots and stouter
branches. "Here," said he, "we are safe."
His comrades glanced upwards with uneasy expressions that showed they
did not quite share his feelings of safety.
"Seems to me, Master Hendrick," roared the captain, for the noise of the
hurly-burly around was tremendous, "that it was safer where we were.
What if the stem should sink further and flatten us?"
"As long as we stood to windward of it" replied Hendrick, "we were safe
from the tree itself, though in danger from surrounding trees, but now,
with this great trunk above us, other trees can do us no harm. As for
the stem sinking lower, it can't do that until this solid branch that
supports it becomes rotten. Come now," he added, "we will encamp here.
Give me the axe, Oliver, and the three of you help to carry away the
branches as I chop them off."
In little more than an hour a circular space was cleared of snow and
branches, and a hut was thus formed, with the great tree-stem for a
ridge-pole, and innumerable branches, great and small, serving at once
for walls and supports. Having rescued their newly made snow-shoes and
brought them, with their other property, into this place of refuge, they
sat or reclined on their deerskins to await the end of the storm. This
event did not, however, seem to be near. Hour after hour they sat,
scarcely able to converse because of the noise, and quite unable to
kindle a fire. Towards evening, however, the wind veered round a
little, and a hill close to their camp sheltered them from its direct
force. At the same time, an eddy in the gale piled up the snow on the
fallen tree, till it almost buried them; converting their refuge into a
sort of snow-hut, with a branchy framework inside. This change also
permitted them to light a small fire and cook some venison, so that they
made a sudden bound from a state of great discomfort and depression, to
one of considerable comfort and hilarity.
"A wonderful change," observed Trench, looking round the now ruddy walls
of their curious dwelling with great satisfaction. "About the quickest
built house on record, I should think--and the strongest."
"Yes, daddy, and built under the worst of circumstances too. What
puzzles me is that such a tree should have given way at all."
"Don't you see, Olly," said Paul, "that some of its roots are hollow,
rotten at the core?"
"Ah! boy--same with men as trees," remarked the captain, moralising.
"Rotten at the core--sure to come down, sooner or later. Lay that to
heart, Olly."
"If ever I do come down, daddy, I hope it won't be with so much noise.
Why, it went off like a cannon."
"A cannon!" echoed the captain. "More like as if the main-mast o' the
world had gone by the board!"
"What if the gale should last a week?" asked Olly.
"Then we shall have to stay here a week," returned Hendrick; "but
there's no fear of that. The fiercer the gale the sooner the calm. It
won't delay us long."
The hunter was right. The day following found the party _en route_,
with a clear sky, bright sun, and sharp calm air. But the art of
snow-shoe walking, though easy enough, is not learned in an hour.
"They're clumsy things to look at--more like small boats flattened than
anything else," remarked the captain, when Hendrick had fastened the
strange but indispensable instruments on his feet--as he had already
fastened those of the other two.
"Now look at me," said Hendrick. "I'll take a turn round of a few
hundred yards to show you how. The chief thing you have to guard
against is treading with one shoe on the edge of the other, at the same
time you must not straddle. Just pass the inner edge of one shoe over
the inner edge of the other, and walk very much as if you had no
snow-shoes on at all--so."
He stepped off at a round pace, the broad and long shoes keeping him so
well on the surface of the snow that he sank only a few inches.
"Why, it seems quite easy," observed the captain.
"Remarkably so," said Paul.
"Anybody can do that," cried Oliver.
"Now then, up anchor--here goes!" said the captain.
He stepped out valiantly; took the first five paces like a trained
walker; tripped at the sixth step, and went headlong down at the
seventh, with such a wild plunge that his anxious son, running hastily
to his aid, summarily shared his fate. Paul burst into an
uncontrollable fit of laughter, lost his balance, and went down--as the
captain said--stern foremost!
It was a perplexing commencement, but the ice having been broken, they
managed in the course of a few hours to advance with only an occasional
fall, and, before the next day had closed, walked almost as easily as
their guide.
This was so far satisfactory. Our three travellers were quite charmed
with their proficiency in the new mode of progression, when a sudden
thaw set in and damped not only their spirits but their shoes. The
netting and lines became flabby. The moccasins, with which Hendrick had
supplied them from the bundle he carried for his own use, were reduced
to something of the nature of tripe. The damp snow, which when rendered
powdery by frost had fallen through the net-work of the shoes, now fell
upon it in soft heaps and remained there, increasing the weight so much
as to wrench joints and strain muscles, while the higher temperature
rendered exertion fatiguing and clothing unbearable.
"I wonder how long I can stand this without my legs coming off," said
poor Oliver, giving way at last to a feeling of despair.
"Seems to me to get hotter and hotter," growled his father, as he wiped
the perspiration from his face with the tail of his coat--having lost
the solitary handkerchief with which he had landed.
"I'm glad the thaw is so complete," said Hendrick, "for it may perhaps
clear away the snow altogether. It is too early for winter to begin in
earnest. I would suggest now that we encamp again for a few days, to
see whether the weather is really going to change; hunt a little, and
rest a while. What say you?"
With a sigh of contentment the captain answered, "Amen!" Paul said,
"Agreed!" and Oliver cried, "Hurrah!" at the same time throwing his cap
in the air.
Two days after that they were enabled to continue the journey on
snowless ground, with the unwieldy shoes slung at their backs.
The change, although decidedly an improvement was not perfect, for the
ground had been made soft, the rivers and rills had been swollen, and
the conditions altogether were rendered much less agreeable than they
had been on the outward journey. The travellers enjoyed themselves
greatly, notwithstanding, and the captain added many important jottings
in what he styled the log-book of his memory as to bearings of salient
points, distances, etcetera, while Paul took notes of the fauna and
flora, soils, products, and geological features of the country, on the
same convenient tablets.
"There can be no doubt about it," said the latter one morning, as he
surveyed the country around him.
"No doubt about what?" asked the captain.
"About the suitableness of this great island for the abode of man,"
answered Paul; and then, continuing to speak with enthusiasm, "the
indication of minerals is undoubted. See you that serpentine deposit
mingled with a variety of other rocks, varying in colour from darkest
green to yellow, and from the translucent to the almost transparent?
Wherever that is seen, there we have good reason to believe that copper
ore will be found."
"If so," observed Hendrick, "much copper ore will be found on the
sea-coast, on the north side of the island, for I have seen the same
rocks in many places there."
"But there are indications of other metals," continued Paul, "which I
perceive; though my acquaintance with geological science is
unfortunately not sufficient to make me certain, still, I think I can
see that, besides copper, nickel, lead, and iron may be dug from the
mines of Newfoundland; indeed, I should not wonder if silver and gold
were also to be found. Of the existence of coal-beds there can be no
doubt, though what their extent may be I cannot guess; but of this I am
certain, that the day cannot be far distant when the mineral and forest
wealth of this land shall be developed by a large and thriving
population."
"It may be as you say, Paul," remarked Captain Trench, with a dubious
shake of the head; "but if you had lived as long as I have, and seen as
much of the world and its ways, you wouldn't be quite so sanguine about
the thriving population or the speedy development. You see, hitches are
apt to occur in the affairs of men which cause wonderful delays, and
tanglements come about that take years to unravel."
If Captain Trench had been a professional prophet he could hardly have
hit the nail more fairly on the head, for he indicated exactly what bad
government has actually done for Newfoundland--only he might have said
centuries instead of years--for its internal resources, even at the
present time, remain to a very great extent undeveloped. However, not
being a professional prophet, but merely an ancient mariner, the captain
wound up his remark with a recommendation to hoist all sail and lay
their course, as there was no saying how long the mild weather would
last.
For several days after this they plodded steadily onward, sometimes over
the mountains or across the grassy plains, where migrating reindeer
supplied them with abundant venison; at other times among lakelets and
streams, whose excellent fish and innumerable wildfowl provided them
with variety for the table and music for the ear. Now and then they saw
the great moose-deer, which rivals the horse in size, and once Hendrick
shot one, at a time when they chanced to have consumed their last
caribou steak, and happened to enter a great forest without anything for
supper in their wallets. For, occasionally, circumstances may render
men supperless even when surrounded by plenty.
At last they reached the great lake, with its beautiful islands, where
Hendrick had set up his home.
The hunter became very silent as they drew near to its shores.
"You seem anxious," remarked Paul, as they approached the lake. "Have
you reason to fear aught?"
"None--none," replied his friend quickly; "but I never return after a
long absence without feeling anxious."
A loud halloo soon brought the echoing answer in the shrill voice of
little Oscar, whose canoe quickly shot out from the creek. It was
speedily followed by the deerskin boat, and, when near enough to be
heard, the reply to Hendrick's anxious inquiry was the gratifying
assurance--"All's well!"