The warlike tendencies of Grabantak, the northern savage, had the effect
of compelling Captain Vane and his party to delay for a considerable
time their efforts to reach the Pole. This was all the more distressing
that they had by that time approached so very near to it. A carefully
made observation placed the island of Poloe in latitude 88 degrees 30
minutes 10 seconds, about 90 geographical, or 104 English statute miles
from the Pole.
There was no help for it, however. To have ventured on Grabantak's
territory while war was impending would have been to court destruction.
Captain Vane saw therefore that the only way of advancing his own cause
was to promote peace between the tribes. With a view to this he sought
an interview with the old chief Amalatok.
"Why do you wish to go to war?" he asked.
"I do not wish to go to war," answered the chief, frowning fiercely.
"Why do you go then?" said the Captain in a soothing tone, for he was
very anxious not to rouse the chief's anger; but he was unsuccessful,
for the question seemed to set the old man on fire. He started up,
grinding his teeth and striding about his hut, knocking over pots, oil
cans, and cooking-lamps somewhat like that famous bull which got into a
china shop. Finding the space too small for him he suddenly dropped on
his knees, crept through the low entrance, sprang up, and began to
stride about more comfortably.
The open air calmed him a little. He ceased to grind his teeth, and
stopping in front of the Captain, who had followed him, said in a low
growl, "Do you think I will submit to insult?"
"Some men have occasionally done so with advantage," answered the
Captain.
"Kablunets may do so, Eskimos _never_!" returned the old man, resuming
his hurried walk to and fro, and the grinding of his teeth again.
"If Amalatok were to kill all his enemies--all the men, women and
children," said the Captain, raising a fierce gleam of satisfaction in
the old man's face at the mere suggestion, "and if he were to knock down
all their huts, and burn up all their kayaks and oomiaks, the insult
would still remain, because an insult can only be wiped out by one's
enemy confessing his sin and repenting."
For a few seconds Amalatok stood silent; his eyes fixed on the ground as
if he were puzzled.
"The white man is right," he said at length, "but if I killed them all I
should be avenged."
"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," leaped naturally to the Captain's
mind; but, reflecting that the man before him was a heathen who would
not admit the value of the quotation, he paused a moment or two.
"And what," he then said, "if Grabantak should kill Amalatok and all his
men, and carry away the women and children into slavery, would the
insult be wiped out in that case? Would it not rather be deepened?"
"True, it would; but then we should all be dead--we should not care."
"The _men_ would all be dead, truly," returned the Captain, "but perhaps
the women and children left behind might care. They would also suffer."
"Go, go," said the Eskimo chief, losing temper as he lost ground in the
argument; "what can Kablunets know about such matters? You tell me you
are men of peace; that your religion is a religion of peace. Of course,
then, you understand nothing about war. Go, I have been insulted, and I
_must_ fight."
Seeing that it would be fruitless talking to the old chief while he was
in this frame of mind, Captain Vane left him and returned to his own
hut, where he found Chingatok and Leo engaged in earnest conversation--
Alf and Benjy being silent listeners.
"I'm glad you've come, uncle," said Leo, making room for him on the turf
seat, "because Chingatok and I are discussing the subject of war; and--"
"A strange coincidence," interrupted the Captain. "I have just been
discussing the same subject with old Amalatok. I hope that in showing
the evils of war you are coming better speed with the son than I did
with the father."
"As to that," said Leo, "I have no difficulty in showing Chingatok the
evils of war. He sees them clearly enough already. The trouble I have
with him is to explain the Bible on that subject. You see he has got a
very troublesome inquiring sort of mind, and ever since I have told him
that the Bible is the Word of God he won't listen to my explanations
about anything. He said to me in the quietest way possible, just now,
`Why do you give me _your_ reasons when you tell me the Great Spirit has
given His? I want to know what _He_ says.' Well, now, you know, it is
puzzling to be brought to book like that, and I doubt if Anders
translates well. You understand and speak the language, uncle, better
than he does, I think, so I want you to help me."
"I'll try, Leo, though I am ashamed to say I am not so well read in the
Word myself as I ought to be. What does Chingatok want to know?"
"He wants to _reconcile_ things, of course. That is always the way.
Now I told him that the Great Spirit is good, and does not wish men to
go to war, and that He has written for us a law, namely, that we should
`live peaceably with all men.' Chingatok liked this very much, but then
I had told him before, that the Great Spirit had told His ancient people
the Jews to go and fight His enemies, and take possession of their
lands. Now he regards this as a contradiction. He says--How can a man
live peaceably with all men, and at the same time go to war with some
men, kill them, and take their lands?"
"Ah! Leo, my boy, your difficulty in answering the Eskimo lies in your
own _partial_ quotation of Scripture," said the Captain. Then, turning
to Chingatok, he added, "My young friend did not give you the whole
law--only part of it. The word is written thus:--`if it be _possible_,
as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.' Some times it is
_not_ possible, Chingatok; then we must fight. But the law says keep
from fighting `_as much as you can_.' Mind that, Chingatok, and if you
are ever induced to go to war for the sake of a little island--for the
sake of a little insult,--don't flatter yourself that you are keeping
out of it as much as lieth in you."
"Good, good," said the giant, earnestly; "Blackbeard's words are wise."
"As to the people of God in the long past," continued the Captain, "God
told them to go to war, so they went; but that does not authorise men to
go to war at their own bidding. What is right in the Great Father of
all may be very wrong in the children. God kills men every day, and we
do not blame Him, but if man kills his fellow we hunt him down as a
murderer. In the long past time the Great Father spoke to His children
by His wise and holy men, and sometimes He saw fit to tell them to
fight. With His reasons we have nothing to do. Now, the Great Father
speaks to us by His Book. In it He tells us to live in peace with all
men--if _possible_."
"Good," said the giant with an approving nod, though a perplexed
expression still lingered on his face. "But the Great Father has never
before spoken to me by His Book--never at all to my forefathers."
"He may, however, have spoken by His Spirit within you, Chingatok, I
cannot tell," returned the Captain with a meditative air. "You have
desires for peace and a tendency to forgive. This could not be the work
of the spirit of evil. It must have been that of the Good Spirit."
This seemed to break upon the Eskimo as a new light, and he relapsed
into silence as he thought of the wonderful idea that within his breast
the Great Spirit might have been working in time past although he knew
it not. Then he thought of the many times he had in the past resisted
what he had hitherto only thought of as good feelings; and the sudden
perception that at such times he had been resisting the Father of all
impressed him for the first time with a sensation of guiltiness. It was
some time before the need of a Saviour from sin entered into his mind,
but the ice had been broken, and at last, through Leo's Bible, as read
by him and explained by Captain Vane, Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness,
rose upon his soul and sent in the light for which he had thirsted so
long.
But, as we have said, this effect was not immediate, and he remained in
a state of uncertainty and sadness while the warlike councils and
preparations went on.
Meanwhile Captain Vane set himself earnestly to work to hit on some plan
by which, if possible, to turn the feeling of the Eskimo community in
favour of peace. At first he thought of going alone and unarmed, with
Anders as interpreter, to the land of Grabantak to dissuade that savage
potentate from attacking the Poloes, but the Eskimos pointed out that
the danger of this plan was so great that he might as well kill himself
at once. His own party, also, objected to it so strongly that he gave
it up, and resolved in the meantime to strengthen his position and
increase his influence with the natives among whom his lot was cast, by
some exhibitions of the powers with which science and art had invested
him.