Why should I linger over the sufferings of the miserable week that
followed our capture? Hauled back to my former home, I was again made
the object of the mocking reverence of my captors. Ah, how often, in my
reckless youth, have my serious aunts warned me that I "would be a goat
at the last"! Too true, too true; now I was to be a scapegoat, to be
driven forth, as these ignorant and strangely perverted people believed,
with the sins of the community on my head, those sins which would,
according to their _miserable superstition_, be expiated by the death,
and consumed away by the burning, of myself and William Bludger!
The week went by, as all weeks must, and at length came the solemn day
which they call Thargeelyah, the day more sacred than any other to their
idol, Apollon. Long before sunrise the natives were astir; indeed, I do
not think they went to bed at all, but spent the night in hideous orgies.
I know that, tossing sleepless through the weary hours, I heard the
voices of young men and women singing on the hillsides, and among the
myrtle groves which are holy to the most disreputable of their deities, a
female, named Aphrodighty. Harps were twanging too, and I heard the
refrain of one of the native songs, "To-night they love who never loved
before; to-night let him who loves love all the more." The words have
unconsciously arranged themselves, even in English, as poetry; those who
know Thomas Gowles best, best know how unlikely it is that he would
willingly dabble in the worldly art of verse-fashioning. Think of my
reflections with a painful, shameful, and, above all, _undeserved_ death
before me, while all the fragrant air was ringing with lascivious
merriment. My impression is that, as all the sins of the year were, in
their opinion, to be got rid of next day, and tossed into the sea with
the ashes of Bludger and myself, the natives had made up their minds--an
eligible opportunity now presenting itself--to be _as wicked as they knew
how_. Alas! though I have not dwelt on this painful aspect of their
character, they "knew how" only too well.
The sun rose at last, and flooded the island, when I perceived that, from
every side, crowds of revellers were pressing together to the place where
I lay in fetters. They had a wild, dissipated air, flowers were wreathed
and twisted in their wet and dewy locks, which floated on the morning
wind. Many of the young men were merely dressed--if "dressed" it could
be called--in the skins of leopards, panthers, bears, goats, and deer,
tossed over their shoulders. In their hands they all held wet, dripping
branches of fragrant trees, many of them tipped with pine cones, and
wreathed with tendrils of the vine. Others carried switches, of which I
divined the use only too clearly, and the women were waving over their
heads tame serpents, which writhed and wriggled hideously. It was an
awful spectacle!
I was dragged forth by these revellers; many of them were intoxicated,
and, in a moment--I blush even now to think of it--I was stripped naked!
Nothing was left to me but my hat and spectacles, which, for some
religious reason I presume, I was, fortunately, allowed to retain. Then
I was driven with blows, which hurt a great deal, into the market-place,
and up to the great altar, where William Bludger, also naked, was lying
more dead than alive.
"William," I said solemnly, "what cheer?" He did not answer me. Even in
that supreme moment it was not difficult to discern that William had been
looking on the wine when it was red, and had not confined himself to mere
ocular observation. I tried to make him remember he was an Englishman,
that the honour of our country was in our hands, and that we should die
with the courage and dignity befitting our race. These were strange
consolations and exhortations for _me_ to offer in such an extremity,
but, now it had come to the last pass, it is curious what mere worldly
thoughts hurried through my mind.
My words were wasted: the natives seized William and forced him to his
feet. Then, while a hymn was sung, they put chains of black and white
figs round our necks, and thrust into our hands pieces of cheese, figs,
and certain peculiar herbs. This formed part of what may well be called
the "Ritual" of this cruel race. May Ritualists heed my words, and turn
from the errors of their ways!
Too well I knew all that now awaited us. All that I had seen and
shuddered at, on the day of my landing on the island, was now practised
on self and partner. We had to tread the long paved way to the distant
cove at the river's mouth; we had to endure the lashes from the switches
of wild fig. The priestess, carrying the wooden idol, walked hard by us,
and cried out, whenever the blows fell fewer or lighter, that the idol
was waxing too heavy for her to bear. Then they redoubled their
cruelties.
It was a wonderfully lovely day. In the blue heaven there was not a
cloud. We had reached the river's mouth, and were fast approaching the
stakes that had already been fixed in the sands for our execution; nay,
the piles of green wood were already being heaped up by the young men.
There was, there could be, no hope, and, weary and wounded, I almost
welcomed the prospect of death, however cruel.
Suddenly the blows ceased to shower on me, and I heard a cry from the
lips of the old priest, and, turning about, I saw that the eyes of all
the assembled multitude were fixed on a point on the horizon.
Looking automatically in the direction towards which they were gazing, I
beheld--oh joy, oh wonder!--I beheld a long trail of cloud floating level
with the sea! It was the smoke of a steamer!
"Too late, too late," I thought, and bitterly reflected that, had the
vessel appeared but an hour earlier, the attention of my cruel captors
might have been diverted to such a spectacle as they had never seen
before.
But it was _not_ too late.
Perched on a little hillock, and straining his gaze to the south, the old
priest was speaking loudly and excitedly. The crowd deserted us, and
gathered about him.
I threw myself on the sand, weary, hopeless, parched with thirst, and
racked with pain. Bludger was already lying in a crumpled mass at my
feet. I think he had fainted.
I retained consciousness, but that was all. The fierceness of the sun
beat upon me, the sky and sea and shore swam before me in a mist.
Presently I heard the voice of the priest, raised in the cadences which
he favoured when he was reading texts out of their sacred books, if books
they could be called. I looked at him with a faint curiosity, and
perceived that he held in his hands the wooden casket, adorned with
strangely carved bands of gold and ivory, which I had seen on the night
of my arrival on the island.
From this he had selected the old grey scraps of metal, scratched, as I
was well aware, with what they conceived to be ancient prophecies.
I was now sufficiently acquainted with the language to understand the
verses which he was chanting, and which I had already heard, without
comprehending them. They ran thus in English:
"But when a man, having a chimney pot on his head, and four eyes, appears
in Scheria, and when a ship without sails also comes, sailing without
wind, and breathing smoke, then shall destruction fall on the island."
He had not ended when it was plain, even to those ignorant people, that
the prophecy was about to be fulfilled. From the long, narrow, black
line of the steamer, which had approached us with astonishing speed,
"sailing without wind, and breathing smoke," there burst six flashes of
fire, followed by a peal like thunder, and six tall fountains, as the
natives fancied, of sea-water rose and fell in the bay, where the shells
had lighted.
It was plain that the commander of the vessel, finding himself in unknown
seas, and hard by an unvisited country, was determined to strike terror
and command respect by this salute.
The noise of the broadside had scarcely died away, when the natives fled,
disappeared like magic, leaving many of their garments behind them.
They were making for their town, which was concealed from the view of the
rapidly nearing steamer. From her mast I could now see, flaunting the
slight breeze, the dear old Union Jack, and the banner of the Salvation
Navy! {95}
My resolution was taken in a moment. Bludger had now recovered
consciousness, and was picking up heart. I thrust into his hands one of
the branches with which we had been flogged, fastened to it a cloak of
one of the natives, bade him keep waving it from a rocky promontory, and,
rushing down to the sea, I leaped in, and swam with all my strength
towards the vessel. Weak as I was, my new hopes gave me strength, and
presently, from the crest of a wave, I saw that the people of the steamer
were lowering a boat, and rowing towards me.
In a few minutes they had reached me, my countrymen's hands were in mine.
They dragged me on board; they pulled back to their vessel; and I stood,
entirely undressed, on the deck of a British ship!
So long had I lived among people heedless of modesty that I was rushing,
with open arms, towards the officer on the quarter-deck, who was dressed
as a bishop, when I heard a scream of horror. I turned round in time to
see the bishop's wife fleeing precipitately to the cabin, and driving her
children and governess in front of her.
Then all the horror of the situation flooded my heart and brain, and I
fell fainting on the quarter-deck.
When I recovered my consciousness, I found myself plainly but comfortably
dressed in the ordinary costume, except the hat, which lay beside me, of
a dean in the Church of England. My wounds had been carefully attended
to, William Bludger had been taken on board, and I was surrounded by the
kind faces of my benefactors, including the bishop's consort. My
apologies for my somewhat sudden and unceremonious intrusion were cut
short by the arrival of tea and a slight collation suitable for an
invalid. In an hour I was walking the quarter-deck with the bishop in
command of the William Wilberforce, armed steam yacht, of North Shields,
fitted out for the purposes of the Salvation Navy. From the worthy
prelate in command of the William Wilberforce, I learned much concerning
his own past career and the nature of his enterprise, as I directed the
navigation of the vessel through the shoals and reefs which lay about the
harbour of the island.
The bishop (a purely brevet title) would refresh his memory, now and
then, from a penny biography of himself with which he was provided, and
the following, in brief, is a record of his life and adventures:--
Thomas Sloggins (that was his name), from his earliest infancy, had been
possessed with a passion for _doing good to others_, a passion, alas! but
too rarely reciprocated. I pass over many affecting details of his
adventures as a ministering child: how he endeavoured to win his father
from tobacco by breaking his favourite pipes; how he strove to wean his
elder brother from cruel field-sports, by stuffing the joints of his
fishing-rod with gravel; with many other touching incidents.
Being almost entirely uneducated, young Sloggins, when he reached man's
estate, conceived that he would most benefit his fellow-creatures by
combining the professions of the pulpit and the press--by preaching on
Sundays and at odd times, while he acted as outdoor reporter to The Rowdy
Puritan on every lawful day. Being a man of great earnestness and
enterprise, he soon rose in the ranks of the Salvation Navy; and at one
time commanded an evangelical barge on the benighted canals of our
country. Finally, he made England almost too hot to hold him, by the
original forms of his benevolence, while, at the same time, he acquired
the utmost esteem and confidence of many wealthy philanthropists and
excellent, if impulsive, ladies. These good people provided him with
that well-equipped and armed steam yacht, the William Wilberforce, which
he manned with a crew of converted characters (they certainly looked as
if they must have needed a great deal of converting), and he had now for
months been cruising in the South Pacific. A local cyclone had driven
the William Wilberforce out of her reckoning, and hence the appearance of
that vessel in the very nick of time to achieve my rescue.
When the bishop had finished his story, I briefly recapitulated to him my
own adventures, and we agreed that the conversion of the island must be
our earliest task. To begin with, we steered into the harbour, where a
vast multitude of the natives were assembled in arms, and awaited our
approach with a threatening demeanour. Our landing was opposed, but a
few well-directed volleys from a Gardiner gun (which did not jam) caused
the hostile force to disperse, and we landed in great state. Marching on
the chief's house, we were received with an abject submission that I had
scarcely expected. The people were absolutely cowed, more by the
fulfilment of the prophecy, I think, than even by the execution done by
our Gardiner machine gun. At the bishop's request, I delivered a
harangue in the native tongue, declaring that we only required the
British flag to be hoisted on the palace, and the immediate disendowment
of the heathen church as in those parts established. I was listened to
in uneasy silence; but my demand for lodgings in the palace was acceded
to; and, in a few hours, the bishop, with his wife and children, were
sumptuously housed under the roof of the chief. The ladies of the
chief's family showed great curiosity in watching and endeavouring to
converse with our friends. I was amused to see how soon the
light-hearted islanders appeared to forget their troubles and
apprehensions. Doto, in particular, became quite devoted to the
prelate's elder daughter (the youngest of the bishop's family was
suffering from measles), and would never be out of her company. Thus all
seemed to fare merrily; presents were brought to us--flowers, fruit, the
feathers of rare birds, and ornaments of native gold were literally
showered upon the ladies of the party. The chief promised to call a
meeting of his counsellors on the morrow, and all seemed going on well,
when, alas! measles broke out in the palace. The infant whom I had
presented to Doto--the infant whom I had found on the mountain side--was
the first sufferer. Then Doto caught the disease herself, then her
mother, then the chief. In vain we attempted to nurse and tend them; in
vain we expended the contents of the ship's medicine chest on the
invalids. The malady having, as it were, an entirely new field to work
upon, raged like the most awful pestilence. Through all ranks of the
people it spread like wild-fire; many died, none could be induced to take
the most ordinary precautions. The natives became, as it were, mad under
the torments of fever and the burning heat of the unaccustomed malady;
they rushed about, quite unclad, for the sake of the deceptive coolness,
and hundreds of them cast themselves into the sea and into the river.
It was my sad lot to see my dear Doto die--the first of the sufferers in
the palace to succumb to the disease. Meanwhile, the bishop and myself
being entirely absorbed in attendance on the sick, the crew of the
William Wilberforce, I deeply regret to say, escaped from all restraint,
and forgot what was due to themselves and their profession. They
revelled with the most abandoned of the natives, and disease and drink
ravaged the once peaceful island. Every sign of government and order
vanished. The old priest built a huge pile of firewood, and laying
himself there with the images of the gods, set fire to the whole, and
perished with his own false religion.
After this event, the island ceased to be a safe residence for ourselves.
Among the mountains, as I learned, where the pestilence had not yet
penetrated, the shepherds and the wilder tribes were gathering in arms.
One night we stole on board the William Wilberforce, leaving the city
desolate, filled with the smoke of funeral pyres, and the wailing of men
and women. There was a dreadful sultry stillness in the air, and all day
long wild beasts had been dashing madly into the sea, and the sky had
been obscured by flights of birds. On all the crests of the circle of
surrounding hills we saw, in the growing darkness, the beacons and camp
fires of the insurgents from the interior. Just before the dawn the
William Wilberforce was attacked by the whole mass of the natives in
boats and rafts. But we had not been unprepared for this movement, nor
were the resources of science unequal to the occasion. We had surrounded
the William Wilberforce with a belt, or cordon, of torpedoes, and as each
of the assaulting boats touched the boom, a terrible explosion shook the
water into fountains of foam, and the waves were strewn with scalded,
wounded, and mutilated men. Meanwhile, we bombarded the city and the
harbour, and the night passed amid the most awful sounds and sights--fire,
smoke, yells of anger and pain, cries of the native leaders encouraging
their men, and shouts from our own people, who had to repel the boarders,
when the boom was at last forced, with pikes and cutlasses. Just before
the dawn a strange thing happened. A great glowing coal, as it seemed,
fell with a hissing crash on the deck of the William Wilberforce, and
others dropped, with a strange sound and a dreadful odour of burning, in
the water all around us. Had the natives discovered some mode of
retaliating on our use of firearms?
I looked in the direction of their burning city, and beheld, on the sharp
peak of the highest mountain (now visible in the grey morning light), an
object like a gigantic pine-tree of fire. The blazing trunk rose, slim
and straight, from the mountain crest, and, at a vast height, developed a
wilderness of burning branches. Fearful hollow sounds came from the
hill, its sides were seamed with racing cataracts of living lava, of
coursing and leaping flames, which rolled down with incredible swiftness
and speed towards the doomed city. Then the waters of the harbour were
smitten and shaken, and the William Wilberforce rocked and heaved as in
the most appalling storm, though all the winds were silent, while a
mighty wave swept far inland towards the streams of fire. There was no
room for doubt; a volcanic eruption was occurring, and a submarine
earthquake, as not uncommonly happens, had also taken place. Our only
hope was in immediate flight. Presently steam was got up, and we steamed
away into the light of the glowing east, leaving behind us only a burning
island, and a fire like an ugly dawn flaring in the western sky.
When we returned in the evening, Boothland--as I may now indeed call it,
for Scheria has ceased to be--was one black smoking cinder.
Hardly a tree or a recognizable rock remained to show that this had once
been a peaceful home of men. The oracle, or prophecy of the old priest,
had been horribly, though, of course, quite accidentally, fulfilled.
* * * * *
Little remains to be told. On my return home, I chanced to visit the
British Museum, and there, much to my surprise, observed an old piece of
stone, chipped with the characters, or letters, in use among the natives
of Scheria.
"Why," said I, reading the words aloud, "these are the characters which
the natives employed on my island."
"These?" said the worthy official who accompanied me. "Why, these are
the most archaic Greek letters which have yet been discovered:
inscriptions from beneath the lava beds of Santorin."
"I can't help that," I said. "The Polynesians used them too; and you see
I can read them easily, though I don't know Greek."
I then told him the whole story of my connection with the island, and of
the unfortunate results of the contact between these poor people and our
superior modern civilization.
I have rarely seen a man more affected by any recital than was the head
of the classical department of the Museum by my artless narrative. When
I described the sacrifice I saw on landing in the island, he exclaimed,
"Great Heavens! the Attic Thargelia." He grew more and more excited as I
went on, and producing a Greek book, "Pausanias," he showed me that the
sacrifice of wild beasts was practised sixteen hundred years ago in
honour of Artemis Elaphria. The killing of old Elatreus for entering the
town hall reminded him of a custom in Achaea Pthiotis. When I had
finished my tale, he burst out into violent and libellous language. "You
have destroyed," he said, "with your miserable modern measles and
Gardiner guns, the last remaining city of the ancient Greeks. The winds
cast you on the shore of Phaeacia, the island sung by Homer; and, in your
brutal ignorance, you never knew it. You have ruined a happy, harmless,
and peaceful people, and deprived archaeology of an opportunity that can
never, never return!"
I do not know about archaeology, but as for "harmless and peaceful
people," I leave it to my readers to say whether the islanders were
anything of the sort.
I learn that the Government has just refused to give the Museum a grant
of five thousand pounds to be employed in what are called "Excavations in
Ancient Phaeacia," diggings, that is, in Boothland.
With so many darkened people still ignorant of our enlightened
civilization, I think the grant would be a shameful waste of public
money. {106}
* * * * *
We publish the original text of the prophecy repeatedly alluded to by Mr.
Gowles. The learned say that no equivalent occurs for the line about his
"four eyes," and it is insinuated, in a literary journal of eminence,
that Mr. Gowles pilfered the notion from Good's glass eye, in a secular
romance, called King Solomon's Mines, which Mr. Gowles, we are sure,
never heard of in his life.--ED.