Your highness will be surprised at the unheard-of adventures that
occurred to me in my last voyage, and I think I can boldly assert that
no man, either before or since, has explored so much, or has been in the
peculiarly dangerous situations in which I have been placed by destiny.
Notwithstanding the danger which I incurred from my former expedition to
the Northern Ocean, I was persuaded to take the command of a whaler
about to proceed to those latitudes: we sailed from Marseilles early in
the year that we might arrive at the northward in good time, and be able
to quit the Frozen Ocean before the winter had set in. We were very
fortunate on our arrival at Baffin's Bay, and very soon had eighteen
fish on board. The autumn was hardly commenced before I proposed to
return, and we were steering in a southerly direction, when we
encountered two or three large icebergs, upon the edges of which the
walruses or sea-horses were lying in herds. As we had some casks still
empty, I determined to fill them with the oil to be obtained from these
animals, and hoisted out my boats to attack them. We killed a large
number, which we sent on board, and continued our fishery with great
success, having only lost one boat, the bottom plank of which had been
bitten out by the tusks of one of these unwieldy animals. Of a sudden
the wind changed to the southward, and the small icebergs which were
then to windward rapidly closed with the large one upon which we were
fishing. The harpooners observed it, and recommended me to return to
the ship, but I was so amused with the sport that I did not heed their
advice. A sea-horse was lying in a small cave accidentally formed on
the upright edge of the iceberg, and wishing to attack him, I directed
my boat to pull towards it. At this time there was not more than twenty
yards of water between the two icebergs, and a sudden squall coming on,
they closed with great rapidity. The men in the other boats immediately
pulled away, and, as I afterwards learnt, when I arrived at Marseilles,
they escaped, and returned home in the ship; but those in mine, who were
intent upon watching me, as I stood in the bow of the boat with the
harpoon to strike the animal, did not perceive the danger until the
stern of the boat was touched by the other iceberg. The two now coming
within the attraction of cohesion of floating bodies, were dashed like
lightning one against the other, jamming the men, as well as the boat,
into atoms.
Being in the bow of the boat, and hearing the crash, I had just time, in
a moment of desperation, to throw myself into the cave upon the back of
the sea-horse, when the two enormous bodies of ice came in contact--the
noise I have no doubt was tremendous, but I did not hear it, as I was
immediately enclosed in the ice. Although at first there were
interstices, yet, as the southerly gale blew the icebergs before it into
the northern region, all was quickly cemented together by the frost, and
I found myself pent up in an apartment not eight feet square, in company
with a sea-horse.
I shall not detain your highness by describing my sensations: my ideas
were, that I was to exist a certain time, and then die for want of fresh
air; but they were incorrect. At first, indeed, the cave was
intolerably hot from the accumulation of breath, and I thought I should
soon be suffocated. I recollected all my past sins, I implored for
mercy, and lay down to die; but I found that the ice melted away with
the heat, and that, in so doing, a considerable portion of the air was
liberated, so that in a few minutes my respiration became more free.
The animal in the meantime, apparently frightened at his unusual
situation, was perfectly quiet; and, as the slightest straw will be
caught at by the drowning man, so did the idea of my preservation come
into my head. I considered how much air so enormous an animal must
consume, and determined upon despatching him, that I might have more for
my own immediate wants. I took out my knife, and inserting it between
the vertebral bones that joined his head to his neck, divided the spinal
marrow, and he immediately expired.
When I found that he was quite dead, I crawled from his shoulders, and
took up a more convenient berth in that part of the cave which was
before his head, to which I had been afraid to venture while the animal
was alive, lest he should attack me with his enormous tusks. The air
soon became more pure, and I breathed freely. Your highness may be
surprised at the assertion; but, whether I obtained air from the ice
itself, or whether the ice was sufficiently porous to admit of it, I
know not; but from that time I had no difficulty of respiration. In our
country we have had instances of women and children, who have been
buried in the snow for two months, and yet have been taken out alive,
and have recovered, although they had little or no nourishment during
their inhumation. I recollected this, and aware that the carcase of the
animal would supply me for years, I began to indulge a hope that I might
yet be saved, if driven sufficiently to the southward to admit of my
being thawed out. I was convinced that the ice about me could not be
more than six or eight feet thick, as I had sufficient light to
distinguish the day from the night. Afterwards my eye-sight became so
much more acute, that I could see very well to every corner of the cave
in which I was embedded.
During the first month the calls of hunger obliged me to make frequent
attacks upon the carcase of the sea-horse; after that, my appetite
decreased, until at length I would not touch a mouthful of food in a
week,--I presume from the want of fresh air and exercise, neither of
which I could be said to enjoy. I had been about two months in this
hole, when a violent shock like that of an earthquake took place, and I
fell from the top of the cave to the bottom, and for a minute was
knocked about like a pea in a rattle. I had almost lost my senses
before it was over, and I found myself lying upon what was before the
top of the cave. From these circumstances I inferred that the iceberg
in which I was inclosed had come in contact with another, and that I had
been broken off from it, and was floating on the sea with other pieces,
which, when collected in large quantities, are termed a floe of ice.
Whether my situation was changed for the better I knew not, but the
change inspired me with fresh hopes. I now calculated that five months
had elapsed, and that it was the depth of winter, therefore I had no
chance of being released until the ensuing spring.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Allah wakbar, God is every where!" interrupted the pacha. "But I wish
to know, Huckaback, how you were so exactly aware of the time which had
passed away."
"Min bashi, and head of thousands!" replied Huckaback, "I will explain
to your highness. I once jammed my nail at the bottom, and I expected
to lose it. It did not however come off but grew up as before, and I
had the curiosity to know how often people changed their nails in the
course of a year. It was exactly two months, and from this I grounded
my calculations. I observed specks on my nails, and as they grew up, so
did I calculate time."
"Mashallah, how wonderful is God! Wallah thaib! Well said, by Allah!
I never should have thought of that," observed the pacha. "Proceed with
your story."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The five months had elapsed, according to my calculations, when one
morning I heard a grating noise close to me; soon afterwards I perceived
the teeth of a saw entering my domicile, and I correctly judged that
some ship was cutting her way through the ice. Although I could not
make myself heard, I waited in anxious expectation of deliverance. The
saw approached very near to where I was sitting, and I was afraid that I
should be wounded, if not cut in halves; but just as it was within two
inches of my nose, it was withdrawn. The fact was, that I was under the
main floe, which had been frozen together, and the firm ice above having
been removed and pushed away, I rose to the surface. A current of fresh
air immediately poured into the small incision made by the saw, which
not only took away my breath from its sharpness, but brought on a
spitting of blood. Hearing the sound of voices, I considered my
deliverance as certain. Although I understood very little English, I
heard the name of Captain Parry frequently mentioned--a name, I presume,
that your highness is well acquainted with.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Pooh! never heard of it," replied the pacha.
"I am surprised, your highness; I thought every body must have heard of
that adventurous navigator. I may here observe that I have since read
his voyages, and he mentions as a curious fact, the steam which was
emitted from the ice--which was nothing more than the hot air escaping
from my cave when it was cut through--a singular point, as it not only
proves the correctness of his remarks, but the circumstance of my having
been there, as I am now describing it to your highness."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
But, alas! my hopes soon vanished: the voices became more faint, I felt
that I was plunged under the floe to make room for the passage of the
ship, and when I rose, the water which had filled the incision made by
the saw, froze hard, and I was again closed in--perhaps for ever. I now
became quite frantic with despair, I tore my clothes, and dashed my head
against the corners of the cave, and tried to put an end to my hated
existence. At last, I sank down exhausted with my own violent efforts,
and continued sullen for several days.
But there is a buoyant spirit in our composition which raises our heads
above the waters of despair. Hope never deserts us, not even in an
iceberg. She attends us and supports us to the last; and although we
reject her kind offices in our fury, she still watches by us, ready to
assist and console us, when we are inclined to hearken to her
encouraging whispers.
I once more listened to her suggestions, and for six months fed upon
them, aided by occasional variations of the flesh of the sea-horse. It
was now late in the summer, and the ice in which I was bound up had
evidently melted away. One morning I was astonished by perceiving that
the light of the sun seemed to change its position regularly every
quarter of an hour. Had it done so occasionally during the day, and at
no stated intervals, I should have imagined that the ice that I was
enclosed in, altered its position with the winds and currents; but the
regularity astonished me. I watched it, and I found that the same
phenomenon occurred, but at shorter intervals, and it continued until
the light shifted from side to side every minute.
After some reflection, the horrid idea occurred to me that I must have
been drifted to the coast of Norway, and was in the influence of the
dreadful whirlpool, called the Maelstroom, and that, in a few minutes, I
should be engulfed for ever; and, whilst I was thinking that such might
be the case, the light revolved each fifteen seconds. "Then it is!"
cried I in despair; and, as I uttered the words, it became quite dark,
and I knew that I had sunk in the vortex, and all was over.
It may appear strange to your highness, that after the first pang,
occasioned by the prospect of perdition, had passed away, that so far
from feeling a horror at my situation, I mocked and derided it. I could
feel no more, and I waited the result with perfect indifference. From
the marks in my nails, I afterwards found out that I was nearly six
months in the interior of the earth. At last, one day I was nearly
blinded by the powerful light that poured through my tenement, and I
knew that I was once more floating on the water.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Allah kebir! God is most powerful!" exclaimed the pacha. "Holy
Prophet, where was it that you came up again?"
"In the harbour of Port-Royal in Jamaica. Your highness will hardly
credit it, but on my honour it is true."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The heat of the sun was so great, that in a very short time the ice that
surrounded me was thawed, and I found myself at liberty; but I still
floated upon the body of the sea-horse, and the ice which was under the
water. The latter soon vanished, and striding the back of the dead
animal, although nearly blind by the rays of the sun, and suffocated
with the sudden change of climate, I waited patiently to gain the shore,
which was not one mile distant; but, before I could arrive there, for
the sea breeze had not yet set in, an enormous shark, well known among
the English by the name of Port-Royal Tom, who had daily rations from
government, that by remaining in the harbour he might prevent the
sailors from swimming on shore to desert, ranged up along side of me. I
thought it hard that I should have to undergo such new dangers, after
having been down the Maelstroom, but there was no help for it. He
opened his enormous jaws, and had I not immediately shifted my leg,
would have taken it off. As it was, he took such a piece out of my
horse, as to render it what the sailors call _lopsided_. Again he
attacked it, and continued to take piece after piece off my steed, until
I was afraid that he would come to the rider at last, when fortunately a
boat full of black people, who were catching flying fish, perceived me
and pulled to my assistance. They took me on shore, and carried me to
the governor, to whom I gave a history of my adventures; but Englishmen
suppose that nobody can meet with wondrous adventures except themselves.
He called me a liar, and put me in the Clink, and a pirate schooner
havimg been lately taken and the crew executed, I was declared to have
been one of them; but, as it was clearly proved that the vessel only
contained thirty men, and they had already hung forty-seven, I was
permitted to quit the island, which I did in a small vessel bound to
America, on condition that I would work my passage.
We had gained to the northward of the Bahama Isles, and were standing to
the westward before a light breeze, when early one morning several
waterspouts were observed to be forming in various directions. It was
my watch below, but as I had never seen one of these curious phenomena
of nature, I went on deck to indulge my curiosity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Pray what is a waterspout?" inquired the pacha; "I never heard of one
before."
"A waterspout, your highness, is the ascent of a large body of water
into the clouds--one of those gigantic operations by which nature,
apparently without effort, accomplishes her will, pointing out to man
the insignificance of his most vaunted undertakings."
"Humph! that's a waterspout, is it?" replied the pacha; "I'm about as
wise as before."
"I will describe it more clearly to your highness, for there is no one
who has a better right to know what a waterspout is, than myself."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A black cloud was over our heads, and we perceived that for some time it
was rapidly descending. The main body then remained stationary, and a
certain portion of it continued bellying down until it had assumed the
form of an enormous jelly-bag. From the end of this bag a thin, wiry,
black tongue of vapour continued to descend until it had arrived
half-way between the cloud and the sea. The water beneath, then ruffled
on its surface, increasing its agitation more and more until it boiled
and bubbled like a large cauldron, throwing its foam aside in every
direction. In a few minutes a small spiral thread of water was
perceived to rise into the air, and meet the tongue which had wooed it
from the cloud. When the union had taken place, the thread increased
each moment in size, until it was swelled into a column of water several
feet in diameter, which continued to supply the thirsty cloud until it
was satiated and could drink no more. It then broke, the sea became
smooth as before, and the messenger of heaven flew away upon the wings
of the wind, to dispense its burden over the parched earth in refreshing
and fertilising showers.
While I was standing at the taffrail in admiration of this wonderful
resource of nature, the main boom gybed and struck me with such force,
that I was thrown into the sea. Another waterspout forming close to the
vessel, the captain and crew were alarmed and made all sail to escape,
without regarding me; for they were aware that if it should happen to
break over them, they would be sent to the bottom with its enormous
weight. I had scarcely risen to the surface, when I perceived that the
water was in agitation round me, and all my efforts to swim from the
spot were unavailing, for I was within the circle of attraction. Thus
was I left to my fate, and convinced that I could not swim for many
minutes, I swallowed the salt water as fast as I could, that my
struggles might the sooner be over.
But as the sea boiled up, I found myself gradually drawn more to the
centre, and when exactly in it, I was raised in a sitting posture upon
the spiral thread of water, which, as I explained to your highness,
forced itself upwards to join the tongue protruded by the cloud. There
I sat, each second rising higher and higher, balanced like the gilt ball
of pith, which is borne up by the vertical stream of the fountain which
plays in the inner court of your highness's palace. I cast my eyes
down, and perceived the vessel not far off, the captain and crew holding
up their eyes in amazement at the extraordinary spectacle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't wonder at that," observed the pacha.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I soon reached the tongue of the cloud, which appeared as if impatient
to receive me--the hair of my head first coming within its attractive
powers was raised straight on end--then seized as it were and twisted
round. I was dragged up by it each moment with increased velocity, as I
whirled round in my ascent. At last I found myself safely landed, and
sat down to recover my breath which I had nearly lost for ever.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"And, pray, where did you sit, Huckaback?"
"On the cloud, your highness."
"Holy Prophet! What, a cloud bear your weight?"
"If your highness will call to mind that at the same time the cloud took
up several tons of water, you cannot be surprised at its supporting me."
"Very true," replied the pacha. "This is a very wonderful story; but
before you go on, I wish to know what the cloud was made of."
"That is rather difficult to explain to your highness. I can only
compare it to a wet blanket. I found it excessively cold and damp, and
caught a rheumatism while I was there, which I feel to this day."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the cloud was saturated, the column divided, and we rapidly
ascended until the cold became intense. We passed a rainbow as we
skimmed along, and I was very much surprised to find that the key of my
chest and my clasp knife, forced themselves through the cloth of my
jacket, and flew with great velocity towards it, fixing themselves
firmly to the violet rays, from which I discovered that those peculiar
rays were magnetic. I mentioned this curious circumstance to an English
lady whom I met on her travels, and I have since learnt that she has
communicated the fact to the learned societies as a discovery of her
own. However, as she is a very pretty woman, I forgive her. Anxious to
look down upon the earth, I poked a hole with my finger through the
bottom of the cloud, and was astonished to perceive how rapidly it was
spinning round. We had risen so high as to be out of the sphere of its
attraction, and in consequence remained stationary. I had been up about
six hours; and although I was close to the coast of America when I
ascended, I could perceive that the Cape of Good Hope was just heaving
in sight. I was enabled to form a very good idea of the structure of
the globe, for at that immense height I could see to the very bottom of
the Atlantic ocean. Depend upon it, your highness, if you wish to
discover more than other people can, it is necessary to be "up in the
clouds."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Very true," replied the pacha; "but go on."
"I was very much interested in the chemical process of turning the salt
water into fresh, which was going on with great rapidity while I was
there. Perhaps your highness would like me to explain it, as it will
not occupy your attention more than an hour."
"No, no, skip that, Huckaback, and go on."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
But as soon as I had gratified my curiosity, I began to be alarmed at my
situation, not so much on account of the means of supporting existence,
for there was more than sufficient.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"More than sufficient! Why what could you have to eat?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plenty of fresh fish, your highness, which had been taken up in the
column of water at the same time I was, and the fresh water already lay
in little pools around me. But the cold was dreadful, and I felt that I
could not support it many hours longer, and how to get down again was a
problem which I could not solve.
It was however soon solved for me, for the cloud having completed its
chemical labours, descended as rapidly as it had risen, and joined many
others, that were engaged in sharp conflict. As I beheld them darting
against each other, and discharging the electric fluid in the violence
of their collision, I was filled with trepidation and dismay, lest,
meeting an adversary, I should be hurled into the abyss below, or be
withered by the artillery of heaven. But I was fortunate enough to
escape. The cloud which bore me descended to within a hundred yards of
the earth, and then was hurried along by the wind with such velocity and
noise, that I perceived we were assisting at a hurricane.
As we neared the earth, the cloud, unable to resist the force of its
attraction, was compelled to deliver up its burthen, and down I fell,
with such torrents of water, that it reminded me of the deluge. The
tornado was now in all its strength. The wind roared and shrieked in
its wild fury, and such was its force that I fell in an acute angle.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What did you fall in?" interrupted the pacha. "I don't know what that
is."
"I fell in a slanting direction, your highness, describing the
hypotenuse between the base and perpendicular, created by the force of
the wind, and the attraction of gravitation."
"Holy Prophet! who can understand such stuff? Speak plain; do you laugh
at our beards?"
"Min Allah! God forbid! Your servant would indeed eat dirt," replied
Huckaback.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I meant to imply, that so powerful was the wind, it almost bore me up,
and when I first struck the water, which I did upon the summit of a
wave, I bounded off again and _ricochetted_ several times from one wave
to another, like the shot fired from a gun along the surface of the sea,
or the oyster-shell skimmed over the lake by the truant child. The last
bound that I gave, pitched me into the rigging of a small vessel on her
beam-ends, and I hardly had time to fetch my breath before she turned
over. I scrambled up her bends, and fixed myself astride upon her keel.
There I remained for two or three hours, when the hurricane was
exhausted from its own violence. The clouds disappeared, the sun burst
out in all its splendour, the sea recovered its former tranquillity, and
Nature seemed as if she was maliciously smiling at her own mischief.
The land was close to me, and the vessel drifted on shore. I found that
I was at the Isle of France, having, in the course of twelve hours thus
miraculously shifted my position from one side of the globe unto the
other. I found the island in a sad state of devastation; the labour of
years had been destroyed in the fury of an hour--the crops were swept
away--the houses were levelled to the ground--the vessels in fragments
on the beach--all was misery and desolation. I was however kindly
received by my countrymen, who were the inhabitants of the isle; and, in
four-and-twenty hours, we all danced and sang as before. I invented a
very pretty quadrille, called the Hurricane, which threw the whole
island into an ecstasy, and recompensed them for all their sufferings.
But I was anxious to return home, and a Dutch vessel proceeding straight
to Marseilles, I thought myself fortunate to obtain a passage upon the
same terms as those which had enabled me to quit the West Indies. We
sailed, but before we had been twenty-four hours at sea, I found that
the captain was a violent man, and a most dreadful tyrant. I was not
very strong; and not being able to perform the duty before the mast, to
which I had not been accustomed, I was beat so unmercifully, that I was
debating in my mind, whether I should kill the captain and then jump
overboard, or submit to my hard fate; but one night as I lay groaning on
the forecastle after a punishment I had received from the captain, which
incapacitated me from further duty, an astonishing circumstance occurred
which was the occasion, not only of my embracing the Mahomedan religion,
but of making use of those expressions which attracted your highness's
attention when you passed in disguise. "Why am I thus ever to be
persecuted?" exclaimed I in despair. And, as I uttered these words, a
venerable personage, in a flowing beard, and a book in his hand,
appeared before me, and answered me.
"Because, Huckaback, you have not embraced the true faith."
"What is the true faith?" inquired I, in fear and amazement.
"There is but one God," replied he, "and I am his Prophet."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Merciful Allah!" exclaimed the pacha, "why, it must have been Mahomet
himself."
"It was so, your highness, although I knew it not at the time."
"Prove unto me that it is the true faith," said I.
"I will," replied he; "I will turn the heart of the infidel captain,"
and he disappeared. The next day the captain of the vessel, to my
astonishment, came to me as I lay on the forecastle, and begging my
pardon for the cruelty that he had been guilty of, shed tears over me,
and ordered me to be carried to his cabin. He laid me in his own bed,
and watched me as he would a favourite child. In a short time I
recovered; after which he would permit me to do no duty, but insisted
upon my being his guest, and loaded me with every kindness.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"God is great!" ejaculated the pacha.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was lying in my bed, meditating upon these thing when the venerable
form again appeared to me.
"Art thou now convinced?"
"I am," replied I.
"Then prove it by submitting to the law the moment that you are able.
You shall be rewarded--not at once, but when your faith has been proved.
Mark me, follow your profession on the seas, and, when once you find
yourself sitting in the divan at Cairo, with two people originally of
the same profession as yourself, without others being present, and have
made this secret known, then you shall appointed to the command of the
pacha's fleet, which under your directions shall always meet with
success. Such shall be the reward of your fidelity."
It is now four years that I have embraced the true faith, and, sinking
under poverty, I was induced to make use of the exclamation that your
highness heard; for how can I ever hope to meet two barbers at the divan
without other people being present?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Holy Prophet! how strange! Why Mustapha was a barber, and so was I,"
cried the pacha.
"God is great!" answered the renegade, prostrating himself. "Then I
command your fleet?"
"From this hour," replied the pacha. "Mustapha, make known my wishes."
"The present in command," replied Mustapha, who was not a dupe to the
wily renegade, "is a favourite with the men."
"Then send for him and take off his head. Is he to interfere with the
commands of Mahomet?"
The vizier bowed, and the pacha quitted the divan.
The renegade, with a smile upon his lips, and Mustapha with astonishment
looked at each other for a few seconds "You have a great talent, Selim,"
observed the vizier.
"Thanks to your introduction, and to my own invention, it will at last
be called into action. Recollect, vizier, that I am grateful--you
understand me;" and the renegade quitted the divan, leaving Mustapha
still in his astonishment.