"It appears," continued Bainbridge, on the following evening, "that
Hili-li was subject to the recurrence about once in forty-seven years of
a strange thermic phenomenon, the mean duration of which was about fifty
hours. This change had occurred twenty-one times in the preceding
thousand years; its duration had once been as brief as thirty hours, and
at another time had lasted one hundred and twenty hours. The interval
between two of its visitations had once been somewhat less than eight
years; whilst at the period of Pym and Peters' presence in Hili-li, it
had not occurred for eighty-six years and some months. For some reason
that could not be conjectured, at these times the wind-currents,
generally varying but slightly in force and duration, changed, the wind
coming from a point of the compass almost diametrically opposite to its
usual direction, and increasing in velocity and force to that of a
tempest or blizzard. The result was, that in a very few hours the
temperature of Hili-li fell to about zero Fahrenheit, if in December or
January; to 60° or 70° Fahrenheit below freezing, if in July or August.
During the first few hours of the change, owing to the extremely moist
state of the atmosphere for many miles in all directions from the crater
of Hili-li, there occurred a heavy snowfall--which, however, diminished
as the temperature fell, until at somewhat above the zero point it
ceased.
"The government of Hili-li, by laws and by the encouragement of custom,
did much to prevent damage from these storms--which, as I have
intimated, were a combination of hurricane and snow-storm, with a very
sudden and rapid fall of temperature; and when the interval between two
of them was not greater than twenty years, the provisions made by the
state were ample to prevent loss of life. By the law of the land,
residence houses had to be built in such a manner that at least one room
in each house could be warmed by a fire. Fire for purposes of warmth was
never in Hili-li required, except during these storms; and all cooking
was done on a peculiar stove made chiefly of gold, the fuel of which was
either fish oil, or another oil termed by the boatmen who sold it
'continent oil'--or, rather, by a name corresponding in the Hili-li
language to those words in the English. The law further provided that on
the premises of each home wood should be kept, ready for use, in chests
of a size convenient for two persons to carry into the room in which it
was to be burned. By this means, the worst that could happen to a family
was that its members might suddenly at any time be confined to a single
room, comfortably warmed, for from thirty to a hundred hours, or
thereabouts. Even if there should be very little food in any one home,
or if the wood supply should be neglected, the next door neighbor could
be relied upon for succor.
"Ninety-four years prior to the summer that now concerns us, a cold
spell had occurred after an interval of eighty-one years, which lasted a
hundred and ten hours, and during which one-third of the inhabitants of
Hili-li, between hunger and cold, lost their lives. Not more than one
hundred persons remembered the last preceding storm, and they must have
been very young children when it occurred; and even they felt no alarm
on the subject, as the storm preceding it had happened about sixteen
years earlier, and, though a light one, was sufficient to alarm both the
rulers and the masses, and resulted in a state of preparedness for the
next storm. But now, the middle-aged men knew of these cold spells only
as matters of history, to which they gave little practical attention;
and from the lips of their grandparents, who, as I have said, had never
personally known one of them to cause serious distress or loss of life.
"On the morning of February 17, 1829, there was not on the Island of
Hili-li a single residence which had the wood-supply contemplated by the
forgotten statute relating to that subject; there were few homes that
had in store food sufficient for more than forty-eight hours use; and,
though most families were in possession of some oil, their cook-stoves
were not constructed for heating, and were connected with flues in
outbuildings; and, further, there was not enough oil on the island to
have warmed the city at such a time for twenty-four hours.
"It must also be remembered that the Hili-lites were accustomed to a
temperature, all the year through, year in and year out, of 90° to 108°
Fahrenheit scale; and that for a resident of England, or of the United
States above the latitude of Washington City, a temperature of ten
degrees below zero would be quite as well borne as would a temperature
of thirty degrees above zero by these islanders. There was little
physical and mental inurement to cold, and the lightest of clothing was
worn. A resident of Hili-li, when business compelled him to visit an
island on which the temperature was cold enough to freeze water,
prepared himself personally for the journey as would a Swede or
Norwegian for a journey of exploration to the North Pole.
"In the night between February 16th and 17th, Peters, who was in the
habit in Hili-li of sleeping _in puris naturalibus_, awoke in a shiver.
He arose, and closing his window-sash began to look around his room for
bed-covering; but he found only a sheet, and a very fine wool bedspread,
which he drew over him as he once more assumed a recumbent position. He
again fell asleep; but in an hour awoke, shivering harder than before.
He then dressed, and lighting his pipe, walked up and down the floor.
Then he looked from the window, and saw that a fine snow was falling,
the separately almost invisible flakes whirling in sharp spirals as they
fell. The sailor instinct--the aptitude of the navigator--instantly told
him what this thermic change meant for Hili-li. Others in the house were
now moving about, and Peters sought them out. Pym did not seem at once
to realize the danger; and Lilama said she had heard of these storms,
but did not think that they lasted long. All except Peters were wrapped
in shawl-like garments, and some of the servants had about their forms
light rugs which they had taken from the floors. Soon, however, all
except Pym and Peters were shivering; and every article of covering
obtainable was in use. Lilama told a maid to bring out her dresses and
wrappers, which she divided among the servants, each donning several
garments. Peters, stoical, but always on the alert, called Pym aside,
and explained to him that this change meant nothing less than the
devastation of Hili-li--that the temperature was steadily falling, the
wind increasing, and that the storm was only beginning. Pym could not
but perceive that the cold was due to a pronounced alteration in the
direction of wind-currents; and that under the circumstances the cold
would of necessity increase to the point of normal antarctic
temperature--no doubt below zero--unless the wind should before then
change. Quickly his mind grasped the circumstances in which they were
placed. They were on an island, situated in water navigable at all
seasons and hours, with the chief food-supply on near-by islands, and
each day brought to Hili-li for that day's consumption; they were in a
city practically without fuel; the inhabitants were accustomed to heat,
and wholly unused to cold; the houses were built without protection
against cold, because, except occasionally for a few hours at a time,
there were no climatic conditions demanding such a construction.
Further, the climate being very warm, there was not--except in the
possession of a hundred men whose business took them on visits to
islands lying outside of the crater-warmed air-currents--a heavy wrap of
any kind, such as overcoat, cloak, or shawl, in the entire city. Carpets
were not known in Hili-li, so it would be impossible for the
hard-pressed people to retire to bed, where, covering the body with a
few sheets and some clothing, they might add the carpets, and, in hunger
but in safety, remain protected against those freezing blasts till the
wind should change. Pym comprehended the terrible position in which
Lilama and the other Hili-lites stood; the extremity of desolation which
must soon prevail standing out before him like a vivid picture, and for
a moment overawing even his brave, true soul. He did not doubt that
Peters and himself could withstand the cold, though they might not be
able to obtain more than a flimsy shelter from the biting antarctic
winds. He scarcely thought of himself--he thought only of Lilama, and,
in a measure, of the other residents of the beautiful, stricken city.
Exposure to danger had made Pym in times of trouble a rapid thinker, and
the thoughts which I have mentioned passed through his mind in less than
a minute of time. Then he turned to Lilama, and asked if there was
beneath the house a cellar. Fortunately there was--the house was one of
the few in Hili-li beneath a portion of which a cellar was constructed
as a depository, and as a protection against heat for certain articles
of food, most of the residents not caring to construct cellars; articles
of food easily destructible by heat being twice daily brought to the
city and distributed to the houses, and ice costing only the expense of
shipping it by water some six or eight hours' sailing distance.
"Pym and Peters moved about the house, making certain arrangements so
rapidly as to startle the languid Hili-lites. In ten or fifteen minutes
they had removed to the cellar all the necessary furniture of a
comfortable room, including a bedstead for Lilama, and another for her
two maids. Three lamps were taken to the cellar, lighted, and oil
sufficient for a week's consumption placed conveniently near. The house
contained enough food to sustain Lilama, and the women servants, for
from six to eight days. Within twenty minutes of the time Peters had
suggested to Pym the danger of freezing to be apprehended, Lilama and
her maids were safely placed in the cellar, and were making merry over
their strange surroundings and attire. Then Pym and Peters hastened from
the house, to see what could be done for others.
"And now was witnessed the influence on man, of heredity and
environment, and the insurmountable difficulties in the way, even under
the most pressing need, of overcoming such influence. The Hili-lites in
more than a thousand years had fought only one battle, and that five
hundred years before; nor had they found necessary any struggle for
food, or against rigorous climate. They were a brainy people, and were
almost superhumanly perceptive in every sense organ and in every nerve.
But they were wanting in that quality possessed by most European peoples
and by Americans, which takes practical cognizance of the fact that
prompt action and fearlessness is the true protection against danger. In
the face of this great calamity among the Hili-lites, even the leading
men seemed paralyzed. Not that they displayed a particle of fear--it was
simply not in them to move rapidly, and to face joyfully great dangers.
With them, when mental processes failed to subdue, there was not much
left. They could have conquered a modern warship, provided they could
have come in contact with its officers, by controlling in some strange
way the minds of those men; but against a storm, or the course of
inanimate nature in any other direction, they were as powerless as any
other people, and their sense of powerlessness was paralyzing to them.
On the other hand, Pym and Peters had sprung from races that had in the
past thousand years gone through hundreds of struggles, amid every kind
of danger, for existence; and Peters, on the mother's side, she being an
American Indian, belonged to a race which had gone through what was
infinitely worse than a barbarian invasion--namely, a 'civilized' and
'enlightened' invasion. These two men seemed to court danger--to revel
in it; but in reality they pursued the course which exposed them to the
least risk of injury consistent with the performance of their full duty.
The question was one of method in procedure to save the greatest number
of lives; and they hastened first to the residence of Lilama's uncle and
cousin--to the home of the Duke and Diregus."