EXPLORERS OF UNKNOWN COASTS
As soon as she had cleared the entrance to the bay the pinnace glided
over the surface of the broad expanse of sea between False Hope Point
and Cape East. The weather was fine. The grey-blue sky was tapestried
with a few clouds through which the sun's rays filtered.
At this early morning hour the breeze blew off the land and was
favourable to the progress of the _Elizabeth_. It would not be until
she had rounded Cape East that she would feel the wind from the sea.
The light vessel was carrying all her brig sails, even a flying jib and
the pole sails of her two masts. To the swing of the open sea, with
full sails, and a list to her starboard quarter, she clove the water,
as still as that of a lake, and sped along at eight knots, leaving a
long track of rippling foam in her wake.
What thoughts thronged Mme. Zermatt's mind, what memories of these
twelve years that had passed! She saw again in fancy the tub boat
roughly improvised for their rescue, which the least false stroke might
have capsized; that frail contrivance making for an unknown shore with
all that she loved within it, her husband, and her four sons, of whom
the youngest was barely five years old; then she was landing at the
mouth of Jackal River, and the first tent was set up at the spot which
was Tent Home before it became Rock Castle.
And what fears were hers whenever M. Zermatt and Fritz went back to
the wreck! And now here she was, upon this well-rigged, well-handled
pinnace, a good sea-boat, sharing without a tremor of fear in this
voyage of discovery round the eastern coast of the island.
What changes, too, there had been in the last five months, and what
changes, more important still, perhaps, could be anticipated within the
very near future!
M. Zermatt was manœuvring so as to make the best use of the wind which
tended to die away as the _Elizabeth_ drew farther away from the land.
Mr. Wolston, Ernest, and Jack stood by the sheets ready to haul them
taut or ease them as need might be. It would have been a pity to become
becalmed before coming off Cape East, where the pinnace would catch the
breeze from the open sea.
Mr. Wolston said:
"I am afraid the wind is scanting; see how our sails are sagging!"
"The wind certainly is dropping," M. Zermatt answered, "but since it is
blowing from aft let us put the foresail one side and the mainsail the
other. We are sure to gather some pace that way."
"It should not take us more than half an hour to round the point,"
Ernest remarked.
"If the breeze drops altogether," Jack suggested, "we have only to put
out the oars and paddle as far as the cape. With four of us at it the
pinnace won't stay still, I should imagine."
"And who will take the tiller while you are all at the oars?" Mme.
Zermatt enquired.
"You will, mamma, or Mrs. Wolston, or even Hannah," Jack replied. "Why
not Hannah? I am sure she would shove the tiller to port or starboard
as well as any old salt?"
"Why not?" answered the girl, laughing. "Especially if I have only to
do what you tell me, Jack."
"Good! It is as easy to manage a boat as it is to manage a house, and,
of course, all women are adepts at that from the start," Jack answered.
There was no need to resort to the oars, or to what would have been
much simpler--towing by the canoe. As soon as the two sails had been
set crosswise the pinnace obeyed the breeze more readily and made
appreciable progress towards Cape East.
Various signs went to show that beyond the cape the wind from the west
would make itself felt. The sea on this side was vivid green a couple
of miles from the shore. Sometimes little waves, deploying in white
lines, gleamed with bright reflections. The voyage proceeded gaily, and
it was scarcely half past eight when the _Elizabeth_ was athwart the
cape.
The sails were trimmed again and the little vessel put on a faster
pace, lightly rocked by a sea that distressed no one on board.
As the breeze was plainly settled, M. Zermatt suggested that they
should go up again towards the north-east, so as to go round the mass
of rocks on which the _Landlord_ had been broken.
"We can do it easily," said Mr. Wolston, "and for my own part I should
very much like to see the reef onto which the storm threw you, so far
off the course from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia."
"A wreck that cost many lives," said Mme. Zermatt, whose face clouded
at the memory. "My husband, my children, and myself were all who
escaped death."
"So it has never been known whether any of the crew was picked up at
sea or found refuge on any neighbouring land?" Mr. Wolston enquired.
"Never," M. Zermatt answered, "according to what Lieutenant Littlestone
declared; and for a long time the _Landlord_ was supposed to have been
lost with all hands."
"As for that," Ernest observed, "it must be pointed out that the crew
of the _Dorcas_, on which Jenny took her passage, had better luck than
ours had, since the boatswain and two sailors were taken to Sydney."
"That is true," M. Zermatt replied. "But can we be positive that no
survivors from the _Landlord_ succeeded in finding a refuge on some
one of these shores in the Indian Ocean, and even that after all these
years they are not there still, as we are in New Switzerland?"
"There is nothing impossible in that," Ernest declared, "for our island
is only seven or eight hundred miles from Australia. As the west coast
of Australia is seldom visited by European ships the shipwrecked
people might have had no opportunity of being rescued from the natives."
"The conclusion to be drawn from it all," said Mr. Wolston, "is that
these seas are dangerous and that storms are frequent here. In only a
few years there have been the loss of the _Landlord_ and the loss of
the _Dorcas_."
"Quite so," replied Ernest. "But let us remember that at the time those
wrecks occurred, the position of our island was not marked on the
charts, and it is not surprising that several ships were lost upon the
reefs by which it is surrounded. But very soon now its bearings will be
on record as exactly as those of the other islands of the Indian Ocean."
"The more's the pity!" cried Jack. "Yes: the more's the pity, since New
Switzerland will now become known."
The _Elizabeth_ was manœuvring by this time off the west side of the
reef, and as she had been obliged to beat up against the wind in order
to round the farthest rocks she now had only to sail before the wind in
this direction.
M. Zermatt pointed out to Mr. Wolston on the opposite side of the reef
the narrow gap into which an enormous wave had thrust the _Landlord_.
The breach made in the timbers of the ship, first with the axe and
then by an explosion, had permitted the removal of the things that she
contained, prior to the time when a final explosion by gunpowder had
accomplished her total destruction.
Of the ruined fragments of the ship, nothing remained upon the reef,
the tide having washed everything to the shore, things which could
float of themselves and also those which had previously been made
floatable by means of empty casks, such as boilers, pieces of iron,
copper and lead, and the four-pounder cannon, two of which were now on
Shark's Island, and the rest in the battery at Rock Castle.
As they skirted the edge of the rocks, the party on the pinnace tried
to see if there were any pieces of wreckage visible beneath the clear
and calm water. Two and a half years previously Fritz, when he had
gone in his canoe on a trip to Pearl Bay, had been able to discern at
the bottom of the sea a number of large cannon, gun-carriages, cannon
balls, pieces of iron, and fragments of the keel and capstan, which
it would have required a diving-bell to raise. Even if he had had the
opportunity of employing such a contrivance, however, M. Zermatt would
not have been much better off. Now, none of these things was visible on
the bottom. A thick carpet of sand mixed with long sea-weeds covered
the last remnants of the _Landlord_.
After making the round of the reef, the _Elizabeth_ bore away obliquely
towards the south, in such a way as to draw close to Cape East.
M. Zermatt steered a careful course, for one point ran out to sea
surrounded by reefs.
Three-quarters of an hour later, after passing this point, which in
all probability marked the eastern extremity of New Switzerland, the
pinnace was able to follow the line of the coast for a mile and more,
getting the wind from the north-west over land.
While sailing thus, M. Zermatt could not fail to observe once more how
deserted an appearance the eastern coast of the island presented. There
was not a tree upon the cliffs, not a trace of vegetation at their
foot, not a stream trickling among the naked and deserted beaches.
Nothing but rocks calcined by the sun. What a contrast to the verdant
shores of Deliverance Bay and their extension onwards as far as False
Hope Point!
M. Zermatt spoke:
"If after the wreck of the _Landlord_ we had fallen upon this eastern
coast, what would have become of us, and how should we have found
anything to live upon?"
"Necessity would have compelled you to go into the interior," Mr.
Wolston answered. "And in making your way round Deliverance Bay you
would certainly have come to the spot where the tents of Tent Home were
pitched."
"That is so, Wolston," M. Zermatt replied, "but think of the effort
involved, and think of the despair we should have been a prey to during
those first days."
"Who can tell, too," Ernest put in, "if our tub boat would not have
been smashed on these rocks? How different from the mouth of Jackal
River, where we were able to land without any risk or difficulty!"
About eleven o'clock the _Elizabeth_ reached Unicorn Bay, and half an
hour later dropped anchor at the foot of a rock near the spot where
the English corvette had been moored.
M. Zermatt's plan, of which all approved, was to land in this corner
of the bay and spend the rest of the day there, then to start again at
daybreak next morning to continue the voyage along the coast line.
When the anchor was fast the stern of the pinnace was brought in by a
hawser, and the landing was effected on fine, hard sand.
The bay was surrounded by a limestone cliff about a hundred feet in
height from the foot to the top, which could only be gained by means of
a narrow gap in the centre of it.
The party walked over the beach, which still bore traces of the last
encampment. Here and there a few prints could still be seen in the sand
above high water mark, with bits of wood left from the repairs to the
corvette, holes made by the tent pegs, lumps of coal scattered among
the shingle, and ashes from the fires.
All this prompted M. Zermatt to make the following remarks, fully
justified by the circumstances:
"Just imagine if this were our first visit to the east coast of the
island; with all these indisputable proofs before us of a landing,
which the marks show to have been recent, think of the regrets and
disappointment we should have felt! A ship had anchored here, her crew
had camped within this bay, and we did not know anything about it! And
after leaving this utterly deserted shore, could we have ventured to
hope that she would ever come back?"
"That is very true," Betsy replied. "How was it that we learned of the
arrival of the _Unicorn_?"
"By chance," said Jack; "pure chance!"
"No, my boy," M. Zermatt answered; "whatever Ernest may have said, it
was due to our custom of firing our guns at Shark's Island every year
at this season, to which the corvette replied with three guns."
"I must acknowledge that I was wrong," Ernest confessed.
"And think of our anxiety and our despair," M. Zermatt went on, "during
the next three days, when the storm prevented us from going back to the
island to repeat our signals, and think of our fear that the ship might
have left again before we could reach her!"
"Yes, indeed," said Mr. Wolston, "that would have been a frightful
disappointment! Fancy knowing that a ship had anchored in this bay and
that you had not been able to communicate with her! And yet, in my
opinion, your chances of being restored to your own home were still
greatly increased."
"That is certain," Ernest said emphatically, "for our island was
no longer unknown, seeing that the ship must have ascertained its
position, which would have been entered in the charts. Some day or
other a ship would have come to take possession of this land."
"Well, finally and in conclusion," said Jack, "the _Unicorn_ did come,
the _Unicorn_ was observed, the _Unicorn_ was visited, the _Unicorn_
has gone, the _Unicorn_ will come back, and what we have to do now, I
think, is----"
"Have lunch?" Hannah Wolston put in, laughing.
"Exactly," Ernest answered.
"Let us sit down then," Jack claimed, "for I am hungry enough to eat my
plate--and I could digest it!"
They settled themselves at the top of the beach, near the gap in the
cliff, where there was shelter from the rays of the sun. Provisions
were fetched from the pinnace, potted meat, smoked ham, cold chicken,
cassava cakes, and bread baked the day before. To drink they had mead,
of which there were several casks in the pinnace's store room, and a
few bottles of Falconhurst wine to be uncorked later.
After the provisions and utensils had been brought ashore, Mrs. Wolston
with Mme. Zermatt and Hannah laid the cloth on a smooth stretch of fine
sand spread over thick bunches of very dry seaweed. Then all enjoyed a
good luncheon, which would satisfy them until the six o'clock dinner.
But it would not have been worth while to undertake the toil of a
voyage like this merely in order to land on this beach, go aboard
again, and anchor at some other point along the shore only to leave it,
too, in the same conditions. The Promised Land could only be a very
small portion of New Switzerland.
So directly the meal was finished Mr. Wolston said:
"I suggest that we spend this afternoon pushing into the interior of
the island."
"And at once," exclaimed Jack. "We ought to be a good two miles away
already."
"You would not have talked like that before lunch," Hannah remarked
with a smile; "you ate enough for four people."
"And now I am ready to walk four times as far as anyone else," Jack
answered; "ready to go to the end of the world--our small world, I
mean."
"But if you go so far, so very far, my dear boy," said Mme. Zermatt,
"we shall not be able to follow you."
"Upon my word," said M. Zermatt emphatically, slapping his son on the
shoulder, "I am at my wits' end to know how to curb Jack's impatience!
There is absolutely no way of holding him in. Why, I think even Fritz
never showed such----"
"Fritz?" Jack retorted. "Well, isn't it my duty to try to take his
place in everything? When he comes back he won't be what he was before
he went away."
"Why not?" Hannah asked.
"Because he will be married, father of a family, papa and grand-papa,
too, if he does not come back soon."
"Do you think so, Jack?" Mrs. Wolston laughed. "Fritz a grandfather
after one year's absence?"
"Well, grandfather or not, he will be married."
"And why shouldn't he be what he was, even then?" Hannah insisted.
"Let Jack talk, Hannah," Ernest answered. "His turn will come to make
an excellent husband just as Fritz's will."
"Just as yours will, my boy," Jack retorted, with a shrewd look at
Ernest and the young girl. "For my own part I should be mightily
surprised at such a thing; I think nature specially cut me out to be an
uncle, the very best of uncles, an Uncle of New Switzerland! But there
is no question to-day, so far as I am aware, of parading in bridal
array before the Mayor of Rock Castle; the question is, are we to
explore beyond this cliff?"
"I think," said Mrs. Wolston, "that Mme. Zermatt, Hannah, and I
had better stay here while you make your trip, which is sure to be
very tiring if it lasts until the evening. This beach is absolutely
deserted, and we need not be afraid of any unpleasant visitors.
Besides, it would be quite easy for us to return to the pinnace. If
you leave us like this at the camp there will be no risk of your being
delayed or stopped."
"I believe you would be perfectly safe here, my dear Merry," said M.
Zermatt, "and yet I should not be easy at leaving you."
"Right!" Ernest exclaimed, "I ask nothing better than to stay too,
while----"
"Ah!" cried Jack, "there's our student all over! To stay--no doubt to
shove his nose into his musty books! I am sure he has stuffed one or
two volumes into the bottom of the hold. Well, let him stay, but on
condition that Hannah comes with us."
"And your mother and Mrs. Wolston too," M. Zermatt added. "Upon
consideration that is much better. They will stop when they are tired."
"And then Ernest will be able to keep them company," said Jack,
laughing again.
"Don't let us waste time," said Mr. Wolston. "The difficulty might have
been to scale this cliff, which I should guess to be a hundred or a
hundred and fifty feet high. But, fortunately, the pitch of this gap is
not very steep, and that will take us onto the upper level. When once
we are on the top we will decide what is best to be done."
"Let's go! Let's go!" Jack repeated.
Before starting M. Zermatt went to examine the _Elizabeth's_ mooring.
He satisfied himself that there would be no danger of her grounding at
low tide or of striking against the rocks at high tide.
Then they all moved towards the gap. Each of the men carried a gun, a
shot bag, a powder flask, and some ball cartridge prepared by Jack.
The young sportsman quite expected indeed to bag some game, perhaps
some wild animal of known or unknown species, in this part of New
Switzerland.
Brownie and Fawn hunted in front. The party followed them up a slanting
track, the steepness of which was lessened by its many windings. In the
rainy season the gap doubtless served as a shoot for the water from the
platform above, which then would form a torrent. But now, at the height
of summer, its bed was dry. It was necessary to be careful in walking
between these rocks, which might easily have fallen like an avalanche
if the least shock had upset their equilibrium.
Quite half an hour was required to reach the top of the cliff.
The first to step out onto the top was the eager Jack.
Before him, towards the west, a vast plain extended as far as eye could
see.
Jack stood wonderstricken. He turned about to gaze round. When Mr.
Wolston joined him he exclaimed:
"What a country! What a surprise, and what a disappointment!"
The discomfiture was general when M. Zermatt and the others emerged
upon the plateau.
Mrs. Wolston and Mme. Zermatt, with Hannah near them, sat down at the
foot of a great block of rock. There was not a tree to give the least
shelter from a raging sun, no grass on which to lie down. The stony
ground, strewn haphazard with great rocks, unadapted to any vegetable
growth, was carpeted in places with some of those wild mosses which do
not require soil. As M. Zermatt declared, it was a desert of Arabia
Petræa adjoining the fertile district of the Promised Land.
It was indeed an amazing contrast to the region lying between Jackal
River and False Hope Point, and to the country beyond the defile of
Cluse, the Green Valley, and the land abutting on Pearl Bay. And Mme.
Zermatt's question may well be echoed, what would have been the plight
of the shipwrecked family if the tub boat had deposited them on the
eastern coast of the island?
From this cliff as far as Deliverance Bay, which could be discerned
five miles away to the west, the eye saw nothing but a desert country,
without verdure, without a tree, without a single stream. Upon its
surface no four-footed creature could be descried. It seemed to be
forsaken even by the birds of land and sea.
"This is the end of our excursion," said M. Zermatt, "at any rate in
this portion of our island."
"Beyond all question," Mr. Wolston replied; "I think it is quite
useless to brave this tropic heat to reconnoitre a stony country with
which nothing can be done."
"How capricious and fantastic nature is!" Ernest remarked. "She only
proceeds by contrasts! Down there, all her productive energy in action:
here, the most appalling sterility!"
"I think the best thing we can do," said Mme. Zermatt, "is to go down
to the beach again and return to the ship."
"I also think so," said Mr. Wolston.
"Very well," said Jack, "but not until we have climbed to the top of
the last rocks."
And he pointed to a heap of rocks which rose up on the left, sixty feet
or so above the ground level. In less than five minutes he was at the
top of it. Then after looking all round the horizon he called to Mr.
Wolston and to his father and brother to come and join him.
Did it mean that he had made some discovery in the south-west, in which
direction he was pointing?
Mr. Wolston and M. Zermatt were soon up beside him, though not without
some trouble.
In this direction the littoral did really present an entirely different
aspect.
About five miles from Unicorn Bay the cliff dropped abruptly and ended
at a broad valley, probably watered by one of the main rivers of the
island. On the further side of this depression were rolling, verdant
masses of dense woods. In the breaks in these and beyond them the
country displayed a most luxuriant vegetation to the extreme limits of
the south and south-west.
The arid district seemed to be confined to the immediate area of
some twelve to fifteen square miles contained between Cape East and
Deliverance Bay.
If ever a country called for exploration, it was certainly that which
now was seen for the first time. What surprises and what opportunities
might it not have in store, although it could never surpass the
Promised Land!
"Let us go," said Jack.
"Let us go," Mr. Wolston echoed, eager to hurry towards the new valley.
But five long miles over ground strewn with boulders, following a way
among the rocks--think of the time needed to do them, and the fatigue,
to say nothing of the danger of sunstroke on this shadeless tableland!
So M. Zermatt was obliged to restrain the impatience of Mr. Wolston and
Jack.
"Not to-day," he said. "It is getting too late. Let us wait until
to-morrow. Instead of crossing this district on foot, we will go by
sea. The valley we can see almost certainly ends in some section of
the sea-shore, in some creek where a river runs out. If the pinnace
finds a good anchorage there we will devote one or two days to a really
serious exploration of the interior."
It was the wisest course, and no one could raise an objection to it.
After a parting glance all round, M. Zermatt, with Mr. Wolston and
Jack, went down and explained to the others what had been decided.
The exploration, postponed until the morrow, would be carried out
under conditions which would enable the whole party to take part in it
without danger or fatigue.
It now only remained to descend the path through the gap in the cliff,
and it took but a few minutes to reach the foot.
Though there was an entire absence of game on the shores of Unicorn
Bay, as Jack complained, there were swarms of fish in its waters and
of crustaceans among its rocks, with which Ernest expressed himself
as being entirely satisfied. With the help of Hannah he set some nets
and got some good fishing, with the result that for dinner there was
a supplementary dish of large crabs with most excellent flesh and of
small fried soles of good quality.
After dinner they took a final stroll as far as the end of the beach
and about nine o'clock all the party went on board the _Elizabeth_
again.