morning, that we should go over to the mainland and commence a search
for water, making an excursion a little way into the interior, if it
should prove necessary.
Max objected to this, saying that we had no need of water, since we
could, without doubt, obtain cocoa-nut milk as long as we should be
obliged to remain upon the island, and that by going into the interior,
out of sight of the ocean, we might lose an opportunity of being
rescued.
To this, Arthur replied, that the exclusive use of cocoa-nut milk was
considered very unwholesome, and was supposed to be the cause of certain
dropsical complaints, common among the natives of many of the Pacific
islands; that beside; it was by no means certain that a supply of it
could be obtained throughout the year. He finally suggested the
possibility that our stay on the island might be longer than we
anticipated, in which case its resources, and the means of subsistence
which it afforded, would be matters of great interest to us. In regard
to the danger which Max seemed chiefly to fear, he said that we should
seldom altogether lose sight of the ocean, but might, on the contrary,
obtain a wider view of it from other parts of the island. I warmly
seconded Arthur's proposal, for I perceived the probable beneficial
effects of effort, or occupation, of almost any kind. Morton also was
decidedly in favour of it; and Johnny, who had recovered strength and
spirits wonderfully within the last few days, was quite enthusiastic for
the excursion. He calculated confidently upon our discovering a creek
of fresh water, full of fishes and lobsters, and cited the history of
the Swiss family Robinson, in support of the reasonableness of these
expectations; declaring that for us part, he could not see why we might
not count upon equal good fortune with them. Browne seemed indifferent
about the matter. The little native, (whose name, upon Arthur's
authority, I shall write "Eiulo," though "Iooloo," comes nearer to the
sound, as he himself pronounced it), shared in Johnny's delight in
prospect of the expedition; indeed, the two had already become the best
friends in the world, notwithstanding the difficulty of communicating
with one another, and seemed to harmonise in every thing. The excursion
was accordingly determined upon, and this being so, there was nothing to
prevent our setting out at once.
Morton proposed that, instead of undertaking to penetrate into the
interior, we should keep along the shore to the northward, as by that
means some idea might be gained of the extent of the island; and since
any considerable spring or stream must find its way to the sea, we
should also be more likely to discover water, than by pursuing the other
course. Along the southern shore, the land was lower and less uneven
than in the opposite direction, and held forth a slighter prospect of
springs or streams. The difficulty of holding a straight course through
the forest, where we should be without any means of ascertaining the
points of the compass, was a consideration of great weight, and Morton's
plan was at last adopted, as being upon the whole the best.
The sun was not more than half an hour high, when we pushed off from the
shore of the islet, and rowed over towards the mainland. The morning
was fine and clear, and either the fresh, bracing sea-air, or the stir
and excitement of setting out upon our expedition, had an exhilarating
influence, for we gradually became quite cheerful, and even animated;
and the faces of my companions began to brighten up with more of the old
familiar expression, than I had seen there for many a day.
The merest breath of a breeze just stirred the crisp leaves of the palms
upon the neighbouring shore; the tiny wavelets rippled softly upon the
snowy, shell-spangled beach, or, out in the lagoon, danced and sparkled
in the sunlight; still further out and just beyond the barrier that
fenced in this quiet and secluded scene from the open ocean, we could
see the huge blue rollers with their foaming crests surging high into
the air; and the heavy booming of the surf, as it thundered upon the
reef, might be heard for miles around, amid the prevailing silence.
Beyond this again, stretched away to the horizon, the blue, swelling
arch of the ocean--a clear, deep, intense blue, contrasting beautifully
with the paler blue of the sky, against which it was relieved, and with
the emerald expanse of the lagoon.
Browne gazed about him with more interest than I had yet seen him
manifest in any thing since we had reached the island. He inhaled the
fresh morning air with the appearance of actual relish and enjoyment and
at last, to my surprise, (for Max had accused him, not without some
reason, of having been the most lugubrious of our party), he began to
sing to a brisk and cheerful tune--
"O, happy days of hope and rest
Shall dawn on sorrow's dreary night,
Though grief may be an evening guest,
Yet joy shall come with morning light!
The light of smiles shall beam again,
From lids that now o'erflow with tears,
And weary hours of woe and pain,
Are earnests of serener years."
"Well," said he, as he finished his song, "this may be a desert island,
but I will defy any one to gainsay that the morning is delicious, and
the scene a right lovely one."
"I am glad you begin to wake up to it," said Morton, "it looks very much
as it has at this hour for ten days past."
"No, no," protested Browne, "this bright, clear atmosphere makes a very
great difference in the appearance of things: we have had no such
mornings as this."
"I wish you could manage to enjoy it," said Max, "without missing every
other stroke, and digging me so unmercifully in the back with your
oar-handle; if you can't, I must ask you to change seats with me, and
let me take the bow-oar."
"How natural and refreshing that sounds!" cried Morton, laughing; "it is
a sure token that prospects are brightening, and serious dangers are
over, when we find ourselves again in a condition to scold about
trifles."
"It isn't such a trifle, to be thumped and mauled with the butt of an
oar, as I have been all the while Browne was singing, and rhapsodising,
and going into ecstasies about the beauty of the morning; which is just
such another as we have had ever since we have been here; all the
difference being in his feelings, which happen to be a shade or two less
doleful than usual, and so cause things to look brighter."
"Perhaps you would have me believe," answered Browne, "that the sun will
invariably shine when I chance to be in good spirits, and that a
thunder-storm would be the natural consequence of my having a fit of the
blues?"
"I should be sorry if that were the case," replied Max, "as we should
then be sure to have a large average of bad weather."
"This excursion reminds me of our school-days," said Arthur; "it almost
seems as though we were once more starting off together, on one of our
Saturday rambles, as we have so often done on fine summer and autumn
mornings at home."
"I think I shall never forget those forays through the woods," said
Morton, "over hill and hollow, in search of nuts, or berries, or
wild-grapes, or meadow-plums--the fishing and swimming in summer, the
snow-balling, and sledding, and skating, in winter! an innocent and
happy set of urchins we were then!"
"Really," said Max, laughing, "to hear you one would suppose that we
were now a conclave of venerable, grey-haired sages, scarcely able to
remember the time when we were children, and so full of wisdom and
experience, that we had long ago ceased to be `innocent and happy.'"
"Without professing to be so wise or experienced, as to be very unhappy
on that account," returned Morton, "I suppose I may say that I am old
enough, and sufficiently changed since those days, to feel, as I now
look back upon them with a sigh, their peculiar happiness, so unlike any
thing that after-life affords."
"How singular it is," said Browne, "that you four who were playmates
when children, should have happened to keep together so long."
"And still find ourselves together on an island in the Pacific Ocean,
thousands of miles from home," added Arthur.
"After quitting school," continued Browne, "I never met with any of my
comrades there. Of all the mates with whom I used on the Saturday
half-holydays, to go gathering hips and haws, or angling in the Clyde, I
have not since come in contact with one."
"It don't seem at all like Saturday to me," said Johnny, who for some
minutes past had appeared to have something on his mind, as to the
expediency of communicating which he was undecided; "I was afraid that
it was Sunday, every thing is so still; but I hope it is not, for Arthur
would not think it right to start upon an exploring expedition on
Sunday, and so it would be put off."
"Truly," said Browne, "that is extremely flattering to the rest of us.
Do you think we are all heathens, except Arthur? I, for one, have no
notion of becoming a savage, because I am on a desert island; I shall go
for maintaining the decencies of Christianity and civilisation."
"Does any one know what day it really is?" inquired Morton.
Max said he believed it was Monday. Arthur thought it was Wednesday,
and added that he had memoranda, from which he had no doubt he could fix
the day with certainty.
"It was on Friday," said Max, "that the mutiny took place, and that we
got to sea in the boat."
"Yes," said Arthur, "and it was on Wednesday night, I think, five days
afterwards, that we landed here."
"Five days!" cried Max. "Do you mean to say that we were but five days
at sea before reaching the island?"
"I think that is all," replied Arthur, "though the time certainly seems
much longer. Then, if my calculations are correct, we have been here
just two weeks to-day, so that this is Wednesday. But," continued he,
"as our heavenly Father has thus guided our little bark safe through
this wilderness of waters, let us celebrate the day of our landing on
this `Canaan,' by making it our first Sabbath, and our grateful voices
shall every seventh day, from this, be lifted up in praise and
thanksgiving for the mercy thus vouchsafed to us."
While this conversation was going on, we reached the shore. Johnny
scrambled eagerly to the bow, anxious to be the first to land, and he
attained this object of his ambition, by jumping into the water nearly
up to his waist, before the boat was fairly beached. Then, after gazing
around him a moment with exclamations of wonder and admiration, he
suddenly commenced running up and down the wide, firm beach, gathering
shells, with as much zeal and earnestness, as though he was spending a
holiday by the sea-side at home, and could tie up these pretty
curiosities in his handkerchief, and run back with them in five minutes
to his father's house. There was certainly some ground for Johnny's
admiration; just at the spot where we had landed, the shore was thickly
strewn, in a manner which I had never before seen equalled, with
varieties of the most curious and beautiful shells. They were of all
sizes, and of every conceivable shape and colour. The surfaces of some
were smooth and highly polished; others were scolloped, or fluted, or
marked with wave-like undulations. There were little rice and cowrie
shells; mottled tiger shells; spider shells, with their long, sharp
spikes; immense conches, rough, and covered with great knobs on the
outside, but smooth and rose-lipped within, and of many delicate hues.
There were some that resembled gigantic snail shells, and others shaped
like the cornucopias, used to hold sugar-plums for children. One
species, the most remarkable of all, was composed of a substance,
resembling mother-of-pearl, exquisitely beautiful, but very fragile,
breaking easily, if you but set foot on one of them: they were
changeable in colour, being of a dazzling white, a pearly blue, or a
delicate pale green, as viewed in different lights. Scattered here and
there, among these deserted tenements of various kinds of shell-fish,
were the beautiful exuviae and skeletons of star-fish, and sea-eggs;
while in the shallow water, numerous living specimens could be seen
moving lazily about. Among these last, I noticed a couple of
sea-porcupines, bristling with their long, fine, flexible quills, and an
enormous conch crawling along the bottom with his house on his back, the
locomotive power being entirely out of sight.
Johnny seemed for the moment to have forgotten every thing else, in the
contemplation of these treasures; and it was not until Arthur reminded
him that there was no one to remove or appropriate them, and that he
could get as many as he wanted at any time, that he desisted from his
work, and reluctantly consented to postpone making a collection for the
present.
Having drawn the boat high up on the beach, and armed ourselves with a
cutlass apiece, (Johnny taking possession of the longest one of the
lot), we commenced our march along the shore, to the right, without
further delay.
We had by this time scarcely a remaining doubt that the island was
uninhabited. No palm-thatched huts occupied the open spaces, or crowned
the little eminences that diversified its windward side; no wreaths of
smoke could be seen rising above the tops of the groves; no canoes, full
of tattooed savages, glided over the still waters within the reef; and
no merry troops of bathers pursued their sports in the surf. There was
nothing to impart life and animation to the scene, but the varied
evolutions of the myriads of sea-fowl, continually swooping, and
screaming around us. With this exception, a silence like that of the
first Sabbath brooded over the island, which appeared as fresh, and as
free from every trace of the presence of man, as if it had newly sprung
into existence.
With the continued absence of every indication of inhabitants our
feeling of security had increased to such an extent, that even Johnny
ventured sometimes to straggle behind, or to run on before, and
occasionally made a hasty incursion into the borders of the grove,
though he took care never to be far out of sight or hearing of the main
body. Soon after starting, we doubled a projecting promontory, and lost
sight of the boat and the islet. The reef bent round to the north,
preserving nearly a uniform distance from the shore, and was without any
break or opening.
The forest in most places, extended nearly to the beach, and was
composed chiefly of hibiscus, pandanus, and cocoa-nut trees, with here
and there a large pisonia, close to the lagoon. One gigantic specimen
of this last species, which we stopped a moment to admire, could not
have been less than twenty feet in girth. Max, Morton, Arthur, and
myself, could not quite span it, taking hold of hands, and Johnny had to
join the ring, to make it complete. For several hours we continued our
journey pretty steadily, encountering no living thing, except tern,
gannets, and other sea-birds, and one troop of gaudy little paroquets,
glittering in green, and orange, and crimson. These paroquets were the
only land-birds we saw during the day. Max pronounced them "frights,"
because of their large hooked bills, and harsh discordant cries. They
certainly gave Johnny, a terrible "fright," and indeed startled us all a
little, by suddenly taking wing, with loud, hoarse screams, from a
hibiscus, beneath which we were resting, without having observed that
they were perched over our heads.
When it was near noon, and we had travelled, as we supposed, making
allowance for delays and deviations, some six or eight miles, the
character of the shore suddenly changed. The white, shelving beach, and
the dense groves meeting it near the water, now disappeared, and were
succeeded by an open strip of land, bordering the lagoon, strewed with
huge, irregular fragments of coral rock, and seamed with gullies. The
line of the forest here receded some distance from the shore, leaving a
broad rounded point, embracing a large area of low and barren ground,
covered thinly with a growth of stunted shrubs, and a few straggling,
solitary looking trees. The lagoon was at this point quite shallow, and
low rocks and coral patches appeared above the surface, at short
distances apart, nearly to the centre of the channel. The reef
opposite, was entirely under water, and its position was indicated only
by a line of breakers. A large portion of the point, comprising several
acres, was covered with the rude nests of various aquatic birds. Many
of these nests were occupied even at that hour, and the birds seemed in
no wise alarmed, or even disturbed by our approach. When we came very
close to any of them, they would survey us with an air half angry, and
half inquisitive, stretching out their long necks; and screwing their
heads from side to side, so as to obtain a view of us first with one
eye, and then with the other; this seeming to be considered
indispensable to a complete and satisfactory understanding of our
character and intentions. After a thorough scrutiny, they would resume
their former appearance of stupid indifference, as though we were
creatures altogether too unimportant to merit further notice. They all,
without exception, seemed perfectly tame and fearless, and quite ready
to resent any infringement upon their rights.
Johnny, while inspecting too closely the nest of one of them, curiously
constructed of long stiff reeds, resembling rods of steel, suddenly
received, as a rebuke for his impertinence, a blow from the wing of the
offended owner, which laid him sprawling upon his back.
Notwithstanding this severe lesson, the gentle and amiable aspect of a
large white bird, so far reassured him, that he ventured to make some
friendly advances, whereupon he got so severely pecked, that he at once
gave up all further attempts at familiarity with any of them. This
harsh treatment, in fact, so disgusted Johnny with the whole race of
sea-birds, and so impaired his faith in their innocent and inoffensive
looks, that he declared he would never have any thing more to do with
them, "since that beautiful white bird had bitten him so savagely, when
he only offered to stroke its neck."
Some of these birds were very large and strong: in several of the
unoccupied nests I saw eggs, as large as those of the duck: they were of
different colours some of them prettily speckled or mottled, but most
were of an ash colour, or a whitish brown. Eiulo pointed out two kinds,
which he said were highly prized for food, and which, as we afterwards
found, were, in fact, nearly equal to the eggs of the domestic duck.
The heat had by this time become exceedingly uncomfortable, and we
concluded to halt until it should abate a little, at the first
convenient and pleasant spot. Leaving the shore, which, besides being
unsheltered from the sun, was so rugged with crevices and gullies, and
great irregular blocks of coral, as to be almost impassable, we entered
the borders of the wood, and took a short cut across the point. Johnny,
in imitation of the desert islanders of the story-books, desired to give
appropriate names to all the interesting or remarkable localities, with
which we became acquainted. He had already christened the little island
on which we had first landed, "Palm-Islet," and the spot upon the
opposite shore, abounding in brilliant shells, had, from that
circumstance, received the impromptu name of "Pearl-shell Beach." He
now proposed to call the point, "Cape Desolation," from its waste and
forbidding aspect; but finally fixed upon "Sea-bird's Point," as being
more appropriate, the birds having, in fact, taken possession of nearly
its entire area, which, judging from the warlike spirit they had
displayed, they were likely to hold against all comers. Having crossed
the point and reached the lagoon again, we found that the shore resumed
its former character. The forest again extended nearly to the beach,
but it was more open, and not so thickly wooded as before, and the trees
were of a finer growth, and in much greater variety; many of them being
of kinds unknown to any of us. We had not proceeded far, after
regaining the beach, when we espied just such a resting-place as we were
in search of.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
CASTLE-HILL.
THE NOONDAY HALT--A CHARMING RESTING-PLACE--HEATHEN SKILL VERSUS
CIVILISATION AND THE STORY-BOOKS.
"Beneath the tropic rays,
Where not a shadow breaks the boundless blaze,
Earth from her lap perennial verdure pours,
Ambrosial fruits, and amaranthine flowers."
A little way before us rose a smooth and gentle acclivity, crowned by a
clump of majestic trees, which promised to afford a deeper and more
grateful shade than any other spot in sight, and we accordingly made
towards it. On a nearer approach it proved to be more elevated than had
at first appeared, and in order to reach the top, we were obliged to
scale a long series of natural terraces, almost as regular as though
they had been the work of art. From this spot there was a fine view of
the shore, the lagoon, and the ocean, to the north and west. The trees
that covered the level space at the summit of the ascent, were varieties
of a much larger growth than those generally found on the low alluvial
strip of land bordering the lagoon. Conspicuous among them, were the
majestic candle-nut, with its white leaves and orange-coloured blossoms;
the inocarpus, a kind of tropical chestnut; and most magnificent and
imposing of all, a stately tree, resembling the magnolia in its foliage
and manner of growth, and thickly covered with large white flowers,
edged with a delicate pink. The ground was level as a parlour floor,
and free from brushwood or undergrowth of any kind, except a few
long-leaved, fragrant ferns, and in places a thick carpet of flowering
vines and creepers. The trees were stationed at such distances apart,
as to compose a fine open grove, and yet close enough to unite in one
rich mass of foliage overhead, impenetrable to the rays of the sun, and
creating a sombre and almost gloomy shade, even during the fiercest
glare of noonday. In one spot, a number of gigantic trees were grouped
nearly in a circle. Their dense tops formed a leafy dome, through which
not the smallest patch of sky was visible. Around their huge, but
shapely, stems, which one might look upon as forming the pillars of a
natural temple, a number of flowering parasites twined in luxuriant
wreaths, and hung in festoons from the tower branches. A considerable
space around the boles of some of these trees was completely covered by
an elegant species of creeping plant with fine cut foliage of a delicate
pea-green, and large clusters of scarlet blossoms, about which, swarms
of brilliantly-coloured insects, of the butterfly tribe, were hovering.
"Here we may actually, and not figuratively, indulge in the luxury of
`reposing on the beds of flowers,'" said Max, throwing himself down at
the foot of a towering candle-nut, amid a soft mass of this vegetable
carpeting. All were sufficiently tired by the long march of the
morning, to appreciate the luxury, and our entire company was soon
stretched upon the ground, in attitudes in which comfort rather than
grace, was consulted.
"What do you think of this, Johnny?" said Max, "it strikes me, as being
quite romantic and like the story-books--almost up to the Arabian
Nights. If the history of our adventures should ever be written, (and
why shouldn't it be?) here's material for a _flowery_ passage. Just see
how this would sound, for instance:--`And now our little band of
toil-worn castaways,' (that's us), `weary and faint with their
wanderings through the desert, (that's Cape Desolation, or Sea-bird's
Point, or whatever Johnny in his wisdom shall conclude to call it),
arrived at a little oasis, (this is it), a green spot in the wilderness,
blooming like the bowers of Paradise, where stretched at ease, upon beds
of bright and odoriferous flowers, they reposed from the fatigues of
their journey.' There, that sentence, I flatter myself is equal in
harmony and effect, to the opening one in the history of Rasselas,
Prince of Abyssinia--there's my idea of the style in which our
adventures should be recorded."