The reader must understand that the foregoing remarks are to be
considered as referring to my position and amount of knowledge when I
was seven or eight years old. My master, as I called him, was a short
square-built man, about sixty years of age, as I afterwards estimated
from recollection and comparison. His hair fell down his back in thick
clusters and was still of a dark colour, and his beard was full two feet
long and very bushy; indeed, he was covered with hair, wherever his
person was exposed. He was, I should say, very powerful had he had
occasion to exert his strength, but with the exception of the time at
which we collected the birds, and occasionally going up the ravine to
bring down faggots of wood, he seldom moved out of the cabin, unless it
was to bathe. There was a pool of salt-water of about twenty yards
square, near the sea, but separated from it by a low ridge of rocks,
over which the waves only beat when the sea was rough and the wind on
that side of the island. Every morning almost we went down to bathe in
that pool, as it was secure from the sharks, which were very numerous.
I could swim like a fish as early as I can recollect, but whether I was
taught, or learned myself, I cannot tell. Thus was my life passed away;
my duties were trifling; I had little or nothing to employ myself about,
for I had no means of employment. I seldom heard the human voice, and
became as taciturn as my companion. My amusements were equally
confined--looking down into the depths of the ocean, as I lay over the
rocky wall which girted the major portion of the island, and watching
the motions of the finny tribes below, wondering at the stars, during
the night season, eating, and sleeping. Thus did I pass away an
existence without pleasure and without pain. As for what my thoughts
were I can hardly say, my knowledge and my ideas were too confined for
me to have any food for thought. I was little better than a beast of
the field, who lies down on the pasture after he is filled. There was
one great source of interest, however, which was to listen to the
sleeping talk of my companion, and I always looked forward to the time
when the night fell and we repaired to our beds. I would lie awake for
hours, listening to his ejaculations and murmured speech, trying in vain
to find out some meaning in what he would say--but I gained little; he
talked of "that woman"--appearing to be constantly with other men, and
muttering about something he had hidden away. One night, when the moon
was shining bright, he sat up in his bed, which, as I have before said,
was on the floor of the cabin, and throwing aside the feathers upon
which he had been lying, scratched the mould away below them and lifted
up a piece of board. After a minute he replaced everything, and lay
down again. He evidently was sleeping during the whole time. Here, at
last, was something to feed my thoughts with. I had heard him say in
his sleep that he had hidden something--this must be the hiding-place.
What was it? Perhaps I ought here to observe that my feelings towards
this man were those of positive dislike, if not hatred; I never had
received one kind word or deed from him, that I could recollect. Harsh
and unfeeling towards me, evidently looking upon me with ill-will, and
only suffering me because I saved him some trouble, and perhaps because
he wished to have a living thing for his companion, his feelings towards
me were reciprocated by mine towards him. What age I was at the time my
mother died, I know not, but I had some faint recollection of one who
treated me with kindness and caresses, and these recollections became
more forcible in my dreams, when I saw a figure very different from that
of my companion (a female figure) hanging over me or leading me by the
hand. How I used to try to continue those dreams, by closing my eyes
again after I had woke up! And yet I knew not that they had been
brought about by the dim recollection of my infancy; I knew not that the
figure that appeared to me was the shadow of my mother; but I loved the
dreams because I was treated kindly in them.
But a change took place by the hand of Providence. One day, after we
had just laid in our yearly provision of sea-birds, I was busy arranging
the skins of the old birds, on the flat rock, for my annual garment,
which was joined together something like a sack, with holes for the head
and arms to pass through; when, as I looked to seaward, I saw a large
white object on the water.
"Look, master," said I, pointing towards it.
"A ship, a ship!" cried my companion.
"Oh," thought I, "that is a ship; I recollect that he said they came
here in a ship." I kept my eyes on her, and she rounded to.
"Is she alive?" inquired I.
"You're a fool," said the man; "come and help me to pile up this wood,
that we may make a signal to her. Go and fetch some water and throw on
it, that there may be plenty of smoke. Thank God, I may leave this
cursed hole at last!"
I hardly understood him, but I went for the water and brought it in the
mess kid.
"I want more wood yet," said he. "Her head is this way, and she will
come nearer."
"Then she is alive," said I.
"Away, fool!" said he, giving me a cuff on the head; "get some more
water and throw on the wood."
He then went into the cabin to strike a light, which he obtained by a
piece of iron and flint, with some fine dry moss for tinder. While he
was so employed, my eyes were fixed on the vessel, wondering what it
could be. It moved through the water, turned this way and that. "It
must be alive," thought I; "is it a fish or a bird?" As I watched the
vessel, the sun was going down, and there was not more than an hour's
daylight. The wind was very light and variable, which accounted for the
vessel so often altering her course. My companion came out with his
hands full of smoking tinder, and putting it under the wood, was busy
blowing it into a flame. The wood was soon set fire to, and the smoke
ascended several feet into the air.
"They'll see that," said he.
"What then, it has eyes? It must be alive. Does it mind the wind?"
inquired I, having no answer to my first remark, "for look there, the
little clouds are coming up fast," and I pointed to the horizon, where
some small clouds were rising up, and which were, as I knew from
experience and constantly watching the sky, a sign of a short but
violent gale, or tornado, of which we usually had one, if not two, at
this season of the year.
"Yes; confound it," replied my companion, grinding his teeth, "it will
blow her off! That's my luck."
In the meantime, the smoke ascended in the air and the vessel approached
nearer and nearer, until she was within, I suppose, two miles of the
island, and then it fell quite calm. My companion threw more water on
to increase the smoke, and the vessel now hauling up her courses, I
perceived that there were people on board, and while I was arranging my
ideas as to what the vessel might be, my companion cried out--"They see
us, they see us! There's hope now. Confound it, I've been here long
enough. Hurrah for old England!" and he commenced dancing and capering
about like a madman. At last he said:
"Look out, and see if she sends a boat, while I go into the cabin."
"What's a boat?" said I.
"Out, you fool! Tell me if you see anything."
"Yes, I do see something," replied I. "Look at the squall coming along
the water, it will be here very soon; and see how thick the clouds are
getting up: we shall have as much wind and rain as we had the time
before last, when the birds came."
"Confound it," replied he, "I wish they'd lower a boat, at all events;"
and so saying, he went into the cabin, and I perceived that he was busy
at his bed-place.
My eyes were still fixed upon the squall, as I watched it advancing at a
furious speed on the surface of the water; at first it was a deep black
line on the horizon, but as it approached the vessel, changed to white;
the surface of the water was still smooth. The clouds were not more
than ten degrees above the horizon, although they were thick and opaque
but at this season of the year, these tornados, as I may call them,
visited us; sometimes we had one, sometimes more, and it was only when
these gusts came on that we had any rain below. On board of the
vessel--I speak now from my after knowledge--they did not appear to be
aware of the danger the sails were all set and flapping against the
masts. At last, I perceived a small object close to the vessel; this I
presumed was the boat which my companion looked for. It was like a
young vessel close to the old one, but I said nothing, as I was watching
and wondering what effect the rising wind would have upon her; for the
observations of my companion had made me feel that it was important.
After a time, I perceived that the white sails were disappearing, and
that the forms of men were very busy, and moving on board, and the boat
went back to the side of the vessel. The fact is, they had not
perceived the squall until it was too late, for in another moment
almost, I saw that the vessel bowed down to the fury of the gale, and
after that, the mist was so great that I couldn't see her any more.
"Is she sending a boat, boy?" cried my companion.
"I can't see her," replied I; "for she is hidden by the wind."
As I said this, the tornado reached to where we stood, and threw me off
my legs to the entrance of the cabin; and with the wind came down a
torrent of rain, which drenched us, and the clouds covered the whole of
the firmament, which became dark; the lightning darted in every
direction, with peals of thunder which were deafening. I crawled into
the cabin, into which the rain beat in great fury and flowed out again
in a small river.
My companion sat near me, lowering and silent. For two hours, the
tornado lasted without interruption; the sun had set, and the darkness
was opaque. It was impossible to move against the force of the wind and
the deluge of water which descended. Speak we did not, but shut our
eyes against the lightning, and held our fingers to our ears to deaden
the noise of the thunder, which burst upon us in the most awful manner.
My companion groaned at intervals, whether from fear, I know not; I had
no fear, for I did not know the danger, or that there was a God to judge
the earth.
Gradually the fury of the gale abated, the rain was only heavy at
intervals, and we could now hear the beating of the waves, as they
dashed against the rocks beneath us. The sky also cleared up a little,
and we could dimly discern the white foam of the breakers. I crawled
out of the cabin, and stood upon the platform in front, straining my
eyes to see the vessel: A flash of lightning for a second revealed her
to me; she was dismasted, rolling in the awful breakers, which bore her
down upon the high rocks not a quarter of a mile from her.
"There it is," exclaimed I, as the disappearance of the lightning left
me in darkness, more opaque than ever.
"She's done for," growled my companion, who, I was not till then aware,
stood by my side. "No hopes this time, confound it!" Then he continued
for some time to curse and swear awfully, as I afterwards discovered,
for I did not then know what was cursing and swearing.
"There she is again," said I, as another flash of lightning revealed the
position of the vessel.
"Yes, and she won't be there long; in five minutes she'll be dashed to
atoms and every soul perish."
"What are souls?" inquired I.
My companion gave me no reply.
"I will go down to the rocks," said I, "and see what goes on."
"What," said he, "and share their fate?"