The perils of my first voyage had deterred me from making a similar
experiment; but I recovered my boat, and having further strengthened it,
fitted it with what could either be turned into a well or locker: I used
to row out a little distance when the sea was free from sharks and fish.
But my grand effort in this direction, was the completion of a net,
which, assisted by Mrs Reichardt, I managed to manufacture. By this
time, she had gained sufficient confidence to accompany me in my fishing
excursions; she would even take the oars whilst I threw out the net, and
assisted me in dragging it into the boat.
The first time we got such a haul, that I was afraid of the safety of
our little craft. The locker was full, and numbers of great fish, as I
flung them out of the net, were flapping and leaping about the bottom of
the boat. It began to sink lower in the water than was agreeable to
either of us, and I found it absolutely necessary to throw back into the
sea the greater portion of our catch. We then rowed carefully to land,
rejoicing that we had at our command the means of obtaining an abundant
supply of food whenever we desired it.
Mrs Reichardt was with me also in our land excursions. Together we had
explored every part of the island; our chief object was plants for
enriching our garden; and, often as we had been in search of novelties,
we invariably brought home additions to our collection; and my companion
having acquired some knowledge of botany, would explain to me the names,
characters, and qualities of the different species; which made our
journeys peculiarly interesting.
Our appearance often caused considerable amusement to each other; for
our respective costumes must have been extremely curious in the eyes of
a stranger. Neither wore shoes or stockings--these things we did not
possess, and could not procure; we wore leggings and sandals of
seal-skin to protect us from the thorns and plants of the cacti tribe,
among which we were obliged to force our way. My companion wore a
conical cap of seal-skin, and protected her complexion from the sun by a
rude attempt at an umbrella I had made for her.
She had on, on these occasions, a pair of coarse cloth trousers, as her
own dress would have been torn to pieces before she had got half a mile
through the bush; these were surmounted by a tight spencer she had
herself manufactured out of a man's waistcoat, and a dimity petticoat,
which buttoned up to her throat, and was fastened in the same way at the
wrists.
My head was covered with a broad-brimmed hat, made of dry grass, which I
had myself plaited. I wore a sailor's jacket, much the worse for wear,
patched with seal-skin, over a pair of duck trousers, similarly
repaired.
Although our expeditions were perfectly harmless, we did not go without
weapons. At the instigation of my companion, I had made myself a good
stout bow and plenty of arrows, and had exercised myself so frequently
at aiming at a mark, as to have acquired very considerable skill in the
use of them. I had now several arrows of hard wood tipped with sharp
fish-bones, and some with iron nails, in a kind of pouch behind me; in
its sheath before me was my American knife, which I used for taking the
plants from the ground. I had a basket made of the long grass of the
island, slung around me, which served to contain our treasures; and I
carried my bow in my hand.
My companion, in addition to her umbrella, bore only a long staff, and a
small basket tied round her waist, that usually contained a little
refreshment; for she would say there was no knowing what might occur to
delay our return, and therefore it was better to take our meal with us.
And not the least agreeable portion of the day's labour was our repast;
for we would seat ourselves in some quiet corner, surrounded by flowers,
and shaded by the brushwood from the sun, and there eat our dried fish
or pick our birds, and roast our potatoes by means of a fire of dried
sticks, and wash down our simple dinner with a flask of pure water--the
most refreshing portion of our banquet.
I had, as I have just stated, attained a singular degree of skill in the
use of the bow and arrow, which, as we had no firearms, was often of
important service in procuring food on land.
I had made another use of my skill--an application of it which afforded
me a vast deal of satisfaction. My old enemies the sharks used still to
frequent a certain portion of the coast, in great numbers, and as soon
as I became master of my weapon, I would stand as near to the edge of
the rock as was safe, and singling out my victim, aim at his upper fin,
which I often found had the effect of ridding the place of that fellow.
I bore such an intense hatred to these creatures for the fright they had
put me into during my memorable voyage of discovery, and for the
slaughter of my beloved Nero, that I determined to wage incessant war
against them, as long as I could manufacture an arrow, or a single shark
remained on the coast.
As we had so often traversed the island without accident, we dreamt not
of danger. We had never met with any kind of animals, except our old
friends the seals, who kept near the sea. Of birds, the gannets were
generally the sole frequenters of the island; but we had seen, at rare
intervals, birds of a totally different character, some of which I had
shot.
Indeed, during our excursions, I was always on the look-out for any
stranger of the feathered race, that I might exercise my skill upon him.
If he proved eatable, he was sure to be very welcome; and even if he
could not be cooked, he afforded me some entertainment, in hearing from
Mrs Reichardt his name and habits.
We had discovered a natural hollow which lay so low that it was quite
hid till we came close to it, when we had to descend a steep declivity
covered with shrubs. At the bottom was a soil evidently very
productive, for we found trees growing there to a considerable height,
that were in marked contrast to the shrubby plants that grew in other
parts of the island. We called this spot the Happy Valley, and it
became a favourite resting-place.
I remember on one of these occasions, we had made our dinner after
having been several hours employed in seeking for plants, of which we
had procured a good supply, and the remains of our meal lay under a
great tree, beneath the spreading branches of which we had been resting
ourselves.
It was quite on the other side of the island, within about a quarter of
a mile of the sea. Abundance of curious plants grew about the place,
and Mrs Reichardt had wandered to a little distance to examine all
within view.
I was peering into the trees and shrubs around to discover a newcomer.
I had wandered in an opposite direction to that taken by my companion,
and was creeping round a clump of shrubs about twenty yards off, in
which I detected a chirping noise, when I heard a loud scream.
I turned sharply round and beheld Mrs Reichardt, evidently in an agony
of terror, running towards me with prodigious swiftness. She had
dropped her umbrella and her staff, her cap had fallen from her head,
and her long hair, disarranged by her sudden flight, streamed behind her
shoulders.
At first I did not see anything which could have caused this terrible
alarm; but in a few seconds I heard a crushing among a thicket of shrubs
from which she was running, as if some heavy weight was being forced
through them; and presently there issued a most extraordinary monster.
It came forward at a quick pace, its head erect above ten feet, its jaws
wide open, from the midst of which there issued a forked tongue which
darted in and out with inconceivable rapidity. Its body was very long,
and thick as an ordinary tree; it was covered over with bright shining
scales that seemed to have different colours, and was propelled along
the ground in folds of various sizes, with a length of tail of several
yards behind. Its eyes were very bright and fierce. Its appearance
certainly accounted for my companion's alarm.
"Fly!" she cried in accents of intense terror, as she rushed towards me,
"fly, or you are lost!"
She then gave a hurried glance behind her, and seeing the formidable
monster in full chase, she just had power to reach the spot to which I
had advanced, and sunk, overpowered with terror, fainting at my feet.
My first movement was to step across her body for the purpose of
disputing the passage of the monster; and in an erect posture, with my
bow drawn tight as I could pull it, I waited a few seconds till I could
secure a good aim, for I knew everything depended on my steadiness and
resolution.
On came my prodigious antagonist, making a terrible hissing as he
approached, his eyes flashing, his jaws expanded as if he intended to
swallow me at a mouthful, and the enormous folds of his huge body
passing like wheels over the ground,--crushing the thick plants that
came in their way like grass.
I must acknowledge that in my heart I felt a strange sinking sensation,
but I remembered that our only chance of escape lay in giving the
monster a mortal wound, and the imminence of the danger seemed to afford
me the resolution I required.
He was close behind, and in a direct line with the tree under which we
had dined, and I was about twenty yards from it. Directly his head
darted round and in front of the tree, making a good mark, I let fly the
arrow direct, as I thought, for his eye, hoping, by penetrating his
brain, to settle him at once. But as he moved his head at that moment,
the arrow went into his open jaws, one of which it penetrated, and going
deep into the tree behind, pinned his head close to the bark.
As soon as the huge creature found himself hurt, he wound his enormous
body round the trunk, and with his desperate exertions, swayed the great
tree backwards and forwards, as I would have done one of its smallest
branches. Fearful that he would liberate himself before I could save my
senseless companion, as quick as possible I discharged all my arrows
into his body, which took effect in various places. His exertions then
became so terrible, that I hastily snatched up Mrs Reichardt in my
arms, and with a fright that seemed to give me supernatural strength, I
ran as fast as I could the shortest way to our hut. Fortunately, before
I had gone half a mile, my companion came to her senses, and was able to
continue her flight.
We got home at last, half dead with fatigue and fright; nevertheless the
first thing we did was to barricade all the entrances. We left
loop-holes to reconnoitre; and there we sat for hours after our arrival,
waiting the monster's approach in fear and trembling.
We did not go to sleep that night. We did not, either of us, go out the
next day. The next night one watched while the other slept. The second
day my courage had so far returned, I wanted to go and look after the
constant subject of our conversation. But Mrs Reichardt dissuaded me.
She told me it was an enormous python, or serpent of the boa species,
that are common in the northern coast of America. Probably it had been
brought to the island on a drifted tree, and being so prodigious a
reptile, the wounds it had received were not likely to do it much harm,
and it would be no doubt lurking about, ready to pounce upon either of
us directly we appeared.
On the third day, nothing having occurred to increase our alarm, I
determined to know the worst; so I got by stealth out of the house, and,
armed with a fresh bow, a good supply of arrows, a hatchet slung at my
side, and my American knife--with my mind made up for another conflict
if necessary--I crept stealthily along, with my eyes awake to the
slightest motion, and my ears open to the slightest sound, till I
approached the scene of my late unequal struggle.
I must own I began to draw my breath rather rapidly, and my heart beat
more quickly, as I came near the place where I had left my terrible
enemy. To my extreme surprise the python had disappeared. There was
the tree still standing, though its foliage and branches strewed the
ground, and a great portion of its bark was ground to powder. At the
base of the trunk was a pool of blood, mingled with fragments of bark,
broken arrows, leaves, and mould. The reptile had escaped. But where
was he? Not altogether without anxiety I began to look for traces of
his retreat; and they were easily found. With my arrow ready for
immediate flight, I followed a stream of blood that was still visible on
the grass, and led from the tree, accompanied by unmistakeable marks of
the great serpent's progress, in a direct line to the sea. There it
disappeared.
When I discovered this, I breathed again. There was no doubt if the
monster survived the conflict, he was hundreds of miles away, and was
not likely to return to a place where he had received so rough a
welcome. It may readily be believed I lost no time in taking the
agreeable news to my companion.