I had become tired of looking out for a ship. Though day after day, and
week after week, I made the most careful scrutiny with my glass, as I
have said, it brought no result. I sometimes fancied I saw a vessel
appearing in the line of the horizon, and I would pile up fagots and
light them, and throw on water to make them smoke, as Jackson had done;
but all without avail. Either my vision had deceived me, or my signals
had not been observed, or the ship's course did not lay in the direction
of the island.
We had had storms, too, on several occasions, but no wreck had been left
on our coast. I began to think we were doomed to live out our lives on
this rock, and frequently found myself striving very manfully to be
resigned to my fate, and for a few days I would cheerfully endeavour to
make the best of it. But the increasing desire I felt to get to
England, that I might seek out my grandfather, and put him in possession
of his diamonds, always prevented this state of things enduring very
long. I had obtained from Mrs Reichardt an idea of the value of these
stones, and of the importance of their restoration to my relative, and I
had often thought of the satisfaction I should enjoy in presenting
myself before him, as the restorer of such valuable property, which, no
doubt, had long since been given up as lost.
But latterly, I thought less of these things; the chance of leaving the
island seemed so remote, and the prospect of ever seeing my grandfather
so very distant, that I had ceased to take any interest in the contents
of the belt. The diamonds seemed to become as valueless as they were
useless; a handful of wheat would have been much more desirable. It was
now some time since I had seen the belt, or inquired about it.
Thus we lived without any incident occurring worth relating--when one
day the appearance of the atmosphere indicated a storm, and a very
violent hurricane, attended with peals of thunder and lurid flashes of
lightning, lasted during the whole of the day and evening. The wind
tore up the trees by the roots, blew down our outhouses, made terrible
havoc in our garden, and threatened to tumble our hut over our heads.
We could not think of going to our beds whilst such a tempest was raging
around us, so we sat up, listening to the creaking of the boards, and
anticipating every moment that the whole fabric would be blown to
pieces. Fortunately, the bark with which I had covered the roof, in a
great measure protected us from the rain, which came down in torrents;
but every part was not equally impervious, and our discomfort was
increased by seeing the water drip through, and form pools on the floor.
The thunder still continued at intervals, and was sometimes so loud as
to have a most startling effect upon us. My companion knelt down and
said her prayers with great fervour, and I joined in them with scarcely
less devotion. Indeed it was an awful night, and our position, though
under shelter, was not without danger. The incessant flashes of
lightning seemed to play round our edifice, as if determined to set it
in a blaze; and the dreadful peals of thunder that followed, rolled over
our heads, as if about to burst upon the creaking boards that shut us
from its fury.
I fancied once or twice that I heard during the storm, bursts of sound
quite different in character from the peals of thunder. They were not
so loud, and did not reverberate so much; they seemed to come nearer,
and then the difference in sound became very perceptible.
"Great God!" exclaimed Mrs Reichardt, starting up from her kneeling
posture, "that is a gun from some ship."
The wind seemed less boisterous for a few seconds, and the thunder
ceased. We listened breathlessly for the loud boom we had just heard,
but it was not repeated. In a moment afterwards our ears were startled
by the most terrifying combination of screams, shrieks, cries, and
wailings, I had ever heard. My blood seemed chilled in my veins.
"A ship has just struck," whispered my companion, scarcely above her
breath. "The Lord have mercy on the crew!"
She sunk on her knees again in prayer, as if for the poor souls who were
struggling in the jaws of death. The wind still howled, and the thunder
still roared; but in the fiercest war of the elements, I fancied I could
every now and then hear the piercing shrieks sent up to heaven for
assistance. I thought once or twice of venturing out, but I remembered
the safety of my companion was so completely bound up with my own, that
I could not reconcile myself to leaving her; and I was also well aware,
that till the terrible fury of the tempest abated, it was impossible for
me to be of the slightest service to the people of the wrecked ship,
even could I remain unharmed exposed to the violence of the weather.
I, however, awaited with much impatience and intense anxiety till the
storm had in some measure spent itself; but this did not occur till
sunrise the next morning. The wind fell, the thunder and lightning
ceased, the rain was evidently diminishing, and the brightness of the
coming day began to burst through the darkest night that had ever
visited the island.
Mrs Reichardt would not be left behind; it was possible she might be
useful, and taking with her a small basket of such things as she
imagined might be required, she accompanied me to the rocks nearest the
sea.
On arriving there, the most extraordinary scene presented itself. The
sea was strewed with spars, masts, chests, boats stove in or otherwise
injured, casks, empty hencoops, and innumerable pieces of floating
wreck, that were continually dashed against the rocks, or were washed
ashore, wherever an opening for the sea presented itself. At a little
distance lay the remains of a fine ship, her masts gone by the board,
her decks open, in fact a complete wreck, over which the sea had but
lately been making a clean sweep, carrying overboard everything that
could not resist its fury.
I could see nothing resembling a human being, though both myself and my
companion looked carefully round, in the hope of discovering some poor
creature that might need assistance. It appeared, however, as if the
people of the ship had taken to their boats, which had been swamped, and
most probably all who had ventured into them had been devoured by the
sharks.
Had the crew remained on board, they would in all probability have been
saved; as the vessel had been thrown almost high and dry.
As soon as we had satisfied ourselves that no sharks were in the
neighbourhood, I launched my little boat, and each taking an oar, we
pulled in the direction of the wreck, which we reached in a few minutes.
She had heeled over after striking, and the water was quite smooth under
her lee. I contrived to climb into the main chains, and from thence on
board, and was soon afterwards diligently exploring the ship. I
penetrated every place into which I could effect an entrance, marvelling
much at the variety of things. I beheld. There seemed such an
abundance of everything, and of things, too, quite new to me, that I was
bewildered by their novelty and variety.
Having discovered a coil of new rope, I hauled it on deck, and soon made
fast my little boat to the ship. Then I made a hasty rope ladder, which
I threw over, and Mrs Reichardt was in a very few minutes standing by
my side. Her knowledge was necessary to inform me of the uses of the
several strange things I saw, and to select for our own use what was
most desirable. She being well acquainted with the interior of a ship,
and having explained to me its numerous conveniences, I could not but
admire the ingenuity of man, in creating such stupendous machines.
The ship having much water in the hold, I was forced to dive into the
armoury. It was the first time I had seen such things, and I handled
the muskets and pistols with a vast deal of curiosity; as my companion
explained to me how they were loaded and fired, I at once saw their
advantage over the bow and arrow, and was selecting two or three to
carry away, when I hesitated on being assured they would be perfectly
useless without ammunition. I might have remained content with my own
savage weapons, that had already served me so well, had not Mrs
Reichardt, in the course of our survey, discovered several tin canisters
of powder perfectly uninjured, with abundance of shot and bullets, of
which I quickly took possession.
From other parts of the vessel we selected bags of grain, barrels of
flour, and provisions of various kinds; wearing apparel, boxes of tools,
with numerous bottles and jars, of the contents of which I was perfectly
unacquainted, though their discovery gave great gratification to my
companion. What most excited my wonder, were various kinds of
agricultural implements that we found in the hold, and in a short time I
was made aware of the proper employment of spades, harrows, ploughs,
thrashing-machines, and many other things, of the existence of which I
had never before dreamt.
We found also quantities of various kinds of seeds and roots, and some
sort of twigs growing in pots, which Mrs Reichardt particularly begged
me not to leave behind, as they would be of the greatest use to us; and,
she added, that from various signs, she believed that the ship had been
an emigrant vessel going out with settlers, but to what place she could
not say.
We made no ceremony in breaking open lockers and chests, and everywhere
discovered a variety of things, which, could we transfer to our island,
would add greatly to our comfort; but how they were to be got ashore,
was a puzzle which neither of us seemed capable of solving. Our little
boat would only contain a few of the lighter articles; and as many of
these as we could conveniently put together were shortly stowed in her.
With this cargo we were about returning, when my companion called my
attention to a noise that seemed to come from a distant corner of the
vessel, and she laughed and exhibited so much satisfaction, that I
believed we were close upon some discovery far more important than any
we had yet hit upon.
We continued to make our way to what seemed to me a very out of the way
part of the vessel, led in a great measure by the noises that proceeded
from thence. It was so dark here, that we were obliged to get a light,
and my companion having procured a ship's lantern, and lighted it by
means of a tinder-box, led me to a place where I could discern several
animals, most of which were evidently dead. She, however, ascertained
that there were two young calves, three or four sheep, and as many young
pigs, still giving very noisy evidence of their existence. She searched
about and found some food for them, which they ate with great avidity.
The larger animals she told me were cows and horses; but they had fallen
down, and gave no signs of life.
My companion and myself then entered into a long debate as to how we
were to remove the living animals from the dead; and she dwelt very
eloquently upon the great advantages that would accrue to us, if we
could succeed in transporting to the island the survivors.
After giving them a good feed, seeing we could not remove them at
present, we descended safely to our boat and gained the shore without
any accident. Then having housed our treasures, we were for putting
together a raft of the various planks and barrels that were knocking
against the rocks; but as I knew this would take a good deal of time, I
thought I would inspect the ship's boats, which, bottom upwards, were
drifting about within a few yards of us.
To our great satisfaction, one I ascertained to be but little injured,
and having forced her ashore, with our united exertions we turned her
over. In an hour we had made her water-tight, had picked up her oars,
and were pulling merrily for the wreck.