A Tête-a-tête.--The Monkey's Goblet.--The Palace.--A Removal.--Winter
under the Tropics--Plans for the Future.--Property.--A burst of
Laughter.--Misfortune not far off.
Tranquility of mind has returned to our solitary; now, his reveries
are more pleasant and less prolonged; his walks through the woods, his
moments of repose during the heat of the day seem more endurable since
_something_, besides his shadow, keeps him company; he has resumed his
taste for labor since there is _somebody_ to look at him; speech has
returned to him since _somebody_ replies to his voice. This
_somebody_, this _something_, is Marimonda.
Marimonda is now the companion of Selkirk, his friend, his slave; she
seems to comprehend his slightest gestures and even his _ennui_. To
amuse him, she resorts to a thousand expedients, a thousand tricks of
the agility peculiar to her race; she goes, she comes, she runs, she
leaps, she bounds, she chatters at his side; she tries to people his
solitude, to make a rustling around him; she brings him his pipes,
rocks him in his hammock, and, for all these cares, all this
attention, demands only a caress, which is no longer refused.
She is often a spectator of her master's repasts; sometimes even
shares them. This was at first a favor, afterwards a habit, as in the
case of honest countrymen, who, secluded from the world, by degrees
admit their servants into their intimacy. Selkirk had not to fear the
importunate, unexpected visit of a neighbor or a curious stranger.
So it is in the open air, on the latticed table, in the shade of his
great mimosa, that these repasts in common take place; the master
occupies the bench, the servant humbly seats herself on the stool,
ready, at the first signal, to leave her place and assist in serving.
Have we not seen in India, ourang-outangs trained to perform the
office of domestics? and Marimonda was in nothing inferior in
intelligence and activity.
She is now fond of the flesh of the goat, of that of the coatis and
agoutis, for monkeys easily become carnivorous; but the table is also
sometimes covered with the products of her hunting. If the dessert
fails, she hastily interrupts her repast, leaves the master to
continue his alone, buries herself in the surrounding woods, reaches
in three bounds the tops of the trees, and quickly returns with a
supply of fruits which he can fearlessly taste, for she knows them.
Selkirk was one day a witness of the singular facility with which she
could supply her wants.
At the morning repast, seeing him use one of his cocoa-nuts which he
had fashioned in the form of a cup to drink from; in her instinct of
imitation, she had attempted to seize the cup in her turn; a look of
reprimand stopped her short in her attempt. Whether she felt a species
of humiliation at being forced to quench her thirst in the presence of
her master, by going to the banks of the stream and lapping there,
like a vulgar animal; or whether the reprimand had painfully affected
her, she abstained from drinking and remained for some time quiet and
dreamy; but at the following repast, with lifted head and sparkling
eye she resumed her place on the stool, provided with a goblet, a
goblet belonging to her, lawfully obtained by her, and, with an air of
triumph presented it to Selkirk, who, wondering, did not hesitate an
instant to share with the monkey the water contained in his gourd.
This goblet was the ligneous and impermeable capsule, the fruit,
naturally and deeply hollowed out, of a tree called _quatela_.[1] It
was thus that the intelligent Marimonda, after having borrowed from
the numerous vegetables of the island their leaves, to ameliorate her
sufferings, to heal her wounds; their fruits for her nourishment and
even for her sports, also found means to obtain the divers utensils
for house-keeping of which she stood in need.
[Footnote 1: The _lecythis quatela_, of the family of the
_lecythidées_, created by Professor Richard, and whose singular fruits
bear, in Peru as well as in Chili, the denomination of _monkey's
goblets_.]
Charmed with her gentleness, her docility, the affection she seemed to
bear him, Selkirk grew more and more attached to her. Winter, that is,
the rainy season which usually lasts in these regions during the
months of June and July, was approaching; he suffered in anticipation,
from the idea that during this time his gentle companion would not be
able to retain her habitual shelter, beneath the foliage of the trees;
he conceived the project of giving up to her his grotto, and
constructing for himself a new habitation, spacious and commodious. It
is thus that our most generous resolutions, whatever we may design to
do, encountering in their way personal interest, often turn to the
increase of our own private welfare.
At a little distance from the grotto, but farther inland, on the banks
of the stream called the _Linnet_, there was a thicket of verdure
shaded by five myrtles of from fifteen to twenty feet in height, and
whose stems presented a diameter more than sufficient to insure the
solidity of the edifice. Four of these myrtles formed an irregular
square; the fifth arose in the midst, or nearly so; but our architect
is not very particular. He already sees the principal part of his
frame; the myrtles will remain in their places, their roots serving as
a foundation. He removes the shrubs, the plants, the brushwood from
the thicket, leaving only a heliotrope which, at a later period, may
twine around his house and at evening shed its perfumes. He has become
reconciled to its fragrance. He trims the trees, cuts off their tops
eight feet above the ground, leaving the middle one, which is to
sustain the roof, a foot higher; for this roof reeds and palm-leaves
furnish all the materials. The walls, made of a solid network of young
branches interwoven, and plastered with a mixture of sand, clay, and
chopped rushes, he takes care not to build quite to the top, but to
leave between them and the roof a little space, where the air can
circulate freely through a light trellis formed of branches of the
blue willow.
Then, having finished his work in less than a fortnight, he
contemplates it and admires it; Marimonda herself seems to share in
his admiration, and in her joy climbing up the new building, she
begins to leap, to dance on the roof of foliage, which bears her, and
thus gives to Selkirk an additional triumph.
He now proceeds to furnish his palace; he transports thither his bed
of reeds and his goatskin coverings. How much better will he be
sheltered here than under the gloomy vault of his grotto! How has he
been able to content himself so long with such an abode, more suitable
for a troglodyte or a monkey! He will no longer be obliged to lift up
his curtain of vines, and to peep through the fans of his palm-trees,
in order to behold the beneficent rays of the new-born day; they will
come of themselves to find him and rejoice him at his awakening, as
the sea-breezes will at evening breathe on him, to refresh him in his
repose.
Already has the interior of his cabin, of his palace, assumed an
aspect which charms him; his guns, his hatchets, his spy-glass, his
instruments of labor, well polished and shining, suspended in racks,
upon wooden pegs, decorate the walls; upon another partition, his
assortment of pipes are arranged on a shelf according to their size;
on his central pillar, he suspends his game-bag, his gourd, his
tobacco-pouch, and various articles of daily use. As for his iron pot,
his smoked meat, his stock of skins, and bottles of seal-oil, he
leaves them under the guardianship of Marimonda in the grotto which he
will now make his store-house, his kitchen: he will not encumber with
them his new dwelling.
He now sets himself to prepare new furniture; he will construct a
small portable table, two wooden seats, one for himself, the other for
Marimonda, when she comes from her grotto to visit his cabin; for he
has now a neighborhood. Besides, during the rainy season, they will be
forced to dine under cover.
The first rains have commenced, gentle, fertilizing rains, falling at
intervals and lovingly drank in by the earth; Selkirk no longer thinks
of his table and seats; another project has just taken the place of
these, and seems to deserve the precedence.
Marimonda has just returned from a tour in the woods, bringing fruits
of all sorts, among them some which Selkirk has never before seen. He
tastes them with more care and attention than usual; then, becoming
thoughtful, with his chin resting on his hand says to himself: 'Why
should I not make these fruits grow at my door, not far from my
habitation? Why should I not attempt to improve them by cultivation?
This is a very simple and very prudent idea which should have occurred
to me long since; but I was alone, absolutely alone; and one loses
courage when thinking of self only. A garden, at once an orchard and a
vegetable garden, will be at least as useful to me as my fish-pond and
bed of water-cresses; I will make one around my cabin; it will set it
off and give it a more home-like appearance! Is not the stream placed
here expressly to traverse it and water it? Afterwards, if God assist
me, I will raise little kids which will become goats and give me milk,
butter, cheese! Why have I not thought of this before? It would have
been too much to have undertaken at once. I shall then have tame
goats; I will also have Guinea-pigs, agoutis, and coatis. My house
shall be enlarged, I will have a farm, a dairy! But the time has not
yet come; let us first prepare the garden. Why has it not been already
prepared? I am impatient to render the earth productive, fruitful by
my cares, to walk in the shade of the trees I may plant; it seems to
me that I shall be at home there, more than any where else!'
You are right, Selkirk; to possess the entire island, is to possess
nothing; it is simply to have permission to hunt, a right of promenade
and pasture, which the other inhabitants of the island, quadrupeds or
birds, can claim as well as yourself. What is property, without the
power of improvement? Can the earth become the domain of a single
person, when the true limits of his possessions must always be those
of the field which affords him subsistence? Envy not then the
happiness of the rich; they are but the transient holders and
distributors of the public fortune; we possess, in reality, only that
which we can ourselves enjoy; the rest escapes us, and contributes to
the well-being of others.
Selkirk comprehends that his streams, his bank of turf, his fish-pond,
his bed of water-cresses, his grotto, his cabin, belong to him far
otherwise than the twelve or fifteen square leagues of his island; to
his private domain he now intends to add a garden, and this garden,
this orchard, will be to him an increase of his wealth, since it will
aid in the satisfaction of his wants.
The humidity with which the earth begins to be penetrated, facilitates
his labors; he sets himself to the work.
Behold him then, now armed with his hatchet, now with a wooden shovel,
which he has just manufactured, clearing the ground, digging,
transplanting young fruit-trees, or sowing the seeds which he is soon
to see spring up and prosper. Every thing grows rapidly in these
climates.
When the garden-spot is marked out, dug, sown, planted, not forgetting
the kitchen vegetables, and especially the _coca_ and
_petunia-nicotiana_, Selkirk, with his arms folded on his spade,
thanks God with all his heart,--God who has given him strength to
finish his work.
He has never felt so happy as when, with his hands behind his back, he
walks smoking, among his beds, in which nothing has as yet appeared;
but he already sees, in a dream, his trees covered with blossoms;
around these blossoms are buzzing numerous swarms of bees; he reflects
upon the means of compelling them to yield the honey of which they
have just stolen from him the essence. It is a settled thing, on his
farm he will have hives! After his bees, still in his dream, come
flocks of humming-birds to plunder in their turn. The happy possessor
of the garden will exact no tribute from them, but the pleasure of
seeing them suspend, by a silken thread, to the leaves of his shrubs,
the elegant little boat in which they cradle their fragile brood.
Nothing seems to him more beautiful than his embryo garden; here, he
is more than the monarch of the island; he is a proprietor!
Thanks to the garden, Selkirk sees with resignation the two long
months of the rainy season pass away. When the heavy torrents render
the paths impassable, he consoles himself by thinking that they aid in
the germination of his seeds, in the rooting of his young plants.
Sometimes, between two deluges, he can scarcely find time to procure
himself sufficient game; what matters it! he lives on his provisions:
he is forcibly detained within; but has he not now good cheer, good
company, and occupation, during his leisure hours?
It is now that he completes his furniture. His table and his seats
finished, he undertakes to provide for another want, equally
indispensable.
Worn out by the weather, and by service, his garments are becoming
ragged. He must shield himself from the humidity of the air; where
shall he procure materials? Has he not the choice between seal-skins
and goat-skins? He gives the preference to the latter, as more
pliable, and behold him a tailor, cutting with the point of his knife;
as for thread, it is furnished by the fragment of the sail; and two
days afterwards, he finds himself flaming in a new suit.
To describe the delirious stupefaction of Marimonda, when she
perceives her master under this strange costume, would be a thing
impossible. She finds him almost like herself, clad like her, in a
hairy suit. Never tired of looking at him, of examining him curiously,
she leaps, she gambols around him, now rolling at his feet, and
uttering little cries of joy, now suspended over his head, at the top
of the central pillar, and turning her wild and restless eyes. When
she has thus inspected him from head to foot, she runs and crouches in
a corner, with her face towards the wall, as if to reflect; then,
whirling about, returns towards him, picks up on the way the garment
he has just laid aside, looking alternately at this and at the other,
very anxious to know which of the two really made a part of the
person.
After having enjoyed for a few moments the surprise and transports of
his companion, Selkirk takes his Bible and his pipe, and, placing the
book on the table, bends over it, preparing to read and to meditate.
But, whether in consequence of her joyous excitement, or whether she
is emboldened by the species of fraternity which costume establishes
between them, Marimonda, without hesitation, directs herself to the
little shelf, chooses from it a pipe in her turn, places it gravely
between her lips, astonished at not seeing the smoke issue from it in
a spiral column; and, with an important air, still imitating her
master, comes to sit opposite him, with her brow inclined, and her
elbow resting on the table.
Willingly humoring her whim, Selkirk takes the pipe from her hands,
fills it with his most spicy tobacco, lights it, and restores it to
her.
Hardly has Marimonda respired the first breath, when suddenly letting
fall the pipe, overturning the table, emitting the smoke through her
mouth and nostrils, she disappears, uttering plaintive cries, as if
she had just tasted burning lava.
At sight of the poor monkey, thus thrown into confusion, Selkirk, for
the first time since his residence in the island, laughs so loudly,
that the echo follows the fugitive to the grotto, where she had taken
refuge, and is prolonged from the grotto to the _Oasis_, from the
Oasis to the summit of the _Discovery_.
The exile has at last laughed, laughed aloud, and, at the same moment,
a terrible disaster is taking place without his knowledge; a new war
is preparing for him, in which his arms will be useless.