A few minutes later the steward returned from the 'tween-decks, followed
by seven very decent-looking young fellows, who appeared as if they
might have been farm hands, and announced that they knew how to handle a
fowling-piece, and they supposed that a musket was not very greatly
different. To these men muskets and ammunition were accordingly
distributed, and they were put among the seamen stationed along the lee
rail. This left one musket unemployed, at which I was by no means
sorry; for I rather fancied myself as a shot, and was glad of a good
excuse to appropriate one of the weapons.
Our arrangements being now complete, I had leisure to consider the
relative positions of the two junks as regarded ourselves, and it needed
but a single glance to assure me that the enemy's vessels, unwieldy and
awkward as their model seemed to be, had the advantage of us in the
matter of weatherliness; for they looked up a good point and a half
higher than the _Mercury_, and although they made more leeway than
ourselves, that point and a half fully compensated for it, the
consequence being that the junk astern was gradually working out upon
our weather quarter, while the junk on our lee bow was also hawsing up
to windward. We were slightly faster than they, however, and were
consequently drawing away from the junk astern, from which I hoped we
had not much more to fear. But the junk on our lee bow was certain to
give us trouble, for we were gaining upon her while she was edging up
nearer to our track every minute, with the result that, by the time that
we overhauled her, we should be within biscuit-toss of each other. And
I could not hope to escape her by tacking ship, for she would probably
be quite as quick in stays as ourselves, possibly a trifle quicker.
Such an evolution would place her broad on our weather quarter, and far
enough to windward to permit of her edging down on us with slack
bowlines, while we should be jammed close on a wind, an advantage which,
I believed, would give her the heels of us and enable her to lay us
aboard. This, I felt, must be avoided at all costs; for if once her
crew should gain a footing upon our decks their numbers were sufficient
to overpower us instantly. I therefore determined to slip past her to
windward and run the gauntlet of her fire; that risk, terrible as it
was, being, to my mind, less than the other.
Having thus decided, I called to Polson to ask him how we were off in
the matter of bullets, to which he replied that there were half a dozen
kegs altogether. This being the case, I thought we might venture to be
a trifle extravagant, so I gave orders for a keg to be brought on deck,
and for the two six-pounders to be loaded with bullets practically to
the muzzle, on top of a round shot. This was done, four double--
handfuls--amounting to about one hundred bullets--being dropped into the
gun on top of the round shot, and a wad rammed home on the top of all.
This done, the two guns were run forward and pointed out through the two
foremost ports on the lee side of the deck.
We were now all ready for the fight, and nothing remained but to await
the critical moment with such composure as we could summon to our aid.
In one respect we were more fortunate than many other ships would have
been in the same situation, for our helmsman was sheltered in a sort of
little hurricane house built of stout planking over the wheel, and he
was therefore in some degree protected from jingal fire. Indeed I hoped
that the planking of the structure would turn out to be absolutely proof
against the missiles usually fired from such weapons, which I expected
would be the firearm used by the pirates. Thus we might hope we should
avoid being thrown into confusion at the critical moment by our helmsman
being killed or disabled.
At length we drew up within point-blank musketry range of the junk that
was endeavouring to close upon our lee bow, and I gave the word for
those armed with that weapon, while keeping carefully under cover
themselves, to open fire upon any of the pirates who might expose
themselves. Almost immediately a dozen shots rang out from our decks,
and a few splinters flew aboard the junk, but I could neither see nor
hear that any further mischief had been done.
"Watch her ports, lads, and fire through them," I ordered. "If you can
shoot down the men at her weather battery during the few minutes that we
are passing her you will have nothing more to fear."
At this moment a perfect giant of a man ascended the short poop of the
junk and stood calmly watching us, occasionally saying a word or two to
those on the deck beneath him. He had scarcely taken up his position,
however, before our men began to blaze away at him, and presently a
bullet knocked his hat off, while, as he was calmly stooping to pick it
up again, another bullet must have struck him on the right shoulder; for
I saw him suddenly clap his hand to that part and hastily retreat from
his exposed situation, without stopping to pick up the hat.
"Hurrah, lads!" I shouted. "There is first blood to us. Keep the pot
boiling; but don't shoot until you can see somebody to shoot at!"
At this moment the weather bulwark of the junk became suddenly lined
with men all armed with jingals, with which they proceeded to blaze away
at us, and some half a dozen or more missiles went whizzing past most
unpleasantly close to my head. Nobody was hurt, however, and our men
returned the fire with commendable steadiness, scoring a few hits, if
one might judge by the cries that arose on board the junk, and the
suddenness with which some five or six of her people sank out of sight
behind her bulwarks. Then fresh hands appeared, showing suddenly above
the rail, taking rapid aim, pulling trigger, and vanishing out of sight,
not always quickly enough, however, to dodge the bullets that our people
sent whizzing about their ears.
Thus far not one of the _Mercury's_ people had been touched; but the
critical moment was yet to come. It was now close at hand, however, for
our figurehead had drawn up level with the stern of the junk, and there
was not more than fifty fathoms of water between the two craft. We
might expect their broadside at any moment, and I felt that it was
scarcely possible for us to receive it at such very short range without
receiving very severe punishment. I therefore exhorted our people to
maintain a hot fire upon the ports of the junk, feeling-convinced that
every bullet which passed through would be almost certain to find its
billet in the body of a Chinaman, thus tending to flurry their gunners
and possibly cause them to shoot wide.
We were now so close that I was able to see that the junk needed a
trifle of lee helm to keep her close to the wind; and I had no sooner
noted this fact than I saw a man show his head for an instant above the
break of the junk's poop and sign to the helmsman to put his helm hard
down. I guessed in an instant what this meant. They were about to
throw the junk into the wind, in the hope that she would fall aboard of
us, when they would pour their starboard broadside into us and board
amidst the smoke. They could not possibly have hit upon a plan more
likely to succeed, or to be fatal to us; and, recognising the deadly
nature of our peril, I yelled to our people at once to fling themselves
flat on the deck, which they did with almost laughable promptitude. At
the same time I seized my musket, which thus far I had not fired, and,
kneeling down, with one of the poop hencoops as a rest, aimed straight
at the body of the junk's helmsman, just as he was thrusting the tiller
hard down. I pulled the trigger the instant that I had the man covered,
and down he dropped, motionless, the ponderous tiller escaping from his
grasp and swinging heavily back amidships, with the result that the
junk, which was already coming to, at once fell off again at the precise
instant when her whole starboard broadside burst into flame and smoke,
the missiles luckily passing just ahead of us and very considerably
damaging our figurehead, but doing no worse injury. By a most fortunate
chance I had made my lucky shot at the exact moment which alone could
save us from disaster. To give the pirates their due, at least a dozen
men instantly sprang up on the poop, and rushed aft to replace the
injured helmsman; but our people had been watching through a number of
peep-holes what was happening, and no sooner did they see the Chinese on
the poop than they leaped to their feet, and opened fire upon them with
such murderous effect that half of them dropped, while the other half
turned and fled from the poop, seeking shelter under cover of their
craft's bulwarks.
Left thus to herself, the junk gradually fell broad off, presenting her
quarter to us. The opportunity thus afforded to pour into her a
partially raking fire was much too good to let slip, and I shouted to
the boatswain and Chips to send the contents of their pieces into her
starboard bulwark, hoping that some at least of the bullets would enter
her open ports and do a certain amount of execution. The two men had
evidently been expecting such an order and had got their pieces ready
levelled. A couple of seconds later the two six-pounders barked out
together, and the two hundred bullets peppered the junk's bulwarks most
handsomely, many of them penetrating the planking, as I could both see
and hear; for the next instant a dreadful, ear-splitting yell arose from
the deck of the craft, telling a tale of very severe punishment. But
that was not all; the two round shot likewise crashed through the
bulwarks very effectively, one of them dismounting a gun, while the
other brought the craft's mainmast down, thus effectually placing her
_hors de combat_. Those two shots must have wrought terrible havoc
among the junk's crew, for not only did they not attempt to return our
fire, but they allowed their vessel to run broad off before the wind,
squaring away their foresail the better to do so; and presently the junk
in our wake abandoned the chase and bore up to join her consort. We
thus emerged marvellously well from a predicament that at one moment
threatened to be exceedingly serious, and that, too, without the
slightest injury to so much as a single one of our company.
It was remarked that Wilde had most scrupulously refrained from
obtruding his presence on deck during our little brush with the junks,
which exhibition of pusillanimity on the part of a man who aspired to
the position of head and leader of the little community provoked a great
deal of adverse criticism, and considerably reduced his influence and
popularity.
On the fourth day following the above incident, with the appearance of
dawn, we sighted land ahead, which, as we drew nearer, resolved itself
into three islands lying close together, the largest of which measured
about eight miles long by three miles wide, while the remaining two were
roughly circular in shape, measuring about a mile in diameter. The two
smaller islands presented the appearance of low pyramids with rounded
tops, their highest points rising some eight hundred feet above the sea
level, while the biggest of the three rose somewhat abruptly from the
water to a height of about fifteen hundred feet at each extremity, and
preserved that height pretty uniformly from end to end, but with an
elevation rising perhaps three hundred feet higher almost in the middle
of its length.
All three of the islands were well wooded; but the largest had been
cleared to some extent of its timber, the cleared ground bearing
evidences of being under cultivation. This, of course, indicated that
at least the largest of the islands was already inhabited, and was
therefore unsuited to the requirements of Wilde and his followers, who
wanted to find a spot where they would be reasonably free from all risk
of molestation by hostile natives. Nevertheless, it was decided to
approach the islands a little nearer, if only for the chance of being
able to procure some fruit and a few fresh vegetables, for which all
hands were by this time pining. However, since we knew nothing of the
character of the inhabitants, but were under a sort of general
impression that the natives of all the islands of the Eastern seas were
of a more or less treacherous character, while some at least of them
were very strongly suspected of cannibalistic tendencies, we determined
to adopt every possible precaution. The muskets were accordingly
brought on deck and loaded, while every man who had not a musket served
out to him took care to provide himself with a weapon of some sort, even
though it were no more formidable than a belaying pin. I also insisted
that the ship should be kept under way, in order that, upon the first
suggestion of treacherous designs upon the part of the natives, we might
be able to make sail and stand out to sea again.
Approaching the lee side of the biggest of the three islands, one hand
was sent aloft into the fore topmast crosstrees to keep a sharp lookout
for submerged rocks, while another was sent into the fore chains with
the hand lead. Then we clewed up our courses, royals, and
topgallantsails, and hauled down our flying jib and some of the lighter
staysails, but furled nothing, leaving all in a state to be set again
from the deck at a moment's notice.
The water in the immediate neighbourhood of these islands was deep, no
bottom being reached with the hand lead until we were within half a mile
of the shore, at which distance we brought the ship to the wind and laid
the main topsail to the mast, as it was seen that many natives had
gathered on the beach, and were making preparations to launch their
canoes, several of which were hauled up on the dazzlingly white sand. I
kept the ship's telescope steadily bearing upon these craft and the
numerous natives who swarmed about them, and was greatly relieved to see
that the latter all appeared to be busily engaged in loading the former
with baskets of fruit, fish, and quantities of fowls, while nowhere
could I discover anything resembling a weapon.
That these people were quite accustomed to the bartering of their
produce with passing ships, and had been taught to understand that they
would not be allowed on board, was evident; for, although within the
next half-hour we were surrounded by quite a hundred canoes of various
sizes, ranging from the sixteen-foot craft with two occupants up to the
vessel measuring fifty feet over all, manned by from twenty to thirty
natives, not one attempted to come alongside until specially invited to
do so. They simply lay off a few fathoms and held up to our view the
wares that they had for disposal, and then waited to be beckoned to
approach.
These natives were for the most part fine, lithe, active-looking men, of
a deep, rich, bronze colour. Most of them were almost naked, and
adorned with necklaces of shells or sharks' teeth, their hair so
arranged that it stuck out all round their heads like the thrums of a
twirled mop. A few of them wore necklaces or armlets of vari-coloured
beads, of which they appeared to be inordinately proud, and these
adornments furnished many of our people with a hint as to the kind of
article most desired in exchange, a whole basket of assorted fruit, as
heavy as one man could conveniently lift, being freely parted with for a
hank containing five strings of ordinary glass beads which, at home,
would cost about a penny. Next to beads, copper wire appeared to be the
most prized commodity, nails coming next, such a basket of fruit as I
have just described, or half a dozen fowls, costing twenty two-inch
nails; while a dozen baskets of fruit were eagerly offered for a single
six-inch spike. Fish-hooks, too, commanded good prices, that is to say,
two baskets of fruit, or one dozen fowls, sold for a single hook. Fish,
of which several basketfuls were brought off, were to be had almost for
the asking, a basket containing about fifty pounds weight of delicious
fresh fish being gladly given in exchange for a single ordinary pin! At
such prices as these the crew and emigrants would willingly have taken
as much as the natives had for sale, if I would have allowed it; but I
was afraid to let them have too much fresh fruit all at once, lest they
should make themselves ill; but we took every fowl that we could get
hold of, killing enough to serve all hands for dinner that day, and
putting the rest into the coops, which had by this time become almost
empty.
It took us nearly two hours to complete our purchases, for I would not
allow more than four canoes alongside at the same moment; and when we
had acquired as much produce as I thought it prudent to lay in at one
time, the mainyard was swung, the fore and main tacks boarded, and we
resumed our voyage, parting from the natives with mutual smiles and upon
the best of terms. I was very much gratified at this first experience
of intercourse with the Pacific islanders, for it seemed to me that it
would be impossible to find a more quiet, amiable, peace-loving race of
people on the face of the earth. I made the mistake of judging the
whole by a very few, and set down the stories I had heard of treachery,
cruelty, and blood-curdling tragedy as malicious fables. I was speedily
disillusioned, however; for a week later we reached the Caroline
Islands; and while we found some of these islanders as friendly disposed
as those above-mentioned, there were others who did their utmost to
entice us to land and place ourselves within their power, and on one
occasion, when they failed in this, produced hidden weapons and
resolutely attacked the ship, giving us all that we could do to beat
them off, and more or less seriously injuring three seamen and two of
the male emigrants. This little experience taught us all a much-needed
lesson in prudence; for it was more by luck than good management that we
avoided capture and the general massacre that would most assuredly have
followed.
For the next five weeks we cruised among these islands, vainly seeking
the earthly paradise that Wilde had taught all hands to expect, and with
less than which none of them would be satisfied. For such islands as
seemed to approach Wilde's standard in the matter of size and fertility
were already inhabited, and that, too, for the most part, by natives
whose pressing invitations to land, and lavishly proffered hospitality,
we had learned to regard with something more than suspicion; while the
uninhabited islands were invariably found to be wholly lacking in some
essential feature.
Then, leaving the Carolines behind us, we passed on to the Marshall
group, where the atoll--which we had already encountered in a somewhat
modified form here and there among the Carolines--was to be found in its
typically perfect development. Here the islands, such as they were,
were entirely of coral formation, of diminutive area, generally not more
than six or eight feet above the surface of the ocean, their vegetation
consisting of a few coconut trees, with, maybe, a patch or two of coarse
grass here and there, and possibly a few stunted bushes, the whole
constituting a more or less irregularly shaped belt enclosing a
saltwater lagoon, usually with an entrance from the open sea, and with
water enough inside to float a ship; but sometimes with no entrance at
all. A fortnight among these atolls sufficed to convince the most
optimistic among us that what we were looking for was not to be found in
that neighbourhood. Accordingly we bade farewell to the group, to my
intense relief, for, between the shoals and the currents, I was worried
very nearly into a fever, and scarcely dared to leave the deck day or
night.
Once clear of the Marshall Islands, we stood away to the northward,
gradually hauling round, as the wind favoured us, to about west-nor'-
west, occasionally sighting a small island, but more frequently broken
water, until at length, when we had been out from the Marshall group
close upon three weeks, land was made at daybreak, bearing two points on
the lee bow. It was at a considerable distance, for it showed soft and
delicate of tint as a cloud in the brilliant light of the newly risen
sun, but that it was good, solid earth was clear enough from the fact
that it did not in the slightest degree alter its truncated conical
shape as the minutes sped. True, there was no land shown on the chart
at that precise spot; but that did not alter the fact of it being there;
and since it showed above the horizon from the deck at a distance which
we estimated at fully _fifty_ miles, it was concluded that it must be of
fairly respectable size, and quite worth looking at more closely; the
helm was therefore shifted, and we kept dead away for it.
The ship was slipping along at about seven knots, before a nice little
easterly breeze, under all plain sail--that being as much canvas as I
cared to show, bearing in mind the fact that not infrequently, of late,
we had been obliged to haul our wind rather suddenly in consequence of
white water revealing itself unexpectedly at no great distance ahead.
But although we were travelling at this quite respectable pace--for the
_Mercury_--we did not appear to be decreasing our distance from the land
ahead nearly so rapidly as we had anticipated, which circumstance led me
to the conclusion that I had considerably underestimated that distance
in the first instance. And this conclusion proved to be correct, for at
six bells in the afternoon watch we were still fully seven miles from
the island. But we had arrived within four miles of what, from the fore
topmast crosstrees, I had been able to identify as a barrier reef that
appeared to extend from the northern to the southern extremity of the
island--and, indeed, might completely surround it, for aught that I
could tell--enclosing a magnificently spacious harbour, some three miles
wide between itself and the island, which I estimated to measure about
ten miles long, from north to south, with a peak, apparently the crater
of an extinct, or at all events a quiescent, volcano, approximating to
three thousand feet high, rising almost in the centre of it. It was
wooded from the inner margin of the somewhat narrow, sandy beach that
lined it to within about three hundred feet of the summit of the peak;
and--most promising of all, from the point of view of Wilde and his
followers--there were no canoes on the beach, or any other signs of
inhabitants.