THE ISLAND OF ALPHONSO.
We had some dread of savages, and being totally unarmed, we
penetrated inland with more anxiety than pleasure at first; but ere
long we became convinced that the island was totally destitute of
human inhabitants.
No vestige of wigwam or hut, of road or path, nor even of the
smallest track or trail (save such as the wild goats made) was
visible anywhere, and thus we became impressed with new emotions of
wonder and awe, in treading a soil where man lived not--where no
human foot seemed to have trod, and where only the hum of insect life
stirred the solitude of that wild island of the South Atlantic.
For a considerable distance we traversed flat ground that was covered
with sedge grass, interspersed by shrubs of bright green. Beyond
this level plain rose a series of ridges covered by trees, and those
ridges formed the first slope of the great mountain, which was some
thousand feet in height, and also of the great bluff we had first
descried at sea.
We found Alphonso to be the largest of a group of three islands. It
is a mass of rock nearly twelve miles in circumference. The other
two are cavernous and inaccessible, and every approach to them is
dangerous and difficult, in consequence of the foaming of the sea
about them, so that during the weary days of our sojourn there, we
made no attempt to explore them, lest the longboat--in our
circumstances a priceless property--might be swamped or dashed to
pieces.
Hislop informed me that he had read somewhere that in the month of
March, 1506--the same year in which the great Columbus died--two
adventurers of Spain or Portugal, named Tristan da Cunha and Alphonso
de Albuquerque, sailed for the Indies on a voyage of discovery, with
fourteen great caravels.
During this expedition they found three great islands which they
named after Tristan da Cunha, and elsewhere three others, which were
named from Alphonso, who, after their fleet had been scattered by a
great tempest, sailed through the Mozambique channel. He discovered
many seas, isles, and channels hitherto unknown to the Portuguese or
Spaniards, and ultimately reached the Indies, of which he became
viceroy for Ferdinand the Catholic, and died in 1515, holding that
office.
It is very strange that since that remote period, no European country
has turned these islands to any account, as they do not lie more than
fifty leagues from the general track of the shipping bound for the
coast of Coromandel or the Chinese seas, and in time of war would
form a useful and important rendezvous for a fleet.
They lie exactly in that portion of the wide and mighty ocean where
it was fabled and believed a great continent would yet be found.
The three isles of Tristan da Cunha, which lie some hundred miles
distant, have now a mixed some hundred miles distant, have now a
mixed population of English, Portuguese, and mulattoes; and a strong
garrison was maintained there during the captivity of the Emperor
Napoleon at St. Helena.
Being thus cast away upon a shore so far from the general track of
ships, we resolved to make preparations for a probable residence of
some time--to build a hut wherein to store our provisions, and to use
every means for adding to our stock, by angling in the creeks, which
seemed to abound with fish, and by hunting in the woods, which teemed
with goats and boars running wild; by collecting birds' eggs, as the
cliffs seemed to be literally alive with petrels, albatrosses, and
sea-hens; and all these exertions were the more necessary as none
could foresee the probable length of our sojourn there.
A ship might heave in sight to-morrow; but a year _might_ pass before
one came near enough to be attracted by our signs.
We resolved to have a signal-post erected on the mountain top, a
beacon-fire prepared, and amid these and many other deliberations,
the night closed in and found us tolerably contented with our island,
and even disposed to be merry over misfortunes that we could not
control.
But considerable speculation was excited when Billy Wilkins the cabin
boy, who had been in pursuit of a little kid along the beach,
returned to us, dragging after him a long spar which he had found
among the layers of shingles, bright shells, and dusky weeds,
deposited by the sea; and on examination this spar proved to be one
of the lower studding-sail booms of the _Eugenie_, and the same which
had parted from the brig and fallen overboard with Antonio on the
eventful evening of his punishment!
"It is our own property," said Billy, "and may be useful when we have
a fire to light."
"Boy Bill, we have a better use for it than burning," said Tattooed
Tom; "'tis the mast for our signal-post, already made to hand, and
we'll step it on the hill-top to-morrow."
For that night we bivouacked under a large tree, the name and genus
of which were alike unknown to us. At times some were conversing,
some slept, others lay waking and thinking, with the murmur of the
shining sea, close by, in their ears; and I could see the stars of
the Southern Cross shining with wonderful brilliance at the verge of
the watery horizon.
The novelty of our situation kept me long awake, and with my head
pillowed on a bundle of dry seaweed, with the sail of the longboat
spread over us as an impromptu tent and for protection from the dew,
I lay in meditation and full of melancholy thoughts ere sleep came
upon me, and with it confused dreams of the burning ship, of my
secluded home, and of
"----the schoolboy spot,
We long remember, though there long forgot."
Again I was at Eton! Again I saw the smooth green playing-fields
alive with ardent schoolboys in the merry summer sunshine; and again
I heard the clamor of their young voices and the balls rattling on
bat and wicket; again I heard the pleasant green leaves rustle in the
old woods of the Tudor times; or again I was in the shady quadrangles
where the monotonous hum of many classes poring over their studies
stole through the mullioned windows on the ambient air; and in my
dreaming ear that "drowsy hum" seemed strangely to mingle with the
chafing of the surge upon "th' unnumbered pebbles" of the lonely
shore close by.
At last overcome by weariness, by lassitude and toil, I slept soundly.