hour, we had been nigher three searching through the forest and coast;
and, it being close on noontide, from the elevation of the sun, which
being in the zenith was right over our heads, I called a halt--all of us
lying down under the trees till it should get a bit cooler towards
evening. All, too, were so thirsty, and clamouring out so much for
water, that I and Magellan had to give in to their entreaties and serve
out another half-pint apiece, which we told them would have to last them
until noon next day; but still, this second allowance all round made a
serious drain on our store, for there being six of us now, and each,
including myself, having had half a pint in the pannikin before, that
made six pints out of the two and a half gallons the water barrico
originally held--nearly a third of the whole quantity. If we went on at
that rate, why it would only last for three days, or two more at the
outside, when, as I calculated, it would take us a week at least to
reach Majunga, that is if we could manage to surmount the mountain
ranges that I was aware lay between where we were and that port. I said
a word or two to that effect to the men, but they didn't pay much
attention to my caution, all being tired out and the majority falling
asleep as soon as they drank their allowance, without waiting to see the
next served out even, they were so drowsy.
"I tried to keep watch for a bit, but the exertion of walking about had
been too much for me too, and I soon followed suit in dropping off with
the others, not waking up until it was close on sunset, when the
slanting rays of the fiery orb shining right into my eyes roused me and
made me turn out, although I took care not to wake the rest.
"I felt thirsty now no longer but hungry as a hunter, and started up to
see if I could find anything to eat. I thought there might be cocoa-
nuts about, for these when they are old, as you generally only see them
in England, contain, instead of juice, or `milk' as they term it in the
tropics, which the nut is filled with when young, a valuable amount of
solid matter, which is not only tasty to eat but nourishing as well,
being mostly a kind of vegetable fat or oil. However, on looking up at
the trees over our sheltering place I could see no cocoa-nuts; while a
hunt amongst the bushes disclosed nothing there in the fruit line
either. I saw some tamarind trees certainly, but the beans on these
were only just sprouting out from the blossom; and although I gathered
some of these and chewed them, thinking they might have an acid taste
which would alleviate thirst if it did not allay hunger, they were so
nasty that I had to spit them out again and wash my mouth out with sea-
water to take away their flavour, going down to the shore for this
purpose, as well as to see if there was anything eatable there to pick
up.
"Presently, Magellan woke up too, and then the others, all suffering
like myself from hunger. One chap said he could eat his boots; but then
we had all pulled those off when the pinnace was labouring in the sea
before she foundered. I told them about my unsuccessful try for cocoa-
nuts and fruit, so they were perfectly satisfied that if I failed it
would be useless for them to worry themselves by searching; and after a
time chatting together and planning out that, next day, we would try to
cross the mountains to Majunga, we all settled down to sleep again after
the sun had gone down in the west--when night came on suddenly, without
any twilight the same as you have here, enveloping the forest and all
our surroundings in a darkness so dense that it could almost be felt, no
moon rising or any stars peeping out until long after we were snoring,
that is, if any at all came out then.
"The next morning, we made a terrible discovery.
"Through some carelessness or other in putting back the bung-stopper of
the barrico, or from one of the chaps getting up in the night and
`sucking the monkey' while we were all asleep, every drop of water had
disappeared from the vessel, and although we all awoke thirsty, the same
as we had done the previous morning, there was nothing left now to
quench our drought with.
"The men were so angry over it that they nearly came to blows, Magellan
and I having much difficulty in pacifying them; the more especially, as
some of them complained that if they had been allowed to have had their
fill before going to sleep, at all events the water would have done some
good then instead of being wasted, and they would besides not have been
so thirsty as they now were, while they also would have been able to
hold out longer till they got more.
"Of course this was absurd on their part, although very aggravating; so
to stop any more hard words and argufying in the matter, I suggested
that as there was nothing to be gained by our remaining any longer in
the vicinity of the bay where we had first come ashore, we had better
start off at once on our journey to Majunga while we were fresh in the
early morning, before the sun got high in the heavens to enervate us
with its scorching heat.
"This motion was carried, with one or two dissentients, and we
accordingly at once started off due south, as nearly as I could
calculate by the position of the sun and sea, making our way through the
stiff jungle up the side of the mountain that spurted right across our
course in that direction, the way getting steeper and steeper each step
that we took forwards, and the jungle thicker and more dense.
"Gracious goodness! what a climb that was! Up and up we struggled and
toiled, perspiring all the way and gasping with heat and thirst. We
tore all the skin off our arms and legs in forcing ourselves through the
prickly patches of jungle, and almost splintered our feet against the
rocks and gnarled roots of some of the trees, besides bruising our
bodies all over with the repeated falls we had; and, all the while, we
were suffering the most unmitigated pangs of hunger and thirst that
mortal man could experience when in full strength.
"To add, too, to the misery of the toilsome journey, we could hardly see
an inch before us, although the sun took right good care to blaze down
right immediately over our heads through the tops of the trees. We
could only tell we were ascending from the extra fatigue it entailed in
lifting our weary feet in stepping upwards; and although we climbed up
several trees that looked taller than the rest near, so that we might
better observe our whereabouts, when perchance we might discover some
welcome oasis in sight in the midst of this desert of green, not a
single yard could we see beyond the tree tops immediately near, which
closed in the view completely--the only break apparent being the intense
glaring blue of the burning sky just overhead, with its molten coppery
disc of a sun darting down fiery rays from the zenith.
"At last, when every man Jack of us felt that he could not proceed a
single step beyond if we had any more climbing to do, the ground
suddenly began to descend, telling us that we had reached the slope that
led into the next valley.
"This put fresh life into us and made us press onwards with renewed
vigour, everyone hoping that, as soon as we got to the bottom of the
declivity, we would reach one of those rivers which, as I had told the
men, emptied themselves from the west coast of Madagascar into the
Mozambique Channel--buoying up their drooping energies whenever they
appeared to falter on their toilsome way by holding out this dream to
them, for I believed in it fully myself.
"It was but a futile hope, however; and one, too, that was doubly
disappointing.
"On getting to the lower part of the hill, something was seen shining
through the trees, like as the sea had been observed shimmering in the
sun on the other side of the mountain, but this now evidently could not
be any portion of the Indian Ocean or Mozambique Channel, from the
direction we had been proceeding in since the morning?
"No, it could not be the sea.
"It could be nothing else, thought the men, than the much-longed-for
river which I had led them shortly to expect to see in sight; so, with a
glad cheer they rushed between the trunks and branches of the
intervening trees in mad, hot haste to quench their thirst in the
cooling stream.
"But oh! the terrible surprise!
"The water was salt and brackish, not fresh. It was a lagoon, or arm of
the sea, running up between a gorge of the hills, and not a river after
all."
VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.
THE CROCODILE'S VICTIM.
"You won't think I'm exaggerating, sir, or that we were unmanly; but I
assure you that one and all of us broke down under this disappointment,
and cried as if we were a parcel of children. It was like the last
straw, you know, that broke the camel's back!
"As soon as we all recovered a bit from the disappointment, I told the
men that we must make the best or worst of it, and that it would
probably ease their thirst if they bathed in the lagoon. This some of
them did, but the majority gave way to despair; and if we had not lugged
one chap out he would have drowned himself.
"We had a long rest here, if rest you can call it when fellows felt
utterly burnt up with the heat, and so parched with thirst and famished
with hunger that their whole inside was all one gnawing crave for food
and drink; but it eased us a bit, and Magellan and I held a council of
war, as you might say, looking matters in the face and studying our
position.
"As near as I could judge from what I had observed when cruising off the
coast, we should have to cross three more mountains similar to the one
we had just got over, and travel through three more valleys like this in
the same way, before arriving within hail of Majunga; for I knew there
were three bays between Cape Tangan and the port we were aiming for--
Pasanda, Radama, and another whose name I forget. The question was,
would we ever get over the distance? If we did not meet with water
soon, it would be utterly impossible for us to accomplish the journey;
and, as the dry season had now set in, our chance of finding stray
rivulets and mountain streams would grow each day less and less--unless,
sir, you've ever been in the tropics you can't tell how quickly the
appearance of the country alters with the change of the season! A
place, one day, may be all foaming down with cataracts and mountain
torrents, with a river perhaps lying in your way that you would have to
swim through to get over to the other side of it; while, the next time
you visit the same locality, even within a week, the mountain torrents
and cataracts will have vanished as if by magic, and the river you had
to swim over or found impassable will now have dwindled down to a tiny
streamlet that a child could paddle in, or else have completely dried
up, leaving only a rocky channel in the ground with huge boulders tossed
about here and there to show where it had been.
"It was fortunate for us we had the sun to guide us through all this
forest waste, as otherwise we could not possibly have steered in any
constant direction, but would probably have gone round in a circle like
a horse in a mill. As it was, however, even amidst the depth of
brushwood and jungle by the side of the salt-water lagoon where we were
camping for the time, we could easily distinguish the western point of
the compass from the sun circling almost directly towards that quarter
after it had passed the meridian, for we were only some fifteen degrees
south of the equator; and in the morning, likewise, we had no difficulty
in telling when we faced east.
"Under these circumstances, therefore, I advised all hands to get up
when they felt a little less tired and trudge on steadily due south,
where our only hope of safety lay, as long as the light through the
trees enabled us to see where we were going. Once the light became
uncertain, it would be better to stop for the night than to wander about
and fatigue ourselves unnecessarily, only perhaps to find out when the
sun rose again at dawn that we had been merely retracing our previous
day's steps to no good.
"It was a hard job to make the poor chaps buckle to their tramp again,
and it was as much as Magellan and I could do to get them to start. One
of them, Denis Brown, he was a faint-hearted man even on board ship,
entreated us to let him lie down there and die where he was; but of
course we would not leave him behind, and he had to come on with us
whether he liked it or not, Magellan and I forcing him on his legs and
dragging him on.
"Our first task was to get round the lagoon, which was so overgrown with
reeds and suchlike rank vegetation as grows in swamps that we couldn't
tell where it began or ended; but as the sea must lay towards the west,
I came to the conclusion that if we skirted the bank in the opposite
direction we would soon come to the neck of the water and be able to
wade across it. This we did, but it was arduous walking--through mud
and slime, with snakes darting out every now and then upon us, and huge
crocodiles crawling out of our way, just as we almost set foot on them,
which frightened some of the timid ones pretty much, I can tell you!
"At last we managed to get round the lagoon; and then, steering steadily
again to the south, this bit of easting having taken us a good deal out
of our straight course southwards, we had a second mountain to climb up
through tangled brushwood and jungle. This seemed harder work a good
deal than the first one, for we were almost tired out when we started on
the journey, while our feet were so swollen and blistered with all the
walking we had already done, besides being torn to pieces with the
stones and jagged bits of tree roots we had trodden on, that we could
hardly crawl up, although we grasped hold of the branches of the shrubs
and brushwood to drag ourselves up by. When we arrived at the top of
this chain of hills--for it was first up and then down most of the way--
the sun was just setting; so, down we squatted in the first open place
we reached, resting for the night and leaving the descent into the
valley for the next morning. Indeed, we were so weary and worn out that
if we had known for a certainty that water was within reach of us at the
bottom of the hill, although we were so thirsty that we couldn't hardly
speak to one another, I don't believe a man of us would have stirred
after once lying down to get a drink--we really couldn't have stirred a
step!
"The sun had been up a good time before we rose from the ground, on
this, the third day of our being in the bush, and when we got up it was
as much as we could do to stand in an erect position at all, our
energies being so exhausted that hardly a man had a scrap of strength
left to drag himself up. Of all the miserable scarecrows you ever saw
in your life, we must have then looked the worst--with our bare pelts
burnt and blistered, our tangled hair and beards, our woebegone faces,
out of which our eyes were almost starting from their sockets, and our
bleeding feet and limbs, the latter all scratched, and with pieces of
flesh torn out of them by the briars and thorns through which we had to
scramble in our climb up the mountain!
"`We look just fit for Madame Tussaud's chamber of horrors,' said
Magellan, contemplating himself ruefully, and then looking at the rest
of us, who were all in the same sorry plight--like a parcel of naked
white savages.
"`Aye,' said I, `and I wouldn't mind being there in London now!
Howsomdever, old ship'--I added on to what I was saying, seeing that the
fellows laughed and cheered up a bit at Magellan's comical way--`if we
ever hopes to get there we must trudge on now. Our course is all
downhill, thank goodness, and perhaps we'll meet with a river at last--
as soon as we get down to the gully.'
"`That's your sort,' shouted out Magellan heartily; `rouse up, my
hearties, and let us push on. There's no good our remaining here, and
the sooner we start, why, the sooner we'll get to Majunga. Yo, heave
ho! Up anchor, men, and make sail! Heave ahead with a will and follow
me!'
"With that, we got under way again, with Magellan leading, as he was
stronger than me now, and the first man of course made the path easier
for those coming after him--which was the reason I went in advance as
long as I was able. In proportion as it had been harder to climb, so
was this mountain steeper and more dangerous to descend than the first
one we had surmounted, for it sloped down so suddenly in some places
that it seemed as if we were sliding down the pointed roof of a house;
while we had to look out narrowly for several ugly chasms or crevices in
the ground on which we popped every now and then most unexpectedly.
Denis Brown, the most unlucky of the party, as generally happens to
timid nervous people, nearly got his neck broken in one of these gullies
soon after we started, and it was only by the exertions of all our party
that we saved his life.
"Slipping, sliding, swinging ourselves forward sometimes by the branches
of the trees from one foothold to another, but still ever descending, we
made our way down the side of the mountain for ever so long, going on
till we thought we must be diving into the heart of the earth, the gorge
was so deep. Occasionally, when we arrived at some little open space,
we could see the tops of the trees underneath us, as if under our feet,
and felt inclined to jump on them and go right through to the ground
below with a crash, and have done with it at once. The work, however,
was so different to the climbing we had the day before that the men went
at it more cheerily, besides which it was like running downhill, and
when once they had begun descending they could not stop themselves, but
had to go on like a rolling ball.
"Thank God, though, it was toil well spent! As we got nearer the
bottom, I could fancy I heard the noise of water running, the sound
coming to my ear in the silence of the still solemn forest when the
noise we made crashing through the brushwood had ceased. I couldn't
believe it, however, at first, and thought it was a dream, or arose out
of the delirium occasioned by the thirst from which I was suffering; but
it grew clearer and more distinct as we proceeded, and being assured of
this I halted of a sudden.
"`Jem,' I sang out to Magellan, who was still in front forcing a way for
us, `stop a minute! Don't you hear anything?'
"He therefore halted like myself, and so did the rest, who were pressing
on between us, he leading and I bringing up the rear, the other four
being in the middle like a wedge.
"`Listen!' I cried. All was stillness for a moment, but soon, above
the hush that succeeded the noise of our movement through the bush, we
could hear a faint silvery trickling sound that was sweeter than the
sweetest music to our ears. It was the murmur of running water, with an
occasional splash as it leaped over a stone.
"`Hooray, boys!' exclaimed Jem. `We've fetched the water at last--
follow my leader now, and we'll be able to slake our thirst!'
"So saying, he plunged again downwards through the jungle, and we after
him, helter skelter through the forest in our mad race for the precious
element of which we had been so long deprived, and whose real value we
did not properly appreciate till we had lost it. Our rush must have
resembled what I've read takes place on the prairies of America when
there is a stampede of the wild animals frightened by the forests
catching fire or some other scare.
"Thank God, as I said then, it was not another deception this time like
the salt lagoon that had disappointed us so sorely that time when we
thought we had a drink at last!
"As we got nearer and nearer the bottom of the valley, the sound of the
running water increased, and mingled with it was heard that bubbling and
splashing that echoes so delightfully on one's ears on a warm summer day
in England from a garden fountain; so you can imagine how it appealed to
our parched senses. Why, we wouldn't have stopped then in our progress
towards it if a fiery volcano lay between us, or if a thousand bayonets
tried to arrest our movement!
"Another moment of suspense, and then, there lay the stream before us.
I never experienced before that saying in Scripture so thoroughly, about
the sight of the water in a thirsty land. It was like heaven to us!
"It wasn't a big river--only a little streamlet of about six feet in
width, yet pretty deep, for it came up to our shoulders when we stood in
it; but it was quite enough for us, and we dashed into it, plunging in
and rolling over in our hot haste and eagerness to drink, so wildly, so
madly that it was a wonder that we did not drown one another, all
clumped up together as we were. We swilled and swilled till we well-
nigh felt that we were bursting; while some continued to drink even
after their stomachs were unable to contain any more, and the water
rolled back out of their mouths. We were more like beasts than human
beings for over a quarter of an hour; and then, we roared with an agony
of pain from the distension this sudden repletion gave us. After a
time, however, this passed off and we felt more comfortable, when we
were able to sit down by the green banks through which the stream leaped
and raced along in its course down to the sea to the westwards beyond.
The river, we could now see, when we had more leisure to contemplate it,
came from a little cataract or waterfall that sprang down a niche in the
rocks at the point where two gorges met, and if we had gone half a mile
further to the eastward we must have missed it. Providence surely
guided our steps that day, for I'm certain we could not have lived
another twenty-four hours without water, nay, not twelve!
"As soon as our thirst was appeased, all of us began to feel ravenously
hungry; the men, to my eyes, seeming by the looks they were casting at
each other as if they would turn cannibals if no other proper food
turned up. Glancing about the little glade where we were resting, I
fortunately saw just by the side of the streamlet some lace-like leaves
of a climbing plant which resembled very much what I knew in the West
Indies as the water yam--a very good vegetable that serves the niggers
there instead of our potato, and indeed some folks, myself included,
like it better than that even, when roasted, with lots of butter on it.
"I told Jem of this; and he, fortunately having his knife with him slung
on to the lanyard round his trouser band--he was the only one of us that
had a weapon of any sort--at once began to dig about the roots of the
plants, soon dragging out from the ground a large bulb something like an
elongated beet-root. It was the water yam, sure enough. I recognised
it the moment I looked at it, and I was glad that the leaf had attracted
my attention; so, telling Jem it was all right, he at once sliced it up
into six pieces and shared it out to us. I can't say it tasted nice,
being raw; but it was something in the food line at any rate, and we ate
it all ravenously, the same as we would have eaten the leather of our
boots if we had any.
"Jem Magellan dug out three more yams, one of which he shared out in the
same way and which was just as quickly demolished; but the two others he
reserved for the next day, in case we should not chance to come across
any more plants. Then, we had another good drink of water, which tasted
not the less sweet the more we had of it; and as the sun was now setting
we turned in for the night by the bank of the stream, intending to stay
there a bit until we had recruited ourselves after all the exhausting
privation and terribly hard work we had experienced in getting through
the bush since quitting Cocoa-nut Bay, as we had christened the place we
had come ashore from the wreck of the pinnace.
"Next morning we woke up more at our usual time aboard ship, soon after
the sun rose, the rest and food and drink having refreshed us so greatly
that we felt almost ourselves again; but we were still mighty hungry and
polished off our two yams for breakfast in a brace of shakes, the men
not listening to the injunctions of Magellan and myself that perhaps
they would feel the want of them more before the day was out. Now they
had had their ravenous cravings appeased, they thought they had come to
the end of all their privations. Poor chaps, they and myself had to
suffer a good deal more yet before we had quite done with Madagascar!