WE GET TO THE ISLAND
Even if we had lost a better man than Jensen it would have been our duty
none the less to work hard the next day to get our rafts ready and fit
for sea. Very few men are indispensable to their fellows, and certainly,
as far as making the rafts was concerned, it would have been far more
serious if Abraham Janes, the carpenter, had taken it into his head to
throw himself overboard than that Cornelys Jensen had taken it into his
head to do so. Yet, in a manner, too, we missed Cornelys Jensen. He was
an able man, full of all kinds of knowledge, and he had a domineering
way with the seamen which they seemed to recognise and to obey
unflinchingly. These fellows, for the most part, took the tidings of his
death very indifferently. Some of them seemed to miss him as a trained
dog might miss his master. Some, again, seemed scarcely to miss him at
all. One or two, and especially the fellow who saw the death and the
manner of it, seemed to take the matter very greatly to heart, and to go
about with a sad brow and a sullen eye in consequence.
As for Lancelot and myself, I must say that we soon grew to accept his
loss with composure. There was so much to do that there would have been
little time for a greater grief than either of us could honestly wear.
The weather was mending hourly, and the rafts were making rapid
progress. By the end of that day they were finished and ready for the
sea.
By this time, so strange are the chops and changes of the weather in
that part of the world, the sea and sky were as gentle as on a summer's
day. I have heard the phrase 'as smooth as a mill-pond' applied to salt
water many a thousand times, but never, indeed, with so much truth as if
it had been applied to the ocean that day. It lay all around us, one
tranquillity of blue, and above it the heavens were domed with an azure
fretted here and there with fleeces of clouds, even as the water was
fretted here and there with laces of foam. In the clear air we could see
the islands ahead of us sharply dark against the sky, and as we watched
them our longing to be at them, to tread dry land again, was so great as
to be almost unbearable. Those who have lived on shore all their lives
can form little or no idea of the way in which the thoughts of a man who
is tasting the terrors of shipwreck for the first time turn to a visible
land, and how they burn within him for longing to walk upon turf or
highway once again in his jeopardised life.
Now, the rafts that we had constructed were by no means ill-fashioned.
That ship's carpenter, Abraham Janes, was a man of great parts in his
trade. I never in my life saw a handier man at his tools or a defter at
devices of all kinds. The poor old Royal Christopher had timber enough
and to spare for the planks that were to make our rafts, and we had a
great plenty of idle rope aboard in the rigging wherewith our fallen
mast was entangled. So there was no lack of material, and when our men
saw that there was really and truly a prospect of escape there was no
lack of willing hands to work. So by the end of the time I have already
specified we had two large and serviceable rafts ready to try their
fortunes upon the ocean that was now so tempting in its calm.
It was a matter of some little surprise to us who were on board the ship
that with the calm weather Captain Amber made no further attempt to come
out to us. But there was no sign of a sail upon the water, although we
watched it eagerly through the spy-glass; and we were sorely puzzled to
imagine what could have happened to our leader, for that he could be
forgetful of or indifferent to our danger it was impossible to believe.
The rafts being now ready and the weather so propitious, nothing was
left for us but to commit them, with ourselves and all our belongings,
to the water, in the hope of making the shore with them. They were each
of them capable of holding our whole number and a quantity of such
stores as were left on board. These latter, therefore, divided into two
equal parts, we proceeded to put upon the rafts as quickly as we could,
together with as many barrels of water as we had. Each of the rafts
carried a stout mast and sail, and in the absence of any wind could be
propelled slowly over such a smooth water as that which now lay around
us by means of oars. The stores and water barrels we adjusted in such a
way as to preserve as nicely as might be the balance of the rafts.
We effected the transfer of our stores and provisions with very little
difficulty, and embarked all our party, also without any difficulty
whatever. In obedience to Lancelot's resolution, which he had privately
communicated to me beforehand, we divided our forces into two parties.
That is to say, half of the sailors were set on each raft, and with each
raft half of our armed men; for though we had little or no apprehension
now that there would be any trouble with the sailors, we still deemed it
best to let them see very plainly that we were and meant to be the
masters. I went on the one raft, Lancelot--and of course Marjorie with
him--upon the other, and when all was ready we pushed away from the
Royal Christopher and trusted ourselves and our fortunes to our new
equipages.
There was happily little danger, even little difficulty, about the
enterprise. The rafts were well made; they rode on the waters like
corks. What little wind there was blew towards the islands, and the sea
was as placid as a lake, so that the men could use their big oars easily
enough. It was indeed slow work to paddle these great rafts along, but
it was quite unadventurous, so that I have little or nothing to record
of note concerning our journey. Little by little the Royal Christopher
grew smaller and smaller behind us, with her great mast sticking out so
sadly over her side; little by little the island loomed larger and
larger on our view. At last, after a couple of hours that were the most
pleasurable we had passed for many days, we came close to the island,
and could see that the colonists were all crowded together upon the
beach, waiting to receive us.
The island was very large, rocky, and thickly wooded, and the coast was
rocky too, and the water very shoaly, which made me understand how
difficult landing must have been in the stormy weather. But now, with
the sea so fair and the weather so fine, we had little or no difficulty
in getting ashore, and with the eager assistance of the colonists were
soon able to effect the landing of all our stores and belongings.
Our first great surprise on our arrival was to see no sight of Captain
Amber amongst those who were gathered upon the beach to receive us. But
his absence was soon explained in reply to our anxious inquiries. It
seemed that a great spirit of discontent prevailed among the colonists
upon that island, and that they upbraided Captain Amber very bitterly
for being the cause of their misfortunes: as is the way with
weak-spirited creatures, who have not the heart to bear a common
misfortune courageously. To make a long story short, they insisted that
he must needs endeavour to find some means of rescue for them by getting
into the sea track and persuading some ship to come to their aid and
take them from the island; which certainly was a disconsolate place
enough, especially for people who were always ready to make a poor mouth
over everything that did not please them. As the sailors who were with
Captain Amber sided with the colonists in this matter, he had no choice
but to consent; and as his vessel was fairly sea-worthy, he and his
people had departed, in the hope of meeting some ship to bring all
succour. Captain Marmaduke was, it seems, most loath to depart while we
were in such a plight on board of the Royal Christopher; but there was
no help for it, for his men were almost in open mutiny, and would have
carried him on board would he or no. So he had sailed away and the
colonists were all hopeful, in their silly, simple way, that he would
soon return in a great ship and carry them to a land as lovely as a
dream, where all their wishes would be fulfilled for the asking, and
where each man would have his bellyful of good things without the
working for it. For that was, it seems, the notion most of these fellows
had in their heads of poor Captain Amber's Utopia.
I had begun to perceive by this time that a very large number of those
that had come out with Captain Amber aboard of the Royal Christopher
were but weak-spirited creatures, and such as might be called
fair-weather friends. So long as all was going well and there was a
prospect before them of a prosperous future and everything they wanted,
they were supple enough and loud to laud the good gentleman who was
conveying them to comfort. But with the break in our luck their praises
and their patience went in a whiff, and they showed themselves to be
such a parcel of wrong-headed, grumbling, disheartened and dispiriting
knaves as ever helped to shake a good man's courage. They were as ready
to imprecate Captain Amber now as they had been to load him with praises
before, and in this they were supported by all the worser sort--and
these were the greater part--among the sailors that had stayed with the
colonists. But with Lancelot's arrival upon the island he soon put a
stop to all loudly expressed grumbling--or at least to all grumbling
that was loudly expressed in his hearing. There were some good fellows
amongst the colonists, and the old soldiers were staunch and sturdy
fellows, who adored Captain Amber, and Lancelot after him. So, as we had
these with us, we made the grumblers keep civil tongues in their heads,
aye and work too to the bettering of our conditions. The first party
had made themselves some huts and now we made more for ourselves who
were new-comers, with tents of a kind out of sail-cloth that we had
brought from the ship, and for Lancelot a large double hut covered with
some of this same cloth for him and Marjorie to dwell in. And, Lord!
what a joy it was to see how Marjorie bestirred herself making herself
as good a lieutenant to Lancelot as Captain's heart could desire. But we
were all so busy that in those hours on that island I seldom had speech
with her, for my care was chiefly with those discontented and weaklings
who were so eager to complain and make mischief.
It seemed to me then that the best man of all that pack was the woman
Barbara Hatchett. For while the colonists were making poor mouths over
their plight and piping as querulously as sparrows after rain, and while
the sailors were for the most part sour and sullen, Barbara took her lot
with cheerfulness, and had smiles and smooth words for everybody and
everything. She had even smiles and smooth words with me, who had
exchanged no speech with her beyond forced greeting for this many a day.
For she came up to me laughing once, at a time when I stood alone and
was, indeed, thinking of Marjorie who was busy in her hut at some task
that Lancelot had set her. Barbara began to banter with me in a way that
seemed strange with her, saying that I was fickle like all my sex, that
I was sighing for fair hair now, who had doted on black locks a few
years ago, and much more idle talk to the same want of purpose. At last
she asked me bluntly if I had loved her once, and when I answered yes,
she asked me if I loved her still, now that she was a married woman; and
without giving me time to answer she said that she had a kindness for
me, and would do me a good turn yet for the sake of old days when she
came to be queen.
I was vexed with her for the vanity and importunity of her mirth, and to
stop her words I asked her bluntly if she had ever seen a black flag.
But my question had no effect to disconcert her gaiety.
'You mean the black flag of poor Jensen?' she said; and when I nodded
she began to pity Jensen for his belief in his trophy, which, after all,
had brought him no more luck than a sea grave; and then she went on with
shrillish laughter to tell me that she had begged it of him to give her
to make into a petticoat, 'For it would have made a bonny petticoat,
would it not?' she said suddenly, coming to a sharp end and looking me
earnestly in the face.
I was at a loss what to say, being so flustered by her carriage and her
words, which seemed to make it plain to me that I had sorely misjudged
the dead man. But I said nothing, and moved a little way from her; and
she, seeing my disinclination, laughed again, and then 'God blessed' me
with a vehemence and earnestness that, as I thought, meant me more harm
than good. But after that she turned and went back to the rest of the
women, and I could see her going from one to the other, soothing and
comforting them, and showing them how to make the best of their bitter
commons on the island. And as I watched her I wondered; but I had little
time for watching or for wondering.