WHEN the wind is blowing and the sleet or rain is driving against the
dark windows, I love to sit by the fire, thinking of what I have read in
books of voyage and travel. Such books have had a strong fascination for
my mind from my earliest childhood; and I wonder it should have come to
pass that I never have been round the world, never have been shipwrecked,
ice-environed, tomahawked, or eaten.
Sitting on my ruddy hearth in the twilight of New Year’s Eve, I find
incidents of travel rise around me from all the latitudes and longitudes
of the globe. They observe no order or sequence, but appear and vanish
as they will—‘come like shadows, so depart.’ Columbus, alone upon the
sea with his disaffected crew, looks over the waste of waters from his
high station on the poop of his ship, and sees the first uncertain
glimmer of the light, ‘rising and falling with the waves, like a torch in
the bark of some fisherman,’ which is the shining star of a new world.
Bruce is caged in Abyssinia, surrounded by the gory horrors which shall
often startle him out of his sleep at home when years have passed away.
Franklin, come to the end of his unhappy overland journey—would that it
had been his last!—lies perishing of hunger with his brave companions:
each emaciated figure stretched upon its miserable bed without the power
to rise: all, dividing the weary days between their prayers, their
remembrances of the dear ones at home, and conversation on the pleasures
of eating; the last-named topic being ever present to them, likewise, in
their dreams. All the African travellers, wayworn, solitary and sad,
submit themselves again to drunken, murderous, man-selling despots, of
the lowest order of humanity; and Mungo Park, fainting under a tree and
succoured by a woman, gratefully remembers how his Good Samaritan has
always come to him in woman’s shape, the wide world over.
A shadow on the wall in which my mind’s eye can discern some traces of a
rocky sea-coast, recalls to me a fearful story of travel derived from
that unpromising narrator of such stories, a parliamentary blue-book. A
convict is its chief figure, and this man escapes with other prisoners
from a penal settlement. It is an island, and they seize a boat, and get
to the main land. Their way is by a rugged and precipitous sea-shore,
and they have no earthly hope of ultimate escape, for the party of
soldiers despatched by an easier course to cut them off, must inevitably
arrive at their distant bourne long before them, and retake them if by
any hazard they survive the horrors of the way. Famine, as they all must
have foreseen, besets them early in their course. Some of the party die
and are eaten; some are murdered by the rest and eaten. This one awful
creature eats his fill, and sustains his strength, and lives on to be
recaptured and taken back. The unrelateable experiences through which he
has passed have been so tremendous, that he is not hanged as he might be,
but goes back to his old chained-gang work. A little time, and he tempts
one other prisoner away, seizes another boat, and flies once
more—necessarily in the old hopeless direction, for he can take no other.
He is soon cut off, and met by the pursuing party face to face, upon the
beach. He is alone. In his former journey he acquired an inappeasable
relish for his dreadful food. He urged the new man away, expressly to
kill him and eat him. In the pockets on one side of his coarse
convict-dress, are portions of the man’s body, on which he is regaling;
in the pockets on the other side is an untouched store of salted pork
(stolen before he left the island) for which he has no appetite. He is
taken back, and he is hanged. But I shall never see that sea-beach on
the wall or in the fire, without him, solitary monster, eating as he
prowls along, while the sea rages and rises at him.
Captain Bligh (a worse man to be entrusted with arbitrary power there
could scarcely be) is handed over the side of the Bounty, and turned
adrift on the wide ocean in an open boat, by order of Fletcher Christian,
one of his officers, at this very minute. Another flash of my fire, and
‘Thursday October Christian,’ five-and-twenty years of age, son of the
dead and gone Fletcher by a savage mother, leaps aboard His Majesty’s
ship Briton, hove-to off Pitcairn’s Island; says his simple grace before
eating, in good English; and knows that a pretty little animal on board
is called a dog, because in his childhood he had heard of such strange
creatures from his father and the other mutineers, grown grey under the
shade of the bread-fruit trees, speaking of their lost country far away.
See the Halsewell, East Indiaman outward bound, driving madly on a
January night towards the rocks near Seacombe, on the island of Purbeck!
The captain’s two dear daughters are aboard, and five other ladies. The
ship has been driving many hours, has seven feet water in her hold, and
her mainmast has been cut away. The description of her loss, familiar to
me from my early boyhood, seems to be read aloud as she rushes to her
destiny.
‘About two in the morning of Friday the sixth of January, the ship
still driving, and approaching very fast to the shore, Mr. Henry
Meriton, the second mate, went again into the cuddy, where the
captain then was. Another conversation taking place, Captain Pierce
expressed extreme anxiety for the preservation of his beloved
daughters, and earnestly asked the officer if he could devise any
method of saving them. On his answering with great concern, that he
feared it would be impossible, but that their only chance would be to
wait for morning, the captain lifted up his hands in silent and
distressful ejaculation.
‘At this dreadful moment, the ship struck, with such violence as to
dash the heads of those standing in the cuddy against the deck above
them, and the shock was accompanied by a shriek of horror that burst
at one instant from every quarter of the ship.
‘Many of the seamen, who had been remarkably inattentive and remiss
in their duty during great part of the storm, now poured upon deck,
where no exertions of the officers could keep them, while their
assistance might have been useful. They had actually skulked in
their hammocks, leaving the working of the pumps and other necessary
labours to the officers of the ship, and the soldiers, who had made
uncommon exertions. Roused by a sense of their danger, the same
seamen, at this moment, in frantic exclamations, demanded of heaven
and their fellow-sufferers that succour which their own efforts,
timely made, might possibly have procured.
‘The ship continued to beat on the rocks; and soon bilging, fell with
her broadside towards the shore. When she struck, a number of the
men climbed up the ensign-staff, under an apprehension of her
immediately going to pieces.
‘Mr. Meriton, at this crisis, offered to these unhappy beings the
best advice which could be given; he recommended that all should come
to the side of the ship lying lowest on the rocks, and singly to take
the opportunities which might then offer, of escaping to the shore.
‘Having thus provided, to the utmost of his power, for the safety of
the desponding crew, he returned to the round-house, where, by this
time, all the passengers and most of the officers had assembled. The
latter were employed in offering consolation to the unfortunate
ladies; and, with unparalleled magnanimity, suffering their
compassion for the fair and amiable companions of their misfortunes
to prevail over the sense of their own danger.
‘In this charitable work of comfort, Mr. Meriton now joined, by
assurances of his opinion, that, the ship would hold together till
the morning, when all would be safe. Captain Pierce, observing one
of the young gentlemen loud in his exclamations of terror, and
frequently cry that the ship was parting, cheerfully bid him be
quiet, remarking that though the ship should go to pieces, he would
not, but would be safe enough.
‘It is difficult to convey a correct idea of the scene of this
deplorable catastrophe, without describing the place where it
happened. The Haleswell struck on the rocks at a part of the shore
where the cliff is of vast height, and rises almost perpendicular
from its base. But at this particular spot, the foot of the cliff is
excavated into a cavern of ten or twelve yards in depth, and of
breadth equal to the length of a large ship. The sides of the cavern
are so nearly upright, as to be of extremely difficult access; and
the bottom is strewed with sharp and uneven rocks, which seem, by
some convulsion of the earth, to have been detached from its roof.
‘The ship lay with her broadside opposite to the mouth of this
cavern, with her whole length stretched almost from side to side of
it. But when she struck, it was too dark for the unfortunate persons
on board to discover the real magnitude of the danger, and the
extreme horror of such a situation.
‘In addition to the company already in the round-house, they had
admitted three black women and two soldiers’ wives; who, with the
husband of one of them, had been allowed to come in, though the
seamen, who had tumultuously demanded entrance to get the lights, had
been opposed and kept out by Mr. Rogers and Mr. Brimer, the third and
fifth mates. The numbers there were, therefore, now increased to
near fifty. Captain Pierce sat on a chair, a cot, or some other
moveable, with a daughter on each side, whom he alternately pressed
to his affectionate breast. The rest of the melancholy assembly were
seated on the deck, which was strewed with musical instruments, and
the wreck of furniture and other articles.
‘Here also Mr. Meriton, after having cut several wax-candles in
pieces, and stuck them up in various parts of the round-house, and
lighted up all the glass lanthorns he could find, took his seat,
intending to wait the approach of dawn; and then assist the partners
of his dangers to escape. But, observing that the poor ladies
appeared parched and exhausted, he brought a basket of oranges and
prevailed on some of them to refresh themselves by sucking a little
of the juice. At this time they were all tolerably composed, except
Miss Mansel, who was in hysteric fits on the floor of the deck of the
round-house.
‘But on Mr. Meriton’s return to the company, he perceived a
considerable alteration in the appearance of the ship; the sides were
visibly giving way; the deck seemed to be lifting, and he discovered
other strong indications that she could not hold much longer
together. On this account, he attempted to go forward to look out,
but immediately saw that the ship had separated in the middle, and
that the forepart having changed its position, lay rather further out
towards the sea. In such an emergency, when the next moment might
plunge him into eternity, he determined to seize the present
opportunity, and follow the example of the crew and the soldiers, who
were now quitting the ship in numbers, and making their way to the
shore, though quite ignorant of its nature and description.
‘Among other expedients, the ensign-staff had been unshipped, and
attempted to be laid between the ship’s side and some of the rocks,
but without success, for it snapped asunder before it reached them.
However, by the light of a lanthorn, which a seaman handed through
the skylight of the round-house to the deck, Mr. Meriton discovered a
spar which appeared to be laid from the ship’s side to the rocks, and
on this spar he resolved to attempt his escape.
‘Accordingly, lying down upon it, he thrust himself forward; however,
he soon found that it had no communication with the rock; he reached
the end of it, and then slipped off, receiving a very violent bruise
in his fall, and before he could recover his legs, he was washed off
by the surge. He now supported himself by swimming, until a
returning wave dashed him against the back part of the cavern. Here
he laid hold of a small projection in the rock, but was so much
benumbed that he was on the point of quitting it, when a seaman, who
had already gained a footing, extended his hand, and assisted him
until he could secure himself a little on the rock; from which he
clambered on a shelf still higher, and out of the reach of the surf.
‘Mr. Rogers, the third mate, remained with the captain and the
unfortunate ladies and their companions nearly twenty minutes after
Mr. Meriton had quitted the ship. Soon after the latter left the
round-house, the captain asked what was become of him, to which Mr.
Rogers replied, that he was gone on deck to see what could be done.
After this, a heavy sea breaking over the ship, the ladies exclaimed,
“Oh, poor Meriton! he is drowned; had he stayed with us he would have
been safe!” and they all, particularly Miss Mary Pierce, expressed
great concern at the apprehension of his loss.
‘The sea was now breaking in at the fore part of the ship, and
reached as far as the mainmast. Captain Pierce gave Mr. Rogers a
nod, and they took a lamp and went together into the stern-gallery,
where, after viewing the rocks for some time, Captain Pierce asked
Mr. Rogers if he thought there was any possibility of saving the
girls; to which he replied, he feared there was none; for they could
only discover the black face of the perpendicular rock, and not the
cavern which afforded shelter to those who escaped. They then
returned to the round-house, where Mr. Rogers hung up the lamp, and
Captain Pierce sat down between his two daughters.
‘The sea continuing to break in very fast, Mr. Macmanus, a
midshipman, and Mr. Schutz, a passenger, asked Mr. Rogers what they
could do to escape. “Follow me,” he replied, and they all went into
the stern-gallery, and from thence to the upper-quarter-gallery on
the poop. While there, a very heavy sea fell on board, and the
round-house gave way; Mr. Rogers heard the ladies shriek at
intervals, as if the water reached them; the noise of the sea at
other times drowning their voices.
‘Mr. Brimer had followed him to the poop, where they remained
together about five minutes, when on the breaking of this heavy sea,
they jointly seized a hen-coop. The same wave which proved fatal to
some of those below, carried him and his companion to the rock, on
which they were violently dashed and miserably bruised.
‘Here on the rock were twenty-seven men; but it now being low water,
and as they were convinced that on the flowing of the tide all must
be washed off, many attempted to get to the back or the sides of the
cavern, beyond the reach of the returning sea. Scarcely more than
six, besides Mr. Rogers and Mr. Brimer, succeeded.
‘Mr. Rogers, on gaining this station, was so nearly exhausted, that
had his exertions been protracted only a few minutes longer, he must
have sunk under them. He was now prevented from joining Mr. Meriton,
by at least twenty men between them, none of whom could move, without
the imminent peril of his life.
‘They found that a very considerable number of the crew, seamen and
soldiers, and some petty officers, were in the same situation as
themselves, though many who had reached the rocks below, perished in
attempting to ascend. They could yet discern some part of the ship,
and in their dreary station solaced themselves with the hopes of its
remaining entire until day-break; for, in the midst of their own
distress, the sufferings of the females on board affected them with
the most poignant anguish; and every sea that broke inspired them
with terror for their safety.
‘But, alas, their apprehensions were too soon realised! Within a
very few minutes of the time that Mr. Rogers gained the rock, an
universal shriek, which long vibrated in their ears, in which the
voice of female distress was lamentably distinguished, announced the
dreadful catastrophe. In a few moments all was hushed, except the
roaring of the winds and the dashing of the waves; the wreck was
buried in the deep, and not an atom of it was ever afterwards seen.’
The most beautiful and affecting incident I know, associated with a
shipwreck, succeeds this dismal story for a winter night. The Grosvenor,
East Indiaman, homeward bound, goes ashore on the coast of Caffraria. It
is resolved that the officers, passengers, and crew, in number one
hundred and thirty-five souls, shall endeavour to penetrate on foot,
across trackless deserts, infested by wild beasts and cruel savages, to
the Dutch settlements at the Cape of Good Hope. With this forlorn object
before them, they finally separate into two parties—never more to meet on
earth.
There is a solitary child among the passengers—a little boy of seven
years old who has no relation there; and when the first party is moving
away he cries after some member of it who has been kind to him. The
crying of a child might be supposed to be a little thing to men in such
great extremity; but it touches them, and he is immediately taken into
that detachment.
From which time forth, this child is sublimely made a sacred charge. He
is pushed, on a little raft, across broad rivers by the swimming sailors;
they carry him by turns through the deep sand and long grass (he
patiently walking at all other times); they share with him such putrid
fish as they find to eat; they lie down and wait for him when the rough
carpenter, who becomes his especial friend, lags behind. Beset by lions
and tigers, by savages, by thirst, by hunger, by death in a crowd of
ghastly shapes, they never—O Father of all mankind, thy name be blessed
for it!—forget this child. The captain stops exhausted, and his faithful
coxswain goes back and is seen to sit down by his side, and neither of
the two shall be any more beheld until the great last day; but, as the
rest go on for their lives, they take the child with them. The carpenter
dies of poisonous berries eaten in starvation; and the steward,
succeeding to the command of the party, succeeds to the sacred
guardianship of the child.
God knows all he does for the poor baby; how he cheerfully carries him in
his arms when he himself is weak and ill; how he feeds him when he
himself is griped with want; how he folds his ragged jacket round him,
lays his little worn face with a woman’s tenderness upon his sunburnt
breast, soothes him in his sufferings, sings to him as he limps along,
unmindful of his own parched and bleeding feet. Divided for a few days
from the rest, they dig a grave in the sand and bury their good friend
the cooper—these two companions alone in the wilderness—and then the time
comes when they both are ill, and beg their wretched partners in despair,
reduced and few in number now, to wait by them one day. They wait by
them one day, they wait by them two days. On the morning of the third,
they move very softly about, in making their preparations for the
resumption of their journey; for, the child is sleeping by the fire, and
it is agreed with one consent that he shall not be disturbed until the
last moment. The moment comes, the fire is dying—and the child is dead.
His faithful friend, the steward, lingers but a little while behind him.
His grief is great, he staggers on for a few days, lies down in the
desert, and dies. But he shall be re-united in his immortal spirit—who
can doubt it!—with the child, when he and the poor carpenter shall be
raised up with the words, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of
these, ye have done it unto Me.’
As I recall the dispersal and disappearance of nearly all the
participators in this once famous shipwreck (a mere handful being
recovered at last), and the legends that were long afterwards revived
from time to time among the English officers at the Cape, of a white
woman with an infant, said to have been seen weeping outside a savage hut
far in the interior, who was whisperingly associated with the remembrance
of the missing ladies saved from the wrecked vessel, and who was often
sought but never found, thoughts of another kind of travel came into my
mind.
Thoughts of a voyager unexpectedly summoned from home, who travelled a
vast distance, and could never return. Thoughts of this unhappy wayfarer
in the depths of his sorrow, in the bitterness of his anguish, in the
helplessness of his self-reproach, in the desperation of his desire to
set right what he had left wrong, and do what he had left undone.
For, there were many, many things he had neglected. Little matters while
he was at home and surrounded by them, but things of mighty moment when
he was at an immeasurable distance. There were many many blessings that
he had inadequately felt, there were many trivial injuries that he had
not forgiven, there was love that he had but poorly returned, there was
friendship that he had too lightly prized: there were a million kind
words that he might have spoken, a million kind looks that he might have
given, uncountable slight easy deeds in which he might have been most
truly great and good. O for a day (he would exclaim), for but one day to
make amends! But the sun never shone upon that happy day, and out of his
remote captivity he never came.
Why does this traveller’s fate obscure, on New Year’s Eve, the other
histories of travellers with which my mind was filled but now, and cast a
solemn shadow over me! Must I one day make his journey? Even so. Who
shall say, that I may not then be tortured by such late regrets: that I
may not then look from my exile on my empty place and undone work? I
stand upon a sea-shore, where the waves are years. They break and fall,
and I may little heed them; but, with every wave the sea is rising, and I
know that it will float me on this traveller’s voyage at last.