into irons and laid in the hold. Though we had not taken aboard near
as much water or provision as we intended, yet the captain would not
risk the sending of another crew to the island, albeit he might safely
have done so, I think, the men being for the time sufficiently tamed.
We had to wait the best part of the day for a breeze; then we weighed
anchor and stood away to the north. While the island was still in
sight, the wind suddenly shifted its quarter, and blew first a gale and
then a hurricane, so that we had to shorten canvas. While this was
a-doing the sea was lashed to a fury, prodigious waves sweeping over
the deck and buffeting the vessel so heavily that her timbers shook,
and we feared the masts would go by the board. With ten men in irons
and about as many weakened by the scurvy, the crew were pretty hard
pressed, and though they worked with a will, since their very lives
depended on it, they railed without measure against the captain and Mr.
Lummis, heedless of what punishment might be dealt to them when the
storm abated. Presently a cry arose that the vessel had sprung a leak,
and since none of those above could be spared to man the pumps, Mr.
Lummis ordered the men in irons to be brought up, and made them work at
the pumps in turn. The storm rather increased than diminished in fury,
and the seamen were seized with a fear that the vessel would founder,
and I heard them mingle prayers and curses in a breath, reviling the
captain for taking them from the hospitable island, and crying out
"Lord, have mercy on us!" again and again. Darkness fell upon us while
we were still battling with the storm, which added to our terrors, for
the vessel would not obey the helm, and we knew not but we might be
cast upon some coral reef, such as abound in those regions, and there
be clean broken up. In this extremity of peril I own I was dreadfully
afraid, and prayed very fervently that we might be saved, thinking too
of my uncle and aunt, and the happiness I had enjoyed with them,
casting my mind back over many things in my past life, almost as a
drowning man does, at least I have heard so.
I was inexpressibly relieved when at last the violence of the tempest
abated, in the wind first, for it was long before the turbulence of the
sea was sensibly diminished. About the middle of the night, however,
we were able to stand once more upright on the deck without clinging to
the shrouds or other things for support, and then, being utterly worn
out, we sought repose, but not before the leak had been discovered and
stopped, which took a long time, and the unruly seamen who were in
irons once more confined in the hold. I gave hearty thanks to God who
had so mercifully delivered us, and went to my bunk in as peaceful a
frame of mind as if it were my bed at home.
I was awakened, how long afterwards I know not, by Mr. Bodger breaking
into my cabin, which was on the maindeck, and calling on me to come
instantly to the quarterdeck, and bring my pistol, for the crew had
risen in mutiny, and having made a rush to the hold had liberated the
men in irons. I sprang up and cast my coat, which was still dripping
wet, about me, and seizing my pistol, followed the man up to where Mr.
Lummis and the captain stood in front of the roundhouse. But a moment
after I joined them we were aware that the crew were advancing to
attack us, judging by the sounds of their shouting, for the night was
so black that we could see but little, the men having put out the sole
lantern. We were in a very desperate case, being but four against the
whole crew, saving some few who were sick, not one of the men having
come to our side; the captain, moreover, being very feeble from his
illness. But we had all the firearms at our command, and Mr. Lummis
trusted by means of these to do such execution among the mutineers that
they would lose heart, and while the worst of them would be cowed, the
better-disposed would yield to authority. Thus we four stood side by
side, and as the men drew near Mr. Lummis called to them in a loud
voice, warning them that we had weapons which we would use upon them if
they did not instantly return to their duty. There was silence for a
space; the shuffling of bare feet on the deck ceased; then a voice
called out (I think it was Hoggett's) that the captain should return to
the island we had lately left, and let 'em rest and recruit themselves,
they being dead sick of sailing without end. He finished by saying
that if the captain did not consent to this course, they would slit his
weazand and cast him to the sharks, and serve all of us the same, and
we had best make our choice without delay. Mr. Lummis, to whom the
captain left all this matter, roared out a string of oaths and
commanded the men to seize that rascal who had the insolency to order
the captain's goings. There was a great laugh, very horrid to hear,
being rather the sound that wild beasts would make than men; then there
was again silence, or rather we heard the low murmurs of the men
talking among themselves. Mr. Lummis cursed again, but this time under
his breath, and muttering "They mean mischief," he bade Mr. Bodger in a
whisper put out the lantern that swung from the roof of the roundhouse
behind us, and so made a light against which our forms, as we stood on
the threshold, could be distinctly seen by the men. This was no sooner
done than there came a single shrill blast on the sea-pipe, and the men
rushed up towards us with fierce shouts that made my flesh creep.
"Fire!" cried Mr. Lummis loud enough to be heard above all the din. As
I have said before, I had never in my life fired a pistol, and what
with excitement and flurry, my finger fumbled a little at the trigger,
so that I was a thought behind the others; but even in that little
moment I heard terrible screams as the bullets from the officers'
pistols flew among the crew; and though I fired mine immediately after,
I could not tell whether 'twas pointed up or down, or in what direction
soever, and I was seized with a fit of shuddering when the thought came
to me in a flash that peradventure I had slain a fellow-creature. You
may think I was a coward, and perhaps I was; but yet I think I was not,
but only new at such kind of work, because I do not recollect that ever
I felt the same way again when I had to defend myself, as will appear
in order.
This first discharge of our weapons caused the mutineers to draw back,
and we instantly seized other pistols which Mr. Lummis had laid in
readiness within reach. He called out, "Have ye had enough, you dogs?"
and from the silence I really thought they had, especially as Mr.
Bodger whispered that he heard no groans, and so believed that the men
who were hit must be dead. But all of a sudden, without any kind of
warning, except a slight whistling in the air, and then it was too
late, there was a crash a little to the left of me, where the captain
stood, and looking round I saw him lying in a heap against the wall of
the roundhouse, and heard him groan. "Fire!" shouted Mr. Lummis again,
but I was on my knees beside the captain, who told me very faintly that
he had been struck on the head by something; and, indeed, when I felt
along the deck with my hand I found the marlin-spike which had done the
mischief. He bid me stand and help the officers, whose shots I had
again heard; but scarce had I risen to my feet when Mr. Lummis staggers
against me and cries that his arm is broken. At the same moment there
was a great crash of breaking glass, which made us know that another
missile had smashed the skylight of the roundhouse; and then, when
there came a perfect clatter of heavy things, belaying pins and the
like, striking the timbers of the roundhouse, Mr. Lummis said that we
must withdraw into that place, or we should be battered to pieces.
Accordingly Mr. Bodger and I, we dragged the captain within the sliding
door and shut it fast, and taking the table and bench we drove them
against the door as a barricado, which we had scarcely done before the
men, guessing by the cessation of our fire what had happened, came
outside and hammered on the wood, shouting with triumph and derision.
"Send a bullet through the door, sir," cries Mr. Lummis, which I did,
and there was a howl of pain, and the men scuttled away, for being
without firearms they were still at a disadvantage against us.
Mr. Bodger having relit the lantern, we saw that the captain had
fainted clean away, and there was a great cut in his head from which
the blood was flowing. While I dashed some water upon his face and
poured a little rum between his lips, Mr. Bodger looked to the hurts of
the chief mate, who was roaring as much with fury as with pain. It
proved that his arm was indeed broken, as he had said, and I never
heard anybody howl as he did when Mr. Bodger made shift to set it and
bind it up. Meanwhile the captain had come to, but his face was
ghastly pale, and I feared the worst from the enfeebled state in which
he was.
I was already aware, from the altered motion of the vessel, that her
course had been changed, and could not doubt that the mutineers were
purposing to sail back to the island we had quitted. In this matter we
were wholly at their mercy, but I thought it a very hazardous
proceeding in the blackness of the night, especially as they had no
chart and could not have the least notion of how to set the course
truly. It would have been at least the act of reasonable men to heave
to and wait for morning light; but I had already observed that seamen
have little forethought, being like children in that respect, and they
were so eager to attain the haven of their desires as to be ready to
brave the perils of striking a reef or running aground on a shoal. We
talked together of what we should do if the vessel arrived at an
island, Mr. Bodger saying he feared they would murder us or maybe hand
us over to the savages, for though we were secure against them while we
remained in the roundhouse, 'twas clear that we must needs issue forth
some time, or starve for want of food.
[Sidenote: Shipwreck]
Some time had passed, I know not how long, when we became aware of a
marvellous perplexing change in the atmosphere. I felt a strange
tingling in my fingers; Mr. Bodger declared he was all pins and
needles, and Mr. Lummis cried out with an oath, without which indeed he
seldom spoke, that some one was walking over his grave. Almost as the
words left his lips a tremendous shock, as of an immense wave striking
the vessel, sent us all spinning to the deck, and immediately
afterwards there was a mighty crash, and Mr. Lummis cried that the
mainmast had gone by the board. The vessel had so listed that we
expected she would instantly founder; but she righted herself, and then
we heard a great hubbub outside, the men calling one to another in
accents of affright and dismay. It being plain that the vessel was in
a desperate case, I thought the seamen would be too intent on saving
their own lives to have any notion of taking ours; so with Mr. Bodger's
help I pulled away our barricado and opened the door. By the light of
the lantern I saw the seamen most frantically cutting away the
wreckage, in the midst of which there came a great shout that the leak
had opened again, only much bigger than before, and that water was
pouring into the hold. Instantly there was a cry to lower the boats;
none thought of manning the pumps, which indeed would have been vain,
as we saw pretty soon. We had three boats aboard, but one of these had
been smashed by the fall of the mast, and the men were cutting the
lashings of the other two, some also casting into them whatever things
they could lay hands on, never stopping to consider whether they were
useful or no. They lowered the boats over the side, not without great
danger, for the vessel was rolling heavily, and then began to jump into
them. I could not believe that they would be so heartless as to leave
their officers to go down with the ship, though they had proceeded
hitherto without so much as a look towards us; and rushing among them,
I cried out that the captain and Mr. Lummis were severely hurt, begging
them to wait just so long as to rescue them. But they thrust me away,
and Chick with a brutal laugh shouted that the officers might drown for
all he cared, and when I still urged him he dealt me such a buffet that
I fell sprawling among the wreckage.
When I rose to my feet, having lain stunned for a space, there was not
a man to be seen. I was for a little while like one demented, running
to the side of the vessel--which had no bulwarks, but only a timber
railing--with the intent to fling myself into the boat, and so escape.
But then I thought of the officers, and could not bring myself to
desert them in their extremity, and so ran back to the roundhouse, to
see if by any means we could devise a raft of spars sufficient at least
to keep us afloat. I found Mr. Lummis stretched on the deck, having,
it seemed, stumbled over some of the wreckage and hurt his arm again,
so that he fainted. There was a figure standing by the door, which I
at first took to be Mr. Bodger, but on running up to ask him concerning
that matter of the raft, I perceived with amazement that it was not the
second mate at all, but Billy Bobbin. I looked around, but no Mr.
Bodger could I see; I called aloud for him, but there was no answer,
nor could I tell whether he had fallen overboard or been taken away
among the men. I rushed again to the side, hoping that even at the
last the seamen might have repented; but it was all one blackness; the
boats were clean gone.
I went back, and seeing both Mr. Lummis and the captain still lying
motionless on the deck, I was well-nigh overcome with the horror of our
situation, and sat me down on a coil of rope and buried my face in my
hands. But in a moment I sprang up; I could not consult with the
officers, but there was Billy Bobbin, whom I supposed the men had
refused to take with them--I learnt afterwards that he had not offered
to go, but had remained of set purpose to stand by me who had treated
him kindly. He told me, too, that Mr. Lummis had not fainted, but had
been thrown down by the men, who came rummaging in the roundhouse for
arms, of which they took several, and powder and shot. I cried to
Billy to help me build a raft, for, little of a seaman though I was, I
perceived that the vessel was already beginning to settle down. We had
but a single lamp to assist us, and to add to our trouble, a great
storm of wind and rain beat upon us, causing the ship to labour so
heavily that we could scarce keep our feet. I was fairly at my wits'
end. If it had been daylight, and calm, we might have heaved some
spars and planks overboard and lashed them together, but that was
impossible in the darkness. Moreover, if we made a raft strong enough
to hold us four, we could not by any means, Billy and me, lift it and
launch it from the deck. All that we could do was to lash together
what spars and planks we could find there on the deck, and trust that
when the vessel foundered we might contrive to cling to it, though how
we were to fasten the helpless officers to it I was not any way able to
see.
While these perplexities were tossing in my brain my hands were not
idle; indeed, I wrought so desperately, and Billy too, that the skin
was torn from our fingers, though we did not know it until the dawn
showed them to us all sore and bleeding. It was growing misty light,
and we had finished our raft, a poor makeshift thing, but the best we
could do, and were considering of how to fasten the officers to it,
when all of a sudden the ship gave a great lurch, and while we were
endeavouring to save ourselves from being cast into the sea, the deck
beneath us was riven asunder with a noise as of a great gun. Of what
happened then I know nothing; but when I had again possession of my
senses, I found myself struggling in the sea, in desperate straits for
breath. For some while I could see nothing, in such confusion was I;
but presently, breathing more easily, and keeping myself afloat, I
perceived that the ship had totally disappeared, and I was amid a
strange assemblage of all manner of small objects bobbing up and down
on the surface. In a little I spied our raft, and near by it the wreck
of the mainmast, which had been cut almost clear by the seamen before
they took to their boats; but never a sign was there of Mr. Lummis or
the captain or Billy. I struck out for the raft, wondering within
myself whether I had strength to reach it, for I was marvellously
exhausted, having, as I came to think afterwards, been drawn down to a
great depth by the sinking vessel. All at once I saw a head rise above
the further edge of the raft, and a moment after Billy scrambled on to
it, and flung himself down as utterly spent. I strove to strike out
more lustily, feeling a great joy that one at least of my comrades was
saved; but my strength was so far gone from me, and the sea so
disturbed, that I made scarce any progress, and in an extremity of
despair, gasping as I was, I raised my head above the water and shouted
Billy's name. He lifted himself and looked about him amazedly; then
spying me at a distance of six fathoms or more, as I guessed, he leaped
into the sea and came swimming towards me. I was at the point of
sinking when, with inexpressible joy, I felt his arm placed beneath me,
and thus sustained by him I plied my limbs again, though with great
effort, and came at length to the raft, which I seized eagerly, and
rested a while until I should recover strength enough to clamber upon
it as he had done. However, when I made the essay, the side of the
raft sank beneath my weight, and I know not what I should have done had
not Billy bid me still cling to it while he swam round to the other
side, and then, both heaving ourselves up at the same moment, we
contrived to get aboard of it, and sank utterly fordone at either end,
and Billy burst into tears.
CHAPTER THE FOURTH
OF THE MEANS WHEREBY WE CHEATED NEPTUNE AND CAME WITHIN THE GRIP OF
VULCAN; AND OF THE INHUMANITY OF THE MARINERS
We sat, or rather crouched, on the raft, and 'twas a mercy the sea was
not now so tempestuous, for had it been, I am sure we should have had
no strength to battle with it. The rain had ceased, but a white mist
lay over the water, and, dripping wet as I was, I shivered and my teeth
chattered and I felt desperately sick. All around us floated sundry
bits of wreckage--planks and spars, a hencoop, some pots and pans and
empty barrels, and near at hand a something that caused me a sharp pang
at heart: it was Captain Corke's wig, and I thought of that good
seaman, and of Mr. Lummis too, both gone to their long account. For a
time, as I contemplated the flotsam by which we were surrounded, I gave
never a thought to the unhappy posture of Billy and me; but all at once
it came upon me with a great shock that we were castaways on the wide
ocean, far away from land, clean out of the track of any likely vessel,
and with no food, nor any means of procuring it, to be the sport of
wind and wave. I was even considering whether it were not better to
plunge overboard at once, before the pangs of hunger and thirst got
hold upon us, when Billy, who had raised himself upon his elbow,
suddenly gave a shout and stretched his hand towards me. "Land! land!"
he cried. I turned myself about, so quickly that I almost lost my
balance, and sure enough, through the mist I saw a long dark line,
which on this waste of water could betoken nothing else but land, as
Billy had said. And in that moment I blamed myself for my gloomy
thoughts and stark hopelessness, considering for the first time that
the good hand of God had preserved us hitherto from the dreadful fate
of the officers, and might have further mercies in store.
[Sidenote: The Island]
It was impossible to guess, because of the mist, how far the land was
from us, but with our hearts full of this reviving hope we took thought
by what means we might propel our raft thither. We did not consider
whether it was a barren or a fruitful land, or what perils we might
encounter of wild beasts or wild men; all our mind was bent upon
escaping from our present danger. The raft was composed of spars and
staves of the boat which had been shattered on the deck of the _Lovey
Susan_, lashed together with ropes. I felt in my pocket for a knife
wherewith to cut one of the spars loose, designing to use it as an oar,
but my pocket was empty save for one solitary button, which I
remembered having put there a day or two before when it started from my
breeches, intending to have it sewn on. I asked Billy if he had a
knife, and he, feeling in his pockets, confessed them likewise to be
empty, having left on the deck the knife we had used in making the
raft; but when I told him what I had in mind, he at once fell to
pulling at one of the knots with his fingers, which being hard, as a
seaman's always are, he contrived in a wonderfully short time to loose
the short spar, and began to thrust it into the water in the manner of
paddling. To our great joy the raft moved, as I could tell by its
passing some of the floating articles of wreckage, which it did so
close to some that I might have seized them by stretching forth my
hand, and I wished I had when I thought of it afterwards, for they
would have been of great use to us, and saved us a deal of labour, as
you shall see.
We moved, I say, towards the shore, Billy keeping our course pretty
straight by plying the spar now on the right side, now on the left.
And then I perceived a shine upon the water, and, looking back, saw the
blessed sun as a ruddy disk, but like the moon in size, glimmering
through the mist behind us. Billy hailed the sunrise with a cheerful
shout, which did my heart good to hear it, and cried to me that the
mist was lifting, and we should soon see the land clear. And so it
was, though when we did behold it, we did not much like the look of it.
From the edge of the sea it rose to a considerable height, and it was
of a grey colour, or rather slate, and yet not quite that either, but
approaching to black. To the right the slope was covered with
vegetation, and about half way-up there was what in the distance--for
we were, as I reckoned, near a mile from the shore--looked to be a
dense wood, as indeed it afterwards proved. Still further to the right
a promontory of a reddish colour jutted out into the sea, and I
perceived that the water ran right through it by an archway, which I
suppose the sea had cut for itself, for I could not conceive it had
been made in any other way. This promontory also was green at the top
with plants and trees, and beyond it we could see a rock of the same
red colour, which appeared to be of very great size, like to an immense
iceberg, but much broader than any I have seen. To the left of the
blackish slope that I have before mentioned there were other patches of
green, and I was much exercised in my mind to know why the centre
portion was thus barren when there was vegetation on either side.
We could not yet see the top of the slope, for the mist still lay upon
it; but as we drew nearer a pretty gentle gale sprang up, which with
the sunbeams drove the mist away, leaving only a small portion, which
hovered like a thick white cloud, or a nightcap, over the dark summit.
While I was gazing at it, wondering why it stayed so constantly just
there, I was amazed to see a part of this cloud shoot up to a
prodigious height, and while I was still in that amazement, we heard a
dull booming noise, like the discharge of a great gun far away. At
this Billy ceased paddling and looked at me as one affrighted, and
asked me very fearfully whether we had come to a country where the
French were fighting with the native people. But I perceived now that
the sea was in commotion around us, and it suddenly came into my mind
that this mountain we saw before us was a burning mountain, or volcano,
like to what I had read of in my lesson books, though I had thought
that they sent forth fire and smoke and burning streams of lava. And
then, remembering the great wave which had struck our vessel and caused
the panic among the seamen, I bethought me that it was maybe due to an
earthquake, which affects as well the sea as the land. I told Billy
what I thought, and he was much relieved that we had not happened upon
the French, but said very gloomily that we should not be much better
off on land below a burning mountain than on the sea, and for his part
he would sooner drown, that being, as 'twas said, an easy death, than
be burned alive. However, I said that we had as yet seen no fire, and
perhaps the furnace in the mountain was dying out, and we could at the
least put it to the test. In short, I persuaded him to take up his
paddle again, which he did, and so brought us a little nearer to the
land.
But we now perceived that the raft was taken in a current, which bore
us to the right hand towards the promontory I have mentioned above, but
obliquely, so that we were like to be carried past it without being
able to land. The wind was blowing against the current, and we hoped
it might stay our course long enough for us to come at some haven; but
though we loosed another spar, which I used very diligently though with
little dexterity, the current gained upon us, and I saw that we should
never do it. In that predicament it came into my mind that we might
use our coats as a sail, and we instantly stripped them off and joined
them together by the sleeves, and then we lashed them to the spar I had
been plying and held it upright, Billy drawing the loose end taut by
two short lengths of rope which he fastened very quickly to the
extremity of the raft. The sail made a very extraordinary appearance,
as you may believe, but Billy laughed merrily when he saw it fill with
the wind, and so, he working his paddle, and me holding the mast--with
no little difficulty, for the wind was blowing more strongly--we drew
nearer and nearer to the land.