saw several dusky forms appear in the distance. Hoggett, who was not
without a certain courage, and coolness too, turned to the men and bade
them post themselves behind the pigsties and fowlhouse, and let the
savages have one shot to daunt them, but not more, from which I guessed
they were very short of powder and shot. Almost in the same breath he
continued his pleading with me, and I own he sickened me when he
declared he repented of the wrong he had done, and if I would only let
him in, like a "kind Christian gentleman," he would fetch and carry for
me all the rest of his days. I think I might have yielded if he had
not been so abject, which I did not need Billy's mockery to tell me was
mere feigning; but I resolutely refused, and then we saw Hoggett in his
true colours again, for the savages beginning to close round, he gave a
glance at them and then poured out upon me the most horrible
vituperation and foulest language I ever heard from the lips of any
man, and then ran to join his comrades who were ensconced behind our
outbuildings.
[Sidenote: A Fight with Savages]
The savages came on in a pretty compact body, brandishing spears and
clubs, many of them having bows and arrows, and all looking exceeding
fierce, their skins being tattooed in strange and hideous patterns,
their hair bushed up like a thatch supported on what seemed to be a row
of shark's teeth. There was much shouting and gesticulating among
them, and from the manner of their pointing I guessed that they were
mighty surprised at the sight of our hut and its surroundings, and
indeed they came to a halt at some little distance from the moat, and
seemed to be deliberating what course to follow; and all the time the
seamen, who had regained something of their courage now that they were
behind cover, closely watched them, but never offered to fire. The
clamour of the savages increased to a wondrous degree, and I believed
they must be working up their courage to charge, and presently the
group widened out until it was near a half-circle in shape, and then
the naked warriors, near two hundred in number, rushed forward with
most furious whoops, their leader being a man of great stature and
especial intricacy of tattooing. They had come within about eighty
yards of the seamen when I heard Hoggett give the word to fire, and
there were instantly several shots, but not so many shots as muskets,
by which I saw that there was shortness of ammunition, as I suspected.
The half-dozen shots, however, were enough to bring the savages to a
pause, not because of any damage done among them, for the muskets of
those days were not near so good as the rifles which I hear some of our
men carried of late in Spain; but because of the noise and smoke, which
are as terrifying to savage people as they are to animals. When the
seamen had fired they began instantly to put in fresh charges, and the
savage chief stirred his people up to attack again; but I observed that
some of them had already drawn back, in fear of the muskets. However,
others, though they did not advance further, stood their ground and
began to discharge arrows and spears, which at first did no hurt at
all, because the seamen were pretty well hidden; which seeing, the
savages spread out so as to encircle the outbuildings, and then began
to discharge their weapons again, the white men no longer being all
sheltered. What shrieks of joy there were when the savages observed
that one or two of their missiles had got home! Taking new courage
from the sight, they surged forward with blood-curdling yells, and had
come within about fifty yards of the pig-sty when Hoggett again gave
the word to fire, and this time they hit one or two of the savages, and
again brought them to a halt.
"I don't think much of them for fighters," said Billy, who had been
watching these proceedings very eagerly through his loophole. "Why
don't they rush in while the rascals are priming their guns? They're
just a lot of donkeys, that's what they are."
[Sidenote: Asylum]
But I saw that this second halt of the savages was only as a gathering
up of strength, for they were now frenzied, as well with delight at the
wounding of two of the white men as with anger at the damage done among
themselves. Even before the seamen had had time to charge their guns
again I saw the rush beginning, and I could not doubt that this time
the savages would overwhelm the little company of white men, or at
least do terrible execution among them. And in that moment my mind was
made up for me, as it were without my consent to it, though I believe I
must have felt in my inmost heart that it would be a crime to stand
neutral while men of my own colour were butchered before my eyes.
However that may be, certain it is that all of a sudden I ran very fast
to the door and pulled it open, and then bidding Billy come after me
and bring his bow and arrows, I caught up the drawbridge, threw it
across the moat, and leapt over, calling to Hoggett to bring his men
into our hut as quickly as might be. The sight of me suddenly sallying
forth seemed to strike the savages with amazement, for they paused in
the middle of their onset, and thus gave time to the seamen, not only
to finish their priming, but also to make steps in retreat towards the
hut; and as they came, Wabberley being first--as might be
expected--Hoggett and Pumfrey and two or three more of the braver sort
formed themselves into a rearguard, covering the retreat with their
levelled muskets. However, before the second of the wounded men had
come over the drawbridge the savages got the better of their
astonishment and rushed on with horrible yells, whereupon I ranged
myself alongside of Hoggett and the rest, calling to Billy to come too,
and wondering why he had not yet joined me. Then we shot all together,
the men with their muskets and I with bow and arrow, but I could not
see what the effect of our shots was, partly because of the smoke, and
partly because the savages were now such a wild mob that everything was
confused. But in a moment I saw the big chief leaping with great
strides before his men, who were close at his heels and no more than
thirty yards from the moat. The seamen were helpless, for they had
fired their pieces and could not recharge them in time; but I plucked
another arrow from my quiver, and fitting it to my bow took as good aim
as I could at the chief; and thankful I was that I had had a good deal
of practice at what Billy called our guy, for when I let fly the arrow
it sped very true, and struck the savage in the left side of his chest,
just below the shoulder joint, and he fell upon his face, though I knew
by his howling that he was not dead. The fall of their leader fairly
daunted the rest of the savages, and they halted, and we seized this
breathing space to get all the men across the moat, and then I caught
up the drawbridge and ran behind the men into the hut, and we had got
the door into its place by the time the savages came to the moat. When
they saw that they were baulked they let forth the most astonishing
cries I ever heard in my life, like the yelping of dogs rather than the
cries of men; and while some carried their chief away, others ran round
towards the lake side of the hut to see if there was any door there, or
any weak spot there or at the other sides where they might attack us.
And then, looking through a loophole, I saw seven or eight prostrate
forms on the ground, the victims of the seamen's muskets.
The hut was very dim inside, all the light being what came through the
loopholes, we never having made a window: but little as it was it was
enough for Hoggett, and one or two more, to see to charge their pieces,
and putting these through loopholes in different sides of the hut, they
fired and so scattered the savages, who ran swiftly out of gun-shot.
We saw them meet together a good distance off, towards the cliff, and
one of the seamen said they were holding a parliament, and he hoped
they had punishment enough and would make up their minds to go back to
their own island.
[Sidenote: What I Owe Billy]
Observing that the seamen were very intent on watching these
proceedings, I turned to find Billy, to ask him why he had not come out
with me when I bade him, for I thought his backwardness was due either
to cowardice or to flat disobedience, and I was as much astonished at
the one as at the other. I could not find him at first, for the hut
was pretty well packed, and indeed the air already began to be foul and
oppressive; but I did find him, and when I asked him in some heat what
he meant by it, he took me by the arm and whispered in my ear, "Why,
you forgot we hadn't covered over the hole into the cellar, and I
reckoned we didn't want 'em to know about that, at least not yet a
bit." And then I shook him by the hand and thanked him for his
thoughtfulness, and when he said in great surprise, "Why, master,
that's nothing," I did not dare to tell him the unkind thoughts that
had come into my mind, for I was sure he would have been very much hurt
by them. Certainly it would have been a terrible calamity if the men
had discovered our secret chamber, and I dare say 'tis due only to
Billy's presence of mind in that matter of hastily covering over the
shaft that I am alive to pen these lines to-day.
CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH
OF THE DISCOMFITURE OF THE SAVAGES, AND THE UNMANNERLY BEHAVIOUR OF OUR
GUESTS
There we were then, I say, sixteen seamen and our two selves, with
Little John, cooped up in a house built for two, with no air nor light
but what came through the small loopholes in the walls. It was
desperately unpleasant; at least, I found it so; as for the seamen,
maybe they felt it less, being accustomed to the closeness of 'tween
decks, though to be sure they had lived an open life for so long that
they had almost had time to forget the forecastle of the _Lovey Susan_.
There was a great babblement among them, congratulating one another on
their lucky escape and on their having found quarters, cursing the
savages very heartily, and hoping they would now sheer off. I do not
remember that I heard a word of thanks to us for helping them, except
from poor Mr. Bodger, who came to me and, in a manner more meek and
quiet even than when he was aboard the _Lovey Susan_, said it was like
heaven to find me again, after the terrible life he had led among the
seamen. It was from him I learnt what I have already related about the
men's doings on the island where they landed, and of what had happened
subsequently to their last visit to us, which was as follows. They had
gone to one of the islands to the westward which they had seen from the
slopes of our island, and made friends with the savages there, which
they were able to do because, having firearms, the savages thought to
make use of them in warfare against their enemies. For a time the
seamen lived right royally among them, having food and quarters on
condition of this military service; but becoming insolent and puffed up
with their own importance, they presently offended the savages, and
crowned their misdeeds with refusing to fight any more for them, which
they did because their ammunition was running short. Learning from a
savage girl that had a partiality for Pumfrey that the tribe were
minded to enslave them, they determined to slip away by night in their
boat, and come back to our island, to see whether their notions about
it were well founded, I mean as to the scarcity of food on it; and they
did this, but their departure was discovered before they had gone very
far, and with the morning light they saw that they were pursued by
their infuriate employers.
[Sidenote: Besieged]
Mr. Bodger did not tell me all this, and what I have related before, at
one time, because we were too busy watching the proceedings of the
savages, and debating about them, to hold long discourse undisturbed.
The issue of their deliberations appeared to be that they would make no
attempt to carry our defences by main force, which indeed would have
been a hopeless undertaking, but to invest us strictly, being no doubt
confident in their numbers to overwhelm us when we should issue forth,
as we must some time do, when the pressure of hunger compelled us. The
whole body of them split up into five little camps of about forty men
each, who posted themselves in a half-circle about the front side of
the hut, and out of range of the seamen's muskets. One of these camps,
however, was placed, very likely out of bravado, a good deal nearer to
our hut than the rest, and Hoggett declared with an oath that he would
have a shot at them, only he did not care to waste the powder, his
stock being all but gone. "Where's Brent?" cries he. "_Mister
Brent_," says Billy at once. "Is that there young scum of a Bobbin
a-talking?" cries Hoggett. I caught Billy's arm to keep him from
answering, fearing lest Hoggett should deal brutally with him; and
Hoggett said with a laugh, "Where's _Mister_ Brent, then?" "What is
it?" said I. "Send one of your arrows amongst those reptiles, will
you?" says he, in a tone that I did not at all relish, so that I was on
the point of taking him up pretty sharply, only I thought better of it,
for what was the use of making a bother when there were so many of
them? Indeed, I was already not a little disturbed in my mind,
foreseeing that if the fellow would put on this insolency of bearing so
soon, we should go through rough water presently. However, to come
back to my story. I was not at all disposed to shoot an arrow at
Hoggett's bidding; yet I thought it were a good thing to show the
savages that we had our eyes on them; so I said, "Billy, maybe you will
kindly show Hoggett what you can do." "Do you bid me, master?" says
the boy: I call him "boy," though he was at this time, I suppose,
eighteen or nineteen years old. "I ask you, Billy," said I: whereupon
he took his bow and an arrow, and went to one of the loopholes, and
there was pretty nearly a fight among the men for places at the others,
for there were not enough for all of them. As for myself I could see
nothing, but I heard the twang of the bow-string, and immediately
afterwards a great shout of laughter from the men, which Billy told me
was occasioned by the sudden leaping up of the savages among whom the
arrow fell, and their scuttering like rabbits to a safer distance. I
do not doubt their amazement, for their own bows were small compared
with ours, and had not near so long a range.
"Well shot, Billy!" cries Clums, the cook of the _Lovey Susan_, and a
good-tempered man on the whole, but a perfect child in the hands of
Hoggett, who was angered by his praise of Billy, and sharply bade him
"hold his jaw." "Why didn't you make a window in this cursed hole?" he
cried; "I can't see nothing." "We'll open the door," said I, "for
they're out of range now, and we can shut it again before they get
near." Accordingly we opened it, and I was very thankful for the fresh
air, and the men, spying in one corner the little pile of cocoa-nuts
that we usually kept there, seized upon them, and in their haste to
drink the juice broke them carelessly, so that a good deal was spilled.
"Give me water instead of that muck," cried Hoggett; "maybe Mr. Brent
will kindly show us what he can do that way," and having thus mocked me
he shouted a great guffaw, which some of the men imitated, though one
or two looked ill-pleased. I had much ado, I assure you, to command my
temper, but I did command it, and afterwards remembered a saying of my
uncle, that to lose your temper is to give a weapon to your enemy. I
showed Hoggett our water-pot, and bade him be sparing, for that was all
we had, and he answered with an oath that he would drink as much as he
pleased; but Chick then spoke up, bidding him not to be a greedy swine,
and Hoggett growled out some answer; but I observed that he did not
drink much, and so I learnt, what I afterwards confirmed, that Chick
had some sway over Hoggett, I suppose from his speaking little, but
always to the point.
We thought it prudent to shut the door when night fell, in spite of the
closeness of the atmosphere; and I never in all my life spent so
horrible a night. Some of the men, I know not who, took our pillows,
so that Billy and I were no better off than the most of them, and we
lay side by side on the floor, except when we took our turn at
watching, for the whole company was divided into watches as on board
ship. We knew that the savages kept watch also, for we saw the glow of
their camp fires, and Billy said he wished he could have seen how they
made the fire, he having never ceased to feel disappointment because he
had failed in that particular. There was nothing to disturb us during
the night, but I rose in the morning so sick and miserable that I
thought I should die if I had to endure the like again. We opened the
door as soon as it was light, and quaffed the air as if it was nectar;
and the seamen having roused up, clamoured for breakfast, and soon
finished all the cocoa-nuts we had in the house; and they took off the
lid of our great breadpan, as we called it, and seeing the bread-fruit
paste there, cried out to know what it was, and when I told them,
nothing would satisfy them but that Billy should take some of it out to
our oven, which was near the hut, and the fire still smouldering.
There was little danger in Billy's doing this, because the savages were
still at too great a distance for their arrows to reach us, and if they
came nearer he would have time to run indoors; but I did not like his
acting as servant to these men, and said so, whereupon Hoggett asked
fiercely whether the boy was not a stowaway, and who was he to put on
airs, and he would show him, and so forth; and I thought it was better
for the sake of peace and quietness that Billy should cook a little
bread for them.
There we were, cooped up all that day, and before night all our food
and water were gone, and the men grew very testy, and in a most
unreasonable manner turned their vexation on Billy and me, demanding
why we had brought them into the hut to starve. To this I found myself
quite unable to frame a suitable answer, being perfectly overcome with
the sheer ingratitude of the men; but when it was dark I said that
Billy and I would go out and get some water and also a few cocoa-nuts.
I did not purpose to go out by the door at the front of the hut, but to
cut a hole in the slope of the roof facing the lake, that side not
being watched at all by the savages. It was no very long business to
make a hole of the right size, the seamen's cutlasses aiding our own
tools, which they scoffed at a good deal. But when we were on the
point of going forth, Clums asked me where I should get the water, and
when I said from the lake he begged and prayed me not to do so, because
he said it griped them so horribly. However, I told him that boiling
it was a means of making it harmless, and then he said go, and "God
bless you!" which was an exceeding strange saying on his lips, which
were commonly cursing and swearing. Billy and I went out through the
hole, and the men handed out pails, and with these we went down to the
lake, and filled them, and returned, the savages being no whit the
wiser. And the pails being let down, the men kindled a small fire on
the earthen floor, so as to boil the water, while we went into the
woods to gather some cocoa-nuts. We talked on the way about the
strange change which had come over the posture of our affairs,
wondering very much what the issue might be. The savages would no
doubt contrive to subsist on plants which we had never used for food,
and if they went a-prowling they would discover our plantation of yams;
but we had already dug up the most of these and stored them in our
cellar with the bread fruit, and I could not think there was enough
fruit left on the trees to support so large a throng of savages for any
considerable period. Still, there was enough to last them until we
were all starved, unless we disclosed our secret store below the hut,
which I was exceeding loath even to think of.
This second night was not quite such a torture as the first, the hole
in the roof giving us the much-needed ventilation; but next day the men
were more quarrelsome than ever, and I was in a constant fear lest they
should set to work to break each others' heads, which might have rid us
of some arrant rascals, it is true, but it might also have put an end
to Billy and me. They vented some of their ill-temper on Little John,
who had not taken kindly to them, and showed himself so exceeding
fierce when they kicked him, that they would have killed him only I
prevented them. The savages had made no other attack on us, but
neither had they given any sign of removing themselves; rather the
contrary, indeed, for they never let their fires out, and they had
started to build themselves little shelters at the edge of the cliffs.
Hoggett began to talk of sallying forth and seeing if we could not work
such mischief among them as would send them packing, and though
Wabberley and Mr. Bodger were the loudest against this, Wabberley
waxing most movingly eloquent in describing the dangers of the plan
proposed, the others were so desperately weary of the situation that
they consented to accompany Hoggett, the time chosen for the attempt
being just after it became dark. But while we were waiting as
patiently as we might for the day to end, it came into my head that we
might find the fizzy rock as efficacious in scaring the savages as it
had been with the seamen; and since Billy and I had gone out and come
in safely the night before, we might issue forth on this coming night,
and get enough of the rock to make a very good smoke in the morning.
While Billy and I were consulting about this in whispers, one of the
men--I think it was Pumfrey--proposed that we should all steal out at
dead of night, and creep down to the boat and the canoes, and make off
in the darkness, leaving the savages marooned on the island. This
notion at first met with acceptance from some, but Chick, who said
little ordinarily, spoke up very strongly against it, arguing that
there was little chance of all of us getting to the shore unperceived,
and asking how we knew the canoes were not guarded. He said also, very
pertinently, that if we did get away, we could not take all the canoes,
and the savages, when they discovered our departure, would set off in
chase, and being more expert with the paddles they would soon overtake
us, we having now next to no powder and shot for the guns; and to
clinch it all, he said that if we were caught in the open it was
kingdom come for all of us, on which Wabberley declared that Chick was
very obliging in putting the case so plainly, and he for one would live
and die with Chick. Whereupon I said there was no need for any one to
die, at least not yet, and offered to go out with Billy in the middle
of the night and put in action the plan I had formed for driving the
savages away. Hoggett and some of the rest looked at me with great
suspicion, and Hoggett said, "How are you going to do it?" and I
hesitated at first whether to tell him; but reflecting that he was
bound to know I told him that we had the means of making a great smoke
and smother, and so might delude the savages with the belief that the
mountain was active. There was a very grim look on Hoggett's face
when, silencing some of the men who were beginning to speak, he asked
again how we could make that smoke and smother, and I saw no use in
attempting to conceal it, and so told him about the extraordinary rock
we had discovered. His eyes glittered as I was speaking, and when I
had ended he would not suffer the other men to speak a word, but bade
me do as I had said. "Do it proper," says he, "and we'll see."
[Sidenote: The Savages are Scared]