CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
OUR PERILOUS ESCAPE.
We had returned one evening from an unsuccessful fishing. When wereached the hut we found the Princess Serena in an evident state ofagitation. Looking cautiously around, she made signs to us that someone was about to kill us, lifting up her hands as if they were holding aclub for the purpose of breaking our heads. There was no mistaking thesigns. We inquired of her what we were to do. She stopped to consider,first pointing to the canoes. Then she seemed to advise a differentplan. Hurrying into her house, she brought us out some bows, and aconsiderable supply of arrows. She then went in, and returned withthree baskets, which she showed us were full of sago, as also some driedfish. She then made signs to us to eat as much as we could, puttingsome kangaroo meat and sago-cakes before us.
We followed her advice. As soon as we had finished, going into her hut,she returned with her child in her arms, wrapped up in a piece ofmatting, which was secured round her waist, assisting to support thelittle creature. She then beckoned to us to follow her. We did so inIndian file, proceeding along the coast towards the south. As soon aswe had got well out of sight of the village, she led us along the beachclose to the water, where the tide would obliterate our footmarks. Themoon soon rose, and gave us ample light to see our way. It was a lovelynight. The water rippled brightly on the sand, while the moonbeamsplayed softly over the calm ocean. On the other side rose up the darkforests with their curious tracery of creepers. Here and there our feetstruck against shells of rare beauty, such as would delight a collectorin England. Just then, however, we thought of little but making our wayas rapidly as we could from our captors. I asked Macco if he could makeout where the princess was leading us.
"Not know," he answered. "S'pose to friends."
"I suspect," observed Oliver, "that, from her appearance, she belongs tosome other tribe, and has been married to the chief of the people whocaptured us, and that she is going to take us to her own relations."
This seemed the most probable explanation of her conduct.
"She can scarcely wish to lead us away, and then leave us to our owndevices," said I. "Perhaps she thinks we are such good hunters that weshould be able to support ourselves."
We travelled on the whole night as rapidly as we could move, close tothe edge of the water, which, rising, soon covered the impress of ourfeet. Just before the sun rose, a thick mist came over the land,completely hiding all objects, except those in our immediateneighbourhood. Still the princess led on. Daylight at length stoleover the world; but the mist yet hung down upon us as much as ever. Ourconductress at length stopped. She was evidently somewhat weary, andalthough Macco offered to carry her child, she would not allow it out ofher arms. She now made signs that we had better rest, putting her headupon her hands as if to go to sleep. We were too glad to follow heradvice, for having been on foot the whole of the previous day, we werecompletely worn out, and could not have gone many miles further. Inspite of the exercise we had taken, the damp air made us feel very cold.She observed that we shivered, and instantly leading the way into thewoods, took us to a place where we could cut a quantity of long leaves--a sort of fern, apparently, of gigantic size. With these, sheintimated, we could cover ourselves up while we slept, pointing to asheltered place under a bank which had been worn away into a sort ofcavern.
I suppose we had slept some time, though we felt very unwilling to getup when the princess roused us, and made us understand that we shouldtake some food, and then proceed on our journey. We, of course, obeyedher implicitly, and we proceeded on as we had done during the night.Several times, when we came to an elevation of any sort, she lookedback, examining the line of coast along which we had come, as if toascertain whether we were pursued. Then, again, she came down with alook of satisfaction on her countenance, and proceeded on as before. Itwas towards the afternoon when she again stopped, the ground before usrising, and jutting out into the sea, forming a lofty headland. She nowled the way inland, and showed us another hollow, signifying by hergestures that she wished us to occupy it. As we, however, felt anxiousto explore the country, we continued wandering about. This seemed tocause her much annoyance. First she caught hold of Oliver and led himback, and then me, and then ran after Macco. At length, observing thatwe did not seem disposed to keep quiet, she came and took me by thehand, and led me cautiously up towards the top of the height, lookinground on either side, and keeping as much as possible under cover. Onreaching the summit, she pointed down below, where I saw, in a shelteredbay, another collection of huts somewhat similar to the one we had left.This at once accounted for her unwillingness to allow us to wanderabout, lest we should be seen by the inhabitants. I expressed my thanksto her as well as I could, and at once returned to the cavern.
She now, as before, made us collect a supply of fern leaves, as well asa number of branches; and we having again taken some food, she coveredus up inside the cavern, fastening the branches in front, so as toconceal the entrance, she herself going to a little distance, andsitting down under a bank with her child. As we had had but little restthe previous morning, we quickly fell asleep.
The shades of night had again stolen over the world, when we heard thegentle voice of our conductress calling us; and once more she set out,we following her in Indian file as before. We made a circuit,apparently to avoid the village, and then descended to the sea-shore.All night long, indeed, we went on. The journey was almost a repetitionof that of the previous night. The moon was still shining brightly overthe waters, when Macco uttered an exclamation of surprise, and puttinghis hand on my shoulder, cried out,--"O Massa Walter, look dere!"
He pointed seaward, and there, just under the moonbeams, I caught sightof a white object. I looked more and more earnestly. Yes, I was almostconvinced that it was the sail of a vessel. The shape of her canvasconvinced me that she must be European, and not one of the mat-sailcraft of those seas. Oliver thought I was right also. "Yes, yes!"exclaimed Macco; "no doubt, dat brig!"
Our conductress stopped when she heard our exclamations, and also lookedtowards the sea. The vessel was standing towards the south, thedirection we were going. I observed that she walked, after this, moreslowly, as if her thoughts were engaged on some matter of importance.
"Oh, if we could but manage to get off to her, or make some signal!" Iexclaimed.
"I am afraid that will be very difficult," said Oliver.
As may be supposed, our thoughts were occupied after this with all sortsof plans for getting off to the vessel. The fog, however, whichconstantly comes over the land before sunrise, concealed her entirelyfrom our sight. We rested, by the desire of the princess, among somefallen trees in the forest, she having examined the place first,apparently to ascertain if there were any snakes, or other creatures, tohurt us. We, however, could scarcely go to sleep for thinking of how wecould reach the vessel we had seen. Still, sleep at length overcame us.
We were awoke by the voice of the princess, evidently in a state ofgreat agitation. Pointing to the sea-shore, she led the way there. Shetook us down to the beach of a small bay, in which a canoe was hauledup. It was barely sufficient to hold two people, and would certainlynot contain three.
"Jump in, Massa Walter--jump in, Oliver!" exclaimed Macco. "Shove off;me find other canoe, and follow."
Though it was broad daylight, the mist still hung over the ocean, and wecould not see to any distance. The princess urged us by her gestures tofollow the advice which Macco gave us.
"But where is there another canoe?" I asked, not seeing one near.
"Never mind, Massa Walter," he answered; "shove off--shove off, I say;"and running the canoe down to the water, he forced us both into it,putting a paddle into the hand of each. "Dere, dere, you go off; I comeoff in 'noder canoe! Go, go! I say, go!"
Hitherto we had been unable to ascertain the cause of the alarmexhibited by the princess. At that moment we learned it too well, byhearing some shouts in the distance. They
became louder and louder, andas they did so, her agitation increased. We endeavoured to thank herfor her kindness, but she seemed too anxious to get us off to take anynotice of our gestures. Trusting that we might discover the brig we hadseen on the previous night, we paddled away with might and main. Myheart misgave me, though, as to what would become of Macco. We saw himstill on the beach waving an adieu, till both his form and that of theprincess were almost hidden by the mist. The shouts increased inloudness, and just then, glancing over our shoulders, we saw a number ofgigantic looking forms--gigantic they looked through the mist--rushingdown with uplifted clubs towards where our friends were standing. Lifewas sweet to us; we could not help our friends, and we paddled away. Ashriek reached our ears, but the shadowy forms were no longer visible--indeed, the whole land was concealed by the mist. On we paddled for ourlives. Every instant we expected to be pursued, for though our canoewas the only one we had seen, we could not help fearing that there mustbe others in the neighbourhood, into which the savages would certainlyget, and come in chase of us. As far as we could judge, we were pullingdirectly out to sea. The shouts had died away. They had assisted ussomewhat in directing our course through the mist. We again heard them;they seemed to be approaching.
"We are pursued," cried Oliver.
"Then we must pull away faster," said I.
Again louder and louder grew the shouts. Our hopes of escape began tovanish.
"I am afraid we shall again be made prisoners," I observed to Oliver.
"Don't let us despair," he answered. "We have been preserved hitherto.The same Power can still take care of us. See, see! What is that?"Just then, the mist breaking, we saw appearing above it the topgallantsails of a square-rigged vessel.
"The brig, the brig!" I shouted.
We paddled on with redoubled vigour. She was still at a considerabledistance. Behind us rose the fierce cries of the savages. The surfaceof the water, which had hitherto been calm, now became somewhatagitated. The mist rose. Before us appeared the brig, and turninground our heads, we saw at almost an equal distance a couple of canoes.On we dashed, shouting at the same time at the top of our voices. Thepeople on board the brig apparently heard us, for a boat was lowered.The wind was moderate; but still a heavy surf rolled in on the shore.At that moment the fragile canoe was lifted up by a sea, and then downshe came upon a bed of rocks, almost splitting in two.
"On, on!" I cried to Oliver, throwing off my jacket; "we must swim forit!" and seizing him by the arm, I helped him to wade across the reef,and then plunging into the sea, we swam off towards the boat. Her crewperceived our danger, and with sturdy strokes pulled towards us. Aglance I cast behind showed me that one of the canoes of the savages hadmet with the same accident that we had, and several dark heads were seenfloating in the water, and getting fearfully near us. One of ourpursuers, I saw, held a club in his hand. Had I been alone, I mighteasily have kept ahead of the savages, as we had so much the start ofthem; but Oliver not being so good a swimmer as I was, made but slowprogress. The other canoe, avoiding the reef on which we had struck,made for an opening in it, and was only a short distance behind theswimmers. I looked up. Oh, how long the boat appeared to be coming!Still she was coming; and I urged Oliver to persevere. He redoubled hisefforts. How grateful I felt when at length the boat reached us. Ilooked up, and there I saw the countenance of Dick Tarbox, of RogerTrew, and the dark features of Potto Jumbo, expanded by excitement inthe most wonderful manner. There also were several others of myshipmates. Was it a dream, or was it a reality? For an instant Ithought the whole must be a strange dream. Still, no, it must be areality, I said to myself; and crying out, urged my friends to takeOliver on board, I meantime treading water alongside. They lifted himup, and had just time to stow him in the bottom of the boat, when thesavages were upon us. One fierce fellow was close to me with uplifteddagger. Roger Trew knocked it out of his hand with his oar, which thesavage then seized. Another savage was coming on with his club raisedin one hand, while with the other he tried to catch the stem of theboat, when Dick Tarbox came down on his cranium with the blade of an oarwith such force, that the savage sunk beneath the sea. The others,meantime, began to let fly their arrows; but Tarbox, settling the otherman who had hold of Roger's oar, in the same way as he had done thefirst, and I being taken on board, the boat pulled rapidly towards thebrig.
I still could scarcely believe that I was not dreaming. "What!" Iexclaimed, looking up at Tarbox, "are you really alive, or is this allfancy? I thought you were all lost when the mast went over."
"It is no fancy, but we are all alive and jolly," answered Tarbox."Thank Heaven, Roger Trew and I, and a few others of us, were able tocling on to the mast. We thought you had been lost; and thankful I amto find that we were wrong about you, as you were about us."
However, as may be supposed, there was no time to ask questions or getanswers. I was satisfied that I was really awake, and hadprovidentially escaped from the savages. The brig, for fear of thereefs, had been unable to get nearer. Numerous other canoes were seencoming off from the shore. The savages appeared determined to recaptureus; and, perhaps, finding that the brig did not fire, hoped to take heralso. Before, however, they could reach the boat, we were alongside.
I quickly sprang up on deck, and there, with open arms, stood to welcomeme, my dear sister Emily. Grace and Mr Hooker were behind her. Theygreeted me cordially. As may be supposed, they had many questions toask me, and so had I to ask them. The brig, I found, had been fitted upby Mr Hooker and Captain Davenport. The captain, I was sorry to hear,was unable to come in her, and Mrs Davenport had remained behind atTernate to nurse him. Mr Thudicumb had come in command, with those ofthe crew of the _Bussorah Merchant_ who had been left on shore.
The captain's object was to search for his lost ship. Mr Hooker hadthe same object in view, as also to examine the various islands we werelikely to call at, for the sake of gaining information in naturalhistory. Emily had entreated to be allowed to come; and the captain,after some hesitation, thinking that his daughter's health might bebenefited by the voyage, allowed her to accompany Grace. An old Dutchwoman, Frau Ursula she was called, who spoke a little English, and towhom I was presently introduced, came as a sort of nurse, or governante.
The savages meantime were approaching; and Mr Thudicumb and his menwere making preparations for their reception, getting all the arms onboard loaded, including a couple of small brass swivel guns and twosix-pounders, which we carried on our quarters for making signals. Theland-breeze, however, freshened considerably, just before the leadingcanoes got within bow-shot.
"Don't fire, Thudicumb, as long as we can help it," said Mr Hooker. "Ihave no wish to injure these poor savages; and if we can avoid doing so,it will be much better, both for ourselves and for any who may comeafter us. I believe that many of the murders which have been committedby the savages, on these and other coasts, have been caused by someinsult or injury, first inflicted by the white men, and they have simplyretaliated, fully believing themselves justified in so doing."
The sails were trimmed, and away we stood from the coast. I seized aglass, and tried to examine the shore, in the hope of seeing either ourkind protectress or Macco; but neither were visible, and it seemed toolikely that both had been killed by the savages. When I had time totell Mr Hooker about Macco, he proposed standing back to try and hearsomething of him, and to bring him off if he had escaped. The savages,finding they could not overtake us, at length pulled back to the shore.
"And now, my good boys," said Mr Hooker, "you may as well rigyourselves decently. You have been living so long among savages, thatyou are scarcely aware of the uncivilised figure you cut."
I had nearly forgotten my scanty garments in the excitement of what wastaking place. Mr Hookers shirts were certainly rather large for Oliveror me; but he insisted on our taking one apiece, as also a pair ofduck-trowsers. "I have no doubt that Roger Trew, and one of the othermen, will cut a pair for
you into proper dimensions by to-morrow," hesaid, laughing, as he handed us the garments. Some spare jackets, whichmore nearly fitted us, were found among the men's things; and we werethus able to appear in the cabin in rather more civilised costume thanwe had come off in, and be presented to the Frau. She was a somewhatportly dame, with a most good-humoured countenance, her little roundblue eyes appearing to be always laughing, while her mouth wasconstantly wreathed in what Mr Hooker used to call full-blown smiles.She had kind, sympathising feelings, and wept heartily when she heard ofthe fate of the Princess Serena, which we described to her. Emily andGrace, too, were much moved by it, and very sorry to hear that thefaithful Macco had also too probably lost his life in his anxiety tosave ours.
"I am so glad to see you, Massa Walter," said Potto Jumbo, as he shookmy hand when I went forward to the caboose, in which, in spite of itssmall size, he appeared quite as happy as in the large one on board the_Bussorah Merchant_; "only bery sorry to lose cook-mate. Poor Macco!He bery good cook-mate!"
"Yes, indeed; he was a very excellent and sensible fellow," I observed."I trust he may have escaped, and that we may get him on board again."
I could not bear the idea of thinking that poor Macco had been murdered.Potto Jumbo, however, said he had very little hopes on the subject, asevidently, from the conduct of the savages, they were fierce, revengefulfellows, and were certain to have wreaked their vengeance on those whowere still in their power.
Next day, we again stood in towards the coast, with a white flag flying,hoping that the savages might understand it. No canoes, however, cameoff. In my eagerness to try and recover Macco, I volunteered to go offin a boat; but to this Mr Thudicumb would not consent. He said he wassure that the savages would pursue us; and that the only two boats wehad in the brig were too heavy to give us any chance of escape. Iscanned the coast with a telescope all day long, on the chance of seeingsome signal from the shore, but none appeared; and at length, with muchsorrow, I gave up all expectation of recovering poor Macco.
The brig then made sail to the southward, to visit the Aru Islands,which Mr Hooker was desirous of exploring. Some time passed before Ihad an opportunity of asking Dick Tarbox how he and his companions hadescaped.
"Why, you see, Master Walter," he said, "after supper that day, some ofus old hands thought of putting some biscuits and ham in our pockets,though we did not remember them till we were beginning to get verypeckish. When the mast fell, we still clung to it, except two poorfellows, who were washed off much at the time that you were; and as theyhave not turned up, I am afraid they must have perished. The rest of usclung on for dear life. As you remember, soon afterwards the sea wentdown, and we were able to stand up on the mast and look about us. Itwas now we recollected the food we had stuffed into our pockets, andlucky it was that we had done so, or we should have been starved: as itwas, we nearly died of thirst. Still, though we had a hard matter toget the food down, with our throats so dry, yet we did manage it, andheld on to dear life. We were, howsomedever, almost giving up, when wecaught sight of a sail coming over the water to us. She was a nativecraft; but whether or not the people on board her might knock us on thehead, we could not tell. Still, anything was better than staying wherewe were. We had not our choice, though, for the people aboard the prowcaught sight of us, and came up to the mast. They were prettypeaceable-looking fellows, though their skins were brown enough. Wemanaged to make them understand that our ship had been cast away:indeed, our mast showed them that; and we were not long in tumbling onboard, and making our salaams to an old chap, who seemed to be theircaptain. He was rather vexed when he could not understand what we said,or we understand what he said to us. However, he observed that we mightrig ourselves in mats while our clothes were drying, and had some dishesof rice and smoked fish put before us. When the sea went down, they gotout their sweeps, and pulled round where they supposed the ship hadstruck, in the hopes of getting something up from her; and there weresome fellows on board who seemed to be well up to diving. However, theywere not successful; and suddenly they got out their sweeps, and pulledaway to the northward. A strange sail which appeared some little wayoff was, we supposed, the cause of their doing this. Probably they tookher for a pirate."
"Very likely that was the craft we were on board," I observed. "Itwould have been curious if we had come up with you."
"Well, for your sakes, I am rather glad you did not," said theboatswain. "In a little time, our friends, who seemed bound to adistance, began to think that our room would be pleasanter than ourcompany. They had a strange cargo on board,--bales of thatnasty-looking stuff, the sea-slug, and birds' nests, and mother-of-pearlshell, and I do not know how many other odd things. Two or three daysafterwards, coming in sight of an island, they quietly made signs to usto get into a boat; and though we at first talked of showing fight, anddeclaring we would do no such thing, yet at last we agreed, seeing wehad no arms to fight with except our fists, that it would be better toobey. To make a long story short, we were shoved on shore on a desolateisland; we supposing that we were to find some houses, and people tolook after us, but not a human being or a hut could we discover. Therewas water and there were cocoa-nuts; and as we had our knives, we had achance of getting some shell-fish, if we could not find anything else.Now, as it happened, not one of us had been on a desolate island before;and there we were, six stout fellows, very little better off than babesin the wood. We had short commons, I can tell you, Master Walter.There were birds enough, and some of them with gay feathers, but wecould not catch them; and there were animals, but they got away from us.At first we thought we were not going to find any water; but we didcome up to a spring, which bubbled up out of the earth--the only onethat we could discover on the island. That kept our throats moist. Wehad a hard job to get a light. We hunted about for tinder out of therotten trees; but, then, there was the flint to be found: and no flintcould we fall in with. You may be sure we hunted in our pockets, andlooked about with our noses on the ground wherever we went. At last,what should we see but a bit of a broken tea-cup. At first I thought itwas a bit of shell. How it could have come there I do not know, exceptit was thrown overboard from some Chinese craft and washed up there.Well, that bit of china was of more use to us than its weight in gold.Taking it in my hand, and beginning to strike it against the back of myknife, what was my joy to see a spark fly from it. It was but one; butone little spark was, I knew, enough to kindle a great fire. Well, wedried our tinder in the sun, and then began to strike away with theflint and china. Roger Trew took it in hand first, and struck andstruck away; but though the sparks came, not one could he make go downto the tinder. At last I took it; and didn't I feel pleased when I sawthere was a spark resting on the tinder. We blew, not too hard, you maydepend on it, and blew and blew, and the spark began to grow larger andlarger, and the whole of the tinder was on fire. Did not we bring driedleaves in a hurry!--and, blowing them, up there sprung a flame in notime. We soon collected a whole load of sticks, and in a few minutesthere we had a fire blazing away. We felt inclined to join hands anddance round it. We did not, though. We quickly got our shell-fish, andbegan roasting them. We thought them very good, though they were notmuch for keeping body and soul together. Well, we did prize that pieceof old china, and I kept it carefully in one pocket, with my knife inthe other; and we made up a big fire, almost enough to roast an ox,though we had nothing but a few cockles to cook by it. However, thefood, such as it was, put a little more spirit into us, and we set outto see what sort of a country we had been left on. It was not verylarge; but we saw a number of parrots and parroquets up in the trees,and many other birds, but we had not much chance of getting them.Still, we all agreed we would do our best.
"Well, we walked and walked along the shore, and now and then wentinland; but we could not make much way there, on account of the trees.At last, looking up, I saw some tall palm-trees, and at the top of themthere were some cocoa-nuts. You may be sure we set to work to get up atthe
m; but it is pretty hard work climbing a cocoa-nut tree withoutropes, not like swarming up a mast. However, Roger Trew did haulhimself up; but then, you see, there are not many men who have got armslike his, and they are better by half than legs for climbing trees.That is why the monkeys have them so strong, I suppose. To be sure,some of them have got tails to help them. Do you know, I have oftenthought what convenient things tails would be to sailors, if they couldcatch hold by them as monkeys do. Howsomedever, Roger got to the top atlast, and then he sent thundering down a dozen cocoa-nuts or more. Someof our fellows thought they were to be eaten husk and all, and cried outthey did not think that would do them much good. At last we got thembroken open, and sucked away at the juice inside, which had begun toturn almost into milk. They were more than ripe. It is said that youngcocoa-nuts have far more juice and are far better than the old ones.Still, you may be sure, we were very glad to get these at any price; andhaving found some trees, we had fair hopes of finding more. Still,cocoa-nuts and shell-fish, though they may keep body and soul together,after a time do little more than that; and we all became thinner andthinner. I am not at all sure that we should have lived many weekslonger, so thin and wretched did we get, when at last a sail appeared insight. Our hearts beat pretty quick when we thought that after all shemight not come near the island. Oh! how eagerly we watched her. Nowshe seemed to be standing away; now, once more, she tacked, and stoodtowards the island. There was a high rock near, running out into thesea. We made our way to it; and one of our people tearing off hisshirt, we made it fast to it, to serve as a signal. You may be sure wegave a shout of joy when up went a flag in return, and the brig stoodtowards the island. She was no other than this little _Dugong_, as theycall her, and Mr Thudicumb, and your friend Mr Hooker, come to lookfor us. We were all very glad to see each other; but we felt very sorrywhen we thought that you and Oliver had been lost. And now, I'll tellyou, Master Walter, it was about the happiest moment in my life when Igot hold of you, and helped you into the boat safe from those savages."