CHAPTER X
Miss Rogers begins her story--An interview on the high seas--Drifting todestruction--The ship disappears--Tortured by thirst--A fearfulsight--Cannibals on the watch--The blacks quarrel over the girls--Courtingstarvation--Yamba goes for help--A startling announcement--Preparationsfor the fight--Anxious moments--A weird situation--"Victory, victory"--Amelodramatic attitude--The girls get sore feet.
At our next interview, thanks to Yamba's good offices, both girls werelooking very much better than when I first saw them; and then, consumedwith natural curiosity and a great desire to learn something of theoutside world, I begged them to tell me their story.
The first thing I learnt was that they were two sisters, named Blancheand Gladys Rogers, their respective ages being nineteen and seventeenyears. Both girls were extremely pretty, the particular attraction aboutGladys being her lovely violet eyes. It was Blanche who, with muchhysterical emotion, told me the story of their painful experience, Gladysoccasionally prompting her sister with a few interpolated words.
Here, then, is Blanche Rogers's story, told as nearly as possible in herown words. Of course it is absurd to suppose that I can reproduce_verbatim_ the fearful story told by the unfortunate girl.
"My sister and I are the daughters of Captain Rogers, who commanded a 700-ton barque owned by our uncle." [I am not absolutely certain whether thegirls were the daughters of the captain or the owner.--L. de R.] "Wewere always very anxious, even as children, to accompany our dear fatheron one of his long trips, and at length we induced him to take us withhim when he set sail from Sunderland [not certain, this] in the year 1868[or 1869], with a miscellaneous cargo bound for Batavia [or Singapore].The voyage out was a very pleasant one, but practically withoutincident--although, of course, full of interest to us. The shipdelivered her freight in due course, but our father failed to obtain areturn cargo to take back with him to England. Now, as a cargo of somekind was necessary to clear the expenses of the voyage, father decided tomake for Port Louis, in Mauritius, to see what he could do among thesugar-exporters there.
"On the way to Port Louis, we suddenly sighted a ship flying signals ofdistress. We at once hove to and asked what assistance we could render.A boat presently put off from the distressed vessel, and the captain, whocame aboard, explained that he had run short of provisions and wanted afresh supply--no matter how small--to tide him over his difficulty. Hefurther stated that his vessel was laden with guano, and was also _enroute_ for Port Louis. The two captains had a long conversationtogether, in the course of which an arrangement was arrived at betweenthem.
"We said we were in ballast, searching for freight, whereupon our visitorsaid: 'Why don't you make for the Lacepede Islands, off the north-westAustralian coast, and load guano, which you can get there for nothing?'We said we did not possess the necessary requisites in the shape ofshovels, sacks, punts, wheel-barrows, and the like. These were promptlysupplied by the other captain in part payment for the provisions we lethim have. Thus things were eventually arranged to the entiresatisfaction of both parties, and then the _Alexandria_ (I think that wasthe name of the ship) proceeded on her way to Port Louis, whilst wedirected our course to the Lacepede Islands.
"In due time we reached a guano islet, and the crew quickly got to work,with the result that in a very short time we had a substantial cargo onboard. A day or two before we were due to leave, we went to father andtold him we wanted very much to spend an evening on the island to visitthe turtle-breeding ground. Poor father, indulgent always, allowed us togo ashore in a boat, under the care of eight men, who were to do a littleclearing-up whilst they were waiting for us. We found, as you maysuppose, a great deal to interest us on the island, and the time passedall too quickly. The big turtles came up with the full tide, and at oncemade nests for themselves on the beach by scraping out with their hind-flippers a hole about ten inches deep and five inches in diameter. Thecreatures then simply lay over these holes and dropped their eggs intothem. We learned that the number of eggs laid at one sitting varies fromtwelve up to forty. We had great fun in collecting the eggs andgenerally playing with the turtles. I am afraid we got out of sight ofthe men, and did not notice that the weather showed decided signs of asudden change. When at length the crew found us it was pastmidnight--though not very dark; and though we ought to have been makingpreparations for returning to the ship, it was blowing hard. On accountof this, the crew said they did not consider it advisable to launch theboat; and as we had our big cloaks with us, it was decided to remain onthe island all night to see if the weather improved by the morning. Ourship was anchored fully three miles away, outside the reefs, and it wouldhave been impossible, in the sea that was running, to pull out to her.There was only one white man among our protectors, and he was aScotchman. The men made a fire in a more or less sheltered spot, andround this we squatted, the men outside us, so as to afford us greaterprotection from the storm.
In this way the whole night passed, principally in telling stories ofadventure by sea and land. We all hoped that by morning at any rate thewind would have abated; but at daybreak, as we looked anxiously out overthe tempestuous sea, it was blowing as hard as ever; and by ten o'clockthe storm had increased to a terrific gale. Our men unanimously declaredthey dared not attempt to reach the ship in their small boat, although wecould see the vessel plainly riding at her old anchorage. What followedGladys and I gathered afterwards, just before the dreadful thinghappened. We were all safe enough on land, but, it became evident to thesailors with us that the ship could not weather the storm unless sheweighed anchor and stood out to sea. The crew watched with eager eyes tosee what my father would do. Manifestly he was in too much distress ofmind about us to go right away, and I suppose he preferred to trust tothe strength of his cables:
"Shortly after ten o'clock in the morning, however, the ship began todrag her anchors, and in spite of all that could be done by my father andhis officers, the shapely little vessel gradually drifted on to the coralreefs. All this time Gladys and I, quite ignorant of seamanship andeverything pertaining to it, were watching the doomed ship, and from timeto time asked anxiously what was the meaning of all the excitement. Themen returned us evasive answers, like the kind-hearted fellows they were,and cheered us up in every possible way. Presently we heard signals ofdistress (only we didn't know they were signals of distress then), andour companions saw that the captain realised only too well his terriblydangerous position. It was, however, utterly impossible for them to haverendered him any assistance. The rain was now descending in sheets,lashing the giant waves with a curious hissing sound. The sky was gloomyand overcast, and altogether the outlook was about as terrible as itcould well be. Presently we became dreadfully anxious about our father;but when the sailors saw that the ship was apparently going to pieces,they induced us to return to the camp fire and sit there till the end waspast. By this time the barque was being helplessly buffeted aboutamongst the reefs, a little less than a mile and a half from shore.
"Suddenly, as we afterwards learnt, she gave a lurch and completelydisappeared beneath the turbulent waters, without even her mastheadsbeing left standing to show where she had gone down. She had evidentlytorn a huge hole in her side in one of her collisions with the jaggedreefs, for she sank with such rapidity that not one of the boats could belaunched, and not a single member of the crew escaped--so far as weknew--save only those who were with us on the island. The loss of theship was, of course, a terrible blow to our valiant protectors, who werenow left absolutely dependent on their own resources to provide food andmeans of escape. Thus passed a dreadful day and night, the men alwayskeeping us ignorant of what had happened. They resolved to make for PortDarwin, on the mainland of Australia, which was believed to be quitenear; for we had no water, there being none on the guano island. Theinterval was spent in collecting turtles' eggs and sea-fowl, which wereintended as provisions for the journey. Next morning the storm had quiteabated, and gradually the stupefying news was com
municated to us that ourfather and his ship had gone down with all hands in the night. Indeed,these kind and gentle men told us the whole story of their hopes anddoubts and fears, together with every detail of the terrible tragedy ofthe sea that had left us in such a fearful situation. No one needs to betold our feelings.
"Shortly before noon next day the sail was hoisted; we took our places inthe boat, and soon were rippling pleasantly through the now placidwaters, leaving the guano island far behind. The wind being in ourfavour, very satisfactory progress was made for many hours; but atlength, tortured by thirst, it was decided to land on the mainland or thefirst island we sighted, and lay in a stock of water--if it wasobtainable. Gladys and I welcomed the idea of landing, because by thistime we were in quite a disreputable condition, not having washed forseveral days. It was our intention, while the crews were getting waterand food, to retire to the other side of the island, behind the rocks,and there have a nice bath. The boat was safely beached, and there beingno signs of natives anywhere in the vicinity, the men soon laid in astock of water without troubling to go very far inland for it. My sisterand I at once retired several hundred yards away, and there undressed andwent into the water.
"We had scarcely waded out past our waists when, to our unspeakablehorror, a crowd of naked blacks, hideously painted and armed with spears,came rushing down the cliffs towards us, yelling and whooping in a way Iam never likely to forget. They seemed to rise out of the very rocksthemselves; and I really think we imagined we were going mad, and thatthe whole appalling vision was a fearful dream, induced by the dreadfulstate of our nerves. My own heart seemed to stand still with terror, andthe only description I can give of my sensations was that I feltabsolutely paralysed. At length, when the yelling monsters were quiteclose to us, we realised the actual horror of it all, and screamingfrantically, tried to dash out of the water towards the spot where we hadleft our clothes. But some of the blacks intercepted us, and we saw oneman deliberately making off with the whole of our wearing apparel.
"Of course, when the boat's crew heard the uproar they rushed to ourassistance, but when they were about twenty yards from our assailants,the blacks sent a volley of spears among them with such amazing effectthat every one of the sailors fell prostrate to the earth. The aim ofthe blacks was wonderfully accurate.
"Some of our men, however, managed to struggle to their feet again, in aheroic but vain endeavour to reach our side; but these poor fellows wereat once butchered in the most shocking manner by the natives, who wieldedtheir big waddies or clubs with the most sickening effect. Indeed, soheart-rending and horrible was the tragedy enacted before our eyes, thatfor a long time afterwards we scarcely knew what was happening to us, sodazed with horror were we. For myself, I have a faint recollection ofbeing dragged across the island by the natives, headed by the hideous andgigantic chief who afterwards claimed us as his 'wives.' We were nextput on board a large catamaran, our hands and feet having been previouslytied with hair cords; and we were then rowed over to the mainland, whichwas only a few miles away. We kept on asking by signs that our clothingmight be returned to us, but the blacks tore the various garments intolong strips before our eyes, and wrapped the rags about their heads byway of ornament. We reached the encampment of the black-fellows latethat same evening, and were at once handed over to the charge of thewomen, who kept us close prisoners and--so far as we could judge--abusedus in the most violent manner. Of course, I don't know exactly whattheir language meant, but I do know that they treated us shamefully, andstruck us from time to time. I gathered that they were jealous of theattention shown to us by the big chief.
"We afterwards learnt that the island on which the terrible tragedy tookplace was not really inhabited, but the blacks on the coast had, itappeared, seen our boat far out at sea, and watched it until we landedfor water. They waited a little while in order to lull the crew into asense of fancied security, and then, without another moment's delay,crossed over to the island and descended upon us.
"We passed a most wretched night. Never--never can I hope to describeour awful feelings. We suffered intensely from the cold, being perfectlynaked. We were not, however, molested by any of our captors. But horrorwas to be piled on horror's head, for the next day a party of the blacksreturned to the island and brought back the dead bodies of all themurdered sailors. At first we wondered why they went to this trouble;and when, at length, it dawned upon us that a great cannibal feast was inpreparation, I think we fainted away.
"We did not actually see the cooking operations, but the odour of burningflesh was positively intolerable; and we saw women pass our little grassshelters carrying some human arms and legs, which were doubtless theirown families' portions. I thought we should both have gone mad, butnotwithstanding this, we did keep our reason. Our position, however, wasso revolting and so ghastly, that we tried to put an end to our lives bystrangling ourselves with a rope made of plaited grass. But we wereprevented from carrying out our purpose by the women-folk, who thereafterkept a strict watch over us. It seemed to me, so embarrassing were theattentions of the women, that these pitiable but cruel creatures werewarned by the chief that, if anything befell us, they themselves wouldget into dire trouble. All this time, I could not seem to think orconcentrate my mind on the events that had happened. I actedmechanically, and I am absolutely certain that neither Gladys nor myselfrealised our appalling position.
"In the meantime, it seems, a most sanguinary fight had taken place amongfour of the principal blacks who had assisted in the attack upon oursailors, the object of the fight being to decide who should takepossession of us.
"One night we managed to slip out of the camp without attracting thenotice of the women, and at once rushed down to the beach, intending tothrow ourselves into the water, and so end a life which was far worsethan death. We were, unfortunately, missed, and just as we were gettingbeyond our depth a party of furious blacks rushed down to the shore,waded out into the water and brought as out.
"After this incident our liberty was curtailed altogether, and we weremoved away. The women were plainly told--so we gathered--that ifanything happened to us, death, and nothing less, would be their portion.Now that we could no longer leave the little break-wind that shelteredus, we spent the whole of our time in prayer--mainly for death to releaseus from our agonies. I was surprised to see that the women themselves,though nude, were not much affected by the intense cold that prevailed attimes, but we afterwards learnt that they anointed their naked bodieswith a kind of greasy clay, which formed a complete coating all overtheir bodies. During the ensuing three months the tribe constantly movedtheir camp, and we were always taken about by our owner and treated withthe most shocking brutality. The native food, which consisted of roots,kangaroo flesh, snakes, caterpillars, and the like, was utterly loathsometo us, and for several days we absolutely refused to touch it, in thehope that we might die of starvation.
"Finally, however, the blacks compelled us to swallow some mysterious-looking meat, under threats of torture from those dreadful fire-sticks.You will not be surprised to learn that, though life became anintolerable burden to us, yet, for the most part, we obeyed our captorssubmissively. At the same time, I ought to tell you that now and againwe disobeyed deliberately, and did our best to lash the savages into afury, hoping that they would spear us or kill us with their clubs. Oursole shelter was a break-wind of boughs with a fire in front. The dayspassed agonisingly by; and when I tell you that every hour--nay, everymoment--was a crushing torture, you will understand what that phrasemeans. We grew weaker and weaker, and, I believe, more emaciated. Webecame delirious and hysterical, and more and more insensible to the coldand hunger. No doubt death would soon have come to our relief had younot arrived in time to save us."
* * * * *
This, then, was the fearful story which the unfortunate Misses Rogers hadto tell. The more I thought it over, the more I realised that noEnglishwomen had ever lived to tell so dreadful an experience. Icom
pared their story with mine, and felt how different it was. I was aman, and a power in the land from the very first--treated with thegreatest consideration and respect by all the tribes. And, poor things,they were terribly despondent when I explained to them that it wasimpossible for me to take them right away at once. Had I attempted to doso surreptitiously, I should have outraged the sacred laws ofhospitality, and brought the whole tribe about my ears and theirs.Besides, I had fixed upon a plan of my own; and, as the very fact of mypresence in the camp was sufficient protection for the girls, I imploredthem to wait patiently and trust in me.
That very night I called Yamba to me and despatched her to a friendlytribe we had encountered in the King Leopold Ranges--perhaps three days'journey away. I instructed her to tell these blacks that I was in greatdanger, and, therefore, stood in need of a body of warriors, who ought tobe sent off immediately to my assistance. They knew me much better thanI did them. They had feasted on the whale. As I concluded my message, Ilooked into Yamba's eyes and told her the case was desperate. Her deareyes glowed in the firelight, and I saw that she was determined to do ordie. I trusted implicitly in her fertility of resource and herextraordinary intelligence.
In a few days she returned, and told me that everything had beenarranged, and a body of armed warriors would presently arrive in thevicinity of the camp, ready to place themselves absolutely at my service.
And sure enough, a few days later twenty stalwart warriors made theirappearance at the spot indicated by Yamba; but as I did not consider theforce quite large enough for my purpose, I sent some of them back withanother message asking for reinforcements, and saying that the greatwhite chief was in danger. Finally, when I felt pretty confident of myposition, I marched boldly forward into the camp with my warriors, to theunbounded amazement of the whole tribe with whose chief I was sojourning.He taxed me with having deceived him when I said I was alone, and he alsoaccused me of outraging the laws of hospitality by bringing a party ofwarriors, obviously hostile, into his presence.
I wilfully ignored all these points, and calmly told him I had beenthinking over the way in which he had acquired the two white girls, andhad come to the conclusion that he had no right to them at all.Therefore, I continued airily, it was my intention to take them awayforthwith. I pointed out to the repulsive giant that he had not obtainedthe girls by fair means, and if he objected to my taking them away, itwas open to him, according to custom, to sustain his claim to ownershipby fighting me for the "property."
Now, these blacks are neither demonstrative nor intelligent, but I thinkI never saw any human being so astonished in the whole of my life. Itdawned upon him presently, however, that I was not joking, and then hisamazement gave place to the most furious anger. He promptly accepted mychallenge, greatly to the delight of all the warriors in his own tribe,with whom he was by no means popular. But, of course, the anticipationof coming sport had something to do with their glee at the acceptance ofthe challenge. The big man was as powerful in build as he was ugly, andthe moment he opened his mouth I realised that for once Yamba had gonetoo far in proclaiming my prodigious valour. He said he had heard aboutmy wonderful "flying-spears," and declined to fight me if I used suchpreternatural weapons. It was therefore arranged _that we shouldwrestle_--the one who overthrew the other twice out of three times to bedeclared the victor. I may say that this was entirely my suggestion, asI had always loved trick wrestling when at school, and even had a specialtutor for that purpose--M. Viginet, an agile little Parisian, living inGeneva. He was a Crimean veteran. The rank-and-file of the warriors,however, did not look upon this suggestion with much favour, as theythought it was not paying proper respect to my wonderful powers. Iassured them I was perfectly satisfied, and begged them to let thecontest proceed.
Then followed one of the most extraordinary combats on record. Pictureto yourself, if you can, the agony of mind of poor little Blanche andGladys Rogers during the progress of the fight; and also imagine thepainful anxiety with which I went in to win.
A piece of ground about twenty feet square was lightly marked out by theblacks with their waddies, and the idea was that, to accomplish a throw,the wrestler had to hurl his opponent clean outside the boundary. Weprepared for the combat by covering our bodies with grease; and I had mylong hair securely tied up into a kind of "chignon" at the back of myhead. My opponent was a far bigger man than myself, but I felt prettyconfident in my ability as a trick wrestler, and did not fear meetinghim. What I did fear, however, was that he would dispute the findings ofthe umpires if they were in my favour, in which case there might betrouble. I had a shrewd suspicion that the chief was something of acoward at heart. He seemed nervous and anxious, and I saw him talkingeagerly with his principal supporter. As for myself, I constantly dweltupon the ghastly plight of the two poor girls. I resolved that, withGod's help, I would vanquish my huge enemy and rescue them from theirdreadful position. I was in splendid condition, with muscles like steelfrom incessant walking. At length the warriors squatted down upon theground in the form of a crescent, the chiefs in the foreground, and everydetail of the struggle that followed was observed with the keenestinterest.
I was anxious not to lose a single moment. I felt that if I thought thematter over I might lose heart, so I suddenly bounded into the arena. Myopponent was there already--looking, I must say, a little undecided.
In a moment his huge arms were about my waist and shoulders. It did nottake me very long to find out that the big chief was going to depend moreupon his weight than upon any technical skill in wrestling. He possessednone. He first made a great attempt to force me upon my knees and thenbackwards; but I wriggled out of his grasp, and a few minutes later anopening presented itself for trying the "cross-buttock" throw. There wasnot a moment to be lost. Seizing the big man round the thigh I drew himforward, pulled him over on my back, and in the twinkling of aneye--certainly before I myself had time to realise what had happened--hewas hurled right over my head outside the enclosure. Thespectators--sportsmen all--frantically slapped their thighs, and I knewthen that I had gained their sympathies. My opponent, who had alightedon his head and nearly broken his neck, rose to his feet, looking dazedand furious that he should have been so easily thrown. When he faced mefor the second time in the square he was much more cautious, and westruggled silently, but forcefully, for some minutes without eithergaining any decided advantage. Oddly enough, at the time I was notstruck by the dramatic element of the situation; but now that I havereturned to civilisation I _do_ see the extraordinary nature of thecombat as I look back upon those dreadful days.
Just picture the scene for yourself. The weird, unexplored landstretches away on every side, though one could not see much of it onaccount of the grassy hillocks. I, a white man, was alone among theblacks in the terrible land of "Never Never,"--as the Australians calltheir _terra incognita_; and I was wrestling with a gigantic cannibalchief for the possession of two delicately-reared English girls, who werein his power. Scores of other savages squatted before us, theirrepulsive faces aglow with interest and excitement. Very fortunatelyBruno was not on the spot. I knew what he was of old, and how he made myquarrels his with a strenuous energy and eagerness that frequently gothimself as well as his master into serious trouble. Knowing this, I hadinstructed Yamba to keep him carefully away, and on no account let himrun loose.
Fully aware that delays were dangerous, I gripped my opponent once moreand tried to throw him over my back, but this time he was too wary, andbroke away from me. When we closed again he commenced his old tactics oftrying to crush me to the ground by sheer weight, but in this he was notsuccessful. Frankly, I knew his strength was much greater than mine, andthat the longer we wrestled the less chance I would have. Therefore,forcing him suddenly sideways, so that he stood on one leg, I trippedhim, hurling him violently from me sideways; and his huge form wentrolling outside the square, to the accompaniment of delighted yells fromhis own people.
I cannot describe my
own sensations, for I believe I was half mad withtriumph and excitement. I must not forget to mention that I, too, fellto the ground, but fortunately well within the square. I was greatlyastonished to behold the glee of the spectators--but, then, the keynoteof their character is an intense love of deeds of prowess, especiallysuch deeds as provide exciting entertainment.
The vanquished chief sprang to his feet before I did, and ere I couldrealise what was happening, he dashed at me as I was rising and dealt mea terrible blow in the mouth with his clenched fist. As he was amagnificently muscular savage, the blow broke several of my teeth andfilled my mouth with blood. My lips, too, were very badly cut, andaltogether I felt half stunned. The effect upon the audience wasastounding. The warriors leaped to their feet, highly incensed at thecowardly act, and some of them would actually have speared their chiefthen and there had I not forestalled them. I was furiously angry, anddexterously drawing my stiletto from its sheath so as not to attractattention, I struck at my opponent with all my force, burying the short,keen blade in his heart. He fell dead at my feet with a low, gurglinggroan. As I withdrew the knife, I held it so that the blade extended upmy forearm and was quite hidden. This, combined with the fact that thefatal wound bled mainly internally, caused the natives to believe I hadstruck my enemy dead by some supernatural means. The act was inevitable.
You will observe that by this time I would seize every opportunity ofimpressing the blacks by an almost intuitive instinct; and as the hugesavage lay dead on the ground, I placed my foot over the wound, folded myarms, and looked round triumphantly upon the enthusiastic crowd, like agladiator of old.
According to law and etiquette, however, the nearest relatives of thedead man had a perfect right to challenge me, but they did not do so,probably because they were disgusted at the unfair act of my opponent. Iput the usual question, but no champion came forward; on the contrary, Iwas overwhelmed with congratulations, and even offers of thechieftainship. I am certain, so great was the love of fair-play amongthese natives, that had I not killed the chief with my stiletto, his ownpeople would promptly have speared him. The whole of this strangetragedy passed with surprising swiftness; and I may mention here that, asI saw the chief rushing at me, I thought he simply wanted to commenceanother round. His death was actually an occasion for rejoicing in thetribe. The festivities were quickly ended, however, when I told thewarriors that I intended leaving the camp with the two girls in thecourse of another day or so, to return to my friends in the King LeopoldRanges. In reality it was my intention to make for my own home in theCambridge Gulf district. The body of the chief was not eaten (mostlikely on account of the cowardice he displayed), but it was disposed ofaccording to native rites. The corpse was first of all half-roasted infront of a huge fire, and then, when properly shrivelled, it was wrappedin bark and laid on a kind of platform built in the fork of a tree.
The girls were kept in ignorance of the fatal termination of thewrestling match, as I was afraid it might give them an unnecessary shock.After twelve or fourteen days in the camp, we quietly took our departure.Our party consisted of the two girls, who were nearly frantic withexcitement over their escape; Yamba, and myself--together with thefriendly warriors who had so opportunely come to my assistance.
We had not gone far, however, before the girls complained of sore feet.This was not surprising, considering the burning hot sand and the roughcountry we were traversing, which was quite the worst I had yet seen--atany rate, for the first few days' march after we got out of the levelcountry in the King's Sound region. I, therefore, had to rig up a kindof hammock made of woven grass, and this, slung between two poles, servedto carry the girls by turns, the natives acting as bearers. But beingtotally unused to carrying anything but their own weapons, they proveddeplorably inefficient as porters, and after a time, so intolerable tothem did the labour become, the work of carrying the girls devolved uponYamba and myself. Gladys, the younger girl, suffered most, but both wereweak and footsore and generally incapable of much exertion. Perhaps areaction had set in after the terrible excitement of the previous days.Soon our escort left us, to return to their own homes; and then Yamba andI had to work extremely hard to get the girls over the terribly roughcountry. Fortunately there was no need for hurry, and so we proceeded inthe most leisurely manner possible, camping frequently and erecting grassshelters for our delicate charges. Food was abundant, and the nativesfriendly.