CHAPTER X.
Make discovery of many excellent roots and fruits--The resources of theCoral Island gradually unfolded--The banian-tree--Another tree which issupported by natural planks--Water-fowl found--A very remarkablediscovery, and a very peculiar murder--We luxuriate on the fat of theland.
Our examination of the little valley proved to be altogether mostsatisfactory. We found in it not only similar trees to those we hadalready seen in our own valley, but also one or two others of a differentspecies. We had also the satisfaction of discovering a peculiarvegetable, which Jack concluded must certainly be that of which he hadread as being very common among the South Sea islanders, and which wasnamed _taro_. Also we found a large supply of yams, and another rootlike a potato in appearance. As these were all quite new to us, weregarded our lot as a most fortunate one, in being thus cast on an islandwhich was so prolific and so well stored with all the necessaries oflife. Long afterwards we found out that this island of ours was nobetter in these respects than thousands of other islands in those seas.Indeed, many of them were much richer and more productive; but that didnot render us the less grateful for our present good fortune. We eachput one of these roots in our pocket, intending to use them for oursupper; of which more hereafter. We also saw many beautiful birds here,and traces of some four-footed animal again. Meanwhile the sun began todescend, so we returned to the shore, and pushed on round the spoutingrocks into the next valley. This was that valley of which I have spokenas running across the entire island. It was by far the largest and mostbeautiful that we had yet looked upon. Here were trees of every shapeand size and hue which it is possible to conceive of, many of which wehad not seen in the other valleys; for, the stream in this valley beinglarger, and the mould much richer than in the Valley of the Wreck, it wasclothed with a more luxuriant growth of trees and plants. Some treeswere dark glossy green, others of a rich and warm hue, contrasting wellwith those of a pale light green, which were everywhere abundant. Amongthese we recognised the broad dark heads of the bread-fruit, with itsgolden fruit; the pure, silvery foliage of the candle-nut, and severalspecies which bore a strong resemblance to the pine; while here andthere, in groups and in single trees, rose the tall forms of the cocoa-nut palms, spreading abroad, and waving their graceful plumes high aboveall the rest, as if they were a superior race of stately giants keepingguard over these luxuriant forests. Oh! it was a most enchanting scene,and I thanked God for having created such delightful spots for the use ofman.
Now, while we were gazing around us in silent admiration, Jack uttered anexclamation of surprise, and, pointing to an object a little to one sideof us, said,--
"That's a banian-tree."
"And what's a banian-tree?" inquired Peterkin, as we walked towards it.
"A very curious one, as you shall see presently," replied Jack. "It iscalled the _aoa_ here, if I recollect rightly, and has a wonderfulpeculiarity about it. What an enormous one it is, to be sure."
"_It_!" repeated Peterkin; "why, there are dozens of banians here! Whatdo you mean by talking bad grammar? Is your philosophy deserting you,Jack?"
"There is but one tree here of this kind," returned Jack, "as you willperceive if you will examine it." And, sure enough, we did find thatwhat we had supposed was a forest of trees was in reality only one. Itsbark was of a light colour, and had a shining appearance, the leavesbeing lance-shaped, small, and of a beautiful pea-green. But thewonderful thing about it was, that the branches, which grew out from thestem horizontally, sent down long shoots or fibres to the ground, which,taking root, had themselves become trees, and were covered with bark likethe tree itself. Many of these fibres had descended from the branches atvarious distances, and thus supported them on natural pillars, some ofwhich were so large and strong, that it was not easy at first todistinguish the offspring from the parent stem. The fibres were of allsizes and in all states of advancement, from the pillars we have justmentioned to small cords which hung down and were about to take root, andthin brown threads still far from the ground, which swayed about withevery motion of wind. In short, it seemed to us that, if there were onlyspace afforded to it, this single tree would at length cover the wholeisland.
Shortly after this we came upon another remarkable tree, which, as itspeculiar formation afterwards proved extremely useful to us, meritsdescription. It was a splendid chestnut, but its proper name Jack didnot know. However, there were quantities of fine nuts upon it, some ofwhich we put in our pockets. But its stem was the wonderful part of it.It rose to about twelve feet without a branch, and was not of greatthickness; on the contrary, it was remarkably slender for the size of thetree; but, to make up for this, there were four or five wonderfulprojections in this stem, which I cannot better describe than by askingthe reader to suppose that five planks of two inches thick and three feetbroad had been placed round the trunk of the tree, with their _edges_closely fixed to it, from the ground up to the branches, and that theseplanks bad been covered over with the bark of the tree and incorporatedwith it. In short, they were just natural buttresses, without which thestem could not have supported its heavy and umbrageous top. We foundthese chestnuts to be very numerous. They grew chiefly on the banks ofthe stream, and were of all sizes.
While we were examining a small tree of this kind, Jack chipped a pieceoff a buttress with his axe, and found the wood to be firm and easilycut. He then struck the axe into it with all his force, and very soonsplit it off close to the tree, first, however, having cut it acrosstransversely above and below. By this means he satisfied himself that wecould now obtain short planks, as it were all ready sawn, of any size andthickness that we desired; which was a very great discovery indeed,perhaps the most important we had yet made.
We now wended our way back to the coast, intending to encamp near thebeach, as we found that the mosquitoes were troublesome in the forest. Onour way we could not help admiring the birds which flew and chirpedaround us. Among them we observed a pretty kind of paroquet, with agreen body, a blue head, and a red breast; also a few beautifulturtledoves, and several flocks of wood-pigeons. The hues of many ofthese birds were extremely vivid,--bright green, blue, and scarlet, beingthe prevailing tints. We made several attempts throughout the day tobring down one of these, both with the bow and the sling,--not for meresport, but to ascertain whether they were good for food. But weinvariably missed, although once or twice we were very near hitting. Asevening drew on, however, a flock of pigeons flew past. I slung a stoneinto the midst of them at a venture, and had the good fortune to killone. We were startled, soon after, by a loud whistling noise above ourheads; and on looking up, saw a flock of wild ducks making for the coast.We watched these, and, observing where they alighted, followed them upuntil we came upon a most lovely blue lake, not more than two hundredyards long, imbosomed in verdant trees. Its placid surface, whichreflected every leaf and stem, as if in a mirror, was covered withvarious species of wild ducks, feeding among the sedges and broad-leavedwater-plants which floated on it, while numerous birds like water-hensran to and fro most busily on its margin. These all with one accord flewtumultuously away the instant we made our appearance. While walkingalong the margin we observed fish in the water, but of what sort we couldnot tell.
Now, as we neared the shore, Jack and I said we would go a little out ofour way to see if we could procure one of those ducks; so, directingPeterkin to go straight to the shore and kindle a fire, we separated,promising to rejoin him speedily. But we did not find the ducks,although we made a diligent search for half an hour. We were about toretrace our steps, when we were arrested by one of the strangest sightsthat we had yet beheld.
Just in front of us, at the distance of about ten yards, grew a superbtree, which certainly was the largest we had yet seen on the island. Itstrunk was at least five feet in diameter, with a smooth gray bark; abovethis the spreading branches were clothed with light green leaves, amidwhich were clusters of bright yellow fruit, so numerous as to weigh downthe boug
hs with their great weight. This fruit seemed to be of the plumspecies, of an oblong form, and a good deal larger than the magnum bonumplum. The ground at the foot of this tree was thickly strewn with thefallen fruit, in the midst of which lay sleeping, in every possibleattitude, at least twenty hogs of all ages and sizes, apparently quitesurfeited with a recent banquet.
Jack and I could scarce restrain our laughter as we gazed at thesecoarse, fat, ill-looking animals, while they lay groaning and snoringheavily amid the remains of their supper.
"Now, Ralph," said Jack, in a low whisper, "put a stone in your sling,--agood big one,--and let fly at that fat fellow with his back toward you.I'll try to put an arrow into yon little pig."
"Don't you think we had better put them up first?" I whispered; "it seemscruel to kill them while asleep."
"If I wanted _sport_, Ralph, I would certainly set them up; but as weonly want _pork_, we'll let them lie. Besides, we're not sure of killingthem; so, fire away."
Thus admonished, I slung my stone with so good aim that it went bangagainst the hog's flank as if against the head of a drum; but it had noother effect than that of causing the animal to start to its feet, with afrightful yell of surprise, and scamper away. At the same instant Jack'sbow twanged, and the arrow pinned the little pig to the ground by theear.
"I've missed, after all," cried Jack, darting forward with uplifted axe,while the little pig uttered a loud squeal, tore the arrow from theground, and ran away with it, along with the whole drove, into the bushesand disappeared, though we heard them screaming long afterwards in thedistance.
"That's very provoking, now," said Jack, rubbing the point of his nose.
"Very," I replied, stroking my chin.
"Well, we must make haste and rejoin Peterkin," said Jack. "It's gettinglate." And, without further remark, we threaded our way quickly throughthe woods towards the shore.
When we reached it, we found wood laid out, the fire lighted andbeginning to kindle up, with other signs of preparation for ourencampment, but Peterkin was nowhere to be found. We wondered very muchat this; but Jack suggested that he might have gone to fetch water; so hegave a shout to let him know that we had arrived, and sat down upon arock, while I threw off my jacket and seized the axe, intending to splitup one or two billets of wood. But I had scarce moved from the spotwhen, in the distance, we heard a most appalling shriek, which wasfollowed up by a chorus of yells from the hogs, and a loud "hurrah!"
"I do believe," said I, "that Peterkin has met with the hogs."
"When Greek meets Greek," said Jack, soliloquizing, "then comes the tugof--"
"Hurrah!" shouted Peterkin in the distance.
We turned hastily towards the direction whence the sound came, and soondescried Peterkin walking along the beach towards us with a little pigtransfixed on the end of his long spear!
"Well done, my boy!" exclaimed Jack, slapping him on the shoulder when hecame up, "you're the best shot amongst us."
"Look here Jack!" cried Peterkin, as he disengaged the animal from hisspear. "Do you recognise that hole?" said he, pointing to the pig's ear;"and are you familiar with this arrow, eh?"
"Well, I declare!" said Jack.
"Of course you do," interrupted Peterkin; "but, pray, restrain yourdeclarations at this time, and let's have supper, for I'm uncommonlyhungry, I can tell you; and it's no joke to charge a whole herd of swinewith their great-grandmother bristling like a giant porcupine at the headof them!"
We now set about preparing supper; and, truly, a good display of viandswe made, when all was laid out on a flat rock in the light of the blazingfire. There was, first of all, the little pig; then there was the taro-root, and the yam, and the potato, and six plums; and, lastly, the wood-pigeon. To these Peterkin added a bit of sugar-cane, which he had cutfrom a little patch of that plant which he had found not long afterseparating from us; "and," said he, "the patch was somewhat in a squareform, which convinces me it must have been planted by man."
"Very likely," replied Jack. "From all we have seen, I'm inclined tothink that some of the savages must have dwelt here long ago."
We found no small difficulty in making up our minds how we were to cookthe pig. None of us had ever cut up one before, and we did not knowexactly how to begin; besides, we had nothing but the axe to do it with,our knife having been forgotten. At last Jack started up and said,--
"Don't let us waste more time talking about it, boys. Hold it up,Peterkin. There, lay the hind leg on this block of wood, so;" and he cutit off, with a large portion of the haunch, at a single blow of the axe."Now the other,--that's it." And having thus cut off the two hind legs,he made several deep gashes in them, thrust a sharp-pointed stick througheach, and stuck them up before the blaze to roast. The wood-pigeon wasthen split open, quite flat, washed clean in salt water, and treated in asimilar manner. While these were cooking, we scraped a hole in the sandand ashes under the fire, into which we put our vegetables, and coveredthem up.
The taro-root was of an oval shape, about ten inches long and four orfive thick. It was of a mottled-gray colour, and had a thick rind. Wefound it somewhat like an Irish potato, and exceedingly good. The yamwas roundish, and had a rough brown skin. It was very sweet and well-flavoured. The potato, we were surprised to find, was quite sweet andexceedingly palatable, as also were the plums; and, indeed, the pork andpigeon too, when we came to taste them. Altogether this was decidedlythe most luxurious supper we had enjoyed for many a day; and Jack said itwas out-of-sight better than we ever got on board ship; and Peterkin saidhe feared that if we should remain long on the island he would infalliblybecome a glutton or an epicure: whereat Jack remarked that he need notfear that, for he was _both_ already! And so, having eaten our fill, notforgetting to finish off with a plum, we laid ourselves comfortably downto sleep upon a couch of branches under the overhanging ledge of a coralrock.