The Crater; Or, Vulcan's Peak Part 15

"The other is not a channel at all; it is a mere bay that leads to nothing; so none of our boats or people can be there. The savages, as I am your husband, Bridget!"

Sure enough, the objects which Bridget had mistaken for mere hogs, were in truth the heads and shoulders of some twenty Indians who were observing the movements of the boat from positions taken on the other side of the plain, so as to conceal all but the upper halves of their bodies. They had two canoes; war canoes, moreover; but these were the whole party, at that point at least.

This was a most grave discovery. The governor had hoped the Reef, so accessible on every side by means of canoes, would, for years at least, continue to be a _terra incognita_ to the savages. On this ignorance of the natives would much of its security depend, for the united forces of the colonists could scarcely suffice to maintain the place against the power of Waally. The matter as it was, called for all his energies, and for the most prompt measures.

The first step was to apprise the people at the Reef of the proximity of these dangerous neighbours. As the boat was doubtless seen, its sails rising above the land, there was no motive in changing its course, or for attempting to conceal it. The crater, s.h.i.+p and schooner on the stocks, were all in sight of the savages at that moment, though not less than two leagues distant, where they doubtless appeared indistinct and confused. The s.h.i.+p might produce an influence in one or two ways. It might inflame the cupidity of Waally, under the hope of possessing so much treasure, and tempt him on to hasten his a.s.sault; or it might intimidate him by its imagined force, vessels rarely visiting the islands of the Pacific without being prepared to defend themselves. The savages would not be likely to comprehend the true condition of the vessel, but would naturally suppose that she had a full crew, and possessed the usual means of annoying her enemies. All this occurred to the governor in the first five minutes after his discovery, while his boat was gliding onwards towards her haven.

Bridget behaved admirably. She trembled a little at first, and pressed her child to her bosom with more than the usual warmth, but her self-command was soon regained, and from that instant, Mark found in her a quick, ingenious, and useful a.s.sistant and counsellor. Her faculties and courage seemed to increase with the danger, and so far from proving an enc.u.mbrance, as might naturally enough have been expected, she was not only out of the way, as respects impediments, but she soon became of real use, and directed the movements of the females with almost as much skill and decision as Mark directed those of their husbands.

The boat did not reach the Reef until dusk, or for an hour after the savages had been seen. The colonists had just left their work, and the evening being cool and refres.h.i.+ng after a warm summer's day, they were taking their suppers under a tent or awning, at no great distance from the s.h.i.+p-yard, when the governor joined them. This tent, or awning, had been erected for such purposes, and had several advantages to recommend it. It stood quite near the beach of the spring, and cool fresh water was always at hand. It had a carpet of velvet-like gra.s.s, too, a rare thins for the Reef, on the outside of the crater. But, there were cavities on its surface, in which foreign substances had collected, and this was one of them. Sea-weed, loam, dead fish, and rain-water had made a thin soil on about an acre of rocks at this spot, and the rain constantly a.s.sisting vegetation, the gra.s.s-seed had taken root there, and this being its second season, Betts had found the sward already sufficient for his purposes, and caused an awning to be spread, converting the gra.s.s into a carpet. There might now have been a dozen similar places on the reef, so many oases in its desert, where soil had formed and gra.s.s was growing. No one doubted that, in time and with care, those, then living might see most of those naked rocks clothed with verdure, for the progress of vegetation in such a climate, favoured by those accidental causes which seemed to prevent that particular region from ever suffering by droughts, is almost magical, and might convert a wilderness into a garden in the course of a very few years.

Mark did not disturb the happy security in which he found his people by any unnecessary announcement of danger. On the contrary, he spoke cheerfully, complimented them on the advanced state of their work, and took an occasion to get Betts aside, when he first communicated the all-important discovery he had made. Bob was dumbfounded at first; for, like the governor himself, he had believed the Reef to be one of the secret spots of the earth, and had never antic.i.p.ated an invasion in that quarter. Recovering himself, however, he was soon in a state of mind to consult intelligently and freely.

"Then we're to expect the rep_tyles_ to-night?" said Betts, as soon as he had regained his voice.

"I think not," answered Mark. "The canoes I saw were in the false channel, and cannot possibly reach us without returning to the western margin of the rocks and entering one of the true pa.s.sages. I rather think this cannot be done before morning. Daylight, indeed, may be absolutely necessary to them; and as the night promises to be dark, it is not easy to see how strangers can find their way to us, among the maze of pa.s.sages they must meet. By land, they cannot get here from any of the islands on the western side of the group; and even if landed on the central island, there is only one route, and that a crooked one, which will bring them here without the a.s.sistance of their canoes. We are reasonably well fortified, Betts, through natural agencies, on that side; and I do not apprehend seeing anything more of the fellows until morning."

"What a misfortin 'tis that they should ever have discovered the Reef!"

"It certainly is; and it is one, I confess, I had not expected. But we must take things as they are, Betts, and do our duty. Providence--that all-seeing Power, which spared you and me when so many of our s.h.i.+pmates were called away with short notice--Providence may still be pleased to look on us with favour."

"That puts me in mind, Mr. Mark, of telling you something that I have lately l'arn'd from Jones, who was about a good deal among the savages, since his friend's marriage with Peggy, and before he made his escape to join us. Jones says that, as near as he can find out, about three years ago, a s.h.i.+p's launch came into Betto's Land, as we call it--Waally's Country, however, is meant; and that is a part of the group I never ventured into, seeing that my partic'lar friend, Ooroony, and Waally, was always at daggers drawn--but a s.h.i.+p's launch came in there, about three years since, with seven living men in it. Jones could never get a sight of any of the men, for Waally is said to have kept them all hard at work for himself; but he got tolerable accounts of them, as well as of the boat in which they arrived."

"Surely, Bob, you do not suppose that launch to have been ours, and those men to have been a part of our old crew!" exclaimed Mark, with a tumult of feeling he had not experienced since he had reason to think that Bridget was about to be restored to him.

"Indeed, but I do, sir. The savages told Jones that the boat had a bird painted in its starn-sheets; and that was the case with our launch, Mr.

Mark, which was ornamented with a spread-eagle in that very spot. Then, one of the men was said to have a red mark on his face; and you may remember, sir, that Bill Brown had a nat'ral brand of that sort. Jones only mentioned the thing this arternoon, as we was at work together; and I detarmined to let you know all about it, at the first occasion. Depend on it, Mr. Woolston, some of our chaps is still living."

This unexpected intelligence momentarily drove the recollection of the present danger from the governor's mind. He sent for Jones, and questioned him closely touching the particulars of his information; the answers he received certainly going far towards corroborating Betts's idea of the character of the unknown men. Jones was never able even to get on the island where these men were said to be; but he had received frequent descriptions of their ages, appearances, numbers, &c. It was also reported by those who had seen them, that several of the party had died of hunger before the boat reached the group; and that only about half of those who had originally taken to the boat, which belonged to a s.h.i.+p that had been wrecked, lived to get ash.o.r.e. The man with a mark on his face was represented as being very expert with tools, and was employed by Waally to build him a canoe that would live out in the gales of the ocean. This agreed perfectly with the trade and appearance of Brown, who had been the Rancocus's carpenter, and had the sort of mark so particularly described.

The time, the boat, the incidents of the wreck, meagre as the last were, as derived through the information of Jones, and all the other facts Mark could glean in a close examination of the man's statements, went to confirm the impression that a portion of those who had been carried to leeward in the Rancocus's launch, had escaped with their lives, and were at that moment prisoners in the power of the very savage chief who now threatened his colony with destruction.

But the emergency did not admit of any protracted inquiry into, or any consultation on the means necessary to relieve their old s.h.i.+pmates from a fate so miserable. Circ.u.mstances required that the governor should now give his attention to the important concerns immediately before him.

Chapter XVIII.

"To whom belongs this valley fair, That sleeps beneath the filmy air, Even like a living thing?

Silent as infant at the breast, Save a still sound that speaks of rest, That streamlet's murmuring?"

Wilson.

When the governor had communicated to his people that the savages were actually among the islands of their own group, something very like a panic came over them. A few minutes, however, sufficed to restore a proper degree of confidence, when the arrangements necessary to their immediate security were entered into. As some attention had previously been bestowed on the fortifications of the crater, that place was justly deemed the citadel of the Reef. Some thought the s.h.i.+p would be the most easily defended, on account of the size of the crater, and because it had a natural ditch around it, but so much property was acc.u.mulated in and around the crater that it could not be abandoned without a loss to which the governor had no idea of submitting. The gate of the crater was nothing in the way of defence, it is true; but one of the cannonades had been planted so as to command it, and this was thought sufficient for repelling all ordinary a.s.saults. It has been said, already, that the outer wall of the crater was perpendicular at its base, most probably owing to the waves of the ocean in that remote period when the whole Reef was washed by them in every gale of wind. This perpendicular portion of the rock, moreover, was much harder than the ordinary surface of the Summit, owing in all probability to the same cause. It was even polished in appearance, and in general was some eighteen or twenty feet in height, with the exception of the two or three places, by one of which Mark and Betts had clambered up on their first visit to the Summit. These places, always small, and barely sufficient to allow of a man's finding footing on them, had long been picked away, in order to prevent the inroads of Kitty, and when the men had turned their attention to rendering the place secure against a sudden inroad, they being the only points where an enemy could get up, without resorting to ladders or artificial a.s.sistance, had, by means of additional labour, been rendered as secure as all the rest of the 'outer wall,' as the base of the crater was usually termed among them. It was true, that civilized a.s.sailants, who had the ordinary means at command, would soon have mastered this obstacle; but savages would not be likely to come prepared to meet it. The schooner, with her cradle and ways, had required all the loose timber, to the last stick, and the enemy was not likely to procure any supplies from the s.h.i.+p-yard. Two of the carronades were on the Summit, judiciously planted; two were on board the Abraham, as was one of the long sixes, and the remainder of the guns, (three at the rock excepted) were still on board the s.h.i.+p.

Mark divided his forces for the night. As Bridget habitually lived in the Rancocus' cabins, he did not derange her household at all, but merely strengthened her crew, by placing Bigelow and Socrates on board her; each with his family; while Betts a.s.sumed the command of the crater, having for his companion Jones. These were small garrisons; but the fortresses were strong, considering all the circ.u.mstances, and the enemy were uncivilized, knowing but little of fire-arms. By nine o'clock everything was arranged, and most of the women and children were on their beds, though no one there undressed that night.

Mark and Betts met, by agreement, alongside of the schooner, as soon as their respective duties elsewhere would allow. As the Reef, proper, was an island, they knew no enemy could find his way on it without coming by water, or by pa.s.sing over the narrow bridge which has already been mentioned as crossing the little strait near the spring. This rendered them tolerably easy for the moment, though Mark had a.s.sured his companion it was not possible for the canoes to get to the Reef under several hours. Neither of the men could sleep, however, and they thought it as well to be on the look-out, and in company, as to be tossing about in their berths, or hammocks, by themselves. The conversation turned on their prospects, almost as a matter of course.

"We are somewhat short-handed, sir, to go to quarters ag'in them vagabonds," observed Betts, in reply to some remark of the governor's.

"I counted a hundred and three of their craft when they was off the Peak the other day, and not one on 'em all had less than four hands aboard it, while the biggest must have had fifty. All told, I do think, Mr.

Mark, they might muster from twelve to fifteen hundred fighting men."

"That has been about my estimate of their force, Bob; but, if they were fifteen thousand, we must bring them to action, for we fight for everything."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Betts, ejecting the tobacco juice in the customary way, "there's reason in roasted eggs, they say, and there's reason in firing a few broadsides afore a body gives up. What a different place this here rock's got to be, sir, from what it was when you and I was floating sea-weed and rafting loam to it, to make a melon or a cuc.u.mber bed! Times is changed, sir, and we're now at war. Then it was all peace and quiet; and now it's all hubbub and disturbance."

"We have got our wives here now, and that I think you'll admit is something, Bob, when you remember the pains taken by yourself to bring so great a happiness about,"

"Why, yes, sir--I'll allow the wives is something--"

"s.h.i.+p ahoy!" hailed a voice in good English, and in the most approved seaman-like tones of the voice.

The hail came from the margin of the island nearest to the Reef; or that which was connected with the latter by means of the bridge, but not from a point very near the latter.

"In the name of heavenly mercy!" exclaimed Betts, "what can that mean, governor?"

"I know that voice," said Mark, hurriedly; "and the whole matter begins to clear up to me. Who hails the Rancocus?"

"Is that s.h.i.+p the Rancocus, then?" answered the voice from the island.

"The Rancocus, and no other--are you not Bill Brown, her late carpenter?"

"The very same, G.o.d bless you, Mr. Woolston, for I now know _your_ voice, too. I'm Bill, and right down glad am I to have things turn out so. I half suspected the truth when I saw a s.h.i.+p's spars this afternoon in this place, though little did I think, yesterday, of ever seeing anything more of the old 'Cocus. Can you give me a cast across this bit of a ferry, sir?"

"Are you alone, Bill--or who have you for companions?"

"There's two on us, sir, only--Jim Wattles and I--seven on us was saved in the launch; Mr. Hillson and the supercargo both dying afore we reached the land, as did the other man, we seven still living, though only two on us is here."

"Are there any black fellows with you?--Any of the natives?"

"Not one, sir. We gave 'em the slip two hours ago, or as soon as we saw the s.h.i.+p's masts, being bent on getting afloat in some craft or other, in preference to stopping with savages any longer. No, Mr. Woolston; no fear of them to-night, for they are miles and miles to leeward, bothered in the channels, where they'll be pretty sartain to pa.s.s the night; though you'll hear from 'em in the morning. Jim and I took to our land tacks, meeting with a good opportunity, and by running directly in the wind's eye, have come out here. We hid ourselves till the canoes was out of sight, and then we carried sail as hard as we could. So give us a cast and take us aboard the old s.h.i.+p again, Mr. Woolston, if you love a fellow-creatur', and an old s.h.i.+pmate in distress."

Such was the singular dialogue which succeeded the unexpected hail. It completely put a new face on things at the Reef. As Brown was a valuable man, and one whose word he had always relied on, Mark did not hesitate, but told him the direction to the bridge, where he and Betts met him and Wattles, after each of the parties had believed the others to be dead now fully three years!

The two recovered seamen of the Rancocus were alone, having acted in perfect good faith with their former officer, who led them to the awning, gave them some refreshment, and heard their story. The account given by Jones, for the first time that very day, turned out to be essentially true. When the launch was swept away from the s.h.i.+p, it drove down to leeward, pa.s.sing at no great distance from the crater, of which the men in her got a glimpse, without being able to reach it. The attention of Hillson was mainly given to keeping the boat from filling or capsizing; and this furnished abundance of occupation. The launch got into one of the channels, and by observing the direction, which was nearly east and west, it succeeded in pa.s.sing through all the dangers, coming out to leeward of the shoals. As everybody believed that the s.h.i.+p was hopelessly lost, no effort was made to get back to the spot where she had been left. No island appearing, Hillson determined to run off to the westward, trusting to fall in with land of some sort or other. The provisions and water were soon consumed, and then came the horrors usual to such scenes at sea. Hillson was one of the first that perished, his previous excesses unfitting him to endure privation. But seven survived when the launch reached an island in Waally's part of the group, so often mentioned. There they fell into the hands of that turbulent and warlike chief. Waally made the seamen his slaves, treating them reasonably well, but exacting of them the closest attention to his interests. Brown, as a s.h.i.+p-carpenter, soon became a favourite, and was employed in fas.h.i.+oning craft that it was thought might be useful in carrying out the ambitious projects of his master. The men were kept on a small island, and were watched like any other treasure, having no opportunity to communicate with any of those whites who appeared in other parts of the group. Thus, while Betts pa.s.sed two months with Ooroony, and Heaton and his party nearly as much more time, these sailors, who heard of such visitors, could never get access to them.

This was partly owing to the hostilities between the two chiefs--Ooroony being then in the ascendant--and partly owing to the special projects of Waally, who, by keeping his prisoners busily employed on his fleet, looked forward to the success which, in fact, crowned his efforts against his rival.

At length Waally undertook the expedition which had appeared in such force beneath the cliffs of the Peak. By this time, Brown had become so great a favourite, that he was permitted to accompany the chief; and Wattles was brought along as a companion for his s.h.i.+pmate. The remaining five were left behind, to complete a craft on which they had now been long employed, and which was intended to be the invincible war-canoe of those regions. Brown and Wattles had been in Waally's own canoe when the terrible echoes so much alarmed the uninstructed beings who heard it.

They described them as much the most imposing echoes they had ever heard; nor did they, at first, know what to make of them, themselves. It was only on reflection, and after the retreat to Rancocus Island, that Brown, by reasoning on the subject, came to the conclusion that the whites, who were supposed to be in possession of the place, had fired a gun, which had produced the astounding uproar that had rattled so far along the cliff. As all Brown's sympathies were with the unknown people of his own colour, he kept his conjectures to himself, and managed to lead Waally in a different direction, by certain conclusions of his own touching the situation of the reef where the Rancocus had been lost.

Bill Brown was an intelligent man for his station and pursuits. He knew the courses steered by the launch, and had some tolerably accurate notions of the distances run. According to his calculations, that reef could not be very far to the northward of the Peak, and, by ascending the mountains on Rancocus Island, he either saw, or fancied he saw, the looming of land in that part of the ocean. It then occurred to Brown that portions of the wreck might still be found on the reef, and become the means of effecting his escape from the hands of his tyrants. Waally listened to his statements and conjectures with the utmost attention, and the whole fleet put to sea the very next day, in quest of this treasure. After paddling to windward again, until the Peak was fairly in sight, Brown steered to the north-east, a course that brought him out, after twenty-four hours of toil, under the lee of the group of the reef.

This discovery of itself, filled Waally with exultation and pride. Here were no cliffs to scale, no mysterious mountain to appal, nor any visible obstacle to oppose his conquests. It is true, that the newly-discovered territory did not appear to be of much value, little beside naked rock, or broad fields of mud and sea-weed intermingled, rewarding their first researches. But better things were hoped for. It was something to men whose former domains were so much circ.u.mscribed and girded by the ocean, to find even a foundation for a new empire. Brown was now consulted as to every step to be taken, and his advice was implicitly followed. Columbus was scarcely a greater man, for the time being, at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, than Bill Brown immediately became at the court of Waally. His words were received as prophecies, his opinions as oracles.

Honest Bill, who antic.i.p.ated no more from his discoveries than the acquisition of certain portions of wood, iron, and copper, with, perhaps, the addition of a little rigging, certain sails and an anchor or two, acted, at first, for the best interests of his master. He led the fleet along the margin of the group until a convenient harbour was found. Into this all the canoes entered, and a sandy beach supplying fresh water in abundance having been found, an encampment was made for the night. Several hours of daylight remaining, however, when these great preliminary steps had been taken, Brown proposed to Waally an exploring expedition in a couple of the handiest of the canoes. The people thus employed were those who had given the alarm to the governor.