University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VI.

Early the next morning the starboard watch were mustered
upon the quarter-deck, and our worthy captain, standing in the
cabin gangway, harangued us as follows:—

"Now, men, as we are just off a six months' cruise, and have
got through most all our work in port here, I suppose you want
to go ashore. Well, I mean to give your watch liberty to-day,
so you may get ready as soon as you please, and go; but understand
this, I am going to give you liberty because I suppose you
would growl like so many old quarter gunners if I didn't; at
the same time, if you'll take my advice, every mother's son of
you will stay aboard, and keep out of the way of the bloody cannibals
altogether. Ten to one, men, if you go ashore, you will
get into some infernal row, and that will be the end of you; for
if those tattooed scoundrels get you a little ways back into their
valleys, they'll nab you—that you may be certain of. Plenty of
white men have gone ashore here and never been seen any more.
There was the old Dido, she put in here about two years ago, and
sent one watch off on liberty; they never were heard of again for
a week—the natives swore they didn't know where they were—
and only three of them ever got back to the ship again, and one
with his face damaged for life, for the cursed heathens tattooed
a broad patch clean across his figure-head. But it will be no
use talking to you, for go you will, that I see plainly; so all I
have to say is, that you need not blame me if the islanders make
a meal of you. You may stand some chance of escaping them
though, if you keep close about the French encampment, and are
back to the ship again before sunset. Keep that much in your
mind, if you forget all the rest I've been saying to you. There,
go forward; bear a hand and rig yourselves, and stand by for a

call. At two bells the boat will be manned to take you off, and
the Lord have mercy on you!"

Various were the emotions depicted upon the countenances of
the starboard watch whilst listening to this address; but on its
conclusion there was a general move towards the forecastle, and
we soon were all busily engaged in getting ready for the holiday
so auspiciously announced by the skipper. During these preparations
his harangue was commented upon in no very measured
terms; and one of the party, after denouncing him as a
lying old son of a sea-cook who begrudged a fellow a few hours'
liberty, exclaimed with an oath, "But you don't bounce me out
of my liberty, old chap, for all your yarns; for I would go ashore
if every pebble on the beach was a live coal, and every stick a
gridiron, and the cannibals stood ready to broil me on landing."

The spirit of this sentiment was responded to by all hands,
and we resolved that in spite of the captain's croakings we would
make a glorious day of it.

But Toby and I had our own game to play, and we availed
ourselves of the confusion which always reigns among a ship's
company preparatory to going ashore, to confer together and
complete our arrangements. As our object was to effect as rapid
a flight as possible to the mountains, we determined not to encumber
ourselves with any superfluous apparel; and accordingly,
while the rest were rigging themselves out with some idea of
making a display, we were content to put on new stout duck
trousers, serviceable pumps, and heavy Havre-frocks, which with
a Payta hat completed our equipment.

When our shipmates wondered at this, Toby exclaimed in his
odd grave way that the rest might do as they liked, but that he
for one preserved his go-ashore traps for the Spanish main, where
the tie of a sailor's neckerchief might make some difference;
but as for a parcel of unbreeched heathen, he wouldn't go to
the bottom of his chest for any of them, and was half disposed
to appear among them in buff himself. The men laughed at
what they thought was one of his strange conceits, and so we
escaped suspicion.

It may appear singular that we should have been thus on our
guard with our own shipmates; but there were some among us
who, had they possessed the least inkling of our project, would,

for a paltry hope of reward, have immediately communicated it
to the captain.

As soon as two bells were struck, the word was passed for the
liberty-men to get into the boat. I lingered behind in the forecastle
a moment to take a parting glance at its familiar features,
and just as I was about to ascend to the deck my eye happened
to light on the bread-barge and beef-kid, which contained the
remnants of our last hasty meal. Although I had never before
thought of providing anything in the way of food for our expedition,
as I fully relied upon the fruits of the island to sustain us
wherever we might wander, yet I could not resist the inclination
I felt to provide luncheon from the relics before me. Accordingly
I took a double handful of those small, broken, flinty bits
of biscuit which generally go by the name of "midshipmen's
nuts," and thrust them into the bosom of my frock; in which
same ample receptacle I had previously stowed away several
pounds of tobacco and a few yards of cotton cloth—articles with
which I intended to purchase the good-will of the natives, as
soon as we should appear among them after the departure of our
vessel.

This last addition to my stock caused a considerable protuberance
in front, which I abated in a measure by shaking the
bits of bread around my waist, and distributing the plugs of
tobacco among the folds of the garment.

Hardly had I completed these arrangements when my name
was sung out by a dozen voices, and I sprung upon the deck,
where I found all the party in the boat, and impatient to shove
off. I dropped over the side and seated myself with the rest of
the watch in the stern sheets, while the poor larborders shipped
their oars, and commenced pulling us ashore.

This happened to be the rainy season at the islands, and the
heavens had nearly the whole morning betokened one of those
heavy showers which during this period so frequently occur.
The large drops fell bubbling into the water shortly after our
leaving the ship, and by the time we had effected a landing it
poured down in torrents. We fled for shelter under cover of an
immense canoe-house which stood hard by the beach, and waited
for the first fury of the storm to pass.

It continued, however, without cessation; and the monotonous

beating of the rain over head began to exert a drowsy influence
upon the men, who, throwing themselves here and there upon
the large war-canoes, after chatting awhile, all fell asleep.

This was the opportunity we desired, and Toby and I availed
ourselves of it at once by stealing out of the canoe-house and
plunging into the depths of an extensive grove that was in its
rear. After ten minutes' rapid progress we gained an open space
from which we could just descry the ridge we intended to mount
looming dimly through the mists of the tropical shower, and
distant from us, as we estimated, something more than a mile.
Our direct course towards it lay through a rather populous part
of the bay; but desirous as we were of evading the natives, and
securing an unmolested retreat to the mountains, we determined,
by taking a circuit through some extensive thickets, to avoid their
vicinity altogether.

The heavy rain that still continued to fall without intermission
favoured our enterprise, as it drove the islanders into their houses,
and prevented any casual meeting with them. Our heavy frocks
soon became completely saturated with water, and by their
weight, and that of the articles we had concealed beneath them,
not a little impeded our progress. But it was no time to pause
when at any moment we might be surprised by a body of the
savages, and forced at the very outset to relinquish our undertaking.

Since leaving the canoe-house we had scarcely exchanged a
single syllable with one another; but when we entered a second
narrow opening in the wood, and again caught sight of the ridge
before us, I took Toby by the arm, and pointing along its sloping
outline to the lofty heights at its extremity, said in a low tone,
"Now Toby, not a word, nor a glance backward, till we stand
on the summit of yonder mountain—so no more lingering, but
let us shove ahead while we can, and in a few hours' time we may
laugh aloud.—You are the lightest and the nimblest, so lead on,
and I will follow."

"All right, brother," said Toby, "quick's our play; only let's
keep close together, that's all;" and so saying, with a bound like
a young roe, he cleared a brook which ran across our path, and
rushed forward with a quick step.

When we arrived within a short distance of the ridge, we were
stopped by a mass of tall yellow reeds, growing together as
thickly as they could stand, and as tough and stubborn as so
many rods of steel; and we perceived, to our chagrin, that they
extended midway up the elevation we purposed to ascend.

For a moment we gazed about us in quest of a more practicable
route; it was, however, at once apparent that there was no
resource but to pierce this thicket of canes at all hazards. We
now reversed our order of march, I, being the heaviest, taking
the lead, with a view of breaking a path through the obstruction,
while Toby fell into the rear.

Two or three times I endeavoured to insinuate myself between
the canes, and by dint of coaxing and bending them to make
some progress; but a bull-frog might as well have tried to work
a passage through the teeth of a comb, and I gave up the attempt
in despair.

Half wild with meeting an obstacle we had so little anticipated,
I threw myself desperately against it, crushing to the
ground the canes with which I came in contact; and, rising
to my feet again, repeated the action with like effect. Twenty
minutes of this violent exercise almost exhausted me, but it
carried us some way into the thicket; when Toby, who had
been reaping the benefit of my labours by following close at
my heels, proposed to become pioneer in turn, and accordingly
passed ahead with a view of affording me a respite from my
exertions. As however with his slight frame he made but bad
work of it, I was soon obliged to resume my old place again.

On we toiled, the perspiration starting from our bodies in
floods, our limbs torn and lacerated with the splintered fragments
of the broken canes, until we had proceeded perhaps as far as the
middle of the brake, when suddenly it ceased raining, and the
atmosphere around us became close and sultry beyond expression.
The elasticity of the reeds, quickly recovering from the temporary
pressure of our bodies, caused them to spring back to their
original position; so that they closed in upon us as we advanced,
and prevented the circulation of the little air which might
otherwise have reached us. Besides this, their great height
completely shut us out from the view of surrounding objects,

and we were not certain but that we might have been going all
the time in a wrong direction.

Fatigued with my long-continued efforts, and panting for
breath, I felt myself completely incapacitated for any further
exertion. I rolled up the sleeve of my frock, and squeezed the
moisture it contained into my parched mouth. But the few
drops I managed to obtain gave me little relief, and I sunk down
for a moment with a sort of dogged apathy, from which I was
aroused by Toby, who had devised a plan to free us from the net
in which we had become entangled.

He was laying about him lustily with his sheath-knife, lopping
the canes right and left, like a reaper, and soon made quite a
clearing around us. This sight reanimated me, and seizing my
own knife, I hacked and hewed away without mercy. But alas!
the farther we advanced, the thicker and taller, and apparently
the more interminable, the reeds became.

I began to think we were fairly snared, and had almost made
up my mind that without a pair of wings we should never be
able to escape from the toils; when all at once I discerned a
peep of daylight through the canes on my right, and, communicating
the joyful tidings to Toby, we both fell to with fresh
spirit, and speedily opening a passage towards it we found ourselves
clear of perplexities, and in the near vicinity of the ridge.

After resting for a few moments we began the ascent, and
after a little vigorous climbing found ourselves close to its
summit. Instead however of walking along its ridge, where we
should have been in full view of the natives in the vales beneath,
and at a point where they could easily intercept us were they so
inclined, we cautiously advanced on one side, crawling on our
hands and knees, and screened from observation by the grass
through which we glided, much in the fashion of a couple of
serpents. After an hour employed in this unpleasant kind of
locomotion, we started to our feet again and pursued our way
boldly along the crest of the ridge.

This salient spur of the lofty elevations that encompassed the
bay rose with a sharp angle from the valleys at its base, and
presented, with the exception of a few steep acclivities, the appearance
of a vast inclined plane, sweeping down towards the

sea from the heights in the distance. We had ascended it near
the place of its termination and at its lowest point, and now saw
our route to the mountains distinctly defined along its narrow
crest, which was covered with a soft carpet of verdure, and was
in many parts only a few feet wide.

Elated with the success which had so far attended our enterprise,
and invigorated by the refreshing atmosphere we now
inhaled, Toby and I in high spirits were making our way rapidly
along the ridge, when suddenly from the valleys below which lay
on either side of us we heard the distant shouts of the natives,
who had just descried us, and to whom our figures, brought in
bold relief against the sky, were plainly revealed.

Glancing our eyes into these valleys, we perceived their savage
inhabitants hurrying to and fro, seemingly under the influence
of some sudden alarm, and appearing to the eye scarcely bigger
than so many pigmies; while their white thatched dwellings,
dwarfed by the distance, looked like baby-houses. As we looked
down upon the islanders from our lofty elevation, we experienced
a sense of security; feeling confident that, should they undertake
a pursuit, it would, from the start we now had, prove entirely
fruitless, unless they followed us into the mountains, where we
knew they cared not to venture.

However, we thought it as well to make the most of our time;
and accordingly, where the ground would admit of it, we ran
swiftly along the summit of the ridge, until we were brought to
a stand by a steep cliff, which at first seemed to interpose an
effectual barrier to our further advance. By dint of much hard
scrambling however, and at some risk to our necks, we at last
surmounted it, and continued our flight with unabated celerity.

We had left the beach early in the morning, and after an uninterrupted,
though at times difficult and dangerous ascent,
during which we had never once turned our faces to the sea, we
found ourselves, about three hours before sunset, standing on the
top of what seemed to be the highest land on the island, an immense
overhanging cliff composed of basaltic rocks, hung round
with parasitical plants. We must have been more than three
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the scenery viewed
from this height was magnificent.

The lonely bay of Nukuheva, dotted here and there with the
black hulls of the vessels composing the French squadron, lay
reposing at the base of a circular range of elevations, whose
verdant sides, perforated with deep glens or diversified with
smiling valleys, formed altogether the loveliest view I ever beheld,
and were I to live a hundred years, I should never forget
the feeling of admiration which I then experienced.