The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers
Page 5
CHAPTER FIVE.
THE LANDING OF THE LIVESTOCK IN BOUNTY BAY.
Preparations were now made for landing. The bay which they haddiscovered, and was the only one on the island, lay on its northernside. Into it they succeeded in running the _Bounty_, and cast anchor.Soon the women, with little Sally, were landed and sent up to thetable-land above, to make some sort of encampment, under the charge ofmidshipman Young. The ship was warped close up to the cliffs, so closethat she ran the end of her bowsprit against them and broke it off.Here there was a narrow ledge that seemed suitable for a landing-place.Night put a stop to their labours on board. While some lighted firesand encamped on the shore, others remained in the ship to guard her andto be ready for the debarkation that was to take place in the morning.
And a strange debarkation it was. It had been found that there was arise of eight feet in the tide. This enabled Christian to lay the shipin such a position that it was possible to extend several long planksfrom the bow to the beach. Fortunately the weather was fine, otherwisethe landing would have been difficult if not disastrous.
When all was complete, the goats were collected and driven over the bowto the shore. The procession was headed by an old billy-goat, wholooked supremely philosophical as he went slowly along the roughgangway.
"It minds one o' pirates makin' the crew of a merchantman walk theplank," remarked John Williams, as he assisted to urge the unwillingflock along.
"Quite like a menadgeree," suggested Mills.
"More like old Noah comin' out o' the ark," said Williams, "on the topo' Mount--Mount--what was its name? I forget."
"Mount Sy-nee," suggested Quintal.
"Not at all; it was Mount Arrowroot," said Isaac Martin, with the air ofan oracle.
"Clear the way, lads, for the poultry," shouted midshipman Young.
A tremendous cackling in rear rendered further orders inaudible as wellas unnecessary, while the men stood aside from the opening to thegangway of planks.
A considerable number of fowls had been taken on board at Otaheite, andthese, besides being bewildered and uncertain as to the point to whichthey were being driven, and the precise duty that was required of them,were infected with the general obstinacy of the rest of the animalkingdom. At last, however, a splendid cock was persuaded to enter thegangway, down which he ran, and flew shrieking to the shore, followed bythe rest of his kindred.
"Now for the hogs," said Quintal, to whose domineering spirit the workwas congenial.
But the hogs were not to be managed as easily as the goats and fowls hadbeen. With native obstinacy and amazing energy they refused to do whatthey were bid, and shrieked defiance when force was attempted. Thenoise was further increased by the butting of a few goats and thecackling of some poultry, which had got mixed up with them.
First of all they declined to leave the enclosures, out of which theyhad tried pertinaciously to escape all the voyage. By way of overcomingthis difficulty, Christian ordered the enclosures to be torn down, andthe planks with which they had been formed were used as persuaders tourge the refractory creatures on. As each poke or slap produced aseries of horrible yells, it may be understood that the operation wasaccompanied with noise.
At last some of the men, losing patience, rushed at the hogs, seizedthem by ears and tails, and forcibly dragged them to the gangway. McCoyand Quintal distinguished themselves in this service, hurling theiranimals on the planks with such violence that several of them fell overinto the sea, and swam towards the shore in the surf from which theywere rescued by the Otaheitan men, who danced about in the water, highlyenjoying this part of their labour.
A profound calm seemed to succeed a wild storm when the last of theunruly pigs had left the ship.
"We've got 'em all out at last," said one of the men, with a sigh,wiping the perspiration from his forehead with his sleeve.
"Bad luck to them," growled another, tying up a slight wound received inthe conflict.
"We've done with the live stock, anyhow, and that's a comfort," said athird.
"Done with the live stock!" exclaimed Martin. "Why, the worst lot hasyet to come."
"That must be yourself, then, Martin, my boy," said Brown.
"I wish it was, Brown," retorted Martin; "but you've forgotten thecats."
"So we have!" exclaimed everybody.
"And you may be sure they'll give us some trouble," said Christian."Come, let's go at 'em at once."
This estimate of the cats was fully justified by what followed. Aconsiderable number of these useful creatures, black, white, and grey,had been brought from Otaheite for the purpose of keeping down the rats,with which many of the South Sea Islands are afflicted. During thevoyage most of them had retired to the privacy of the hold, where theyfound holes and corners about the cargo, and came out only at night,like evil spirits, to pick up a precarious livelihood. During therecent conflict a few had found insecure refuge in holes and cornersabout the deck, where yelling and fugitive pigs had convulsed them withhorror; and one, a huge grey cat, having taken madly to the rigging,rushed out to the end of the foresail-yard, where it was immediatelyroused to frenzy by a flock of astonished gulls. Now, these cats had tobe rummaged out of their retreats by violence, in which work all thewhite men in the ship had to take part amid a chorus of awful skirling,serpentlike fuffing, ominous and deadly growling, and, generally,hideous caterwauling, that no pen, however gifted, could adequatelydescribe.
"_I_ see 'im," cried Mills, with his head thrust down between anail-cask and a bundle of Otaheitan roots.
"Where?" from John Adams, who, with heels and legs in the air, and headand shoulders down somewhere about the keel, was poking a long stickinto total darkness.
"There, right under you, with a pair of eyes blazing like green lamps."
A poke in the right direction caused a convulsion in the bowels of thecargo like a miniature earthquake. It was accompanied by a fearfulyell.
"I've touched him at last," said Adams, quietly. "Look-out there,Brown, he's goin' to scramble up the bulkhead."
"There goes another," shouted Martin, whose head was so far down amongthe cargo that his voice had a muffled sound.
There was no occasion to ask where this time, for, with a wild shriek, alarge black fellow left its retreat, sprang up the hatchway, and soughtrefuge in the rigging. At the same moment there came a sepulchral moanfrom a cat whose place of refuge was invaded by Quintal. The moan wasfollowed by a cry, loud and deep, that would have done credit to a madbaby.
"Isn't it appalling to see creeturs so furious?" said Adams, solemnly,as he drew his head and shoulders out of the depths.
"They're fiendishly inclined, no doubt," said Christian, who stood hardby with a stick, ready to expedite the process of ejection when a catventured to show itself.
At last, with infinite trouble the whole body of the enemy were routedfrom the hold, and the hatches fastened down to prevent a return. Butthe end was not yet gained, for the creatures had found various refugeson deck, and some had taken to the rigging.
"Come out o' that," cried Martin, making a poke at the big grey cat,like a small tiger, which had fled to the foretop.
With a ferocious caterwaul and fuff the creature sprang down the shroudson the opposite side as if it had been born and bred a sailor.Unfortunately it made a wild leap at a pendant rope in passing, missedit, and came down on the deck with a prodigious flop. Only one of itsnine lives, apparently, was damaged. With the other eight it rushed tothe opening in the bow, and soon gained the shore, where it immediatelysprang to the leafy head of a cocoa-nut palm. At the same moment ablack-and-white cat was sent flying in the same direction by Young.Quintal, indulging his savage nature, caught one of the cats by the neckand tried to strangle it into subjection, but received such punishmentwith teeth and claws that he was fain to fling it into the sea. It swamashore, emerged a melancholy "drookit" spectacle, and dashed into thenearest underwood.
Thus, one by one, the cats were hunted out
of the _Bounty_, andintroduced to their future home. The last to give in was,appropriately, an enormous black Tom, which, with deadly yellow eyes,erect hair, bristling tail, curved back, extended claws, and flattenedears, rushed fuffing and squealing from one refuge to another, until atlast, giving way to the concentrated attack of the assembled crew, itburst through the opening, scurried down the gangway, and went like ashot into the bushes, a confirmed maniac,--if not worse.