The Lonely Island: The Refuge of the Mutineers

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

  THE FIRST SHIP, AND NEWS OF HOME.

  No wonder that there was wild excitement on the lonely island at thesight of this sail, for, with the exception of the ship that had beenseen years before, and only for a few minutes, by Sally and MattQuintal, no vessel of any kind had visited them during the space ofnineteen years.

  "I've longed for it, old 'ooman, as nobody but myself can understand,"said Adams, in a low, earnest voice to his wife, who stood on the cliffsbeside him. Although nearly blind, Mrs Adams was straining her eyes inthe direction of the strange sail. "And now that it's come," continuedher husband, "I confess to you, lass, I'm somewhat afeared to face it.It's not that I fear to die more than other men, but I'd feel it awfulhard to be took away from you an' all them dear child'n. But God's willbe done."

  "They'd never take you from us, father," exclaimed Dinah Adams, whooverheard this speech.

  "There's no sayin', Di. I've forfeited my life to the laws of England.I tell 'ee what it is, Thursday," said Adams, going up to the youth, whowas gazing wistfully like the others at the rapidly approaching vessel,"it may be a man-o'-war, an' they may p'r'aps want to ship me off toEngland on rather short notice. If so, I must go; but I'd rather not.So I'll retire into the bushes, Toc, while you go aboard in the canoe.I'll have time to think over matters before you come back with word whothey are, an' where they hail from."

  While Thursday went down to the beach, accompanied by Charlie, toprepare a canoe for this mission, the ship drew rapidly near the island,and soon after hove to, just outside of Bounty Bay. As she showed nocolours, and did not look like a man-of-war, Adams began to feel easierin his mind, and again going out on the cliffs, watched the canoe as itdashed through the surf.

  Under the vigorous strokes of Thursday and Charlie Christian, it wassoon alongside the strange ship. To judge from the extent to which themen opened their eyes, there is reason to believe that those on board ofthat strange ship were filled with unusual surprise; and well they mightbe, for the appearance of our two heroes was not that which voyagers inthe South Pacific were accustomed to expect. The remarks of two of thesurprised ones, as the canoe approached, will explain their state ofmind better than any commentary.

  "I say, Jack, it ain't a boat; I guess it's a canoe."

  "Yes, Bill, it's a canoe."

  "What d'ye make 'em out to be, Jack?"

  "Men, I think; leastwise they're not much like monkeys; though, ofcoorse, a feller can't be sure till they stand up an' show theirtails,--or the want of 'em."

  "Well, now," remarked Bill, as the canoe drew nearer, "that's the mostpuzzlin' lot I've seen since I was raised. They ain't niggers, that'splain; they're too light-coloured for that, an' has none o' the niggerbrick-dust in their faces. One on 'em, moreover, seems to have faircurly hair, an' they wears jackets an' hats with something of asailor-cut about 'em. Why, I do b'lieve they're shipwrecked sailors."

  "No," returned Jack, with a critical frown, "they're not just the colouro' white men. Mayhap, they're a noo style o' savage, this bein' raitheran out-o'-the-way quarter."

  "Stand by with a rope there," cried the captain of the vessel, cuttingshort the discussion, while the canoe ranged longside.

  "Ship ahoy!" shouted Thursday, in the true nautical style which he hadlearned from Adams.

  If the eyes of the men who looked over the side of the ship were wideopen with surprise before, they seemed to blaze with amazement at thenext remark by Thursday.

  "Where d'ye hail from, an' what's your name?" he asked, as Charlie madefast to the rope which was thrown to them.

  "The _Topaz_, from America, Captain Folger," answered the captain, witha smile.

  With an agility worthy of monkeys, and that might have justified Jackand Bill looking for tails, the brothers immediately stood on the deck,and holding out their hands, offered with affable smiles to shake hands.We need scarcely say the offer was heartily accepted by every one ofthe crew.

  "And who may _you_ be, my good fellows?" asked Captain Folger, with anamused expression.

  "I am Thursday October Christian," answered the youth, drawing himselfup as if he were announcing himself the king of the Cannibal Islands."I'm the oldest son of Fletcher Christian, one of the mutineers of the_Bounty_, an' this is my brother Charlie."

  The sailors glanced at each other and then at the stalwart youths, as ifthey doubted the truth of the assertion.

  "I've heard of that mutiny," said Captain Folger. "It was celebratedenough to make a noise even on our side of the Atlantic. If I rememberrightly, most of the mutineers were caught on Otaheite and taken toEngland, being wrecked and some drowned on the way; the rest were tried,and some acquitted, some pardoned, and some hanged."

  "I know nothin' about all that," said Thursday, with an interested butperplexed look.

  "But I do, sir," said the man whom we have styled Jack, touching his hatto the captain. "I'm an Englishman, as you knows, an' chanced to be inEngland at the very time when the mutineers was tried. There was nineo' the mutineers, sir, as went off wi' the _Bounty_ from Otaheite, an'they've never bin heard on from that day to this."

  "Yes, yes!" exclaimed Thursday, with sudden animation, "that's _us_.The nine mutineers came to our island here, Pitcairn, an' remained hereever since, an' we've all bin born here; there's lots more of us,--boysand girls."

  "You _don't_ say so!" exclaimed the captain, whose interest was nowthoroughly aroused. "Are the nine mutineers all on Pitcairn still?"

  Thursday's mobile countenance at once became profoundly sad, and heshook his head slowly.

  "No," said he, "they're all dead but one. John Adams is his name."

  "Don't remember that name among the nine said to be lost," remarked theEnglishman.

  "I've heard father say he was sometimes called John Smith," saidThursday.

  "Ah, yes! I remember the name of Smith," said Jack. "_He_ was one of'em."

  "And is he the only man left on the island?" asked the captain.

  "Yes, the only man," replied Thursday, who had never yet thought ofhimself in any other light than a boy; "an' if you'll come ashore in ourcanoe, father'll take you to his house an' treat you to the best he'sgot. He'll be right glad to see you too, for he's not seen a soulexcept ourselves for nigh twenty years."

  "Not seen a soul! D'ye mean to say no ship has touched here for thatlength of time?" asked the captain in surprise.

  "No, except one that only touched an' went off without discovering thatwe were here, an' none of us found out she had bin here till we chancedto see her sailin' away far out to sea. That was five years ago."

  "That's very strange and interestin'. I'd like well to visit old Adams,lad, an' I thank 'ee for the invitation; but I won't run my ship throughsuch a surf as that, an' don't like to risk leavin' her to go ashore inyour canoe."

  "If you please, sir, I'd be very glad to go, an' bring off what newsthere is," said Jack, the English sailor, whose surname was Brace.

  At first Captain Folger refused this offer, but on consideration heallowed Jack to go, promising at the same time to keep as near to theshore as possible, so that if there was anything like treachery he mighthave a chance of swimming off.

  "So your father is dead?" asked the captain, as he walked with Thursdayto the side.

  "Yes, long, long ago."

  "But you called Adams `father' just now. How's that?"

  "Oh, we all calls 'im that. It's only a way we've got into."

  "What made your father call you Thursday?"

  "'Cause I was born on a Thursday."

  "H'm I an' I suppose if you'd bin born on a Tuesday or Saturday, he'dhave called you by one or other of these days?"

  "S'pose so," said Thursday, with much simplicity.

  "Are you married, Thursday?"

  "Yes, I'm married to Susannah," said Thursday, with a pleased smile;"she's a dear girl, though she's a deal older than me--old enough to bemy mother. And I've got a babby too--a _splendid_ babby!" />
  Thursday passed ever the side as he said this, and fortunately did notsee the merriment which him remarks created.

  Jack Brace followed him into the canoe, and in less than half-an-hour hefound himself among the wondering, admiring, almost awestruck, islandersof Pitcairn.

  "It's a _man_!" whispered poor Mainmast to Susannah, with the memory ofFletcher Christian strong upon her.

  "What a lovely beard he has!" murmured Sally to Bessy Mills.

  Charlie Christian and Matt Quintal chancing, curiously enough, to benear Sally and Bessy, overheard the whisper, and for the first time eachreceived a painful stab from the green-eyed demon, jealousy.

  But the children did not whisper their comments. They crowded round theseaman eagerly.

  "You've come to live with us?" asked Dolly Young, looking up in his facewith an innocent smile, and taking his rough hand.

  "To tell us stories?" said little Arthur Quintal, with an equallyinnocent smile.

  "Well, no, my dears, not exactly," answered the seaman, looking in adazed manner at the pretty faces and graceful forms around him; "but ifI only had the chance to remain here, it's my belief that I would."

  Further remark was stopped by the appearance of John Adams comingtowards the group. He walked slowly, and kept his eyes steadily, yetwistfully, fastened on the seaman. Holding out his hand, he said in alow tone, as if he were soliloquising, "At last! It's like a dream!"Then, as the sailor grasped his hand and shook it warmly, he added alouda hearty "Welcome, welcome to Pitcairn."

  "Thank 'ee, thank 'ee," said Jack Brace, not less heartily; "an' may Iax if you _are_ one o' the _Bounty_ mutineers, an' no mistake?"

  "The old tone," murmured Adams, "and the old lingo, an' the old cut o'the jib, an'--an'--the old toggery."

  He took hold of a flap of Jack's pea-jacket, and almost fondled it.

  "Oh, man, but it does my heart good to see you! Come, come away up tomy house an' have some grub. Yes, yes--axin' your pardon for notanswerin' right off--I _am_ one o' the _Bounty_ mutineers; the lastone--John Smith once, better known now as John Adams. But where do youhail from, friend?"

  Jack at once gave him the desired information, told him on the way upall he knew about the fate of the mutineers who had remained atOtaheite, and received in exchange a brief outline of the history of thenine mutineers who had landed on Pitcairn.

  The excitement of the two men and their interest in each other increasedevery moment; the one being full of the idea of having made a wonderfuldiscovery of, as it were, a lost community, the other being equally fullof the delight of once more talking to a man--a seaman--a messmate, hemight soon say, for he meant to feed him like a prince.

  "Get a pig cooked, Molly," he said, during a brief interval in theconversation, "an' do it as fast as you can."

  "There's one a'most ready-baked now," replied Mrs Adams.

  "All right, send the girls for fruit, and make a glorious spread--outside; he'll like it better than in the house--under the banyan-tree.Sit down, sit down, messmate." Turning to the sailor, "Man, _what_ atime it is since I've used that blessed word! Sit down and have aglass."

  Jack Brace smacked his lips in anticipation, thanked Adams in advance,and drew his sleeve across his mouth in preparation, while his host seta cocoa-nut-cup filled with a whitish substance before him.

  "That's a noo sort of a glass, John Adams," remarked the man, as heraised and smelt it; "also a strange kind o' tipple."

  He sipped, and seemed disappointed. Then he sipped again, and seemedpleased.

  "What is it, may I ax?"

  "It's milk of the cocoa-nut," answered Adams.

  "Milk o' the ko-ko-nut, eh? Well, now, that is queer. If you'd 'acalled it the milk o' the cow-cow-nut, I could have believed it.Hows'ever, it ain't bad, tho' raither wishy-washy. Got no strongertipple than that?"

  "Nothin' stronger than that, 'xcept water," said John, with one of hissly glances; "but it's a toss up which is the strongest."

  "Well, it'll be a toss down with me whichever is the strongest," saidthe accommodating tar, as he once more raised the cup to his lips, anddrained it.

  "But, I say, you unhung mutineer, do you mean for to tell me that allthem good-lookin' boys an' girls are yours?"

  He looked round on the crowd of open-mouthed young people, who, fromsix-foot Toc down to the youngest staggerer, gazed at him solemnly, alleyes and ears.

  "No, they ain't," answered Adams, with a laugh. "What makes you ask?"

  "'Cause they all calls you father."

  "Oh!" replied his host, "that's only a way they have; but there's onlyfour of 'em mine, three girls an' a boy. The rest are the descendantsof my eight comrades, who are now dead and gone."

  "Well, now, d'ye know, John Adams, _alias_ Smith, mutineer, as ought tohave bin hung but wasn't, an' as nobody would have the heart to hangnow, even if they had the chance, this here adventur is out o' sight oneo' the most extraor'nar circumstances as ever did happen to me since Iwas the length of a marlinspike."

  As Mainmast here entered to announce that the pig was ready forconsumption, the amazed mariner was led to a rich repast under theneighbouring banyan-tree. Here he was bereft of speech for aconsiderable time, whether owing to the application of his jaws to food,or increased astonishment, it is difficult to say.

  Before the repast began, Adams, according to custom, stood up, removedhis hat, and briefly asked a blessing. To which all assembled, withclasped hands and closed eyes, responded Amen.

  This, no doubt, was another source of profound wonder to Jack Brace, buthe made no remark at the time. Neither did he remark on the fact thatthe women did not sit down to eat with the males of the party, but stoodbehind and served them, conversing pleasantly the while.

  After dinner was concluded, and thanks had been returned, Jack Braceleaned his back against one of the descending branches of thebanyan-tree, and with a look of supreme satisfaction drew forth a shortblack pipe.

  At sight of this the countenance of Adams flushed, and his eyes almostsparkled.

  "There it is again," he murmured; "the old pipe once more! Let me lookat it, Jack Brace; it's not the first by a long way that I've handled."

  Jack handed over the pipe, a good deal amused at the manner of his host,who took the implement of fumigation and examined it carefully, handlingit with tender care, as if it were a living and delicate creature. Thenhe smelt it, then put it in his mouth and gave it a gentle draw, whilean expression of pathetic satisfaction passed over his somewhatcare-worn countenance.

  "The old taste, not a bit changed," he murmured, shutting his eyes."Brings back the old ships, and the old messmates, and the old times,and Old England."

  "Come, old feller," said Jack Brace, "if it's so powerful, why not lightit and have a real good pull, for old acquaintance sake?"

  He drew from his pocket flint and tinder, matches being unknown in thosedays, and began to strike a light, when Adams took the pipe hastily fromhis mouth and handed it back.

  "No, no," he said, with decision, "it's only the old associations thatit calls up, that's all. As for baccy, I've bin so long without it now,that I don't want it; and it would only be foolish in me to rouse up theold cravin'. There, you light it, Jack. I'll content myself wi' thesmell of it."

  "Well, John Adams, have your way. You are king here, you know; nobodyto contradict you. So I'll smoke instead of you, if these young ladieswon't object."

  The young ladies referred to were so far from objecting, that they wereburning with impatience to see a real smoker go to work, for the tobaccoof the mutineers had been exhausted, and all the pipes broken or lost,before most of them were born.

  "And let me tell you, John Adams," continued the sailor, when the pipewas fairly alight, "I've not smoked a pipe in such kooriouscircumstances since I lit one, an' had my right fore-finger shot offwhen I was stuffin' down the baccy, in the main-top o' the _Victory_ atthe battle o' Trafalgar. But it was against all rules to smoke inaction, an' served me right. How
s'ever, it got me my discharge, andthat's how I come to be in a Yankee merchantman this good day."

  At the mention of battle and being wounded in action, the oldprofessional sympathies of John Adams were awakened.

  "What battle might that have been?" he asked.

  "Which?" said Jack.

  "Traflegar," said the other.

  Jack Brace took the pipe out of his mouth and looked at Adams, as thoughhe had asked where Adam and Eve had been born. For some time he couldnot make up his mind how to reply.

  "You don't mean to tell me," he said at length, "that you've never heardof the--battle--of--Trafalgar?"

  "Never," answered Adams, with a faint smile.

  "Nor of the great Lord Nelson?"

  "Never heard his name till to-day. You forget, Jack, that I've not seena mortal man from Old England, or any other part o' the civilised world,since the 28th day of April 1789, and that's full nineteen years ago."

  "That's true, John; that's true," said the seaman, slowly, as ifendeavouring to obtain some comprehension of what depths of ignorancethe fact implied. "So, I suppose you've never heerd tell of--hold on;let me rake up my brain-pan a bit."

  He tilted his straw hat, and scratched his head for a few minutes,puffing the while immense clouds of smoke, to the inexpressible delightof the open-mouthed youngsters around him.

  "You--you've never heerd tell of Lord Howe, who licked the French offUshant, somewheres about sixteen years gone by?"

  "Never."

  "Nor of the great victories gained in the '95 by Sir Edward Pellew, an'Admiral Hotham, an' Admiral Cornwallis, an' Lord Bridgeport?"

  "No, of coorse ye couldn't; nor yet of Admiral Duncan, who, in the '97,(I think it was), beat the Dutch fleet near Camperdown all to sticks.Nor yet of that tremendous fight off Cape Saint Vincent in the sameyear, when Sir John Jervis, with nothin' more than fifteen sail o' theMediterranean fleet, attacked the Spaniards wi' their twenty-seven shipso' the line--line-o'-battle ships, you'll observe, John Adams--an' tookfour of 'em, knocked half of the remainder into universal smash, an'sunk all the rest?"

  "That was splendid!" exclaimed Adams, his martial spirit rising, whilethe eyes of the young listeners around kept pace with their mouths indilating.

  "Splendid? Pooh!" said Jack Brace, delivering puffs between sentencesthat resembled the shots of miniature seventy-fours, "that was nothin'to what followed. Nelson was in that fight, he was, an' Nelson began toshove out his horns a bit soon after that, _I_ tell you. Well, well,"continued the British tar with a resigned look, "to think of meetin' aman out of Bedlam who hasn't heerd of Nelson and the Nile, w'ich, ofcoorse, ye haven't. It's worth while comin' all this way to see you."

  Adams smiled and said, "Let's hear all about it."

  "All about it, John? Why, it would take me all night to tell you allabout it," (there was an audible gasp of delight among the listeners),"and I haven't time for that; but you must know that Lord Nelson, bein'Sir Horatio Nelson at that time, chased the French fleet, under AdmiralBrueys, into Aboukir Bay, (that's on the coast of Egypt), sailed inafter 'em, anchored alongside of 'em, opened on 'em wi' both broadsidesat once, an' blew them all to bits."

  "You don't say that, Jack Brace!"

  "Yes, I do, John Adams; an' nine French line-o'-battle ships was took,two was burnt, two escaped, and the biggest o' the lot, the greatthree-decker, the _Orient_, was blowed up, an' sent to the bottom. Itwas a thorough-goin' piece o' business that, _I_ tell you, an' Nelsonmeant it to be, for w'en he gave the signal to go into close action, heshouted, `Victory or Westminster Abbey.'"

  "What did he mean by that?" asked Adams.

  "Why, don't you see, Westminster Abbey is the old church in London wherethey bury the great nobs o' the nation in; there's none but _great_ nobsthere, you know--snobs not allowed on no account whatever. So he meant,of coorse, victory or death, d'ye see? After which he'd be put intoWestminster Abbey. An' death it was to many a good man that day. Why,if you take even the _Orient_ alone, w'en she was blowed up, AdmiralBrueys himself an' a thousand men went up along with her, an' never camedown again, so far as _we_ know."

  "It must have bin bloody work," said Adams.

  "I believe you, my boy," continued the sailor, "it _was_ bloody work.There was some of our chaps that was always for reasonin' about things,an' would never take anything on trust, 'xcept their own inventions, whoused to argufy that it was an awful waste o' human life, to say nothin'o' treasure, (as they called it), all for _nothin'_. I used to wondersometimes why them _reasoners_ jined the sarvice at all, but to be suremost of 'em had been pressed. To my thinkin', war wouldn't be worth abrass farthin' if there wasn't a deal o' blood and thunder about it;an', of coorse, if we're goin' to have that sort o' thing we must payfor it. Then, we didn't do it for _nothin'_. Is it nothin' to have thehonour an' glory of lickin' the Mounseers an' bein' able to sing`Britannia rules the waves?'"

  John Adams, who was not fond of argument, and did not agree with some ofJack's reasoning, said, "P'r'aps;" and then, drawing closer to his newfriend with deepening interest, said, "Well, Jack, what more hashappened?"

  "What more? Why, I'll have to start a fresh pipe before I can answerthat."

  Having started a fresh pipe he proceeded, and the group settled downagain to devour his words, and watch and smell the smoke.

  "Well, then, there was--but you know I ain't a diction'ry, or acyclopodia, or a gazinteer--let me see. After the battle o' the Nilethere came the Irish Rebellion."

  "Did that do 'em much good, Jack?"

  "O yes, John; it united 'em immediately after to Old England, so thatwe're now Great Britain an' Ireland. Then Sir Ralph Abercromby, he gavethe French an awful lickin' on land in Egypt at Aboukir, where Nelsonhad wopped 'em on the sea, and, last of all came the glorious battle ofTrafalgar. But it wasn't all glory, for we lost Lord Nelson there. Hewas killed."

  "That was a bad business," said Adams, with a look of sympathy. "Andyou was in that battle, was you?"

  "In it! I should just think so," replied Jack Brace, lookingcontemplatively at his mutilated finger. "Why, I was in Lord Nelson'sown ship, the _Victory_. Come, I'll give you an outline of it. This ishow it began."

  The ex-man-of-war's-man puffed vigorously for a few seconds, to get thepipe well alight, he remarked, and collect his thoughts.