The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER XVII.

  A monster wave and its consequences--The boat lost and found--Peterkin'sterrible accident--Supplies of food for a voyage in the boat--We visitPenguin Island, and are amazed beyond measure--Account of the penguins.

  One day, not long after our little boat was finished, we were sitting onthe rocks at Spouting Cliff, and talking of an excursion which weintended to make to Penguin Island the next day.

  "You see," said Peterkin, "it might be all very well for a stupid fellowlike me to remain here and leave the penguins alone, but it would bequite inconsistent with your characters as philosophers to remain anylonger in ignorance of the habits and customs of these birds; so thesooner we go the better."

  "Very true," said I; "there is nothing I desire so much as to have acloser inspection of them."

  "And I think," said Jack, "that you had better remain at home, Peterkin,to take care of the cat; for I'm sure the hogs will be at it in yourabsence, out of revenge for your killing their great-grandmother sorecklessly."

  "Stay at home?" cried Peterkin; "my dear fellow, you would certainly loseyour way, or get upset, if I were not there to take care of you."

  "Ah, true," said Jack, gravely, "that did not occur to me; no doubt youmust go. Our boat does require a good deal of ballast; and all that yousay, Peterkin, carries so much weight with it, that we won't need stonesif you go."

  Now, while my companions were talking, a notable event occurred, which,as it is not generally known, I shall be particular in recording here.

  While we were talking, as I have said, we noticed a dark line, like a lowcloud or fog-bank, on the seaward horizon. The day was a fine one,though cloudy, and a gentle breeze was blowing, but the sea was notrougher, or the breaker on the reef higher, than usual. At first wethought that this looked like a thunder-cloud; and, as we had had a gooddeal of broken weather of late, accompanied by occasional peals ofthunder, we supposed that a storm must be approaching. Gradually,however, this line seemed to draw nearer, without spreading up over thesky, as would certainly have been the case if it had been a storm-cloud.Still nearer it came, and soon we saw that it was moving swiftly towardsthe island; but there was no sound till it reached the islands out atsea. As it passed these islands, we observed, with no little anxiety,that a cloud of white foam encircled them, and burst in spray into theair: it was accompanied by a loud roar. This led us to conjecture thatthe approaching object was an enormous wave of the sea; but we had noidea how large it was till it came near to ourselves. When it approachedthe outer reef, however, we were awe-struck with its unusual magnitude;and we sprang to our feet, and clambered hastily up to the highest pointof the precipice, under an indefinable feeling of fear.

  I have said before that the reef opposite Spouting Cliff was very near tothe shore, while, just in front of the bower, it was at a considerabledistance out to sea. Owing to this formation, the wave reached the reefat the latter point before it struck at the foot of Spouting Cliff. Theinstant it touched the reef we became aware, for the first time, of itsawful magnitude. It burst completely over the reef at all points, with aroar that seemed louder to me than thunder; and this roar continued forsome seconds, while the wave rolled gradually along towards the cliff onwhich we stood. As its crest reared before us, we felt that we were ingreat danger, and turned to flee; but we were too late. With a crashthat seemed to shake the solid rocks the gigantic billow fell, andinstantly the spouting-holes sent up a gush of water-spouts with suchforce that they shrieked on issuing from their narrow vents. It seemedto us as if the earth had been blown up with water. We were stunned andconfused by the shock, and so drenched and blinded with spray, that weknew not for a few moments whither to flee for shelter. At length we allthree gained an eminence beyond the reach of the water; but what a sceneof devastation met our gaze as we looked along the shore! This enormouswave not only burst over the reef, but continued its way across thelagoon, and fell on the sandy beach of the island with such force thatpassed completely over it and dashed into the woods, levelling thesmaller trees and bushes in its headlong course!

  On seeing this, Jack said he feared our bower must have been swept away,and that the boat, which was on the beach, must have been utterlydestroyed. Our hearts sank within us as we thought of this, and wehastened round through the woods towards our home. On reaching it wefound, to our great relief of mind, that the force of the wave had beenexpended just before reaching the bower; but the entrance to it wasalmost blocked up by the torn-up bushes and tangled heaps of sea-weed.Having satisfied ourselves as to the bower, we hurried to the spot wherethe boat had been left; but no boat was there! The spot on which it hadstood was vacant, and no sign of it could we see on looking around us.

  "It may have been washed up into the woods," said Jack, hurrying up thebeach as he spoke. Still, no boat was to be seen, and we were about togive ourselves over to despair, when Peterkin called to Jack and said,--

  "Jack, my friend, you were once so exceedingly sagacious and wise as tomake me acquainted with the fact that cocoa nuts grow upon trees; willyou now be so good as to inform me what sort of fruit that is growing onthe top of yonder bush? for I confess to being ignorant, or, at least,doubtful on the point."

  We looked towards the bush indicated, and there, to our surprise, beheldour little boat snugly nestled among the leaves! We were very muchoverjoyed at this, for we would have suffered any loss rather than theloss of our boat. We found that the wave had actually borne the boat onits crest from the beach into the woods, and there launched it into theheart of this bush; which was extremely fortunate, for had it been tossedagainst a rock or a tree, it would have been dashed to pieces, whereas ithad not received the smallest injury. It was no easy matter, however, toget it out of the bush and down to the sea again. This cost us two daysof hard labour to accomplish.

  We had also much ado to clear away the rubbish from before the bower, andspent nearly a week in constant labour ere we got the neighbourhood tolook as clean and orderly as before; for the uprooted bushes and sea-weedthat lay on the beach formed a more dreadfully confused-looking mass thanone who had not seen the place after the inundation could conceive.

  Before leaving the subject I may mention, for the sake of those whointerest themselves in the curious natural phenomena of our world, thatthis gigantic wave occurs regularly on some of the islands of thePacific, once, and sometimes twice in the year. I heard this stated bythe missionaries during my career in those seas. They could not tell mewhether it visited all of the islands, but I was certainly assured thatit occurred periodically in some of them.

  After we had got our home put to rights and cleared of the _debris_ ofthe inundation, we again turned our thoughts to paying the penguins avisit. The boat was therefore overhauled and a few repairs done. Thenwe prepared a supply of provisions, for we intended to be absent at leasta night or two, perhaps longer. This took us some time to do, for whileJack was busy with the boat, Peterkin was sent into the woods to spear ahog or two, and had to search long, sometimes, ere he found them.Peterkin was usually sent on this errand, when we wanted a pork chop(which was not seldom), because he was so active, and could run sowonderfully fast that he found no difficulty in overtaking the hogs; but,being dreadfully reckless, he almost invariably tumbled over stumps andstones in the course of his wild chase, and seldom returned home withouthaving knocked the skin off his shins. Once, indeed, a more seriousaccident happened to him. He had been out all morning alone and did notreturn at the usual time to dinner. We wondered at this, for Peterkinwas always very punctual at the dinner hour. As supper-time drew near webegan to be anxious about him, and at length sallied forth to search thewoods. For a long time we sought in vain, but a little before dark wecame upon the tracks of the hogs, which we followed up until we came tothe brow of a rather steep bank or precipice. Looking over this webeheld Peterkin lying in a state of insensibility at the foot, with hischeek resting on the snout of a little pig, which was pinned to the earthby the spear!
We were dreadfully alarmed, but hastened to bathe hisforehead with water, and had soon the satisfaction of seeing him revive.After we had carried him home he related to as how the thing hadhappened.

  "You must know," said he, "I walked about all the forenoon, till I was astired as an old donkey, without seeing a single grunter, not so much as atrack of one; but, as I was determined not to return empty-handed, Iresolved to go without my dinner and--"

  "What!" exclaimed Jack, "did you _really_ resolve to do that?"

  "Now, Jack, hold your tongue," returned Peterkin; "I say that I resolvedto forego my dinner and to push to the head of the small valley, where Ifelt pretty sure of discovering the hogs. I soon found that I was on theright scent, for I had scarcely walked half a mile in the direction ofthe small plum tree we found there the other day, when a squeak fell onmy ear. 'Ho, ho,' said I, 'there you go, my boys;' and I hurried up theglen. I soon started them, and singling out a fat pig, ran tilt at him.In a few seconds I was up with him, and stuck my spear right through hisdumpy body. Just as I did so, I saw that we were on the edge of aprecipice, whether high or low I knew not, but I had been running at sucha pace that I could not stop, so the pig and I gave a howl in concert andwent plunging over together. I remembered nothing more after that, tillI came to my senses and found you bathing my temples, and Ralph wringinghis hands over me."

  But although Peterkin was often unfortunate, in the way of gettingtumbles, he was successful on the present occasion in hunting, andreturned before evening with three very nice little hogs. I, also, wassuccessful in my visit to the mud-flats, where I killed several ducks. Sothat, when we launched and loaded our boat at sunrise the followingmorning, we found our store of provisions to be more than sufficient.Part had been cooked the night before, and, on taking note of thedifferent items, we found the account to stand thus:--

  10 Bread-fruits, (two baked, eight unbaked.)20 Yams, (six roasted, the rest raw.)6 Taro roots.50 Fine large plums.6 Cocoa nuts, ripe.6 Ditto green, (for drinking.)4 Large ducks and two small ones, raw.3 Cold roast pigs, with stuffing.

  I may here remark that the stuffing had been devised by Peterkinspecially for the occasion. He kept the manner of its compounding aprofound secret, so I cannot tell what it was; but I can say, with muchconfidence, that we found it to be atrociously bad, and, after the firsttasting, scraped it carefully out and threw it overboard. We calculatedthat this supply would last us for several days, but we afterwards foundthat it was much more than we required, especially in regard to the cocoanuts, of which we found large supplies wherever we went. However, asPeterkin remarked, it was better to have too much than too little, as weknew not to what straits we might be put during our voyage.

  It was a very calm sunny morning when we launched forth and rowed overthe lagoon towards the outlet in the reef, and passed between the twogreen islets that guard the entrance. We experienced some difficulty andno little danger in passing the surf of the breaker, and shipped a gooddeal of water in the attempt; but, once past the billow, we foundourselves floating placidly on the long oily swell that rose and fellslowly as it rolled over the wide ocean.

  Penguin Island lay on the other side of our own island, at about a milebeyond the outer reef, and we calculated that it must be at least twentymiles distant by the way we should have to go. We might, indeed, haveshortened the way by coasting round our island inside of the lagoon, andgoing out at the passage in the reef nearly opposite to Penguin Island,but we preferred to go by the open sea; first, because it was moreadventurous; and, secondly, because we should have the pleasure of againfeeling the motion of the deep, which we all loved very much, not beingliable to sea sickness.

  "I wish we had a breeze," said Jack.

  "So do I," cried Peterkin, resting on his oar and wiping his heated brow;"pulling is hard work. Oh dear, if we could only catch a hundred or twoof these gulls, tie them to the boat with long strings, and make them flyas we want them, how capital it would be!"

  "Or bore a hole through a shark's tail, and reeve a rope through it, eh?"remarked Jack. "But, I say, it seems that my wish is going to begranted, for here comes a breeze. Ship your oar, Peterkin. Up with themast, Ralph; I'll see to the sail. Mind your helm; look out forsqualls!"

  This last speech was caused by the sudden appearance of a dark blue lineon the horizon, which, in an incredibly short space of time, swept downon us, lashing up the sea in white foam as it went. We presented thestern of the boat to its first violence, and, in a few seconds, itmoderated into a steady breeze, to which we spread our sail and flewmerrily over the waves. Although the breeze died away soon afterwards,it had been so stiff while it lasted, that we were carried over thegreater part of our way before it fell calm again; so that, when theflapping of the sail against the mast told us that it was time to resumethe oars, we were not much more than a mile from Penguin Island.

  "There go the soldiers!" cried Peterkin as we came in sight of it; "howspruce their white trousers look, this morning! I wonder if they willreceive us kindly. D'you think they are hospitable, Jack?"

  "Don't talk, Peterkin, but pull away, and you shall see shortly."

  As we drew near to the island we were much amused by the manoeuvres andappearance of these strange birds. They seemed to be of differentspecies, for some had crests on their heads while others had none, andwhile some were about the size of a goose others appeared nearly as largeas a swan. We also saw a huge albatross soaring above the heads of thepenguins. It was followed and surrounded by numerous flocks ofsea-gulls. Having approached to within a few yards of the island, whichwas a low rock, with no other vegetation on it than a few bushes, we layon our oars and gazed at the birds with surprise and pleasure, theyreturning our gaze with interest. We now saw that their soldier-likeappearance was owing to the stiff, erect manner in which they sat ontheir short legs,--"Bolt-up-right," as Peterkin expressed it. They hadblack heads, long sharp beaks, white breasts, and bluish backs. Theirwings were so short that they looked more like the fins of a fish, and,indeed, we soon saw that they used them for the purpose of swimming underwater. There were no quills on these wings, but a sort of scalyfeathers; which also thickly covered their bodies. Their legs wereshort, and placed so far back that the birds, while on land, were obligedto stand quite upright in order to keep their balance; but in the waterthey floated like other water-fowl. At first we were so stunned with theclamour which they and other sea-birds kept up around us, that we knewnot which way to look,--for they covered the rocks in thousands; but, aswe continued to gaze, we observed several quadrupeds (as we thought)walking in the midst of the penguins.

  "Pull in a bit," cried Peterkin, "and let's see what these are. Theymust be fond of noisy company, to consort with such creatures."

  To our surprise we found that these were no other than penguins which hadgone down on all fours, and were crawling among the bushes on their feetand wings, just like quadrupeds. Suddenly one big old bird, that hadbeen sitting on a point very near to us, gazing in mute astonishment,became alarmed, and, scuttling down the rocks, plumped or fell, ratherthan ran, into the sea. It dived in a moment, and, a few secondsafterwards, came out of the water far a-head, with such a spring, andsuch a dive back into the sea again, that we could scarcely believe itwas not a fish that had leaped in sport.

  "That beats everything," said Peterkin, rubbing his nose, and screwing uphis face with an expression of exasperated amazement. "I've heard of athing being neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, but I never did expect to liveto see a brute that was all three together,--at once--in one! But lookthere!" he continued, pointing with a look of resignation to the shore,"look there! there's no end to it. What _has_ that brute got under itstail?"

  We turned to look in the direction pointed out, and there saw a penguinwalking slowly and very sedately along the shore with an egg under itstail. There were several others, we observed, burdened in the same way;and we found afterwards that these were a species of penguins that alwayscarried their eggs so. Indee
d, they had a most convenient cavity for thepurpose, just between the tail and the legs. We were very much impressedwith the regularity and order of this colony. The island seemed to beapportioned out into squares, of which each penguin possessed one, andsat in stiff solemnity in the middle of it, or took a slow march up anddown the spaces between. Some were hatching their eggs, but others werefeeding their young ones in a manner that caused us to laugh not alittle. The mother stood on a mound or raised rock, while the young onestood patiently below her on the ground. Suddenly the mother raised herhead and uttered a series of the most discordant cackling sounds.

  "She's going to choke," cried Peterkin.

  But this was not the case, although, I confess, she looked like it. In afew seconds she put down her head and opened her mouth, into which theyoung one thrust its beak and seemed to suck something from her throat.Then the cackling was renewed, the sucking continued, and so theoperation of feeding was carried on till the young one was satisfied; butwhat she fed her little one with, we could not tell.

  "Now, just look yonder!" said Peterkin, in an excited tone; "if thatisn't the most abominable piece of maternal deception I ever saw. Thatrascally old lady penguin has just pitched her young one into the sea,and there's another about to follow her example."

  This indeed seemed to be the cue, for, on the top of a steep rock closeto the edge of the sea, we observed an old penguin endeavouring to enticeher young one into the water; but the young one seemed very unwilling togo, and, notwithstanding the enticements of its mother, moved very slowlytowards her. At last she went gently behind the young bird and pushed ita little towards the water, but with great tenderness, as much as to say,'Don't be afraid, darling! I won't hurt you, my pet!' but no sooner didshe get it to the edge of the rock, where it stood looking pensively downat the sea, than she gave it a sudden and violent push, sending itheadlong down the slope into the water, where its mother left it toscramble ashore as it best could. We observed many of them employed indoing this, and we came to the conclusion that this is the way in whichold penguins teach their children to swim.

  Scarcely had we finished making our remarks on this, when we werestartled by about a dozen of the old birds hopping in the most clumsy andludicrous manner towards the sea. The beach, here, was a sloping rock,and when they came to it, some of them succeeded in hopping down insafety, but others lost their balance and rolled and scrambled down theslope in the most helpless manner. The instant they reached the water,however, they seemed to be in their proper element. They dived andbounded out of it and into it again with the utmost agility; and so,diving and bounding and spluttering, for they could not fly, they wentrapidly out to sea.

  On seeing this, Peterkin turned with a grave face to us and said, "It'smy opinion that these birds are all stark, staring mad, and that this isan enchanted island. I therefore propose that we should either put aboutship and fly in terror from the spot, or land valorously on the island,and sell our lives as dearly as we can."

  "I vote for landing, so pull in, lads," said Jack, giving a stroke withhis oar that made the boat spin. In a few seconds we ran the boat into alittle creek where we made her fast to a projecting piece of coral, and,running up the beach, entered the ranks of the penguins armed with ourcudgels and our spear. We were greatly surprised to find that, insteadof attacking us or showing signs of fear at our approach, these curiousbirds did not move from their places until we laid hands on them, andmerely turned their eyes on us in solemn, stupid wonder as we passed.There was one old penguin, however, that began to walk slowly toward thesea, and Peterkin took it into his head that he would try to interruptits progress, so he ran between it and the sea and brandished his cudgelin its face. But this proved to be a resolute old bird. It would notretreat; nay, more, it would not cease to advance, but battled withPeterkin bravely and drove him before it until it reached the sea. HadPeterkin used his club he could easily have felled it, no doubt; but, ashe had no wish to do so cruel an act merely out of sport, he let the birdescape.

  We spent fully three hours on this island in watching the habits of thesecurious birds, and, when we finally left them, we all three concluded,after much consultation, that they were the most wonderful creatures wehad ever seen; and further, we thought it probable that they were themost wonderful creatures in the world!