CHAPTER XXX.
The voyage--The island, and a consultation in which danger is scouted asa thing unworthy of consideration--Rats and cats--The nativeteacher--Awful revelations--Wonderful effects of Christianity.
Our voyage during the next two weeks was most interesting and prosperous.The breeze continued generally fair, and at all times enabled us to lieour course; for being, as I have said before, clipper-built, the pirateschooner could lie very close to the wind, and made little lee-way. Wehad no difficulty now in managing our sails, for Jack was heavy andpowerful, while Peterkin was active as a kitten. Still, however, we werea very insufficient crew for such a vessel, and if any one had proposedto us to make such a voyage in it before we had been forced to go throughso many hardships from necessity, we would have turned away with pityfrom the individual making such proposal as from a madman. I ponderedthis a good deal, and at last concluded that men do not know how muchthey are capable of doing till they try, and that we should never giveway to despair in any undertaking, however difficult it may seem:--alwayssupposing, however, that our cause is a good one, and that we can ask thedivine blessing on it.
Although, therefore, we could now manage our sails easily, wenevertheless found that my pulleys were of much service to us in somethings; though Jack did laugh heartily at the uncouth arrangement ofropes and blocks, which had, to a sailor's eye, a very lumbering andclumsy appearance. But I will not drag my reader through the details ofthis voyage. Suffice it to say, that, after an agreeable sail of aboutthree weeks, we arrived off the island of Mango, which I recognised atonce from the description that the pirate, Bill, had given me of itduring one of our conversations.
As soon as we came within sight of it we hove the ship to, and held acouncil of war.
"Now, boys," said Jack, as we seated ourselves beside him on the cabinsky-light, "before we go farther in this business, we must go over thepros and cons of it; for, although you have so generously consented tostick by me through thick and thin, it would be unfair did I not see thatyou thoroughly understand the danger of what we are about to attempt."
"Oh! bother the danger," cried Peterkin; "I wonder to hear _you_, Jack,talk of danger. When a fellow begins to talk about it, he'll soon cometo magnify it to such a degree that he'll not be fit to face it when itcomes, no more than a suckin' baby!"
"Nay, Peterkin," replied Jack, gravely, "I won't be jested out of it. Igrant you, that, when we've once resolved to act, and have made up ourminds what to do, we should think no more of danger. But, before we haveso resolved, it behoves us to look at it straight in the face, andexamine into it, and walk round it; for if we flinch at a distant view,we're sure to run away when the danger is near. Now, I understand fromyou, Ralph, that the island is inhabited by thorough-going, out-and-outcannibals, whose principal law is--'Might is right, and the weakest goesto the wall?'"
"Yes," said I, "so Bill gave me to understand. He told me, however,that, at the southern side of it, the missionaries had obtained a footingamongst an insignificant tribe. A native teacher had been sent there bythe Wesleyans, who had succeeded in persuading the chief at that part toembrace Christianity. But instead of that being of any advantage to ourenterprise, it seems the very reverse; for the chief Tararo is adetermined heathen, and persecutes the Christians,--who are far too weakin numbers to offer any resistance,--and looks with dislike upon allwhite men, whom he regards as propagators of the new faith."
"'Tis a pity," said Jack, "that the Christian tribe is so small, for weshall scarcely be safe under their protection, I fear. If Tararo takesit into his head to wish for our vessel, or to kill ourselves, he couldtake us from them by force. You say that the native missionary talksEnglish?"
"So I believe."
"Then, what I propose is this," said Jack: "We will run round to thesouth side of the island, and cut anchor off the Christian village. Weare too far away just now to have been descried by any of the savages, sowe shall get there unobserved, and have time to arrange our plans beforethe heathen tribes know of our presence. But, in doing this, we run therisk of being captured by the ill-disposed tribes, and being very illused, if not--a--"
"Roasted alive and eaten," cried Peterkin. "Come, out with it, Jack;according to your own showing, it's well to look the danger straight inthe face!"
"Well, that is the worst of it, certainly. Are you prepared, then, totake your chance of that?"
"I've been prepared and had my mind made up long ago," cried Peterkin,swaggering about the deck with his hands thrust into his breeches'pockets. "The fact is, Jack, I don't believe that Tararo will be soungrateful as to eat us; and I'm quite sure that he'll be too happy togrant us whatever we ask: so the sooner we go in and win the better."
Peterkin was wrong, however, in his estimate of savage gratitude, as thesequel will show.
The schooner was now put before the wind, and, after making a long run tothe south'ard, we put about and beat up for the south side of Mango,where we arrived before sunset, and hove-to off the coral reef. Here weawaited the arrival of a canoe, which immediately put off on our roundingto. When it arrived, a mild-looking native, of apparently forty years ofage, came on board, and, taking off his straw hat, made us a low bow. Hewas clad in a respectable suit of European clothes; and the first wordshe uttered, as he stepped up to Jack and shook hands with him, were,--
"Good day, gentlemen; we are happy to see you at Mango--you are heartilywelcome."
After returning his salutation, Jack exclaimed, "You must be the nativemissionary teacher of whom I have heard--are you not?"
"I am. I have the joy to be a servant of the Lord Jesus at thisstation."
"You're the very man I want to see, then," replied Jack; "that's lucky.Come down to the cabin, friend, and have a glass of wine. I wishparticularly to speak with you. My men there" (pointing to Peterkin andme) "will look after your people."
"Thank you," said the teacher, as he followed Jack to the cabin, "I donot drink wine or any strong drink."
"Oh! then, there's lots of water, and you can have biscuit."
"Now, 'pon my word, that's cool!" said Peterkin; "his _men_, forsooth!Well, since we are to be men, we may as well come it as strong over theseblack chaps as we can. Hallo, there!" he cried to the half dozen ofnatives who stood upon the deck, gazing in wonder at all they saw,"here's for you;" and he handed them a tray of broken biscuit and a canof water. Then, thrusting his hands into his pockets, he walked up anddown the deck with an enormous swagger, whistling vociferously.
In about half an hour Jack and the teacher came on deck, and the latter,bidding us a cheerful good evening, entered his canoe and paddled to theshore. When he was gone, Peterkin stepped up to Jack, and, touching hiscap, said,--
"Well, captain, have you any communications to make to your _men_?"
"Yes," cried Jack; "ready about, mind the helm and clew up your tongue,while I con the schooner through the passage in the reef. The teacher,who seems a first-rate fellow, says it's quite deep, and good anchoragewithin the lagoon close to the shore."
While the vessel was slowly advancing to her anchorage, under a lightbreeze, Jack explained to us that Avatea was still on the island, livingamongst the heathens; that she had expressed a strong desire to join theChristians, but Tararo would not let her, and kept her constantly inclose confinement.
"Moreover," continued Jack, "I find that she belongs to one of the SamoanIslands, where Christianity had been introduced long before her captureby the heathens of a neighbouring island; and the very day after she wastaken, she was to have joined the church which had been planted there bythat excellent body, the London Missionary Society. The teacher tellsme, too, that the poor girl has fallen in love with a Christian chief,who lives on an island some fifty miles or so to the south of this one,and that she is meditating a desperate attempt at escape. So, you see,we have come in the nick of time. I fancy that this chief is the fellowwhom you heard of, Ralph, at the Island of Emo. Besides all this, theheathen
savages are at war among themselves, and there's to be a battlefought the day after to-morrow, in which the principal leader is Tararo;so that we'll not be able to commence our negotiations with the rascallychief till the day after."
The village off which we anchored was beautifully situated at the head ofa small bay, from the margin of which trees of every description peculiarto the tropics rose in the richest luxuriance to the summit of a hillyridge, which was the line of demarcation between the possessions of theChristians and those of the neighbouring heathen chief.
The site of the settlement was an extensive plot of flat land, stretchingin a gentle slope from the sea to the mountain. The cottages stoodseveral hundred yards from the beach, and were protected from the glareof the sea by the rich foliage of rows of large Barringtonia and othertrees, which girt the shore. The village was about a mile in length, andperfectly straight, with a wide road down the middle, on either side ofwhich were rows of the tufted-topped ti tree, whose delicate andbeautiful blossoms, hanging beneath their plume-crested tops, addedrichness to the scene. The cottages of the natives were built beneaththese trees, and were kept in the most excellent order, each having alittle garden in front, tastefully laid out and planted, while the walkswere covered with black and white pebbles.
Every house had doors and Venetian windows, painted partly with lampblack made from the candle-nut, and partly with red ochre, whichcontrasted powerfully with the dazzling coral lime that covered thewalls. On a prominent position stood a handsome church, which was quitea curiosity in its way. It was a hundred feet long by fifty broad, andwas seated throughout to accommodate upwards of two thousand persons. Ithad six large folding doors and twelve windows with Venetian blinds; and,although a large and substantial edifice, it had been built, we were toldby the teacher, in the space of two months! There was not a single ironnail in the fabric, and the natives had constructed it chiefly with theirstone and bone axes and other tools, having only one or two axes or toolsof European manufacture. Everything around this beautiful spot wore anaspect of peace and plenty, and, as we dropped our anchor within astone's cast of the substantial coral wharf, I could not avoidcontrasting it with the wretched village of Emo, where I had witnessed somany frightful scenes. When the teacher afterwards told me that thepeople of this tribe had become converts only a year previous to ourarrival, and that they had been living before that in the practice of themost bloody system of idolatry, I could not refrain from exclaiming,"What a convincing proof that Christianity is of God!"
On landing from our little boat, we were received with a warm welcome bythe teacher and his wife; the latter being also a native, clothed in asimple European gown and straw bonnet. The shore was lined with hundredsof natives, whose persons were all more or less clothed with nativecloth. Some of the men had on a kind of poncho formed of this cloth,their legs being uncovered. Others wore clumsily-fashioned trousers, andno upper garment except hats made of straw and cloth. Many of thedresses, both of women and men, were grotesque enough, being very badimitations of the European garb; but all wore a dress of some sort orother. They seemed very glad to see us, and crowded round us as theteacher led the way to his dwelling, where we were entertained, in themost sumptuous manner, on baked pig and all the varieties of fruits andvegetables that the island produced. We were much annoyed, however, bythe rats: they seemed to run about the house like domestic animals. Aswe sat at table, one of them peeped up at us over the edge of the cloth,close to Peterkin's elbow, who floored it with a blow on the snout fromhis knife, exclaiming as he did so--
"I say, Mister Teacher, why don't you set traps for these brutes?--surelyyou are not fond of them!"
"No," replied the teacher, with a smile; "we would be glad to get rid ofthem if we could; but if we were to trap all the rats on the island, itwould occupy our whole time."
"Are they, then, so numerous?" inquired Jack.
"They swarm everywhere. The poor heathens on the north side eat them,and think them very sweet. So did my people formerly; but they do noteat so many now, because the missionary who was last here expresseddisgust at it. The poor people asked if it was wrong to eat rats; and hetold them that it was certainly not wrong, but that the people of Englandwould be much disgusted were they asked to eat rats."
We had not been an hour in the house of this kind-hearted man when wewere convinced of the truth of his statement as to their numbers, for therats ran about the floors in dozens, and, during our meal, two men werestationed at the table to keep them off!
"What a pity you have no cats," said Peterkin, as he aimed a blow atanother reckless intruder, and missed it.
"We would, indeed, be glad to have a few," rejoined the teacher, "butthey are difficult to be got. The hogs, we find, are very goodrat-killers, but they do not seem to be able to keep the numbers down. Ihave heard that they are better than cats."
As the teacher said this, his good-natured black face was wrinkled with asmile of merriment. Observing that I had noticed it, he said:--
"I smiled just now when I remembered the fate of the first cat that wastaken to Raratonga. This is one of the stations of the London MissionarySociety. It, like our own, is infested with rats, and a cat was broughtat last to the island. It was a large black one. On being turned loose,instead of being content to stay among men, the cat took to themountains, and lived in a wild state, sometimes paying visits during thenight to the houses of the natives; some of whom, living at a distancefrom the settlement, had not heard of the cat's arrival, and weredreadfully frightened in consequence, calling it a 'monster of the deep,'and flying in terror away from it. One night the cat, feeling a desirefor company, I suppose, took its way to the house of a chief, who hadrecently been converted to Christianity, and had begun to learn to readand pray. The chief's wife, who was sitting awake at his side while heslept, beheld with horror two fires glistening in the doorway, and heardwith surprise a mysterious voice. Almost petrified with fear, she awokeher husband, and began to upbraid him for forsaking his old religion, andburning his god, who, she declared, was now come to be avenged of them.'Get up and pray! get up and pray!' she cried. The chief arose, and, onopening his eyes, beheld the same glaring lights, and heard the sameominous sound. Impelled by the extreme urgency of the case, hecommenced, with all possible vehemence, to vociferate the alphabet, as aprayer to God to deliver them from the vengeance of Satan! On hearingthis, the cat, as much alarmed as themselves, fled precipitately away,leaving the chief and his wife congratulating themselves on the efficacyof their prayer."
We were much diverted with this anecdote, which the teacher related inEnglish so good, that we certainly could not have supposed him a nativebut for the colour of his face and the foreign accent in his tone. Nextday we walked out with this interesting man, and were much entertainedand instructed by his conversation, as we rambled through the cool shadygroves of bananas, citrons, limes, and other trees, or sauntered amongthe cottages of the natives, and watched them while they laboureddiligently in the taro beds, or manufactured the tapa or native cloth. Tosome of these Jack put questions through the medium of the missionary;and the replies were such as to surprise us at the extent of theirknowledge. Indeed, Peterkin very truly remarked that "they seemed toknow a considerable deal more than Jack himself!"
Among other pieces of interesting information that we obtained was thefollowing, in regard to coral formations:--
"The islands of the Pacific," said our friend, "are of three differentkinds or classes. Those of the first class are volcanic, mountainous,and wild; some shooting their jagged peaks into the clouds at anelevation of ten and fifteen thousand feet. Those of the second classare of crystalized limestone, and vary in height from one hundred to fivehundred feet. The hills on these are not so wild or broken as those ofthe first class, but are richly clothed with vegetation, and verybeautiful. I have no doubt that the Coral Island on which you werewrecked was one of this class. They are supposed to have been upheavedfrom the bottom of the sea b
y volcanic agency, but they are notthemselves volcanic in their nature, neither are they of coral formation.Those of the third class are the low coralline islands usually havinglagoons of water in their midst; they are very numerous.
"As to the manner in which coral islands and reefs are formed; there arevarious opinions on this point. I will give you what seems to me themost probable theory,--a theory, I may add, which is held by some of thegood and scientific missionaries. It is well known that there is muchlime in salt water; it is also known that coral is composed of lime. Itis supposed that the polypes, or coral insects, have the power ofattracting this lime to their bodies; and with this material they buildtheir little cells or habitations. They choose the summit of a volcano,or the top of a submarine mountain, as a foundation on which to build;for it is found that they never work at any great depth below thesurface. On this they work; the polypes on the mountain top, of course,reach the surface first, then those at the outer edges reach the topsooner than the others between them and the centre, thus forming thecoral reef surrounding the lagoon of water and the central island; afterthat the insects within the lagoon cease working. When the surface ofthe water is reached, these myriads of wonderful creatures die. Thenbirds visit the spot, and seeds are thus conveyed thither, which takeroot, and spring up, and flourish. Thus are commenced those corallineislets of which you have seen so many in these seas. The reefs round thelarge islands are formed in a similar manner. When we consider," addedthe missionary, "the smallness of the architects used by our heavenlyFather in order to form those lovely and innumerable islands, we arefilled with much of that feeling which induced the ancient king toexclaim, 'How manifold, O God, are thy works! in wisdom thou hast madethem all.'"
We all heartily agreed with the missionary in this sentiment, and feltnot a little gratified to find that the opinions which Jack and I hadbeen led to form from personal observation on our Coral Island were thusto a great extent corroborated.
The missionary also gave us an account of the manner in whichChristianity had been introduced among them. He said: "When missionarieswere first sent here, three years ago, a small vessel brought them; andthe chief, who is now dead, promised to treat well the two nativeteachers who were left with their wives on the island. But scarcely hadthe boat which landed them returned to the ship, than the natives beganto maltreat their guests, taking away all they possessed, and offeringthem further violence, so that, when the boat was sent in haste to fetchthem away, the clothes of both men and women were torn nearly off theirbacks.
"Two years after this the vessel visited them again, and I, being in her,volunteered to land alone, without any goods whatever; begging that mywife might be brought to me the following year,--that is, _this_ year;and, as you see, she is with me. But the surf was so high that the boatcould not land me; so with nothing on but my trousers and shirt, and witha few catechisms and a Bible, besides some portions of the Scripturetranslated into the Mango tongue, I sprang into the sea, and swam ashoreon the crest of a breaker. I was instantly dragged up the beach by thenatives; who, on finding I had nothing worth having upon me, let mealone. I then made signs to my friends in the ship to leave me; whichthey did. At fist the natives listened to me in silence, but laughed atwhat I said while I preached the gospel of our blessed Saviour JesusChrist to them. Afterwards they treated me ill sometimes; but Ipersevered, and continued to dwell among them, and dispute, and exhortthem to give up their sinful ways of life, burn their idols, and come toJesus.
"About a month after I landed, I heard that the chief was dead. He wasthe father of the present chief, who is now a most consistent member ofthe church. It is a custom here that, when a chief dies, his wives arestrangled and buried with him. Knowing this, I hastened to his house toendeavour to prevent such cruelty if possible. When I arrived, I foundtwo of the wives had already been killed, while another was in the act ofbeing strangled. I pleaded hard for her, but it was too late; she wasalready dead. I then entreated the son to spare the fourth wife; and,after much hesitation, my prayer was granted: but, in half an hourafterwards, this poor woman repented of being unfaithful, as she termedit, to her husband, and insisted on being strangled; which wasaccordingly done.
"All this time the chief's son was walking up and down before hisfather's house with a brow black as thunder. When he entered, I went inwith him, and found, to my surprise, that his father was not dead! Theold man was sitting on a mat in a corner, with an expression of placidresignation on his face.
"'Why,' said I, 'have you strangled your father's wives before he isdead?'
"To this the son replied, 'He is dead. That is no longer my father. Heis as good as dead now. He is to be _buried alive_.'
"I now remembered having heard that it is a custom among the Feejeeislanders, that when the reigning chief grows old or infirm, the heir tothe chieftainship has a right to depose his father; in which case he isconsidered as dead, and is buried alive. The young chief was now aboutto follow this custom, and, despite my earnest entreaties and pleadings,the old chief was buried that day before my eyes in the same grave withhis four strangled wives! Oh! my heart groaned when I saw this, and Iprayed to God to open the hearts of these poor creatures, as he hadalready opened mine, and pour into them the light and the love of thegospel of Jesus. My prayer was answered very soon. A week afterwards,the son, who was now chief of the tribe, came to me, bearing his god onhis shoulders, and groaning beneath its weight. Flinging it down at myfeet, he desired me to burn it!
"You may conceive how overjoyed I was at this. I sprang up and embracedhim, while I shed tears of joy. Then we made a fire, and burned the godto ashes, amid an immense concourse of the people, who seemed terrifiedat what was being done, and shrank back when we burned the god, expectingsome signal vengeance to be taken upon us; but seeing that nothinghappened, they changed their minds, and thought that our God must be thetrue one after all. From that time the mission prospered steadily, andnow, while there is not a single man in the tribe who has not burned hishousehold gods, and become a convert to Christianity, there are not afew, I hope, who are true followers of the Lamb, having been plucked asbrands from the burning by Him who can save unto the uttermost. I willnot tell you more of our progress at this time, but you see," he said,waving his hand around him, "the village and the church did not exist ayear ago!"
We were indeed much interested in this account, and I could not helpagain in my heart praying God to prosper those missionary societies thatsend such inestimable blessings to these islands of dark and bloodyidolatry. The teacher also added that the other tribes were veryindignant at this one for having burned its gods, and threatened todestroy it altogether, but they had done nothing yet; "and if theyshould," said the teacher, "the Lord is on our side; of whom shall we beafraid?"
"Have the missionaries many stations in these seas?" inquired Jack.
"Oh, yes. The London Missionary Society have a great many in the Tahitigroup, and other islands in that quarter. Then the Wesleyans have theFeejee Islands all to themselves, and the Americans have many stations inother groups. But still, my friend, there are hundreds of islands herethe natives of which have never heard of Jesus, or the good word of God,or the Holy Spirit; and thousands are living and dying in the practice ofthose terrible sins and bloody murders of which you have already heard. Itrust, my friends," he added, looking earnestly into our faces, "I trustthat if you ever return to England, you will tell your Christian friendsthat the horrors which they hear of in regard to these islands are_literally true_, and that when they have heard the worst, the '_half hasnot been told them_;' for there are perpetrated here foul deeds ofdarkness of which man may not speak. You may also tell them," he said,looking around with a smile, while a tear of gratitude trembled in hiseye and rolled down his coal-black cheek,--"tell them of the blessingsthat the gospel has wrought _here_!"
We assured our friend that we would certainly not forget his request. Onreturning towards the village, about noon, we remarked
on the beautifulwhiteness of the cottages.
"That is owing to the lime with which they are plastered," said theteacher. "When the natives were converted, as I have described, I setthem to work to build cottages for themselves, and also this handsomechurch which you see. When the framework and other parts of the houseswere up, I sent the people to fetch coral from the sea. They broughtimmense quantities. Then I made them cut wood, and, piling the coralabove it, set it on fire.
"'Look! look!' cried the poor people, in amazement; 'what wonderfulpeople the Christians are! He is roasting stones. We shall not needtaro or bread-fruit any more; we may eat stones!'
"But their surprise was still greater when the coral was reduced to afine soft white powder. They immediately set up a great shout, and,mingling the lime with water, rubbed their faces and their bodies allover with it, and ran through the village screaming with delight. Theywere also much surprised at another thing they saw me do. I wished tomake some household furniture, and constructed a turning-lathe to assistme. The first thing that I turned was the leg of a sofa; which was nosooner finished than the chief seized it with wonder and delight, and ranthrough the village exhibiting it to the people, who looked upon it withgreat admiration. The chief then, tying a string to it, hung it roundhis neck as an ornament! He afterwards told me that if he had seen itbefore he became a Christian he would have made it his god!"
As the teacher concluded this anecdote we reached his door. Saying thathe had business to attend to, he left us to amuse ourselves as we bestcould.
"Now, lads," said Jack, turning abruptly towards us, and buttoning up hisjacket as he spoke, "I'm off to see the battle. I've no particularfondness for seein' blood-shed, but I must find out the nature o' thesefellows and see their customs with my own eyes, so that I may be able tospeak of it again, if need be, authoritatively. It's only six miles off,and we don't run much more risk than that of getting a rap with a straystone or an over-shot arrow. Will you go?"
"To be sure we will," said Peterkin.
"If they chance to see us we'll cut and run for it," added Jack.
"Dear me!" cried Peterkin,--"_you_ run! thought you would scorn to runfrom any one."
"So I would, if it were my duty to fight," returned Jack, coolly; "but asI don't want to fight, and don't intend to fight, if they offer to attackus I'll run away like the veriest coward that ever went by the name ofPeterkin. So come along."
The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean Page 30
