The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane

by Frank Barrett

  CHAPTER IX.

  WE FIND OURSELVES ON A DESERT ISLAND, AND LITTLE COMFORT BESIDES.

  After a while we returned to the place where we lay during the night;and, looking about us, found that the cruel Cazique had taken away thekeg of powder, the puncheon of rum, ay, the very bread we had broughtfor our refreshment on landing; thus robbing us of our presentsubsistence and the means of procuring other.

  Seeing this, Sir Harry threw himself on the sand and sobbed out aloud;for as yet he had suffered never any hardship or disappointment. But itwas otherwise with me, for many a time had I endured privation and knownno hope. Yet did it move my heart to see a strong man, and one naturallylight of heart, gay, and of high spirit, so abased; so I sat down besidehim, and, laying my hand on his shoulder, spoke such comforting words asmy tongue, unused to such exercise, could command. And this may seemstrange, seeing that hitherto I had borne him no love, but ratherjealousy and hatred. But you shall notice that misfortune doth engenderkindness in hearts the least susceptible, so that a man who would jostleanother and show no manner of kindness and civility, both being strong,would yet bend down and gently succor him who fell across his path fromweakness; for our sympathy is with those weaker than ourselves, and notwith those of equal hardiness; and this, I take it, is the reason of thegreat love of strong men for weak women, and the wondrous tenderness ofwomen for those cast down by sickness.

  Sir Harry would not be comforted; but shaking my hand from his shoulderhe cries:

  "'Tis easy to bear the misfortunes of other people!"

  "Nay," says I, "am I better off than you?"

  "Ay," says he, "for you have but changed one form of misery for another.These woods for you are as good as those you left in Cornwall. Yourprospects here as good as they were there. But I! what have I not lostby this change! All my fortune was embarked in those ships; and withthem I lose every hope--fame and riches--my sweetheart. All! all! Whatnow have I?"

  "The hope of getting away from this place; the hope that--that she maywait faithfully your return."

  "And what if, by a miracle, I get from here, can I hope to recover myfortune? I must go a beggar back to England; nay, a debtor for the shipsof Sir Bartlemy that I have lost. And think you if my sweetheart in pitywould make me her husband, I would be her pensioner, dependent on herbounty for the bread I eat?"

  To me this seemed an overstraining of sentiment; for I would have beencontent to take that dear girl for my wife, rich or poor; nay, I couldnot believe that any sense of dependence or bounty could exist in theunion of two who love entirely. But I would not contrary him by speakingof this, which he would but have set down to want of decent pride andself-respect on my side.

  "There is no hope--no hope!" he continues, bitterly. "I am undone by myenemies, and you are one of them--a man I have sought only to help--abase wretch who would not speak a word to save me from my undoing."

  I held my peace, as I had before, when he spoke after this sort. Forpartly I felt that I deserved reproach, and partly I saw that he wasbeside himself with despair. So I let him be that he might vent freelyall his passion. But he said no more; and for some while he lay therelike one who cared not to move again. Then getting upon his feetsavagely, as though ashamed of his weakness, he says:

  "Let us go from this cursed spot." Then, looking about him inbewilderment, "Where shall we go?"

  Be a man never so wretched he must eat and drink; so I told him we mustfirst of all seek a stream to quench our thirst; and the land to thewest looking most promising, I settled to explore in that direction; SirHarry being indifferent so that we got away from this unlucky placewhere we had been set ashore. We took up our axes and muskets--which thethieving Cazique had left to us because they lay under our hands, as Imay say, and he feared to awake us--and marched onwards, keeping to thesand, which was very level and firm, the tide being at low ebb. We kepton this way for best part of a league, and then the shore becoming softwith a kind of black mud, we were forced to seek higher ground; and hereour progress was made very painful and slow by reason of the scrubbygrowth, which was mighty thick and prickly, so that we were torn atevery step. To add to our discomfort, the sun, being now high, shonewith prodigious heat upon us, and parched us with thirst. There werewoods at hand, but here the thorny bush was so high and closelyinterwoven that we had to use our hatchets to make any way at all, andthen were we no better off, but worse; wherefore we were obliged toreturn to that part where the earth was less encumbered. Some of thesebrambles had thorns two inches long, and curved like great claws; andone of these tearing my leg gave me much torment. As the sun rosehigher, so our suffering increased, until, after marching best part oftwo hours, we were ready to drop with fatigue. Fruit there was inabundance, spread out temptingly under our feet; for nearly every bushbore some sort of apples or grapes; yet dared we not eat any for fear ofits being venomous. Of this venomous fruit I had heard the seamen whohad traveled in these parts tell, and how a man eating of it willpresently go raving mad; and I pointed out to Sir Harry, who would fainhave slaked his thirst with this growth, that we had as yet seen neitherbird nor beast, which argued that this food was not wholesome.

  However, about midday, when we were as near spent as any living mancould be, we came to a turn in the coast where the character of thegrowth changed; and here we found a great herb with leaves spreading outon all sides; but every leaf was a good twenty feet long and half afathom across, so that it gave us ample shade to lie in; and never wasman more content than I to get out of the sunshine. To our still greatercomfort, Sir Harry presently spied at no great distance a low-growingthicket, in the midst of which grew a fruit that he knew for a pine-nut,which is a fruit bigger than any that grows in England, of a yellowcomplexion, and scaly without, but of excellent condition within.Cutting it in half with his knife, he gave me one part, and bade me eatit without fear; and this I did, though not without compunction, but Ifound it truly as he said, both meat and drink, and the most deliciousever man did eat, with no ill effects after.

  We rested ourselves some while, and then being much refreshed continuedour journey over very fair ground, but yet keeping very near the water;and so rounding a headland, and facing pretty nearly due west, weperceived another headland across the water, but at a great distance,which led us to conceive that we were upon one of the mouths of theOronoque, which, as we know, disembogues itself by many issues into thesea over a length of a hundred leagues and more along the coast ofGuiana. And that this was a river, and not an inlet of the sea, weproved by tasting of the water, which was still running out verytroubled; it was not salt and bitter, and yet too thick and brackish todrink. And now the trees approached the water-side, some hanging over,with thick growth everywhere; and though I know English trees well, andthe different sorts of herbs, yet all here were new to me, and I sawnone that I could name. For prodigious height and girth I never saw thelike of the trees, which were besides wondrous fair to the eye, butpainful to get through by reason of their great abundance, and the mazeof vines and bramble (as I must call them, knowing not their names)which netted them together. Surely to one come there for pleasure and tosatisfy his curiosity, there was on all sides something to please andinterest, there being no end to the variety of flowers and fruits, theircolors and forms; but to us, who were mainly concerned to discover wherewe were situated, we did wish best part of these trees and shrubsfurther.

  We made our way onward for two hours more, yet the land on the otherside of the river appeared no nearer, for the rivers in these parts haveno parallel for volume; and then we came (God be praised) to a smallstream running from the interior, which we found at some little distanceinward to be very sweet and good, so that we drank of it our fill. Butwhat pleased me as much as the discovery of this water was the print ofa cloven foot in a slough, hard by, which I judged, by the form andsize, to be the foot of a swine; and so it proved, for going stillfurther, but with caution, along the edge of this marshy land, weperceived a whole drove of this cattle stretched out in th
e warm mire,grunting from time to time as pleasantly as any English hogs. Seeingthem thus within range, Sir Harry, ere I could check him, cocked hispiece and let fly; and though he killed one dead on the spot, yet was Isorry he had spent his fire on this quarry, for I believe I might haveknocked one on the head and done for him with a blow of my hatchet; andnow were we left with only one charge of powder and ball to meet anyemergency.

  We dragged this beast, which was a boar pig of some ten score, as Ireckoned, away from the morass, which I dreaded to stay in for fear ofserpents or other noxious beasts; and finding a place near the riverhigh and dry, we resolved to stay there the night, for the day wasnearly spent, as were we likewise. Here Sir Harry set about to get somedry fuel and make a fire, the while I skinned our pig, and a marvelousthick hide he had; and so much the better was I pleased, for I saw thatwith this hide cut in thongs I could make us a good gin to entrap otherswine when we had occasion for them, also a sling for killing birds, andother things necessary to us in our forlorn, destitute condition. SirHarry got some dry rotten wood, and grinding a little to powder he setit in the pan of his firelock, and snapping the cock twice or thricesucceeded in setting it burning; then blowing the ember gently on otherrotten wood, and that on dry leaves and such-like, he in the end got aflame to put to his bonfire, and over this on pointed sticks we heldsome slices cut from our swine's ham; enough not only for our supper,but to serve us cold on the morrow; and well it was we did so then, forthe next morning the carcase I had hung on a tree overnight was allgreen and so foul we were fain to cast it in the river to be washed awaywith the current; but that which we had cooked was sweet and good,though mighty tough eating.

  But I must tell of the strange way in which we were awakened thatmorning, which was by the crowing of a cock, and surely nothing in thisland so full of unlooked-for things could be more unexpected than thisfamiliar, homely cry. We two started up together at the sound, rubbingour eyes to be sure we were in a strange country and not at home inEngland. But again this bird crowed, and casting our eyes about, therewe spied a fine red cock perched in the boughs of a tree with threepullets on one side of him and two on the other, all as comfortable asyou please, and not yet astir, for the day was scarce broke. Upon thiswe concluded that there must be human habitation near, and overjoyed atthe hope of seeing fellow-creatures in a land where we had thought to beall alone, we started to our feet and hallooed with all our might, notreckoning that the fellow-creatures might be cruel Indians who mightmurder us, and mayhap eat us afterwards for our pains.

  However, though we hallooed till we were hoarse and could halloa nolonger, answer came there none, except a clucking of the fowls, whoseemed to be at a loss what we were crowing so loud about. Yet from thepresence of these fowls and the swine--which seemed to us not naturalinhabitants of these parts, we clung to the idea that some sort offellow-creatures were near, and so with a more cheerful heart than I,for one, had yet felt since we were put ashore, we continued our marchwhen we had eaten and drunk to our satisfaction. But first we took ofthe thongs I had cut from the swine's hide and stretched to dry betweentwo stakes, one apiece to serve as belts in which to sling our hatchets,another which I had fashioned for a sling, and two or three besides toserve for what occasion might arise. The rest we left behind us, markingwell the spot. Our ham steaks were covered up in cool leaves to keepthem fresh, and hung them also to the thongs about our middle.

  That night we came to a point projecting into the midst of a vastexpanse of water, and seeming to cut the river into two, for we foundthat there were, as I may say, two currents--one running to thesoutheast, and the other northeast--so that we concluded we were not onthe mainland at all, but upon an island in one of the great mouths ofthe Orinoco. This was made evident as we proceeded, for still marchingwith the water on our left hand, our faces were turned to the east, andnot to the west as at first; and, in short, on the third day of ourmarch we came again to the ocean, and about midday on the fourth to thevery spot from which we had started.

  In all this time we had seen no human creature, nor had we met--thankGod!--with any serious accident, though inconveniences not a few; andnot the least of these was a multitude of flies and stinging gnats,especially upwards away from the sea, which were a great plague to us,and especially to Sir Harry, who had the more tender skin, and wastormented to that degree that he could get no peace night or day for theintolerable itching and smarting of their punctures. Nor did we meet anygreat beast, save a huge water-lizard that is called a cocodrill, whichlies in the waters of these rivers and looks like nothing on earth but alog of timber at a distance. Birds there were in plenty, and with mysling I brought down enough for use, and more; and to speak of all thefruits here were a waste of time. Suffice to say that we lacked nothingto satisfy our appetite, and came to no harm by what we ate of strangethings, for we were careful to eat of no fruit or herb but such as wefound the swine and other animals feasted upon.