CHAPTER FIVE.
THE CONSULTATION.
OUT OF SIGHT OF LAND--SLENDER RESOURCES--WHAT'S TO BE DONE?
"How rapidly, how rapidly, we ride along the sea! The morning is all sunshine, the wind is blowing free; The billows are all sparkling, and bounding in the light, Like creatures in whose sunny veins, the blood is running bright."
Morton alone still refused to relinquish the hope, that by broaddaylight, we should yet be able to make out the island. He persisted inpronouncing it wholly incredible that we had made during the night, adistance sufficient to sink the land, which was but three or four milesoff at the utmost, when we were overtaken by darkness; he could notunderstand, he said, how such a thing was possible.
Arthur accounted for it, by supposing that we had got into the track ofone of the ocean currents that exist in those seas, especially among theislands, many of which run at the rate of from two to three miles anhour.
This seemed the more probable, from the fact, that we were to the westof the island, when we lost sight of it, and that the great equatorialcurrent, which traverses the Pacific and Indian oceans, has a prevailingwesterly course, though among the more extensive groups and clusters ofislands, it is so often deflected hither and thither, by the obstacleswhich it encounters, or turned upon itself, in eddies orcounter-currents, that no certain calculations can be made respectingit. Morton, however, did not consider this supposition sufficient toexplain the difficulty.
"I should judge," said he, "that in a clear day, such an island might beseen fifteen or twenty miles, and we cannot have drifted so great adistance."
"It might perhaps be seen," said Arthur, "as far as that, from themast-head of a ship, or even from her deck, but not from a small boathardly raised above the surface of the water. At our present level,eight or ten miles would be enough to sink it completely."
At length, when it was broad day, and from the appearance of the easternsky, the sun was just about to rise, Morton stepped the mast and climbedto the top, in the hope that from that additional elevation, slight asit was, he might catch a glimpse of land. There was by this time lightenough, as he admitted, to see any thing that could be seen at all, andafter making a deliberate survey of our whole horizon, he was fullyconvinced that we had drifted completely away from the island. "I giveit up," he said, as he slid down the mast, "we are at sea, beyond allquestion."
Presently Max awoke. He cast a quick, surprised look around, and atfirst seemed greatly shocked. He speedily recovered himself, however,and after another, and closer, scrutiny of the horizon, thought that hedetected an appearance like that of land in the south. For a momentthere was again the flutter of excited hope, as every eye was turnedeagerly in that direction; but it soon subsided. A brief examinationsatisfied us all, that what we saw, was but a low bank of clouds lyingagainst the sky.
"This really begins to look serious," said I; "what are we to do?"
"It strikes me," replied Morton, "that we are pretty much relieved fromthe necessity of considering that question; our only part for thepresent seems to be a passive one."
"I can't fully persuade myself that this is real," said Max; "it halfseems like an ugly dream, from which we should awake by-and-by, and drawa long breath at the relief of finding it no more than a dream."
"We are miserably provisioned for a sea voyage," said Morton; "but Ibelieve the breaker is half full of water; without that we should indeedbe badly off."
"There is not a drop in it," said Arthur, shaking his head, and helifted the breaker and shook it lightly--it was quite empty.
He now proceeded to force open the locker, in the hope of finding themsomething that might be serviceable to us; but its entire contentsconsisted of a coil of fine rope, some pieces of rope-yarn, an emptyquart-bottle, and an old and battered hatchet-head.
Meanwhile, Browne, without a trace of anxiety upon his upturnedcountenance, and Johnny, who nestled close beside him, continued tosleep soundly, in happy unconsciousness of our alarming situation.
"Nothing ever interferes with the soundness of Browne's sleep, or thevigour of his appetite," said Max, contemplating his placid slumberswith admiration. "I should be puzzled to decide whether sleeping,eating, or dramatic recitation, is his forte; it certainly lies betweenthe three."
"Poor fellow!" said Morton, "from present appearances, and the state ofour supplies, he will have to take it all out in sleeping, for some timeto come, as it is to be presumed he'll hardly feel like spouting."
"One would think that what happened yesterday, and the condition ofthings as we left them last night, would be enough to disturb one'snerves somewhat; yet you see how little it affects him--and I nowpredict that the first thing he will say on opening his eye; will beabout the means of breaking his long fast."
"I don't understand how you can go on in that strain, Max," said Arthur,looking up in a surprised manner, and shaking his head disapprovingly.
"Why, I was merely endeavouring to do my share towards keeping ourspirits up; but I suppose any spirits got up under the presentcircumstances, must be somewhat forced, and as my motives don't seem tobe properly appreciated, I will renounce the unprofitable attempt."
The sun rose in a clear sky, and gave promise of a hot day. There was,however, a cool and refreshing breeze, that scattered the spray from thefoaming ridges of the waves, and occasionally showered us, notunpleasantly, with the fine liquid particles. A sea, breaking over ourbow, dashed a bucket-full of water into Browne's face, and abruptlydisturbed his slumbers.
"Good morning, comrades!" said he, sitting up, and looking about himwith a perplexed and bewildered air. "But how is this? Ah! Irecollect it all now. So then, we are really out of sight of land!"
"There is no longer any doubt of that," said Arthur, "and it is now timefor us to decide what we shall do--our chance of falling in with a shipwill be quite as good, and that of reaching land will of course be muchbetter, if, instead of drifting like a log upon the water, we put up oursail, and steer in almost any direction; though I think there is achoice."
"Of course there is a choice," said Morton; "the island _cannot_ be atany great distance; and the probability of our being able to find itagain is so much greater than that of making any other land, that weought to steer in the direction in which we have good reason to think itlies--that is, to the east."
"The wind, for the last twelve hours, has been pretty nearly south,"observed Arthur, "and has probably had some effect upon our position; wehad better, therefore, steer a little south of east, which, with thisbreeze, will be easy sailing."
To this all assented, and the sail was hoisted, and the boat's head putin the direction agreed upon, each of us, except Johnny, sailing andsteering her in turn. There was quite as much wind as our little craftcould sail with to advantage, and without danger. As it filled her bitof canvass, she careered before it, leaping and plunging from wave towave, in a manner that sometimes seemed perilous. The bright sky aboveus, the blue sea gleaming in the light of morning, over which we sped;the dry, clear atmosphere, (now that the sun was up, and the mistdissipated), the fresh breeze, without which we must have sufferedintensely from the heat; together with our rapid and bounding motion,had an exhilarating effect, in spite of the gloomy anticipations thatsuggested themselves.
"After all," said Max, "why need we take such a dismal view of thematter? We have a fine staunch little boat, a good breeze, and islandsall around us. Besides, we are in the very track of the beche de mer,and sandal-wood traders. It would be strange indeed, if we should failto meet some of them soon. In fact, if it were not for thinking of poorFrazer, and of the horrible events of yesterday, (which, to be sure, areenough to make one sad), I should be disposed to look upon the wholeaffair; as a sort of holiday adventure--something to tell of when we gethome, and to talk over pleasantly together twenty years hence."
"If we had a breaker of water, and a keg of biscuit," said Morton, "andcould then be assured of fair weather for a week, I might be
able totake that view of it; as it is, I confess, that to me, it has any thingbut the aspect of a holiday adventure."
When Johnny awoke, Arthur endeavoured to soothe his alarm, by explainingto him that we had strong hopes of being able to reach the island again,and mentioning the various circumstances which rendered such a hopereasonable. The little fellow, did not, however, seem to be as muchtroubled as might have been expected. He either reposed implicitconfidence in the resources, or the fortunes, of his companions, orelse, did not at all realise the perils to which we were exposed. Butthis could not last long.
That which I knew Arthur had been painfully anticipating, came at last.Johnny, who had been asking Morton a multitude of questions as to theevents of the previous day, suddenly said that he was very thirsty, andasked in the most unsuspecting manner for a drink of water. When helearned that the breaker was empty, and that we had not so much as adrop of water with us, some notion of our actual situation seemed todawn upon him, and he became, all at once, grave and silent.
Hour after hour dragged slowly on, until the sun was in the zenith, withno change for the better in our affairs. It was now clear that we mustgive up the hope of reaching the island which we had left, for it wascertain that we had sailed farther since morning than the boat couldpossibly have been drifted during the night, by the wind, or thecurrent, or both combined. Our calculations at the outset musttherefore have been erroneous, and we had not been sailing in the rightdirection. If so, it was too late to correct the mistake; we could notregain our starting-point, in order to steer from it another course. Wenow held a second consultation.
Although we had but a general notion of our geographical position, weknew that we were in the neighbourhood of scattered groups of low coralislands. From the Kingsmills we were to have sailed directly forCanton, and Max, Morton, and myself, would, before now, in allprobability, have commenced our employment in the American factorythere, but for Captain Erskine's sudden resolution to take theresponsibility of returning to the Samoan Group, with the double objectof rescuing the crew of the wrecked barque, and completing his cargo,which, according to the information received from the master of thewhaler, there would be no difficulty in doing. From Upolu, we hadsteered a north-westerly course, and it was on the fourth or fifth dayafter leaving it, that we had reached the island where the mutiny tookplace, and which Mr Erskine claimed as a discovery of his own. Itslatitude and longitude had of course been calculated, but none of uslearned the result, or at any rate remembered it. We knew only, that wewere at no great distance from the Kingsmills, and probably to thesouth-west of them.
Arthur was confident, from conversations had with Mr Frazer, and fromthe impressions left on his mind by his last examination of the charts,that an extensive cluster of low islands, scattered over several degreesof latitude, lay just to the south-east of us.
It was accordingly determined to continue our present course as long asthe wind should permit, which there was reason to fear might be but ashort time, as easterly winds are the prevailing ones within thetropics, as near the line as we supposed ourselves to be.
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