CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
THE REMOVAL.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE RAINY SEASON--GOING INTO WINTER-QUARTERS--"MONSIEURPAUL"--THE PATRIARCH OF THE LAKE.
"Now Winter comes to rule the varied year, Sullen and sad, with all his gloomy train Of vapours, clouds, and storms."
We had now been several months upon the island, and notwithstanding ourconstant watchfulness, we had not, during all this time, seen a singlesail. Of the vast multitudes of vessels that track the ocean in everydirection, not one had visited the solitary sea that lay within theboundaries of our horizon; or if any had crossed the verge of the widecircle, her coming and departure had been alike unobserved by us.
And now, by a variety of indications, it was manifest that the winter ofthe tropical year was at hand. The steady easterly breezes, which, withoccasional variations of south-easterly, had hitherto prevailed, weresucceeded by violent and fickle winds, blowing sometimes from a dozendifferent and opposite points of the compass in the course oftwenty-four hours. The brief and sudden showers which we had had atintervals for some time past gradually became more heavy and frequent.At length, one calm, sultry day, about noon, a storm, accompanied bythunder and lightning came up, with so little previous notice, thatalthough Arthur and myself were at the time scarcely two hundred yardsfrom the house, we were thoroughly drenched before we could reach it.And this proved to be no mere thunder shower, such as we had alreadybeen two or three times surprised by. Scarcely had we got undershelter, when the air grew so dark that it would really have beendifficult to see one's way through the grove. I had never beforewitnessed any thing like this, and I began to fear that we were going tobe visited by one of those terrible hurricanes which sometimes devastatetropical countries. The wind soon commenced blowing with such violence,that the largest and sturdiest of the old trees that surrounded ourhouse, bent and swayed before its fury. Their tops lashed each otheroverhead, and filled the air with clouds of leaves, whirled away uponthe tempest. Large boughs were twisted off like twigs, and strewed theground in every direction. The creaking and groaning of the trees; theloud flapping of the palm-leaves, like that of a sail loose in the wind;the howling and shrieking of the gale, as it burst in quick, fiercegusts through the forest; with the almost total darkness that envelopedus, were truly appalling.
The strength of our dwelling was now put to a severer test than itsbuilders had ever anticipated, and it yielded to the force of the wind,so that at times the side-posts stood at an angle of forty-five degreeswith the floor; had they been of any material less tough and pliant thanthe hibiscus, they must have snapped off in an instant. It was well,too, that they had been deeply and firmly planted in the ground, or thewhole fabric would have been lifted bodily into the air, and swept awaylike a withered leaf. As it was, though wrenched and twisted woefully,it stood firm. The thatch, of which Arthur was so proud, and which hadhitherto been storm-proof, now opened in many places, and a dozen littlestreams began to pour in upon us.
Before night, the sound of running waters without was like that of agreat spring freshet. Cataracts were leaping on every side from theedges of the height, and a raging and turbid torrent filled the gullythat separated the forest from Castle-hill.
The tempest continued for nearly forty-eight hours. By the time it wasover, we had quite come to the conclusion, that if this was to beregarded as a foretaste and specimen, of what we had to expect duringthe rainy season, it would never do to think of remaining in our presenthabitation. Considering this as a timely warning, we resolved, after aformal consultation, to put the deserted cabin by the lake, forthwithinto tenantable condition, so as to be ready to take up ourwinter-quarters there, if we should find it expedient to do so.
On the first fine day, we commenced carrying this resolution intoeffect, knowing that we had now but little time to lose. The cabin hadoriginally been built substantially, and with a good deal of skill, andit had suffered but little from decay. We had, in fact nothing to do inthe way of repairing it, except to rehang the door, which was loose, andpartially unhinged, and to mend the roof, which leaked in one or twoplaces. We then cleared the yard from the rank weeds by which it wasovergrown, aired the house thoroughly, by setting door and windows openfor a day or two, and swept out both apartments with cocoa-nut brooms.
We next, under Arthur's direction, commenced laying in a stock ofprovisions. Abundance of ripe bread-fruit could now be procured. Wegathered a considerable quantity, which Arthur and Eiulo baked andpounded, and prepared, by burying it under ground, wrapped in leaves, insuch a manner that it would keep, as they said, for several months. Wealso piled up in one corner of the small room, a great heap ofcocoa-nuts, with the husks on, in which way they can be preserved fresha long while. A bushel of candle-nuts, and about the same quantity oftaro and patara roots, completed our winter supplies.
Johnny was much dissatisfied with the poverty of these preparations forthe rainy season. He thought we ought to have laid in a large stock ofsalted or smoked fish, besides catching a score or two of turtle, anddepositing them safely upon their backs in some convenient place, readyto be converted into soup, at any moment by the magic of Max's culinaryart.
Arthur thought that we need not anticipate a season of continuous stormsor steady rains--that though the prevailing weather for some monthswould be tempestuous, there would nevertheless be some fine days innearly every week, during which we could venture forth.
Another storm, as violent as the last, fully decided us to make thecontemplated removal to the cabin, and that without further delay.Johnny transported thither his entire collection of shells, corals,etcetera, which had now grown to be quite extensive. Arthur carriedover an armful of specimens of plants and flowers, which had long beenaccumulating for an "herbarium." Max, however, averred that they were apart of the materials for a treatise on "The Botany of Polynesia," whichArthur cherished the ambitious design of composing, and which was to bepublished with coloured plate, simultaneously with the history of ouradventures. In order that he too might have some indoor occupationduring the anticipated bad weather, Max provided himself with a hugelog, hacked and sawed with great labour, from a bread-fruit tree, blowndown in the last gale, out of which he declared it to be his purpose tobuild a miniature ship, destined to convey the aforesaid history,together with Arthur's botanical treatise, to America.
The day fixed for our final migration to "Lake Laicomo," at lengtharrived, and taking a farewell for "the season," of our desertedtenement at Castle-hill, we set out for the cabin, to spend our firstnight there. It was not without some feelings of regret that we left aspot now become so familiar, to bury ourselves in the woods out of sightof the sea. It seemed almost like going again into exile. Johnny, inparticular, felt greatly humiliated, at being obliged to abandon thehouse which had cost us so much toil, to take refuge in one constructedby others. He seemed to look upon this as a kind of tacit admission ofour own utter incapacity to provide for ourselves in that respect.
On arriving at the cabin, we were somewhat surprised to see ourdemocratic friend the parrot, perched over the door, as if waiting towelcome us to our new quarters. He appeared to be in no degreedisturbed at our approach, but greeting us with one or two boisterous"Vive Napoleons!" maintained his position until we had passed into thehouse, when he flew in also, and alighting on the shelf against thewall, seemed to feel as much at home as any one. Johnny sagelysuggested that he knew that the rainy season was coming on, and wasanxious to establish himself in comfortable quarters until it was over:possibly this supposition did our visitor injustice, by ascribing to himmotives more selfish and interested, than those by which he was reallyactuated. It is more charitable to believe, that having been onceaccustomed to human companionship, and being weary of his solitary lifein the woods, where his vocal accomplishments were wasted on the desertair, he now sought our society, as being more congenial to his tastesand education, than that of the feathered denizens of the forest. Bethis however as it may, "Mo
nsieur Paul," (as he called himself), fromthat time took up his abode with us, and though he would sometimesdisappear for days together, he was sure to come back at last, when, ifhe found the door and windows closed, (as sometimes happened), he wouldscream, and hurrah for "Sheneral Shackson," until he gained admittance.One circumstance, which I am sorry to say throws some shade of suspicionupon the pure disinterestedness of his motives, is, that he generallywent off at the commencement of fine weather, and returned a littlebefore a storm. This was so uniformly the case, that Max used toprophesy the character of the weather by his movements, and often, whento our eyes there was not the slightest indication of a change, he wouldsay--"There comes Monsieur--look-out for a storm presently"--and it wasrarely that he proved mistaken in such predictions.
The second day after our removal, there was a gale, in which great treeswere blown down or torn up by the roots. Though shaken by the force ofthe wind, the cabin was too firmly built to permit any apprehension ofits being overthrown; and there were no trees of large size near it, bythe fall of which it could be endangered: but we should scarcely havefelt safe in our former dwelling.
We now improved every pleasant day to the utmost, in completing ourpreparations for the period of heavy rains, which Arthur declared to beclose at hand. Browne and Morton made a fish-pond by building a dam ofloose stones across the rapids below the fall, just where the streamentered the lake. It was soon well-stocked, without any trouble on ourpart, with fish resembling roach and perch, numbers of which werecarried over the fall, and prevented by the dam from escaping into thelake. We also collected a large quantity of bread-fruit bark, and ofthe fibrous netting which binds the stalk of the cocoa-nut leaf to thetrunk, to be worked up in various ways. This singular fabric, which intexture somewhat resembles coarse cotton cloth, is often obtained fromthe larger trees in strips two or three feet wide. It is strong anddurable, and is used by the natives for making bags, and for othersimilar purposes. Garments too, are sometimes made from it, though forthat purpose tappa is preferred. While the leaves are young and tender,this remarkable substance is white and transparent, quite flexible, andaltogether a delicate and beautiful fabric, but not sufficiently strongto be put to any useful purpose: as it becomes older and tougher, itassumes a yellow colour, and loses much of its flexibility and beauty.A quantity of hibiscus bark was also collected, to be used in themanufacture of cord for fishing-lines, nets, etcetera.
While the rest of us were actively engaged, under Arthur's direction, inaccumulating a stock of these materials, Max devoted all his energies tothe task of capturing an enormous eel which frequented the upper end ofthe lake. But he exhausted all his ingenuity in this endeavour withoutsuccess. The monster had a secure retreat among the submerged roots ofan old buttress tree, beneath an overhanging bank, from which Max dailylured him forth by throwing crumbs into the water; but, after devouringthe food that was thrown to him, he would immediately return to hisstronghold under the bank. Max was at great pains to manufacture afish-hook out of a part of a cork-screw found in the till of the bluechest, by means of which he confidently expected to bring matters to aspeedy and satisfactory issue between himself and his wary antagonist.But the latter would not touch the bait that concealed the hook. Drivento desperation by this unexpected discomfiture, Max next made sundryattempts to spear and "harpoon" him, all of which signally failed, sothat at the end of the brief interval of fine weather, this patriarch ofthe lake, whose wisdom seemed to be proportioned to his venerable ageand gigantic size, remained proof against all the arts and machinationsof his chagrined and exasperated enemy.
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