Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the Pacific

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

  When Ready arrived, he found them all plunged in such deep distress,that he did not consider it advisable to say anything. The eveningclosed in; it was time to retire. The countenance of Mr Seagrave wasnot only gloomy, but morose. The hour for retiring to rest had longpassed when Ready broke the silence by saying, "Surely, you do notintend to sit up all night, Mr Seagrave?"

  "Oh, no! there's no use sitting up now," replied Mr Seagrave, rising upimpatiently. "Come, my dear, let us go to bed."

  Mrs Seagrave rose, and retired behind the canvas screen. Her husbandseemed as if he was about to follow her, when Ready, without speaking,laid the Bible on the table before him. Mr Seagrave did not appear tonotice it; but William touched his father's arm, pointed to the book,and then went inside of the screen, and led out his mother.

  "God forgive me!" exclaimed Mr Seagrave. "In my selfishness anddiscontent I had forgotten--"

  "Yes, sir, you had forgotten those words, `Come unto me, all ye who areweary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'"

  "I am ashamed of myself," said Mrs Seagrave, bursting into tears.

  Mr Seagrave opened the Bible, and read the psalm. As soon as he hadclosed the book, "good night" were all the words that passed, and theyall retired to rest.

  During the night, the wind howled and the rain beat down. The childrenslept soundly, but Mr and Mrs Seagrave, Ready, and William were awakeduring the whole of the night, listening to the storm, and occupied withtheir own thoughts.

  Ready was dressed before daylight, and out on the beach before the sunhad risen. The gale was at its height; and after a careful survey withhis telescope, he could see nothing of the vessel. He remained on thebeach till breakfast-time, when he was summoned by William, and returnedto the house. He found Mr and Mrs Seagrave up, and more composed thanthey were the evening before; and they welcomed him warmly.

  "I fear, Ready," said Mr Seagrave, "that you have no good news for us."

  "No, sir; nor can you expect any good news until after the gale is over.The vessel could not remain here during the gale--that is certain; andthere is no saying what the effects of the gale may be. She may lie to,and not be far from us when the gale is over; or she may be obliged toscud before the gale, and run some hundred miles from us. Then comesthe next chance. I think, by her running for the island, that she wasshort of water; the question is, then, whether she may not find itnecessary to run for the port she is bound to, or water at some otherplace. A captain of a vessel is bound to do his best for the owners.At the same time I do think, that if she can with propriety come backfor us she will. The question is, first, whether she can; and,secondly, whether the captain is a humane man, and will do so at his owninconvenience."

  "There is but poor comfort in all that," replied Mr Seagrave.

  "It is useless holding out false hopes, sir," replied Ready; "but evenif the vessel continues her voyage, we have much to be thankful for."

  "In what, Ready?"

  "Why, sir, no one knew whether we were in existence or not, and probablywe never should have been searched for; but now we have made it known,and by the ship's name on the flag they know who we are, and, if theyarrive safe in port, will not fail to communicate the intelligence toyour friends. Is not that a great deal to be thankful for? We may notbe taken off by this vessel, but we have every hope that another will besent out to us."

  "Very true, Ready; I ought to have seen that before; but my despair anddisappointment were yesterday so great, that it almost took away myreason."

  The gale continued during the day, and showed no symptoms of abatement,when they again retired for the night. The following day Ready was upearly, as usual, and William accompanied him to the beach.

  "I don't think that it blows so hard as it did, Ready."

  "No, William, it does not; the gale is breaking, and by night, I have nodoubt, will be over. It is, however, useless looking for the vessel, asshe must be a long way from this. It would take her a week, perhaps, tocome back to us if she was to try to do so, unless the wind shouldchange to the northward or westward."

  "Ready! Ready!" exclaimed William, pointing to the south-east part ofthe reef; "what is that? Look! it's a boat."

  Ready put his telescope to his eye. "It's a canoe, William, and thereare people in it."

  "Why, where can they have come from? See! they are among the breakers;they will be lost. Let us go towards them, Ready."

  They hastened along the beach to the spot nearest to where the canoe wastossing on the surf, and watched it as it approached the shore.

  "William, this canoe must have been blown off from the large island,which lies out there;" and Ready again looked through his telescope:"there are two people in it, and they are islanders. Poor things! theystruggle hard for their lives, and seem much exhausted; but they havepassed through the most dangerous part of the reef."

  "Yes," replied William, "they will soon be in smoother water; but thesurf on the beach is very heavy."

  "They won't mind that, if their strength don't fail them--they managethe canoe beautifully."

  During this conversation the canoe had rapidly come towards the land.In a moment or two afterwards, it passed through the surf and groundedon the beach. The two people in it had just strength enough left topaddle through the surf, and then they dropped down in the bottom of thecanoe, quite exhausted.

  "Let's drag the canoe higher up, William. Poor creatures! they arenearly dead."

  While dragging it up, Ready observed that the occupants were both women:their faces were tattooed all over; otherwise they were young, and mighthave been good-looking.

  "Shall I run up and get something for them, Ready?"

  "Do, William; ask Juno to give you some of whatever there is forbreakfast; anything warm."

  William soon returned with some thin oatmeal porridge, which Juno hadbeen preparing for breakfast; and a few spoonfuls being forced down thethroats of the two natives they gradually revived. William then leftReady, and went up to acquaint his father and mother with thisunexpected event.

  William soon returned with Mr Seagrave, and as the women were now ableto sit up, they hauled up the canoe as far as they could, to prevent herbeing beat to pieces. They found nothing in the canoe, except a pieceof matting and the two paddles which had been used by the natives.

  "You see, sir," said Ready, "it is very clear that these two poor women,having been left in charge of the canoe, have been blown off from theshore of one of the islands to the south-east; they must have beencontending with the gale ever since the day before yesterday, and, as itappears, without food or water. It's a mercy that they gained thisisland."

  "It is so," replied Mr Seagrave; "but to tell the truth, I am not overpleased at their arrival. It proves what we were not sure of before,that we have very near neighbours, who may probably pay us a veryunwelcome visit."

  "That may be, sir," replied Ready; "still these two poor creatures beingthrown on shore here does not make the matter worse, or the dangergreater. Perhaps it may turn to our advantage; for if these women learnto speak English before any other islanders visit us, they willinterpret for us, and be the means, perhaps, of saving our lives."

  "Would their visit be so dangerous, then, Ready?"

  "Why, sir, a savage is a savage, and, like a child, wishes to obtainwhatever he sees; especially he covets what he may turn to use, such asiron, etcetera. If they came, and we concealed a portion, and gave upthe remainder of our goods, we might escape; but still there is notrusting to them, and I would infinitely prefer defending ourselvesagainst numbers to trusting to their mercy."

  "But how can we defend ourselves against a multitude?"

  "We must be prepared, sir: if we can fortify ourselves, with our musketswe would be more than a match for hundreds."

  Mr Seagrave turned away. After a pause he said, "It is not verypleasant to be now talking of defending ourselves against savages, whenwe hoped two days ago to be leaving the is
land. Oh, that that brigwould make its appearance again!"

  "The wind is going down fast, sir," observed Ready; "it will be fineweather before the evening. We may look out for her; at all events, forthe next week I shall not give up all hopes."

  "A whole week, Ready! Alas! how true it is, that hope deferred makeththe heart sick."

  "It is a severe trial, Mr Seagrave; but we must submit when we arechastened. We had better get these poor creatures up to the house, andlet them recover themselves."

  Ready then beckoned to them to get on their feet, which they both did,although with some difficulty. He then went in advance, making a signfor them to follow; they understood him, and made the attempt, but wereso weak, that they would have fallen if they had not been supported byMr Seagrave and William.

  It required a long time for them to arrive at the house. Mrs Seagrave,who knew what had happened, received them very kindly, and Juno had amess ready, which she put before them. They ate a little and then laydown, and were soon sound asleep.

  "It is fortunate for us that they are women," observed Mr Seagrave: "weshould have had great difficulty had they been men."

  "Yes, sir," replied Ready; "but still we must not trust women too muchat first, for they are savages."

  "Where shall we put them to-night, Ready?"

  "Why, sir, I have been thinking about that. I wish we had a shed closeto us; but as we have not, we must let them sleep in the storehouse."

  We must now pass over a space of fifteen days, in which there wasnothing done. The expectation of the vessel returning was still alive,although each day decreased these hopes. Every morning Ready andWilliam were at the beach with the telescope, and the whole of the daywas passed in surmises, hopes, and fears. In fact, the appearance ofthe vessel and the expectation of leaving the island had completelyoverturned all the regularity and content of our island party. No othersubject was broached--not any of the work proposed was begun, as it wasuseless to do anything if they were to leave the island. After thefirst week had passed, they felt that every day their chances were moreadverse, and at the end of the fortnight all hopes were very unwillinglyabandoned.

  The Indian women had, in the meantime, recovered their fatigues, andappeared to be very mild and tractable. Whatever they were able to do,they did cheerfully, and had already gained a few words of English. Theparty to explore was again talked over, and arranged for the followingMonday, when a new misfortune fell on them, which disconcerted all theirarrangements.

  On the Saturday morning, when Ready, as usual, went his rounds, as hewalked along the beach, he perceived that the Indian canoe was missing.It had been hauled up clear of the water, so that it could not havefloated away. Ready's heart misgave him; he looked through histelescope in the direction of the large island, and thought he coulddistinguish a speck on the water at a great distance. As he was thusoccupied, William came down to him.

  "William," said Ready, "I fear those island women have escaped in theircanoe. Run up, and see if they are in the outhouse, or anywhere else,and let me know as soon as you can."

  William in a few minutes returned, breathless, stating that the womenwere not to be found, and that they had evidently carried away with thema quantity of the large nails and other pieces of iron which were in thesmall kegs in the storehouse.

  "This is bad, William; this is worse than the vessel not coming back."

  "Why, we can do without them, Ready."

  "Yes; but when they get back to their own people, and show them the ironthey have brought with them, and describe how much more there is to behad, depend upon it, we shall have a visit from them in numbers, thatthey may obtain more. I ought to have known better than to leave thecanoe here. We must go and consult with Mr Seagrave, for the sooner webegin to work now, the better."

  They communicated the intelligence to Mr Seagrave when they wereoutside. He at once perceived their danger, so they held a council, andcame to the following resolutions:--

  That it would be necessary that they should immediately stockade thestorehouse, so as to render it impossible for any one to get in; andthat, as soon as the fortification was complete, the storehouse shouldbe turned into their dwelling-house; and such stores as could not be putwithin the stockade should be removed to their present house, orconcealed in the cocoa-nut grove.

  It was decided that nothing should be begun on that day, Saturday; thatSunday should be spent in devout prayer for help and encouragement fromthe Almighty, who would do towards them as his wisdom should ordain; andthat on Monday, with the blessing of God, they would recommence theirlabour.

  "I don't know why, but I feel more courage now that there is a prospectof danger, than I felt when there was little or none," said MrsSeagrave.

  "How little do we know what the day may bring forth!" exclaimed MrSeagrave. "How joyful were our anticipations when the vessel hoistedher colours! we felt sure that we were to be taken off the island. Thesame gale that drove the vessel away brought down to us the islandwomen. The fair weather after the gale, which we hoped would havebrought back the vessel to our succour, on the contrary enabled thewomen to escape in the canoe, and make known our existence to those whomay come to destroy us. How true it is that man plans in vain; and thatit is only by the Almighty will and pleasure that he can obtain hisends!"