Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas

by Herman Melville

  I must give some further account of him, for he figures largely in thenarrative. His early history, like that of many other heroes, wasenveloped in the profoundest obscurity; though he threw out hints ofa patrimonial estate, a nabob uncle, and an unfortunate affair whichsent him a-roving. All that was known, however, was this. He had goneout to Sydney as assistant-surgeon of an emigrant ship. On hisarrival there, he went back into the country, and after a few months'wanderings, returned to Sydney penniless, and entered as doctoraboard of the Julia.

  His personal appearance was remarkable. He was over six feet high--atower of bones, with a complexion absolutely colourless, fair hair,and a light unscrupulous gray eye, twinkling occasionally at the verydevil of mischief. Among the crew, he went by the name of the LongDoctor, or more frequently still, Doctor Long Ghost. And fromwhatever high estate Doctor Long Ghost might have fallen, he hadcertainly at some time or other spent money, drunk Burgundy, andassociated with gentlemen.

  As for his learning, he quoted Virgil, and talked of Hobbs ofMalmsbury, beside repeating poetry by the canto, especially Hudibras.He was, moreover, a man who had seen the world. In the easiest wayimaginable, he could refer to an amour he had in Palermo, hislion-hunting before breakfast among the Caffres, and the quality ofthe coffee to be drunk in Muscat; and about these places, and ahundred others, he had more anecdotes than I can tell of. Then suchmellow old songs as he sang, in a voice so round and racy, the realjuice of sound. How such notes came forth from his lank body was aconstant marvel.

  Upon the whole, Long Ghost was as entertaining a companion as onecould wish; and to me in the Julia, an absolute godsend.

  CHAPTER III.

  FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE JULIA

  OWING to the absence of anything like regular discipline, the vesselwas in a state of the greatest uproar. The captain, having for sometime past been more or less confined to the cabin from sickness, wasseldom seen. The mate, however, was as hearty as a young lion, andran about the decks making himself heard at all hours. Bembo, theNew Zealand harpooner, held little intercourse with anybody but themate, who could talk to him freely in his own lingo. Part of his timehe spent out on the bowsprit, fishing for albicores with a bone hook;and occasionally he waked all hands up of a dark night dancing somecannibal fandango all by himself on the forecastle. But, upon thewhole, he was remarkably quiet, though something in his eye showed hewas far from being harmless.

  Doctor Long Ghost, having sent in a written resignation as the ship'sdoctor, gave himself out as a passenger for Sydney, and took theworld quite easy. As for the crew, those who were sick seemedmarvellously contented for men in their condition; and the rest, notdispleased with the general licence, gave themselves little thoughtof the morrow.

  The Julia's provisions were very poor. When opened, the barrels ofpork looked as if preserved in iron rust, and diffused an odour likea stale ragout. The beef was worse yet; a mahogany-coloured fibroussubstance, so tough and tasteless, that I almost believed the cook'sstory of a horse's hoof with the shoe on having been fished up out ofthe pickle of one of the casks. Nor was the biscuit much better;nearly all of it was broken into hard, little gunflints, honeycombedthrough and through, as if the worms usually infesting this articlein long tropical voyages had, in boring after nutriment, come out atthe antipodes without finding anything.

  Of what sailors call "small stores," we had but little. "Tea,"however, we had in abundance; though, I dare say, the Hong merchantsnever had the shipping of it. Beside this, every other day we hadwhat English seamen call "shot soup"--great round peas, polishingthemselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water.

  It was afterward told me, that all our provisions had been purchasedby the owners at an auction sale of condemned navy stores in Sydney.

  But notwithstanding the wateriness of the first course of soup, andthe saline flavour of the beef and pork, a sailor might have made asatisfactory meal aboard of the Julia had there been any sidedishes--a potato or two, a yam, or a plantain. But there was nothingof the kind. Still, there was something else, which, in the estimationof the men, made up for all deficiencies; and that was the regularallowance of Pisco.

  It may seem strange that in such a state of affairs the captain shouldbe willing to keep the sea with his ship. But the truth was, that bylying in harbour, he ran the risk of losing the remainder of his menby desertion; and as it was, he still feared that, in some outlandishbay or other, he might one day find his anchor down, and no crew toweigh it.

  With judicious officers the most unruly seamen can at sea be kept insome sort of subjection; but once get them within a cable's length ofthe land, and it is hard restraining them. It is for this reason thatmany South Sea whalemen do not come to anchor for eighteen or twentymonths on a stretch. When fresh provisions are needed, they run forthe nearest land--heave to eight or ten miles off, and send a boatashore to trade. The crews manning vessels like these are for the mostpart villains of all nations and dyes; picked up in the lawless portsof the Spanish Main, and among the savages of the islands. Likegalley-slaves, they are only to be governed by scourges and chains.Their officers go among them with dirk and pistol--concealed, butready at a grasp.

  Not a few of our own crew were men of this stamp; but, riotous attimes as they were, the bluff drunken energies of Jennin were justthe thing to hold them in some sort of noisy subjection. Upon anemergency, he flew in among them, showering his kicks and cuffs rightand left, and "creating a sensation" in every direction. And ashinted before, they bore this knock-down authority with greatgood-humour. A sober, discreet, dignified officer could have donenothing with them; such a set would have thrown him and his dignityoverboard.

  Matters being thus, there was nothing for the ship but to keep thesea. Nor was the captain without hope that the invalid portion of hiscrew, as well as himself, would soon recover; and then there was notelling what luck in the fishery might yet be in store for us. At anyrate, at the time of my coming aboard, the report was, that CaptainGuy was resolved upon retrieving the past and filling the vessel withoil in the shortest space possible.

  With this intention, we were now shaping our course for Hytyhoo, avillage on the island of St. Christina--one of the Marquesas, and sonamed by Mendanna--for the purpose of obtaining eight seamen, who,some weeks before, had stepped ashore there from the Julia. It wassupposed that, by this time, they must have recreated themselvessufficiently, and would be glad to return to their duty.

  So to Hytyhoo, with all our canvas spread, and coquetting with thewarm, breezy Trades, we bowled along; gliding up and down the long,slow swells, the bonettas and albicores frolicking round us.

  CHAPTER IV.

  A SCENE IN THE FORECASTLE

  I HAD scarcely been aboard of the ship twenty-four hours, when acircumstance occurred, which, although noways picturesque, is sosignificant of the state of affairs that I cannot forbear relatingit.

  In the first place, however, it must be known, that among the crew wasa man so excessively ugly, that he went by the ironical appellationof "Beauty." He was the ship's carpenter; and for that reason wassometimes known by his nautical cognomen of "Chips." There was noabsolute deformity about the man; he was symmetrically ugly. But illfavoured as he was in person, Beauty was none the less ugly intemper; but no one could blame him; his countenance had soured hisheart. Now Jermin and Beauty were always at swords' points. Thetruth was, the latter was the only man in the ship whom the mate hadnever decidedly got the better of; and hence the grudge he bore him.As for Beauty, he prided himself upon talking up to the mate, as weshall soon see.

  Toward evening there was something to be done on deck, and thecarpenter who belonged to the watch was missing. "Where's that skulk,Chips?" shouted Jermin down the forecastle scuttle.

  "Taking his ease, d'ye see, down here on a chest, if you want toknow," replied that worthy himself, quietly withdrawing his pipe fromhis mouth. This insolence flung the fiery little mate into a mightyrage; but Beauty said nothing, puffing away with all the tranquillity
imaginable. Here it must be remembered that, never mind what may bethe provocation, no prudent officer ever dreams of entering a ship'sforecastle on a hostile visit. If he wants to see anybody who happensto be there, and refuses to come up, why he must wait patiently untilthe sailor is willing. The reason is this. The place is very dark:and nothing is easier than to knock one descending on the head,before he knows where he is, and a very long while before he everfinds out who did it.

  Nobody knew this better than Jermin, and so he contented himself withlooking down the scuttle and storming. At last Beauty made some coolobservation which set him half wild.

  "Tumble on deck," he then bellowed--"come, up with you, or I'll jumpdown and make you." The carpenter begged him to go about it at once.

  No sooner said than done: prudence forgotten, Jermin was there; and bya sort of instinct, had his man by the throat before he could wellsee him. One of the men now made a rush at him, but the rest draggedhim off, protesting that they should have fair play.

  "Now come on deck," shouted the mate, struggling like a good fellow tohold the carpenter fast.

  "Take me there," was the dogged answer, and Beauty wriggled about inthe nervous grasp of the other like a couple of yards ofboa-constrictor.

  His assailant now undertook to make him up into a compact bundle, themore easily to transport him. While thus occupied, Beauty got hisarms loose, and threw him over backward. But Jermin quickly recoveredhimself, when for a time they had it every way, dragging each otherabout, bumping their heads against the projecting beams, andreturning each other's blows the first favourable opportunity thatoffered. Unfortunately, Jermin at last slipped and fell; his foeseating himself on his chest, and keeping him down. Now this was oneof those situations in which the voice of counsel, or reproof, comeswith peculiar unction. Nor did Beauty let the opportunity slip. Butthe mate said nothing in reply, only foaming at the mouth andstruggling to rise.

  Just then a thin tremor of a voice was heard from above. It was thecaptain; who, happening to ascend to the quarter-deck at thecommencement of the scuffle, would gladly have returned to the cabin,but was prevented by the fear of ridicule. As the din increased, andit became evident that his officer was in serious trouble, he thoughtit would never do to stand leaning over the bulwarks, so he made hisappearance on the forecastle, resolved, as his best policy, to treatthe matter lightly.

  "Why, why," he begun, speaking pettishly, and very fast, "what's allthis about?--Mr. Jermin, Mr. Jermin--carpenter, carpenter; what areyou doing down there? Come on deck; come on deck."

  Whereupon Doctor Long Ghost cries out in a squeak, "Ah! Miss Guy, isthat you? Now, my dear, go right home, or you'll get hurt."

  "Pooh, pooh! you, sir, whoever you are, I was not speaking to you;none of your nonsense. Mr. Jermin, I was talking to you; have thekindness to come on deck, sir; I want to see you."

  "And how, in the devil's name, am I to get there?" cried the mate,furiously. "Jump down here, Captain Guy, and show yourself a man. Letme up, you Chips! unhand me, I say! Oh! I'll pay you for this, someday! Come on, Captain Guy!"

  At this appeal, the poor man was seized with a perfect spasm offidgets. "Pooh, pooh, carpenter; have done with your nonsense! Lethim up, sir; let him up! Do you hear? Let Mr. Jermm come on deck!"

  "Go along with you, Paper Jack," replied Beauty; "this quarrel'sbetween the mate and me; so go aft, where you belong!"

  As the captain once more dipped his head down the scuttle to makeanswer, from an unseen hand he received, full in the face, thecontents of a tin can of soaked biscuit and tea-leaves. The doctorwas not far off just then. Without waiting for anything more, thediscomfited gentleman, with both hands to his streaming face,retreated to the quarter-deck.

  A few moments more, and Jermin, forced to a compromise, followedafter, in his torn frock and scarred face, looking for all the worldas if he had just disentangled himself from some intricate piece ofmachinery. For about half an hour both remained in the cabin, wherethe mate's rough tones were heard high above the low, smooth voice ofthe captain.

  Of all his conflicts with the men, this was the first in which Jerminhad been worsted; and he was proportionably enraged. Upon goingbelow--as the steward afterward told us--he bluntly informed Guythat, for the future, he might look out for his ship himself; for hispart, he had done with her, if that was the way he allowed hisofficers to be treated. After many high words, the captain finallyassured him that, the first fitting opportunity, the carpenter shouldbe cordially flogged; though, as matters stood, the experiment wouldbe a hazardous one. Upon this Jermin reluctantly consented to dropthe matter for the present; and he soon drowned all thoughts of it ina can of flip, which Guy had previously instructed the steward toprepare, as a sop to allay his wrath.

  Nothing more ever came of this.

  CHAPTER V.

  WHAT HAPPENED AT HYTYHOO

  LESS than forty-eight hours after leaving Nukuheva, the blue, loomingisland of St. Christina greeted us from afar. Drawing near theshore, the grim, black spars and waspish hull of a small man-of-warcraft crept into view; the masts and yards lined distinctly againstthe sky. She was riding to her anchor in the bay, and proved to be aFrench corvette.

  This pleased our captain exceedingly, and, coming on deck, he examinedher from the mizzen rigging with his glass. His original intentionwas not to let go an anchor; but, counting upon the assistance of thecorvette in case of any difficulty, he now changed his mind, andanchored alongside of her. As soon as a boat could be lowered, hethen went off to pay his respects to the commander, and, moreover, aswe supposed, to concert measures for the apprehension of therunaways.

  Returning in the course of twenty minutes, he brought along with himtwo officers in undress and whiskers, and three or four drunkenobstreperous old chiefs; one with his legs thrust into the armholesof a scarlet vest, another with a pair of spurs on his heels, and athird in a cocked hat and feather. In addition to these articles,they merely wore the ordinary costume of their race--a slip of nativecloth about the loins. Indecorous as their behaviour was, theseworthies turned out to be a deputation from the reverend the clergyof the island; and the object of their visit was to put our shipunder a rigorous "Taboo," to prevent the disorderly scenes andfacilities for desertion which would ensue, were the natives--men andwomen--allowed to come off to us freely.

  There was little ceremony about the matter. The priests went aside fora moment, laid their shaven old crowns together, and went over alittle mummery. Whereupon, their leader tore a long strip from hisgirdle of white tappa, and handed it to one of the French officers,who, after explaining what was to be done, gave it to Jermin. Themate at once went out to the end of the flying jib boom, and fastenedthere the mystic symbol of the ban. This put to flight a party ofgirls who had been observed swimming toward us. Tossing their armsabout, and splashing the water like porpoises, with loud cries of"taboo! taboo!" they turned about and made for the shore.

  The night of our arrival, the mate and the Mowree were to stand "watchand watch," relieving each other every four hours; the crew, as issometimes customary when lying at an anchor, being allowed to remainall night below. A distrust of the men, however, was, in the presentinstance, the principal reason for this proceeding. Indeed, it wasall but certain, that some kind of attempt would be made atdesertion; and therefore, when Jermin's first watch came on at eightbells (midnight)--by which time all was quiet--he mounted to the deckwith a flask of spirits in one hand, and the other in readiness toassail the first countenance that showed itself above the forecastlescuttle.

  Thus prepared, he doubtless meant to stay awake; but for all that, hebefore long fell asleep; and slept with such hearty good-will too,that the men who left us that night might have been waked up by hissnoring. Certain it was, the mate snored most strangely; and nowonder, with that crooked bugle of his. When he came to himself itwas just dawn, but quite light enough to show two boats gone from theside. In an instant he knew what had happened.

  Dragging the Mowree out of an o
ld sail where he was napping, heordered him to clear away another boat, and then darted into thecabin to tell the captain the news. Springing on deck again, hedrove down into the forecastle for a couple of oarsmen, but hardlygot there before there was a cry, and a loud splash heard over theside. It was the Mowree and the boat--into which he had just leapedto get ready for lowering--rolling over and over in the water.

  The boat having at nightfall been hoisted up to its place over thestarboard quarter, someone had so cut the tackles which held itthere, that a moderate strain would at once part them. Bembo's weighthad answered the purpose, showing that the deserters must haveascertained his specific gravity to a fibre of hemp. There wasanother boat remaining; but it was as well to examine it beforeattempting to lower. And it was well they did; for there was a holein the bottom large enough to drop a barrel through: she had beenscuttled most ruthlessly.

  Jermin was frantic. Dashing his hat upon deck, he was about to plungeoverboard and swim to the corvette for a cutter, when Captain Guymade his appearance and begged him to stay where he was. By this timethe officer of the deck aboard the Frenchman had noticed ourmovements, and hailed to know what had happened. Guy informed himthrough his trumpet, and men to go in pursuit were instantlypromised. There was a whistling of a boatswain's pipe, an order ortwo, and then a large cutter pulled out from the man-of-war's stern,and in half a dozen strokes was alongside. The mate leaped into her,and they pulled rapidly ashore.

  Another cutter, carrying an armed crew, soon followed.

  In an hour's time the first returned, towing the two whale-boats,which had been found turned up like tortoises on the beach.