But what said Samoa to all this? Passing over the matter of thecookery, will it be credited, that living right among us as he did,he was yet blind to the premeditated though unachieved peccadilloesof his spouse? Yet so it was. And thus blind was Belisarius himself,concerning the intrigues of Antonina.
Witness that noble dame's affair with the youth Theodosius; when herdeluded lord charged upon the scandal-mongers with the very horns shehad bestowed upon him.
Upon one occasion, seized with a sudden desire to palliate Annatoo'sthievings, Samoa proudly intimated, that the lady was the mostvirtuous of her sex.
But alas, poor Annatoo, why say more? And bethinking me of the hardfate that so soon overtook thee, I almost repent what has already andtoo faithfully been portrayed.
CHAPTER XXXVIThe Parki Gives Up The Ghost
A long calm in the boat, and now, God help us, another in thebrigantine. It was airless and profound.
In that hot calm, we lay fixed and frozen in like Parry at the Pole.The sun played upon the glassy sea like the sun upon the glaciers.
At the end of two days we lifted up our eyes and beheld a low,creeping, hungry cloud expanding like an army, wing and wing, alongthe eastern horizon. Instantly Jarl bode me take heed.
Here be it said, that though for weeks and weeks reign over theequatorial latitudes of the Pacific, the mildest and sunniest ofdays; that nevertheless, when storms do come, they come in theirstrength: spending in a few, brief blasts their concentrated rage.They come like the Mamelukes: they charge, and away.
It wanted full an hour to sunset; but the sun was well nigh obscured.It seemed toiling among bleak Scythian steeps in the hazy background.Above the storm-cloud flitted ominous patches of scud, rapidlyadvancing and receding: Attila's skirmishers, thrown forward in thevan of his Huns. Beneath, a fitful shadow slid along the surface. Aswe gazed, the cloud came nearer; accelerating its approach.
With all haste we proceeded to furl the sails, which, owing to thecalm, had been hanging loose in the brails. And by help of a spareboom, used on the forecastle-deck sit a sweep or great oar, weendeavored to cast the brigantine's head toward the foe.
The storm seemed about to overtake us; but we felt no breeze. Thenoiseless cloud stole on; its advancing shadow lowering over adistinct and prominent milk-white crest upon the surface of theocean. But now this line of surging foam came rolling down upon uslike a white charge of cavalry: mad Hotspur and plumed Murat at itshead; pouring right forward in a continuous frothy cascade, whichcurled over, and fell upon the glassy sea before it.
Still, no breath of air. But of a sudden, like a blow from a man'shand, and before our canvas could be secured, the stunned craft,giving one lurch to port, was stricken down on her beam-ends; theroaring tide dashed high up against her windward side, and drops ofbrine fell upon the deck, heavy as drops of gore.
It was all a din and a mist; a crashing of spars and of ropes; ahorrible blending of sights and of sounds; as for an instant weseemed in the hot heart of the gale; our cordage, like harp-strings,shrieking above the fury of the blast. The masts rose, and swayed,and dipped their trucks in the sea. And like unto some strickenbuffalo brought low to the plain, the brigantine's black hull, shaggywith sea-weed, lay panting on its flank in the foam.
Frantically we clung to the uppermost bulwarks. And now, loud abovethe roar of the sea, was suddenly heard a sharp, splintering sound,as of a Norway woodman felling a pine in the forest. It was braveJarl, who foremost of all had snatched from its rack against themainmast, the ax, always there kept.
"Cut the lanyards to windward!" he cried; and again buried his axinto the mast. He was quickly obeyed. And upon cutting the thirdlanyard of the five, he shouted for us to pause. Dropping his ax, heclimbed up to windward. As he clutched the rail, the wounded mastsnapped in twain with a report like a cannon. A slight smoke wasperceptible where it broke. The remaining lanyards parted. From theviolent strain upon them, the two shrouds flew madly into theair, and one of the great blocks at their ends, striking Annatoo uponthe forehead, she let go her hold upon a stanchion, and slidingacross the aslant deck, was swallowed up in the whirlpool under ourlea. Samoa shrieked. But there was no time to mourn; no hand couldreach to save.
By the connecting stays, the mainmast carried over with it theforemast; when we instantly righted, and for the time were saved; myown royal Viking our saviour.
The first fury of the gale was gone. But far to leeward was seen theeven, white line of its onset, pawing the ocean into foam. All roundus, the sea boiled like ten thousand caldrons; and through eddy,wave, and surge, our almost water-logged craft waded heavily; everydead clash ringing hollow against her hull, like blows upon a coffin.
We floated a wreck. With every pitch we lifted our dangling jib-boominto the air; and beating against the side, were the shatteredfragments of the masts. From these we made all haste to be free, bycutting the rigging that held them.
Soon, the worst of the gale was blown over. But the sea ran high. Yetthe rack and scud of the tempest, its mad, tearing foam, was subduedinto immense, long-extended, and long-rolling billows; the whitecream on their crests like snow on the Andes. Ever and anon we hungpoised on their brows; when the furrowed ocean all round looked likea panorama from Chimborazo.
A few hours more, and the surges went down. There was a moderate sea,a steady breeze, and a clear, starry sky. Such was the storm thatcame after our calm.
CHAPTER XXXVIIOnce More They Take To The Chamois
Try the pumps. We dropped the sinker, and found the Parki bleeding atevery pore. Up from her well, the water, spring-like, came bubbling,pure and limpid as the water of Saratoga. Her time had come. But bykeeping two hands at the pumps, we had no doubt she would float tilldaylight; previous to which we liked not to abandon her.
The interval was employed in clanging at the pump-breaks, andpreparing the Chamois for our reception. So soon as the seapermitted, we lowered it over the side; and letting it float underthe stern, stowed it with water and provisions, together with variousother things, including muskets and cutlasses.
Shortly after daylight, a violent jostling and thumping under footshowed that the water, gaining rapidly in the, hold, spite of allpumping, had floated the lighter casks up-ward to the deck, againstwhich they were striking.
Now, owing to the number of empty butts in the hold, there would havebeen, perhaps, but small danger of the vessel's sinking outright--allawash as her decks would soon be--were it not, that many of hertimbers were of a native wood, which, like the Teak of India, isspecifically heavier than water. This, with the pearl shells onboard, counteracted the buoyancy of the casks.
At last, the sun--long waited for--arose; the Parki meantime sinkinglower and lower.
All things being in readiness, we proceeded to embark from the wreck,as from a wharf.
But not without some show of love for our poor brigantine.
To a seaman, a ship is no piece of mechanism merely; but a creatureof thoughts and fancies, instinct with life. Standing at hervibrating helm, you feel her beating pulse. I have loved ships, as Ihave loved men.
To abandon the poor Parki was like leaving to its fate something thatcould feel. It was meet that she should die decently and bravely.
All this thought the Skyeman. Samoa and I were in the boat, callingupon him to enter quickly, lest the vessel should sink, and carry usdown in the eddies; for already she had gone round twice. But cuttingadrift the last fragments of her broken shrouds, and putting herdecks in order, Jarl buried his ax in the splintered stump of themainmast, and not till then did he join us.
We slowly cheered, and sailed away.
Not ten minutes after, the hull rolled convulsively in the sea; wentround once more; lifted its sharp prow as a man with arms pointed fora dive; gave a long seething plunge; and went down.
Many of her old planks were twice wrecked; once strown upon ocean'sbeach; now dropped into its lowermost vaults, with the bones ofdrowned ships and drowned men.
Once more aflo
at in our shell! But not with the intrepid spirit thatshoved off with us from the deck of the Arcturion. A bold deed donefrom impulse, for the time carries few or no misgivings along withit. But forced upon you, its terrors stare you in the face. So now. Ihad pushed from the Arcturion with a stout heart; but quitting thesinking Parki, my heart sunk with her.
With a fair wind, we held on our way westward, hoping to see landbefore many days.
CHAPTER XXXVIIIThe Sea On Fire
The night following our abandonment of the Parki, was made memorableby a remarkable spectacle.
Slumbering in the bottom of the boat, Jarl and I were suddenlyawakened by Samoa. Starting, we beheld the ocean of a pallid whitecolor, corruscating all over with tiny golden sparkles. But thepervading hue of the water cast a cadaverous gleam upon the boat, sothat we looked to each other like ghosts. For many rods astern ourwake was revealed in a line of rushing illuminated foam; while hereand there beneath the surface, the tracks of sharks were denoted byvivid, greenish trails, crossing and recrossing each other in everydirection. Farther away, and distributed in clusters, floated on thesea, like constellations in the heavens, innumerable Medusae, aspecies of small, round, refulgent fish, only to be met with in theSouth Seas and the Indian Ocean.
Suddenly, as we gazed, there shot high into the air a bushy jet offlashes, accompanied by the unmistakable deep breathing sound of asperm whale. Soon, the sea all round us spouted in fountains of fire;and vast forms, emitting a glare from their flanks, and ever and anonraising their heads above water, and shaking off the sparkles, showedwhere an immense shoal of Cachalots had risen from below to sport inthese phosphorescent billows.
The vapor jetted forth was far more radiant than any portion of thesea; ascribable perhaps to the originally luminous fluid contractingstill more brilliancy from its passage through the spouting canal ofthe whales.
We were in great fear, lest without any vicious intention theLeviathans might destroy us, by coming into close contact with ourboat. We would have shunned them; but they were all round and roundus. Nevertheless we were safe; for as we parted the pallid brine, thepeculiar irradiation which shot from about our keel seemed to deterthem. Apparently discovering us of a sudden, many of them plungedheadlong down into the water, tossing their fiery tails high into theair, and leaving the sea still more sparkling from the violentsurging of their descent.
Their general course seemed the same as our own; to the westward. Toremove from them, we at last out oars, and pulled toward the north.So doing, we were steadily pursued by a solitary whale, that musthave taken our Chamois for a kindred fish. Spite of all our efforts,he drew nearer and nearer; at length rubbing his fiery flank againstthe Chamois' gunwale, here and there leaving long strips of theglossy transparent substance which thin as gossamer invests the bodyof the Cachalot.
In terror at a sight so new, Samoa shrank. But Jarl and I, more usedto the intimate companionship of the whales, pushed the boat awayfrom it with our oars: a thing often done in the fishery.
The close vicinity of the whale revived in the so long astute Skyemanall the enthusiasm of his daring vocation. However quiet by nature, athorough-bred whaleman betrays no little excitement in sight of hisgame. And it required some persuasion to prevent Jarl from dartinghis harpoon: insanity under present circumstances; and of coursewithout object. But "Oh! for a dart," cried my Viking. And "Where'snow our old ship?" he added reminiscently.
But to my great joy the monster at last departed; rejoining theshoal, whose lofty spoutings of flame were still visible upon thedistant line of the horizon; showing there, like the fitful starts ofthe Aurora Borealis.
The sea retained its luminosity for about three hours; at theexpiration of half that period beginning to fade; and exceptingoccasional faint illuminations consequent upon the rapid darting offish under water, the phenomenon at last wholly disappeared.
Heretofore, I had beheld several exhibitions of marinephosphorescence, both in the Atlantic and Pacific. But nothing incomparison with what was seen that night. In the Atlantic, there isvery seldom any portion of the ocean luminous, except the crests ofthe waves; and these mostly appear so during wet, murky weather.Whereas, in the Pacific, all instances of the sort, previouslycorning under my notice, had been marked by patches of greenishlight, unattended with any pallidness of sea. Save twice on the coastof Peru, where I was summoned from my hammock to the alarmingmidnight cry of "All hands ahoy! tack ship!" And rushing on deck,beheld the sea white as a shroud; for which reason it was feared wewere on soundings.
Now, sailors love marvels, and love to repeat them. And from many anold shipmate I have heard various sage opinings, concerning thephenomenon in question. Dismissing, as destitute of sound philosophicprobability, the extravagant notion of one of my nautical friends--noless a philosopher than my Viking himself--namely: that thephosphoresence of the sea is caused by a commotion among themermaids, whose golden locks, all torn and disheveled, do irradiatethe waters at such times; I proceed to record more reliable theories.
Faraday might, perhaps, impute the phenomenon to a peculiarlyelectrical condition of the atmosphere; and to that solely. Butherein, my scientific friend would be stoutly contradicted by manyintelligent seamen, who, in part, impute it to the presence of largequantities of putrescent animal matter; with which the sea is wellknown to abound.
And it would seem not unreasonable to suppose, that it is bythis means that the fluid itself becomes charged with the luminousprinciple. Draw a bucket of water from the phosphorescent ocean, andit still retains traces of fire; but, standing awhile, this soonsubsides. Now pour it along the deck, and it is a stream of flame;caused by its renewed agitation. Empty the bucket, and for a spacesparkles cling to it tenaciously; and every stave seems ignited.
But after all, this seeming ignition of the sea can not be whollyproduced by dead matter therein. There are many living fish,phosphorescent; and, under certain conditions, by a rapid throwingoff of luminous particles must largely contribute to the result. Notto particularize this circumstance as true of divers species ofsharks, cuttle-fish, and many others of the larger varieties of thefinny tribes; the myriads of microscopic mollusca, well known toswarm off soundings, might alone be deemed almost sufficient tokindle a fire in the brine.
But these are only surmises; likely, but uncertain.
After science comes sentiment.
A French naturalist maintains, that the nocturnal radiance of thefire-fly is purposely intended as an attraction to the opposite sex;that the artful insect illuminates its body for a beacon to love.Thus: perched upon the edge of a leaf, and waiting the approach ofher Leander, who comes buffeting with his wings the aroma of theflowers, some insect Hero may show a torch to her gossamer gallant.
But alas, thrice alas, for the poor little fire-fish of the sea,whose radiance but reveals them to their foes, and lights the way totheir destruction.
CHAPTER XXXIXThey Fall In With Strangers
After quitting the Parki, we had much calm weather, varied by lightbreezes. And sailing smoothly over a sea, so recently one sheet offoam, I could not avoid bethinking me, how fortunate it was, that thegale had overtaken us in the brigantine, and not in the Chamois. Fordeservedly high as the whale-shallop ranks as a sea boat; still, in asevere storm, the larger your craft the greater your sense ofsecurity. Wherefore, the thousand reckless souls tenanting a line-of-battle ship scoff at the most awful hurricanes; though, in reality,they may be less safe in their wooden-walled Troy, than those whocontend with the gale in a clipper.
But not only did I congratulate myself upon salvation from the past,but upon the prospect for the future. For storms happening so seldomin these seas, one just blown over is almost a sure guarantee of verymany weeks' calm weather to come.
Now sun followed sun; and no land. And at length it almost seemed asif we must have sailed past the remotest presumable westerly limit ofthe chain of islands we sought; a lurking suspicion which Isedulously kept to myself However, I could not but nourish a latentfaith
that all would yet be well.
On the ninth day my forebodings were over. In the gray of the dawn,perched upon the peak of our sail, a noddy was seen fast asleep. Thisfreak was true to the nature of that curious fowl, whose name issignificant of its drowsiness. Its plumage was snow-white, itsbill and legs blood-red; the latter looking like little pantalettes.In a sly attempt at catching the bird, Samoa captured three tail-feathers; the alarmed creature flying away with a scream, and leavingits quills in his hand.
Sailing on, we gradually broke in upon immense low-sailing flights ofother aquatic fowls, mostly of those species which are seldom foundfar from land: terns, frigate-birds, mollymeaux, reef-pigeons,boobies, gulls, and the like. They darkened the air; their wingsmaking overhead an incessant rustling like the simultaneous turningover of ten thousand leaves. The smaller sort skimmed the sea likepebbles sent skipping from the shore. Over these, flew myriads ofbirds of broader wing. While high above all, soared in air the daring"Diver," or sea-kite, the power of whose vision is truly wonderful.It perceives the little flying-fish in the water, at a height whichcan not be less than four hundred feet. Spirally wheeling andscreaming as it goes, the sea-kite, bill foremost, darts downward,swoops into the water, and for a moment altogether disappearing,emerges at last; its prey firmly trussed in its claws. But bearing italoft, the bold bandit is quickly assailed by other birds of prey,that strive to wrest from him his booty. And snatched from histalons, you see the fish falling through the air, till again caughtup in the very act of descent, by the fleetest of its pursuers.