At sunrise next morning, finding themselves out of sight of land,with little or no wind, they stopped their headway, and lashed thetiller alee, the better to enable them to overhaul the brigantine;especially the recesses of the cabin. For there, were stores of goodsadapted for barter among the Islanders; also several bags of dollars.
Now, nothing can exceed the cupidity of the Polynesian, when, throughpartial commerce with the whites, his eyes are opened to hisnakedness, and he perceives that in some things they are richer thanhimself.
The poor skipper's wardrobe was first explored; his chests of clothesbeing capsized, and their contents strown about the cabin floor.
Then took place the costuming. Samoa and Annatoo trying on coats andpantaloons, shirts and drawers, and admiring themselves in the littlemirror panneled in the bulk-head. Then, were broken open boxes andbales; rolls of printed cotton were inspected, and vastly admired;insomuch, that the trumpery found in the captain's chests wasdisdainfully doffed: and donned were loose folds of calico, morecongenial to their tastes.
As case after case was opened and overturned, slippery grew the cabindeck with torrents of glass beads; and heavy the necks of Samoa andAnnatoo with goodly bunches thereof.
Among other things, came to light brass jewelry,--Rag Fair gewgawsand baubles a plenty, more admired than all; Annatoo, bedeckingherself like, a tragedy queen: one blaze of brass. Much mourned themarried dame, that thus arrayed, there was none to admire but Samoaher husband; but he was all the while admiring himself, and not her.
And here must needs be related, what has hitherto remained unsaid.Very often this husband and wife were no Darby and Joan. Theirmarried life was one long campaign, whereof the truces were only bynight. They billed and they cooed on their arms, rising fresh in themorning to battle, and often Samoa got more than a hen-pecking. To beshort, Annatoo was a Tartar, a regular Calmuc, and Samoa--Heaven helphim--her husband.
Yet awhile, joined together by a sense of common danger, and longengrossed in turning over their tinsel acquisitions without presentthought of proprietorship, the pair refrained from all squabbles. Butsoon burst the storm. Having given every bale and every case a goodshaking, Annatoo, making an estimate of the whole, very coollyproceeded to set apart for herself whatever she fancied. To this,Samoa objected; to which objection Annatoo objected; and then theywent at it.
The lady vowed that the things were no more Samoa's than hers;nay, not so much; and that whatever she wanted, that same would shehave. And furthermore, by way of codicil, she declared that she wasslave to nobody.
Now, Samoa, sad to tell, stood in no little awe of his bellicosespouse. What, though a hero in other respects; what, though he hadslain his savages, and gallantly carried his craft from theirclutches:--Like the valiant captains Marlborough and Belisarius, hewas a poltroon to his wife. And Annatoo was worse than either Sarahor Antonina.
However, like every thing partaking of the nature of a scratch, mostconjugal squabbles are quickly healed; for if they healed not, theywould never anew break out: which is the beauty of the thing. So atlength they made up but the treaty stipulations of Annatoo told muchagainst the interests of Samoa. Nevertheless, ostensibly, it wasagreed upon, that they should strictly go halves; the lady, however,laying special claim to certain valuables, more particularly fancied.But as a set-off to this, she generously renounced all claims uponthe spare rigging; all claims upon the fore-mast and mainmast; andall claims upon the captain's arms and ammunition. Of the latter, bythe way, Dame Antonina stood in no need. Her voice was a park ofartillery; her talons a charge of bayonets.
CHAPTER XXIVDedicated To The College Of Physicians And Surgeons
By this time Samoa's wounded arm was in such a state, that amputationbecame necessary. Among savages, severe personal injuries are, forthe most part, accounted but trifles. When a European would be takingto his couch in despair, the savage would disdain to recline.
More yet. In Polynesia, every man is his own barber and surgeon,cutting off his beard or arm, as occasion demands. No unusual thing,for the warriors of Varvoo to saw off their own limbs, desperatelywounded in battle. But owing to the clumsiness of the instrumentemployed--a flinty, serrated shell--the operation has been known tolast several days. Nor will they suffer any friend to help them;maintaining, that a matter so nearly concerning a warrior is farbetter attended to by himself. Hence it may be said, that theyamputate themselves at their leisure, and hang up their tools whentired. But, though thus beholden to no one for aught connected withthe practice of surgery, they never cut off their own heads, thatever I heard; a species of amputation to which, metaphoricallyspeaking, many would-be independent sort of people in civilized landsare addicted.
Samoa's operation was very summary. A fire was kindled in the littlecaboose, or cook-house, and so made as to produce much smoke. He thenplaced his arm upon one of the windlass bitts (a short uprighttimber, breast-high), and seizing the blunt cook's ax would havestruck the blow; but for some reason distrusting the precision of hisaim, Annatoo was assigned to the task. Three strokes, and thelimb, from just above the elbow, was no longer Samoa's; and he sawhis own bones; which many a centenarian can not say. The veryclumsiness of the operation was safety to the subject. The weight andbluntness of the instrument both deadened the pain and lessened thehemorrhage. The wound was then scorched, and held over the smoke ofthe fire, till all signs of blood vanished. From that day forward ithealed, and troubled Samoa but little.
But shall the sequel be told? How that, superstitiously averse toburying in the sea the dead limb of a body yet living; since in thatcase Samoa held, that he must very soon drown and follow it; and how,that equally dreading to keep the thing near him, he at last hung italoft from the topmast-stay; where yet it was suspended, bandagedover and over in cerements. The hand that must have locked manyothers in friendly clasp, or smote a foe, was no food, thought Samoa,for fowls of the air nor fishes of the sea.
Now, which was Samoa? The dead arm swinging high as Haman? Or theliving trunk below? Was the arm severed from the body, or the bodyfrom the arm? The residual part of Samoa was alive, and therefore wesay it was he. But which of the writhing sections of a ten timessevered worm, is the worm proper?
For myself, I ever regarded Samoa as but a large fragment of a man,not a man complete. For was he not an entire limb out of pocket? Andthe action at Teneriffe over, great Nelson himself--physiologicallyspeaking--was but three-quarters of a man. And the smoke of Waterlooblown by, what was Anglesea but the like? After Saratoga, whatArnold? To say nothing of Mutius Scaevola minus a hand, General Knoxa thumb, and Hannibal an eye; and that old Roman grenadier, Dentatus,nothing more than a bruised and battered trunk, a knotty sort ofhemlock of a warrior, hard to hack and hew into chips, thoughmuch marred in symmetry by battle-ax blows. Ah! but these warriors,like anvils, will stand a deal of hard hammering. Especially in theold knight-errant times. For at the battle of Brevieux in Flanders,my glorious old gossiping ancestor, Froissart, informs me, that tengood knights, being suddenly unhorsed, fell stiff and powerless tothe plain, fatally encumbered by their armor. Whereupon, the rascallyburglarious peasants, their foes, fell to picking their visors; asburglars, locks; or oystermen, oysters; to get at their lives. Butall to no purpose. And at last they were fain to ask aid of ablacksmith; and not till then, were the inmates of the armordispatched. Now it was deemed very hard, that the mysterious state-prisoner of France should be riveted in an iron mask; but theseknight-errants did voluntarily prison themselves in their own ironBastiles; and thus helpless were murdered there-in. Days of chivalrythese, when gallant chevaliers died chivalric deaths!
And this was the epic age, over whose departure my late eloquent andprophetic friend and correspondent, Edmund Burke, so movinglymourned. Yes, they were glorious times. But no sensible man, given toquiet domestic delights, would exchange his warm fireside andmuffins, for a heroic bivouac, in a wild beechen wood, of a raw gustymorning in Normandy; every knight blowing his steel-gloved fingers,and vainly striving t
o cook his cold coffee in his helmet.
CHAPTER XXVPeril A Peace-Maker
A few days passed: the brigantine drifting hither and thither, andnothing in sight but the sea, when forth again on its stillness rungAnnatoo's domestic alarum. The truce was up. Most egregiously had thelady infringed it; appropriating to herself various objectspreviously disclaimed in favor of Samoa. Besides, forever on theprowl, she was perpetually going up and down; with untiring energy,exploring every nook and cranny; carrying off her spoils anddiligently secreting them. Having little idea of feminineadaptations, she pilfered whatever came handy:--iron hooks, dollars,bolts, hatchets, and stopping not at balls of marline and sheets ofcopper. All this, poor Samoa would have borne with what patience hemight, rather than again renew the war, were it not, that theaudacious dame charged him with peculations upon her own privatestores; though of any such thing he was innocent as the bowsprit.
This insulting impeachment got the better of the poor islander'sphilosophy. He keenly resented it. And the consequence was, thatseeing all domineering useless, Annatoo flew off at a tangent;declaring that, for the future, Samoa might stay by himself; shewould have nothing more to do with him. Save when unavoidable inmanaging the brigantine, she would not even speak to him, that shewouldn't, the monster! She then boldly demanded the forecastle--inthe brig's case, by far the pleasantest end of the ship--for her ownindependent suite of apartments. As for hapless Belisarius, hemight do what he pleased in his dark little den of a cabin.
Concerning the division of the spoils, the termagant succeeded incarrying the day; also, to her quarters, bale after bale of goods,together with numerous odds and ends, sundry and divers. Moreover,she laid in a fine stock of edibles, so as, in all respects possible,to live independent of her spouse.
Unlovely Annatoo! Unfortunate Samoa! Thus did the pair make a divorceof it; the lady going upon a separate maintenance,--and Belisariusresuming his bachelor loneliness. In the captain's state room, allcold and comfortless, he slept; his lady whilome retiring to herforecastle boudoir; beguiling the hours in saying her pater-nosters,and tossing over and assorting her ill-gotten trinkets and finery;like Madame De Maintenon dedicating her last days and nights tocontinence and calicoes.
But think you this was the quiet end of their conjugal quarrels? Ah,no! No end to those feuds, till one or t'other gives up the ghost.
Now, exiled from the nuptial couch, Belisarius bore the hardshipwithout a murmur. And hero that he was, who knows that he felt notlike a soldier on a furlough? But as for Antonina, she could neitherget along with Belisarius, nor without him. She made advances. But ofwhat sort? Why, breaking into the cabin and purloining sundry goodstherefrom; in artful hopes of breeding a final reconciliation out ofthe temporary outburst that might ensue.
Then followed a sad scene of altercation; interrupted at last by asudden loud roaring of the sea. Rushing to the deck, they beheldthemselves sweeping head-foremost toward a shoal making out from acluster of low islands, hitherto, by banks of clouds, shrouded fromview.
The helm was instantly shifted; and the yards braced about. But forseveral hours, owing to the freshness of the breeze, the set of thecurrents, and the irregularity and extent of the shoal, itseemed doubtful whether they would escape a catastrophe. But Samoa'sseamanship, united to Annatoo's industry, at last prevailed; and thebrigantine was saved.
Of the land where they came so near being wrecked, they knew nothing;and for that reason, they at once steered away. For after the fatalevents which had overtaken the Parki at the Pearl Shell islands, sofearful were they of encountering any Islanders, that from the firstthey had resolved to keep open sea, shunning every appearance ofland; relying upon being eventually picked up by some passing sail.
Doubtless this resolution proved their salvation. For to thenavigator in these seas, no risk so great, as in approaching theisles; which mostly are so guarded by outpost reefs, and far out fromtheir margins environed by perils, that the green flowery fieldwithin, lies like a rose among thorns; and hard to be reached as theheart of proud maiden. Though once attained, all three--red rose,bright shore, and soft heart--are full of love, bloom, and all mannerof delights. The Pearl Shell islands excepted.
Besides, in those generally tranquil waters, Samoa's little craft,though hundreds of miles from land, was very readily managed byhimself and Annatoo. So small was the Parki, that one hand couldbrace the main-yard; and a very easy thing it was, even to hoist thesmall top-sails; for after their first clumsy attempt to perform thatoperation by hand, they invariably led the halyards to the windlass,and so managed it, with the utmost facility.
CHAPTER XXVIContaining A Pennyweight Of Philosophy
Still many days passed and the Parki yet floated. The little flying-fish got used to her familiar, loitering hull; and like swallowsbuilding their nests in quiet old trees, they spawned in the greatgreen barnacles that clung to her sides.
The calmer the sea, the more the barnacles grow. In the tropicalPacific, but a few weeks suffice thus to encase your craft in shellarmor. Vast bunches adhere to the very cutwater, and if not strickenoff, much impede the ship's sailing. And, at intervals, this clearingaway of barnacles was one of Annatoo's occupations. For be it known,that, like most termagants, the dame was tidy at times, thoughcapriciously; loving cleanliness by fits and starts. Wherefore, thesebarnacles oftentimes troubled her; and with a long pole she would goabout, brushing them aside. It beguiled the weary hours, if nothingmore; and then she would return to her beads and her trinkets;telling them all over again; murmuring forth her devotions, andmarking whether Samoa had been pilfering from her store.
Now, the escape from the shoal did much once again to heal thedifferences of the good lady and her spouse. And keeping house, asthey did, all alone by themselves, in that lonely craft, a marvel itis, that they should ever have quarreled. And then to divorce, andyet dwell in the same tenement, was only aggravating the evil. SoBelisarius and Antonina again came together. But now, grown wise byexperience, they neither loved over-keenly, nor hated; buttook things as they were; found themselves joined, without hope of asundering, and did what they could to make a match of the mate.Annatoo concluded that Samoa was not wholly to be enslaved; and Samoathought best to wink at Annatoo's foibles, and let her purloin whenshe pleased.
But as in many cases, all this philosophy about wedlock is not proofagainst the perpetual contact of the parties concerned; and as it isfar better to revive the old days of courtship, when men's mouths arehoney-combs: and, to make them still sweeter, the ladies the beeswhich there store their sweets; when fathomless raptures glimmer fardown in the lover's fond eye; and best of all, when visits arealternated by absence: so, like my dignified lord duke and hisduchess, Samoa and Annatoo, man and wife, dwelling in the same house,still kept up their separate quarters. Marlborough visiting Sarah;and Sarah, Marlborough, whenever the humor suggested.
CHAPTER XXVIIIn Which The Past History Op The Parki Is Concluded
Still days, days, days sped by; and steering now this way, now that,to avoid the green treacherous shores, which frequently rose intoview, the Parki went to and fro in the sea; till at last, it seemedhard to tell, in what watery world she floated. Well knowing therisks they ran, Samoa desponded. But blessed be ignorance. For in theday of his despondency, the lively old lass his wife bade him be ofstout heart, cheer up, and steer away manfully for the setting sun;following which, they must inevitably arrive at her own dear nativeisland, where all their cares would be over. So squaring their yards,away they glided; far sloping down the liquid sphere.
Upon the afternoon of the day we caught sight of them in our boat,they had sighted a cluster of low islands, which put them in no smallpanic, because of their resemblance to those where the massacre hadtaken place. Whereas, they must have been full five hundred leaguesfrom that fearful vicinity. However, they altered their course toavoid it; and a little before sunset, dropping the islands astern,resumed their previous track. But very soon after, they espied ourlittle sea-goat, bounding o
ver the billows from afar.
This they took for a canoe giving chase to them. It renewed andaugmented their alarm.
And when at last they perceived that the strange object was a boat,their fears, instead of being allayed, only so much the moreincreased. For their wild superstitions led them to conclude,that a white man's craft coming upon them so suddenly, upon the opensea, and by night, could be naught but a phantom. Furthermore,marking two of us in the Chamois, they fancied us the ghosts of theCholos. A conceit which effectually damped Samoa's courage, like myViking's, only proof against things tangible. So seeing us bent uponboarding the brigantine; after a hurried over-turning of theirchattels, with a view of carrying the most valuable aloft for safekeeping, they secreted what they could; and together made for thefore-top; the man with a musket, the woman with a bag of beads. Theirendeavoring to secure these treasures against ghostly appropriationoriginated in no real fear, that otherwise they would be stolen: itwas simply incidental to the vacant panic into which they werethrown. No reproach this, to Belisarius' heart of game; for the mostintrepid Feegee warrior, he who has slain his hecatombs, will not goten yards in the dark alone, for fear of ghosts.
Their purpose was to remain in the top until daylight; by which time,they counted upon the withdrawal of their visitants; who, sureenough, at last sprang on board, thus verifying their worstapprehensions.