CHAPTER XV.--THE ISLES OF DESOLATION.
If to be sailing northwards and east with a spanking breeze, and thegreat sea of southern ice in which, and on which, so many adventures hadbeen had, was being homeward bound--then were our heroes homeward bound.
It is a nice thing to sing about anyhow of an evening around a cheerfulfire; but ah! as I've said before there is many a slip 'twixt the cupand the lip, and there is nothing certain at sea save the unexpected.
However, bold Captain Talbot had no intentions of returning to Englandwith what he called only half a voyage.
"I'm going to do my level best," he told the boys about a fortnightafter they had got clear and away, "to have a bumper ship, that shallrecoup us all for our outlay, to say nothing of our sufferings."
"And now we're bearing up for Kerguelen, aren't we?" said Conal.
"That's the place, lad; and I'm a Dutchman if we don't find theelephant-seals there in countless thousands."
"And when we fill up, what then?"
"O, that question I was considering last night in bed, and I'veconcluded we had better leave our cargo at the Cape. We can sell wellthere at present, for oil is much needed. Then we shall clean shipthoroughly, and sail northwards by the Indian Ocean, picking up a cargoat the Cape, at Zanzibar, and wherever else we can find it. We can't gowrong."
"And back home through the Suez Canal. Is that your idea, sir?" saidthe mate.
"You've hit it completely, Morgan."
"You must remember," he continued after a pause, during which he hadbeen watching the smoke that curled from his lips towards the roof ofthe saloon, "that I look upon this only as an experimental voyage, andas such it hasn't proved altogether a failure. We shall clear our feetand pay our way, boys; and our adventures will be the theme of many alecture when at last we reach the old country.
"And not that only, for our success will enable us to float a goodcompany for sealing and steam-whaling in the Antarctic seas. You see,boys, I've been north and south. I've been what you well may term frompole to pole. Well, my opinion is, that although the Arctic lieshandier to our own doors than the Antarctic, still it is almost playedout. They have been going it among the baby seals a trifle too fast,and have given them no close season, so though I don't say they'vekilled them nearly all off, still they have scared them prettyconsiderably, and the modern Arctic seal isn't the innocent confidingcreature he was in the days of my boyhood. No, he has got far morewary, and so packs of them are more difficult to find than formerly.
"And as for Right whales, well, they are far wiser than we have any ideaof. Their kingdom is a boundless one. It is the ocean wild and wide,and if they cannot have peace to gather in schools, and enjoy theirlittle parties in the north, why, they are free to come to theAntarctic. And that is just what they have done.
"Well, lads, we shall do something in it, be assured. But we've got tohave steam. Strong screw steamers with all appliances to repair damagesof every kind; and steam ice-hammers as well. You've thrown in your lotwith me, boys, and my name isn't Talbot if I don't help you to make agood thing of it."
"The Antarctic is very far away from England," said Frank thoughtfully.
"There you're right, lad. You are thinking of the expense?"
"Yes."
"Ah! but our company will not bring their ships home to Britain. No,they will cruise from the Antarctic to the very nearest markets--inAustralia, for instance. And so it will pay. For should we lose a shipor two, well, the insurance companies must pay that, and they are wellable to.
"So that is my scheme, boys, and, on the whole, I don't think it is abad one. There are so few ways of making fortunes nowadays that whenone gets the ball at his foot, he is a fool if he does not hit it ashard as he knows how to."
----
The voyage to the Kerguelen islands was a very propitious one, and everyone on board the sturdy _Flora M'Vayne_ was as happy as the day waslong. Vike seemed to have got a new lease of life, and wallowed in thesunshine.
"It is such a change, you know," he told Conal, "and I believe we'llsoon be back once more in bonnie Scotland, and won't I tear around thehills just!"
The monkey was less melancholy now, and the cough which troubled him somuch while in the ice, appeared to have quite gone.
And old Pen seemed to be almost beside himself with delight. He used togo tearing along the decks, flapping his wings and shrieking as ifpossessed, and even in his calmer moods he would sometimes leap upsuddenly and practise waltzing all alone.
There was a delightful breeze nearly all the time. If not astern it wasa beam wind, and so the _Flora_ went ripping through the dark-blue seas,every wave of which sparkled in the sunshine.
Many whales were seen, but as Talbot depended most on getting among theelephants now, boats were never lowered to go whaling.
Frank spent much of his time in the crow's-nest.
He was not afraid to swing through the sky at that giddy height,although the first time he clambered up he believed that the crew wouldhave to lower him down with block-and-tackle, he was so thoroughlyfrightened.
"On deck there!" rang the young fellow's voice one forenoon from thenest.
"Ay, ay, lad," from the skipper.
"Land in sight!"
"Where away?"
"On the starboard bow."
"And what does it look like?"
"I can only raise some mountain cones. They seem volcanic, and theirsides are covered with snow."
"Bravo! Come down and I'll get up myself."
Frank was soon on deck.
"Well done, Frank," said Talbot laughing. "I promised a pair of canvastrousers to the man who should first sight land, and you shall havethem."
"Yes, thank you, and I shall wear them too."
Away went the skipper up to the crow's-nest, and before long came anorder to alter the course a point or two.
Close to the Islands of Desolation, as Kerguelen is called, it was fullya week before the _Flora M'Vayne_ was able to reach and enter one of thefriths or creeks. For on the very day on which land was sighted afearful hurricane swept down on the ship, and so suddenly, too, thatbefore sails could be taken in many were rent into ribbons, that crackedand rattled with a sound like the independent firing of troops inaction. There was no standing against wind of this awful violence, andit was necessary to run for it under what is termed "bare poles", thatis, the smallest amount of sail that can be carried with steering power.
But Kerguelen is the region of hurricanes, and few ships that visitthese wild shores escape with impunity.
The coast of the chief islands was found to be iron-bound, high, barren,and rocky, but when they entered and sailed along one of the creeks,scenery of quite a different kind was met with.
It would be difficult indeed to exaggerate the strange, wild, butsolitary beauty of this scenery. Solitary, that is, as regards sight orsign of human being.
But bird life was in evidence everywhere; in fact, Kerguelen might becalled the home of the sea-birds. They have seen but little of man,however, and know nothing of his evil or demoniacal ways. They lookupon him only as a curious kind of biped, of the penguin species, butwithout feathers.
Well, when Duncan or Frank went on shore for a walk with the skipper,the gulls, the petrels, the penguins, the albatrosses, and cormorantsflew around them in thousands, and the din they made was almostdeafening.
Nor were our heroes free altogether from their attentions, whichsometimes were rather of an objectionable character, especially whenstudents of nature in the shape of huge yellow-cheeked penguins waddledup to the place where they were sitting, and began examining theirjackets with the greatest curiosity. Pecking holes in them, too, andpulling at them.
When rudely thrust off they would retire but a little way, and standwatching the boys with great interest.
"Well, I never!" they seemed to say, looking at them from one side oftheir heads.
"Well, I'm gee-whizzled
!" gazing at them with the other.
"Penguins, aren't you? But the ugliest lot ever we saw. We reallywonder your mothers allow you go about like that!"
To-day Captain Talbot and his boys went exploring, but a man was withthem to carry the game they killed, and these consisted chiefly of ducksand rabbits. The former showed no fear, but the latter scurried away atonce.
They journeyed far inland, and made many interesting discoveries, whichproved that these islands are not so utterly useless as they aresupposed to be. Indeed, they could be worked profitably both for coalsand oil.
And Talbot made a general survey of the regions traversed and took amplenotes.
"This would make an excellent centre for our great Antarctic whaling andsealing expedition," he said. "And you and I, boys, might buildourselves a house just under the shelter of these green lichen-cladrocks yonder."
"Oh, it would be awfully nice!" cried Frank.
"And couldn't we have a garden?"
"Yes, and plant and grow crops."
"And trees?"
"Yes, again, and if we are spared to come back here we shall bring withus a few hundreds of young pine-trees--Scotch, and spruce--and plenty ofseed."
"How delightful! I should like so much to be a Crusoe. But listen!Surely that was a dog barking high up the hill yonder."
And so it was, for next moment down came Vike with a rabbit in hismouth.
"Why, Vike," cried Duncan, "we left you on board."
"Very likely," said Vike, speaking with his tail and eyes as he laythere panting from his exertions, with about two yards--more or less--ofpink tongue hanging out over his alabaster teeth. "Very likely, butfive hundred yards of a swim isn't much to a dog like me. And what ismore. Wowff, wowff! you had no business to bolt away without me.Wowff! Don't do it again!"
"Well, now," said Talbot to his mate next day at breakfast, "what do yousay to stay here till we lay in a real good cargo, for outside theelephants are in thousands, and the poor things have young beside themtoo."
"The idea is excellent, sir," said Morgan, "and I have another."
"Out with it, mate. We can't have too many ideas in this world, if wemean to be successful. These ideas of ours don't all hold water; butthen we can go over them at our leisure and pick out the best."
"That's it, sir. Well, why not get all the skins we can procure, andthen make off the oil. Coals are plentiful on shore, and we havecauldrons, you know."
"Bravo! Morgan. That is just what we shall do."
So after breakfast boats were called away, and returned in the eveningladen to the gunwales.
So the vessel was shifted nearer to the open sea, and thus the whalerscould go and return twice or even thrice in one day with their hauls.
It was no easy work, you may well believe, when I tell you that the skinand blubber of one of these huge sea-elephants sometimes weighed eighthundred-weight.
Poor, great, innocent brutes, it did seem a shame to kill their youngbefore their eyes! The sight of the blood made mothers and fathersfrantic, and they rushed on shore as if bent on revenge, but only tofall victims to the rifles of the gunners.
It was a bloody and terrible scene, and I have no desire to describe it.Indeed, were I to tell the reader one quarter of the cruelties I haveseen enacted by sealers, I should so harrow his feelings that his dreamswould not be pleasant for one night afterwards.
Not merely for a fortnight, but for more than three weeks did the_Flora_ lie at Kerguelen, but in a sheltered cove, so that thehurricanes, that on four or five different occasions swept down from themountains with terrific violence, had but little effect on her. By thistime they had boiled down all their oil, salted all their skins andtanked them, and were in reality a bumper ship.
I must not forget one little incident that took place about a week aftertheir arrival.
One day that extremely wise and wondrous bird, Old Pen, went hoppingdown the starboard gangway and leapt into the sea.
Vike, who had been observing him, sprang right off the bulwark and triedmost energetically to head him off.
The bird and dog met face to face, and it really seemed as if aconversation somewhat as follows took place.
Old Pen: "Hullo, what's your game?"
Viking: "I'm going to rush you back to your ship."
O. P.: "Your grandmother! I won't be rushed. I can swim better thanyou, and dive like a fish-hawk. So don't let us quarrel. In spring, youknow, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. I've gotan appointment on shore here. Ta, ta! Be as good's ye can."
Vike: "But I say, Old Pen--"
Old Pen had dived and was out of sight, and so Vike swam sadly back tothe ship once more.
Just a few hours, however, before the anchor was got up, and while thecrew were busy shaking out the sails before departing for the far west,something between a squawk and a squeal was heard alongside, and, sureenough, there was Old Pen come back again.
He was assisted on board, and shook himself as unconcernedly as ifnothing unusual had happened.
But Viking's delight knew no bounds, nor did that of little JohnnieShingles. The former went tearing round and round the deck, like ahairy hurricane.
"If I don't allay my feelings thus," cried Vike, "I shall go clean offmy chump."
Now it happened that Frank was on deck with his fiddle, ready to play tothe men as they got up the anchor.
But, seeing how matters stood, he instantly struck up a livelyschottische.
"Squawk--s--squaw--awk!" cried Old Pen, waving his flippers.
"Hurray!" cried Johnnie, and next moment he and his strange partner werewhirling round and round on the quarter-deck, in one of the maddest,merriest dances that surely ever yet was seen.
And I don't believe there was a soul on board who was not rejoiced thatOld Pen had returned once again.
That evening they were far away on the quiet and lonesome sea, and,standing by the fire in the saloon warming his flat feet, one by one, asusual, was Old Pen, while near him, sound asleep, lay Vike.
"Awfully good of the bird to come off in time, wasn't it, boys?" saidthe skipper, relighting his pipe. "If he hadn't come back I should havebelieved I was about to be deserted by all my good fortune.
"We are glad to see you, Pen, and hope you'll never leave us again. Butwhat put it into your silly noddle to go away at all, Pen?"
Pen made two hops of the space between him and the captain. Thenleaning his head on his knee he looked up drolly with one eye--whichbeing half-closed gave him the appearance of winking.
"I did think of getting spliced, you know," he seemed to say, "and morethan one lovely Lady Pen asked me to fly with her to a foreign shore.Nary a fly," says I, "not if Pen knows it. Marriage is a precariouskind of experiment, so after flirting around for a bit I remembered myold friends and just floated off again."
----
Fine weather all the way to the Cape, with stunsails set 'low and aloftmost of the time.
Ah, reader, there isn't much to beat the life a sailor leads after all!
In foul weather? Yes, foul or fine, and it isn't always blowing bigguns at sea.
And Jack has no undergrowth of care to curl round the very roots of hislife, and try to swamp him.
If he does his duty--and what real sailor doesn't?--he may be as happyand jolly as the Prince of Wales, only a vast deal more so.
Besides, what Jack afloat is there, who has not some loved one to thinkof when far away at sea; someone that he knows right well is thinking,ay, and praying, for him. So even in storm and in danger Jack may sing:
"Blow high, blow low, let tempests tear The main-mast by the board; My heart with thoughts of thee, my dear, And love well stored, Shall brave all danger, scorn all fear. The roaring winds, the raging sea, In hopes on shore, To be once more, Safe moor'd with thee."
----
The crow
's-nest had been taken down, but stride-legs on theforetop-gallant cross-trees sat Frank one sunny forenoon. Gently to andfro swings the ship, the top-masts forming the arc of a great circle.But Frank minds not the motion.
He is an ancient mariner now.
Or he thinks he is.
"On deck there!"
It is a shout which is half hysterical with joy.
"Land on the lee-bow. The Cape, sir! The Cape!"
Then a cheer rises up from far below that makes the very sails shiver.
Vike starts up and barks, and taking this for an invitation to dance,Old Pen with a squawk and a squeal springs up, and next minute JohnnieShingles and he are wheeling round in fine style on the quarter-deck.
"Land! Land! Land!" And, for a time at least, the dangers of the deepare past.
BOOK III.
IN THE LAND OF THE NUGGET AND DIAMOND.