Courage, True Hearts: Sailing in Search of Fortune

  CHAPTER I.--SHIPWRECK ON A LONELY ISLE.

  This book opens amidst scenery far different indeed from that which Ihad to describe in my last.

  I should like the reader to bear in mind that my youthful heroes werevery far indeed from being mercenary, and were just at that age, whenwild adventure appeals to the heart of a young fellow who has any sparkof manhood in his composition.

  Certainly they had sailed in search of fortune, but it was not on theirown account they were seeking for wealth, as I have endeavoured to show.

  Well, even already, they had been fairly fortunate. They had not buriedtheir talents in the earth, nor in the ocean either, and at the Cape ofGood Hope their cargo brought them in so much, that the fortunes of allwho had a share in the ship was not only doubled but tripled.

  They had, immediately after clearing out, employed a gang of heathens,as Morgan always called people with dark skins, to thoroughly scour anddisinfect the ship. They had been employed for days at the work, underthe lash of a ganger, the ganger himself being under the watchful eye ofMorgan the first mate.

  And so the work was perfectly done.

  Then fresh and cleanly cargo was laid in, which would doubtless fetch abig price in the London market. This consisted of wool, firmly boundand packed into small compass; ostrich feathers, and wine, to saynothing of curios. They did not quite fill up, however, hoping to makeeven better bargains up the coast.

  And so they did, especially as regards ostrich feathers, gum copal,pepper, nutmegs and arrow-root.

  They called at Zanzibar, one of the strangest cities on earth, and here,while the _Flora M'Vayne_ lay quietly at anchor in the beautiful openroadstead, where floated ships bearing the ensigns of at least half adozen different nations, the boys went on shore, taking Vike with them,and enjoyed most thoroughly not only rambles through the crowdedstreets, but out in the beautiful bush, where they could revel in therarest and most delicious fruits the world can grow.

  I need but mention mangoes, guavas, and cocoa-nuts, to say nothing ofhuge pine-apples, with the tropical sun-tints on their rough but shiningrinds, and perfume as sweet even as their luscious taste and flavour.

  But here were no wild adventures, so that the lads were not sorry whenthe anchor was once more weighed, and the ship far away on the heavingsea.

  It was the captain's intention to be towed through the canal, but lo!and alas! from the very first day of their leaving Zanzibar misfortuneattended them.

  One of these terrible circular storms, all too common in the IndianOcean, and called typhoons, came roaring down upon them with scarcely aminute's warning.

  The higher sails were blown into ribbons, the topgallant masts carriedaway, and the gallant ship thrown so much on her beam-ends, that thewater came over the lee rails.

  She righted again, it is true. And speedily too; and now like someliving frightened creature she literally flew before the fearful storm.

  As speedily as possible the sails that were not split were taken in.This was a very dangerous employment, and one poor fellow was blown offthe yardarm.

  Nicholson was his name, and he was a powerful swimmer, but useful thoughthis art of swimming is, what could it avail him in a sea like that!

  For just a moment or two his brave and handsome face was seen among thesurf in the wake.

  He waved his hand once, as if bidding his comrades all adieu, then sankto rise no more.

  As a rule, circular storms do not last for a very long time, and a goodsailor like Talbot knows how to manoeuvre his ship so as to get clear asspeedily as possible; but this typhoon ended in a gale, which in forcewas quite a hurricane.

  And this kept on for several days.

  The last night was the worst. About six o'clock in the evening the sunwent down in a brassy haze, behind the foam-crested turmoil of waves;and the wind seemed still on the increase.

  Not a star to-night.

  It was pitchy dark, for the horizon was close aboard of thestorm-tormented ship, and the clouds may have been half a mile in depth.There were two men at the wheel, and those who had to keep watch werefain to lash themselves to rigging or shrouds.

  But keeping watch is here but a figure of speech. What watch could bekept in a dark so dark? There was no thunder that could be heard, butthe occasional flashes of lightning that dazzled the eyes one momentonly rendered the darkness more intense the next.

  It must have been about four bells in the first watch, and those in thesaloon were trying to obtain a kind of scrambling supper. Old Pen hadcome aft, and Vike was here too. Both knew that to-night there wasdanger on the deep.

  Suddenly there came a shout from those on deck, this was followed by acrashing sound like the splintering of masts, a loud grating noise, andthen all motion ceased.

  "We are doomed, boys, but we must still continue to have faith in ourheavenly Father."

  "Do you think, sir," faltered Frank, "that--that we are wrecked?"

  "We are driven on shore, lad, but where, it is impossible to say."

  The ship was already battened down, so that, although the seas weremaking a clean breach over her, there was no immediate danger.

  The mate found his way below.

  His oil-skins were glittering with water, and his red face dripping too.

  He shook the drops from his brown beard and sat down, with a strangeuneasy kind of smile on his face.

  "Not much to be done, is there, Morgan?"

  "Nothing," replied the mate. "Seems to me we've just got to sit hereand wait for death."

  "Is that the view you take?"

  A terrible wave at that moment dashed over the vessel, shaking her fromstern to stem.

  "Hark, sir! Isn't that the view you take?"

  "While there is life there is hope, my friend."

  The mate laughed half scornfully.

  "There won't be much of either half an hour after this," he saidsolemnly.

  The captain now essayed to go on deck. He ventured forward only a stepor two. To have come farther would have been sheer madness.

  Morgan was right. They had only to wait for death.

  Wait and pray, however.

  Ah, yes! for God the Lord is everywhere, on sea as well as on the dryland, and prayer is never denied us.

  Morgan's half-hour was past, and another to that; still the sturdy shipgave no signs of breaking up.

  On the contrary, the wind had gone down considerably, and the seas aswell.

  "Mate," said Talbot.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Are the men below?"

  "Three, I think, were washed away; the rest are all in the galley orhalf-deck."

  "It is very dreadful. But we have hope now. An hour ago I should nothave ventured to serve out grog, lest in despair some might have brokeninto the spirit-hold. Come with me now, mate, and we will splice themain-brace. Come, steward, you know what is wanted."

  It was very difficult even yet to get forward, so covered was the deckwith wreckage. But they succeeded at last.

  Sad, indeed, was the sight that dawn revealed.

  The mizzen-mast alone was left standing, the fore and main having goneby the board.

  The ship herself had been carried by a huge tidal wave, right in betweentwo high volcanic-looking rocks, and there so jammed that at low tide itwas perfectly possible to walk under keel.

  Jibboom and bowsprit were also smashed, and a single glance at the shipwould have told even a landsman that she was doomed.

  Nor would it be safe even to remain on board, for at any time she mightslide backwards and lie on the shingle beneath, broadside up.

  Talbot was no pessimist.

  "Thank God, boys," he said, "that our lives have been spared."

  "Amen!" was said by all around, and that, too, with both reverence andfervour.

  But the wind had fallen almost to a dead calm, and there was not a soundto be heard except the rustle of the shingle as it was hurled upon thebeach by each advancing wavelet, and sucked back by the next.
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  "Now, men," cried the captain, "we'll go to breakfast at once, and thenmake all speed to land the cargo and stores. This island is evidentlyuninhabited, and it may be many a long day, indeed, before we arediscovered and able to get away."

  On the shore side, and between the rocks, was a green bank, and intothis the shattered bowsprit had been thrust. So that to make a roughbridge from the fo'c's'le to the shore was a very simple matter.

  There were still thirty men left as crew all told of the unfortunate_Flora_, not to mention Johnnie Shingles, Viking, and Old Pen, neitherof whose names were borne on the ship's books.

  But with such hearty good-will did the men work that before sunset, notonly had they erected a huge marquee with spare spars, the wreck of themasts and sails, but had got a very large quantity of the most valuablestores on shore.

  It was a strange island indeed, and evidently of volcanic origin. Notvery large, probably not six miles in circumference altogether. It waswell wooded, though the trees were by no means high, and in the centrewas a beautiful circular lake, in which a lovely little island-groveseemed to float or to hang.

  Work was resumed next day, and the men now set themselves to build twostrong, substantial, living huts, a big and a smaller, with a rough butdry shed for the stores and cargo, not forgetting the balloon and thevaried apparatus for inflating it.

  It took them a whole week and a day to get everything snug andcomfortable; and all this time it continued calm.

  But never a boat nor dhow was to be seen from the outlook. The last wassimply a spare spar of considerable height, with rigging thereto. Itwas, moreover, a flagstaff by day and a beacon by night. But I maystate at once that this uninhabited isle being fully two hundred milesfrom the mainland shore, and quite out of the way of any kind ofcommerce, licit or illicit, there was but small chance of any signalbeing seen.

  What made the situation more desperate was the fact that not a boat hadbeen left, all were smashed and washed away; three having gone beforethe vessel struck.

  But the greatest misfortune of all was the almost complete destructionof the donkey-engine, so that it would be impossible to distil water.

  They managed to save enough, however, to last for fully three weeks witheconomy, and as Talbot said, there was no saying what might not occurbefore then.

  This water was carefully stored in casks, placed in sheltered corners,and raised on stones to defend them against the ravages of the terriblewhite ant.

  A more terrible scourge than these _Termitidae_ constitute, it would bedifficult to conceive. What makes it more serious, is that they workcompletely concealed--in galleries, that is. And so thin is the outershell of wood which they leave that their presence is not suspecteduntil the whole of some structure--and this may be of any size, from awine-box to a building,--suddenly gives way.

  These white ants once, to my knowledge, attacked a library of bookswhich had not been used for some time. They were evidently fonder ofreading than the townspeople. We talk of devouring a favourite author.Well, in the case in point these terrible _Termitidae_ devoured theirauthors in a far more literal sense, and fairly ate them up, but theyleft the bindings all intact, so that when a volume was pulled out oneday it turned Dead Sea fruit, and fell to dust in the librarian's hands.Then, and not till then, was the whole extent of the mischiefdiscovered.

  Our little shipwrecked colony now settled down to wait and watch.

  There was but little else to do.

  They lived in hope, however, and day after day many a straining eye wasturned seawards, to seek for the sail that never appeared, and the lastthing at night which Talbot or the boys did was to walk around the edgesof the cliffs, in the expectation of seeing some mast-head light.

  A fire was ready at a moment's notice to light as a signal, but alas! itwas not required.

  They had yet to find out, however, what these ants were capable of.

  It was the water they dreaded most to lose. Without this they must soonsink and perish.

  Just one fearful accident I must here record, though I have no intentionto pile up horrors.

  But in the expectation of rain one night a huge piece of waterproofcanvas was spread, or rather hung, by the four corners between as manytrees, hammock fashion.

  The rain did come.

  Water from the casks was at this time served out only in smallquantities, so that the poor mariners were already suffering greatlyfrom thirst. They were overjoyed, therefore, to find their greathammock almost full next morning.

  They drank greedily of the apparently pure liquid, although some averredthat it tasted bitter.

  Alas! it was poisoned!

  For in about half an hour afterwards the men were suffering the mostexcruciating agony.

  Luckily, none of the officers had partaken of this water, which musthave been poisoned by the copper or some other chemical, with which thecanvas had been treated, to render it waterproof.

  Before night, although Talbot gave everyone emetics of strong mustardand water, treating them afterwards with wine and spirits, no fewer thanfour poor fellows were dead. The others got better, but continued weakand ill for weeks.