CHAPTER XIII.
The author lays in a store against the dark weather-Hears voices--His thoughts thereon--Persuades himself it was a dream--Hears them again--Determines to see if any one lodged in the rock--Is satisfied there is nobody--Observations on what he saw--Finds a strong weed like whipcord--Makes a drag-net--Lengthens it--Catches a monster--Its description-- Makes oil of it
I had now well stored my grotto with all sorts of winter provisions, andfeeling the weather grow very cold, I expected and waited patiently forthe total darkness. I went little abroad, and employed myself withindoors endeavouring to fence against the approaching extremity of thecold. For this purpose I prepared a quantity of rushes, which beingvery dry, I spread them smoothly on the floor of my bed-chamber a goodthickness, and over them I laid my mattress. Then I made a double sheetof the boat's awning or sail, that I had brought to cover my goods; andhaving skewered together several of the jackets and clothes I found inthe chest, of them I made a coverlid; so that I lay very commodiously,and made very long nights of it now the dark season was set in.
As I lay awake one night, or day, I know not which, I very plainly heardthe sound of several human voices, and sometimes very loud; but thoughI could easily distinguish the articulations, I could not understand theleast word that was said; nor did the voices seem at all to me like suchas I had anywhere heard before, but much softer and more musical. Thisstartled me, and I rose immediately, slipping on my clothes and takingmy gun in my hand (which I always kept charged, being my constanttravelling companion) and my cutlass. Thus equipped, I walked into myante-chamber, where I heard the voices much plainer, till after somelittle time they by degrees died quite away. After watching here, andhearkening a good while, hearing nothing, I walked back into the grotto,and laid me down again on my bed. I was inclined to open the door of myante-chamber, but I own I was afraid; besides, I considered that if Idid, I could discover nothing at any distance by reason of the thick andgloomy wood that enclosed me.
I had a thousand different surmises about the meaning of this oddincident; and could not conceive how any human creatures should be inmy kingdom (as I called it) but myself, and I never yet see them, or anytrace of their habitation. But then again I reflected, that though I hadsurrounded the whole lake, yet I had not traced the out-bounds of thewood next the rock, where there might be innumerable grottoes like mine;nay, perhaps some as spacious as that I had sailed through to the lake;and that though I had not perceived it, yet this beautiful spot might bevery well peopled. But, says I again, if there be any such beings asI am fancying here, surely they don't skulk in their dens, like savagebeasts, by daylight, and only patrole for prey by night; if so, I shallprobably become a delicious morsel for them ere long, if they meet withme. This kept me still more within doors than before, and I hardly everstirred out but for water or firing. At length, hearing no more voices,nor seeing any one, I began to be more composed in my mind, and at lastgrew persuaded it was all a mere delusion, and only a fancy of mine,without any real foundation; and sometimes, though I was sure I wasfully awake when I heard them, I persuaded myself I had rose in mysleep, upon a dream of voices, and recollected with myself the variousstories I had heard when a boy of walking in one's sleep, and thesurprising effects of it; so the whole notion was now blown over.
I had not enjoyed my tranquillity above a week, before my fears wereroused afresh, hearing the same sound of voices twice the same night,but not many minutes at a time. What gave me most pain was that theywere at such a distance, as I judged by the languor of the sound, thatif I had opened my door I could not have seen the utterers through thetrees, and I was resolved not to venture out; but then I determined, ifthey should come again anything near my grotto, to open the door, seewho they were, and stand upon my defence, whatever came of it: For, saysI, my entrance is so narrow and high that more than one cannot come at atime; and I can with ease despatch twenty of them before they cansecure me, if they should be savages; but if they prove sensible humancreatures, it will be a great benefit to me to join myself to theirsociety. Thus had I formed my scheme, but I heard no more of them for agreat while; so that at length beginning to grow ashamed of my fears, Ibecame tranquil again.
The day now returning, and with it my labours, I applied to my usualcallings; but my mind ran strangely upon viewing the rock quite round,that is, the whole circuit of my dominions; for, thinks I, there maypossibly be an outlet through the rock into some other country, fromwhence the persons I heard may come. As soon therefore as the days grewtowards the longest, I prepared for my progress. Having lived so well athome since my settlement, I did not care to trust only to what I couldpick up in the woods for my subsistence during this journey, which wouldnot only take up time in procuring, but perhaps not agree with me; soI resolved to carry a supply with me, proportionate to the length of myperambulation. Hereupon considering that though my walk round the lakewas finished in two days, yet as I now intended to go round by the rock,the way would be much longer and perhaps more troublesome than that was;remembering also my journey with Glanlepze in Africa, and how muchI complained of the fruits we carried for our subsistence; thesecircumstances, I say, laying together, I resolved to load the cart witha variety of food, bread and fruits especially, and draw that with me.
Thus provided, I sallied forth with great cheerfulness, and proceeded inthe main easily; though in some places I was forced to make way withmy hatchet, the ground was so over-run with underwood. I very narrowlyviewed the rock as I went, bottom and sides, all the way, but could seenothing like a passage through it, or indeed any more than one opening,or inlet, which I entered for about thirty yards, but it was not abovethree feet wide, and terminated in the solid rock.
After some days' travel (making all the observations I could on theseveral plants, shrubs, and trees which I met with, particularly whereany of these occurred to me entirely new), finding myself a littlefaintish, I had a mind for a sup of ram's-horn juice; so I cut me one,but upon opening it found therein only a pithy pulp, and noways fit totaste. I supposed by this I was too early for the milk, it being threemonths later the last year when I cut them. Hereon, seeing one uponanother shrub, which by its rusty colour I judged might have hung allthe winter, I opened that, and found it full of milk; but putting someof it into my mouth, it was as sour as any vinegar I ever tasted in mylife. So, thinks I (and said so too; for, as I told you before, I alwaysspoke out), here's sauce for something when I want it; and this gaveme a hint to store myself with these gourds, to hang by for vinegar thenext winter.
By this time I had come almost to my rill, when I entered upon a largeplat of ground miserably over-run with weeds, matted together verythick. These choked up my wheels in such a manner that I could neitherfree them with my hands, nor get either backwards or forwards, theybinding my cart down like so many cords; so that I was obliged to cut myway back again with my hatchet, and take a sweep round in the wood, onthe outside of these weeds.
In all my life I never saw anything of its size, for it was no thickerthan a whipcord, so strong as this weed; and what raised my wonder wasthe length of it, for I drew out pieces of it near fifty feet long, andeven they were broken at the end, so that it might be as long again foraught I know, for it was so matted and twisted together, that it was agreat trial of patience to untangle it; but that which was driest,and to me looked the rottenest and weakest, I found to be much thestrongest. Upon examination of its parts, I discovered it to becomposed of an infinite number of small threads, spirally overlaying andenfolding one another.
As I saw but few things that I could not find a use for, so this Iperceived would serve all the common purposes of packthread; a thing Iwas often in want of. This inclined me to take a load of it home withme. Indeed the difficulty of getting a quantity in the condition Idesired it, puzzled me a little; for, says I, if I cut up a good dealof it with my hatchet, as I first designed, I shall only have smalllengths, good for little, and to get it in pieces of any considerablele
ngth, so as to be of service, will require much time and labour. Butreflecting how much I needed it, and of what benefit it would be,I resolved to make a trial of what I could do; so, without morehesitation, I went to work, and cutting a fibre close to its root,I extricated that thread from all its windings, just as one does anentangled whipcord. When I had thus disengaged a sufficient length, Icut that off, and repeating the like operation, in about three hours'time, but with no little toil, I made up my load of different lengthsjust to my liking. Having finished this task, I filled the gourd,brought for that purpose, with water; and having first viewed the wholeremaining part of the rock, I returned over the stone bridge home again.
This journey, though it took me up several days, and was attendedwith some fatigue, had yet given me great satisfaction; for now Iwas persuaded I could not have one rival or enemy to fear in my wholedominions. And from the impossibility, as I supposed, of there beingany, or of the ingress of any, unless by the same passage I enteredat, and by which I was well assured they could never return, I grewcontented, and blamed myself for the folly of my imaginary voices, as Icalled them then, and took it for a distemper of the fancy only.
The next day I looked over my load of matweed, having given it thatname, and separated the different lengths from each other. I then foundI had several pieces between forty and fifty feet long, of which Iresolved to get a good number more, to make me a drag-net that I mighttry for some fish in the lake. A day or two after, therefore, I broughthome another load of it Then I picked out a smooth level spot upon thegreen-sward, and having prepared a great number of short wooden pegs, Istrained a line of the matweed about ten feet long, tying it at each endto a peg, and stuck a row of pegs along by that line, about two inchesasunder; I next strained another line of the same length, parallel tothat, at the distance of forty feet from it, and stuck pegs thereby,corresponding to the former row; and from each peg on one side, to theopposite peg on the other, I tied a like length of my mat-line, quitethrough the whole number of pegs; when the work looked like the insideof a harpsichord. I afterwards drove pegs in like manner along the wholelength of the two outermost longer lines, and tied shorter lines tothem, so that the whole affair then represented the squares of a racket;the corners of each of which squares I tied very tight with smallerpieces of the line, till I had formed a complete net of forty feet longand ten wide.
When I had finished my net, as I thought, I wrapped several stonesin rags, and fastened them to the bottom to sink it, and some of thesmallest unscooped dry gourds to the top, to keep that part buoyant. Inow longed to begin my new trade, and carried the net to my boat withthat intention; but after two or three hauls I found it would not answerfor want of length (though by chance I caught a blackish fish withoutscales, a little bigger than whiting, but much longer, which stuck bythe gills in it); so I left the net in the boat, resolving to make anaddition to it with all speed; and returning to my grotto, I supped onthe fish I had taken and considered how to pursue my enterprise withbetter effect.
I provided me with another large parcel of line; and having brought twomore lengths to perfection, I joined all together, and fixing one endon shore, by a pole I had cut for that purpose, I launched my boat, withthe other end in it, taking a sweep the length of my net round tomy stick again, and getting on shore, hauled up my net by both endstogether. I found now I had mended my instrument, and taken a proper wayof applying it; for by this means, in five hauls, I caught about sixteenfish of three or four different sorts, and one shell-fish, almost likea lobster, but without great claws, and with a very small short tail;which made me think, as the body was thrice as long as a lobster's inproportion, that it did not swim backwards, like that creature, butonly crawled forwards (it having lobsterlike legs, but much shorter andstronger), and that the legs all standing so forward, its tail was, byits motion, to keep the hinder part of the body from dragging upon theground, as I observed it did when the creature walked on land, it thenfrequently flacking its short tail.
These fish made me rich in provisions. Some of them I ate fresh, and theremainder I salted down. But of all the kinds, my lobster was the mostdelicious food, and made me almost three meals.
Thus finding there were fish to be had, though my present tackle seemedsuitable enough to my family, yet could I not rest till I had improvedmy fishery by enlarging my net; for as it was, even with my lateaddition, I must either sweep little or no compass of ground, or itwould have no bag behind me. Upon this I set to work and shortly doubledthe dimensions of it. I had then a mind to try it at the mouth of myrill; so taking it with me the next time I crossed the lake for water,and fastening it to my pole, close by the right side of the rill, Iswept a long compass round to the left, and closing the ends, attemptedto draw it up in the hollow cut of the rill. But by the time I hadgathered up two-thirds of the net, I felt a resistance that quiteamazed me. In short, I was not able to stand against the force I felt.Whereupon sitting down in the rill, and clapping my feet to the twosides of it, I exerted all my strength, till finally I became conqueror,and brought up so shocking a monster, that I was just rising to runfor my life on the sight of it. But recollecting that the creature washampered, and could not make so much resistance on the land as in thewater, I ventured to drag the net up as far from the rill as my strengthand breath would permit me; and then running to the boat for my gun,I returned to the net to examine my prize. Indeed, I had not instantlyresolution enough to survey it, and when at length I assumed courageenough to do so, I could not perfectly distinguish the parts, they wereso discomposed; but taking hold of one end of the net, I endeavoured todisentangle the thing, and then drawing the net away, a most surprisingsight presented itself: the creature reared upright, about three feethigh, covered all over with long, black shaggy hair, like a bear, whichhung down from his head and neck quite along his back and sides. He hadtwo fins, very broad and large, which, as he stood erect, looked likearms, and these he waved and whirled about with incredible velocity; andthough I wondered at first at it, I found afterwards it was the motionof these fins that kept him upright; for I perceived when they ceasedtheir motion he fell flat on his belly. He had two very large feet,which he stood upon, but could not run, and but barely walk on them,which made me in the less haste to despatch him; and after he had stoodupon his feet about four minutes, clapping his fins to his sides, hefell upon his belly.
When I found he could not attack me, I was moving closer to him; butupon sight of my stirring, up he rose again, and whirled his fins aboutas before so long as he stood. And now I viewed him round, and foundhe had no tail at all, and that his hinder fins, or feet, very muchresembled a large frog's, but were at least ten inches broad, andeighteen long, from heel to toe; and his legs were so short that when hestood upright his breech bore upon the ground. His belly, which he kepttowards me, was of an ash-colour, and very broad, as also was his breastHis eyes were small and blue, with a large black sight in the middle,and rather of an oval than round make. He had a long snout like a boar,and vast teeth. Thus having surveyed him near half an hour living, Imade him rise up once more and shot him in the breast. He fell, andgiving a loud howl, or groan, expired.
I had then time to see what else I had caught; and turning over the net,found a few of the same fish I had taken before, and some others of aflat-tish make, and one little lump of flesh unformed; which last, byall I could make of it, seemed to be either a spawn or young one of thatI had shot.
The great creature was so heavy, I was afraid I must have cut him inpieces to get him to the boat; but with much ado, having stowed therest, I tumbled him on board. I then filled my water-cask and rowedhomewards. Being got to land, I was obliged to bring down my cart, tocarry my great beast-fish, as I termed him, up to the grotto. When I hadgot him thither, I had a notion of first tasting, and then, if I likedhis flesh, of salting him down and drying him; so, having flayed him andtaken out the guts and entrails, I boiled a piece of him; but it madesuch a blaze that most of the fat ran into the fire, and the fleshproved so
dry and rank that I could no ways endure it.
I then began to be sorry I had taken so much pains for no profit, andhad endangered my net into the bargain (for that had got a crack or twoin the scuffle), and was thinking to throw away my large but worthlessacquisition.
However, as I was now prone to weighing all things, before I threw itaway I resolved to consider a little; whereupon I changed my mind.Says I, Here is a good warm skin, which, when dry, will make me a rarecushion. Again, I have for a long while had no light beside that of theday; but now as this beast's fat makes such a blaze in the fire, andissues in so great a quantity from such a small piece as I broiled, whymay not I boil a good tallow or oil out of it? and if I can, I have notmade so bad a hand of my time as I thought for.
In short, I went immediately to work upon this subject (for I never leta project cool after I had once started it), and boiled as much of theflesh as the kettle would hold, and letting it stand to cool, I foundit turned out very good oil for burning; though I confess I thought itwould rather have made tallow. This success quickened my industry; and Irepeated the operation till I got about ten quarts of this stuff, whichvery well rewarded my labour. After I had extracted as much oil as Icould from the beast-fish, the creature having strongly impressed myimagination, I conceived a new fancy in relation to it; and that was,having heard him make a deep, howling groan at his death, I endeavouredto persuade myself, and at last verily believed, that the voices Ihad so often heard in the dark weather proceeded from numbers of thesecreatures, diverting themselves in the lake, or sporting together onthe shore; and this thought, in its turn, contributed to ease myapprehensions in that respect.