Books: The Little Savage
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Captain Marryat >> The Little Savage
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"He preached to them resignation to the Divine Will; but resignation
was not a savage virtue. He was indefatigable in his attentions to
the sick; but those of whom he was most careful seemed the speediest
to die. The popular feeling against him increased every hour; he
appeared, however, to defy his fate--walking unconcernedly amongst
crowds of infuriated savages brandishing heavy clubs, and threatening
him with the points of their sharp spears; but his eye never blinked,
and his cheek never blanched, and he walked on his way inwardly
praising God, careless of the evil passions that raged around him.
"It was on a Sabbath morn--our service had far advanced; we could
boast of but a limited congregation, for many had died, some had fled
from the pestilence into the interior; others had avoided the place
in consequence of the threats of their countrymen. A few children,
and two or three women, were all their teacher had to address.
"We were engaged in singing a Psalm, when a furious crowd, mad with
rage, as it seemed, screaming and yelling in the most frightful
manner, and brandishing their weapons as though about to attack an
enemy, burst into our little chapel, and seized my husband in the
midst of his devotions.
"I rushed forward to protect him from the numerous weapons that were
aimed at his life, but was dragged back by the hair of my head; and
with infuriate cries and gestures, that made them look like demons
broke loose from hell, they fell upon him with their clubs and spears.
"Reichardt made no resistance, he merely clasped his hands the more
firmly, and looked up to Heaven the more devoutly, as he continued
the Psalm he had commenced before they entered. This did not delay
his fate.
"They beat out his brains so close to me, that I was covered with
his blood, and I believe I should have shared the same fate, had I
not fainted with terror at the horrible scene of which I was a forced
spectator.
"I learned afterwards that some powerful chief interfered, and I was
carried away more dead than alive, in which state I long remained. As
soon as I became sufficiently strong to be moved, I took advantage of
a whaler calling at the island, homeward bound, to beg a passage. The
captain heard my lamentable story, took me on board as soon as he
could, and shewed a seaman's sympathy for my sufferings.
"I was to have returned to England with him, but off this place we
encountered a terrible storm, in which we were obliged to take to the
boats, as the only chance of saving our lives. What became of him I
know not, as the two boats parted company soon after leaving the
wreck. I trust he managed to reach the land in safety, and is now in
his own country, enjoying all the comforts that can make life
covetable.
"What became of that part of the crew that brought me here in the
other boat, led by the fires you had lighted, I am in doubt. But I
think on quitting the island, crowded as their boat was, and in the
state of its crew, it was scarcely possible for them to have made the
distant island for which they steered."
Chapter XL
Mrs Reichardt's story made a sensible impression on me. I no longer
wondered at the pallor of her countenance, or the air of melancholy
that at first seemed so remarkable; she had suffered most severely,
and her sufferings were too recent not to have left their effects
upon her frame.
I thought a good deal about her narrative, and wondered much that
men could be got to leave their comfortable homes, and travel
thousands and thousands of miles across the fathomless seas, with the
hope of converting a nation of treacherous savages, by whom they were
sure to be slaughtered at the first outbreak of ill-feeling.
I could not but admire the character of Reichardt--in all his
actions he had exhibited a marked nobility of nature. He would not
present himself before the woman who had the strongest claims upon
his gratitude, till he had obtained a position and a reputation that
should, in his opinion, make him worthy of her; and though he had a
presentiment of the fate that would overtake him, he fulfilled his
duties as a missionary with a holy enthusiasm that made him regard
his approaching martyrdom as the greatest of all earthly
distinctions. I felt regret that I had not known such a man. I knew
how much I had lost in having missed such an example.
My having heard this story led me into much private communing with
myself respecting religion. I could consider myself little better
than a savage, like the brutal Sandwich Islanders; my conduct to
Jackson had been only in a degree less inhuman than that these
idolaters had shewn to their teacher when he was in their power. I
fancied at the time that I served him right, for his villainous
conduct to my father, and brutal conduct to me: but God having
punished him for his misdeeds, I felt satisfied I had no business to
put him to greater torment as satisfaction for my own private
injuries. I fancied God might have been angry with me, and had kept
me on the island as a punishment for my offences; and I had some
conversation with Mrs Reichardt on this point.
"Nothing," she observed, "can excuse your ill-feeling towards
Jackson; he was a bad man, without a doubt, and he deserved condign
punishment for his usage of your parents; but the Divine founder of
our religion has urged us to return good for evil."
"Yes," I answered readily, "but I should have suffered as bad as my
father and mother, had I not prevented his doing me mischief."
"You do not know that you were to suffer," she replied. "Jackson,
without such terrible punishment as he brought upon himself, might
eventually have become contrite, and have restored you to your
friends as well as enabled you to obtain your grandfather's property.
God frequently performs marvellous things with such humble
instruments, for he hath said, 'There is more joy in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth, than over ninety-nine just men.'"
"Surely, this is raising the wicked man over the good," I cried.
"Not at all," she replied. "The repentant is one gained from the
ranks of the great enemy--it is as one that was lost and is found
again--it is a soul added to the blessed. Therefore the joy in heaven
is abundant at such a conversion. The just are the natural heirs of
heaven--their rights are acknowledged without dispute--their claim is
at once recognised and allowed, and they receive their portion of
eternal joy as a matter of course, without there being any necessity
for exciting those demonstrations of satisfaction which hail the
advent of a sinner saved."
"I don't think such a villain as Jackson would ever go to heaven," I
observed.
"'Judge not, lest ye be judged,'" she answered; "that is a text that
cannot be too often impressed upon persons anxious to condemn to
eternal torment all those they believe to be worse than themselves.
It is great presumption in us poor creatures of clay, to anticipate
the proceedings of the Infinite Wisdom. Let us leave the high
prerogative of judgment to the Almighty Power, by whom only it is
exercised, and in our opinions of even the worst of our fellow-creatures,
let us exercise a comprehensive charity, mingled with a prayer that
even at the eleventh hour, they may have turned from the evil of
their ways, and embraced the prospect of salvation, which the mercy
of their Creator has held out to them."
In this and similar conversations, Mrs Reichardt would endeavour to
plant in my mind the soundest views of religion; and she spoke so
well, and so convincingly, that I had little trouble in understanding
her meaning, or in retaining it after it had been uttered.
It was not, as I have before stated, to religion only that she led
my thoughts, although that certainly was the most frequent subject of
our conversation. She sought to instruct me in the various branches
of knowledge into which she had acquired some insight, and in this
way I picked up as much information respecting grammar, geography,
astronomy, writing, arithmetic, history, and morals, as I should have
gained had I been at a school, instead of being forced to remain on a
desolate island.
I need not say that I still desired to leave it. I had long been
tired of the place, notwithstanding that from our united exertions,
we enjoyed many comforts which we could not have hoped for. Our hut
we had metamorphosed into something Mrs Reichardt styled a rustic
cottage, which, covered as it was with flowers and creepers, really
looked very pretty; and the garden added greatly to its pleasant
appearance: for near the house we had transplanted everything that
bore a flower that could be found in the island, and had planted some
shrubs, that, having been carefully nurtured made rapid growth, and
screened the hut from the wind.
I had built a sort of out-house for storing potatoes and firewood,
and a fowl-house for the gannets, which were now a numerous flock;
and had planted a fence round the garden, so that as Mrs Reichardt
said, we looked as if we had selected a dwelling in our own beloved
England, in the heart of a rural district, instead of our being
circumscribed in a little island thousands of miles across the wide
seas, from the home of which we were so fond of talking.
Although my companion always spoke warmly of the land of her birth,
and evidently would have been glad to return to it, she never grieved
over her hard fate in being, as it were, a prisoner on a rock, out of
reach of friends and kindred; indeed, she used to chide me for being
impatient of my detention, and insensible of the blessings I enjoyed.
"What temptations are we not free from here?" she would say. "We see
nothing of the world; we cannot be contaminated with its vices, or
suffer from its follies. The hideous wars--the terrible revolutions
--the dreadful visitations of famine and pestilence--are completely
unknown to us. Robbery, and murder, and fraud, and the thousand other
phases of human wickedness, we altogether escape. There was a time,
when men, for the purpose of leading holy lives, abandoned the fair
cities in which they had lived in the enjoyment of every luxury, and
sought a cave in some distant desert, where, in the lair of some wild
beast, with a stone for a pillow, a handful of herbs for a meal, and
a cup of water for beveridge, they lived out the remnant of their
days in a constant succession of mortifications, prayers, and
penitence.
"How different," she added, "is our own state. We are as far removed
from the sinfulness of the world as any hermit of the desert, whilst
we have the enjoyment of comforts to which they were strangers."
"But probably," I observed, "these men were penitents, and went into
the desert as much to punish their bodies for the transgressions of
the flesh, as to acquire by solitary communion, a better knowledge of
the spirit than they were likely to obtain in their old haunts."
"Some were penitents, no doubt," she answered, "but they, having
obtained by their sanctity an extraordinary reputation, induced
others, whose lives had been blameless, to follow their example, and
in time the desert became colonised with recluses, who rivalled each
other in the intensity of their devotions and the extent of their
privations."
"Would it not have been more commendable," I asked, "if these men
had remained in the community to which they belonged, withstanding
temptation, and been employed in labour that was creditable to
themselves and useful to their country?"
"No doubt it would," she replied; "but religion has, unfortunately,
too often been the result of impulse rather than conviction; and at
the period to which we are referring, it was thought that sinful
human nature could only gain the attributes of saintship by
neglecting its social duties, and punishing its humanity in the
severest manner. Even in more recent times, and at the present day,
in Catholic countries, it is customary for individuals of both sexes,
to abandon the world of which they might render themselves ornaments,
and shut themselves up in buildings constructed expressly to receive
them, where they continue to go through a course of devotions and
privations till death puts an end to their voluntary imprisonment.
"In this modified instance of seclusion," she added, "there are
features very different from our own case. We are not forced to
impoverish our blood with insufficient diet, or mortify our flesh
with various forms of punishment. We do not neglect the worship of
God. We offer up daily thanks for his loving care of us, and sing his
praises in continual hymns: and instead of wasting the hours of the
day in unmeaning penances, we fill up our time in employments that
add to our health, comfort, and happiness: and that enable us the
better to appreciate the goodness of that Power who is so mindful of
our welfare."
"Have you no wish then, to leave this island?" I inquired.
"I should gladly avail myself of the first opportunity that
presented itself for getting safely to England," she replied. "But I
would wait patiently the proper time. It is not only useless repining
at our prolonged stay here, but it looks like an ungrateful doubting
of the power of God to remove us. Be assured that he has not
preserved us so long, and through so many dangers, to abandon us when
we most require his interposition in our favour."
I endeavoured to gather consolation from such representations: but
perhaps young people are not so easily reconciled to what they do not
like, as are their elders, for I cannot say I succeeded in becoming
satisfied with my position.
Chapter XLI
The perils of my first voyage had deterred me from making a similar
experiment; but I recovered my boat, and having further strengthened
it, fitted it with what could either be turned into a well or locker:
I used to row out a little distance when the sea was free from sharks
and fish.
But my grand effort in this direction was the completion of a net,
which, assisted by Mrs Reichardt, I managed to manufacture. By this
time she had gained sufficient confidence to accompany me in my
fishing excursions; she would even take the oars whilst I threw out
the net, and assisted me in dragging it into the boat.
The first time we got such a haul, that I was afraid of the safety
of our little craft. The locker was full, and numbers of great fish,
as I flung them out of the net, were flapping and leaping about the
bottom of the boat. It began to sink lower in the water than was
agreeable to either of us, and I found it absolutely necessary to
throw back into the sea the greater portion of our catch. We then
rowed carefully to land, rejoicing that we had at our command, the
means of obtaining an abundant supply of food whenever we desired it.
Mrs Reichardt was with me also in our land excursions. Together we
had explored every part of the island; our chief object was plants
for enriching our garden, and often as we had been in search of
novelties, we invariably brought home additions to our collection;
and my companion having acquired some knowledge of botany, would
explain to me the names, characters, and qualities of the different
species, which made our journeys peculiarly interesting.
Our appearance often caused considerable amusement to each other;
for our respective costumes must have been extremely curious in the
eyes of a stranger. Neither wore shoes or stockings--these things we
did not possess, and could not procure; we wore leggings and sandals
of seal skin to protect us from the thorns and plants of the cacti
tribe, among which we were obliged to force our way. My companion
wore a conical cap of seal skin, and protected her complexion from
the sun, by a rude attempt at an umbrella I had made for her.
She had on, on these occasions, a pair of coarse cloth trousers, as
her own dress would have been torn to pieces before she had got half
a mile through the bush; these were surmounted by a tight spencer she
had herself manufactured out of a man's waistcoat, and a dimity
petticoat, which buttoned up to her throat, and was fastened in the
same way at the wrists.
My head was covered with a broad-brimmed hat, made of dry grass,
which I had myself platted. I wore a sailor's jacket, much the worse
for wear, patched with seal skin, over a pair of duck trousers,
similarly repaired.
Although our expeditions were perfectly harmless, we did not go
without weapons. At the instigation of my companion, I had made
myself a good stout bow and plenty of arrows, and had exercised
myself so frequently at aiming at a mark, as to have acquired very
considerable skill in the use of them. I had now several arrows of
hard wood tipped with sharp fish-bones, and some with iron nails, in
a kind of pouch behind me; in its sheath before me was my American
knife, which I used for taking the plants from the ground. I had a
basket made of the long grass of the island, slung around me, which
served to contain our treasures; and I carried my bow in my hand.
My companion, in addition to her umbrella, bore only a long staff,
and a small basket tied round her waist that usually contained a
little refreshment; for she would say there was no knowing what might
occur to delay our return, and therefore it was better to take our
meal with us. And not the least agreeable portion of the day's labour
was our repast; for we would seat ourselves in some quiet corner,
surrounded by flowers, and shaded by the brushwood from the sun, and
there eat our dried fish or pick our birds, and roast our potatoes by
means of a fire of dried sticks, and wash down our simple dinner with
a flask of pure water--the most refreshing portion of our banquet.
I had, as I have just stated, attained a singular degree of skill in
the use of the bow and arrow, which, as we had no fire-arms, was
often of important service in procuring food on land.
I had made another use of my skill--an application of it which
afforded me a vast deal of satisfaction. My old enemies the sharks
used still to frequent a certain portion of the coast in great
numbers, and as soon as I became master of my weapon, I would stand
as near to the edge of the rock as was safe, and singling out my
victim, aim at his upper fin, which I often found had the effect of
ridding the place of that fellow.
I bore such an intense hatred to these creatures, for the fright
they had put me into during my memorable voyage of discovery, and for
the slaughter of my beloved Nero, that I determined to wage incessant
war against them, as long as I could manufacture an arrow, or a
single shark remained on the coast.
As we had so often traversed the island without accident, we dreamt
not of danger. We had never met with any kind of animals, except our
old friends the seals, who kept near the sea. Of birds, the gannets
were generally the sole frequenters of the island; but we had seen,
at rare intervals, birds of a totally different character, some of
which I had shot.
Indeed, during our excursions, I was always on the look out for any
stranger of the feathered race, that I might exercise my skill upon
him. If he proved eatable, he was sure to be very welcome; and even
if he could not be cooked, he afforded me some entertainment, in
hearing from Mrs Reichardt his name and habits.
We had discovered a natural hollow which lay so low that it was
quite hid till we came close to it, when we had to descend a steep
declivity covered with shrubs. At the bottom was a soil evidently
very productive, for we found trees growing there to a considerable
height, that were in marked contrast to the shrubby plants that grew
in other parts of the island. We called this spot the Happy Valley,
and it became a favourite resting-place.
I remember on one of these occasions, we had made our dinner after
having been several hours employed in seeking for plants, of which we
had procured a good supply, and the remains of our meal lay under a
great tree, beneath the spreading branches of which we had been
resting ourselves.
It was quite on the other side of the island, within about a quarter
of a mile from the sea. Abundance of curious plants grew about the
place, and Mrs Reichardt had wandered to a little distance to examine
all within view.
I was peering into the trees and shrubs around to discover a new
comer. I had wandered in an opposite direction to that taken by my
companion, and was creeping round a clump of shrubs about twenty
yards off, in which I detected a chirping noise, when I heard a loud
scream.
I turned sharply round and beheld Mrs Reichardt, evidently in an
agony of terror, running towards me with prodigious swiftness. She
had dropped her umbrella and her staff, her cap had fallen from her
head, and her long hair, disarranged by her sudden flight, streamed
behind her shoulders.
At first I did not see anything which could have caused this
terrible alarm, but in a few seconds I heard a crushing among a
thicket of shrubs from which she was running, as if some heavy weight
was being forced through them; and presently there issued a most
extraordinary monster. It came forward at a quick pace, its head
erect above ten feet, its jaws wide open, from the midst of which
there issued a forked tongue which darted in and out with
inconceivable rapidity. Its body was very long, and thick as an
ordinary tree; it was covered over with bright shining scales that
seemed to have different colours, and was propelled along the ground
in folds of various sizes, with a length of tail of several yards
behind. Its eyes were very bright and fierce. Its appearance
certainly accounted for my companion's alarm.
"Fly!" she cried in accents of intense terror, as she rushed towards
me, "fly, or you are lost!"
She then gave a hurried glance behind her, and seeing the formidable
monster in full chase, she just had power to reach the spot to which
I had advanced, and sunk overpowered with terror, fainting at my feet.
My first movement was to step across her body for the purpose of
disputing the passage of the monster, and in an erect posture, with
my bow drawn tight as I could pull it, I waited a few seconds till I
could secure a good aim, for I knew everything depended on my
steadiness and resolution.
On came my prodigious antagonist, making a terrible hissing as he
approached, his eyes flashing, his jaws expanded as if he intended to
swallow me at a mouthful, and the enormous folds of his huge body
passing like wheels over the ground, crushing the thick plants that
came in their way like grass.
I must acknowledge that in my heart I felt a strange sinking
sensation, but I remembered that our only chance of escape lay in
giving the monster a mortal wound, and the imminence of the danger
seemed to afford me the resolution I required.
He was close behind, and in a direct line with the tree under which
we had dined, and I was about twenty yards from it. Directly his head
darted round and in front of the tree, making a good mark, I let fly
the arrow direct, as I thought, for his eye, hoping, by penetrating
his brain, to settle him at once. But as he moved his head at that
moment, the arrow went into his open jaws, one of which it
penetrated, and going deep into the tree behind, pinned his head
close to the bark.
As soon as the huge creature found himself hurt, he wound his
enormous body round the trunk, and with his desperate exertions
swayed the great tree backwards and forwards, as I would have done
one of its smallest branches. Fearful that he would liberate himself
before I could save my senseless companion, as quick as possible I
discharged all my arrows into his body, which took effect in various
places. His exertions then became so terrible that I hastily snatched
up Mrs Reichardt in my arms, and with a fright that seemed to give me
supernatural strength, I ran as fast as I could the shortest way to
our hut. Fortunately, before I had gone half a mile, my companion
came to her senses, and was able to continue her flight.
We got home at last, half dead with fatigue and fright; nevertheless
the first thing we did was to barricade all the entrances. We left
loop-holes to reconnoitre; and there we sat for hours after our
arrival, waiting the monster's approach in fear and trembling.
We did not go to sleep that night. We did not, either of us, go out
the next day. The next night one watched while the other slept. The
second day my courage had so far returned, I wanted to go and look
after the constant subject of our conversation. But Mrs Reichardt
dissuaded me.
She told me it was an enormous python, or serpent of the boa
species, that are common on the northern coast of America. Probably
it had been brought to the island on a drifted tree, and being so
prodigious a reptile, the wounds it had received were not likely to
do it much harm, and it would be no doubt lurking about, ready to
pounce upon either of us directly we appeared.
On the third day, nothing having occurred to increase our alarm, I
determined to know the worst; so I got by stealth out of the house,
and armed with a fresh bow, a good supply of arrows, a hatchet slung
at my side, and my American knife--with my mind made up for another
conflict if necessary--I crept stealthily along, with my eyes awake
to the slightest motion, and my ears open to the slightest sound,
till I approached the scene of my late unequal struggle.
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