TYPEE

1846
TYPEE
by Herman Melville
PREFACE
PREFACE

MORE than three years have elapsed since the occurrence of the
events recorded in this volume. The interval, with the exception of
the last few months, has been chiefly spent by the author tossing
about on the wide ocean. Sailors are the only class of men who
now-a-days see anything like stirring adventure; and many things which
to fire-side people appear strange and romantic, to them seem as
commonplace as a jacket out at elbows. Yet, notwithstanding the
familiarity of sailors with all sorts of curious adventure, the
incidents recorded in the following pages have often served, when
"spun as a yarn," not only to relieve the weariness of many a
night-watch at sea, but to excite the warmest sympathies of the
author's shipmates. He has been, therefore, led to think that his
story could scarcely fail to interest those who are less familiar than
the sailor with a life of adventure.
In his account of the singular and interesting people among whom
he was thrown, it will be observed that he chiefly treats of their
more obvious peculiarities; and, in describing their customs, refrains
in most cases from entering into explanations concerning their
origin and purposes. As writers of travels among barbarous communities
are generally very diffuse on these subjects, he deems it right to
advert to what may be considered a culpable omission. No one can be
more sensible than the author of his deficiencies in this and many
other respects; but when the very peculiar circumstances in which he
was placed are understood, he feels assured that all these omissions
will be excused.
In very many published narratives no little degree of attention is
bestowed upon dates; but as the author lost all knowledge of the
days of the week, during the occurrence of the scenes herein
related, he hopes that the reader will charitably pass over his
shortcomings in this particular.
In the Polynesian words used in this volume- except in those cases
where the spelling has been previously determined by others- that form
of orthography has been employed which might be supposed most easily
to convey their sound to a stranger. In several works descriptive of
the islands in the Pacific, many of the most beautiful combinations of
vocal sounds have been altogether lost to the ear of the reader by
an over-attention to the ordinary rules of spelling.
There are some things related in the narrative which will be
sure to appear strange, or perhaps entirely incomprehensible, to the
reader; but they cannot appear more so to him than they did to the
author at the time. He has stated such matters just as they
occurred, and leaves every one to form his own opinion concerning
them, trusting that his anxious desire to speak the unvarnished
truth will gain for him the confidence of his readers.

1846.
CHAPTER I
A LAND-SICK SHIP

SIX months at sea! Yes, reader, as I live, six months out of sight
of land; cruising after the sperm whale beneath the scorching sun of
the Line, and tossed on the billows of the wide-rolling Pacific- the
sky above, the sea around, and nothing else! Weeks and weeks ago our
fresh provisions were all exhausted. There is not a sweet potato left;
not a sweet potato left; not a single yam. Those glorious bunches of
bananas which once decorated our stern and quarter-deck, have, alas,
disappeared! and the delicious oranges which hung suspended from our
tops and stays- they, too, are gone! Yes, they are all departed, and
there is nothing left us but salt-horse and sea-biscuit.
Oh! for a refreshing glimpse of one blade of grass- for a snuff at
the fragrance of a handful of the loamy earth! Is there nothing
fresh around us? Is there no green thing to be seen? Yes, the inside
of our bulwarks is painted green; but what a vile and sickly hue it
is, as if nothing bearing even the semblance of verdure could flourish
this weary way from land. Even the bark that once clung to the wood we
use for fuel has been gnawed off and devoured by the captain's pig;
and so long ago, too, that the pig himself has in turn been devoured.
There is but one solitary tenant in the chicken-coop, once a gay
and dapper young cock, bearing him so bravely among the coy hens.
But look at him now; there he stands, moping all the day long on
that everlasting one leg of his. He turns with disgust from the mouldy
corn before him, and the brackish water in his little trough. He
mourns no doubt his lost companions, literally snatched from him one
by one, and never seen again. But his days of mourning will be few;
for Mungo, our black cook, told me yesterday that the word had at last
gone forth, and poor Pedro's fate was sealed. His attenuated body will
be laid out upon the captain's table next Sunday, and long before
night will be buried, with all the usual ceremonies, beneath that
worthy individual's vest. Who would believe that there could be any
one so cruel as to long for the decapitation of the luckless Pedro;
yet the sailors pray every minute, selfish fellows, that the miserable
fowl may be brought to his end. They say the captain will never
point the ship for the land so long as he has in anticipation a mess
of fresh meat. This unhappy bird can alone furnish it; and when he
is once devoured, the Peter; captain will come to his senses. I wish
thee no harm, Peter; but as thou art doomed, sooner or later, to
meet the fate of all thy race; and if putting a period to thy
existence is to be the signal for our deliverance, why- truth to
speak- I wish thy throat cut this very moment; for, oh! how I wish
to see the living earth again! The old ship herself longs to look
out upon the land from her hawseholes once more; and Jack Lewis said
right the other day when the captain found fault with his steering.
"Why, d'ye see, Captain Vangs," says bold Jack, "I'm as good a
helmsman as ever put hand to spoke; but none of us can steer the old
lady now. We can't keep her full and bye, sir: watch her ever so
close, she will fall off; and then, sir, when I put the helm down so
gently, and try like to coax her to the work, she won't take it
kindly, but will fall round off again; and it's all because she
knows the land is under the lee, sir, and she won't go any more to
windward." Ay, and why should she, Jack? didn't every one of her stout
timbers grow on shore, and hasn't she sensibilities as well as we?
Poor old ship! Her very looks denote her desires: how deplorable
she appears! The paint on her sides, burnt up by the scorching sun, is
puffed out and cracked. See the weeds she trails along with her, and
what an unsightly bunch of these horrid barnacles has formed about her
stern-piece; and every time she shows her copper torn, away or hanging
in jagged strips.
Poor old ship! I say again: for six months she has been rolling
and pitching about, never for one moment at rest. But courage, old
lass, I hope to see thee soon within a biscuit's toss of the merry
land, riding snugly at anchor in some green cove, and sheltered from
the boisterous winds.

"Hurrah, my lads! It's a settled thing; next week we shape our
course to the Marquesas!" The Marquesas! What strange visions of
outlandish things does the very name spirit up! Lovely houris-
cannibal banquets- groves of cocoa-nuts- coral reefs- tattooed chiefs-
and bamboo temples; sunny valleys planted with bread-fruit trees-
carved canoes dancing on the flashing blue waters- savage woodlands
guarded by horrible idols- heathenish rites and human sacrifices.
Such were the strangely jumbled anticipations that haunted me
during our passage from the cruising ground. I felt an irresistible
curiosity to see those islands which the olden voyagers had so
glowingly described.
The group for which we were now steering (although among the
earliest of European discoveries in the South Seas, having been
first visited in the year 1595) still continues to be tenanted by
beings as strange and barbarous as ever. The missionaries, sent on a
heavenly errand, had sailed by their lovely shores, and had
abandoned them to their idols of wood and stone. How interesting the
circumstances under which they were discovered! In the watery path
of Mendanna, cruising in quest of some region of gold, these isles had
sprung up like a scene of enchantment, and for a moment the Spaniard
believed his bright dream was realized. In honour of the Marquess de
Mendoza, then viceroy of Peru- under whose auspices the navigator
sailed- he bestowed upon them the name which denoted the rank of his
patron, and gave to the world, on his return, a vague and
magnificent account of their beauty. But these islands, undisturbed
for years, relapsed into their previous obscurity; and it is only
recently that anything has been known concerning them. Once in the
course of a half century, to be sure, some adventurous rover would
break in upon their peaceful repose, and, astonished at the unusual
scene, would be almost tempted to claim the merit of a new discovery.
Of this interesting group, but little account has ever been given,
if we except the slight mention made of them in the sketches of
South Sea voyages. Cook, in his repeated circumnavigations of the
globe, barely touched at their shores; and all that we know about them
is from a few general narratives.
Within the last few years, American and English vessels engaged in
the extensive whale fisheries of the Pacific have occasionally, when
short of provisions, put into the commodious harbour which there is in
one of the islands; but a fear of the natives, founded on the
recollection of the dreadful fate which many white men have received
at their hands, has deterred their crews from intermixing with the
population sufficiently to gain any insight into their peculiar
customs and manners. Indeed, there is no duster of islands in the
Pacific that has been any length of time discovered, of which so
little has hitherto been known as the Marquesas, and it is a
pleasing reflection that this narrative of mine will do something
towards withdrawing the veil from regions so romantic and beautiful.
CHAPTER II
THE BAY OF NAKUHEVA

I CAN never forget the eighteen or twenty days during which the
light trade-winds were silently sweeping us towards the islands. In
pursuit of the sperm whale, we had been cruising on the Line some
twenty degrees to the westward of the Gallipagos; and all that we
had to do, when our course was determined on, was to square in the
yards and keep the vessel before the breeze, and then the good ship
and the steady gale did the rest between them. The man at the wheel
never vexed the old lady with any superfluous steering, but
comfortably adjusting his limbs at the tiller, would doze away by
the hour. True to her work, the Dolly headed to her course, and like
one of those characters who always do best when let alone, she
jogged on her way like a veteran old sea-pacer as she was.
What a delightful, lazy, languid time we had whilst we were thus
gliding along! There was nothing to be done; a circumstance that
happily suited our disinclination to do anything. We abandoned the
fore-peak altogether, and spreading an awning over the forecastle,
slept, ate, and lounged under it the live-long day. Every one seemed
to be under the influence of some narcotic. Even the officers aft,
whose duty required them never to be seated while keeping a deck
watch, vainly endeavoured to keep on their pins; and were obliged
invariably to compromise the matter by leaning up against the
bulwarks, and gazing abstractedly over the side. Reading was out of
the question; take a book in your hand, and you were asleep in an
instant.
Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the
general languor, still at times I contrived to shake off the spell,
and to appreciate the beauty of the scene around me. The sky presented
a clear expanse of the most delicate blue, except along the skirts
of the horizon, where you might see a thin drapery of pale clouds
which never varied their form or colour. The long, measured,
dirge-like swell of the Pacific came rolling along, with its surface
broken by little tiny waves, sparkling in the sunshine. Every now
and then a shoal of flying fish, scared from the water under the bows,
would leap into the air, and fall the next moment like a shower of
silver into the sea. Then you would see the superb albicore, with
his glittering sides, sailing aloft, and after describing an arc in
his descent, disappear on the surface of the water. Far off, the lofty
jet of the whale might be seen, and nearer at hand the prowling shark,
that villanous footpad of the seas, would come skulking along, and, at
a wary distance, regard us with an evil eye. At times, some
shapeless monster of the deep, floating on the surface, would, as we
approached, sink slowly into the blue waters, and fade away from the
sight. But the most impressive feature of the scene was the almost
unbroken silence that reigned over sky and water. Scarcely a sound
could be heard but the occasional breathing of the grampus, and the
rippling at the cut-water.
As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appearance
of innumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in spiral tracks, they
would accompany the vessel, and at times alight on our yards and
stays. That piratical-looking fellow, appropriately named the
man-of-war's-hawk, with his blood-red bill and raven plumage, would
come sweeping round us in gradually diminishing circles, till you
could distinctly mark the strange flashings of his eye; and then, as
if satisfied with his observation, would sail up into the air and
disappear from the view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to
the land were apparent, and it was not long before the glad
announcement of its being in sight was heard from aloft,- given with
that peculiar prolongation of sound that a sailor loves- "Land ho!"
The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily for
his spy-glass; the mate in still louder accents hailed the mast-head
with a tremendous "Where-away?" The black cook thrust his woolly
head from the galley, and Boatswain, the dog, leaped up between the
knightheads, and barked most furiously. Land ho! Ay, there it was. A
hardly perceptible blue irregular outline, indicating the bold contour
of the lofty heights of Nukuheva.
This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas, is by
some navigators considered as forming one of a distinct cluster,
comprising the islands of Roohka, Ropo, and Nukuheva; upon which three
the appellation of the Washington Group has been bestowed. They form a
triangle, and lie within the parallels of 8 deg. 38' and 9 deg. 32'
south latitude, and 139 deg. 20' and 140 deg. 10' west longitude, from
Greenwich. With how little propriety they are to be regarded as
forming a separate group will be at once apparent, when it is
considered that they lie in the immediate vicinity of the other
islands, that is to say, less than a degree to the north-west of them;
that their inhabitants speak the Marquesan dialect, and that their
laws, religion, and general customs are identical. The only reason why
they were ever thus arbitrarily distinguished, may be attributed to
the singular fact, that their existence was altogether unknown to
the world until the year 1791, when they were discovered by Captain
Ingraham, of Boston, Massachusetts, nearly two centuries after the
discovery of the adjacent islands by the agent of the Spanish Viceroy.
Notwithstanding this, I shall follow the example of most voyagers, and
treat of them as forming part and parcel of the Marquesas.
Nukuheva is the most important of these islands, being the only
one at which ships are much in the habit of touching, and is
celebrated as being the place where the adventurous Captain Porter
refitted his ships during the late war between England and the
United States, and whence he sallied out upon the large whaling
fleet then sailing under the enemy's flag in the surrounding seas.
This island is about twenty miles in length, and nearly as many in
breadth. It has three good harbours on its coast, the largest and best
of which is called by the people living in its vicinity, "Tyohee," and
by Captain Porter was denominated Massachusetts Bay. Among the adverse
tribes dwelling about the shores of the other bays, and by all
voyagers, it is generally known by the name bestowed upon the island
itself- Nukuheva. Its inhabitants have become somewhat corrupted,
owing to their recent commerce with Europeans; but so far as regards
their peculiar customs, and general mode of life, they retain their
original primitive character, remaining very nearly in the same
state of nature in which they were first beheld by white men. The
hostile clans, residing in the more remote sections of the island, and
very seldom holding any communication with foreigners, are in every
respect unchanged from their earliest known condition.
In the bay of Nukuheva was the anchorage we desired to reach. We
had perceived the loom of the mountains about sunset; so that, after
running all night with a very light breeze, we found ourselves close
in with the island the next morning; but as the bay we sought lay on
its farther side, we were obliged to sail some distance along the
shore, catching, as we proceeded, short glimpses of blooming
valleys, deep glens, waterfalls, and waving groves, hidden here and
there by projecting and rocky headlands, every moment opening to the
view some new and startling scene of beauty.
Those who for the first time visit the South Seas, generally are
surprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from the sea.
From the vague accounts we sometimes have of their beauty, many people
are apt to picture to themselves enamelled and softly swelling plains,
shaded over with delicious groves, and watered by purling brooks,
and the entire country but little elevated above the surrounding
ocean. The reality is very different; bold rock-bound coasts, with the
surf beating high against the lofty cliffs, and broken here and
there into deep inlets, which open to the view thickly-wooded valleys,
separated by the spurs of mountains clothed with tufted grass, and
sweeping down towards the sea from an elevated and furrowed
interior, form the principal features of these islands.
Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance to the harbour, and at
last we slowly swept by the intervening promontory, and entered the
bay of Nukuheva. No description can do justice to its beauty; but that
beauty was lost to me then, and I saw nothing but the tri-coloured
flag of France, trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black
hulls, and bristling broadsides, proclaimed their warlike character.
There they were, floating in that lovely bay, the green eminences of
the shore looking down so tranquilly upon them, as if rebuking the
sternness of their aspect. To my eye, nothing could be more out of
keeping than the presence of these vessels; but we soon learnt what
brought them there. The whole group of islands had just been taken
possession of by Rear-Admiral Du Petit-Thouars, in the name of the
invincible French nation.
This item of information was imparted to us by a most
extraordinary individual, a genuine South Sea vagabond, who came
alongside of us in a whale-boat as soon as we entered the bay, and, by
the aid of some benevolent persons at the gangway, was assisted on
board, for our visitor was in that interesting stage of intoxication
when a man is amiable and helpless. Although he was utterly unable
to stand erect, or to navigate his body across the deck, he still
magnanimously proffered his services to pilot the ship to a good and
secure anchorage. Our captain, however, rather distrusted his
ability in this respect, and refused to recognise his claim to the
character he assumed; but our gentleman was determined to play his
part, for, by dint of much scrambling, he succeeded in getting into
the weather-quarter boat, where he steadied himself by holding on to a
shroud, and then commenced issuing his commands with amazing
volubility and very peculiar gestures. Of course, no one obeyed his
orders; but as it was impossible to quiet him, we swept by the ships
of the squadron with this strange fellow performing his antics in full
view of all the French officers.
We afterwards learned that our eccentric friend had been a
lieutenant in the English navy, but having disgraced his flag by
some criminal conduct in one of the principal ports on the main, he
had deserted his ship, and spent many years wandering among the
islands of the Pacific, until accidentally being at Nukuheva when
the French took possession of the place, he had been appointed pilot
of the harbour by the newly constituted authorities.
As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed off
from the surrounding shores, and we were soon in the midst of quite
a flotilla of them, their savage occupants struggling to get aboard of
us, and jostling one another in their ineffectual attempts.
Occasionally the projecting out-riggers of their slight shallops,
running foul of one another, would become entangled beneath the water,
threatening to capsize the canoes, when a scene of confusion would
ensue that baffles description. Such strange outcries and passionate
gesticulations I never certainly heard or saw before. You would have
thought the islanders were on the point of flying at one another's
throats, whereas they were only amicably engaged in disentangling
their boats.
Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen numbers of
cocoa-nuts floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing
up and down with every wave. By some inexplicable means these
cocoa-nuts were all steadily approaching towards the ship. As I leaned
curiously over die side, endeavouring to solve their mysterious
movements, one mass, far in advance of the rest, attracted my
attention. In its centre was something I could take for nothing else
than a cocoa-nut, but which I certainly considered one of the most
extraordinary specimens of the fruit I had ever seen. It kept twirling
and dancing about among the rest in the most singular manner: and as
it drew nearer, I thought it bore a remarkable resemblance to the
brown shaven skull of one of the savages. Presently it betrayed a pair
of eyes, and soon I became aware that what I had supposed to have been
one of the fruit was nothing else than the head of an islander, who
had adopted this singular method of bringing his produce to market.
The cocoa-nuts were all attached to one another by strips of the husk,
partly torn from the shell, and rudely fastened together. Their
proprietor, inserting his head into the midst of them, impelled his
necklace of cocoa-nuts through the water by striking out beneath the
surface with his feet.
I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of
natives that surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen. At
that time I was ignorant of the fact that by the operation of the
"taboo," the use of canoes in all parts of the island is rigorously
prohibited to the entire sex, for whom it is death even to be seen
entering one when hauled on shore; consequently, whenever a
Marquesan lady voyages by water, she puts in requisition the paddles
of her own fair body.
We had approached within a mile and a half perhaps of the foot
of the bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had managed
to scramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their canoes,
directed our attention to a singular commotion in the water ahead of
the vessel. At first I imagined it to be produced by a shoal of fish
sporting on the surface, but our savage friends assured us that it was
caused by a shoal of "whinhenies" (young girls), who in this manner
were coming off from the shore to welcome us. As they drew nearer, and
I watched the rising and sinking of their forms, and beheld the
uplifted right arm bearing above the water the girdle of tappa, and
their long dark confiding, they are easily led into every vice, and
humanity weeps over the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted upon them by
their European civilizers. Thrice happy are they who, inhabiting
some yet undiscovered island in the midst of the ocean, have never
been brought into contaminating contact with the white man.
CHAPTER III
RESOLVE TO ESCAPE

IT was in the summer of 1842, that we arrived at the islands.
Our ship had not been many days in the harbour of Nukuheva before I
came to the determination of leaving her. That my reasons for
resolving to take this step were numerous and weighty, may be inferred
from the fact that I chose rather to risk my fortunes among the
savages of the island than to endure another voyage on board the
Dolly. To use the concise, point-blank phrase of the sailors, I had
made up my mind to "run away." Now, as a meaning is generally attached
to these two words no way flattering to the individual to whom they
are applied, it behoves me, for the sake of my own character, to offer
some explanation of my conduct.
When I entered on board the Dolly, I signed, as a matter of
course, the ship's articles, thereby voluntarily engaging and
legally binding myself to serve in a certain capacity for the period
of the voyage; and, special considerations apart, I was of course
bound to fulfil the agreement. But in all contracts, if one party fail
to perform his share of the compact, is not the other virtually
absolved from his liability? Who is there who will not answer in the
affirmative?
Having settled the principle, then, let me apply it to the
particular case in question. In numberless instances had not only
the implied but the specified conditions of the articles been violated
on the part of the ship in which I served. The usage on board of her
was tyrannical; the sick had been inhumanly neglected; the
provisions had been doled out in scanty allowance; and her cruises
were unreasonably protracted. The captain was the author of these
abuses; it was in vain to think that he would either remedy them, or
alter his conduct, which was arbitrary and violent in the extreme. His
prompt reply to all complaints and remonstrances was the- butt-end
of a hand-spike, so convincingly administered as effectually to
silence the aggrieved party.
To whom could we apply for redress? We had left both law and
equity on the other side of the Cape; and unfortunately, with a very
few exceptions, our crew was composed of a parcel of dastardly and
mean-spirited wretches, divided among themselves, and only united in
enduring without resistance the unmitigated tyranny of the captain. It
would have been mere madness for any two or three of the number,
unassisted by the rest, to attempt making a stand against his ill
usage. They would only have called down upon themselves the particular
vengeance of this "Lord of the Plank," and subjected their shipmates
to additional hardships.
But, after all, these things could have been endured awhile, had
we entertained the hope of being speedily delivered from them by the
due completion of the term of our servitude. But what a dismal
prospect awaited us in this quarter! The longevity of Cape Horn
whaling voyages is proverbial, frequently extending over a period of
four or five years.
Some long-haired, bare-necked youths, who, forced by the united
influences of a roving spirit and hard times, embark at Nantucket
for a pleasure excursion to the Pacific, and whose anxious mothers
provide them with bottled milk for the occasion, oftentimes return
very respectable middleaged gentlemen.
The very preparations made for one of these expeditions are enough
to frighten one. As the vessel carries out no cargo, her hold is
filled with provisions for her own consumption. The owners, who
officiate as caterers for the voyage, supply the larder with an
abundance of dainties. Delicate morsels of beef and pork, cut on
scientific principles from every part of the animal, and of all
conceivable shapes and sizes, are carefully packed in salt, and stored
away in barrels; affording a never-ending variety in their different
degrees of toughness, and in the peculiarities of their saline
properties. Choice old water too, decanted into stout six-barrel
casks, and two pints of which is allowed every day to each soul on
board; together with ample store of sea-bread, previously reduced to a
state of petrifaction, with a view to preserve it either from decay or
consumption in the ordinary mode, are likewise provided for the
nourishment and gastronomic enjoyment of the crew.
But not to speak of the quality of these articles of sailors'
fare, the abundance in which they are put on board a whaling vessel is
almost incredible. Oftentimes, when we had occasion to break out in
the hold, and I beheld the successive tiers of casks and barrels,
whose contents were all destined to be consumed in due course by the
ship's company, my heart has sunk within me.
Although, as a general case, a ship unlucky in falling in with
whales continues to cruise after them until she has barely
sufficient provisions remaining to take her home, turning round then
quietly and making the best of her way to her friends, yet there are
instances when even this natural obstacle to the further prosecution
of the voyage is overcome by headstrong captains, who, bartering the
fruits of their hard-earned toils for a new supply of provisions in
some of the ports of Chili or Peru, begin the voyage afresh with
unabated zeal and perseverance. It is in vain that the owners write
urgent letters to him to sail for home, and for their sake to bring
back the ship, since it appears he can put nothing in her. Not he.
He has registered a vow: he will fill his vessel with good sperm
oil, or failing to do so, never again strike Yankee soundings.
I heard of one whaler, which after many years' absence was given
up for lost. The last that had been heard of her was a shadowy
report of her having touched at some of those unstable islands in
the far Pacific, whose eccentric wanderings are carefully noted in
each new edition of the South Sea charts. After a long interval,
however, the Perseverance- for that was her name- was spoken somewhere
in the ends of the earth, cruising along as leisurely as ever, her
sails all bepatched and bequilted with rope-yarns, her spars fished
with old pipe staves, and her rigging knotted and spliced in every
possible direction. Her crew was composed of some twenty venerable
Greenwich-pensioner-looking old salts, who just managed to hobble
about deck. The ends of all the running ropes, with the exception of
the signal halyards and poop-down-haul, were rove through
snatch-blocks, and led to the capstan or windlass, so that not a
yard was braced or a sail set without the assistance of machinery.
Her hull was encrusted with barnacles, which completely encased
her. Three pet sharks followed in her wake, and every day came
alongside to regale themselves from the contents of the cook's bucket,
which were pitched over to them. A vast shoal of bonetas and albicores
always kept her company.
Such was the account I heard of this vessel, and the remembrance
of it always haunted me; what eventually became of her I never
learned; at any rate she never reached home, and I suppose she is
still regularly tacking twice in the twenty-four hours somewhere off
Buggerry Island, or the Devil's-Tail Peak.
Having said thus much touching the usual length of these
voyages, when I inform the reader that ours had as it were just
commenced, we being only fifteen months out, and even at that time
hailed as a late arrival, and boarded for news, he will readily
perceive that there was little to encourage one in looking forward
to the future, especially as I had always had a presentiment that we
should make an unfortunate voyage, and our experience so far had
justified the expectation.
I may here state, and on my faith as an honest man, that some time
after arriving home from my adventures, I learned that this vessel was
still in the Pacific, and that she had met with very poor success in
the fishery. Very many of her crew, also, left her; and her voyage
lasted about five years.
But to return to my narrative. Placed in these circumstances,
then, with no prospect of matters mending if I remained aboard the
Dolly, I at once made up my mind to leave her; to be sure, it was
rather an inglorious thing to steal away privately from those at whose
hands I had received wrongs and outrages that I could not resent;
but how was such a course to be avoided when it was the only
alternative left me? Having made up my mind, I proceeded to acquire
all the information I could obtain relating to the island and its
inhabitants, with a view of shaping my plans of escape accordingly.
The result of these inquiries I will now state, in order that the
ensuing narrative may be the better understood.
The bay of Nukuheva, in which we were then lying, is an expanse of
water not unlike in figure the space included within the limits of a
horse-shoe. It is, perhaps, nine miles in circumference. You
approach it from the sea by a narrow entrance, flanked on either
side by two small twin islets which soar conically to the height of
some five hundred feet. From these the shore recedes on both hands,
and describes a deep semicircle.
From the verge of the water the land rises uniformly on all sides,
with green and sloping acclivities, until from gently rolling
hillsides and moderate elevations it insensibly swells into lofty
and majestic heights, whose blue outlines, ranged all around, close in
the view. The beautiful aspect of the shore is heightened by deep
and romantic glens, which come down to it at almost equal distances,
all apparently radiating from a common centre, and the upper
extremities of which are lost to the eye beneath the shadow of the
mountains. Down each of these little valleys flows a clear stream,
here and there assuming the form of a slender cascade, then stealing
invisibly along until it bursts upon the sight again in larger and
more noisy waterfalls, and at last demurely wanders along to the sea.
The houses of the natives, constructed of the yellow bamboo,
tastefully twisted together in a kind of wicker-work, and thatched
with the long tapering leaves of the palmetto, are scattered
irregularly along these valleys beneath the shady branches of the
cocoa-nut trees.
Nothing can exceed the imposing scenery of this bay. Viewed from
our ship as she lay at anchor in the middle of the harbour, it
presented the appearance of a vast natural amphitheatre in decay,
and overgrown with vines, the deep glens that furrowed its sides
appearing like enormous fissures caused by the ravages of time. Very
often when lost in admiration at its beauty, I have experienced a pang
of regret that a scene so enchanting should be hidden from the world
in these remote seas, and seldom meet the eyes of devoted lovers of
nature.
Besides this bay the shores of the island are indented by
several other extensive inlets, into which descend broad and verdant
valleys. These are inhabited by as many distinct tribes of savages,
who, although speaking kindred dialects of a common language, and
having the same religion and laws, have from time immemorial waged
hereditary warfare against each other. The intervening mountains,
generally two or three thousand feet above the level of the sea,
geographically define the territories of each of these hostile tribes,
who never cross them, save on some expedition of war or plunder.
Immediately adjacent to Nukuheva, and only separated from it by the
mountains seen from the harbour, lies the lovely valley of Happar,
whose inmates cherish the most friendly relations with the inhabitants
of Nukuheva. On the other side of Happar, and closely adjoining it, is
the magnificent valley of the dreaded Typees, the unappeasable enemies
of both these tribes.
These celebrated warriors appear to inspire the other islanders
with unspeakable terrors. Their very name is a frightful one; for
the word "Typee" in the Marquesan dialect signifies a lover of human
flesh. It is rather singular that the tide should have been bestowed
upon them exclusively, inasmuch as the natives of all this group are
irreclaimable cannibals. The name may, perhaps, have been given to
denote the peculiar ferocity of this clan, and to convey a I it.
special stigma along with it.
These same Typees enjoy a prodigious notoriety all over the
islands. The natives of Nukuheva would frequently recount in pantomime
to our ship's company their terrible feats, and would show the marks
of wounds they had received in desperate encounters with them. When
ashore they would try to frighten us by pointing to one of their own
number, and calling him a Typee, manifesting no little surprise that
we did not take to our heels at so terrible an announcement. It was
quite amusing, too, to see with what earnestness they disclaimed all
cannibal propensities on their own part, while they denounced their
enemies- the Typees- as inveterate gormandizers of human flesh; but
this is a peculiarity to which I shall hereafter have occasion to
allude.
Although I was convinced that the inhabitants of our bay were as
arrant cannibals as any of the other tribes on the island, still I
could not but feel a particular and most unqualified repugnance to the
aforesaid Typees. Even before visiting the Marquesas, I had heard from
men who had touched at the group on former voyages some revolting
stories in connexion with these savages; and fresh in my remembrance
was the adventure of the master of the Katherine, who only a few
months previous, imprudently venturing into this bay in an armed
boat for the purpose of barter, was seized by the natives, carried
back a little distance into their valley, and was only saved from a
cruel death by the intervention of a young girl, who facilitated his
escape by night along the beach to Nukuheva.
I had heard, too, of an English vessel that many years ago,
after a weary cruise, sought to enter the bay of Nukuheva, and
arriving within two or three miles of the land, was met by a large
canoe filled with natives, who offered to lead the way to the place of
their destination. The captain, unacquainted with the localities of
the island, joyfully acceded to the proposition- the canoe paddled
on and the ship followed. She was soon conducted to a beautiful inlet,
and dropped her anchor in its waters beneath the shadows of the
lofty shore. That same night the perfidious Typees, who had thus
inveigled her into their fatal bay, flocked aboard the doomed vessel
by hundreds, and at a given signal murdered every soul on board.
CHAPTER IV
TOBY'S RESOLVE

HAVING fully resolved to leave the vessel clandestinely, and
having acquired all the knowledge concerning the bay that I could
obtain under the circumstances in which I was placed, I now
deliberately turned over in my mind every plan of escape that
suggested itself, being determined to act with all possible prudence
in an attempt where failure would be attended with so many
disagreeable consequences. The idea of being taken and brought back
ignominiously to the ship was so inexpressibly repulsive to me, that I
was determined by no hasty and imprudent measures to render such an
event probable.
I knew that our worthy captain, who felt such a paternal
solicitude for the welfare of his crew, would not willingly consent
that one of his best hands should encounter the perils of a sojourn
among the natives of a barbarous island; and I was certain that in the
event of my disappearance, his fatherly anxiety would prompt him to
offer, by way of a reward, yard upon yard of gaily printed calico
for my apprehension. He might even have appreciated my services at the
value of a musket, in which case I felt perfectly certain that the
whole population of the bay would be immediately upon my track,
incited by the prospect of so magnificent a bounty.
Having ascertained the fact before alluded to, that the islanders,
from motives of precaution, dwelt together in the depths of the
valleys, and avoided wandering about the more elevated portions of the
shore, unless bound on some expedition of war or plunder, I
concluded that if I could effect unperceived a passage to the
mountains, I might easily remain among them, supporting myself by such
fruits as came in my way until the sailing of the ship, an event of
which I could not fall to be immediately apprized, as from my lofty
position I should command a view of the entire harbour.
The idea pleased me greatly. It seemed to combine a great deal
of practicability with no inconsiderable enjoyment in a quiet way; for
how delightful it would be to look down upon the detested old vessel
from the height of some thousand feet, and contrast the verdant
scenery about me with the recollection of her narrow decks and
gloomy forecastle! Why? it was really refreshing even to think of
it; and so I straightway fell to picturing myself seated beneath a
cocoa-nut tree on the brow of the mountain, with a cluster of
plantains within easy reach, criticizing her nautical evolutions as
she was working her way out of the harbour.
To be sure there was one rather unpleasant drawback to these
agreeable anticipations- the possibility of falling in with a foraging
party of these same bloody-minded Typees, whose appetites, edged
perhaps by the air of so elevated a region, might prompt them to
devour one. This, I must confess, was a most disagreeable view of
the matter.
Just to think of a party of these unnatural gourmands taking it
into their heads to make a convivial meal of a poor devil, who would
have no means of escape or defence: however, there was no help for it.
I was willing to encounter some risks in order to accomplish my
object, and counted much upon my ability to elude these prowling
cannibals amongst the many coverts which the mountains afforded.
Besides, the chances were ten to one in my favour that they would none
of them quit their own fastnesses.
I had determined not to communicate my design of withdrawing
from the vessel to any of my shipmates, and least of all to solicit
any one to accompany me in my flight. But it so happened one night,
that being upon deck, revolving I over in my mind various plans of
escape, I perceived one of the ship's company leaning over the
bulwarks, apparently plunged in a profound reverie. He was a young
fellow about my own age, for whom I had all along entertained a
great regard; and Toby, such was the name by which he went among us,
for his real name he would never tell us, was every way worthy of
it. He was active, ready, and obliging, of dauntless courage, and
singularly open and fearless in the expression of his feelings. I
had on more than one occasion got him out of scrapes into which this
had led him; and I know not whether it was from this cause, or a
certain congeniality of sentiment between us, that he had always shown
a partiality for my society. We had battled out many a long watch
together, beguiling the weary hours with chat, song, and story,
mingled with a good many imprecations upon the hard destiny it
seemed our common fortune to encounter.
Toby, like myself, had evidently moved in a different sphere of
life, and his conversation at times betrayed this, although he was
anxious to conceal it. He was one of that class of rovers you
sometimes meet at sea, who never reveal their origin, never allude
to home, and go rambling over the world as if pursued by some
mysterious fate they cannot possibly elude.
There was much even in the appearance of Toby calculated to draw
me towards him, for while the greater part of the crew were as
coarse in person as in mind, Toby was endowed with a remarkably
prepossessing exterior. Arrayed in his blue frock and duck trousers,
he was as smart a looking sailor as ever stepped upon a deck; he was
singularly small and slightly made, with great flexibility of limb.
His naturally dark complexion had been deepened by exposure to the
tropical sun, and a mass of jetty locks clustered about his temples,
and threw a darker shade into his large black eyes. He was a
strange, wayward being, moody, fitful, and melancholy- at times almost
morose. He had a quick and fiery temper too, which, when thoroughly
roused, transported him into a state bordering on delirium.
It is strange the power that a mind of deep passion has over
feebler natures. I have seen a brawny fellow, with no lack of ordinary
courage, fairly quail before this slender stripling, when in one of
his furious fits. But these paroxysms seldom occurred, and in them
my big-hearted shipmate vented the bile which more calm-tempered
individuals get rid of by a continual pettishness at trivial
annoyances.
No one ever saw Toby laugh- I mean in the hearty abandonment of
broad-mouthed mirth. He did smile sometimes, it is true; and there was
a good deal of dry, sarcastic humour about him, which told the more
from the imperturbable gravity of his tone and manner.
Latterly I had observed that Toby's melancholy had greatly
increased, and I had frequently seen him since our arrival at the
island gazing wistfully upon the shore, when the remainder of the crew
would be rioting below. I was aware that he entertained a cordial
detestation of the ship, and believed that should a fair chance of
escape present itself, he would embrace it willingly. But the
attempt was so perilous in the place where we then lay, that I
supposed myself the only individual on board the ship who was
sufficiently reckless to think of it. In this, however, I was
mistaken.
When I perceived Toby leaning, as I have mentioned, against the
bulwarks and buried in thought, it struck me at once that the
subject of his meditations might be the same as my own. And if it be
so, thought I, is he not the very one of all my shipmates whom I would
choose for the partner of my adventure? and why should I not have some
comrade with me to divide its dangers and alleviate its hardships?
Perhaps I might be obliged to lie concealed among the mountains for
weeks. In such an event what a solace would a companion be!
These thoughts passed rapidly through my mind, and I wondered
why I had not before considered the matter in this light. But it was
not too late. A tap upon the shoulder served to rouse Toby from his
reverie; I found him ripe for the enterprise, and a very few words
sufficed for a mutual understanding between us. In an hour's time we
had arranged all the preliminaries, and decided upon our plan of
action. We then ratified our engagement with an affectionate wedding
of palms, and to elude suspicion repaired each to his hammock, to
spend the last night on board the Dolly.
The next day the starboard watch, to which we both belonged, was
to be sent ashore on liberty; and, availing ourselves of this
opportunity, we determined, as soon after landing as possible, to
separate ourselves from the rest of the men without exciting their
suspicions, and strike back at once for the mountains. Seen from the
ship, the summits appeared inaccessible, but here and there sloping
spurs extended from them almost into the sea, buttressing the lofty
elevations with which they were connected, and forming those radiating
valleys I have before described. One of these ridges, which appeared
more practicable than the rest, we determined to climb, convinced that
it would conduct us to the heights beyond. Accordingly, we carefully
observed its bearings and locality from the ship, so that when
ashore we should run no chance of missing it.
In all this the leading object we had in view was to seclude
ourselves from sight until the departure of the vessel; then to take
our chance as to the reception the Nukuheva natives might give us; and
after remaining upon the island as long as we found our stay
agreeable, to leave it the first favourable opportunity that offered.
CHAPTER V
ESCAPE TO THE MOUNTAINS

EARLY the next morning the starboard watch were mustered upon
the quarter-deck, and our worthy captain, standing in the cabin
gangway, harangued us as follows:-
"Now, men, as we are just off a six months' cruise, and have got
through most all our work in port here, I suppose you want to go
ashore. Well, I mean to give your watch liberty to-day, so you may get
ready as soon as you please, and go; but understand this, I am going
to give you liberty because I suppose you would growl like so many old
quarter gunners I didn't; at the same time, if you'll take my
advice, every mother's son of you will stay aboard, and keep out of
the way of the bloody cannibals altogether. Ten to one, men, if you go
ashore, you will get into some infernal row, and that will be the
end of you; for if these tattooed scoundrels get you a little ways
back into their valleys, they'll nab you- that you may be certain
of. Plenty of white men have gone ashore here and never been seen
any more. There was the old Dido, she put in here about two years ago,
and sent one watch off on liberty; they never were heard of again
for a week- the natives swore they didn't know where they were- and
only three of them ever got back to the ship again, and one with his
face damaged for life, for the cursed heathens tattooed a broad
patch clean across his figure-head. But it will be no use talking to
you, for go you will, that I see plainly; so all I have to say is,
that you need not blame me if the islanders make a meal of you. You
may stand some chance of escaping them though, if you keep close about
the French encampment, and are back to the ship again before sunset.
Keep that much in your mind, if you forget all the rest I've been
saying to you. There, go forward: bear a hand and rig yourselves,
and stand by for a call. At two bells the boat will be manned to
take you off, and the Lord have mercy on you!"
Various were the emotions depicted upon the countenances of the
starboard watch whilst listening to this address; but on its
conclusion there was a general move towards the forecastle, and we
soon were all busily engaged in getting ready for the holiday so
auspiciously announced by the skipper. During these preparations,
his harangue was commented upon in no very measured terms; and one
of the party, after denouncing him as a lying old son of a sea-cook
who begrudged a fellow a few hours' liberty, exclaimed with an oath,
"But you don't bounce me out of my liberty, old chap, for all your
yarns; for I would go ashore if every pebble on the beach was a live
coal, and every stick a gridiron, and the cannibals stood ready to
broil me on landing."
The spirit of this sentiment was responded to by all hands, and we
resolved that in spite of the captain's croakings we would make a
glorious day of it.
But Toby and I had our own game to play, and we availed
ourselves of the confusion which always reigns among a ship's
company preparatory to going ashore, to confer together and complete
our arrangements. As our object was to effect as rapid a flight as
possible to the mountains, we determined not to encumber ourselves
with any superfluous apparel; and accordingly, while the rest were
rigging themselves out with some idea of making a display, we were
content to put on new stout duck trousers, serviceable pumps, and
heavy Havre frocks, which, with a Payta hat, completed our equipment.
When our shipmates wondered at this, Toby exclaimed, in his odd
grave way, that the rest might do as they liked, but that he for one
preserved his go-ashore traps for the Spanish main, where the tie of a
sailor's neckerchief might make some difference; but as for a parcel
of unbreeched heathen, he wouldn't go to the bottom of his chest for
any of them, and was half disposed to appear among them in buff
himself. The men laughed at what they thought was one of his strange
conceits, and so we escaped suspicion.
It may appear singular that we should have been thus on our
guard with our own shipmates; but there were some among us who, had
they possessed the least inkling of our project, would, for a paltry
hope of reward, have immediately communicated it to the captain.
As soon as two bells were struck, the word was passed for the
liberty-men to get into the boat. I lingered behind in the
forecastle a moment, to take a parting glance at its familiar
features, and just as I was about to ascend to the deck, my eye
happened to light on the bread-barge and beef-kid, which contained the
remnants of our last hasty meal. Although I had never before thought
of providing anything in the way of food for our expedition, as I
fully relied upon the fruits of the island to sustain us wherever we
might wander, yet I could not resist the inclination I felt to a
luncheon from the relics before me. Accordingly I took a double
handful of those small, broken, flinty bits of biscuit which generally
go by the name of "midshipmen's nuts," and thrust them into the
bosom of my frock; in which same ample receptacle I had previously
stowed away several pounds of tobacco and a few yards of cotton
cloth,- articles with which I intended to purchase the goodwill of the
natives, as soon as we should appear among them after the departure of
our vessel.
This last addition to my stock caused a considerable
protuberance in front, which I abated in a measure by shaking the bits
of bread around my waist, and distributing the plugs of tobacco
among the folds of the garment.
Hardly had I completed these arrangements when my name was sung
out by a dozen voices, and I sprung upon the deck, where I found all
the party in the boat, and impatient to shove off. I dropped over
the side, and seated myself, with the rest of the watch, in the
stern sheets, while the poor larboarders shipped their oars, and
commenced pulling us ashore.
This happened to be the rainy season at the islands, and the
heavens had nearly the whole morning betokened one of those heavy
showers which, during this period, so frequently occur. The large
drops fell bubbling into the water shortly after our leaving the ship,
and by the time we had effected a landing, it poured down in torrents.
We fled for shelter under cover of an immense canoe-house, which stood
hard by the beach, and waited for the first fury of the storm to pass.
It continued, however, without cessation; and the monotonous
beating of the rain overhead began to exert a drowsy influence upon
the men, who, throwing themselves here and there upon the large
war-canoes, after chatting awhile, all fell asleep.
This was the opportunity we desired, and Toby and I availed
ourselves of it at once, by stealing out of the canoehouse, and
plunging into the depths of an extensive grove that was in its rear.
After ten minutes' rapid progress, we gained an open space, from which
we could just descry the ridge we intended to mount looming dimly
through the mists of the tropical shower, and distant from us as we
estimated, something more than a mile. Our direct course towards it
lay through a rather populous part of the bay; but desirous as we were
of evading the natives, and securing an unmolested retreat to the
mountains, we determined, by taking a circuit through some extensive
thickets, to avoid their vicinity altogether.
The heavy rain that still continued to fall without
intermission, favoured our enterprise, as it drove the islanders
into their houses, and prevented any casual meeting with them. Our
heavy frocks soon became completely saturated with water, and by their
weight, and that of the articles we had concealed beneath them, not
a little impeded our progress. But it was no time to pause, when at
any moment we might be surprised by a body of the savages, and
forced at the very outset to relinquish our undertaking.
Since leaving the canoe-house we had scarcely exchanged a single
syllable with one another, but when we entered a second narrow opening
in the wood, and again caught sight of the ridge before us, I took
Toby by the arm, and pointing along its sloping outline to the lofty
heights of its extremity, said, in a low tone, "Now, Toby, not a word,
nor a glance backward, till we stand on the summit of yonder mountain;
so no more lingering, but let us shove ahead while we can, and in a
few hours' time we may laugh aloud. You are the lightest and the
nimblest, so lead on, and I will follow."
"All right, brother," said Toby, "quick's our play, only let's
keep close together, that's all"; and so saying, with a bound like a
young roe, he cleared a brook which ran across our path, and rushed
forward with a quick step.
When we arrived within a short distance of the ridge, we were
stopped by a mass of tall yellow reeds, growing together as thickly as
they could stand, and as tough and stubborn as so many rods of
steel; and we perceived, to our chagrin, that they extended midway
up the elevation we proposed to ascend.
For a moment we gazed about us in quest of a more practicable
route; it was, however, at once apparent that there was no resource
but to pierce this thicket of canes at all hazards. We now reversed
our order of march, I, being the heaviest, taking the lead, with a
view of breaking a path through the obstruction, while Toby fell
into the rear.
Two or three times I endeavoured to insinuate myself between the
canes, and, by dint of coaxing and bending them, to make some
progress; but a bull-frog might as well have tried to work a passage
through the teeth of a comb, and I gave up the attempt in despair.
Half wild with meeting an obstacle we had so little anticipated, I
threw myself desperately against it, crushing to the ground the
canes with which I came in contact, and, rising to my feet again,
repeated the action with like effect. Twenty minutes of this violent
exercise almost exhausted me, but it carried us some way into the
thicket; when Toby, who had been reaping the benefit of my labours
by following close at my heels, proposed to become pioneer in turn,
and accordingly passed ahead with a view of affording me a respite
from my exertions. As, however, with his slight frame he made but
bad work of it, I was soon obliged to resume my old place again.
On we toiled, the perspiration starting from our bodies in floods,
our limbs torn and lacerated with the splintered fragments of the
broken canes, until we had proceeded perhaps as far as the middle of
the brake, when suddenly it ceased raining, and the atmosphere
around us became close and sultry beyond expression. The elasticity of
the reeds quickly recovering from the temporary pressure of our
bodies, caused them to spring back to their original position, so that
they closed in upon us as we advanced, and prevented the circulation
of the little air which might otherwise have reached us.
Besides this, their great height completely shut us out from the
view of surrounding objects, and we were not certain but that we might
have been going all the time in a wrong direction.
Fatigued with my long-continued efforts, and panting for breath, I
felt myself completely incapacitated for any further exertion. I
rolled up the sleeve of my frock, and squeezed the moisture it
contained into my parched mouth. But the few drops I managed to obtain
gave me little relief, and I sank down for a moment with a sort of
dogged apathy, from which I was aroused by Toby, who had devised a
plan to free us from the net in which we had become entangled.
He was laying about him lustily with his sheath-knife, lopping the
canes right and left, like a reaper, and soon made quite a clearing
around us. This sight reanimated me; and seizing my own knife, I
hacked and hewed away without mercy. But, alas! the farther we
advanced the thicker and taller, and apparently the more interminable,
the reeds became.
I began to think we were fairly snared, and had almost made up
my mind that without a pair of wings we should never be able to escape
from the toils, when all at once I discerned a peep of daylight
through the canes on my right, and, communicating the joyful tidings
to Toby, we both fell to with fresh spirit, and speedily opening a
passage towards it, we found ourselves clear of perplexities, and in
the near vicinity of the ridge.
After resting for a few moments we began the ascent, and after a
little vigorous climbing found ourselves close to its summit. Instead,
however, of walking along its ridge, where we should have been in full
view of the natives in the vales beneath, and at a point where they
could easily intercept us, were they so inclined, we cautiously
advanced on one side, crawling on our hands and knees, and screened
from observation by the grass through which we glided, much in the
fashion of a couple of serpents. After an hour employed in this
unpleasant kind of locomotion, we started to our feet again, and
pursued our way boldly along the crest of the ridge.
This salient spur of the lofty elevations that encompassed the
bay, rose with a sharp angle from the valleys at its base, and
presented, with the exception of a few steep acclivities, the
appearance of a vast inclined plane, sweeping down towards the sea
from the heights in the distance. We had ascended it near the place of
its termination, and at its lowest point, and now saw our route to the
mountains distinctly defined along its narrow crest, which was covered
with a soft carpet of verdure, and was in many parts only a few feet
wide.
Elated with the success which had so far attended our
enterprise, and invigorated by the refreshing atmosphere we now
inhaled, Toby and I, in high spirits, were making our way rapidly
along the ridge, when suddenly from the valleys below, which lay on
either side of us, we heard the distant shouts of the natives, who had
just descried us, and to whom our figures, brought in bold relief
against the sky, were plainly revealed.
Glancing our eyes into these valleys, we perceived their savage
inhabitants hurrying to and fro, seemingly under the influence of some
sudden alarm, and appearing to the eye scarcely bigger than so many
pigmies, while their white thatched dwellings, dwarfed by the
distance, looked like baby-houses. As we looked down upon the
islanders from our lofty elevation, we experienced a sense of
security; feeling confident that, should they undertake a pursuit,
it would, from the start we now had, prove entirely fruitless,
unless they followed us into the mountains, where we knew they cared
not to venture.
However, we thought it as well to make the most of our time; and
accordingly, where the ground would admit of it, we ran swiftly
along the summit of the ridge, until we were brought to a stand by a
steep cliff, which at first seemed to interpose an effectual barrier
to our farther advance. By dint of much hard scrambling, however,
and at some risk to our necks, we at last surmounted it, and continued
our flight with unabated celerity.
We had left the beach early in the morning, and after an
uninterrupted, though at times difficult and dangerous ascent,
during which we had never once turned our faces to the sea, we found
ourselves, about three hours before sunset, standing on the top of
what seemed to be the highest land on the island, an immense
overhanging cliff composed of basaltic rocks, hung round with
parasitical plants. We must have been more than three thousand feet
above the level of the sea, and the scenery viewed from this height
was magnificent.
The lonely bay of Nukuheva, dotted here and there with the black
hulls of the vessels composing the French squadron, lay reposing at
the base of a circular range elevations, whose verdant sides,
perforated with deep glens, or diversified with smiling valleys,
formed altogether the loveliest view I ever beheld, and were I to live
a hundred years, I shall never forget the feeling of admiration
which I then experienced.
CHAPTER VI
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAINS

MY curiosity had been not a little raised with regard to the
description of country we should meet on the other side of the
mountains; and I had supposed, with Toby, that immediately on
gaining the heights we should be enabled to view the large bays of
Happar and Typee reposing at our feet on one side, in the same way
that Nukuheva lay spread out below on the other. But here we were
disappointed. Instead of finding the mountain we had ascended sweeping
down in the opposite direction into broad and capacious valleys, the
land appeared to retain its general elevation, only broken into a
series of ridges and inter-vales, which as far as the eye could
reach stretched away from us, with their precipitous sides covered
with the brightest verdure, and waving here and there with the foliage
of clumps of woodland; among which, however, we perceived none of
those trees upon whose fruit we had relied with such certainty.
This was a most unlooked-for discovery, and one that promised to
defeat our plans altogether, for we could not think of descending
the mountain on the Nukuheva side in quest of food. Should we for this
purpose be induced to retrace our steps, we should run no small chance
of encountering the natives, who in that case, if they did nothing
worse to us, would be certain to convey us back to the ship for the
sake of the reward in calico and trinkets, which we had no doubt our
skipper would hold out to them as an inducement to our capture.
What was to be done? The Dolly would not sail perhaps for ten
days, and how were we to sustain life during this period? I bitterly
repented our improvidence in not providing ourselves, as we easily
might have done, with a supply of biscuit. With a rueful visage I
now bethought me of the scanty handful of bread I had stuffed into the
bosom of my frock, and felt somewhat desirous to ascertain what part
of it had weathered the rather rough usage it had experienced in
ascending the mountain. I accordingly proposed to Toby that we
should enter into a joint examination of the various articles we had
brought from the ship. With this intent we seated ourselves upon the
grass; and a little curious to see with what kind of judgment my
companion had filled his frock- which I remarked seemed about as
well lined as my own- I requested him to commence operations by
spreading out its contents.
Thrusting his hand, then, into the bosom of this capacious
receptacle, he first brought to light about a pound of tobacco,
whose component parts still adhered together, the whole outside
being covered with soft particles of seabread. Wet and dripping, it
had the appearance of having been just recovered from the bottom of
the sea. But I paid slight attention to a substance of so little value
to us in our present situation, as soon as I perceived the indications
it gave of Toby's foresight in laying in a supply of food for the
expedition.
I eagerly inquired what quantity he had brought with him, when,
rummaging once more beneath his garment, he produced a small handful
of something so soft, pulpy, and discoloured, that for a few moments
he was as much puzzled as myself to tell by what possible
instrumentality such a villanous compound had become engendered in his
bosom. I can only describe it as a hash of soaked bread and bits of
tobacco, brought to a doughy consistency by the united agency of
perspiration and rain. But repulsive as it might otherwise have
been, I now regarded it as an invaluable treasure, and proceeded
with great care to transfer this paste-like mass to a large leaf which
I had plucked from a bush beside me. Toby informed me that in the
morning he had placed two whole biscuits in his bosom, with a view
of munching them, should he feel so inclined, during our flight. These
were now reduced to the equivocal substance which I had just placed on
the leaf.
Another dive into the frock brought to view some four or five
yards of calico print, whose tasteful pattern was rather disfigured by
the yellow stains of the tobacco with which it had been brought in
contact. In drawing this calico slowly from his bosom inch by inch,
Toby reminded me of a juggler performing the feat of the endless
ribbon. The next cast was a small one, being a sailor's little
"ditty bag," containing needles, thread, and other sewing utensils;
then came a razor-case, followed by two or three separate plugs of
negro-head, which were fished up from the bottom of the now empty
receptacle. These various matters being inspected, I produced a few
things which I had myself brought.
As might have been anticipated from the state of my companion's
edible supplies, I found my own in a deplorable condition, and
diminished to a quantity that would not have formed half a dozen
mouthfuls for a hungry man who was partial enough to tobacco not to
mind swallowing it. A few morsels of bread, with a fathom or two of
white cotton cloth, and several pounds of choice pigtail, composed the
extent of my possessions.
Our joint stock of miscellaneous articles were now made up into
a compact bundle, which it was agreed we should carry alternately. But
the sorry remains of the biscuit were not to be disposed of so
summarily: the precarious circumstances in which we were placed made
us regard them as something on which very probably depended the fate
of our adventure. After a brief discussion, in which we both of us
expressed our resolution of not descending into the bay until the
ship's departure, I suggested to my companion that little of it as
there was, we should divide the bread into six equal portions, each of
which should be a day's allowance for both of us. This proposition
he assented to; so I took the silk kerchief from my neck, and
cutting it with my knife into half a dozen equal pieces, proceeded
to make an exact division.
At first, Toby, with a degree of fastidiousness that seemed to
me ill-timed, was for picking out the minute particles of tobacco with
which the spongy mass was mixed; but against this proceeding I
protested, as by such an operation we must have greatly diminished its
quantity.
When the division was accomplished, we found that a day's
allowance for the two was not a great deal more than what a
table-spoon might hold. Each separate portion we immediately rolled up
in the bit of silk prepared for it, and joining them all together into
a small package, I committed them, with solemn injunctions of
fidelity, to the custody of Toby. For the remainder of that day we
resolved to fast, as we had been fortified by a breakfast in the
morning; and now starting again to our feet, we looked about us for
a shelter during the night, which, from the appearance of the heavens,
promised to be a dark and tempestuous one.
There was no place near us which would in any way answer our
purpose; so turning our backs upon Nukuheva, we commenced exploring
the unknown regions which lay upon the other side of the mountain.
In this direction, as far as our vision extended, not a sign of
life, nor anything that denoted even the transient residence of man
could be seen. The whole landscape seemed one unbroken solitude, the
interior of the island having apparently been untenanted since the
morning of the creation; and as we advanced through this wilderness,
our voices sounded strangely in our ears, as though human accents
had never before disturbed the fearful silence of the place,
interrupted only by the low murmurings of distant waterfalls.
Our disappointment, however, in not finding the various fruits
with which we had intended to regale ourselves during our stay in
these wilds, was a good deal lessened by the consideration that from
this very circumstance we should be much less exposed to a casual
meeting with the savage tribes about us, who we knew always dwelt
beneath the shadows of those trees which supplied them with food.
We wandered along, casting eager glances into every bush we
passed, until just as we had succeeded in mounting one of the many
ridges that intersected the ground, I saw in the grass before me
something like an indistinctly traced footpath, which appeared to lead
along the top of the ridge, and to descend with it into a deep
ravine about half a mile in advance of us.
Robinson Crusoe could not have been more startled at the footprint
in the sand than we were at this unwelcome discovery. My first impulse
was to make as rapid a retreat as possible, and bend our steps in some
other direction; but our curiosity to see whither this path might
lead, prompted us to pursue it. So on we went, the track becoming more
and more visible the farther we proceeded, until it conducted us to
the verge of the ravine, where it abruptly terminated.
"And so," said Toby, peering down into the chasm, "every one
that travels this path takes a jump here, eh?"
"Not so," said I, "for I think they might manage to descend
without it; what say you,- shall we attempt the feat?"
"And what, in the name of caves and coal-holes, do you expect to
find at the bottom of that gulf but a broken neck- why, it looks
blacker than our ship's hold, and the roar of those waterfalls down
there would batter one's brains to pieces."
"Oh, no, Toby," I exclaimed, laughing; "but there's something to
be seen here, that's plain, or there would have been no path, and I am
resolved to find out what it is."
"I will tell you what, my pleasant fellow," rejoined Toby,
quickly, "if you are going to pry into everything you meet with here
that excites your curiosity, you will marvellously soon get knocked on
the head; to a dead certainty you will come bang upon a party of these
savages in the midst of your discovery-makings, and I doubt whether
such an event would particularly delight you. Just take my advice
for once, and let us 'bout ship and steer in some other direction;
besides, it's getting late, and we ought to be mooring ourselves for
the night."
"That is just the thing I have been driving at," replied I; "and I
am thinking that this ravine will exactly answer our purpose, for it
is roomy, secluded, well watered, and may shelter us from the
weather."
"Ay, and from sleep too, and by the same token will give us sore
throats, and rheumatisms into the bargain," cried Toby, with evident
dislike at the idea.
"Oh, very well then, my lad," said I, "since you will not
accompany me, here I go, alone. You will see me in the morning"; and
advancing to the edge of the cliff upon which we had been standing,
I proceeded to lower myself down by the tangled roots which
clustered about all the crevices of the rock. As I had anticipated,
Toby, in spite of his previous remonstrances, followed my example, and
dropping himself with the activity of a squirrel from point to
point, he quickly outstripped me, and effected a landing at the bottom
before I had accomplished two-thirds of the descent.
The sight that now greeted us was one that will ever be vividly
impressed upon my mind. Five foaming streams, rushing through as
many gorges, and swelled and turbid by the recent rains, united
together in one mad plunge of nearly eighty feet, and fell with wild
uproar into a deep black pool scooped out of the gloomy-looking
rocks that lay piled around, and thence in one collected body dashed
down a narrow sloping channel which seemed to penetrate into the
very bowels of the earth. Overhead, vast roots of trees hung down from
the sides of the ravine, dripping with moisture, and trembling with
the concussions produced by the fall. It was now sunset, and the
feeble uncertain light that found its way into these caverns and woody
depths heightened their strange appearance, and reminded us that in
a short time we should find ourselves in utter darkness.
As soon as I had satisfied my curiosity by gazing at this scene, I
fell to wondering how it was that what we had taken for a path
should have conducted us to so singular a place, and began to
suspect that after all I might have been deceived in supposing it to
have been a track formed by the islanders. This was rather an
agreeable reflection than otherwise, for it diminished our dread of
accidentally meeting with any of them, and I came to the conclusion
that perhaps we could not have selected a more secure hiding-place
than this very spot we had so accidentally hit upon. Toby agreed
with me in this view of the matter, and we immediately began gathering
together the limbs of trees which lay scattered about, with the view
of constructing a temporary hut for the night. This we were obliged to
build close to the foot of the cataract, for the current of water
extended very nearly to the sides of the gorge. The few moments of
light that remained we employed in covering our hut with a species
of broad-bladed grass that grew in every fissure of the ravine. Our
hut, if it deserved to be called one, consisted of six or eight of the
straightest branches we could find laid obliquely against the steep
wall of rock, with their lower ends within a foot of the stream.
Into the space thus covered over we managed to crawl, and dispose
our wearied bodies as best we could.
Shall I ever forget that horrid night! As for poor Toby, I could
scarcely get a word out of him. It would have been some consolation to
have heard his voice, but he lay shivering the live-long night like
a man afflicted with the palsy, with his knees drawn up to his head,
while his back was supported against the dripping side of the rock.
During this wretched night there seemed nothing wanting to complete
the perfect misery of our condition. The rain descended in such
torrents that our poor shelter proved a mere mockery. In vain did I
try to elude the incessant streams that poured upon me; by
protecting one part I only exposed another, and the water was
continually finding some new opening through which to drench us.
I have had many a ducking in the course of my life, and in general
cared little about it: but the accumulated horrors of that night,
the death-like coldness of the place, the appalling darkness and the
dismal sense of our forlorn condition, almost unmanned me.
It will not be doubted that the next morning we were early risers,
and as soon as I could catch the faintest glimpse of anything like
daylight I shook my companion by the arm, and told him it was sunrise.
Poor Toby lifted up his head, and after a moment's pause said, in a
husky voice, "Then, shipmate, my toplights have gone out, for it
appears darker now with my eyes open than it did when they were shut."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed I; "you are not awake yet."
"Awake!" roared Toby, in a rage; "awake! You mean to insinuate
I've been asleep, do you? It is an insult to a man to suppose he could
sleep in such a place as this."
By the time I had apologized to my friend for having
misconstrued his silence, it had become somewhat more light, and we
crawled out of our lair. The rain had ceased, but everything around us
was dripping with moisture. We stripped off our saturated garments,
and wrung them as dry as we could. We contrived to make the blood
circulate in our benumbed limbs by rubbing them vigorously with our
hands; and after performing our ablutions in the stream, and putting
on our still wet clothes, we began to t it advisable to break our long
fast, it being now twenty-four hours since we had tasted food.
Accordingly, our day's ration was brought out, and seating
ourselves on a detached fragment of rock, we proceeded to discuss
it. First we divided it into two equal portions, and carefully rolling
one of them up for our evening's repast, divided the remainder again
as equally as possible, and then drew lots for the first choice. I
could have placed the morsel that fell to my share upon the tip of
my finger; but notwithstanding this, I took care that it should be
full ten minutes before I had swallowed the last crumb. What a true
saying it is that "appetite furnishes the best sauce"! There was a
flavour and a relish to this small particle of food that, under
other circumstances, it would have been impossible for the most
delicate viands to have imparted. A copious draught of the pure
water which flowed at our feet served to complete the meal, and
after it we rose sensibly refreshed, and prepared for whatever might
befall us.
We now carefully examined the chasm in which we had passed the
night. We crossed the stream, and gaining the farther side of the pool
I have mentioned, discovered proofs that the spot must have been
visited by some one but a short time previous to our arrival.
Further observation convinced us that it had been regularly
frequented, and, as we afterwards conjectured from particular
indications, for the purpose of obtaining a certain root, from which
the natives obtained a kind of ointment.
These discoveries immediately determined us to abandon a place
which had presented no inducement for us to remain, except the promise
of security; and as we looked about us for the means of ascending
again into the upper regions, we at last found a practicable part of
the rock, and half-an-hour's toil carried us to the summit of the same
cliff from which the preceding evening we had descended.
I now proposed to Toby that instead of rambling about the
island, exposing ourselves to discovery at every turn, we should
select some place as our fixed abode for as long a period as our
food should hold out, build ourselves a comfortable hut, and be as
prudent and circumspect as possible. To all this my companion
assented, and we at once set about carrying the plan into execution.
With this view, after exploring without success a little glen near
us, we crossed several of the ridges of which I have before spoken;
and about noon found ourselves ascending a long and gradually rising
slope, but still without having discovered any place adapted to our
purpose. Low and heavy clouds betokened an approaching storm, and we
hurried on to gain a covert in a clump of thick which appeared to
terminate the long ascent. We threw ourselves under the lee of these
bushes, and pulling up the long grass that grew around, covered
ourselves completely with it, and awaited the shower.
But it did not come as soon as we had expected, and before many
minutes my companion was fast asleep, and I was rapidly falling into
the same state of happy forgetfulness. Just at this juncture, however,
down came the rain with a violence that put all thoughts of slumber to
flight. Although in some measure sheltered, our clothes soon became as
wet as ever; this, after all the trouble we had taken to dry them, was
provoking enough: but there was no help for it; and I recommend all
adventurous youths who abandon vessels in romantic islands during
the rainy season, to provide themselves with umbrellas.
After an hour or so the shower passed away. My companion slept
through it all, or least appeared so to do; and now that it was over I
had not the heart to awaken him. As I lay on my back completely
shrouded with verdure, the leafy branches drooping over me, and my
limbs buried in grass, I could not avoid comparing our situation
with that of the interesting babes in the wood. Poor little
sufferers!- no wonder their constitutions broke down under the
hardships to which they were exposed.
During the hour or two spent under the shelter of these bushes,
I began to feel symptoms which I at once attributed to the exposure of
the preceding night. Cold shiverings and a burning fever succeeded one
another at intervals, while one of my legs was swelled to such a
degree, and pained me so acutely, that I half suspected I had been
bitten by some venomous reptile, the congenial inhabitant of the chasm
from which we had lately emerged. I may here remark by the way- what I
subsequently learned- that all the islands of Polynesia enjoy the
reputation, in common with the Hibernian isle, of being free from
the presence of any vipers; though whether Saint Patrick ever
visited them, is a question I shall not attempt to decide.
As the feverish sensation increased upon me I tossed about,
still unwilling to disturb my slumbering companion, from whose side
I removed two or three yards. I chanced to push aside a branch, and by
so doing suddenly disclosed to my view a scene which even now I can
recall with all the vividness of the first impression. Had a glimpse
of the gardens of Paradise been revealed to me, I could scarcely
have been more ravished with the sight.
From the spot where I lay transfixed with surprise and delight,
I looked straight down into the bosom of a valley, which swept away in
long wavy undulations to the blue waters in the distance. Midway
towards the sea, and peering here and there amidst the foliage,
might be seen the palmetto-thatched houses of its inhabitants,
glistening in the sun that had bleached them to a dazzling
whiteness. The vale was more than three leagues in length, and about a
mile across at its greatest width.
On either side it appeared hemmed in by steep and green
acclivities, which, uniting near the spot where I lay, formed an
abrupt and semicircular termination of grassy cliffs and precipices
hundreds of feet in height, over which flowed numberless small
cascades. But the crowning beauty of the prospect was its universal
verdure; and in this indeed consists, I believe, the peculiar charm of
every Polynesian landscape. Everywhere below me, from the base of
the precipice upon whose very verge I had been unconsciously reposing,
the surface of the vale presented a mass of foliage, spread with
such rich profusion that it was impossible to determine of what
description of trees it consisted.
But perhaps there was nothing about the scenery I beheld more
impressive than those silent cascades, whose slender threads of water,
after leaping down the steep cliffs, were lost amidst the rich herbage
of the valley.
Over all the landscape there reigned the most hushed repose, which
I almost feared to break, lest, like the enchanting gardens in the
fairy tale, a single syllable might dissolve the spell. For a long
time, forgetful alike of my own situation, and the vicinity of my
still slumbering companion, I remained gazing around me, hardly able
to comprehend by what means I had thus suddenly been made a
spectator of such a scene.
CHAPTER VII
JOURNEY TOWARDS THE VALLEY

RECOVERING from my astonishment at the beautiful scene before
me, I quickly awakened Toby, and informed him of the discovery I had
made. Together we now repaired to the border of the precipice, and
my companion's admiration was equal to my own. A little reflection,
however, abated our surprise at coming so unexpectedly upon this
valley, since the large vales of Happar and Typee, lying upon this
side of Nukuheva, and extending a considerable distance from the sea
towards the interior, must necessarily terminate somewhere about
this point.
The question now was as to which of those two places we were
looking down upon. Toby insisted that it was the abode of the Happars,
and I that it was tenanted by their enemies, the ferocious Typees.
To be sure I was not entirely convinced by my own arguments, but
Toby's proposition to descend at once into the valley, and partake
of the hospitality of its inmates, seemed to me to be risking so
much upon the strength of a mere supposition, that I resolved to
oppose it until we had more evidence to proceed upon.
The point was one of vital importance, as the natives of Happar
were not only at peace with Nukuheva, but cultivated with its
inhabitants the most friendly relations, and enjoyed a reputation
for gentleness and humanity which led us to expect from them, if not a
cordial reception, at least a shelter during the short period we
should remain in their territory.
On the other hand, the very name of Typee struck a panic into my
heart which I did not attempt to disguise. The thought of
voluntarily throwing ourselves into the hands of these cruel
savages, seemed to me an act of mere madness; and almost equally so
the idea of venturing into the valley, uncertain by which of these two
tribes it was inhabited. That the vale at our feet was tenanted by one
of them, was a point that appeared to us past all doubt, since we knew
that they resided in this quarter, although our information did not
enlighten us further.
My companion, however, incapable of resisting the tempting
prospect which the place held out of an abundant supply of food and
other means of enjoyment, still clung to his own inconsiderate view of
the subject, nor could all my reasoning shake it. When I reminded
him that it was impossible for either of us to know anything with
certainty, and when I dwelt upon the horrible fate we should encounter
were we rashly to descend into the valley, and discover too late the
error we had committed, he replied by detailing all the evils of our
present condition, and the sufferings we must undergo should we
continue to remain where we then were.
Anxious to draw him away from the subject, if possible- for I
saw that it would be in vain to attempt changing his mind- I
directed his attention to a long bright unwooded tract of land
which, sweeping down from the elevations in the interior, descended
into the valley before us. I then suggested to him that beyond this
ridge might lie a capacious and untenanted valley, abounding with
all manner of delicious fruits; for I had heard that there were
several such upon the island, and proposed that we should endeavour to
reach it, and if we found our expectations realized we should at
once take refuge in it and remain there as long as we pleased.
He acquiesced in the suggestion; and we immediately, therefore,
began surveying the country lying before us, with a view of
determining upon the best route for us to pursue; but it presented
little choice, the whole interval being broken into steep ridges,
divided by dark ravines, extending in parallel lines at right angles
to our direct course. All these we would be obliged to cross before we
could hope to arrive at our destination.
A weary journey! But we decided to undertake it, though, for my
own part, I felt little prepared to encounter its fatigues,
shivering and burning by turns with the ague and fever; for I know not
how else to describe the alternate sensations I experienced, and
suffering not a little from the lameness which afflicted me. Added
to this was the faintness consequent on our meagre diet- a calamity in
which Toby participated to the same extent as myself.
These circumstances, however, only augmented my anxiety to reach a
place which promised us plenty and repose, before I should be
reduced to a state which would render me altogether unable to
perform the journey. Accordingly we now commenced it by descending the
almost perpendicular side of a steep and narrow gorge, bristling
with a thick growth of reeds. Here there was but one mode for us to
adopt. We seated ourselves upon the ground, and guided our descent
by catching at the canes in our path. The velocity with which we
thus slid down the side of the ravine soon brought us to a point where
we could use our feet, and in a short time we arrived at the edge of
the torrent, which rolled impetuously along the bed of the chasm.
After taking a refreshing draught from the water of the stream, we
addressed ourselves to a much more difficult undertaking than the
last. Every foot of our late descent had to be regained in ascending
the opposite side of the gorge- an operation rendered the less
agreeable from the consideration that in these perpendicular
episodes we did not progress a hundred yards on our journey. But,
ungrateful as the task was, we set about it with exemplary patience,
and after a snail-like progress of an hour or more, had scaled perhaps
one half of the distance, when the fever which had left me for
awhile returned with such violence, and accompanied by so raging a
thirst, that it required all the entreaties of Toby to prevent me from
losing all the fruits of my late exertion, by precipitating myself
madly down the cliffs we had just climbed, in quest of the water which
flowed so temptingly at their base. At the moment all my hopes and
fears appeared to be merged in this one desire, careless of the
consequences that might result from its gratification. I am aware of
no feeling, either of pleasure or of pain, that so completely deprives
one of all power to resist its impulses, as this same raging thirst.
Toby earnestly conjured me to continue the ascent, assuring me
that a little more exertion would bring us to the summit, and that
then in less than five minutes we should find ourselves at the brink
of the stream, which must necessarily on the other side of the ridge.
"Do not," he exclaimed, "turn back, now that we have proceeded
thus far; for I tell you that neither of us will have the courage to
repeat the attempt, if once more we find ourselves looking up to where
we now are from the bottom of these rocks!"
I was not yet so perfectly beside myself as to be heedless of
these representations, and therefore toiled on, ineffectually
endeavouring to appease the thirst which consumed me, by thinking that
in a short time I should be able to gratify it to my heart's content.
At last we gained the top of the second elevation, the loftiest of
those I have described as extending in parallel lines between us and
the valley we desired to reach. It commanded a view of the whole
intervening distance; and, discouraged as I was by other
circumstances, this prospect plunged me into the very depths of
despair. Nothing but dark and fearful chasms, separated by sharp
crested and perpendicular ridges as far as the eye could reach.
Could we have stepped from summit to summit of these steep but
narrow elevations we could easily have accomplished the distance;
but we must penetrate to the bottom of every yawning gulf, and scale
in succession every one of the eminences before us. Even Toby,
although not suffering as I did, was not proof against the
disheartening influences of the sight.
But we did not long stand to contemplate it, impatient as I was to
reach the waters of the torrent which flowed beneath us. With an
insensibility to danger which I cannot call to mind without
shuddering, we threw ourselves down the depths of the ravine,
startling its savage solitudes with the echoes produced by the falling
fragments of rock we every moment dislodged from their places,
careless of the insecurity of our footing, and reckless whether the
slight roots and twigs we clutched at sustained us for the while, or
treacherously yielded to our grasp. For my own part, I scarcely knew
whether I was helplessly falling from the heights above, or whether
the fearful rapidity with which I descended was an act of my own
volition.
In a few minutes we reached the foot of the gorge, and kneeling
upon a small ledge of dripping rocks, I bent over to the stream.
What a delicious sensation was I now to experience! I paused for a
second to concentrate all my capabilities of enjoyment, and then
immerged my lips in the clear element before me. Had the apples of
Sodom turned to ashes in my mouth, I could not have felt a more
startling revulsion. A single drop of the cold fluid seemed to
freeze every drop of blood in my body; the fever that had been burning
in my veins gave place on the instant to deathlike chills, which shook
me one after another like so many shocks of electricity, while the
perspiration produced by my late violent exertions congealed in icy
beads upon my forehead. My thirst was gone, and I fairly loathed the
water. Starting to my feet, the sight of those dank rocks, oozing
forth moisture at every crevice, and the dark stream shooting along
its dismal channel, sent fresh chills through my shivering frame,
and I felt as uncontrollable a desire to climb up towards the genial
sunlight as I before had to descend the ravine.
After two hours' perilous exertions we stood upon the summit of
another ridge, and it was with difficulty I could bring myself to
believe that we had ever penetrated the black and yawning chasm
which then gaped at our feet. Again we gazed upon the prospect which
the height commanded, but it was just as depressing as the one which
had before met our eyes. I now felt that in our present situation it
was in vain for us to think of ever overcoming the obstacles in our
way, and I gave up all thoughts of reaching the vale which lay
beyond this series of impediments; while at the same time I could
not devise any scheme to extricate ourselves from the difficulties
in which we were involved.
The remotest idea of returning to Nukuheva unless assured of our
vessel's departure, never once entered my mind, and indeed it was
questionable whether we could have succeeded in reaching it, divided
as we were from the bay by a distance we could not compute, and
perplexed too in our remembrance of localities by our recent
wanderings. Besides, it was unendurable the thought of retracing our
steps and rendering all our painful exertions of no avail.
There is scarcely anything when a man is in difficulties that he
is more disposed to look upon with abhorrence than a right-about
retrograde movement- a systematic going over of the already trodden
ground: and especially if he has a love of adventure, such a course
appears indescribably repulsive, so long as there remains the least
hope to be derived from braving untried difficulties.
It was this feeling that prompted us to descend the opposite
side of the elevation we had just scaled, although with what
definite object in view it would have been impossible for either of us
to tell.
Without exchanging a syllable upon the subject, Toby and myself
simultaneously renounced the design which had lured us thus far-
perceiving in each other's countenances that desponding expression
which speaks more eloquently than words.
Together we stood towards the close of this weary day in the
cavity of the third gorge we had entered, wholly incapacitated for any
further exertion, until restored to some degree of strength by food
and repose.
We seated ourselves upon the least uncomfortable spot we could
select, and Toby produced from the bosom of his frock the sacred
package. In silence we partook of the small morsel of refreshment that
had been left from the morning's repast, and without once proposing to
violate the sanctity of our engagement with respect to the
remainder, we rose to our feet, and proceeded to construct some sort
of shelter under which we might obtain the sleep we so greatly needed.
Fortunately the spot was better adapted to our purpose than the
one in which we had passed the last wretched night. We cleared away
the tall reeds from a small but almost level bit of ground, and
twisted them into a low basket-like hut, which we covered with a
profusion of long thick leaves, gathered from a tree near at hand.
We disposed them thickly all around, reserving only a slight opening
that barely permitted us to crawl under the shelter we had thus
obtained.
These deep recesses, though protected from the winds that assail
the summits of their lofty sides, are damp and chill to a degree
that one would hardly anticipate in such a climate; and being
unprovided with anything but our woollen frocks and thin duck trousers
to resist the cold of the place, we were the more solicitous to render
our habitation for the night as comfortable as we could.
Accordingly, in addition to what we had already done, we plucked
down all the leaves within our reach and threw them in a heap over our
little hut, into which we now crept, raking after us a reserved supply
to form our couch.
That night nothing but the pain I suffered prevented me from
sleeping most refreshingly. As it was, I caught two or three naps,
while Toby slept away at my side as soundly as though he had been
sandwiched between two Holland sheets. Luckily it did not rain, and we
were preserved from the misery which a heavy shower would have
occasioned us.
In the morning I was awakened by the sonorous voice of my
companion ringing in my ears and bidding me rise. I crawled out from
our heap of leaves, and was astonished at the change which a good
night's rest had wrought in his appearance. He was as blithe and
joyous as a young bird, and was staying the keenness of his
morning's appetite by chewing the soft bark of a delicate branch he
held in his hand, and he recommended the like to me, as an admirable
antidote against the gnawings of hunger.
For my own part, though feeling materially better than I had
done the preceding evening, I could not look at the limb that had
pained me so violently at intervals during the last twenty-four hours,
without experiencing a sense of alarm that I strove in vain to shake
off. Unwilling to disturb the flow of my comrade's spirits, I
managed to stifle the complaints to which I might otherwise have given
vent, and calling upon him good-humouredly to speed our banquet, I
prepared myself for it by washing in the stream. This operation
concluded, we swallowed, or rather absorbed, by a peculiar kind of
slow sucking process, our respective morsels of nourishment, and
then entered into a discussion as to the steps it was necessary for us
to pursue.
"What's to be done now?" inquired I, rather dolefully.
"Descend into that same valley we descried yesterday," rejoined
Toby, with a rapidity and loudness of utterance that almost led me
to suspect he had been slyly devouring the broadside of an ox in
some of the adjoining thickets. "What else," he continued, "remains
for us to do but that, to be sure? Why, we shall both starve, to a
certainty, if we remain here; and as to your fears of those Typees-
depend upon it, it is all nonsense. It is impossible that the
inhabitants of such a lovely place as we saw can be anything else
but good fellows; and if you choose rather to perish with hunger in
one of these soppy caverns, I for one prefer to chance a bold
descent into the valley, and risk the consequences."
"And who is to pilot us thither," I asked, "even if we should
decide upon the measure you propose? Are we to go again up and down
those precipices that we crossed yesterday, until we reach the place
we started from, and then take a flying leap from the cliffs to the
valley?"
"'Faith, I didn't think of that," said Toby; "sure enough, both
sides of the valley appeared to be hemmed in by precipices, didn't
they?"
"Yes," answered I; "as steep as the sides of a line-of-battle
ship, and about a hundred times as high." My companion sank his head
upon his breast, and remained for awhile in deep thought. Suddenly
he sprang to his feet, while his eyes lighted up with that gleam of
intelligence that marks the presence of some bright idea.
"Yes, yes," he exclaimed; "the streams all run in the same
direction, and must necessarily flow into the valley before they reach
the sea; all we have to do is just to follow this stream, and sooner
or later, it will lead us into the vale."
"You are right, Toby," I exclaimed, "you are right; it conduct
us thither, and quickly, too; for, see with what a steep inclination
the water descends."
"It does, indeed," burst forth my companion, overjoyed at my
verification of his theory, "it does, indeed; why, it is as plain as a
pike-staff. Let us proceed at once; come, throw away all those
stupid ideas about the Typees, and hurrah for the lovely valley of the
Happars!"
"You will have it to be Happar, I see, my dear fellow; pray
Heaven, you may not find yourself deceived," observed I, with a
shake of my head.
"Amen to all that, and much more," shouted Toby, rushing
forward; "but Happar it is, for nothing else than Happar can it be. So
glorious a valley- such forests of bread-fruit trees- such groves of
cocoa-nut- such wildernesses of guava-bushes! Ah, shipmate! don't
linger behind: in the name of all delightful fruits, I am dying to
be at them. Come on, come on; shove ahead, there's a lively lad; never
mind the rocks; kick them out of the way, as I do; and to-morrow,
old fellow, take my word for it, we shall be in clover. Come on";
and so saying, he dashed along the ravine like a madman, forgetting my
inability to keep up with him. In a few minutes, however, the
exuberance of his spirits abated, and, pausing for awhile, he
permitted me to overtake him.
CHAPTER VIII
FRIGHTFUL DESCENT TO THE RAVINE

THE fearless confidence of Toby was contagious, and I began to
adopt the Happar side of the question. I could not, however,
overcome a certain feeling of trepidation, as we made our way along
these gloomy solitudes. Our progress, at first comparatively easy,
became more and more difficult. The bed of the watercourse was covered
with fragments of broken rocks, which had fallen from above,
offering so many obstructions to the course of the rapid stream, which
vexed and fretted about them,- forming at intervals small
waterfalls, pouring over into deep basins, or splashing wildly upon
heaps of stones.
From the narrowness of the gorge, and the steepness of its
sides, there was no mode of advancing but by wading through the water;
stumbling every moment over the impediments which lay hidden under its
surface, or tripping against the huge roots of trees. But the most
annoying hindrance we encountered was from a multitude of crooked
boughs, which, shooting out almost horizontally from the sides of
the chasm, twisted themselves together in fantastic masses almost to
the surface of the stream, affording us no passage except under the
low arches which they formed. Under these we were obliged to crawl
on our hands and feet, sliding along the oozy surface of the rocks, or
slipping into the deep pools, and with scarce light enough to guide
us. Occasionally we would strike our heads against some projecting
limb of a tree; and while imprudently engaged in rubbing the injured
part, would fall sprawling amongst flinty fragments, cutting and
bruising ourselves, whilst the unpitying waters flowed over our
prostrate bodies. Belzoni, worming himself through the subterranean
passages of the Egyptian catacombs, could not have met with greater
impediments than those we here encountered. But we struggled against
them manfully, well knowing our only hope lay in advancing.
Towards sunset we halted at a spot where we made preparations
for passing the night. Here we constructed a hut, in much the same way
as before, and crawling into it, endeavoured to forget our sufferings.
My companion, I believe, slept pretty soundly; but at daybreak, when
we rolled out of our dwelling, I felt nearly disqualified for any
further efforts. Toby prescribed as a remedy for my illness the
contents of one of our little silk packages, to be taken at once in
a single dose. To this species of medical treatment, however, I
would by no means accede, much as he insisted upon it; and so we
partook of our usual morsel, and silently resumed our journey. It
was now the fourth day since we left Nukuheva, and the gnawings of
hunger became painfully acute. We were fain to pacify them by
chewing the tender bark of roots and twigs, which, if they did not
afford us nourishment, were at least sweet and pleasant to the taste.
Our progress along the steep watercourse was necessarily slow, and
by noon we had not advanced more than a mile. It was somewhere near
this part of the day that the noise of falling waters, which we had
faintly caught in the early morning, became more distinct; and it
was not long before we were arrested by a rocky precipice of nearly
a hundred feet in depth, that extended all across the channel, and
over which the wild stream poured in an unbroken leap. On either
hand the walls of the ravine presented their overhanging sides both
above and below the fall, affording no means whatever of avoiding
the cataract by taking a circuit round it.
"What's to be done now, Toby?" said I.
"Why," rejoined he, "as we cannot retreat, I suppose we must
keep shoving along."
"Very true, my dear Toby; but how do you purpose accomplishing
that desirable object?"
"By jumping from the top of the fall, if there be no other way,"
unhesitatingly replied my companion; "it will be much the quickest way
of descent; but as you are not quite as active as I am, we will try
some other way."
And so saying, he crept cautiously along and peered over into
the abyss, while I remained wondering by what possible means we
could overcome this apparently insuperable obstruction. As soon as
my companion had completed his survey, I eagerly inquired the result.
"The result of my observations you wish to know, do you?" began
Toby, deliberately, with one of his odd looks: "well, my lad, the
result of my observations is very quickly imparted. It is at present
uncertain which of our two necks will have the honour to be broken
first; but about a hundred to one would be a fair bet in favour of the
man who takes the first jump."
"Then it is an impossible thing, is it?" inquired I, gloomily.
"No, shipmate; on the contrary, it is the easiest thing in life:
the only awkward point is the sort of usage which our unhappy limbs
may receive when we arrive at the bottom, and what sort of
travelling trim we shall be in afterwards. But follow me now, and I
will show you the only chance we have."
With this he conducted me to the verge of the cataract, and
pointed along the side of the ravine to a number of curious-looking
roots, some three or four inches in thickness, and several feet
long, which, after twisting among the fissures of the rock, shot
perpendicularly from it, and ran tapering to a point in the air,
hanging over the gulf like so many dark icicles. They covered nearly
the entire surface of one side of the gorge, the lowest of them
reaching even to the water. Many were moss-grown and decayed, with
their extremities snapped short off, and those in the immediate
vicinity of the fall were slippery with moisture.
Toby's scheme, and it was a desperate one, was to entrust
ourselves to these treacherous-looking roots, and by slipping down
from one to another to gain the bottom.
"Are you ready to venture it?" asked Toby, looking at me
earnestly, but without saying a word as to the practicability of the
plan.
"I am," was my reply; for I saw it was our only resource if we
wished to advance, and as for retreating, all thoughts of that sort
had been long abandoned.
After I had signified my assent, Toby, without uttering a single
word, crawled along the dripping ledge until he gained a point from
whence he could just reach one of the largest of the pendant roots; he
shook it- it quivered in his grasp, and when he let it go, it
twanged in the air like a strong wire sharply struck. Satisfied by his
scrutiny, my light-limbed companion swung himself nimbly upon it,
and twisting his legs round it in sailor fashion, slipped down eight
or ten feet, where his weight gave it a motion not unlike that of a
pendulum. He could not venture to descend any farther; so holding on
with one hand, he with the other shook one by one all the slender
roots around him, and at last, finding one which he thought
trustworthy, shifted himself to it and continued his downward
progress.
So far so well; but I could not avoid comparing my heavier frame
and disabled condition with his light figure and remarkable
activity: but there was no help for it, and in less than a minute's
time I was swinging directly over his head. As soon as his upturned
eyes caught a glimpse of me, he exclaimed in his usual dry tone, for
the danger did not seem to daunt him in the least, "Mate, do me the
kindness not to fall until I get out of your way"; and then swinging
himself more on one side, he continued his descent. In the meantime, I
cautiously transferred myself from the limb down which I had been
slipping to a couple of others that were near it, deeming two
strings to my bow better than one, and taking care to test their
strength before I trusted my weight to them.
On arriving towards the end of the second stage in this vertical
journey, and shaking the long roots which were round me, to my
consternation they snapped off one after another like so many pipe
stems, and fell in fragments against the side of the gulf, splashing
at last into the waters beneath.
As one after another the treacherous roots yielded to my grasp,
and fell into the torrent, my heart sunk within me. The branches on
which I was suspended over the yawning chasm swang to and fro in the
air, and I expected them every moment to snap in twain. Appalled at
the dreadful fate that menaced me, I clutched frantically at the
only large root which remained near me; but in vain; I could not reach
it, though my fingers were within a few inches of it. Again and
again I tried to reach it, until at length, maddened with the
thought of my situation, I swayed myself violently by striking my foot
against the side of the rock, and at the instant that I approached the
large root caught desperately at it, and transferred myself to it.
It vibrated violently under the sudden weight, but fortunately did not
give way.
My brain grew dizzy with the idea of the frightful risk I had just
run, and I involuntarily closed my eyes to shut out the view of the
depth beneath me. For the instant I was safe, and I uttered a devout
ejaculation of thanksgiving for my escape.
"Pretty well done," shouted Toby underneath me; "you are nimbler
than I thought you to be- hopping about up there from root to root
like any young squirrel. As soon as you have diverted yourself
sufficiently, I would advise you to proceed."
"Ay, ay, Toby, all in good time: two or three more such famous
roots as this, and I shall be with you."
The residue of my downward progress was comparatively easy; the
roots were in greater abundance, and in one or two places jutting
out points of rock assisted me greatly. In a few moments I was
standing by the side of my companion.
Substituting a stout stick for the one I had thrown aside at the
top of the precipice, we now continued our course along the bed of the
ravine. Soon we were saluted by a sound in advance, that grew by
degrees louder and louder, as the noise of the cataract we were
leaving behind gradually died oh our ears.
"Another precipice for us, Toby."
"Very good; we can descend them, you know- come on."
Nothing indeed appeared to depress or intimidate this intrepid
fellow. Typees or Niagaras, he was as ready to engage one as the
other, and I could not avoid a thousand times congratulating myself
upon having such a companion in an enterprise like the present.
After an hour's painful progress, we reached the verge of
another fall, still loftier than the preceding, and flanked both above
and below with the same steep masses of rock, presenting, however,
here and there narrow irregular ledges, supporting a shallow soil,
on which grew a variety of bushes and trees, whose bright verdure
contrasted beautifully with the foamy waters that flowed between them.
Toby, who invariably acted as pioneer, now proceeded to
reconnoitre. On his return, he reported that the shelves of rock on
our right would enable us to gain with little risk the bottom of the
cataract. Accordingly, leaving the bed of the stream at the very point
where it thundered down, we began crawling along one of these
sloping ledges until it carried us to within a few feet of another
that inclined downward at a still sharper angle, and upon which, by
assisting each other, we managed to alight in safety. We warily
crept along this, steadying ourselves by the naked roots of the shrubs
that clung to every fissure. As we proceeded, the narrow path became
still more contracted, rendering it difficult for us to maintain our
footing, until suddenly, as we reached an angle of the wall of rock
where we had expected it to widen, we perceived to our
consternation, that a yard or two farther on it abruptly terminated at
a place we could not possibly hope to pass.
Toby, as usual, led the van, and in silence I waited to learn from
him how he proposed to extricate us from this new difficulty.
"Well, my boy," I exclaimed, after the expiration of several
minutes, during which time my companion had not uttered a word:
"what's to be done now?"
He replied in a tranquil tone that probably the best thing we
could do in the present strait was to get out of it as soon as
possible.
"Yes, my dear Toby, but tell me how we are to get out of it."
"Something in this sort of style," he replied; and at the same
moment, to my horror, he slipped sideways off the rock, and, as I then
thought, by good fortune merely, alighted among the spreading branches
of a species of palm tree, that shooting its hardy roots along a ledge
below, curved its trunk upwards into the air, and presented a thick
mass of foliage about twenty feet below the spot where we had thus
suddenly been brought to a stand-still. I involuntarily held my
breath, expecting to see the form of my companion, after being
sustained for a moment by the branches of the tree, sink through their
frail support, and fall headlong to the bottom. To my surprise and
joy, however, he recovered himself, and disentangling his limbs from
the fractured branches, he peered out from his leafy bed, and
shouted lustily, "Come on, my hearty, there is no other
alternative!" and with this he ducked beneath the foliage, and
slipping down the trunk, stood in a moment at least fifty feet beneath
me, upon the broad shelf of rock from which sprung the tree he had
descended.
What would I not have given at that moment to have been by his
side? The feat he had just accomplished seemed little less than
miraculous, and I could hardly credit the evidence of my senses when I
saw the wide distance that a single daring act had so suddenly
placed between us.
Toby's animating "come on!" again sounded in my ears, and dreading
to lose all confidence myself if I remained meditating upon the
step, I once more gazed down to assure myself of the relative
bearing of the tree and my own position, and then closing my eyes
and uttering one comprehensive ejaculation of prayer, I inclined
myself over towards the abyss, and after one breathless instant fell
with a crash into the tree, the branches snapping and crackling with
my weight, as I sunk lower and lower among them, until I was stopped
by coming in contact with a sturdy limb.
In a few moments I was standing at the foot of the tree,
manipulating myself all over with a view of ascertaining the extent of
the injuries had received. To my surprise the only effects of my
feat were a few slight contusions too trifling to care about. The rest
of our descent was easily accomplished, and in half an hour after
regaining the ravine, we had partaken of our evening morsel, built our
hut as usual, and crawled under its shelter.
The next morning, in spite of our debility and the agony of hunger
under which we were now suffering, though neither of us confessed to
the fact, we struggled along our dismal and still difficult and
dangerous path, cheered by the hope of soon catching a glimpse of
the valley before us, and towards evening the voice of a cataract
which had for some time sounded like a low deep bass to the music of
the smaller waterfalls, broke upon our ears in still louder tones, and
assured us that we were approaching its vicinity.
That evening we stood on the brink of a precipice, over which
the dark stream bounded in one final leap of full 300 feet. The
sheer descent terminated in the region we so long had sought. On
either side of the fall, two lofty and perpendicular bluffs buttressed
the sides of the enormous cliff, and projected into the sea of verdure
with which the valley waved, and a range of similar projecting
eminences stood disposed in a half circle about the head of the
vale. A thick canopy of trees hung over the very verge of the fall,
leaving an arched aperture for the passage of the waters, which
imparted a strange picturesqueness to the scene.
The valley was now before us; but instead of being conducted
into its smiling bosom by the gradual descent of the deep
watercourse we had thus far pursued, all our labours now appeared to
have been rendered futile by its abrupt termination. But, bitterly
disappointed, we did not entirely despair.
As it was now near sunset we determined to pass the night where we
were, and on the morrow, refreshed by sleep, and by eating at one meal
all our stock of food, to accomplish a descent into the valley, or
perish in the attempt.
We laid ourselves down that night on a spot, the recollection of
which still makes me shudder. A small table of rock which projected
over the precipice on one side of the stream, and was drenched by
the spray of the fall, sustained a huge trunk of a tree which must
have been deposited there by some heavy freshet. It lay obliquely,
with one end resting on the rock and the other supported by the side
of the ravine. Against it we placed in a