The Coral Island by Robert Michael Ballantyne (interesting books to read in english TXT) đź“–
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appearance of being clad in tights. Others had marks round the
ankles and insteps, which looked like tight-fitting and elegant
boots. Their faces were also tattooed, and their breasts were very
profusely marked with every imaginable species of device, -
muskets, dogs, birds, pigs, clubs, and canoes, intermingled with
lozenges, squares, circles, and other arbitrary figures.
The women were not tattooed so much as the men, having only a few
marks on their feet and arms. But I must say, however
objectionable this strange practice may be, it nevertheless had
this good effect, that it took away very much from their appearance
of nakedness.
Next day, while we were returning from the woods to our schooner,
we observed Romata rushing about in the neighbourhood of his house,
apparently mad with passion.
“Ah!” said Bill to me, “there he’s at his old tricks again. That’s
his way when he gets drink. The natives make a sort of drink o’
their own, and it makes him bad enough; but when he gets brandy
he’s like a wild tiger. The captain, I suppose, has given him a
bottle, as usual, to keep him in good humour. After drinkin’ he
usually goes to sleep, and the people know it well and keep out of
his way, for fear they should waken him. Even the babies are taken
out of ear-shot; for, when he’s waked up, he rushes out just as you
see him now, and spears or clubs the first person he meets.”
It seemed at the present time, however, that no deadly weapon had
been in his way, for the infuriated chief was raging about without
one. Suddenly he caught sight of an unfortunate man who was trying
to conceal himself behind a tree. Rushing towards him, Romata
struck him a terrible blow on the head, which knocked out the poor
man’s eye and also dislocated the chief’s finger. The wretched
creature offered no resistance; he did not even attempt to parry
the blow. Indeed, from what Bill said, I found that he might
consider himself lucky in having escaped with his life, which would
certainly have been forfeited had the chief been possessed of a
club at the time.
“Have these wretched creatures no law among themselves,” said I,
“which can restrain such wickedness?”
“None,” replied Bill. “The chief’s word is law. He might kill and
eat a dozen of his own subjects any day for nothing more than his
own pleasure, and nobody would take the least notice of it.”
This ferocious deed took place within sight of our party as we
wended our way to the beach, but I could not observe any other
expression on the faces of the men than that of total indifference
or contempt. It seemed to me a very awful thing that it should be
possible for men to come to such hardness of heart and callousness
to the sight of bloodshed and violence; but, indeed, I began to
find that such constant exposure to scenes of blood was having a
slight effect upon myself, and I shuddered when I came to think
that I, too, was becoming callous.
I thought upon this subject much that night while I walked up and
down the deck during my hours of watch; and I came to the
conclusion that if I, who hated, abhorred, and detested such bloody
deeds as I had witnessed within the last few weeks, could so soon
come to be less sensitive about them, how little wonder that these
poor ignorant savages, who were born and bred in familiarity
therewith, should think nothing of them at all, and should hold
human life in so very slight esteem.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Mischief brewing - My blood is made to run cold - Evil
consultations and wicked resolves - Bloody Bill attempts to do good
and fails - The attack - Wholesale murder - The flight - The
escape.
NEXT morning I awoke with a feverish brow and a feeling of deep
depression at my heart; and the more I thought on my unhappy fate,
the more wretched and miserable did I feel.
I was surrounded on all sides by human beings of the most dreadful
character, to whom the shedding of blood was mere pastime. On
shore were the natives, whose practices were so horrible that I
could not think of them without shuddering. On board were none but
pirates of the blackest dye, who, although not cannibals, were foul
murderers, and more blameworthy even than the savages, inasmuch as
they knew better. Even Bill, with whom I had, under the strange
circumstances of my lot, formed a kind of intimacy, was so fierce
in his nature as to have acquired the title of “Bloody” from his
vile companions. I felt very much cast down the more I considered
the subject and the impossibility of delivery, as it seemed to me,
at least for a long time to come. At last, in my feeling of utter
helplessness, I prayed fervently to the Almighty that he would
deliver me out of my miserable condition; and when I had done so I
felt some degree of comfort.
When the captain came on deck, before the hour at which the men
usually started for the woods, I begged of him to permit me to
remain aboard that day, as I did not feel well; but he looked at me
angrily, and ordered me, in a surly tone, to get ready to go on
shore as usual. The fact was that the captain had been out of
humour for some time past. Romata and he had had some differences,
and high words had passed between them, during which the chief had
threatened to send a fleet of his war-canoes, with a thousand men,
to break up and burn the schooner; whereupon the captain smiled
sarcastically, and going up to the chief gazed sternly in his face,
while he said, “I have only to raise my little finger just now, and
my big gun will blow your whole village to atoms in five minutes!”
Although the chief was a bold man, he quailed before the pirate’s
glance and threat, and made no reply; but a bad feeling had been
raised and old sores had been opened.
I had, therefore, to go with the wood-cutters that day. Before
starting, however, the captain called me into the cabin, and said,
-
“Here, Ralph, I’ve got a mission for you, lad. That blackguard
Romata is in the dumps, and nothing will mollify him but a gift; so
do you go up to his house and give him these whales’ teeth, with my
compliments. Take with you one of the men who can speak the
language.”
I looked at the gift in some surprise, for it consisted of six
white whales’ teeth, and two of the same dyed bright red, which
seemed to me very paltry things. However, I did not dare to
hesitate or ask any questions; so, gathering them up, I left the
cabin and was soon on my way to the chief’s house, accompanied by
Bill. On expressing my surprise at the gift, he said, -
“They’re paltry enough to you or me, Ralph, but they’re considered
of great value by them chaps. They’re a sort o’ cash among them.
The red ones are the most prized, one of them bein’ equal to twenty
o’ the white ones. I suppose the only reason for their bein’
valuable is that there ain’t many of them, and they’re hard to be
got.”
On arriving at the house we found Romata sitting on a mat, in the
midst of a number of large bales of native cloth and other
articles, which had been brought to him as presents from time to
time by inferior chiefs. He received us rather haughtily, but on
Bill explaining the nature of our errand he became very
condescending, and his eyes glistened with satisfaction when he
received the whales’ teeth, although he laid them aside with an
assumption of kingly indifference.
“Go,” said he, with a wave of the hand, - “go, tell your captain
that he may cut wood to-day, but not to-morrow. He must come
ashore, - I want to have a palaver with him.”
As we left the house to return to the woods, Bill shook his head:
“There’s mischief brewin’ in that black rascal’s head. I know him
of old. But what comes here?”
As he spoke, we heard the sound of laughter and shouting in the
wood, and presently there issued from it a band of savages, in the
midst of whom were a number of men bearing burdens on their
shoulders. At first I thought that these burdens were poles with
something rolled round them, the end of each pole resting on a
man’s shoulder. But on a nearer approach I saw that they were
human beings, tied hand and foot, and so lashed to the poles that
they could not move. I counted twenty of them as they passed.
“More murder!” said Bill, in a voice that sounded between a hoarse
laugh and a groan.
“Surely they are not going to murder them?” said I, looking
anxiously into Bill’s face.
“I don’t know, Ralph,” replied Bill, “what they’re goin’ to do with
them; but I fear they mean no good when they tie fellows up in that
way.”
As we continued our way towards the wood-cutters, I observed that
Bill looked anxiously over his shoulder, in the direction where the
procession had disappeared. At last he stopped, and turning
abruptly on his heel, said, -
“I tell ye what it is, Ralph, I must be at the bottom o’ that
affair. Let us follow these black scoundrels and see what they’re
goin’ to do.”
I must say I had no wish to pry further into their bloody
practices; but Bill seemed bent on it, so I turned and went. We
passed rapidly through the bush, being guided in the right
direction by the shouts of the savages. Suddenly there was a dead
silence, which continued for some time, while Bill and I
involuntarily quickened our pace until we were running at the top
of our speed across the narrow neck of land previously mentioned.
As we reached the verge of the wood, we discovered the savages
surrounding the large war-canoe, which they were apparently on the
point of launching. Suddenly the multitude put their united
strength to the canoe; but scarcely had the huge machine begun to
move, when a yell, the most appalling that ever fell upon my ear,
rose high above the shouting of the savages. It had not died away
when another and another smote upon my throbbing ear; and then I
saw that these inhuman monsters were actually launching their canoe
over the living bodies of their victims. But there was no pity in
the breasts of these men. Forward they went in ruthless
indifference, shouting as they went, while high above their voices
rang the dying shrieks of those wretched creatures, as, one after
another, the ponderous canoe passed over them, burst the eyeballs
from their sockets, and sent the life’s blood gushing from their
mouths. Oh, reader, this is no fiction. I would not, for the sake
of thrilling you with horror, invent so terrible a scene. It was
witnessed. It is true; true as that accursed sin which has
rendered the human heart capable of such diabolical enormities!
When it was over I turned round and fell upon the grass with a deep
groan; but Bill seized me by the arm, and lifting me up as if I had
been a child, cried, -
“Come along, lad; let’s away!” - and so, staggering and stumbling
over the
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