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The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom




(1888)
Country of origin: Australia Australia
Available texts by the same author here Dokument


IV. Queen Ine.

   "KILLMANN! Who says he didn't shoot? Ax the natives? I tell ye what, when he was up that 'ere coast, if he saw a man walking along the sands with a fine mop on him and some beads which he thought would look well amongst his curios, he thought no more of putting up his rifle and potting that native, than he did o' bringing down a bird of but then I always did say that he was like Nig there, just a little too reachy."
   Captain Allan Collins was having the best of it, for he had got an audience while Joe had dropped upon the sands nearly helpless, with hardly voice enough left even to blaspheme.
   "Ten o'clock, boys, and Carolina Joe as drunk as Tam o' Shanter; time we were all aboard if we mean to be up to time to-morrow morning," said a voice from the fog as it parted and revealed a figure about five foot eight, slim built and gentlemanly, with an olive tinted face and close--clipped black beard.
   "All right, Bowman, I'm ready," responded Danby, getting up as calmly as if no whisky had crossed his clean-cut lips, although the boy had been supplied twice every round.
   At the same moment the burly sea model of Achilles struggled to his feet, as did the others.
   "Get up, Orphan Jackson," said Danby, giving the prostrate Joe a heavy slap with his bare foot, "here comes your father-in-law, with two of your royal brothers, and you haven't shown us Queen Ine and the last batch of pie-bald twins yet."
   Carolina Joe, who had not lain above five minutes, rose as if he had been sleeping twelve hours, and apparently shook the drink-stupor as easily from him as a man might shake the night mists away in the early morning, while at the same moment an old native appeared in the doorway attired in a soldier's faded red coat minus the buttons, a tall white hat, and by way of under garb, a blue rag tied round his waist; he was white-bearded, grey-skinned, and bleary-eyed, and as he stood in the dim light of the guttering candle looked like a mummy dressed for a masquerade, while close behind him appeared two stalwart young blacks, bearing between them the third case of drink.
   "What's in that case, Bowman?" inquired Joe, in a surly tone.
   "Gin, Joe!" answered Bowman. "It's all we have now left aboard."
   "It'll do," growled Joe. "Break the thing up and let us taste it."
   Little Hector, ever ready with his sharp knife, stooped to prise open the case, while Joe continued, turning to the ancient king,--
   "Where's the women, Primrose?"
   "All gone sleep, Joe."
   "An' Queen Ine?"
   "Waiting down by beach."
   "Fetch her, I've promised to show her to my mates, d'ye hear! an' don't forget the kids."
   "She say you too dam drunk, and she no come to-night," said the king solemnly.
   "You go down and tell her I want her, an' no humbug."
   "All right!" replied his majesty, stalking out with an offended air as if at not being honoured enough.
   "Here!" bawled out Joe, who seemed to know what the matter was.
   The king returned, and stood solemnly waiting with his two sons behind him.
   "Boys, this yer is my father-in-law, and the king of this island, and these yer are two of the princes, so if ye've got a stick o' baccy to give him, give it without more ado, and let him fetch his daughter."
   Bowman and Danby pulled out some sticks of trader's tobacco, and bestowed them upon his majesty, who in return gave them his paw to shake, and then went out to fetch in the rebellious spouse of their host.
   Meanwhile the case of gin was opened, one of the bottles produced, and uncorked, while Joe, now once more sober and genial, drank a parting peg along with his friends; he took a full measure to himself, but was economical as regards the measure of his friends.
   "You've had nigh enough o' my grog, mates, this bout; I'll keep the rest for a nightcap arter you're aboard, for the Lord only knows when the next lot will come to hand."
   Joe had reached that rebounding stage, which often succeeds the generosity of the drunkard.
   "I suppose you want to have a good old spree with your father-in-law to-night, Joe," said Bowman, laughing over the meanness of the trader.
   "No fears, I don't encourage drinkin' on this yer island, I give them tobacco, but not a drop o' grog, that's too precious."
   Queen Ine appeared at this moment with her month-old twins, sullen, and being pushed forward by her father.
   "My wife, mates, and the two last kids."
   "Hallo! Joe, they are the same as last lot, one half caste and one pure black," cried Danby, looking over them, while the mother stood with sullen brows, and casting ominous glances towards her lord and master.
   "That's the curious part on it, boys, Queen Ine always fetches twins, and always that way, one black and one white."
   Queen Ine was a magnificent specimen of womanhood, tall, black as coal, upright, and, where exposed, with flesh as firm as marble; she was attired in the loose blue single shirt-gown which the missionaries give to the native women as a token of civilization. It was fastened at the shoulders and open in the neck, the rest falling in the graceful clinging folds with which sculptors drape their goddesses; she now stood half--shrouded in that rank mist through which the expiring candle shot up irregular flashes, that barely reached her, with that sullen look upon her heavily-bent brows and that lurid gleam in her dark eyes, while beside her, like a showman at a fair exhibiting the points of a leopard, hung the half-intoxicated ruler of her life, with his dirty, torn, red shirt open to the waist, his ragged patched trousers, and his bestial expression as he laid his heavy brown hairy arm across that satin-lustred jet-black shrinking shoulder; for he had half torn her gown from her as she stood passively but sternly under his coarse caresses. The two tokens of her own degradation were lying against her breasts, and were held carelessly up with one strong, lovely-modelled arm. She appeared to represent an ebony statue of indignant Nature, protesting mutely against that bestiality of so-called civilization, which degrades where it cannot slay.
   Her father, like an ape, and her two brothers ranged beside her emotionless, seemed to be sunk to the level of her white husband, but she stood like a ruined queen.
   "That's the sort of woman for a sailor, boys; I can leave her to look after this island when I'm away, and not one dare disobey; look on these arms, why, she could fell an ox with her club."
   Queen Ine stood passive and scowling as he lifted her disengaged bare arm to show it to his friends, and as he let it go it dropped limply by her side, while his drunken friends pinched the firm flesh, and praised her up according to their lights. The candle leapt up wildly, before it sent its flame to air, and showed the whole scene with an intense flame, which did not even screen the bloated tarantula on the rafters: then, as they turned with one impulse to stagger out to the stars and freshness of the night, the degradation of the picture was mercifully blotted out, and Joe was left in darkness, with his case of gin and the woman who called him master.


Chapter 5 >