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The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom




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


XIII. Towards the Fly River.

   IT is not a very long run to the New Guinea coast when the wind is fair, although in the Papuan Gulf very violent storms are apt to be experienced. Niggeree, in his Sunflower, led the way, with the Coral Seas keeping as nearly beside him as it was possible, and although the weather was calm inside the reefs and as long as they were in the Straits, there was a deal of tacking to be done to keep to the course.
   Still the wind was pretty fair, it being now nearly the middle of the dry season, with an easterly monsoon blowing on their broadsides as they made towards Kiwai, at the mouth of the Fly River.
   A patchy sea, very treacherous as to bottom, right on to Bampton Island, yet protected as far as Flinder's Entrance by the great Barrier Reef, which made sailing comparatively easy by day, particularly to so experienced a pilot as Niggeree, who knew every inch of the way.
   Niggeree would have liked Hector to have gone with him; but as he had an extra crew of Malays and South Sea Islanders, old hands whom the Greek could manage and trust, it was thought expedient that he should accompany Captain Collins in his schooner, and follow as best they could in the wake of the Sunflower.
   So, after they parted from Joe and the Thunder, keeping well to the wind, they sailed along smoothly; the sharp Sunflower, like a fresh young filly, springing a mile or two in advance, to wait while the other schooner, like a more sober old horse, tried to make up.
   Over a sea filled with ripples, all emerald and amethyst, with a cloudless sky overhead, and a sun blazing down and making the pitch in the seams bubble up and the iron and brass work feel almost red hot.
   Niggeree lay on the deck when not wanted, full in the fiery glare, with bare legs and feet, with stalwart limbs brown as berries, his pipe in his mouth. He was gazing upwards at the bulging sails and cordage, while his Malay boy, who knew the waters almost as well as his master, steered.
   On the forecastle lay the Islanders, Malays, and Manilla boys, a little crowd, too many to be required for such a small vessel; but Niggeree knew his business well, and did not take a single man without a purpose, and where he was going he knew well he would require them all.
   Arms of all kinds lay scattered about the decks as the men had left them to be polished up--Winchesters and double-barrelled rifles, cutlasses, and revolvers. Beside Niggeree lay a belt with two of Colt's latest improvements and a fifteen-chambered Winchester, while in his left hand he lazily held a freshly-ground cutlass, the keen edge of which he lightly touched with his right thumb, laying it down to remove his pipe when he had to expectorate, which he did without raising his head, and lifting it again with the dreamy tenderness with which women are apt to finger a love relic.
   At times he uttered, in a quiet, muffled tone, without removing his pipe, an order which the Malay instantly caught and obeyed, and once, without waiting to see where they were, he sprang, with the agility of a sleeping cat suddenly roused up by a foot treading on her tail, and, running up to the masthead, clung there for a few moments with one arm and one foot round the bare pole, while he motioned with his other hand the direction to the man at the wheel.
   They were passing over a green patch of water with only a ship and a half's length of deep blue channel, all crooked and circuitous, where the many-tinted fish could be seen darting about in myriads, and as the sunbeams dived down amongst the cool transparency, lovely shapes, like trees and flowers, could be seen springing up as if carved from emerald, lapis lazuli, or amber, while in front of them leapt and flew the shoals of flying-fish, and all round, like fairy barges, floated the nautilus fleets steering due west.
   A scene of light and soul-satisfying beauty and warmth, with that strong yet soft breeze pressing upon the skin like eider-down and tossing the locks aside with velvet flappings. Away in front and east-ward the horizon was a tumbled line of intense blue, with broken fringes of dazzling white; they were nearing the point where the protecting barrier ceased entirely, and where the ocean boiled in fury. There was a cloudless gale outside there, and no mistake--one of those gales most dangerous to sailing craft, where the waves beat up faster and stronger than the wind, giving the steersman hardly a chance to evade the swamping mountains.
   As yet it was all right with the calm sea, and the strong blast filled to straining the shortened upper sail, and drove the mist wreathes merrily out of the way.
   "Furl sails!" cried Niggeree, coming down from his perch aloft. "Let's know the depth; there ought to be a sand-bank hereabouts where we can anchor."
   Some of the men sprang up to the yard and stowed away the canvas as the lead showed satisfactory anchorage, so in another moment the Sunflower was riding safely amongst the coral, while her captain waited upon his consort's approach.
   "Hallo, Nig! what's up?" bawled out Collins from his deck when they got within hail.
   "Nothing, only it's too rough outside to go on; besides, we'll lose nothing by this half-day at anchor. We can easily reach Mibu to-morrow, while the wind may lull a bit to-night."
   "It does look roughish outside," responded Collins. "Have you good anchorage there, mate?"
   "Only a sand-patch of a few yards. Try over by the lee of you, there ought to be something there if it hasn't shifted since last voyage."
   Collins reefed his solitary spread of canvas, and, letting his vessel drift in the direction Niggeree pointed, watched anxiously as the man threw in the lead and sounded.
   A sleepy Manilla man the sounder was, who threw out his line and drew it in again hand over fist in a listless way, singing out in a monotonous drone, as if it had been an old lesson the interest in which he had long since lost.
   "Five fathoms!"
   "Four fathoms and a quarter!"
   "Three fathoms less twain!"
   "Two foot, sah!"
   This last was jerked out in a surprised tone as the Manilla man looked up suddenly, very wide awake indeed, to meet Hector's laughing blue eyes fixed upon him. They were on the sand-bank safe enough, and had been for the minute and a half while he had been throwing out his line.
   "Low tide; you are all right. Drop the anchor, mate," cried the Greek, who had been quietly watching this mishap, knowing well how it would happen.
   Collins gave a grunt of relief, and next moment the anchor-chain was rattling through the hawse-hole.
   The atmosphere, very clear here, enabled them to see a long way around them. Far away to the northeast they could trace, like a faint stain upon that grey-white lower space, a lofty range of mountains with abrupt summits and edges, like sheets of blotting-paper with the edges frayed and torn, the faint outlines of distant New Guinea.
   Nearer at hand and all round were numberless islands, some high, rising with rocky sides, others low and mango-covered. On one small island, about two miles off, they saw a long row of pelicans standing seemingly motionless in the afternoon sun, snow-white against the yellow sand lustre, with scraggy bushes here and there. Behind this patch of sand (the formation of a future island) the larger and older island lay, with a line of smooth water between. A palm-grove waved above the mangroves' outer rim; but, beyond the flocks of sea and land-birds fluttering about, there was no sign of other life.
   "Did you shoot the whole tribe, Nig?" asked Captain Collins, pointing over to the palms.
   "Oh, no," replied the Greek from his deck--there was only about fifty yards between the vessels, so that in that rarefied air they did not require to raise their voices. "I left my young woman with her old father and mother, to keep her company when I was away. I'm going ashore as soon as we have some grub."
   "How did it happen?" inquired Hector.
   "Well, you see, they were always sulky with me ever since I shot her brother, and never got enough copra ready, so that I knew that they were only waiting a chance to do for me if they could. I had burnt down the village twice, and roasted two or three of the kids left sleeping, but it was no use; I could see every time I came that they meant to do it, but were afeared of my Winchester.
   "Well, one night my gal comes to me, and says she, 'Sleep on board to--night, Niggeree.' I axes her 'Why;' so she says, 'Nothing, only the mosquitoes are bad.' I knew that she was telling lies, for you never yet see a native cared a brass button about mosquitoes; you see, she knew the plot, and that her brothers were in it, and didn't want me to be hurt or them either, so I didn't press her just then, but took her straight away on board.
   "When we got out of the house, I could see two or three black figures popping about; however, I took no notice of them, but pulled straight on.
   "When I gets her into my cabin, I took her square by both shoulders, and says I, 'Now, my gal, what is it? Out with the whole yarn, or I'll blow your head to pieces;' and with that I clapped against her head the barrel of my Colt. Then she drops on her knees, and tells me all about it, asking me not to kill her own relations, which, of course, I promises, so as to hear the whole yarn. They had got her to join them, and steal my firearms, and all she could lay her hands on of the 'munition; but at the last she had repented. I was to be killed that night in her father's house, but now they would know that game was up.
   "'What did they take the guns for?' I asked, for I knew they couldn't use them.
   "'So that your men might not be able to help you. They mean to board her to-night, and murder them, after they are done with you, and take the ship.'
   "'Where are the guns?'
   "'I hid them on the west side of the island.'
   "'Do they know about where they are?'
   "'No; I did it all by myself.'
   "'Well, wench, I won't punish you this time, so let's get to bed.'
   "I thought there was no good frightening the boys, and there was lots of time before us, so I turned in to get an hour's sleep, she tumbling and tossing about, with now and then a sob, waking me up just when I was going off, or, maybe, it would be her hot arms getting about me, at which I'd give a cuss or two, and fling her off, with a pretty tough smack.
   "I must have gone over asleep at last, for I was just in the middle of a nice cheery dream, in which I had got the whole batch of them safely over to Maryborough, and the tin in my pocket, without any questions axed, when I felt her hand on my mouth, and her voice in my ear,--
   "'Wake, Niggeree! they are coming off!'
   "I gets up to listen, and there, sure enough, they were pushing off the canoes from the shore.
   "'Come with me,' I whispered to her, and she followed.
   "Then I goes on deck, and telling the boys to keep a sharp look-out, I quietly drops over the offside, the gal following after me, and strikes out for the point furthest from where the canoes were pushing out; the night being pitch dark, I know'd there was no chance of them seeing me, and we both took jolly good care that they didn't hear us.
   "Of course there were lots of sharks about, but we had no time to think about them at that time; all I wanted was my Winchester and some rounds.
   "Well, we reached the point all right, and, creeping softly through the woods, got to the plant, and I only takes what I think would suit my purpose, and back we goes to the shore.
   "I had a little dingey lying in a cove in case I might want it, which no one knew about except myself; so we gets into it, the wench sitting like a mouse, holding the guns and cartridges so as to keep them dry.
   "I pulled very gently to the side I had started from, and, making the dingey fast to the anchor-chain, I got up that way, she handing up the articles when I was safe up.
   "'Sit where you are,' I whispered soft-like, 'and don't move, whatever you hear.'
   "Then I creeps along the deck, till I sees them all very busy at the hatch, unloading my cargo, and handing it down to the other niggers in the canoes; four of my boys I could see, faint like, lying on the deck with their skulls battered in, while up aloft I saw some figures squatting on the yard, and watching the work a-going on. I thought they might be the other boys who had got off, as they sat astride the yard like as if they were used to it, so I made up my mind what to do.
   "They were all so busy hauling away at the cargo, and chattering in the dark, that they did not notice me till I planked myself down beside them, with my back against the mast, and my feet dangling down the hold, my cutlass laid over my knees, and my Winchester careless-like slung across my left arm; but when they did spot me, they jumps double-quick time back in a crowd, and stood gaping on me as if they had seen a ghost.
   "'Will we toot, master?' whispered one of my boys from aloft. Then I knew that the wench hadn't taken all the guns, and I felt comfortable.
   "'Not just yet; cover them, boys, and wait till I give you the word,' says I, keeping the trail of my eyes all round, to see that none of them got behind me.
   "'Well, of all the cussidest bits of cheek, this beats hollow. What were you a-doing down my hold?' says I, sternly looking them all round. I could see them plain enough now, for the sky behind me had begun to lighten, and I knew the old moon was a-going to rise.
   "For a while they stood staring, and saying nothing, then by-and-by they plucks up courage, and begins all a jawing together, and a moving nearer, with their clubs up and ready for action.
   "'Keep back if ye don't want a bullet in your throats,' says I, and then they sees I had my gun, and back they all goes a second time.
   "'Now,' says I, 'just you put every bag back again, and as quick as you can.' They started to haul up the things from the canoes and drop them down the hold as if they had never meant no harm.
   "They got three or four bags back and into their places again, when all of a sudden one of my gal's brothers says something, and they pitched down the loads, and makes a rush.
   "I was just a waiting for this, and without budging a step, or moving my Winchester, I says, 'Oh, you will have it then!' and--crack! crack!!--the brother and one behind him fell dead on the deck right in front of the others, who fell over the bodies, and rolled about in all directions, some going head over heels down the hold.
   "Then the fun began; I'm a pretty safe shot, as you know, but like to save cartridges when I can. Up I jumps, all of a sudden, with my cutlass cutting off a head wherever I saw one, and shouting, 'Come down, boys, and let them have it.'
   "It was a busy few minutes after that, for they kept swarming up the sides to help their friends, now lying bleeding like a lot of stuck pigs. My blood was up, and I let them have it; sometimes a shot, or a slash with the cutlass, or a man's brains splashing across my face, as I land him one with the butt end of my gun.
   "My boys came down the rigging and joined in cheerily, for these Malays like blood when they once begin, and when there's not much danger about having it, and I bet you they got a treat that night, and so did the sharks when we pitched the carcases overboard next morning; but that was after we got back.
   "As soon as the deck was cleared, we got into the boat and tore like devils through the water; I felt drunk, and almost blind, too, with the blood and brains in my eyes.
   "Up and down the village we ran, firing the houses, so as to give us more light to do our work, and the moon being now full up though thin--like and worn to half its size, they hadn't a chance to get away. Besides, until we were amongst them, they thought their friends must have won, and were holding a grand corroberrie.
   "Whenever I saw a nigger--man, woman or kid--I put it to death. Some of the kids we took up, not being worth a cut, and pitched them into the fires, where they roasted, screeching like wild cats.
   "A rare old time, I tell you, mates, that was, with the flames bursting out on all sides, and as hot as hell, while the moon turned thinner as the sky got lighter. It was coming on to daylight before I stopped, with a throat as dry as a cinder, and my pants sticking to my legs with the red glue. There wasn't a white spot on me, for I never stopped while one nigger lived on the island.
   "The boys, too, were fagged out, and as we knew no one could leave the island, we thought it best to knock off till daylight, when we could go round and finish off any who might be left, or had run into the woods.
   "All this time I had forgotton about the wench, and only minded about her when I got to the ship.
   "Down we all staggered, scarce able to move a leg or arm, and pulled slowly back to the Merry Mermaid, that was the schooner I owned, that one the Queensland Government confiscated afore I was naturalized.
   "As we came near to the bows, I saw the dingey wasn't there, so concluded she must have rowed after me, and got killed with the rest.
   "'Serve her right for her cussed obstinacy,' says I, as I poured myself out a stiff pannikin of rum, passing the bottle over to the lads to help themselves.
   "After that I lay down on the deck in a clean place--there warn't many clean spots on it--and tried to get a sleep while the boys were pitching the dead niggers overboard.
   "Yet, although I was most dead beat, I couldn't manage to close my eyes, but kept looking up at the stars, as they popped out, one by one, like burnt-out candles afore the light which was getting stronger every minute.
   "Perhaps it was the dead bodies as they plunged with a loud splash, one after the other, that set me a thinking on the gal. I'm mostly tender--hearted where women are concerned, and I thought she warn't a bad sort, taking natives all through, and must ha' liked me a bit, or I'd be food for the fishes by that time, so that I began to feel sorry that she hadn't stopped in the dingey that night.
   "Things came up that had been between us two, and I missed her badly just then, for I'd have liked another glass of grog, and some one to fill my pipe, being too lazy-like to do it myself, and she was always handy and willing at that sort of thing.
   "Then I minded the day I gave her such a welt across the back with the flat of my cutlass, that the mark never left her, or ever will, as long as she lives; when she fell down on the sands and lay for dead, nearly half a day, all for stealing a bit o' baccy out of my tin case, which, as it happened, I found afterwards in my own pocket, having put it there myself, after taking a quid, and some one interrupting at the time. She always had a bad cough after that welt, but she said nothing about it, and, of course, I didn't ever tell her of my mistake, for it don't do to let them think the white fellow can do any wrong; it would make them too conceited.
   "Of course I felt perfectly easy in my mind as regards the Government, for there was no one left to tell them about it, and my boys wouldn't blab, being as deep in the mud as I was myself; besides, I wasn't then a British subject.
   "'Curse her obstinacy,' at last says I to myself, getting up, and going to the locker where I kept the rum, and then cutting myself a fill of baccy. I drank out of the bottle, for I was too tired to fetch a pannikin, and I didn't want the boys to get any more.
   "After taking a good long swig. I feels some better, and lighting my pipe, goes over to see how they were getting along.
   "They had chucked all the bodies over, and I could see the bay swarming with black fins, tugging and tearing away at the carcases. None of them had been allowed to sink to the bottom, for I could see three or four fighting over one body, while they tore off long strips from the ribs and bones, and shaking themselves in their hurry to bolt it, and be back again before the others got too much of their meal, while more came up and snapped at it, bringing it with a jerk up half out of the water, so that I could see the bones washed with the salt water, and looking as white as the shark's bellies; every moment white ribs and leg-bones with crimson ribbons fluttering from them turned to the surface.
   "A large fellow now and then snatched a whole body from the teeth of the smaller fry and made off with it, shaking it about as a mastiff dog might do with a terrier when he was in a bad temper. I thought on my swim ashore during the night, and felt disgusted at the cruelty of dumb beasts; a kind of a cold disgust as made me shiver and half feel their sharp teeth at my own backbone.
   "My men had got all the cargo back into the hold again, and were mopping down the decks from the mess we had made, all the excitement gone out of them, and working away like lambs. They drew up buckets of water, all kinds of pinky colours, from the sea which the sharks were staining, and flung it over the decks, scrubbing along with their mops, and squeegeeing it out of the scuppers. It took a deal of slunging and mopping to get the dried clots rubbed out, or the crusted brains scraped off. They got down on their knees amongst it when they came to the dry bits, and scraped with their jack-knives, while the water ran down the ship's sides almost thick.
   "It was a misty morning, and the sun didn't show up till pretty late that day, but the sky was warm-coloured and blushing-like, and as the sea was a dead calm, with only the ground-swell--as always is of a morning--that reddish colour in the sky got casting down darker on the smooth water and bulging towards us, as if the whole ocean was crowded with sharktorn dead bodies all gushing with blood.
   "We were in shallow water--about five fathoms--where, on other mornings, you could see the fishes playing about, and the coral, as it is here, at most times; but as I looked over the sides I could see nothing but crimson colour right down, and no bottom.
   "I took off my pants, as I always do of a morning, to have a slunge along with the deck, which I needed as much as I ever did; but when the boys drew in the bucket and I saw how red the water was in it, I told them to stash it, and went aft for a fresh pair of pants, letting the blood stop about me as it was, although it was main claggy.
   "Well, after my smoke we had some breakfast. My Chinaman then had hid himself at the back of his stove, and never came out till they dropped across him when they were washing, and he was in such a state of fear that he put salt in the tea instead of sugar; and then, after a spell, we went ashore.
   "It warn't much of a sight, the village that morning, with the smoke still rising from the white ashes, and here and there a bit of a post smouldering away or a leg or breast half roasted where they had fallen, and still lay steaming, with the smell about the air something between a butcher's killing-yard and a hotel kitchen. Some of the palm-trunks were blackened on the side next to where the houses had been, and the bananas were all shrivelled up--that is, all those near enough--while at every step you either tripped over the headless body of a woman or a man, or else sent some round head rolling like a ball amongst the ashes or between a pair of dead legs.
   "My bare feet also would go squash into a pool of blood kept from sinking through the sand by the steeped grass petticoat of some young woman. It was nasty to feel those wet grasses getting between your big and little toes, and clutching at your ankles like snakes; but I turned over the young ones, where they had heads left on them, to see if my gal was amongst them. The young ones mostly fell on their faces when they were shot, and the old ones on their backs; kids fall about anyhow.
   "Well, we went the round, and I did not see her anywhere, neither her father or mother. I was mighty easy in my mind at this, for I knew then that she had got them safe away, and was hiding about the bush somewhere. So we started on the hunt straight away.
   "First I came upon the dingey in the cove where we had landed the night before together, and then I felt sure that I'd find her near the plant, for she was not very fly, but something like a wild beast that runs always to the same hole. So telling my boys to beat about the other parts, I started by myself to find her and her old 'uns.
   "It felt calm-like and holy, walking through the woods in the early morning, now I was content in my mind that she was still alive, and having got away from the red sea and that burnt-down village. The leaves, all wet, brushing my face, felt cool and nice, and I lay down once or twice to have a roll on the wet grass, leaving the place I rolled on when I rose all crushed down and red.
   "At last I came upon them sitting--the two old ones dazed-like, and doing nothing--on the wet grass. They were all whitish, like the grass, and covered with dew. Most like they had sat there quiet all night; I think so, for a bush-spider had finished his net-like web, and had gone in to watch, either amongst the old man's wool, where one end of the web was fastened to, or into the bush at the other side of the footpath, over to where it stretched. The web was all heavy and grey with the dew, like the old man's head, so he must have sat still for hours.
   "The old woman also looked straight along the road, and never budged, although she must have seen me coming, looking like an old idiot, with dead-lights for eyes. She has always gone about stupid since.
   "The wench lay all of a heap at her mother's feet, with her back to me, and the broad welt from the cutlass raised out and whitish against the dark skin. I couldn't make out where her legs, arms or head had got to.
   "'Hallo!' says I, funny like, giving her a bit of a kick behind, 'so you're not dead yet?'"
   "She gathered herself up very quiet and reluctantly, with eyes all on the stare, and when she saw it was me she kneeled down and kissed my hand, all wet with the dew and bloody from holding the cutlass; kissed it two or three times, so that when she lifted her mouth away it looked as if it had got a blow and was bleeding.
   "She's a very good gal, mates, so I made her queen of the desert island, and if she wants another tribe to keep her company when I'm away, why, then she'll have to begin and raise them."


Chapter 14 >