The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom
James Hume Nisbet (1888)
Country of origin: Australia
Available texts by the same author here
XIV. The Voyage of the "Thunder."
THE next morning the Thunder left the island, after landing Joe, who had by this time recovered his accustomed flow of spirits. A baby after all to him was not so serious a loss as a firing of bêche-de-mer, and now that Queen Ine was off duty there was the more need for him to exert himself.He did not grudge the relations their time of lamentation, but they must do it in relays; so before very long he was swaggering about and blaspheming all round, according to his usual routine.
The baby had been buried during the night, thus that bother was got over without trouble to him, and he kept out of Queen Ine's road as much as convenient, and when he had to go indoors he moved as quietly as he could, and swore as seldom as possible. So the mother sat in the shadow or went into the lonely woods and there communed with her own heart, while the unseen angels of God moved about her in their own way, pouring balm upon this wounded heart.
Verily sorrow brings us very near to heaven, and dead fingers lie gently on the soul.
It was about two days' journey to their island, and about twelve hours' from the perfect Island of Darnley.
When Hafid felt the motion of the sea he seemed to rouse up, and moved about the deck with a look of almost cheerful expectancy in his eyes. The next land he would behold must be his own native land, where on the mud-banks he would once more see his wife waiting on his coming, the same as when he left her six years ago, the almond-eyed girl he had courted amongst the tamarinds, with the lips of the damask rose and the even teeth like rows of pearl. Over that dancing plain, with the sunbeams laughing to him, and the eastern breeze singing in his ears.
Mr. Bowman was a kind-hearted man, if a keen trader in his employer's interest, and felt as he looked at Hafid much exercised in his mind what to do with his charge. "However," he thought, "I may be able to leave him with the missionary at Murray Island, who will have a chance of sending him back, or failing that, I'll take him back to Thursday Island and send him in one of the British India packets going south." So he contented himself with that reflection, and went below to the cabin to look with the captain over their charts.
So the day went past, they steaming gently along that tropic ocean, with a sharp look-out for any patches on the way, and by afternoon the lovely-shaped island rose slowly on the horizon, growing from blue haze to purple, and at last taking on the delicious local colours and shapes. Nearer, and native houses came into focus with the palm-groves behind, then the natives were to be seen clustering along the beach and wading about the waters; the point where the mission-house stood boldly against the sky on the edge of the hill, with the upward green slope about it, has an air of infinite peace and rest.
Two boats put off at the same time to welcome them, one with the sails up, running before the wind, belonging to the trader who came to traffic, and the other being steered by the large-bodied, gentle-faced South Sea Island teacher, while four stalwart natives rowed him.
There being no other white resident here except the trader, who was not very particular about dress, Bowman and Danby received them in their airy costume of pajamas.
Hafid with glowing eyes saw the land loom up, then, as the outlines became more defined, the expectant light died out, and a hopeless disappointment dulled the amber, and crept like grey ashes over his delicate features; once again he had been deceived by the white man, for he had no sense of time or space. The dream was over, and for ever; he could wait no longer, so he crawled away to a corner between the boat and the bulwarks at the forecastle, and laid himself down with a gentle sigh.
He shared with Orientals and Africans that curious faculty of being able to die at will. When hope ceases to glow in their breasts, or a superstitious omen tells them that they are to die, it may be the word of the magician or the bone pointed at them, as amongst the Queenslanders--or the lizard running over them, as with the Maori--or the utter weariness of life taking possession, as with the Seedy boys, they can lie down and give up life as easily and methodically as they fall asleep.
Hafid had given up hope, trust in man was dead; the weariness of death was upon him, so he turned his face to the bulwark, and waited quietly on the coming of his fate.
Perhaps it was better to give up before going home, better to have seen his sweetheart as he left her, and as he will always see her throughout eternity; for those who die young, like the absent, grow no older; the dark tresses never grow thin nor the baby lisp deep and full, and as we live in memory here we must so be shaped hereafter.
After business was arranged with the trader, Bowman, Danby, and the captain went ashore with the missionary. Hans, the engineer, not being invited, occupied himself, along with the Hibernian mate and the little Cockney assistant, in abusing the whole crowd. Hans had a fine contempt for any one who slighted him, or, rather, whom he fancied did so.
They went in due form, and were introduced to the native king of the island. All the islands have separate kings; there is an immense quantity of royal blood in the Australian colonies, as well as a vast stock of aristocracy; we meet them knocking about everywhere.
Next they visited the missionary house, a roomy bamboo structure of two apartments, with the large yard behind, where the women cooked and did their work, and having gardens around. Inside, the floor was covered with grass matting, and was beautifully cool and clean. There were no chairs, as the habit is to sit on the floor. The Europeans, not being used to this, sat on the edge of the large bed, near where a young woman lay, nearly wasted to a skeleton with the fever. Her husband sat by her side and held her hand, which he stroked gently, while he read in a low voice from his native testament. She had been lovely at one time, and was still very young, not more than seventeen, but her cheeks had fallen in and her lips were thin and drawn from the white teeth, while her dark eyes looked too large for the thin face, and her long black wavy hair hung down limply and was streaked with grey.
On the ground two young girls sat holding a young infant, also wasted and lifeless-looking--the baby of the fever-stricken and dying girl on the bed.
A tall, comely woman moved lightly about breaking the young cocoa--nuts, and filling the jugs with the milk, all they had to offer the strangers; she was dressed in the usual falling robe of spotted blue, which, as she moved about, showed her full proportions and rounded limbs.
Bowman took out his flask to qualify the fluid she gracefully offered them, and motioned to their guide if he would share, at which he gently shook his head and smiled.
They had no medicine to give the sick girl, so they did what they could to relieve her, read the words of consolation and prayed, placing her future and their own in higher hands with child-like trust.
One look round at this household was enough to convince one of their sincerity and zeal for the cause in which they laboured and without a murmur laid down their lives; abstemious, industrious, and meek, they sacrificed themselves and all that they loved best, living cheerfully in the land of their adoption, knowing that they would never again return to their native homes.
No need to ask how they managed on the twenty pounds a-year; they were now existing on the yams and taro, which they had cultivated, without a taste of bread or animal food until their next allowance came.
Sometimes when very hard up, they appealed to their own countrymen in the Straits, those who were pearl-divers, and who made and spent small fortunes by their dangerous calling, and they never appealed in vain, these reckless sons of the South Seas, who made money hand-over--fist, sending as much as forty pounds at a time to assist their hard-up brothers labouring and starving in the Lord's vineyard; but they never appealed to the mission station for more money, and they never rebelled.
This poor teacher holds the hand of the woman he is losing, whom he loves so dearly; yet both know that when she is dead he will have short time for lamenting her loss, for according to his bond he must choose another wife within six months. He is saying good-bye, and hopes to meet her in heaven, along with the wife who has gone before her, and the women who are to follow, unless he dies first. It is, perhaps, as well that there is neither giving away nor marrying in Heaven.
After a walk through the gardens and along the shore, they put off and pull to the steamer, the missionary coming with them to get some quinine for the sick girl, and bringing with him in return some curios in the shape of spears and necklets.
The sun has just disappeared behind the ocean-line when they jump on board, and the air is filled with the brown lustre, which falls along the deck with a sickly glow, and hardly have they touched the deck before the captain bustles about bullying and cursing all round in mixed Scotch and colonial, to which the mate replies in choice Irish; the coloured men sulk about in detached groups.
There are no ladies present, but that would make little difference when Captain MacAndrews is flying round. A nautical order does not sound like a command, unless it is well interlarded with adjectives, at least it was so with the old school. Now we walk the decks of steam-packets instead of sailing-vessels, and see officers attired in drawing-room costume, addressing Lascars in chow-chow Hindoostanee, while silent, white-clad, turbaned figures glide ghost-like about: but on the Thunder, although the sailors were dark-skinned the blank cartridges were not fired from air-guns, neither would the officers have adorned a drawing--room, for they dressed as they spoke and lived.
Danby laughed gently as the echoes wafted back the strong accents, and said, "Keep your collar on, old man," to the skipper, as he lurched past, at which remark MacAndrews, considering that he had never yet been beheld by mortal man inside such an unnecessary article of furniture, seemed on the verge of blasphemy, and Danby merited the glare which that precise young gentleman received as reply.
"Massa Bowman," said the steward, as he came up to the cabin door, "Hafid going to die."
"What!" said Bowman, startled.
"Yes, he got the devil in him inside, all over sick."
"Where is he?"
"Over there by the boat, very ill."
Bowman and Danby went over to where the Hindoo lay on his back, where the men had found him, quiet and seemingly unconscious of all about him.
"Bring him aft, and let's see what the matter is," said Bowman, turning to the Malay, after touching Hafid with his foot, without, however, getting any response from the prostrate figure.
But none of the coloured men moved to assist, indeed they gave even Bowman a wide berth, as it was a conviction amongst them that he was also doomed from having come in contact with the devil in Hafid.
This will-power is utterly beyond the comprehension of us Westerns, nor can doctors give the complaint a name, sailors say they die out of "pure cussedness." A Maori will count up the days he has to live, inform his friends of the fact, and die up to time; they calmly lie down and die, without an effort. What a gift to be possessed of by the miserable, but we are coarser in fibre, the life holds firmer to its tenement in us barbarians, and so it requires the pistol, knife, or strong poison to accomplish what the Eastern can do without, seemingly, an effort.
Between Danby and Bowman, Hafid was dragged along the deck and laid in a comfortable place under the awning. He made no motion, but let them do as they liked with him, only turning his face from them after he was laid down, and waiting, without a smile, on the coming of the angel who carries the silver shears.
Was he dying of that trouble which we all scoff at now-a-days, or only sulking out of pure cussedness?