The Land of the Hibiscus Blossom
James Hume Nisbet (1888)
Country of origin: Australia
Available texts by the same author here
XXXI. "Help."
"IT may be gold, mate, it looks greasy enough and dirty enough and heavy enough to be gold, I ain't agoing to dispute that matter wi' ye, but what is the good o' gold when we hain't got grub in this yer wilderness?"It was Collins who groaned out the foregoing, as he lay on his blanket in the hollow of a small cone-shaped hill rising out of a desolate and swampy plain. He was lying prostrate with spear-wounds and fever, and had been so for days, helpless and peevish, without the chance of getting relief by the artificial means of quinine or any other medicament, and he was speaking to Hector, who sat beside him, gaunt and hollow-eyed, but eagerly showing him something which he had just found.
"It is gold," cried Hector, nervously, "and I tell you what, mate, there's a fortune in this same little hill for both of us."
"A grave, more likely, if you don't have better luck to-day than you had yesterday."
"Forgive me, old chum, I forgot in my excitement that we were both hungry, though it's the first time this week past that you've complained of that trouble."
"Yes, I do feel as if I could do a picking just now if I had it, but I daresay it is only fancy, the sight of it generally turns me up when I am this way."
"I'll get you some fresh water--thank Heaven, we have that, at least--and make you a bit comfortable before I leave you, and then I'll go off once more on the hunt. Had I only a round of cartridges it would be easy enough; but perhaps the boys will be back to-day with help; we cannot be more than thirty miles from Ellengowan."
"Not so much, I would say, as the crow flies, if they can find a straight track. How many days have they gone?"
"This makes the fourth; and I reckon they can get over twenty miles a day."
Hector left his friend's side with the billy in his hand, and went from under the shelter of the boulder which overhung their quarters and scrambled up the loose calcined sides of the crater-like hollow.
"There goes enough to keep a fellow comfortable for many a day," he muttered to himself, as he sent down rolling at every step loose masses of cobble-like conglomerate and glittering quartz amongst the light dusty pummice and heavy lava flints. "Gold; yes, I shouldn't wonder if this turned out to be another Mount Morgan."
He stuffed his specimen pieces into his trousers pocket and went edgeways down the sloping outer sides of the hill to where the swamp glittered in patches and threads under the early rays; when at one of the widest of these he stopped and filled his can with pure clear water, which appeared to flow from some spring.
Ten dreary days had passed since we left them at the river after discovering the treachery of the natives and their loss; days of hardship and trouble, both from unfriendly natives and want of food; times when they had to go out of their course to avoid native villages and wandering tribes; sudden surprises, in which they had wasted the cartridges which might otherwise have procured food; journeys painful though short, owing to the bad ground--sometimes marshy and filled with treacherous bogs and slime pits which threatened to engulf them, and in the crossing of which there were many hours lost retracing steps and seeking outlets.
At other portions of their journey they penetrated bush-land, sharp thorns tearing their clothes to tatters and lacerating their flesh; venomous pricks, which would not heal, but festered and swelled until the poor fellows were only able to hobble along with great difficulty and infinite torture.
The ants tormented them by day, the mosquitoes day and night. Nature seemed merciless, denying them shelter when they mostly required it--in the open--confusing them when under shadow and making them lose their way with her intricacies, tantalizing them constantly with sight of food on the plains and in the trees, but beyond their reach now that their cartridge-pouches were empty.
No, not quite so merciless as man, for she kept them alive, and might have done more had they studied her more; there were berries which they found at times which when sucked allayed their hunger for a time, and that wonderful medicine-tree, the eucalyptus, the leaves of which, when chewed, stimulated them like draughts of wine, and which, when gathered and bound round their wounds or laid upon their throbbing heads, cooled and eased them.
They had all been wounded in their skirmishes with natives, Hector in both legs, and Collins the most seriously, so much so that for the past two days before they reached their present quarters the faithful Malays had been compelled to carry him by turns, wounded and overcome by fever.
Here they had left their leader, with his friend to look after him, while they set off towards the Fly River to see if they could get and bring back help. They knew that a mission-station had been established at Ellengowan Island, and hoped to find the Kanaka teachers--if they had not been murdered--and on this prospect the two friends waited as best they could.
Four trying days for Hector, with his friend part of the time raving and the rest despairing and irritable.
Each morning he left him as he did now, crawling painfully along the side of the swamp, seeking for food for himself, for Collins had been hitherto unable to retain even the water which his fever made him drink.
A rat caught in the moonlight lasted the second day, while a small iguana supplied him with food the third day; now with his stick as he hobbled along, if lucky, he might manage to knock down a snake or iguana; but they did not seem very plentiful about this dismal region. Still he went on, thinking upon his discovery of gold and buoyed up by the thought of future riches even in the midst of this craving for something to eat and the dull throbbing of his festering spear-wounds, which at times made him reel in a sick stupor, while objects whirled about him or grew dark.
He had been idly amusing himself that morning practising throwing at a distant boulder with the smaller stones at his feet, when a piece of quartz heavier than the rest attracted his notice and caused him to examine it, to find it thickly impregnated with spots of what he believed to be gold.
Neither Collins nor himself had much knowledge of geology, yet this seemed plain enough.
Then he began to poke with his stick amongst the loose dark earth and sand, and found to his delight that it was sparkling with minute yellow specks as he turned it over.
In a flash he remembered Mount Morgan of Rockhampton, the mountain which, against all precedent of digger and geological experiences, was found to be a quarry of the precious ore.
Collins did not fire up as Hector expected at the discovery. After six days of food-abstinence he had wakened up that morning with the conviction that he might be able to enjoy a meal, if he had it, and not having it while the languid craving was upon him made him indifferent to aught else, present necessity being of much greater importance in his eyes than only probable future luxury.
Once more up the hill-side and into the crater with his billy filled, where, after making his sick friend more comfortable by wetting his bandages, and after hanging up over the face of the boulders his own blanket, so as to form an awning from the afternoon sun in case he might be delayed, he once more went out on his weary quest after the one thing at present needful.
"Might almost as well be in London as here, seeking for grub," he muttered, as he shaded his eyes with his hands and took a long look in the direction from which he expected help to come.
A scorching day, with a monotonous and dreary waste before him, a vast spread of low tones and reaches of madder brown and dull greens drifting away to vapoury blue hazes with intersections and specks like quicksilver.
Here and there the unvarying flat line was broken up by bare stumps or ungainly branches of trees, dead or in stages of decay, with detached clumps of leafage upon the bleached limbs.
Also in parts rose grass-trees, like worn brooms with their handles stuck in the mud; all desolation and gloomy silence, which even that translucent sky and fiercely-glowing sun failed to lighten or make cheerful.
The glare seemed to concentrate on the hill-side upon which the lonely watcher stood until it glowed again in the middle of its dull surroundings, the dried-up grass glistening like thin steel blades amongst the prismatic pieces of lava, snowy flashing quartz, and ash-grey pummice cinders.
His blue eyes were violet-tinted with the appalling heat--violet flames in the centre of scarlet whites, while his soft boyish skin was like a raw beef-steak, blistered in parts and with the skin from previous burnings peeling off and hanging in white shards, like the casting bark of a gum trunk.
A tattered spectacle as to dress, with red flannel shirt split up and wanting the sleeves, buttonless at the blistered breast, and hardly to be thought of as a protection; the trousers held together by the rushes which he had twisted round each leg to keep the wounds covered, a gleam of dirty white showing above the withered bandages.
His legs had swollen to a tremendous size, so that they bulged out the upper part of the pants till they seemed like bursting, while the lower portions looked shapeless with the bandages. His feet were bootless, and looked like gaunt stumps or blown out bladders with the accumulation of water under the skin, while at parts deep cancerous sores seemed to be eating their way into the bones.
On his blonde head he wore a white pith helmet with green under--edges, battered almost out of all original shape.
"In London a man might hobble till he drops down dead; here, I suppose, it is the same. No, by Jove, I'd rather be here than there, for no one can look on my misery only the sun, which also joins in with the hundred thousand cold eyes who stare on him pitilessly over there; cold eyes and a cold sun. Here, at any rate, the sun is not cold, and it is the only eye, besides that of heaven, to watch what happens next."
No sign of the help he was expecting, so, with a deep groan, he tottered down the hill towards the swamp, pausing every now and then to rest upon his stick, while he panted heavily, or gave a sharp sob when an extra twitch came from his dull and constantly throbbing wounds.
By the side of the swamp he sat down in a kind of dreamy stupor, with the white glare darting from the glistening waters to his blinded eyes.
They had smoked the last of their tobacco, and he had not even that consolation in this hour of despair, yet he did not feel too wretched as he sat; he was past all thought, and now only looked, without any emotion, having only the uncertain sensation of hunger and pain blent so together that he could not separate them in his mind.
As he sat in this deep stupor of silence and stillness, across the white reflection before his eyes slid an interruption which woke him up into acute consciousness.
A marsh snake, of the tint of green slime, leisurely trailing its eight feet of cold life almost over his dropsical feet.
His stick was in his hand, so he just let it clear the track and get to the distance where he could strike fair, then swiftly raising it, and letting it drop, the slow movement of grace was transformed in an instant into a writhing confusion of active lines, almost impossible, for the first few moments, to follow with the eye as the water about it dashed and shimmered.
"Dinner for this day," said Hector, with a shrug of his shoulders, as he watched the motions diminishing in speed; "cheap, and not over nice when one has to eat it raw."
And lifting up the now twitching and jerking but limp body of the reptile by the tail, he slowly retraced his way to where he had left Collins.
A sorry meal as they had no fire, and all the efforts made by Hector to make a light, by rubbing sticks together after the native fashion, or striking flints against each other failed. Collins' tardy and feeble appetite failed at the sight of the feast offered, while a terrible nausea overcame him as he watched Hector, much less particular, gnawing at the flabby, eel-like body.
And yet snake, properly roasted, is very good and nourishing.
A long afternoon, with nothing to relieve the monotony excepting the regular wetting of his own and his friend's bandages, hobbling over the hill to replenish the water-can, or watch for the eagerly longed for succour.
But the sun went down as he had risen, changing the quicksilver gleams into molten gold, and nothing altered the general aspect of the landscape.
Silence, where even the cry of a vulture would have been welcome.
Night came, with the moon now growing in size, stealing softly up and over their heads, while from the swamps came the croaking of the frogs.
A chorus which started off at the deepest bass and passed up to the shrillest treble, unvarying in tune and constant until dawn.
The insect marauders also drove up in their myriads, singing about their cars and dashing against the exposed parts, where they swung and fed, leaving behind as payment for their fare only poison-stings.
Over head a wonderful plain of glowing worlds, golden, red, and purely white, through which that barge-like moon seemed to be steering from the east to a haven in the west.
And down the hill-sides and over the treacherous swamp myriads of flashes of intensely brilliant green and electric blue, the countless fire--flies with their lighted lamps.
Then over the land crept that pallid veil, which gathered about the two miserable wretches like a chilly shroud, making them creep close together, and shiver even in their torpid sleep.
Morning once more comes up, cool and virginal, like a merry maiden clad in white muslin, to find Hector lying beside his friend unable to move a limb.
"I am fairly done, old man," he mutters drowsily; "we'll just have to wait where we are until they find us."
"Or our carcases," replied Collins.
"It don't much matter," wearily responded Hector, painfully turning his back upon his friend, and gazing down upon the centre of the hollow.
Hour after hour they lay without a word, with the water-can empty beside them, and the sun's rays gradually coming round till they shot over the pair, making the pain of their wounds and sores more acute under the hard pressure of their dry bandages, while a newly-developed thirst was added to their former miseries.
They were both parching, without the power to go to where the water lay so close at hand.
Over the distant plain, not yet in sight of that coneshaped land-mark, the faithful Malay boys are guiding the two South Sea Island Teachers, with a dozen of their New Guinea disciples, to the rescue of their masters.
The natives carry a large bamboo litter well laden with provisions, boat-like wooden platters of cooked yams, with clusters of bananas and cocoa-nuts, and beside them the large, generous mammy apples.
A couple of large kangaroos lie swinging over the sides, caught that day, and to be cooked when they have reached the hill.
They all pace out with confident feet, for they know their way back, although it has cost them many a weary détour in the coming.
Over the dry grass plain they pass, and approach to the margin of the swampy land.
Yes, there is the hill, blue and dark against the mellow afternoon sky; they will easily reach it before sundown.
Over the swamp, zigzaging, and in a line of two abreast as the firmer parts gave them room to walk, sinking at times, by false steps, up to the thighs, and being dragged out by their companions who had reached safer ground, feeling every step in advance, although, profiting by their former experience, hurrying as fast as possible so as to reach dry land before darkness.
They had reached the hill with the last gleam of daylight, and without a pause scrambled up over the ridge with loud shouts which their leaders do not respond to, although they can hear their voices down beneath the shelter of the boulder.
Hector is singing in his sweet tenor voice, "The Harp that once through Tara's Halls," while Collins is talking in his shrill, piping voice, as if to a third party, and paying no heed to the song, although it is rendered with much expression.
They rush down towards them in a body, to see them lying upon their backs with flaming eyes.
"Plenty much fever here, teacher," observed Jack, kneeling down and feeling the burning foreheads of his masters.
"Light big fire to-night, and give them plenty sweat," replied the head--teacher, and at the order the natives rush about to gather up the dried-up briars and parasites lying about, and soon after the crater is lighted up as with a second eruption, while the Malays and teachers cover up the unconscious men with their shirts.
The kangaroos are skinned and portions cooked for the hungry company, while the skins are also heaped over the invalids, as the fires are kept up throughout the night by constant supplies of firewood.
Hector goes through his entire répertoire, and begins again as if he had been encored by an appreciative audience, gradually singing in a more drone-like way until at last he seemingly sings himself to sleep. Collins has talked himself speechless long before Hector is half-way through, but now both are breathing calmly, with the large beads of perspiration rolling like rain-drops down their cheeks, and making the soil moist around the bed.
"They will know us to-morrow." observes the teacher, as he turns away and flings himself by the side of the fires.
Soon all are sound asleep excepting the natives who move about the sides of the crater gathering firewood and feeding the flames and casting up the concave sides of the hollow long shadows which grow vaster as they recede until they appear like great-headed gnomes with crouching backs flitting about.
"Hallo!" said Hector, as he awoke next morning, "I feel as if I had lost a couple of hundredweight from my bones, and a ton lighter."
"Better, sah?" observed the teacher, smiling mildly as he bent over him.
"So you have come at last, thank God! thank God!"
"Yes, sah! it is well to thank the Lord for all His goodness; we came last night."
"Wait till I get up, I feel fresh as new paint, though decidedly weak." Hector had tried to rise, but sank back again wearily.
"Have some kangaroo steak first, and a cup of tea, breakfast is just ready."
"Breakfast," echoed Collins, opening his eyes at the sound; "say, stranger, have you such a thing about you as a fill of 'baccy."
The fever had been sweated out, and now the craving for tobacco came upon him first.
A pipe was charged and lighted for him by his faithful man, Jack, after which Collins lay puffing in quiet ecstasy his first pipe for eight days, exhibiting no curiosity about anything going on about him.
After a strong dose each of quinine mixed with spirits, and a fair breakfast, the party got up, laying the two men upon the litter, and prepared for the homeward journey.
Hector, as he got on to his feet, looked with amazement at his lower limbs, from which the bandages hung loosely.
"By Jove, lads, here is a reduction; last night I had a pair of thighs to be proud about, but now where are they?"
"Helping to water the next crop of grass, I expect, Boss," responded Jack, wringing out the wet blanket, which had been under Hector and Collins.
All day they travelled rapidly, changing hands at the litter, and feeding, when hungry, from the fruit which they had brought with them, and resting only for an hour at sundown until the moon rose, then on again, over a dry and grass-covered, undulating country, until, about day-break, they reached the banks of a shallow and slow-flowing stream.
"Halt and rest," said the teacher; "we are now only eight miles from the station; let us have breakfast."
The natives scattered with their spears and bows, while the Malays lighted the fires;--they soon appeared again with another kangaroo, a brace of bush turkeys, and some cowled pigeons, gesticulating as they drew near, and shouting out in their own language to the teachers.
"What is the matter?" asked Hector, sitting up.
"There has been fighting since we left, at Ellengowan; they have seen the remnant of a tribe, hostile to us, hurrying off south, as if in a panic. Pray heaven our families may be safe."
The teachers had anxious faces as they set about getting breakfast ready, and appeared eager to get it past and proceed with all haste.
Through a country becoming more thickly wooded as they drew nearer to their destination all pushed forward, all preparing against emergencies as the miles grew less, and sending scouts out in front, into the forest, where a native path had been made, and which leads to the river.
There it is at last, broadly flowing between its leafy banks, and the next turn will show them the mission-station.
Over the trees between them and it they noticed floating vapours like the blue smoke from burning wood, and an ominous silence sinks upon the group as they rush eagerly forward.
Ellengowan Island comes into the view as they dash round the point, and where the mission cabins had been the night before is a clear space filled with charred ashes, from which the thin wreaths of vapour are rising and floating amongst the trees.
"By the Lord, there is the Sunflower!" cried Hector and Collins, as the two masts and hull of the schooner project above the landing-place.
"Yes, yes," says the teacher impatiently, "Captain Niggeree with Professor Killmann passed up the river a week ago; they must have recovered his little steamer, for there she is alongside, but what of our wives and children?"
A loud shout uttered in various tones--men's, women's, and children's voices uniting--came from the decks of the two vessels now lying alongside each other, replying to the teacher's sharp words, and proving that the shore party had been observed by those on board, while they could see as they advanced two boats lowered and filling with people.
Another moment and they can recognize one another; the wives and children all safe, stretching out their arms to their fathers as the boats are shooting across the stream, with the piratical-looking Niggeree and pale--faced Professor steering their individual boats.
"Hallo! Collins and Hector, who would think of seeing you here. Where is your boat?"
"Wrecked on the coast, Nig," laconically replied Collins, shaking his former mate by the hand and nodding to the Professor whom he had met before; while the teachers and their wives went through extravagant pantomimes of reunion, and the natives and Malay boys flung themselves upon the grass to rest.
"What's been going on here, mate?" asked Hector, looking at the burning ruins before him.
"A little mill last night--natives attacking the squaws. We arrived in time to save the crew and send half of the enemy to eternal blazes; but come on board and have a drain."