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Richard Le Gallienne - "Vanishing Roads and Other Essays"

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The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Crater




Bridget had great impatience to make this voyage, for she longed to see
the spot where her husband had passed so many days in solitude.
Everything he had mentioned, in their many conferences on this subject,
was already familiar to her in imagination; but, she wished to become
more intimately acquainted with each and all. For Kitty she really
entertained a decided fondness, and even the pigs, as Mark's companions,
had a certain romantic value in her eyes.

The morning was taken for the departure, and just as the little craft
got out from under the lee of the Peak, and began to feel the true
breeze, the sun rose gloriously out of the eastern waves, lighting the
whole of the blue waters with his brilliant rays. Never did Vulcan's
Peak appear more grand or more soft--for grandeur or sublimity, blended
with softness, make the principal charm of noble tropical scenery--than
it did that morning; and Bridget looked up at the dark, overhanging
cliffs, with a smile, as she said--

"We may love the Reef, dear Mark, for what it did for you in your
distress, but I foresee that this Eden will eventually become our home."

"There are many things to render this mountain preferable to the Reef;
though, now we are seriously thinking of a colony, it may be well to
keep both. Even Rancocus would be of great value to us, as a pasture for
goats, and a range for cattle. It may be long before the space will be
wanted by human beings, for actual cultivation; but each of our present
possessions is now, and long will continue to be, of great use to us as
assistants. We shall live principally on the Peak, I think myself; but
we must fish, get our salt, and obtain most of our vegetables from the
Reef."

"Oh! that Reef, that Reef--how long will it be, Mark, before we see it?"

The enamoured young husband laughed, and kissed his charming wife, and
told her to restrain her impatience. Several hours must elapse before
they could even come in sight of the rocks. These hours did pass, and
with the occurrence of no event worthy of being recorded. The Trades
usually blew fresh in that quarter of the ocean, but it was seldom that
they brought tempests. Occasionally squalls did occur, it is true; but a
prudent and experienced mariner could ordinarily guard against their
consequences, while the hurricane seldom failed, like most other great
physical phenomena, to have its precursors, that were easily seen and
understood. On the present occasion, the boat ran across the passage in
very good time, making the crater in about five hours, and the ship's
masts in six. Mark made a good land-fall coming in to leeward of the
cape, or low promontory already mentioned--Cape South he called
it--while there still remained several hours of day. Bridget was greatly
struck with the vast difference she could not help finding between the
appearance of these low, dark, and so often naked rocks, and that of the
Eden she had just left. Tears came into her eyes, as she pictured her
husband a solitary wanderer over these wastes, with no water, even, but
that which fell from the clouds, or which came from the casks of the
ship. When, however, she gave utterance to this feeling, one so natural
to her situation, Mark told her to have patience until they reached the
crater, when she would see that he had possessed a variety of blessings,
for which he had every reason to be grateful to God.

There was no difficulty in getting into the proper channel, when the
boat fairly flew along the rocks that lined the passages. So long as she
was in rough water, the sails of so small a craft were necessarily
becalmed a good deal of the time; but, now that there was nothing to
intercept the breeze, she caught it all, and made the most of it. To
Mark's surprise, as they passed the Prairie, he saw all of his swine on
it, now, including two half-unconsumed litters of well-grown pigs, some
seventeen in number. These animals had actually found their way along
the rocks, a distance of at least twenty miles from home, and by the
crooked path they had taken, probable one much greater. They all
appeared full, and contented. So much of the water had already
evaporated as to make it tolerable walking on the sea-weed; and Mark,
stopping to examine the progress of things, prognosticated that another
year, in that climate, would convert the whole of that wide plain into
dry land. In many places, the hogs had already found their way down,
through the sea-weed, into the mud; and there was one particular spot,
quite near the channel, where the water was all gone, and where the pigs
had rooted over so much of the surface, as to convert two or three
acres into a sort of half-tilled field, in which the sea-weed was nearly
turned under the mud. Nothing but drenching rains were wanting to render
such a place highly productive, and it was certain those rains would
come at the end of the season.

About the middle of the day, Mark ran the beat alongside of the Reef, at
the usual landing, and welcomed Bridget to his and her home, with a
kiss. Everything was in its place, and a glance sufficed to show that no
human foot had been there, during the weeks of his absence. Kitty was
browsing on the Summit, and no spaniel could have played more antics
than she did, at the sight of her master. At first, Mark had thought of
transferring this gentle and playful young goat to the Peak, and to
place her in the little flock collected there; but he had been induced
to change his mind, by recollecting how much she contributed to the
beauty of the Summit, by keeping down the grass. He had therefore
brought her a companion, which had no sooner been landed on the Reef,
than it bounded off to make acquaintance with the stranger on the
elevation.

Bridget was almost overcome when she got on board the ship. There was
even a certain sublimity in the solitude that reigned over everything,
that impressed her imagination, and she wondered that any human being
could so long have dwelt there alone, uncheered by the hope of
deliverance. In the cabin of that vessel she had plighted her faith to
Mark, and a flood of recollections burst upon her as she entered it.
Mark was obliged to allow her to seek relief in tears. But, half an hour
brought her round again, and then she set about putting things in order,
and making this very important abode submit to the influence of woman's
love of comfort and order. By the time Mark came back from his garden,
whither he had gone to ascertain its condition, Bridget had his supper
ready for him, prepared with a neatness and method to which he had long
been a stranger. That was a very delicious meal to both. The husband had
lighted a fire in the galley, where the wife had cooked the meal, which
consisted principally of some pan-fish, taken in the narrow channels
between the rocks, and which had been cleaned by Mark himself, as they
sailed along. It was, indeed, a great point of solicitude with this
young husband to prevent his charming wife from performing duties for
which she was unfitted by education, while the wife herself was only too
solicitous to make herself useful. In one sense, Bridget was a very
knowing person about a household. She knew how to prepare many savoury
compounds, and had the whole culinary art at her fingers' ends, in the
way of giving directions. It was no wonder, then, that Mark found
everything she touched, or prepared, good, as everything she said
sounded pleasant and reasonable. The last is a highly important
ingredient in matrimonial life, but the first has its merit. And Bridget
Woolston was both pleasant and reasonable. Though a little romantic, and
inclined to hazard all for feeling, and what she conceived to be duty,
at the bottom of all ran a vein of excellent sense, which had been
reasonably attended to. Her temper was sweetness itself, and that is one
of the greatest requisites in married happiness. To this great quality
must be added affection, for she was devoted to Mark, and nothing he
wished would she hesitate about striving to obtain, even at painful
sacrifices to herself. One as generous-minded and manly as her husband,
could not fail to discover and appreciate such a disposition, which
entered very largely into the composition of their future happiness.

Our young couple did not visit the crater and the Summit until the sun
had lost most of its power. Then Mark introduced his wife into his
garden, and to his lawn. Exclamations of delight escaped the last, at
nearly every step; for, in addition to the accidental peculiarities of
such a place, the vegetation had advanced, as vegetation only can
advance within the tropics, favoured by frequent rains and a rich soil.
The radishes were half as large as Bridget's wrists, and as tender as
her heart. The lettuce was already heading; the beans were fit to pull;
the onions large enough to boil, and the peas even too old. On the
Summit Mark cut a couple of melons, which were of a flavour surpassing
any he had ever before tasted. With that spot Bridget was especially
delighted. It was, just then, as green as grass could be, and Kitty had
found its plants so very sweet, that she had scarce descended once to
trespass on the garden. Here and there the imprint of her little hoof
was to be traced on a bed, it is true, but she appeared to have gone
there more to look after the condition of the garden than to gratify her
appetite.

While on the Summit, Mark pointed out to his wife the fowls, now
increased to something like fifty. Two or three broods of chickens had
come within the last month, making their living on the reef that was
separated from that of the crater by means of the bridge of planks. As
two or three flew across the narrow pass, however, he was aware that the
state of his garden must be owing to the fact that they still found a
plenty on those rocks for their support. In returning to the ship, he
visited a half-barrel prepared for that purpose, and, as he expected,
found a nest containing a dozen eggs. These he took the liberty of
appropriating to his own use, telling Bridget that they could eat some
of them for their breakfast.

But food never had been an interest to give our solitary man much
uneasiness. From the hour when he found muck, and sea-weed, and guano,
he felt assured of the means of subsistence; being in truth, though he
may not have known it himself, more in danger of falling behind hand, in
consequence of the indisposition to activity that almost ever
accompanies the abundance of a warm climate, than from the absolute want
of the means of advancing. That night Mark and Bridget knelt, side by
side, and returned thanks to God for all his mercies. How sweet the
former found it to see the light form of his beautiful companion moving
about the spacious cabin, giving it an air of home and happiness, no one
can fully appreciate who has not been cut off from these accustomed
joys, and then been suddenly restored to them.




Chapter XV.



"I beg, good Heaven, with just desires,
What need, not luxury, requires;
Give me, with sparing hands, but moderate wealth,
A little honour, and enough of health;
Free from the busy city life,
Near shady groves and purling streams confined,
A faithful friend, a pleasing wife;
And give me all in one, give a contented mind."

Anonymous.


Mark and Bridget remained at the Reef a week, entirely alone. To them
the time seemed but a single day; and so completely were they engrossed
with each other, and their present happiness, that they almost dreaded
the hour of return. Everything was visited, however, even to the
abandoned anchor, and Mark made a trip to the eastward, carrying his
wife out into the open water, in that direction. But the ship and the
crater gave Bridget the greatest happiness. Of these she never tired,
though the first gave her the most pleasure. A ship was associated with
all her earliest impressions of Mark; on board that very ship she had
been married; and now it formed her home, temporarily, if not
permanently. Bridget had been living so long beneath a tent, and in
savage huts, that the accommodations of the Rancocus appeared like those
of a palace. They were not inelegant even, though it was not usual, in
that period of the republic, to fit up vessels with a magnificence
little short of royal yachts, as is done at present. In the way of
convenience, however, our ship could boast of a great deal. Her cabins
were on deck, or under a poop, and consequently enjoyed every advantage
of light and air. Beneath were store-rooms, still well supplied with
many articles of luxury, though time was beginning to make its usual
inroads on their qualities. The bread was not quite as sound as it was
once, nor did the teas retain all their strength and flavour. But the
sugar was just as sweet as the day it was shipped, and in the coffee
there was no apparent change. Of the butter, we do not choose to say
anything. Bridget, in the prettiest manner imaginable, declared that as
soon as she could set Dido at work the store-rooms should be closely
examined, and thoroughly cleaned. Then the galley made such a convenient
and airy kitchen! Mark had removed the house, the awning answering every
purpose, and his wife declared that it was a pleasure to cook a meal for
him, in so pleasant a place.

The first dish Bridget ever literally cooked for Mark, with her own
hands, or indeed for any one else, was a mess of 'grass,' as it was the
custom of even the most polished people of America then to call
asparagus. They had gone together to the asparagus bed on Loam Island,
and had found the plant absolutely luxuriating in its favourite soil.
The want of butter was the greatest defect in this mess, for, to say the
truth, Bridget refused the ship's butter on this occasion, but luckily,
enough oil remained to furnish a tolerable substitute. Mark declared he
had never tasted anything in his life half so good!

At the end of the week, the governor, as Heaton had styled Mark, and as
Bridget had begun playfully to term him, gave the opinion that it was
necessary for them to tear themselves away from their paradise. Never
before, most certainly, had the Reef appeared to the young husband a
spot as delightful as he now found it, and it did seem to him very
possible for one to pass a whole life on it without murmuring. His wife
again and again assured him she had never before been half as happy, and
that, much as she loved Anne and the baby, she could remain a month
longer, without being in the least wearied. But it was prudent to return
to the Peak, for Mark had never felt his former security against foreign
invasion, since he was acquainted with the proximity of peopled islands.

The passage was prosperous, and it gave the scene an air of civilization
and life, to fall in with the Neshamony off the cove. She was coming in
from Rancocus, on her last trip for the stores, having brought
everything away but two of the goats. These had been driven up into the
mountains, and there left. Bigelow had come away, and the whole party of
colonists were now assembled at Vulcan's Peak. But Betts had a
communication to make that gave the governor a good deal of concern. He
reported that after they had got the pinnace loaded, and were only
waiting for the proper time of day to quit Rancocus, they discovered a
fleet of canoes and catamarans, approaching the island from the
direction of the Group, as they familiarly termed the cluster of islands
that was known to be nearest to them, to the northward and westward. By
means of a glass, Betts had ascertained that a certain Waally was on
board the leading canoe, and he regarded this as an evil omen. Waally
was Ooroony's most formidable rival and most bitter foe; and the
circumstance that he was leading such a flotilla, of itself, Bob
thought, was an indication that he had prevailed over honest Betto, in
some recent encounter, and was now abroad, bent on further mischief.
Indeed, it seemed scarcely possible that men like the natives should
hear of the existence of such a mountain as that of Rancocus Island, in
their vicinity, and not wish to explore, if not to possess it.

Betts had pushed off, and made sail, as soon as assured of this fact. He
knew the pinnace could outsail anything the islanders possessed, more
especially on a wind, and he manoeuvred about the flotilla for an hour,
making his observations, before he left it. This was clearly a war
party, and Bob thought there were white men in it. At least, he saw two
individuals who appeared to him to be white sailors, attired in a
semi-savage way, and who were in the same canoe with the terrible
Waally. It was nothing out of the way for seamen to get adrift on the
islands scattered about in the Pacific, there being scarcely a group in
which more or less of them are not to be found. The presence of these
men, too, Bob regarded as another evil omen, and he felt the necessity
of throwing all the dust he could into their eyes. When the pinnace left
the flotilla, therefore, instead of passing out to windward of the
island, as was her true course, she steered in an almost contrary
direction, keeping off well to leeward of the land, in order not to get
becalmed under the heights, for Bob well knew the canoes, with paddles,
would soon overhaul him, should he lose the wind.

It was the practice of our colonists to quit Rancocus just before the
sun set, and to stand all night on a south-east course. This invariably
brought them in sight of the smoke of the volcano by morning, and
shortly after they made the Peak. All of the day that succeeded, was
commonly passed in beating up to the volcano, or as near to it as it was
thought prudent to go; and tacking to the northward and eastward, about
sunset of the second day, it was found on the following morning, that
the Neshamony was drawing near to the cliffs of Vulcan's Peak, if she
were not already beneath them. As a matter of course, then, Bob had not
far to go, before night shut in, and left him at liberty to steer in
whatever direction he pleased. Fortunately, that night had no moon,
though there was not much danger of so small a craft as the Neshamony
being seen at any great distance on the water, even by moonlight. Bob
consequently determined to beat up off the north end of the island, or
Low Cape, as it was named by the colonists, from the circumstance of its
having a mile or two of low land around it, before the mountains
commenced. Once off the cape again, and reasonably well in, he might
possibly make discoveries that would be of use.

It took two or three hours to regain the lost ground, by beating to
windward. By eleven o'clock, however, the Neshamony was not only off the
cape, but quite close in with the landing. The climate rendering fires
altogether unnecessary at that season, and indeed at nearly all seasons,
except for cooking, Bob could not trace the encampment of the savages,
by that means. Still, he obtained all the information he desired. This
was not done, however, without great risk, and by a most daring step on
his part. He lowered the sails of the boat and went alongside of the
rock, where the pinnace usually came to, the canoes, &c., having made
another, and a less eligible harbour. Bob then landed in person, and
stole along the shore in the direction of the sleeping savages. Unknown
to himself, he was watched, and was just crouching under some bushes, in
order to get a little nearer, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. There
was a moment when blood was in danger of being shed, but Betts's hand
was stayed by hearing, in good English, the words--

"Where are you bound, shipmate?"

This question was asked in a guarded, under-tone, a circumstance that
reassured Bob, quite as much as the language. He at once perceived that
the two men whom he had, rightly enough, taken for seamen, were in these
bushes, where it would seem they had long been on the watch, observing
the movements of the pinnace. They told Bob to have no apprehensions, as
all the savages were asleep, at some little distance, and accompanied
him back to the Neshamony. Here, to the surprise and joy of all parties,
Bigelow recognised both the sailors, who had not only been his former
shipmates, but were actually his townsmen in America, the whole three
having been born within a mile of each other. The history of these three
wanderers from home was very much alike. They had come to the Pacific in
a whaler, with a drunken captain, and had, in succession, left the ship.
Bigelow found his way to Panama, where he was caught by the dark eyes of
Theresa, as has been related. Peters had fallen in with Jones, in the
course of his wanderings, and they had been for the last two years among
the pearl islands, undecided what to do with themselves, when Waally
ordered both to accompany him in the present expedition. They had
gathered enough in hints given by different chiefs, to understand that a
party of Christians was to be massacred, or enslaved, and plundered of
course. They had heard of the 'canoe' that had been tabooed for twelve
moons, but were at a loss to comprehend one-half of the story, and were
left to the most anxious conjectures. They were not permitted to pass on
to the islands under the control of Ooroony, but were jealously detained
in Waally's part of the group, and consequently had not been in a
situation to learn all the particulars of the singular party of
colonists who had gone to the southward. Thus much did Peters relate, in
substance, when a call among the savages notified the whole of the
whites of the necessity of coming to some conclusion concerning the
future. Jones and Peters acknowledged it would not be safe to remain any
longer, though the last gave his opinion with an obvious reluctance. As
it afterwards appeared, Peters had married an Indian wife, to whom he
was much attached, and he did not like the idea of abandoning her. There
was but a moment for reflection, however, and almost without knowing it
himself, when he found the pinnace about to make sail in order to get
off the land, he followed Jones into her, and was half a mile from the
shore before he had time to reflect much on her he had left behind him.
His companion consoled him by telling him that an opportunity might
occur of sending a message to Petrina, as they had named the pretty
young savage, who would not fail to find her way to Rancocus, sooner or
later.

With these important accessions to his forces, Bob did not hesitate
about putting to sea, leaving Waally to make what discoveries he might.
Should the natives ascend to the higher parts of the mountain, they
could hardly fail to see both the smoke of the volcano and the Peak,
though it would luckily not be in their power to see the Reef, or any
part of that low group of rocks. It was very possible they might attempt
to cross the passage between the two mountains, though the circumstance
that Vulcan's Peak lay so directly to windward of Rancocus offered a
very serious obstacle to their succeeding. Had the two sailors remained
with them, _they_, indeed, might have taught the Indians to overcome the
winds and waves; but these very men were of opinion, from what they had
seen of the natives and of their enterprises, that it rather exceeded
their skill and perseverance, to work their canoes a hundred miles dead
to windward, and against the sea that was usually on in that quarter of
the Pacific.

The colonists, generally, gave the two recruits a very welcome
reception. Bridget smiled when Mark suggested that Jones, who was a
well-looking lad enough, would make a very proper husband for Joan, and
that he doubted not his being called on, in his character of magistrate,
to unite them in the course of the next six months. The designs of the
savages, however, caused the party to think of anything but weddings,
just at that moment, and a council was held to devise a plan for their
future government. As Mark was considered the head of the colony, and
had every way the most experience, his opinion swayed those of his
companions, and all his recommendations were adopted. There were on
board the ship eight carronades, then quite a new gun, and mounted on
trucks. They were of the bore of twelve-pounders, but light and
manageable, There was also abundance of ammunition in the vessel's
magazine, no ship coming to the Fejees to trade without a proper regard
to the armament. Mark proposed going over to the Reef with the
Neshamony, the very next day, in order to transport two of the guns,
with a proper supply of powder and shot, to the Peak. Now there was one
place on the path, or Stairs, where it would be easy to defend the last
against an army, the rocks, which were absolutely perpendicular on each
side of it, coming so close together, as to render it practicable to
close the passage by a narrow gate. This gate Mark did not purpose to
erect now, for he thought it unnecessary. All he intended was to plant
the two guns at this pass; one on a piece of level rock directly over
it, and a little on one side, which would command the entrance of the
cove, and the cove itself, as well as the whole of the path beneath, and
the other on another natural platform, a short distance above, where it
could not only command the pass, but, by using the last as a sort of
embrasure, by firing through it, could not only sweep the ravine for
some distance down, but could also rake the entrance of the cove, and
quite half of the little basin itself.