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The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Crater




The following morning our mariners resumed their more worldly duties
with renewed powers. While the kettle was boiling for their tea, they
rolled ashore a couple of empty water-casks, and filled them with fresh
water, at one of the largest natural reservoirs on the reef; it having
rained hard in the night. After breakfast, Mark walked round to examine
his piles of loam, in the crater, while Bob pulled away in the dingui,
to catch a few fish, and to get a new cargo of the earth; it being the
intention of Mark to join him at the next trip, with the raft, which
required some little arranging, however, previously to its being used
for such a purpose. The rain of the past night had thoroughly, washed
the pile of earth, and, on tasting it. Mark was convinced that much of
the salt it contained had been carried off. This encouraged him to
persevere in his gardening projects. As yet, the spring had only just
commenced, and he was in hopes of being able to prepare one bed, at
least, in time to obtain useful vegetables from it.

The Rancocus had a great many planks and boards in her hold, a part of
the ample provision made by her owners for the peculiar voyage on which
she had been sent. Of real cargo, indeed, she had very little, the
commerce between the civilized man and the savage being ordinarily on
those great principles of Free Trade, of which so much is said of late
years, while so little is understood, and which usually give the lion's
share of the profit to them who need it least. With some of these
planks, Mark made a staging for his raft. By the time he was ready, Bob
returned with a load of loam, and, on the next outward voyage, the raft
was taken as well as the dingui. Mark had fitted pins and grummets, by
which the raft was rowed, he and Bob impelling it, when light, very
easily at the rate of two miles in the hour.

Mark found Betts's deposit of decayed vegetable matter even larger and
more accessible than he had hoped for. A hundred loads might be got
without even using a wheelbarrow; and to all appearances there was
enough of it to give a heavy dressing to many acres, possibly to the
whole area of the crater. The first thing the young man did was to
choose a suitable place, dig it well up, mixing a sufficiency of guano
with it, agreeably to Betts's directions, and then to put in some of his
asparagus roots. After this he scattered a quantity of the seed, raking
the ground well after sowing. By the time this was done, Bob had both
dingui and raft loaded, when they pulled the last back to the reef,
towing the boat. In this manner our two mariners continued to work most
of the time, for the next fortnight, making, daily, more or less trips
to the 'loam-rock,' as they called the place where this precious deposit
had been made; though they neglected none of their other necessary
duties. As the distance was short, they could come and go many times in
a day, transporting at each trip about as much of the loam as would make
an ordinary American cart-load of manure. In the whole, by Mark's
computation, they got across about fifty of these cargoes, in the course
of their twelve days' work. The entire day, however, was on no occasion
given up wholly to this pursuit. On the contrary, many little odd tasks
wore completed, which were set by their necessities, or by fore thought
and prudence. All the empty water-casks, for one thing, were rolled
ashore, and filled at the largest pool; the frequency of the rains
admonishing them of the wisdom of making a provision for the dry season.
The Rancocus had a good deal of water still left in her, some of it
being excellent Delaware river water, though she had filled up at
Valparaiso, after passing the Horn. Mark counted the full casks, and
allowing ten gallons a day for Bob and himself, a good deal more than
could be wanted, there remained in the ship fresh water enough to last
them two years. It is true, it was not such water as the palate often
craved of a warm day; but they were accustomed to it, and it was sweet.
By keeping it altogether between decks, the sun had no power on it, and
it was even more palatable than might have been supposed. Mark
occasionally longed for one good drink at some gushing spring that he
remembered at home, it is true; and Bob was a little in the habit of
extolling a particular well that, it would seem, his family were reputed
to have used for several generations. Notwithstanding these little
natural backslidings on this subject, our mariners might be thought well
off on the score of water, having it in great abundance, and with no
reasonable fear of ever losing it altogether. The casks taken ashore
were filled for their preservation, as well as for convenience, an old
sail being spread over them, after they were rolled together and
chocked. As yet, no water was given to any of the stock, all the animals
finding it in abundance, in the cavities of the lava.

Some of the time, moreover, Betts passed in fishing, supplying not only
Mark and himself, but the pigs and the poultry, with as much food as was
desired. Several of the fish caught turned out to be delicious, while
others were of a quality that caused them to be thrown into the compost
heap. A cargo of guano was also imported, the rich manure being mixed up
in liberal quantities with the loam. At the end of the first week of
these voyages to 'loam-rock,' Betts went out to fish in a new direction,
passing to windward of the 'sea-wall,' as they called the reef that
protected the ship, and pulling towards a bit of naked rock a short
distance beyond it, where he fancied he might find a particular sort of
little fish, that greatly resembled the Norfolk Hog-fish, one of the
most delicious little creatures for the pan that is to be found in all
the finny tribe. He had been gone a couple of hours, when Mark, who was
at work within the crater, picking up the encrusted ashes that formed
its surface, heard Bob's shout outside, as if he wished assistance.
Throwing down the pick, our young man ran out, and was not a little
surprised to see the sort of cargo with which Bob was returning to port.
It would seem that a great collection of sea-weed had formed to windward
of the rock where Bob had gone to fish, at which spot it ordinarily
gathered in a pile until the heap became too large to lodge any longer,
when, owing to the form of the rock, it invariably broke adrift, and
passed to the southward of the Reef, floating to leeward, to fetch up on
some other rock, or island, in that direction. Bob had managed to get
this raft round a particular point in the reef, when the wind and
current carried it, as near as might be, directly towards the crater. He
was calling to Mark to come to his assistance, to help get the raft into
a sort of bay, ahead of him, where it might be lodged; else would there
be the danger of its drifting past the Reef, after all his pains. Our
young man saw, at once, what was wanted, got a line, succeeded in
throwing it to Bob, and by hauling upon it brought the whole mass ashore
in the very spot Betts wished to see it landed.

This sea-weed proved to be a great acquisition on more accounts than
one. There was as much of it in quantity as would have made two
good-sized loads of hay. Then, many small shell-fish were found among
it, which the pigs and poultry ate with avidity. It also contained
seeds, that the fowls picked up as readily as if it had been corn. The
hogs moreover masticated a good deal of the weed, and poor Kitty, the
only one of the domestic animals on the Reef that was not now living to
its heart's content, nibbled at it, with a species of half-doubting
faith in its salubrity. Although it was getting to be late in the
afternoon, Mark and Bob got two of Friend Abraham White's pitchforks
(for the worthy Quaker had sent these, among other implements of
husbandry, as a peace-offering to the Fejee savages), and went to work
with a hearty good-will, landed all this weed, loaded it up, and wheeled
it into the crater, leaving just enough outside to satisfy the pigs and
the poultry. This task concluded the first week of the labour already
mentioned.

At the termination of the second week, Mark and Betts held a council on
the subject of their future proceedings. At this consultation it was
decided that it would be better to finish the picking up of a
considerable plot of ground, one of at least half an acre in extent,
that was already commenced, within the crater, scatter their compost
over it, and spade all up together, and plant, mixing in as much of the
sea-weed as they could conveniently spade under. Nothwithstanding their
success in finding the loam, and this last discovery of a means of
getting sea-weed in large supplies to the Reef, Mark was not very
sanguine of success in his gardening. The loam appeared to him to be
cold and sour, as well as salt, though a good deal freshened by the rain
since it was put in the crater; and he knew nothing of the effects of
guano, except through the somewhat confused accounts of Bob. Then the
plain of the crater offered nothing beside a coarse and shelly ashes.
These ashes were deep enough for any agricultural purpose, it is true,
for Mark could work a crowbar down into them its entire length; but they
appeared to him to be totally wanting in the fertilizing principle. Nor
could he account for the absence of everything like vegetation, on or
about the reef, if the elements of plants of any sort were to be found
in the substances of which it was composed. He had read, however, that
the territory around active volcanoes, and which was far enough removed
from the vent to escape from the destruction caused by lava, scoriae and
heat, was usually highly fertile, in consequence of the ashes and
impalpable dust that was scattered in the air; but seeing no proofs of
any such fertility here, he supposed that the adjacent sea had swallowed
up whatever there might have been of these bountiful gifts. With these
impressions, it is not surprising that Mark was disposed to satisfy
himself with a moderate beginning, in preference to throwing away time
and labour in endeavouring to produce resources which after all would
fail them.

Mark's plan, as laid before his companion, on the occasion of the
council mentioned, was briefly this:--He proposed to pass the next month
in preparing the half-acre they had commenced upon, and in getting in
seed; after which they could do no more than trust their husbandry to
Providence and the seasons. As soon as done with the tillage, it was his
idea that they ought to overhaul the ship thoroughly, ascertain what was
actually in her, and, if the materials of the boat mentioned by Betts
were really to be found, to set that craft up as soon as possible, and
to get it into the water. Should they not find the frame and planks of
the pinnace, as Betts seemed to think they would, they must go to work
and get out the best frame they could themselves, and construct such a
craft as their own skill could contrive. After building such a boat, it
was Mark's opinion that he and Bob could navigate her across that
tranquil ocean, until they reached the coast of South America, or some
of the islands that were known to be friendly to the white man; for,
fifty yearns ago, it will be remembered, we did not possess the same
knowledge of the Pacific that we possess to-day, and mariners did not
trust themselves always with confidence among the natives of its
islands. With this plan pretty well sketched out, then, our mariners saw
the first month of their captivity among the unknown reefs of this
remote quarter of the world, draw to its close.

Mark was a little surprised by a proposal that he received from Bob,
next morning, which was the Sabbath, of course. "Friends have monthly
meetings," Betts observed, "and he thought they ought to set up some
such day on the Reef. He was willing to keep Christmas, if Mark saw fit,
but rather wished to pay proper respect to all the festivals and
observances of Friends." Mark was secretly amused with this proposition,
even while it pleased him. The monthly meeting of the Quakers was for
the secular part of church business, as much as for the purposes of
religious worship; and Bob having all those concerns in his own hands,
it was not so easy to see how a stated day was to aid him any in
carrying out his church government. But Mark understood the feeling
which dictated this request, and was disposed to deal gently by it.
Betts was becoming daily more and more conscious of his dependence on a
Divine Providence, in the situation in which he was thrown; and his
mind, as well as his feelings, naturally enough reverted to early
impressions and habits, in their search for present relief. Bob had not
the clearest notions of either the theory or practice of his sect, but
he remembered much of the last, and believed he should be acting right
by conforming as closely as possible to the 'usages of Friends,' Mark
promised to take the matter into consideration, and to come to some
decision on it, at an early day.

The following Monday it rained nearly the whole morning, confining our
mariners to the ship. They took that occasion to overhaul the
''twixt-deck' more thoroughly than had yet been done, and particularly
to give the seed-boxes a close examination. Much of the lumber, and most
of the tools too, were stowed on this deck, and something like a survey
was also made of them. The frame and other materials of the pinnace were
looked for, in addition, but without any success. If in the ship at all,
they were certainly not betwixt decks. Mark was still of opinion no such
articles would ever be found; but Betts insisted on the conversation he
had overheard, and on his having rightly understood it. The provision of
tools was very ample, and, in some respects, a little exaggerated in the
way of Friend White's expectations of civilizing the people of Fejee. It
may be well, here, to say a word concerning the reason that the Rancocus
contained so many of these tributes to civilization. The voyage of the
ship, it will be remembered, was in quest of sandal-wood. This
sandal-wood was to be carried to Canton and sold, and a cargo of teas
taken in with the avails. Now, sandal-wood was supposed to be used for
the purposes of idolatry, being said to be burned before the gods of
that heathenish people, Idolatry being one of the chiefest of all sins,
Friend Abraham White had many compunctions and misgivings of conscience
touching the propriety of embarking in the trade at all. It was true,
that our knowledge of the Chinese customs did not extend far enough to
render it certain that the wood was used for the purpose of burning
before idols, some pretending it was made into ornamental furniture; but
Friend Abraham White had heard the first, and was disposed to provide a
set-off, in the event of the report's being true, by endeavouring to do
something towards the civilization of the heathen. Had he been a
Presbyterian merchant, of a religious turn, it is probable a quantity of
tracts would have been made to answer the purpose; but, belonging to a
sect whose practice was generally as perfect as its theory is imperfect,
Friend Abraham White's conscience was not to be satisfied with any such
shallow contrivance. It is true that he expected to make many thousands
of dollars by the voyage, and doubtless would so have done, had not the
accident befallen the ship, or had poor Captain Crutchely drank less in
honour of his wedding-day; but the investment in tools, seeds, pigs,
wheelbarrows, and other matters, honestly intended to better the
condition of the natives of Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, did not amount to
a single cent less than one thousand dollars, lawful money of the
republic.

In looking over the packages, Mark found white clover seed, and Timothy
seed, among other things, in sufficient quantity to cover most of the
mount of the crater. The weather temporarily clearing off, he called to
Bob, and they went ashore together, Mark carrying some of the grass seed
in a pail, while. Betts followed with a vessel to hold guano. Providing
a quantity of the last from a barrel that had been previously filled
with it, and covered to protect it from the rain, they clambered up the
side of the crater. This was the first time either had ascended since
the day they finished planting there, and Mark approached his hills with
a good deal of freshly-revived interest in their fate. From _them_ he
expected very little, having had no loam to mix with the ashes; but, by
dwelling so much of late on the subject of tillage, he was not without
faint hopes of meeting with some little reward for the pains he had
taken. The reader will judge of the rapture then, as well as of the
surprise, with which he first saw a hill of melons, already in the
fourth leaf. Here, then, was the great problem successfully solved.
Vegetation had actually commenced on that hitherto barren mount, and the
spot which had lain--how long, Mark knew not, but probably for a
thousand years, if not for thousands of years, in its nakedness--was
about to be covered with verdure, and blest with fruitfulness. The inert
principles which, brought to act together; had produced this sudden
change from barrenness to fertility, had probably been near neighbours
to each other all that time, but had failed of bringing forth their
fruits, for the want of absolute contact. So Mark reasoned, for he
nothing doubted that it was Betts's guano that had stimulated the
otherwise barren deposit of the volcano, and caused his seed to
germinate. The tillage may have aided, as well as the admission of air,
light and water; but something more than this, our young gardener
fancied, was wanting to success. That something the manure of birds,
meliorated and altered by time, had supplied, and lo! the glorious
results were before his eyes.

It would not be easy to portray to the reader all the delight which
these specks of incipient verdure conveyed to the mind of Mark Woolston.
It far exceeded the joy that would be apt to be awakened by a relief
from an apprehension of wanting food at a distant day, for it resembled
something of the character of a new creation. He went from hill to hill,
and everywhere did he discover plants, some just peeping through the
ashes, others already in leaf, and all seemingly growing and thriving.
Fortunately, Kitty had not been on the mount for the last fortnight, her
acquired habits, and the total nakedness of the hills, having kept her
below with the other animals, since her first visits. Mark saw the
necessity of keeping her off the elevation, which she would certainly
climb the instant anything like verdure caught her eyes from below. He
determined, therefore, to confine her to the ship, until he had taken
the precautions necessary to prevent her ascending the mount. This last
was easily enough done. On the exterior of the hills there were but
three places where even a goat could get up. This was owing to the
circumstance that the base of the ascent rose like a wall, for some ten
or twelve feet, everywhere but at the three points mentioned. It
appeared to Mark as if the sea had formerly washed around the crater,
giving this form to its bottom for so wall-like was the rock for these
ten or twelve feet, that it would have defied the efforts of a man for
a long time, to overcome the difficulties of the ascent. At two of the
places where the _debris_ had made a rough footing, half an hour's work
would remove the material, and leave these spots as impassable as the
others. At the third point, it might require a good deal of labor to
effect the object. At this last place, Mark told Betts it would be
necessary, for the moment, to make some sort of a fence. Within the
crater, it was equally difficult to ascend, except at one or two places;
but these ascents our mariners thought of improving, by making steps, as
the animals were effectually excluded from the plain within by means of
the sail which served for a curtain at the gateway, or hole of entrance.

As soon as Mark had recovered a little from his first surprise, he sent
Bob below to bring up some buckets filled with the earth brought from
Loam Rock, or island. This soil was laid carefully around each of the
plants, the two working alternately at the task, until a bucket-full had
been laid in each hill. Mark did not know it at the time, but subsequent
experience gave him reason to suspect, that this forethought saved most
of his favourites from premature deaths. Seed might germinate, and the
plants shoot luxuriantly from out of the ashes of the volcano, under the
united influence of the sun and rains, in that low latitude, but it was
questionable whether the nourishment to be derived from such a soil, if
soil it could yet be called, would prove to be sufficient to sustain the
plants when they got to be of an age and size to demand all the support
they wanted. So convinced did Mark become, as the season advanced, of
the prudence of what he then did out of a mere impulse, that he passed
hours, subsequently, in raising loam to the summit of the mount, in
order to place it in the different hills. For this purpose, Bob rigged a
little derrick, and fitted a whip, so that the buckets were whipped up,
sailor-fashion, after two or three experiments made in lugging them up
by hand had suggested to the honest fellow that there might be a cheaper
mode of obtaining their wishes.

When Mark was temporarily satisfied with gazing at his new-found
treasures, he went to work to scatter the grass stood over the summit
and sides of the crater. Inside, there was not much motive for sowing
anything, the rock being so nearly perpendicular; but on the outside of
the hill, or 'mountain,' as Bob invariably called it, the first ten or
twelve feet excepted, there could be no obstacle to the seeds taking;
though from the want of soil much of it, Mark knew, must be lost; but,
if it only took in spots, and gave him a few green patches for the eye
to rest on, he felt he should be amply rewarded for his trouble. Bob
scattered guano wherever he scattered grass-seed, and in this way they
walked entirely round the crater, Mark using up at least half of Friend
Abraham White's provision in behalf of the savages of Fejee, in the way
of the grasses. A gentle soft rain soon came to moisten this seed, and
to embed it with whatever there was of soil on the surface, giving it
every chance to take root that circumstances would allow.

This preliminary step taken towards covering the face of the mount with
verdure, our mariners went to work to lay out their garden, regularly,
within the crater. Mark manifested a good deal of ingenuity in this
matter. With occasional exceptions the surface of the plain, or the
bottom of the crater, was an even crust of no great thickness, compared
of concrete ashes, scoriae &c., but which might have borne the weight of
a loaded wagon. This crust once broken, which it was not very difficult
to do by means of pick and crows, the materials beneath were found loose
enough for the purposes of agriculture, almost without using the spade.
Now, space being abundant, Mark drew lines, in fanciful and winding
paths, leaving the crust for his walks, and only breaking into the loose
materials beneath, wherever he wished to form a bed. This variety served
to amuse him and Betts, and they worked with so much the greater zeal,
as their labours produced objects that were agreeable to the eye, and
which amused them now, while they promised to benefit them hereafter. As
each bed, whether oval, winding or straight, was dug, the loam and
sea-weed was mixed up in it, in great abundance, after which it was
sown, or planted.

Mark was fully aware that many of Friend Abraham White's seeds, if they
grew and brought their fruits to maturity, would necessarily change
their properties in that climate; some for the worse, and others for the
better. From the Irish potato, the cabbage, and most of the more
northern vegetables, he did not expect much, under any circumstances;
but, he thought he would try all, and having several regularly assorted
boxes of garden-seeds, just as they had been purchased out of the shops
of Philadelphia, his garden scarce wanted any plant that was then known
to the kitchens of America.

Our mariners were quite a fortnight preparing, manuring, and sowing
their _parterre_, which, when complete, occupied fully half an acre in
the very centre of the crater, Mark intending it for the nucleus of
future similar works, that might convert the whole hundred acres into a
garden. By the time the work was done, the rains were less frequent,
though it still came in showers, and those that were still more
favourable to vegetation. In that fortnight the plants on the mount had
made great advances, showing the exuberance and growth of a tropical
climate. It sometimes, nay, it often happens, that when the sun is the
most genial for vegetation, moisture is wanting to aid its power, and,
in some respects, to counteract its influence. These long and periodical
droughts, however, are not so much owing to heat as to other and local
causes, Mark now began to hope, as the spring advanced, that his little
territory was to be exempt, in a great measure, from the curse of
droughts, the trades, and some other causes that to him were unknown,
bringing clouds so often that not only shed their rain upon his garden,
but which served in a great measure to mitigate a heat that, without
shade of some sort or other, would be really intolerable.