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The Crater: Or, Vulcan's Peak: A Tale of the Pacific, a novel by James Fenimore Cooper |
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Chapter 20 |
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_ Chapter XX "There is no gloom on earth, for God above Moral Alchemy.
But Mark Woolston had no thought of abandoning the crater and the Peak. Nor did he desire to people them at random, creating a population by any means, incorporating moral diseases in his body politic by the measures taken to bring it into existence. On the contrary, it was his wish, rather, to procure just as much force as might be necessary to security, so divided in pursuits and qualities as to conduce to comfort and civilization, and then to trust to the natural increase for the growth that might be desirable in the end. Such a policy evidently required caution and prudence. The reader will perceive that governor Woolston was not influenced by the spirit of trade that is now so active, preferring happiness to wealth, and morals to power. Among Woolston's acquaintances, there was a young man of about his own age, of the name of Pennock, who struck him as a person admirably suited for his purposes. This Pennock had married very young, and was already the father of three children. He began to feel the pressure of society, for he was poor. He was an excellent farmer, accustomed to toil, while he was also well educated, having been intended for one of the professions. To Pennock Mark told his story, exhibited his proofs, and laid bare his whole policy, under a pledge of secresy, offering at the same time to receive his friend, his wife, children, and two unmarried sisters, into the colony. After taking time to reflect and to consult, Pennock accepted the offer as frankly as it had been made. From this time John Pennock relieved the governor, in a great measure, of the duly of selecting the remaining emigrants, taking that office on himself. This allowed Mark to attend to his purchases, and to getting the ship ready for sea. Two of his own brothers, however, expressed a wish to join the new community, and Charles and Abraham Woolston were received in the colony lists. Half-a-dozen more were admitted, by means of direct application to the governor himself, though the accessions were principally obtained through the negotiations and measures of Pennock. All was done with great secrecy, it being Mark's anxious desire, on many accounts, not to attract public attention to his colony. The reasons were numerous and sufficient for this wish to remain unknown. In the first place, the policy of retaining the monopoly of a trade that must be enormously profitable, was too obvious to need any arguments to support it. So long as the sandal-wood lasted, so long would it be in the power of the colonists to coin money; while it was certain that competitors would rush in, the moment the existence of this mine of wealth should be known. Then, the governor apprehended the cupidity and ambition of the old-established governments, when it should be known that territory was to be acquired. It was scarcely possible for man to possess any portion of this earth by a title better than that with which Mark Woolston was invested with his domains. But, what is right compared to might! Of his native country, so abused in our own times for its rapacity, and the desire to extend its dominions by any means, Mark felt no apprehension. Of all the powerful nations of the present day, America, though not absolutely spotless, has probably the least to reproach herself with, on the score of lawless and purely ambitious acquisitions. Even her conquests in open war have been few, and are not yet determined in character. In the end, it will be found that little will be taken that Mexico could keep; and had that nation observed towards this, ordinary justice and faith, in her intercourse and treaties, that which has so suddenly and vigorously been done, would never have even been attempted. It may suit the policy of those who live under the same system, to decry those who do not; but men are not so blind that they cannot see the sun at noon-day. One nation makes war because its consul receives the rap of a fan; and men of a different origin, religion and habits, are coerced into submission as the consequence. Another nation burns towns, and destroys their people in thousands, because their governors will not consent to admit a poisonous drug into their territories: an offence against the laws of trade that can only be expiated by the ruthless march of the conqueror. Yet the ruling men of both these communities affect a great sensibility when the long-slumbering young lion of the West rouses himself in his lair, after twenty years of forbearance, and stretches out a paw in resentment for outrages that no other nation, conscious of his strength, would have endured for as many months, because, forsooth, he _is_ the young lion of the West. Never mind: by the time New Zealand and Tahiti are brought under the yoke, the Californians may be admitted to an equal participation in the rights of American citizens. The governor was fully aware of the danger he ran of having claims, of some sort or other, set up to his islands, if he revealed their existence; and he took the greatest pains to conceal the fact. The arrival of the Rancocus was mentioned in the papers, as a matter of course; but it was in a way to induce the reader to suppose she had met with her accident in the midst of a naked reef, and principally through the loss of her men; and that, when a few of the last were regained, the voyage was successfully resumed and terminated. In that day, the great discovery had not been made that men were merely incidents of newspapers; but the world had the folly to believe that newspapers were incidents of society, and were subject to its rules and interests. Some respect was paid to private rights, and the reign of gossip had not commenced.[4] [Footnote 4: We hold in our possession a curious document, the publication of which might rebuke this spirit of gossip, and give a salutary warning to certain managers of the press, who no sooner hear a rumour than they think themselves justified in embalming it among the other truths of their daily sheets. The occurrences of life brought us in collision, legally, with an editor; and we obtained a verdict against him. Dissatisfied with defeat, as is apt to be the case, he applied for a new trial. Such an application was to be sustained by affidavits, and he made his own, as usual. Now, in this affidavit, our competitor swore distinctly and unequivocally, to certain alleged facts (we think to the number of six), every one of which was untrue. Fortunately for the party implicated, the matter sworn to was purely _ad captandum_ stuff, and, in a legal sense, not pertinent to the issue. This prevented it from being perjury in law. Still, it was all untrue, and nothing was easier than to show it. Now, we do not doubt that the person thus swearing _believed_ all that he swore to, or he would not have had the extreme folly to expose himself as he did; but he was so much in the habit of publishing gossip in his journal, that, when an occasion arrived, he did not hesitate about swearing to what he had read in other journals, without taking the trouble to inquire if it were true! One of these days we may lay all this, along with much other similar proof of the virtue there is in gossip, so plainly before the world, that he who runs may read.] In the last century, however, matters were not carried quite so far as they are at present. No part of this community, claiming any portion of respectability, was willing to publish its own sense of inferiority so openly, as to gossip about its fellow-citizens, for no more direct admissions of inferiority can be made than this wish to comment on the subject of any one's private concerns. Consequently Mark and his islands escaped. There was no necessity for his telling the insurers anything about the Peak, for instance, and on that part of the subject, therefore, he wisely held his tongue. Nothing, in short, was said of any colony at all. The manner in which the crew had been driven away to leeward, and recovered, was told minutely, and the whole process by which the ship was saved. The property used, Mark said had been appropriated to his wants, without going into details, and the main results being so very satisfactory, the insurers asked no further. As soon as off the capes, the governor set about a serious investigation of the state of his affairs. In the way of cargo, a great many articles had been laid in, which experience told him would be useful. He took with him such farming tools as Friend Abraham White had not thought of furnishing to the natives of Fejee, and a few seeds that had been overlooked by that speculating philanthropist. There were half a dozen more cows on board, as well as an improved breed of hogs. Mark carried out, also, a couple of mares, for, while many horses could never be much needed in his islands, a few would always be exceedingly useful. Oxen were much wanted, but one of his new colonists had yoked his cows, and it was thought they might be made useful, in a moderate degree, until their stouter substitutes could be reared. Carts and wagons were provided in sufficient numbers. A good stock of iron in bars was laid in, in addition to that which was wrought into nails, and other useful articles. Several thousand dollars in coin were also provided, being principally in small pieces, including copper. But all the emigrants took more or less specie with them. A good deal of useful lumber was stowed in the lower hold, though the mill by this time furnished a pretty good home supply. The magazine was crammed with ammunition, and the governor had purchased four light field-guns, two three-pounders and two twelve-pound howitzers, with their equipments. He had also brought six long, iron twelves, ship-guns, with their carriages &c.; The last he intended for his batteries, the carronades being too light for steady work, and throwing their shot too wild for a long range. The last could be mounted on board the different vessels. The Rancocus, also, had an entire new armament, having left all her old guns but two behind her. Two hundred muskets were laid in, with fifty brace of pistols. In a word, as many arms were provided as it was thought could, in any emergency, become necessary. But it was the human portion of his cargo that the governor, rightly enough, deemed to be of the greatest importance. Much care had been bestowed on the selection, which had given all concerned in it not a little trouble. Morals were the first interest attended to. No one was received but those who bore perfectly good characters. The next thing was to make a proper division among the various trades and pursuits of life. There were carpenters, masons, blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, &c.;, or, one of each, and sometimes more. Every 'man was married, the only exceptions being in the cases of younger brothers and sisters, of whom about a dozen were admitted along with their relatives. The whole of the ships' betwixt decks was fitted up for the reception of these emigrants, who were two hundred and seven in number, besides children. Of the last there were more than fifty, but they were principally of an age to allow of their being put into holes and corners. Mark Woolston was much too sensible a man to fall into any of the modern absurdities on the subject of equality, and a community of interests. One or two individuals, even in that day, had wished to accompany him, who were for forming an association in which all property should be shared in common, and in which nothing was to be done but that which was right. Mark had not the least objection in the world to the last proposition, and would have been glad enough to see it carried out to the letter, though he differed essentially with the applicants, as to the mode of achieving so desirable an end. He was of opinion that civilization could not exist without property, or property without a direct personal interest in both its accumulation and its preservation. They, on the other hand, were carried away by the crotchet that community-labour was better than individual labour, and that a hundred men would be happier and better off with their individualities compressed into one, than by leaving them in a hundred subdivisions, as they had been placed by nature. The theorists might have been right, had it been in their power to compress a hundred individuals into one, but it was riot. After all their efforts, they would still remain a hundred individuals, merely banded together under more restraints, and with less liberty than are common. Of all sophisms, that is the broadest which supposes personal liberty is extended by increasing the power of the community. Individuality is annihilated in a thousand things, by the community-power that already exists in this country, where persecution often follows from a man's thinking and acting differently from his neighbours, though the law professes to protect him. The reason why this power becomes so very formidable, and is often so oppressively tyrannical in its exhibition, is very obvious. In countries where the power is in the hands of the few, public sympathy often sustains the man who resists its injustice; but no public sympathy can sustain him who is oppressed by the public itself. This oppression does not often exhibit itself in the form of law, but rather in its denial. He, who has a clamour raised against him by numbers, appeals in vain to numbers for justice, though his claim may be clear as the sun at noon-day. The divided responsibility of bodies of men prevents anything like the control of conscience, and the most ruthless wrongs are committed, equally without reflection and without remorse. Mark Woolston had thought too much on the subject, to be the dupe of any of these visionary theories. Instead of fancying that men never knew anything previously to the last ten years of the eighteenth century, he was of the opinion of the wisest man who ever lived, that 'there was nothing new under the sun.' That 'circumstances might alter cases' he was willing enough to allow, nor did he intend to govern the crater by precisely the same laws as he would govern Pennsylvania, or Japan; but he well understood, nevertheless, that certain great moral truths existed as the law of the human family, and that they were not to be set aside by visionaries; and least of all, with impunity. Everything connected with the colony was strictly practical. The decision of certain points had unquestionably given the governor trouble, though he got along with them pretty well, on the whole. A couple of young lawyers had desired to go, but he had the prudence to reject them. Law, as a science, is a very useful study, beyond a question; but the governor, rightly enough, fancied that his people could do without so much science for a few years longer. Then another doctor volunteered his services. Mark remembered the quarrels between his father and his father-in-law, and thought it better to die under one theory than under two. As regards a clergyman, Mark had greater difficulty. The question of sect was not as seriously debated half a century ago as it is to-day; still it was debated. Bristol had a very ancient society, of the persuasion of the Anglican church, and Mark's family belonged to it. Bridget, however, was a Presbyterian, and no small portion of the new colonists were what is called Wet-Quakers; that is, Friends who are not very particular in their opinions or observances. Now, religion often caused more feuds than anything else: still it was impossible to have a priest for every persuasion, and one ought to suffice for the whole colony. The question was of what sect should that one clergyman be? So many prejudices were to be consulted, that the governor was about to abandon the project in despair, when accident determined the point. Among Heaton's relatives was a young man of the name of Hornblower, no bad appellation, by the way, for one who had to sound so many notes of warning, who had received priest's orders from the hands of the well-known Dr. White, so long the presiding Bishop of America, and whose constitution imperiously demanded a milder climate than that in which he then lived. As respects him, it became a question purely of humanity, the divine being too poor to travel on his own account, and he was received on board the Rancocus, with his wife, his sister, and two children, that he might have the benefit of living within the tropics. The matter was fully explained to the other emigrants, who could not raise objections if they would, but who really were not disposed to do so in a case of such obvious motives. A good portion of them, probably, came to the conclusion that Episcopalian ministrations were better than none, though, to own the truth, the liturgy gave a good deal of scandal to a certain portion of their number. _Reading_ prayers was so profane a thing, that these individuals could scarcely consent to be present at such a vain ceremony; nor was the discontent, on this preliminary point, fully disposed of until the governor once asked the principal objector how he got along with the Lord's Prayer, which was not only written and printed, but which usually was committed to memory! Notwithstanding this difficulty, the emigrants did get along with it without many qualms, and most of them dropped quietly into the habit of worshipping agreeably to a liturgy, just as if it were not the terrible profanity that some of them had imagined. In this way, many of our most intense prejudices get lost in new communications. It is not our intention to accompany the Rancocus, day by day, in her route. She touched at Rio, and sailed again at the end of eight and forty hours. The passage round the Horn was favourable, and having got well to the westward, away the ship went for her port. One of the cows got down, and died before it could be relieved, in a gale off the cape; but no other accident worth mentioning occurred. A child died with convulsions, in consequence of teething, a few days later; but this did not diminish the number on board, as three were born the same week. The ship had now been at sea one hundred and sixty days, counting the time passed at Rio, and a general impatience to arrive pervaded the vessel. If the truth must be said, some of the emigrants began to doubt the governor's ability to find his islands again, though none doubted of their existence. The Kannakas, however, declared that they began to smell home, and it is odd enough, that this declaration, coming as it did from ignorant men who made it merely on a fanciful suggestion, obtained more credit with most of the emigrants, than all the governor's instruments and observations. One day, a little before noon it was, Mark appeared on deck with his quadrant, and as he cleaned the glasses of the instrument, he announced his conviction that the ship would shortly make the group of the crater. A current had set him further north than he intended to go, but having hauled up to south-west, he waited only for noon to ascertain his latitude, to be certain of his position. As the governor maintained a proper distance from his people, and was not in the habit of making-unnecessary communications to them, his present frankness told for so much the more, and it produced a very general excitement in the ship. All eyes were on the look-out for land, greatly increasing the chances of its being shortly seen. The observation came at noon, as is customary, and the governor found he was about thirty miles to the northward of the group of islands he was seeking. By his calculation, he was still to the eastward of it, and he hauled up, hoping to fall in with the land well to windward. After standing on three hours in the right direction, the look-outs from the cross-trees declared no land was visible ahead. For one moment the dreadful apprehension of the group's having sunk under another convulsion of nature crossed Mark's mind, but he entertained that notion for a minute only. Then came the cry of "sail ho!" to cheer everybody, and to give them something else to think of. This was the first vessel the Rancocus had seen since she left Rio. It was to windward, and appeared to be standing down before the wind. In an hour's time the two vessels were near enough to each other to enable the glass to distinguish objects; and the quarter-deck, on board the Rancocus, were all engaged in looking at the stranger. "'Tis the Mermaid," said Mark to Betts, "and it's all right. Though what that craft can be doing here to windward of the islands is more than I can imagine!" "Perhaps, sir, they's a cruising arter us," answered Bob. "This is about the time they ought to be expectin' on us; and who knows but Madam Woolston and Friend Marthy may not have taken it into their heads to come out a bit to see arter their lawful husbands?" The governor smiled at this conceit, but continued his observations in silence. "She behaves very strangely, Betts," Mark, at length, said. "Just take a look at her. She yaws like a galliot in a gale, and takes the whole road like a drunken man. There can be no one at the helm." "And how lubberly, sir, her canvas is set! Just look at that main-taw-sail, sir; one of the sheets isn't home by a fathom, while the yard is braced in, till it's almost aback!" The governor walked the deck for five minutes in intense thought, though occasionally he stopped to look at the brig, now within a league of them. Then he suddenly called out to Bob, to "see all clear for action, and to get everything ready to go to quarters." This order set every one in motion. The women and children were hurried below, and the men, who had been constantly exercised, now, for five months, took their stations with the regularity of old seamen. The guns were cast loose--ten eighteen-pound carronades and two nines, the new armament--cartridges were got ready, shot placed at hand, and all the usual dispositions for combat were made. While this was doing, the two vessels were fast drawing nearer to each other, and were soon within gun-shot. But, no one on board the Rancocus knew what to make of the evolutions of the Mermaid. Most of her ordinary square-sails were set, though not one of them all was sheeted home, or well hoisted. An attempt had been made to lay the yards square, but one yard-arm was braced in too far, another not far enough, and nothing like order appeared to have prevailed at the sail-trimming. But, the of the brig was the most remarkable. Her general course would seem to be dead before the wind; but she yawed incessantly, and often so broadly, as to catch some of her light sails aback. Most vessels take a good deal of room in running down before the wind, and in a swell; but the Mermaid took a great deal more than was Common, and could scarce be said to look any way in particular. All this the governor observed, as the vessels approached nearer and nearer, as well as the movements of those of the crew who showed themselves in the rigging. "Clear away a bow-gun," cried Mark, to Betts--"something dreadful must have happened; that brig is in possession of the savages, who do not know how to handle her!" This announcement produced a stir on board the Rancocus, as may well be imagined. If the savages had the brig, they probably had the group also; and what had become of the colonists? The next quarter of an hour was one of the deepest expectation with all in the ship, and of intense agony with Mark. Betts was greatly disturbed also; nor would it have been safe for one of Waally's men to have been within reach of his arm, just then. Could it be possible that Ooroony had yielded to temptation and played them false? The governor could hardly believe it; and, as for Betts, he protested loudly it could not be so. "Is that bow-gun ready?" demanded the governor. "Ay, ay, sir; all ready." "Fire, but elevate well--we will only frighten them, at first. We betide them, if they resist." Betts did fire, and to the astonishment of everybody, the brig returned a broadside! But resistance ceased with this one act of energy, if it could be so termed. Although five guns were actually fired, and nearly simultaneously, no aim was even attempted. The shot all flew off at a tangent from the position of the ship; and no harm was done to any but the savages themselves, of whom three or four were injured by the recoils. From the moment the noise and smoke were produced, everything like order ceased on board the brig, which was filled with savages. The vessel broached to, and the sails caught aback. All this time, the Rancocus was steadily drawing nearer, with an intent to board; but, unwilling to expose his people, most of whom were unpractised in strife, in a hand-to-hand conflict with ferocious savages, the governor ordered a gun loaded with grape to be discharged into the brig. This decided the affair at once. Half a dozen were killed or wounded; some ran below; a few took refuge in the top; but most, without the slightest hesitation, jumped overboard. To the surprise of all who saw them, the men in the water began to swim directly to windward; a circumstance which indicated that either land or canoes were to be found in that quarter of the ocean. Seeing the state of things on board the brig, Mark luffed up under her counter, and laid her aboard. In a minute, he and twenty chosen men were on her decks; in another, the vessels were again clear of each other, and the Mermaid under command. No sooner did the governor discharge his duties as a seaman, than he passed below. In the cabin he found Mr. Saunders, (or Captain Saunders, as he was called by the colonists,) bound hand and foot. His steward was in the same situation, and Bigelow was found, also a prisoner, in the steerage. These were all the colonists on board, and all but two who had been on board, when the vessel was taken. Captain Saunders could tell the governor very little more than he saw with his own eyes. One fact of importance, however, he could and did communicate, which was this: Instead of being to windward of the crater, as Mark supposed, he was to leeward of it; the currents no doubt having set the ship to the westward faster than had been thought. Rancocus Island would have been made by sunset, had the ship stood on in the course she was steering when she made the Mermaid. But the most important fact was the safety of the females. They were all at the Peak, where they had lived for the last six months, or ever since the death of the good Ooroony had again placed Waally in the ascendant. Ooroony's son was overturned immediately on the decease of the father, who died a natural death, and Waally disregarded the taboo, which he persuaded his people could have no sanctity as applied to the whites. The plunder of these last, with the possession of the treasure of iron and copper that was to be found in their vessels, had indeed been the principal bribe with which the turbulent and ambitious chief regained his power. The war did not break out, however, as soon as Waally had effected the revolution in his own group. On the contrary, that wily politician had made so many protestations of friendship after that event, which he declared to be necessary to the peace of his island; had collected so much sandal-wood, and permitted it to be transferred to the crater, where a cargo was already stored; and had otherwise made so many amicable demonstrations, as completely to deceive the colonists. No one had anticipated an invasion; but, on the contrary, preparations were making at the Peak for the reception of Mark, whose return had now been expected daily for a fortnight. The Mermaid had brought over a light freight of wood from Betto's group, and had discharged at the crater. This done, she had sailed with the intention of going out to cruise for the Rancocus, to carry the news of the colony, all of which was favourable, with the exception of the death of Ooroony and the recent events; but was lying in the roads, outside of everything--the Western Roads, as they were called, or those nearest to the other group--waiting for the appointed hour of sailing, which was to be the very morning of the day in which she was fallen in with by the governor. Her crew consisted only of Captain Saunders, Bigelow, the cook and steward, and two of the people engaged at Canton--one of whom was a very good-for-nothing Chinaman. The two last had the look-out, got drunk, and permitted a fleet of hostile canoes to get alongside in the dark, being knocked on the head and tossed overboard, as the penalty of this neglect of duty. The others owed their lives to the circumstance of being taken in their sleep, when resistance was out of the question. In the morning, the brig's cable was cut, sail was set, after a fashion, and an attempt was made to carry the vessel over to Betto's group. It is very questionable whether she ever could have arrived; but that point was disposed of by the opportune appearance of the Rancocus. Saunders could communicate nothing of the subsequent course of the invaders. He had been kept below the whole time, and did not even know how many canoes composed the fleet. The gang in possession of the Mermaid was understood, however, to be but a very small part of Waally's force present, that chief leading in person. By certain half-comprehended declarations of his conquerors, Captain Sauriders understood that the rest had entered the channel, with a view to penetrate to the crater, where Socrates, Unus and Wattles were residing with their wives and families, and where no greater force was left when the Mermaid sailed. The property there, however, was out of all proportion in value to the force of those whose business it was to take care of it. In consequence of the Rancocus's removal, several buildings had been constructed on the Reef, and one house of very respectable dimensions had been put up on the Summit. It is true, these houses were not very highly finished; but they were of great value to persons in the situation of the colonists. Most of the hogs, moreover, were still rooting and tearing up the thousand-acre prairie; where, indeed, they roamed very much in a state of nature. Socrates occasionally carried to them a boat-load of 'truck' from the crater, in order to keep up amicable relations with them; but they were little better than so many wild animals, in one sense, though there had not yet been time materially to change their natures. In the whole, including young and old, there must have been near two hundred of these animals altogether, their increase being very rapid. Then, a large amount of the stores sent from Canton, including most of the iron, was in store at the crater; all of which would lay at the mercy of Waally's men; for the resistance to be expected from the three in possession, could not amount to much. The governor was prompt enough in his decision, as soon as he understood the facts of the case. The first thing was to bring the vessels close by the wind, and to pass as near as possible over the ground where the swimmers were to be found; for Mark could not bear the idea of abandoning a hundred of his fellow-creatures in the midst of the ocean, though they were enemies and savages. By making short stretches, and tacking two or three times, the colonists found themselves in the midst of the swimmers; not one in ten of whom would probably ever have reached the land, but for the humanity of their foe. Alongside of the Mermaid were three or four canoes; and these were cast adrift at the right moment, without any parleying. The Indians were quick enough at understanding the meaning of this, and swam to the canoes from all sides, though still anxious to get clear of the vessels. On board the last canoe the governor put all his prisoners, when he deemed himself happily quit of the whole gang. There were three known channels by which the Rancocus could be carried quite up to the crater. Mark chose that which came in from the northward, both because it was the nearest, and because he could lay his course in it, without tacking, for most of the way. Acquainted now with his position, Mark had no difficulty in finding the entrance of this channel. Furnishing the Mermaid with a dozen hands, she was sent to the western roads, to intercept Waally's fleet, should it be coming out with the booty. In about an hour after the Rancocus altered her course, she made the land; and, just as the sun was setting, she got so close in as to be able to anchor in the northern roads, where there was not only a lee, but good holding-ground. Here the ship passed the night, the governor not liking to venture into the narrow passages in the dark. _ |
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