The Coral Island by Robert Michael Ballantyne (top rated books of all time .txt) 📕

latter, bidding us a cheerful good evening, entered his canoe and

paddled to the shore. When he was gone, Peterkin stepped up to

Jack, and, touching his cap, said, -

“Well, captain, have you any communications to make to your MEN?”

“Yes,” cried Jack; “ready about, mind the helm and clew up your

tongue, while I con the schooner through the passage in the reef.

The teacher, who seems a first-rate fellow, says it’s quite deep,

and good anchorage within the lagoon close to the shore.”

While the vessel was slowly advancing to her anchorage, under a

light breeze, Jack explained to us that Avatea was still on the

island, living amongst the heathens; that she had expressed a

strong desire to join the Christians, but Tararo would not let her,

and kept her constantly in close confinement.

“Moreover,” continued Jack, “I find that she belongs to one of the

Samoan Islands, where Christianity had been introduced long before

her capture by the heathens of a neighbouring island; and the very

day after she was taken, she was to have joined the church which

had been planted there by that excellent body, the London

Missionary Society. The teacher tells me, too, that the poor girl

has fallen in love with a Christian chief, who lives on an island

some fifty miles or so to the south of this one, and that she is

meditating a desperate attempt at escape. So, you see, we have

come in the nick of time. I fancy that this chief is the fellow

whom you heard of, Ralph, at the Island of Emo. Besides all this,

the heathen savages are at war among themselves, and there’s to be

a battle fought the day after to-morrow, in which the principal

leader is Tararo; so that we’ll not be able to commence our

negotiations with the rascally chief till the day after.”

The village off which we anchored was beautifully situated at the

head of a small bay, from the margin of which trees of every

description peculiar to the tropics rose in the richest luxuriance

to the summit of a hilly ridge, which was the line of demarcation

between the possessions of the Christians and those of the

neighbouring heathen chief.

The site of the settlement was an extensive plot of flat land,

stretching in a gentle slope from the sea to the mountain. The

cottages stood several hundred yards from the beach, and were

protected from the glare of the sea by the rich foliage of rows of

large Barringtonia and other trees, which girt the shore. The

village was about a mile in length, and perfectly straight, with a

wide road down the middle, on either side of which were rows of the

tufted-topped ti tree, whose delicate and beautiful blossoms,

hanging beneath their plume-crested tops, added richness to the

scene. The cottages of the natives were built beneath these trees,

and were kept in the most excellent order, each having a little

garden in front, tastefully laid out and planted, while the walks

were covered with black and white pebbles.

Every house had doors and Venetian windows, painted partly with

lamp black made from the candle-nut, and partly with red ochre,

which contrasted powerfully with the dazzling coral lime that

covered the walls. On a prominent position stood a handsome

church, which was quite a curiosity in its way. It was a hundred

feet long by fifty broad, and was seated throughout to accommodate

upwards of two thousand persons. It had six large folding doors

and twelve windows with Venetian blinds; and, although a large and

substantial edifice, it had been built, we were told by the

teacher, in the space of two months! There was not a single iron

nail in the fabric, and the natives had constructed it chiefly with

their stone and bone axes and other tools, having only one or two

axes or tools of European manufacture. Everything around this

beautiful spot wore an aspect of peace and plenty, and, as we

dropped our anchor within a stone’s cast of the substantial coral

wharf, I could not avoid contrasting it with the wretched village

of Emo, where I had witnessed so many frightful scenes. When the

teacher afterwards told me that the people of this tribe had become

converts only a year previous to our arrival, and that they had

been living before that in the practice of the most bloody system

of idolatry, I could not refrain from exclaiming, “What a

convincing proof that Christianity is of God!”

On landing from our little boat, we were received with a warm

welcome by the teacher and his wife; the latter being also a

native, clothed in a simple European gown and straw bonnet. The

shore was lined with hundreds of natives, whose persons were all

more or less clothed with native cloth. Some of the men had on a

kind of poncho formed of this cloth, their legs being uncovered.

Others wore clumsily-fashioned trousers, and no upper garment

except hats made of straw and cloth. Many of the dresses, both of

women and men, were grotesque enough, being very bad imitations of

the European garb; but all wore a dress of some sort or other.

They seemed very glad to see us, and crowded round us as the

teacher led the way to his dwelling, where we were entertained, in

the most sumptuous manner, on baked pig and all the varieties of

fruits and vegetables that the island produced. We were much

annoyed, however, by the rats: they seemed to run about the house

like domestic animals. As we sat at table, one of them peeped up

at us over the edge of the cloth, close to Peterkin’s elbow, who

floored it with a blow on the snout from his knife, exclaiming as

he did so -

“I say, Mister Teacher, why don’t you set traps for these brutes? -

surely you are not fond of them!”

“No,” replied the teacher, with a smile; “we would be glad to get

rid of them if we could; but if we were to trap all the rats on the

island, it would occupy our whole time.”

“Are they, then, so numerous?” inquired Jack.

“They swarm everywhere. The poor heathens on the north side eat

them, and think them very sweet. So did my people formerly; but

they do not eat so many now, because the missionary who was last

here expressed disgust at it. The poor people asked if it was

wrong to eat rats; and he told them that it was certainly not

wrong, but that the people of England would be much disgusted were

they asked to eat rats.”

We had not been an hour in the house of this kind-hearted man when

we were convinced of the truth of his statement as to their

numbers, for the rats ran about the floors in dozens, and, during

our meal, two men were stationed at the table to keep them off!

“What a pity you have no cats,” said Peterkin, as he aimed a blow

at another reckless intruder, and missed it.

“We would, indeed, be glad to have a few,” rejoined the teacher,

“but they are difficult to be got. The hogs, we find, are very

good rat-killers, but they do not seem to be able to keep the

numbers down. I have heard that they are better than cats.”

As the teacher said this, his good-natured black face was wrinkled

with a smile of merriment. Observing that I had noticed it, he

said:-

“I smiled just now when I remembered the fate of the first cat that

was taken to Raratonga. This is one of the stations of the London

Missionary Society. It, like our own, is infested with rats, and a

cat was brought at last to the island. It was a large black one.

On being turned loose, instead of being content to stay among men,

the cat took to the mountains, and lived in a wild state, sometimes

paying visits during the night to the houses of the natives; some

of whom, living at a distance from the settlement, had not heard of

the cat’s arrival, and were dreadfully frightened in consequence,

calling it a ‘monster of the deep,’ and flying in terror away from

it. One night the cat, feeling a desire for company, I suppose,

took its way to the house of a chief, who had recently been

converted to Christianity, and had begun to learn to read and pray.

The chief’s wife, who was sitting awake at his side while he slept,

beheld with horror two fires glistening in the doorway, and heard

with surprise a mysterious voice. Almost petrified with fear, she

awoke her husband, and began to upbraid him for forsaking his old

religion, and burning his god, who, she declared, was now come to

be avenged of them. ‘Get up and pray! get up and pray!’ she cried.

The chief arose, and, on opening his eyes, beheld the same glaring

lights, and heard the same ominous sound. Impelled by the extreme

urgency of the case, he commenced, with all possible vehemence, to

vociferate the alphabet, as a prayer to God to deliver them from

the vengeance of Satan! On hearing this, the cat, as much alarmed

as themselves, fled precipitately away, leaving the chief and his

wife congratulating themselves on the efficacy of their prayer.”

We were much diverted with this anecdote, which the teacher related

in English so good, that we certainly could not have supposed him a

native but for the colour of his face and the foreign accent in his

tone. Next day we walked out with this interesting man, and were

much entertained and instructed by his conversation, as we rambled

through the cool shady groves of bananas, citrons, limes, and other

trees, or sauntered among the cottages of the natives, and watched

them while they laboured diligently in the taro beds, or

manufactured the tapa or native cloth. To some of these Jack put

questions through the medium of the missionary; and the replies

were such as to surprise us at the extent of their knowledge.

Indeed, Peterkin very truly remarked that “they seemed to know a

considerable deal more than Jack himself!”

Among other pieces of interesting information that we obtained was

the following, in regard to coral formations:-

“The islands of the Pacific,” said our friend, “are of three

different kinds or classes. Those of the first class are volcanic,

mountainous, and wild; some shooting their jagged peaks into the

clouds at an elevation of ten and fifteen thousand feet. Those of

the second class are of crystalized limestone, and vary in height

from one hundred to five hundred feet. The hills on these are not

so wild or broken as those of the first class, but are richly

clothed with vegetation, and very beautiful. I have no doubt that

the Coral Island on which you were wrecked was one of this class.

They are supposed to have been upheaved from the bottom of the sea

by volcanic agency, but they are not themselves volcanic in their

nature, neither are they of coral formation. Those of the third

class are the low coralline islands usually having lagoons of water

in their midst; they are very numerous.

“As to the manner in which coral islands and reefs are formed;

there are various opinions on this point. I will give you what

seems to me the most probable theory, - a theory, I may add, which

is held by some of the good and scientific missionaries. It is

well known that there is much lime in salt water; it is also known

that coral is composed of lime. It is supposed that the polypes,

or coral