Blown to Bits: The Lonely Man of Rakata, the Malay Archipelago by R. M. Ballantyne (novels for teenagers .TXT) đ
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- Author: R. M. Ballantyne
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âAre the Keeling Islands far off?â
âLift up your head and look straight along the bridge of your nose, lad, and youâll see them. Theyâre an interesting group, are the Keelinâ Islands. Volcanic, they are, with a coral top-dressinâ, so to speak. Sit down here anâ Iâll tell âee about âem.â
Nigel shut up the telescope through which he had been examining the thin, blue line on the horizon that indicated the islands in question, and sat down on the cabin skylight beside his father.
âTheyâve got a romantic history too, though a short one, anâ are set like a gem on the bosom of the deep blue sea.â
âCome, father, youâre drifting out of your true courseâthatâs poetical!â
âI know it, lad, but Iâm only quotinâ your mother. Well, you must know that the Keelinâ Islandsâwe call them Keelinâ for shortâwere uninhabited between fifty and sixty years ago, when a Scotsman named Ross, thinking them well situated as a port of call for the repair and provisioning of vessels on their way to Australia and China, set his heart on them and quietly took possession in the name of England. Then he went home to fetch his wife and family of six children, intendinâ to settle on the islands for good. Returning in 1827 with the family and fourteen adventurers, twelve of whom were English, one a Portugee and one a Javanee, he found to his disgust that an Englishman named Hare had stepped in before him and taken possession. This Hare was a very bad fellow; a rich man who wanted to live like a Rajah, with lots oâ native wives and retainers, anâ be a sort of independent prince. Of course he was on bad terms at once with Ross, who, finding that things were going badly, felt that it would be unfair to hold his people to the agreement which was made when he thought the whole group was his own, so he offered to release them. They all, except two men and one woman, accepted the release and went off in a gun-boat that chanced to touch there at the time. For a good while Hare and his rival lived thereâthe one tryinâ to get the Dutch, the other to induce the English Government to claim possession. Neither Dutch nor English would do so at first, but the English did it at long lastâin 1878âand annexed the islands to the Government of Ceylon.
âLong before that date, howeverâbefore 1836âHare left and went to Singapore, where he died, leaving Ross in possessionâthe âKing of the Cocos Islandsâ as he came to be called. In a few yearsâchiefly through the energy of Rossâs eldest son, to whom he soon gave up the management of affairsâthe Group became a prosperous settlement. Its ships traded in cocoa-nuts, (the chief produce of the islands), throughout all the Straits Settlements, and boatbuildinâ became one of their most important industries. But there was one thing that prevented it from beinâ a very happy though prosperous place, anâ that was the coolies who had been hired in Java, for the only men that could be got there at first were criminals who had served their time in the chain-gangs of Batavia. As these men were fit for anythingâfrom pitch-and-toss to murderâand soon outnumbered the colonists, the place was kept in constant alarm and watchfulness. For, as I dare say you know, the Malays are sometimes liable to have the spirit of amok on them, which leads them to care for and fear nothinâ, and to go in for a fight-to-death, from which we get our sayinâârun amuck. Anâ when a strong fellow is goinâ about loose in this state oâ mind, itâs about as bad as havinâ a tiger prowlinâ in oneâs garden.
âWell, sometimes two or three oâ these coolies would mutiny and bide in the woods oâ one oâ the smaller uninhabited islands. Anâ the colonists would have no rest till they hunted them down. So, to keep matters right, they had to be uncommon strict. It was made law that no one should spend the night on any but what was called the Home Island without permission. Every man was bound to report himself at the guard-house at a fixed hour; every fire to be out at sunset, and every boat was numbered and had to be in its place before that time. So they went on till the year 1862, when a disaster befell them that made a considerable changeâat first for the worse, but for the better in the long-run. Provinâ the truth, my lad, of what I wasâwell, noâI was goinâ to draw a moral here, but I wonât!
âIt was a cyclone that did the business. Cyclones have got a free-anâ-easy way of makinâ a clean sweep of the work of years in a few hours. This cyclone completely wrecked the homes of the Keelinâ Islanders, and Rossâthatâs the second Ross, the son of the first oneâsent home for his son, who was then a student of engineering in Glasgow, to come out and help him to put things to rights. Ross the third obeyed the call, like a good son,âobserve that, Nigel.â
âAll right, father, fire away!â
âLike a good son,â repeated the captain, âanâ he turned out to be a first-rate man, which was lucky, for his poor father died soon after, leavinâ him to do the work alone. Anâ well able was the young engineer to do it. He got rid oâ the chain-gang men altogether, and hired none but men oâ the best character in their place. He cleared off the forests and planted the ground with cocoa-nut palms. Got out steam mills, circular saws, lathes, etcetera, and established a system of general education with a younger brother as head-masterâanâ tail-master too, for I believe there was only one. He also taught the men to work in brass, iron, and wood, and his wifeâa Cocos girl that he married after cominâ outâtaught all the women and girls to sew, cook, and manage the house. In short, everything went on in full swing of prosperity, till the year 1876, when the island-born inhabitants were about 500, as contented and happy as could be.
âIn January of that year another cyclone paid them a visit. The barometer gave them warning, and, remembering the visit of fourteen years before, they made ready to receive the new visitor. All the boats were hauled up to places of safety, and every other preparation was made. Down it came, on the afternoon oâ the 28thâworse than they had expected. Many of the storehouses and mills had been lately renewed or built. They were all gutted and demolished. Everything movable was swept away like bits of paper. Lanes, hundreds of yards in length, were cleared among the palm-trees by the whirling wind, which seemed to perform a demon-dance of revelry among them. In some cases it snapped trees off close to the ground. In others it seemed to swoop down from above, lick up a patch of trees bodily and carry them clean away, leaving the surrounding trees untouched. Sometimes it would select a tree of thirty years growth, seize it, spin it round, and leave it a permanent spiral screw. I was in these regions about the time, and had the account from a native who had gone through it all and couldnât speak of it except with glaring eyeballs and gasping breath.
âAbout midnight of the 28th the gale was at its worst. Darkness that could be felt between the flashes of lightning. Thunder that was nearly drowned by the roaring of the wind anâ the crashing of everything all round. To save their lives the people had to fling themselves into ditches and hollows of the ground. Mr Ross and some of his people were lying in the shelter of a wall near his house. There had been a schooner lying not far off. When Mr Ross raised his head cautiously above the wall to have a look to windâard he saw the schooner cominâ straight for him on the top of a big wave. âHold on!â he shouted, fell flat down, and laid hold oâ the nearest bush. Next moment the wave burst right over the wall, roared on up to the garden, 150 yards above high-water mark, and swept his house clean away! By good fortune the wall stood the shock, and the schooner stuck fast just before reachinâ it, but so near that the end of the jib-boom passed right over the place where the household lay holdinâ on for dear life and half drowned. It was a tremendous night,â concluded the captain, âanâ nearly everything on the islands was wrecked, but theyâve survived it, as youâll see. Though itâs seven years since that cyclone swepâ over them, theyâre all right and goinâ ahead again, full swing, as if nothinâ had happened.â
âAnd is Ross the Third still king?â asked Nigel with much interest.
âAyâat least he was king a few years ago when I passed this way and had occasion to land to replace a topsâl yard that had been carried away.â
âThen you wonât arrive as a stranger?â
âI should think not,â returned the captain, getting up and gazing steadily at the atoll or group of islets enclosed within a coral ring which they were gradually approaching.
Night had descended, however, and the gale had decreased almost to a calm, ere they steered through the narrow channelâor what we may call a broken part of the ringâwhich led to the calm lagoon inside. Nigel Roy leaned over the bow, watching with profound attention the numerous phosphorescent fish and eel-like creatures which darted hither and thither like streaks of silver from beneath their advancing keel. He had enough of the naturalist in him to arouse in his mind keen interest in the habits and action of the animal life around him, and these denizens of the coral-groves were as new to him as their appearance was unexpected.
âYouâll find âem very kind and hospitable, lad,â said the captain to his son.
âWhat, the fish?â
âNo, the inhabitants. Portâportâsteady!â
âSteady it is!â responded the man at the wheel.
âLet go!â shouted the captain.
A heavy plunge, followed by the rattling of chains and swinging round of the brig, told that they had come to an anchor in the lagoon of the Cocos-Keeling Islands.
By the first blush of dawn Nigel Roy hastened on deck, eager to see the place in regard to which his fatherâs narrative had awakened in him considerable interest.
It not only surpassed but differed from all his preconceived ideas. The brig floated on the bosom of a perfectly calm lake of several miles in width, the bottom of which, with its bright sand and brilliant coral-beds, could be distinctly seen through the pellucid water. This lake was encompassed by a reef of coral which swelled here and there into tree-clad islets, and against which the breakers of the Indian Ocean were dashed into snowy foam in their vain but ceaseless efforts to invade the calm serenity of the lagoon. Smaller islands, rich with vegetation, were scattered here and there within the charmed circle, through which several channels of various depths and sizes connected the lagoon with the ocean.
âWe shall soon have the king himself off to welcome us,â said Captain Roy as he came on deck and gave a sailor-like glance all round the horizon and then up at the sky from the mere force of habit. âVisitors are not numerous here. A few scientific men have landed now and again; Darwin the great naturalist among others in 1836, and Forbes in 1878. No doubt theyâll be very glad to welcome Nigel Roy in this year of grace 1883.â
âBut Iâm not a naturalist, father, moreâs the pity.â
âNo matter, lad; youâre an ammytoor first mate, anâ prâaps a poet may count for somethinâ here. They lead poetical lives and are fond oâ poetry.â
âPerhaps that accounts for the fondness you say they
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