Part 8 (1/2)

Once under way and settled for living, the trip proved quite uneventful.

The long days were spent on deck reading or working, and Stevenson began to gather material for a book on the South Seas. The s.h.i.+p's life suited him admirably; every strange fish and new star interested him, and he grew stronger hourly in the warm air.

”Since the fifth day,” he wrote, ”we were left behind by a full-rigged English s.h.i.+p ... bound round the Horn, we have not spied a sail, nor a land bird, nor a shred of sea-weed. In impudent isolation, the toy schooner has plowed her path of snow across the empty deep, far from all track of commerce, far from any hand of help; now to the sound of slatting sails and stamping sheet blocks, staggering in the turmoil of that business falsely called a calm, now, in the a.s.sault of squalls burying her lee-rail in the sea.... Flying fish, a skimming silver rain on the blue sea; a turtle fast asleep in the early morning suns.h.i.+ne; the Southern Cross hung thwart the forerigging like the frame of a wrecked kite--the pole star and the familiar plough dropping ever lower in the wake; these build up thus far the history of our voyage. It is singular to come so far and see so infinitely little.”

The squalls that came very quickly, frequently broke the monotony of the trip. One moment the _Casco_ would be sailing along easily and the ”next moment, the inhabitants of the cabin were piled one upon another, the sea was pouring into the c.o.c.kpit and spouting in fountains through forgotten deadlights, and the steersman stood spinning the wheel for his life in a halo of tropical rain.”

After twenty-two days at sea they sighted their first island, Nukahiva, one of the Marquesan group, and were all on deck before dawn anxiously watching for it. They not only looked forward eagerly to the sight of land again after so many days on the open ocean, but it was indeed an adventure to come to a country totally strange to all of them, where few white people had been before.

”Not one soul aboard the Casco had set foot upon the Islands,” says Stevenson, ”or knew except by accident one word of any of the island tongues; and it was with something perhaps of the same anxious pleasure as thrilled the bosom of the discoverers that we drew near these problematic sh.o.r.es.

”Before yet the anchor plunged a canoe was already paddling from the hamlet. It contained two men: one white, one brown and tattooed across the face with bands of blue, both immaculate with white European clothes.... Canoe followed canoe till the s.h.i.+p swarmed with stalwart, six foot men in every stage of undress ... the more considerable tattooed from head to foot in awful patterns ... all talking and we could not understand one word; all trying to trade with us who had no thought of trading, or offering us island curios at prices palpably absurd.”

All this charmed and delighted Stevenson, who had dreamed many times of witnessing just such a scene. He wrote to c.u.mmie that he was living all over again many of the stories she had read to him and found them coming true about himself.

For six weeks they cruised about among these islands, frequently dropping anchor and going ash.o.r.e for several days. When the natives were convinced that they had neither come to trade or to make trouble, but were simply interested in them and their country, they made the visitors most welcome and showered presents of fruit, mats, baskets, and fans upon them.

All were eager to visit the schooner, which they called _Pahi Mani_, meaning the s.h.i.+ning or the silver s.h.i.+p. The chiefs tried to measure its dimensions with their arms. The liveliest curiosity was shown about everything; the red velvet cus.h.i.+ons, the looking-gla.s.ses, and the typewriter pleased particularly. A photograph of Queen Victoria hung in the fore-cabin and was always described to the island callers as _Vahine Haka-iki Beritano_, which meant literally, woman-great-chief Britain. It was a surprise to find how much many of them already knew about her.

Some afternoons the _Casco_ swarmed with these strange visitors who were always delighted at the refreshments of s.h.i.+p's biscuits and pineapple syrup and water offered them. A certain chief was particularly taken with a pair of gloves belonging to Mrs. Stevenson, senior. He smelled of them, called them British tattooing, and insisted on her putting them on and off a great many times.

The entire family fell quickly into the island mode of living; dressed as the white inhabitants did; ate all the strange kinds of native food; and when ash.o.r.e lived in the native houses, which resembled bird-cages on stilts. The climate suited them to perfection, and Stevenson particularly benefited by it, bathing daily in the warm surf and taking long walks along the beach in search of strange sh.e.l.ls.

”Here we are,” his mother wrote to c.u.mmie, ”in a little bay surrounded by green mountains, on which sheep are grazing, and there are birds very like our own 'blackies' singing in the trees. If it were not for the groves of cocoanut palms, we might almost fancy ourselves in our own dear land. But the climate here is simply perfect. Of course it is hot, but there are always fresh breezes.... We have our princ.i.p.al meal at twelve o'clock, and spend the after part of the day on sh.o.r.e ...

bathing, gathering sh.e.l.ls, knitting, or reading. Our j.a.panese cook and steward just sets out the table with cold meats, fruit, and cake so that we can take our other meal at any time in the evening that suits us.

”f.a.n.n.y and I are dressed like natives, in two garments. As we have to wade to and from the boat in landing and coming back, we discard stockings, and on the sands we usually go barefoot entirely. Louis wears only a s.h.i.+rt and trousers with the legs and arms rolled up as far as they will go, and he is always barefooted. You will therefore not be surprised to hear that we are all as red as lobsters. It is a strange irresponsible half savage life, and I sometimes wonder if we shall ever be able to return to civilized habits again.

[Ill.u.s.tration: South Sea houses]

”The natives are very simple and kindly people. The Roman Catholic priests have persuaded them to give up their constant wars and the practice of cannibalism, though only within recent years....

”Louis has learned a good many words of the language, and with the help of signs can contrive to carry on a conversation, but I have stuck fast with two words: '_ka-oha_' which means 'How do you do?' 'thank you,' and 'good bye,' and I am not quite sure how much else, and '_Mitai_,'

meaning good, nice, pretty, kind. I don't expect to get beyond these, but it is wonderful how much one can express with them....

”The natives have got names for us all. Louis was at first 'the old man,' much to his distress; but now they call him '_Ona_' meaning owner of the yacht, a name he greatly prefers to the first. f.a.n.n.y is _Vahine_, or wife; I am the _old woman_, and Lloyd rejoices in the name of _Mate Karahi_, the young man with gla.s.s eyes (spectacles). Perhaps it is a compliment here to be called old, as it is in China, at any rate, one native told Louis that he himself was old, but his mother was not!...

”A native dance was got up for our benefit. None of the dancing-women appeared, but five men dressed in s.h.i.+rt and trousers, danced together with spirit and grace. The music was provided by a drum, made out of an old tin box. Many of the steps reminded me of a Highland reel, but were curiously mixed up with calisthenic, and even gymnastic exercises; the hands in particular were used very gracefully, and they often took off their hats and waved them to and fro. But they also climbed on each other's shoulders, and did other strange things. After dancing for some time, they sang songs to us in a curious, low, weird kind of crooning.

Altogether it was a strange sort of afternoon party!”

The Marquesas Islands belong to the French, and the commandant in charge was most cordial to Stevenson, inviting him to his house frequently during his stay in the islands. When at the expiration of six weeks it was time for the _Casco_ to weigh anchor and the party sailed on to explore still farther, they left behind them many friends who regretted their departure. Here as elsewhere in the South Seas, Stevenson showed his sympathy and kindliness toward the island people regardless of who they were or their rank. White or half-caste priest, missionary, or trader, all were treated the same. No bribe, he said, would induce him to call the natives savages.

Mr. Johnstone, an English resident in the South Seas at the time of Stevenson's visit, says: ”His inborn courtesy more than any of his other good traits, endeared him to his fellows in the Pacific ... in the hearts of our Island people he built a monument more lasting than stone or bra.s.s.”

The recollection of the history of his own wild Scottish Islands, the people and conditions his grandfather found among them, helped him to understand these people and account for many of their actions. Though at opposite ends of the earth, many of their customs and legends corresponded. The dwellers in the Hebrides in the old days likewise lived in clans with their chief and struggled to retain their independence against an invading power.

Tahiti, one of the group of Society Islands, was their next stopping place. Before starting a new mate was s.h.i.+pped, who was more familiar with the course, which lay through the Dangerous Archipelago--a group of low, badly lighted islands.

The Society Islands are most beautiful, Tahiti probably the gem of them all, but on arriving Stevenson was in no condition to appreciate their loveliness. A cold contracted on the trip made him quite ill. The trip had proved very dangerous even with the aid of a pilot, and twice they gave themselves up for lost when they were becalmed and drifted in toward the sh.o.r.e. ”The reefs were close in,” wrote Stevenson, ”with my eye! What a surf! The pilot thought we were gone and the captain had a boat cleared, when a lucky squall came to our rescue.”

After landing his condition became so much worse his wife grew desperate and determined to find a comfortable spot for him. After much trouble a Chinaman with a team was secured, who agreed to drive the entire family to Tautira, the largest village, sixteen miles away over a road crossed by no less than twenty-one streams. On this uncertain venture they started, with the head of the family in a state of collapse, knowing nothing of the village they were going to or the living it would afford them.