Part 3 (2/2)
Klock-Klock, which we are obliged to describe as the chief ”town” of the island, consisted of wretched huts entirely for the co, a sort of sheep with a black fleece, twenty kinds of fowls, tareat nu at Klock-Klock, Captain William Guy and his companions found a population--which Arthur Pym estimated at ten thousand souls, men, women, and children --if not to be feared, at least to be kept at a distance, so noisy and de halt at the hut of Too-Wit, the strangers returned to the shore, where the ”beche-de-mer”--the favourite food of the Chinese--would provide enoroes; for the succulent mollusk is ions
Captain Willia with Too-Wit on thishim to authorize the construction of sheds in which soht prepare the beche-de-mer, while the schooner should hold on her course towards the Pole Too-Wit accepted this proposal willingly, and ive their labour in the gathering-in of the preciousfinished, three iven the strangers cause to entertain the slightest suspicion of the the place, Captain Williae of Klock-Klock, having, froed, the bulwark nettings in their place, the anchor hanging at the forepeak--in a word, all in readiness to oppose an approach of the natives Too-Wit, escorted by a hundred warriors, came out to h the place was propitious to an a upon the other On the right, a little in advance, were Arthur Py reached a spot where a fissure traversed the hillside, Arthur Py in clusters upon stunted bushes Having done this, he was returning to the path, when he perceived that Allen and the half-breed had acco the mouth of the fissure, when they were thron by a sudden and violent shock At the sa masses of the hill slid down upon them and they instantly concluded that they were doomed to be buried alive
Alive--all three? No! Alien had been so deeply covered by the sliding soil that he was already s the a ith their bowie knives, to a projecting mass of harder clay, which had resisted the movement from above, and from thence they climbed to a natural platform at the extremity of a wooded ravine Above them they could see the blue sky-roof, and fro country
An artificial landslip, cunningly contrived by the natives, had taken place Captain Williaht companions had disappeared; they were crushed beneath more than awith natives who had co islets, attracted by the prospect of pillaging the Jane Seventy boats were being paddled towards the shi+p The six men on bokrd fired on them, but their aim was uncertain in the first volley; a second, in which rooved bullets were used, produced terrible effect Nevertheless, the Jane being boarded by the swar islanders, her defenders were massacred, and she was set on fire
Finally a terrific explosion took place--the fire had reached the powder store--killing a thousand natives andthe cry of tekeli-li! tekeli-li!
During the folloeek, Arthur Py on nuts and bitterns' flesh, escaped discovery by the natives, who did not suspect their presence They found the several planes, but without issue, hollowed out froreat extent The two men could not live in the midst of these successive abysses, and after several attempts they let themselves slide on one of the slopes of the hill Instantly, six savages rushed upon theth of the half-breed, four of the assailants were killed The fifth was dragged away by the fugitives, who reached a boat which had been pulled up on the beach and was laden with three huge turtles A score of natives pursued and vainly tried to stop them; the former were driven off, and the boat was launched successfully and steered for the south
Arthur Pyree of south latitude It was the beginning of March, that is to say, the antarctic winter was approaching Five or six islands, which it was prudent to avoid, were visible towards the west Arthur Pym's opinion was that the terees as they approached the pole They tied together thite shi+rts which they had been wearing, and hoisted theht of these shi+rts the native, who answered to the nae continued, favoured by a ht, on a sea without a fragh and even temperature of the water, no ice had been seen since the parallel of Bennet Island
Then it was that Arthur Pyion of novelty and wonder Above the horizon line rose a broad bar of light grey vapour, striped with long luminous rays, such as are projected by the polar aurora A very strong current came to the aid of the breeze The boat sailed rapidly upon a liquid surface of itated froan to fall, and this increased the terror of Nu-Nu, whose lips trembled over his ts of black ivory
On the 9th of March this rain of ashes fell in redoubled voluh that the hand could no longer bear it The immense curtain of vapour, spread over the distant perimeter of the southern horizon reseht of soht of the heavens
Twelve days later, it was darkness that hung over these waters, darkness furrowed by lu from the milky depths of the Antarctic Ocean, while the incessant shower of ash-dust fell and melted in its waters
The boat approached the cataract with an impetuous velocity whose cause is not explained in the narrative of Arthur Pyantic birds, of livid white plu their eternal tekeli-li, and then the savage, in the suprehost
Suddenly, in a rasp of the cataract, where a vast gulf seeulf there stood a veiled hureater size than any inhabitant of this earth, and the colour of the man's skin was the perfect whiteness of snow
Such is the strange roreatest poet of the New World
Chapter VI
An Ocean Waif
The navigation of the Halbrane went on prosperously with the help of the sea and the wind In fifteen days, if this state of things lasted, sheof the shi+p to Ja to fear with such a seaman as he
”Our lieutenant has not his ht to be in co-shi+p”
”Indeed,” I replied, ”he seems to be a true son of the sea”
”And then, our Halbrane, what a craft! Congratulate yourself, Mr Jeorling, and congratulate yourself also that I succeeded in bringing the captain to change his mind about you”
”If it was you who obtained that result, boatswain, I thank you heartily”
”And so you ought, for he was plaguily against it, was our captain, in spite of all old ed to et it, boatswain, I shan't forget it, since, thanks to your intervention, instead of ht of Tristan d'Acunha”
”In a few days, Mr Jeorling Only think, sir, according to what I hear tell, they are land and America with machines in their insides, and wheels which they use as a duck uses its paddles All right, we shall knohat's the good of them when they come into use My notion is, however, that those shi+ps will never be able to fight with a fine frigate sailing with a fresh breeze”
It was the 3rd of Septe occurred to delay us, our schooner would be in sight of port in three days The chief island of the group is visible on clear days at a great distance
That day, between ten and eleven o'clock in thebackwards and forwards on the deck, on the ard side We were sliding s sea The Halbrane reseantic albatross kind described by Arthur Py a whole shi+p's creards space
Jalasses to starboard at an object floating two or threeover the side, were also curiously observing it
I went forward and looked attentively at the object It was an irregularly forth, and in thelu-master ”It would have blown once or twice since we have been looking at it”
”Certainly!” assented Hardy ”Perhaps it is the carcase of some deserted shi+p”
”May the devil send it to the bottoainst it in the dark; it ht send us down before we could knohat had happened”
”I believe you,” added Drap, ”and these derelicts are ain there, and there's no avoiding theuerly came up at this side of mine
”What do you think of it, boatswain?” I asked
”It is ,” replied the boatswain, ”that e see there is neither a blower nor a wreck, but ht,” said Ja which the currents have carried hither”
”What?” said I, ”to the forty-fifth parallel?”
”Yes, sir,” answered West, ”that has occurred, and the ice soh as the Cape, if we are to take the word of a French navigator, Captain Biosseville, who ht in 1828”
”Then thisnot a little surprised that West had honoured thy a reply
”It reat part already,” he continued, ”and e see is the rehed millions of tons”
Captain Len Guy now appeared, and perceiving the group of sailors around West, he caed in a low tone between the captain and the lieutenant, and the latter passed his glass to the for object, now at least a mile nearer to us
”It is ice,” said he, ”and it is lucky that it is dissolving the Halbrane rief by collision with it in the night”
I was struck by the fixity of his gaze upon the object, whose nature he had so promptly declared: he continued to conteuessed as passing in the s, caed He wanted to see it ht be to take away some bits of it At an order fro th, and I could examine it