Part 16 (1/2)
”King!” said the Captain, ”I know you are sick, and need something to make you strong. Pray accept a small present from my table.” The present consisted of two bottles of brandy, with the same quant.i.ty of gin, and a dozen of beer.
”Oh! thank you, Capt'n--you really very kind. By George! I like you too much.”
The queen cast a reproachful glance at Hayston. I could see she did not appreciate the gift. Her lord soon had a bottle of brandy opened, out of which he poured himself an able seaman's dose. The Captain took a little, and I--for once in my life--shared a bottle of Tennant's bitter beer with a real queen.
The king rose up, with a broad smile illumining his wrinkled face, and said, with his gla.s.s to his lips, ”Capt'n, and Capt'n's friend, I glad to see you.” Presently, however, with a scared face, he said something to his consort at which she seemed disconcerted, and then told us they had forgotten to say grace.
This, in a solemn manner, Hayston requested me to do, and, as I was bending my head and muttering the half-forgotten formula, the king leaned over and whispered to him, ”I say, Capt'n, how many labour boys you want take away in brig?”
This made me collapse entirely, and I indulged in a hearty laugh. The Captain and the queen followed suit, and, at some distance, the king's cackling merriment.
It certainly was a jolly dinner. The king was growing madder ever minute, alternately quoting Scripture and swearing atrociously. After which he told me that he liked to be good friends with Mr. Morland, and that he had given up all his bad habits. But, changing his mood again, he confided to me that he wished he was young again, and concluded by expressing a decided opinion as to the beauty of Kitty of Ebon, Mrs.
Morland's housekeeper.
The queen now rose from the table and asked me to smoke a cigar. She produced a work-box in which were cigarettes and some Manila cheroots.
Most graciously she lighted one for me.
The king was now more than half-seas over. He laughed hilariously at the Captain's stories, and, with some double-barrelled oaths, announced his determination to return to the wors.h.i.+p of the heathen G.o.ds and to increase the number of his wives.
Queen S smiled, and blowing out the smoke from between her pouting red lips, said, ”Hear the old fool talk!”
That night there was high revel on board the _Leonora_ after we had taken our farewell of the king and queen.
Hayston decided to take advantage of the land breeze, and so get away to South harbour at once, as we had business to do there. Chabral harbour was a difficult place to get out of, though easy enough to get into.
The trade winds blow steadily here for seven months out of the twelve.
Now, though the largest s.h.i.+p afloat may run in easily through the deep and narrow pa.s.sage, there is not room enough to beat out against the north-east wind. Neither can she tow out, as there is always a heavy swell rolling in through the pa.s.sage, wind or no wind. Kedging out is also simply impossible, owing to the extraordinary depth of water.
In 1836, the _Falcon_ of London, a whales.h.i.+p, lay in Chabral harbour for 120 days. She had ventured in for wood and water. On making a fifth attempt to tow out with her five boats, she touched and went to pieces on the reef.
Hayston, however, had run in, knowing that at this season of the year--from January to March--the winds were variable, a land breeze generally springing up at dusk.
I stated that there was revelry on board the brig that night. The fact was that the Captain, in the presence of the king, queen, and myself, had made agreement with the refugee traders to take them to whatever island they preferred. The king was strongly averse to their retinue of excitable natives being domiciled among the peaceful Kusaie people.
Inspired with courage by the presence of Hayston, he had told the traders that he wished them to vacate Ll. If they did arrange to leave in the _Leonora_, he told them that they could establish themselves at Utw (South harbour), and there remain until they got away in a pa.s.sing whaler or China-bound s.h.i.+p.
After conferring with Hayston, most of the traders decided to take his offer of conveying them and their following to Ujilong (Providence Island), which was his own property, and there enter into engagement with him to make oil for five years. Two others agreed to proceed to the spa.r.s.ely populated but beautiful Eniwetok (or Brown's group), where were vast quant.i.ties of cocoa-nuts, and only thirty natives. These two men had a following of thirty Ocean islanders, and were in high delight at the prospect of having an island to themselves and securing a fortune after a few years of oil-making.
As the merry clink of the windla.s.s pauls echoed amidst the verdurous glens and crags of the mountains that surround Ll, the traders, with their wives, families, and followers, pulled off in their whaleboats and came aboard.
What a picture did the brig make as she spread her snowy canvas to the land-breeze! Laden with the perfume of a thousand flowers, cooled by its pa.s.sage through the primeval forest, it swept us along towards the pa.s.sage, upon the right steering through which so much depended. The traders had half a dozen whaleboats; these, with two belonging to the _Leonora_, were towing astern, with a native in each.
The pa.s.sage, as I have said before, was deep but narrow. As the traders gazed on either side and watched the immense green rollers das.h.i.+ng with resistless force past the brig's side, they looked apprehensively at the Captain and then at their boats astern.
Right in the centre an enormous billow came careering along at the speed of an express train. Though it had no ”breaking curl” on its towering crest, I instinctively placed my hands in the starboard boat davits, expecting to see the vast volume of water sweep our decks. Some of the traders sprang into the main rigging just as the brig lifted to the sea, to plunge downward with a swift and graceful motion, never losing her way for a moment. No man of our crew took the least notice. They knew what the brig could do, they knew the Captain, and no more antic.i.p.ated a disaster than a mutiny.
We made open water safely. Then the Captain descended from the fore-yard, whence he had been conning the s.h.i.+p. ”Well, gentlemen,” he said, ”here we are, all on board the _Leonora_! I hope you think well of her.”
The traders emphatically a.s.serted that she was a wonder. Then, as we did not intend to enter Utw harbour till the morning, we shortened sail.
The brig was placed under her topsails only, and we glided slowly and smoothly down the coast. Still the reef surge was thundering on the starboard hand.