The Pacha of Many Tales

by Frederick Marryat

At first it occurred to me that this was a floating island, like the one I before described, and that it was gradually rising more to the surface; but this idea did not satisfy me. Throwing the lead and line in the boat, I pushed off, and sounded in several directions, and had the mortification to find that in the passage which the ship had entered, there was not sufficient water for her to go out again, even if we were to have discharged the whole cargo. I soon discovered the cause of this apparent mystery; for as I went further out on the reef, I found that whole trees and solid masses of coral had sprung up to the water’s edge, in parts which I knew were several fathoms deep when we entered. I had often heard that the islands in these seas were formed by corals, but I had no idea of the rapidity with which they were extended.

Your highness must know that all the zoophyte, or animal plants, are composed of small insects, who work in millions under the water, until they rise to the top. Such was the case in the present instance, and thus by the labours of the minutest of the creation, in the short space of three weeks my ship was shut up so as to render escape hopeless.

I returned on board, and explained to the men the real cause of the apparently supernatural effects of what we had witnessed. Satisfied that my assertions were correct, they seemed to care little at being obliged to remain on an island which afforded them the means of such comfortable subsistence. As nothing could be done for the ship, we went on shore again, and repitching the tents, waited quietly until we might be taken off by some vessel who should chance to pass that way.

In a fortnight the ship was aground, and the island continued to increase so rapidly, that in two months she was raised high and dry out of the water, about half a mile from the beach. The vegetation seemed to advance as regularly and as rapidly as the island, and after the rainy season the trees had grown up so high, that the ship was completely hid in a large wood, and it was just possible to see her lower masts above the branches. For some time the men seemed perfectly contented. We had plenty of stores in the ship of every description: the cargo I had taken on board was chiefly manufactures, and as the island provided fresh meat, fish, and fruit, they were in want of nothing. But sailors are such changeable and restless beings, that I really believe they would soon be tired of Paradise itself. After a sojourn of nine months, during which they perhaps lived better than they ever had before, they began to murmur and talk of getting away in some manner or another. As my cargo was valuable, I was in hopes that a vessel would visit the island, and take it on board: I therefore made every remonstrance that I could imagine to induce them to wait some time longer; but they would not listen to me, and made preparations for building a vessel at the weather-side of the island, out of the materials that the ship afforded. The reason why they chose the weather side was, that they perceived that the island only increased to leeward; whereas to windward it was a perpendicular rock of coral, which you could not obtain bottom alongside of, with two hundred fathoms of line. They had cut a slip out of the rock, and were already occupied with driving out the bolts and fastenings of the ship that was shored up in the woods, when one evening we perceived a large fleet of canoes coming towards us. As I knew that I could not be far from the Sandwich Islands, I immediately pronounced them to come from that quarter, in which supposition I was correct; for although the island was not inhabited, the islanders had for some years been aware of its existence, and came to gather the crop of cocoa-nuts which it annually produced. I advised my men to keep quiet in the woods, removing the tents and every object that might create suspicion of our being on the island; but they were of a different opinion, and as they had lately discovered the means of collecting the toddy from the cocoa-nut trees, and distilling arrack, they had been constantly drunk, mutinous, and regardless of my authority. They thought it would be much easier to take the large canoes from the islanders, and appropriate them to their own use, than to build a vessel, and notwithstanding my entreaties, they persisted in their resolution to make the attempt.

As the canoes approached, we counted fourteen, all of a very large size, and with my glass I could distinguish that they had fifty or sixty persons on board of each, including the women. I pointed this out to the sailors, stating that I did not believe there were more than ten women in each canoe, so that the men must amount to seven hundred, a force much too large to give them any chance of success in their rash intentions. But I did more harm than good; the mention of the women seemed to inspire them with fresh ardour, and they vowed that they would kill all the men, and then would be content to remain on the island with the women. They armed themselves with muskets, and retired among the trees as the canoes approached, fearful that the islanders would not land if they were discovered. The canoes ran between the reefs, and in a few minutes the whole of the islanders disembarked; not conceiving it necessary to leave any but the women in the canoes, the water being as smooth as a fish-pond.

The arrangements of my men were certainly very good: they allowed the islanders to go up to the tents, which were now more than a mile from the beach, and then walking down under cover of the trees, rushed to the canoes, and putting one man in each with their muskets and ammunition, shoved them off and made them fast to the coral rocks, about two hundred yards distant. The screams of the women, and the shoving off of the canoes, alarmed the men, who hastened down to ascertain the cause. As soon as they came within half musket shot, the sailors who were on shore, amounting to twenty-five, fired a volley out of the wood, which killed and wounded a great number. The islanders retreated in confusion, then gave a loud shout and advanced. Another volley was fired, and they again retreated, bearing off their killed and wounded. They now held a consultation, which ended in their dividing into two bodies, one of which separated from the other, so that they might attack the party in the wood from two different points.

In the meantime several of the women leaped overboard and swam on shore, and the men in the boats were so busy in preventing the others from following, that they could give no assistance to the party in the wood, although they were within musket-shot. The conduct of the islanders puzzled our men; and although I had taken no part in this murderous attack, yet as I considered my life at stake, I thought that I must assist. I therefore advised them to retreat to the ship, which, if they once gained possession of, they would be enabled to keep the islanders at bay. My advice was followed, and creeping through the thick we reached the ship in safety, having climbed up by rope-ladders, which were hanging from her, to enable us to go on board, to fetch any articles we required. We hauled them up after us, and waited the issue. In a few minutes, one of the parties of the islanders came up, and seeing the ship with us on board, gave a loud yell, and let fly their spears. We returned a volley which killed many, but they were very brave, and continued the attack although we fired twenty or thirty rounds with great execution.

The other party now came up, and the conflict continued; they made every attempt to climb the stern and sides of the vessel, but were repulsed; and as the evening closed in, they retired taking away their killed and wounded, which we estimated at two hundred men. When they retreated, we fired some of our large guns in that direction, as much to frighten the islanders, as to let our comrades in the canoes know where we were.

We kept a sharp look out till dark, but saw no more of them. I proposed that we should attempt to communicate with the men in the canoes, and desire them to permit some of them to drift on shore after taking out the women, as the islanders would then in all probability go away. But as the men very justly remarked, nobody in the first place would venture on such a dangerous service, and in the next, if the islanders obtained some of their canoes, they would attack the others and overpower the sailors that were in them. This plan was therefore justly overruled. I then proposed that one man should steal down to the beach, swim off, and desire the fourteen men to take all the women into one canoe, and pull round to the north side of the island during the night, leaving the remainder for the islanders to go away in. This was considered a good scheme, but no one would volunteer; and, as I had proposed it, I thought that I was in honour bound to go, as otherwise the men would, in future, have had no opinion of me. I therefore stated my intention, and taking my musket and ammunition, I slipped down by a rope. As soon as I was on my legs, I perceived something crawling out of the wood towards the ship. I could not exactly decipher what it was, so I crept under the counter of the vessel, where it was so dark that I could not be distinguished. As it approached, I made it out to be one of the islanders with a faggot of wood on his back; he placed it close to the side of the vessel, and then crawled back as before. I now perceived that there were hundreds of these faggots about the ship, which the islanders had contrived to carry there during the night; for although the moon was up, yet the vessel was so inclosed with trees that the light did not penetrate. I immediately comprehended that it was their intention to set fire to the vessel, and I was thinking of communicating the information to my companions on board, when two more crawled from the woods, and deposited their bundles so close to me, that we were nearly in contact. I therefore was obliged to leave those who were on board to make the best of it, and imitating the islanders, I crawled from the vessel into the brushwood, trailing the gun after me. It was fortunate that I took this precaution, for in the very part of the wood where I crept to, there were dozens of them making up faggots, but it was too thick with underwood, and too dark to distinguish any thing, although I heard them close to me breaking off the branches. I did the same as I went on, to avoid discovery, until I had passed by them, when I continued my route to where the canoes had been left. I arrived in safety at the outskirts of the wood close to the beach, and perceived the canoes still lying at the rocks, to which they had been taken; but the moon shone bright, and I hesitated to walk out in the light, until I ascertained whether there were any islanders on the beach. As I waited a short time in the dark shade of the trees, close to one of the springs of fresh water, I heard a moan close to me, and looking in that direction I perceived a body on the ground. I went towards it, and could distinguish very plainly that it was one of the women who had swam on shore. She was nearly lifeless, and feeling, as every man must have done, compassion at her unfortunate condition, I knelt down by her to see if I could afford her any assistance. As she had very little clothes round her body, I discovered, by passing my hand over her, that she was wounded with a musket-ball above the knee, and was exhausted from pain and loss of blood. I tore my neck-cloth and shirt into bandages, and bound up her leg; I then fetched some water from the spring in my hat, which I poured into her mouth, and threw over her face. She appeared to recover and I felt happy that I had been of some use, and not being able to descry any of the islanders, was proceeding to the beach, that I might swim off to the canoes, when just as I walked out of the shade, two or three muskets were fired by those on board. These were followed by others, and loud yells from the islanders, who had swum off in hundreds, and were attacking our people. The conflict was very short, for the men, not being able to load their muskets quickly enough, were overpowered by the islanders, who climbed into the canoes; and in a few minutes they were all paddled to the beach.

I now thought that it was all over with my men on board of the ship, and so it proved; for an hour before daylight the islanders lighted the faggots, and, at the same time, attacked the vessel with great fury. The fire continued to blaze higher and higher, the muskets were constantly discharging, and the shouts and yells continued for about an hour, when I heard no more reports from the muskets, and took it for granted that my men were overcome, which was the case, as I afterwards found out; many were killed by the spears when on board, others when they leaped from the vessel to avoid the flames, and the remainder had been suffocated.