I did not proceed any further with the reading of the journal that day. I had ample materials for reflection; moreover, I still felt fatigued with the exertions of the preceding evening. After having promised myself to resume my perusal of the journal the first thing the next day, I resolved to go and have my dinner.
My second repast off the preserved meats of the station was one of the best I have ever partaken of. While choosing the things most agreeable to my taste, I had ample opportunity of noting the extent and variety of my stores, and saw that I had plenty to depend on whatever time I might be forced to live in the state of imprisonment in which circumstances had placed me. Hampers upon hampers of wine offered me a choice of the best vintages of Spain, Portugal, and the south of France. Vice-Admiral Campbell was evidently a connoisseur in wine. Perhaps the wines which he was in the habit of drinking were somewhat too alcoholic; still the English, as we all know, are fond of strong wines. I tasted several bottles, too many bottles in fact, since finding my throat parched by the fiery heat of these generous wines, I longed for a draught of water, but could discover none. They would surely have sunk a well, thought I, in the large apartment of which I have already spoken, for the admiral’s use; but I was mistaken—the admiral does not seem to have cared for so insipid a beverage.
I had no alternative, therefore, but to continue to drink, during my dinner, a fluid which was somewhat too heating. My sleep, although my tongue was rather dry, was sound and refreshing. No saddening dream disturbed my rest, and at some early hour in the morning, precisely as I had arranged in the projects of the preceding day, I found myself awake. I immediately mounted the narrow staircase leading to the admiral’s study. The staircase, I ought to have mentioned, was hidden in the wall, and so well hidden, indeed, that it was solely owing to this the barbarous devastators of the other houses of the station had not pillaged and ransacked this room.
Before sitting down to continue my perusal of the journal I betook myself to the bell-tower to see what was going on around the place. The examination was anything but a very reassuring one. Various changes had taken place, and these were among them. Every member of the besieging force had, in addition to his stick, a little heap of stones beside him, which he had piled up with as much care as is bestowed on the cannon-balls in our arsenals. What did they intend to do with these missiles? Stones are very rare things in an island where sand abounds. It is, indeed, a positive event to meet with a stone, except on the sea-shore, or on the banks of some lake, such as had furnished me with a handful when I was endeavouring to knock down some fruit. Time would, no doubt, teach me how my enemies proposed to apply these new engines of war; at present the affair was an enigma—an enigma, moreover, of bad augury.
At length I seated myself, and opening Admiral Campbell’s journal, read the following:—
“My Tagals departed anew ten days ago; I have desired them to endeavour to ascertain more exactly than they have yet been able to do the precise date of the departure of the Malay fleet for the north of Asia, and to discover, so far as they can, the part which the Sultan of Sooloo, himself our doubtful ally, takes in this expedition—whether he encourages it, tolerates it, or is not powerful enough to prevent it.
“While awaiting the return of my Tagals, I occupied myself with studying the geology of Kouparou. The island is evidently of recent formation. The extinct volcano is still working at a moderate depth, since streams of water of a high degree of temperature are constantly upheaving the bed of lava which surrounds its base.
“If I succeed in prevailing on the Admiralty to make a permanent station of Kouparou I shall ask, before all things, that the island may be purged of the intolerable herd of apes, with which it is now infested, by a regular hunt of several months’ duration; in the same way as our ancestors formerly got rid of wolves in England.”
“What an admirable project!” I exclaimed, “and if Admiral Campbell had only had time to put it into execution, I should not be where I am.”
“Here we are at the end of May,” pursued the journal, several dates of which I pass over as of no importance to my story; “nearly two months have elapsed since the second departure of my devoted Tagals, and I have had no news from them. They do not like, I suppose, to return to Kouparou without bringing with them certain information of the time fixed for the departure of the pirate fleet.