The Land of the Living Dead: a narration of the perilous sojourn therein of George Cowper, mariner, etc

Chapter 1

Many weeks of drifting in an open boat, coming after a similar period spent aboard a waterlogged and sinking vessel, and striving hard to keep her afloat, will, I think, sufficiently account for the mystery which surrounded our getting aboard the floating sepulchre where we found ourselves. We had got there somehow while in a state of insensibility; by whose assistance we can only conjecture — nothing definite and positive can ever be known. We were a party of three, the only survivors of the schooner Witch-hazel: an old seaman named Williams, myself, George Cowper, second mate, and my late fellow-apprentice, Edward Miles. The Witch-hazel was a South Sea trader, and at the time she foundered had been away from England nearly three years. In the hurricane which first damaged her so seriously the captain was washed overboard; and the mate, in trying to get the trysail-boom secured after it had been carried away at the heel, received a fatal injury to his head from the spar itself, which the violently flapping sail kept whipping about as if it had been of no more than a few pounds weight.

Thus we lost our two competent navigators, for although acting second mate, I was but recently I out of my time, and my knowledge of navigation was imperfect. Shortly after the death of the mate two hands were blown from the jibboom, and one, in despair, leaped overboard. This thinning of our numbers put a fearful strain upon those left, and they fell sick one after another. There was no time to give them proper attention; there were no drugs to administer, for the medicine chest was smashed; and there was not even a dry place for them to lie in. Thus every one who fell ill grew worse and died, and, finally, we three abandoned the ship to take our chance in the boat. Our sufferings in her were not so much from hunger and thirst — for we had a fair supply of stores — as from exposure and continual anxiety.

As each night fell we felt but little confidence that we should behold the morrow. We were in a strange sea, and possibly surrounded by many dangers, even beyond those we were ordinarily prepared to encounter. At any rate, reasonable or otherwise, such fears were ever with us, and we fell into a low, despondent state, which ultimately became fever and delirium. From this state, then, we gradually returned to a consciousness of our surroundings. Williams was the first to come round, and he exerted himself to aid us. He told us that he had a vague recollection of some person or persons who had been moving about him, administering restoratives and performing sundry little acts calculated to alleviate his sufferings, and that, as he got nearer perfect consciousness, he found himself wondering why these kind attentions had been so suddenly discontinued.

After awhile he managed to crawl from the bunk in which he was lying; and as he came out of the berth into the vessel's roomy saloon — for she was a large ship — a shocking scene presented itself. Two men lay there stark and stiff: one, a long-bearded, grey-haired old man, whom Williams took to be the commander of the ship, was lying across the doorway of the starboard state room, as if he had fallen while in the act of emerging into the saloon. The other, a younger man, Williams was inclined to set down as one of the ship's mates. Passing up the companion he was met by further horrors, just before him, as he stepped on deck, lay a man who seemed to have been steering the ship and to have sunk down while performing that duty ; between the companion and the break of the poop lay four others ; and upon going down the poop ladder he found the main deck, from the quarter-deck forward along both sides right up to the break of the forecastle, strewn with bodies of the dead.

They were in all positions, lying, sitting, reclining against the bulwarks, on the spare spars lashed along the decks, and one or two even stood with their arms and the upper part of their bodies hanging over the bulwark, as if they had been standing there to vomit, for instance, and so died. One thing was clear : all had died very suddenly, probably instantaneously ; and another circumstance which seemed equally probable was that all had been seized by the complaint simultaneously, or there abouts, and that when the first died the others were too weak or too indifferent, by reason of their own sufferings, to clear the deck of their shipmates' bodies. It was certain that none had been so disposed of, for the number of bodies corresponded exactly with the number of living men certain indications showed the ship to have carried.

Williams did not enter the forecastle when making this visit forward, but crawled painfully aft again along the port side — having gone forward on the other — and looked in the face of every man, fearing each time to recognise one of us, his late shipmates. It was a great relief to him when he had thus worked his way aft to the companion again without having made any such saddening discovery, and he then decided that, alive or dead, we were either in the forecastle or in one of the other berths opening off the ship's saloon. He descended to search aft first ; and upon entering the berth next his own, found the two bunks within it occupied by myself and Miles, and a third man, whom he took to be the steward, lying dead across the doorway — so close that it was necessary to thrust the body aside with the door as he pushed it open.

Williams stated that both Miles and myself turned our heads towards him and opened our eyes at the noise made by his entrance, and that we kept our eyes fixed upon him, too ; but neither of us had any recollection of his coming, and it was not until he had procured some brandy from the storeroom and poured it down our throats, that we began to have anything like a clear sense of our position. The strong spirit, together perhaps with the startling tale Williams had to tell us, soon brought us round sufficiently to raise an interest in our cir cumstances, although all three of us were far too weak to set about clearing the ship of her ghastly freight, or, indeed, to undertake control of the vessel herself. The sails were all set to the trucks, staysails and all, and this again showed our seafaring eyes that whatever had stricken her crew with death had come with a most appalling suddenness.

" Some sort o ' plague ; that's what it is, I'll be bound," said Williams, looking along the deck at the dead forms strewn there, for we had managed to crawl on deck. "Yes," we assented, our eyes following his and taking in the scene. "There ain't any wounds on ne'er a one on 'em," Williams continued ; " and another strange thing is, they can' 'a bin dead long." "Were any of them actually warm then?" I asked, with a shudder. "Not as I know on," replied Williams; "but how long would a body be afore it changed in such a climate as this, d'ye think ? — not twelve hours ; p'r'aps not six ! " " Very true," 1 said ; " not long, to be sure. I didn't think of that." The weather was very warm ; and, without having any very clear idea of the ship's position, we knew that we were in a tropical region.

"I've sailed the sea more'n forty year," said Williams ; " I've seen scurvy, and fever, and plagues of all sorts, but never anything like this. It beats all I ever seen in all my born nat'ral life, it do. They've all gone so sudden, y' see." As he spoke he pointed first to the dead on the deck, and then aloft at the columns of canvas, which flapped backward and forward with a force that shook the ship now and again from stem to stern — as if she shuddered at her gruesome cargo. "What shall we do?" I asked. " Hadn't we better take to our boat again as soon as we can hoist her out— that is, if we can find her ? If not, we must take one of the ship's boats ; we can't stay here ! Perhaps whatever killed them will come to us if we do." "Our boat is h'isted aboard for'ard there — see?" replied Williams, pointing to a boat lying close by the bulwarks, just abreast of the ship's long-boat.

"There she is; and she's got two dead men in her. I seen 'em just now when I went for'ard. As to the plague a-comin' to us, I reckon if we was strong enough to h'ist out our boat and pull away at once — which we ain't — we shouldn't be by no means sure of escaping that. P'r'aps we've got it in our bones a'ready; I shouldn't wonder. We must take our chance anyway, for we can't get away from this craft yet awhile." "That is so," I said, after a moment's reflection; "then, as soon as possible, we must manage to heave these bodies overboard somehow." While speaking I had risen to my feet, by cling ing to the companion, and, casting my eyes ahead, saw a small craft approaching on the port bow. " Sail ho ! " I exclaimed ; and at the words the other two clutched eagerly at the companion and rose to a standing position.

I saw immediately that the approaching craft was not of a rig and build such as I had met with before. She had two masts, each rigged with a kind of lug sail, lay low upon the water, and seemed very short, broad in the beam, and bluff in the bow ; her general appearance altogether more nearly resembled that of a small barge than of an ordinary sea-going vessel. She was painted white, and as she came nearer I saw, too, that she was much decorated with gaudy colours inboard. From this circumstance, and the appearance of an individual who sat on a raised seat aft apparelled in many gaudy colours, I concluded that the craft was a state-barge belonging to some savage or semi-savage potentate. She made way through the water quickly, for the sails were filled with a breeze which she brought down with her, and upon either side, too, sat a line of rowers — there were twelve oars on each side and two men to each oar.

Upon her forecastle stood a group of men, numbering about a score, and along the deck between the lines of rowers were at least as many more. All these, with a little group around each mast, and a few, also rather showily attired, who sat or stood at the feet of him who was upon the raised seat aft, formed a crew of at least one hundred men, all whites. We three stared at each other in surprise, and there was also something of an expression of alarm in our gaze, no doubt. It occurred to me — and I subsequently learned, to my companions also — that there was some connection between the ship with her mysterious load of dead and this equally mysterious craft now approaching us. I think we should have been less astonished had the barge's occupants been coloured people. Williams was the first to speak ; he said in a low, shaking voice : "The good Lord bless us, and save us from harm !

What have we got among now ? " Perhaps none of us were quite free from supersti tion — perhaps nobody is ; but the old tar, although as hardy and brave a man as could be found upon the sea in his ordinary sufficiently perilous duties, was now quaking by far the worst of us all. I remember that his tanned, weather-beaten face got as near ashy white ness as it could ; that the perspiration burst from every pore and coursed down his cheeks ; and that his knees trembled so that every moment I expected him to fall to the deck — to be sure he was still weak from recent privations, but so were we all. He told me afterwards that when the barge came sufficiently close for him to make out her remarkable crew he was seized by the notion that he had died in his late illness, and that he now viewed a scene in another world.

He said, also, that during the few moments this idea occupied his mind he seemed to recall all the acts, habitual or isolated, which he regarded as the most sinful in his life — as he had done before on occasions of extreme peril. Miles and myself were certainly not affected to this irrational extent ; but we were troubled by an uncomfortable feeling of fear, and a strong sense of our uncanny surroundings. We sank back upon the companion seat from sheer inability to stand any longer, and thus, for a time, lost sight of the barge, which by then had run in close to the bow ; but we heard her grate against our side, and then saw her masts as she came glid ing aft right alongside us with the way she had upon her, for her sails were lowered and the oars, of course, could not be used. They brought her up a little abaft of amidships, and several of her crew immediately sprang upon the ship's rail, and then upon the deck.

We noticed — and were horrified thereby— that as their heads appeared above the rail they glanced fore and aft the ship, and then each of them gave a low silent laugh — as if their laughter must not be heard by the dig nitary in the barge alongside, but yet they could not repress it at the sight of the dead upon our deck. There was something so demoniacal about this proceeding that I think, at this moment, I was inclin ed to fear our visitors were from the infernal regions, notwithstanding their similarity in appearance in many respects to the men I usually associated with, that is to say, European merchant seamen. More men came flying over the rail in great haste ; and then we saw they were engaged in fixing a side ladder, by which their superiors might come aboard in comfort. All this time they took not the slightest notice of us ; it is doubtful, however, if they saw us, sitting right away aft there by the companion.

" I don't believe I could crawl to the break of the poop if it would save my life — could you?" I asked Williams. "Oh, yes, I could; I 'a been further for'ard than that a'ready. But — but I — I ain't a-goin' now. I don't want to get no nearer to that party!" "It doesn't much matter," said Miles quietly. "If we don't go to them they'll very soon come to us See there comes the grandee over the rail now."

Chapter II

As Miles said, the gaily dressed individual from the stern of the state-barge was at that moment just rising above our rail. When he stood upright upon it, with a coolness and steadiness which showed him to be in the possession of sea legs, two of those on deck stood rigidly upright facing inboard, and a third, stooping low, formed a step with his back, upon which their superior calmly placed his foot, steadying himself meanwhile by resting one hand upon the shoulders offered by the other two. This was so clearly an act of deference rather than of necessity that we were still further impressed with a sense of the authority this individual held ; and when he stood upon the deck we noticed that all those already aboard drew away to a respectful dis tance, and that those who had been grouped at his feet while aboard the barge followed him over the ship's rail and stood near him now.

Miles and I had risen to our feet again, and Wil liams soon followed our example. We wanted to come to an interview with the chief of our remarkable visitors and put an end to our suspense. It was when we stood up that one of them seemed to notice us for the first time. He looked a moment or two, shading his eyes with his hand, for he was facing the sun, and then we saw him pluck by the sleeve one of those standing close to the chief, and he in turn made an obeisance to the chief himself, and waving his hand in our direction spoke a few words. Then the whole group began to move towards us, the chief leading with a quick but dignified stride. He came to within about six paces and then stood still, all the others standing around and behind him as I have already shown ; the few close beside him, and the remainder still at a distance in the rear.

We saw now that he was a man of handsome but somewhat stern countenance, of advanced age, and with a long white beard ; the many colours upon him already referred to were borne upon the cloak he wore, which reached to the deck, and actually trailed a few inches at the back part. The others who kept close around him wore cloaks also, but neither so long nor so gaily coloured as his. These garments, of course, were worn as a signification of dignity, and by no means as a necessity in such a climate ; they were of the thinnest material and fluttered in the slightest breeze. As they blew aside we saw that the garments underneath were of a fashion long gone by — knee-breeches, stockings, shoes and buckles. I have mentioned that the barge had come down with a breeze, and this had caught the ship aback so that she was now really making sternway, with the sails all lying close to the masts and stays.

The chief, after regarding us a moment or two, turned to one of those near him, and said, in English : "Take charge here." The man to whom he spoke had a very distinct nautical cut. He looked round and spoke to two others, who in turn called upon those behind, and in a moment the ship had her commander, two mates, and numerous crew boxing her off and trimming her yards to the breeze. As soon as the chief had issued his order regarding the ship, he turned to us, and said in a curt tone : "You three do not belong to this vessel. She has picked you up." "Merciful Heaven!" exclaimed poor old Williams, as if involuntarily. "How does he know that?" One of those whom I will term courtiers now spoke : "Man! you must not refer to his Highness like that. He is no ordinary man to be spoken of thus!" "Lord help me! no, I'm certain o' that," returned the old tar, his voice trembling with superstitious terror.

"He has that still to learn," said the first speaker calmly to this subordinate, and addressing us again, he added : "If I had no other means of knowing it, men, I should know by the simple fact of your being alive. Had you been of this number, and sailed with them, regardless of the wise and solemn warnings given, you would have been lying stark and stiff as they are. I did not will that they should die. / only refrained from willing that they should live!" Then, as if to remind the person he addressed of a duty unperformed, he took a step backward and indicating us with something of a theatrical flourish repeated : " These men did not belong to the vessel. They are strangers." The man addressed took a step forward, so as to stand slightly in advance of his chief, and looking rather beyond us than at us, began in a sonorous voice : proclaim His Highness, the Mighty Justin, Lord of ihe Land of the Living Dead." [Page /j. "I proclaim His Highness the Mighty Justin, Lord of the Land of the Living Dead, and of the outer world beyond its shores, as far as he may wish to exercise his powrer."

Here he made a long pause, whether for the sake of effect or with the merciful intention of allowing us time to recover from his stunning statement, 1 do not know ; but I thought he had finished his pro clamation when he recommenced : "No being exists but by the Mighty Justin's will and pleasure. Though he raises his Mighty Hand against no man, yet they who incur his displeasure die. His Highness ceases to will that they shall live — and they die ! " Another pause. I think even longer than the first. " That is, they shall die again, for they are already dead! " Another pause, during which I distinctly heard Williams groan again and again. He stood close beside me, and I felt him shaking from head to foot. Miles was looking at the speaker and his face was turned from me, so I could not catch his eye ; he stood away beyond Williams too.

As for myself, I felt that I should like to feel amused, but the gruesome scene and my bodily condition, perhaps, were against me : I certainly cannot look back upon that as an enter taining experience. The herald now positively bellowed — " Therefore — take — ye — heed ! " and showed his pro clamation was ended by falling back to his position in the rear of "His Highness the Mighty Justin." The latter had stood all this time staring into space ; and, only for a certain air of complacency and self esteem, might have been supposed to be unaware of what was passing. When the last word was uttered and his herald had fallen back, he strode past us, still followed by the others as before, and approached the door of the companion. There, however, he brought up, and said to those about him : "Look below."

These again turned to the others and repeated the order, at which two of them stepped forward and descended into the cabin. We heard them call up to those above almost immediately, and more men were ordered down below. Shortly there was a sound upon the companion-stairs as of men staggering under a burden, and one after another the corpses lying in the cabin were brought up and taken away forward. Then the chief himself descended, followed by the chosen few, while the others stood around the com panion, seemingly awaiting orders. I noticed, too, that half a dozen kept close beside us, as if told off to guard us — as no doubt they were. Soon one of those below came up and ordered us down, and seeing how weak we were he told those guarding us to lend us some assistance. We were not taken before the chief again then, nor did we see him in the saloon ; he seemed to have retired to the starboard state-room, for we noticed that two of his followers stood at the door, seemingly as sentries.

Others sat at the table and chatted. They took to notice of us whatever, as we were assisted through the saloon into one of the berths. Our conductors shut us in and went away, and then, after an amazed stare for a few seconds, I ventured to make a remark in a low tone. "All this is extraordinary, if you like," I murmured. " It is," returned Miles ; but Williams did not speak. "Who the " "Hush! don't talk loud," I interrupted, for Miles had begun to speak in an excited tone. Then Wil liams found his tongue. "Talk loud or talk low," he said; "it ain't of any matter. He\\ hear you — or he'll know what you say athout a-hearin' — it's the same thing. Lord save us all!" "Nonsense! Williams," I said, as contemptuously as I could; but I own to a consciousness of a creepy feeling about me, too. "Did ye hear what he said about not a-willin' they should live and so they died, eh?

Did ye hear that, then?" asked Williams in an awe-struck whisper. "I did," said Miles; "but I don't think so much of that. Anybody could have said it. One of us could, for instance, if he had wanted to tell a stupid lie." It struck me at the time that for all Miles spoke as he did, it was not that he believed what he said, but rather that his words should keep up our courage — as well as his own, perhaps. I admit it was for such a reason that I tried to put on so bold a front. "Of course, it may be as you say, Miles," I rejoined ; " nothing but a lie. Or it may be that the villain poisoned them; but as to any supernatural power — " I glanced at Williams as I said this — "why, that's altogether too ridiculous for grown men to think of." "Grown men!" returned Williams, with a look which made me feel uncomfortable and somewhat hurt my vanity, even in that predicament, as I thought of my one and twenty years.

"Now, let me tell you, my lads, that when you've grown a few years older — if this affair don't cut us off, Heaven help us! — an' have sailed the sea a few years longer, you'll maybe 'a seen and heard o' many strange things you knows nothin' on now. If you'd on'y seen and heard half what I have, you'd likely hold a different opinion now. Don't tell me there ain't a part o' the sea to which no one can't sail to wi' safety an' anything like a decent chance o' gettin' out on't agin— cause I knows very well there is such ; ah ! an' sperits from it wan ders over the rest o' the ocean too, at times. P'r'aps you lads ain't got no belief in the Flyin' Dutch man? " Neither of us seemed to have the hardihood alto gether to deny the existence of the well-known seamen's bogie, for neither of us answered at once; but after a while I said : "I don't think he's to be seen trying to weather the Cape now;" and Miles added: "No, not now, I should say."

"He never was to be seen reg'lar and always," replied Williams in the same hushed and solemn tone. "It was on'y now and agin; and where is he at other times? — that's what I'd like to know. Who says he ain't here in these seas?" Before there was time to answer this poser we heard someone unlocking the door. Two of those I have referred to as courtiers enter ed the cabin. One held a piece of paper before his eyes, and began to read therefrom a list of questions, very similar to those a medical man would put at the first visit to a patient. The other recorded our an swers upon a piece of paper he carried, and when the list was gone through, each of them felt our pulses and looked at our tongues, and then departed. "What does this mean?" I whispered, when they had shut the door behind them. "They seem to be taking care of us," said Miles.

"I hope they'll give me something to pull up my strength a bit; I'm as weak as a rat. It's hard work to talk, even." Williams offered no opinion at all ; he was plainly mystified and had none to offer. We were not left long now before a man appeared bearing a tray, on which were three glasses, each holding a draught of some kind, which he offered to us without a word. I took mine, hesitated a moment and then reflecting that if our captors had a desire to hurt us they need not go such a roundabout way to do so, I swallow ed the contents of the glass, and at once recog nised the bitter taste of a tonic. Miles followed my example, and Williams, with a look of despair, then drank off his portion. I think the draught contained a narcotic also, for very shortly I became drowsy, and only remained awake long enough to observe that my companions were in a like condition.

I was awakened by hearing voices in the berth, and looking from my bunk, I saw two other persons there — not those who had come with the medical questions — who were interrogating my shipmates as to their name, age, birthplace, and general family history. After finishing with them they glanced at my bunk, and, seeing I was awake, one began with me : "What is your name, please?" His tone was somewhat peremptory, but not at all antagonistic nor uncivil. 'George Cowper," 1 replied. 'What rank?" 'Second mate." 'What ship?" ' Witch-hazel." 'Age?" "Twenty-one." "Birthplace? " "Walkenham, Norfolk, England." Then he proceeded to ask many other particulars concerning my family, etc., and it seemed to me he asked most of these questions out of curiosity alone, since he did not record all the answers.

After getting all the information they required they went out, and immediately the man who had brought the physic came in again, carrying a bottle and glasses on a tray. He only said one word: "Port;" and then poured some of the wine out and handed it to us. "I'm beginning to feel empty," said Miles, whose appetite was enormous and not to be suspended by danger, illness, or anything short of death, I believe. "Very well. I'll bring some food," said the stew ard—as he appeared to be. He was away and back again within a few minutes, bearing three plates on which were portions of some kind of poultry, and upon the tray was also some soft bread. We knew all this must have been brought with them in the barge, as there was no sign of such stores aboard the ship ; or if there had been they could not have been prepared for eating during the time our visitors had been aboard her.