The Child of Ocean. A romance

Front matter

THE CHILD OF OCEAN A ROMANCE BY RONALD ROSS % o n b o it REMINGTON AND CO., PUBLISHERS HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1S89 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Iprbtsateu TO MY WIFE, NOTICE This book was written mostly among the scenes which are described in it. I am nevertheless indebted to works of Mr. Mann, F. J. Monat, H. H. Romilly, &e. I owe also my best thanks to the kind friends who have corrected the proofs for me in my absence from England. The Author. CONTENTS Pbeldde— THE CHILD OF OCEAN CHAP- PAGE i. Voices of the Night 1 ii. The Apparition 2 in. The Land of Ruffians 6 iv. Bully Hates and his Merry Men .... 8 v. Crime or Innocence? 12 vi. The Result 15 vii. Retribution 18 vin. The Child of Ocean 21 ix. Crime and Innocence 30 x. The Lanun Pirates 33 xi. The Fox and the Lamb 35 xii. The Fox, the Lamb, and the Wolf . . .39 xiii.

The Trickling from Above 40 xiv. Upon Deck 45 xv. The Shriek 47 xvi. The Ship of Death 50 Part I— THE MONSTER i. The Andamanese 53 ii. Rumour 56 in. The Andamans 60 iv. The Monsoons 61 v. Between Rock and Ocean 64 vi. The Monster 65 vil The Monster is Surprised CONTENTS VI CHAP. PAGE vin. A Friend 71 ix. Moonrise 76 x. A New Friend 78 xi. A Wonder 82 Part II— WHAT THE MONSTER HAS FOUND i. Beauty and the Beast 8-1 ii. The Terror 87 in. Safety 91 iv. Found 96 v. The Second Day -99 vi. The Third Day 105 vii. The First Word 108 vin. Heaven Opens 112 ix. Heaven Closes 114 x. The Mockery of Fate 117 Part III— THE MONSTER IN HEAVEN i. The Monster is a Genius 120 ii. The Barber 121 hi. Poor Jack 125 iv. The Gorgeous Isles 126 v. The Schoolmistress 133 vi. First Principles 135 vii. The Earth 138 vin.

England 140 ix. The Raft 142 x. Messengers Sent to the Outer World . . 146 xi. Distant Reports of Cannon 147 xii. Aldebran becomes John 150 xin. Night and Beauty 152 xiv. Leda Offended 157 xv. Anger 159 xvi. Love CONTENTS VII Part IN— THE MONSTER IN HELL CHAP. PAGE I. Sleep and Murder 166 ii. The Breath of the Jungles . . . .169 in. Aldebran the Cannibal 172 iv. The Apparition 174 v. Convalescence 178 vi. A Surprise 181 vii. Flirtation and Jealousy .... 185 vin. Preparations for Departure .... 188 ix. The Disappearance 189 x. The Devil's Rock 192 xi. The Temple of Ocean 194 xii. The Bath of Venus 198 xiii. The Altar to the Unknown God . . . 201 xiv. A Message from the World Without . . 204 xv. Sleep and Mystery 209 xvi. The Dream 212 xvii. The Revelation 214 xviii. Another Revelation 217 xix.

Chapter I

voices of the night The darkness was excessive ; but it was evident that the storm was breaking, because, once or twice, tbe wind had ceased with a sudden lull, and also far to windward through the rain and haze a gleam of faint moonlight was visible. Had we by any means been suspended a little distance above the surface of the sea, a succession of strange sounds would have been audible to us. First of all the roar of the exasperated ocean ; a vast tremble and vibration of tumult, culminating in almost a shriek of fury as each immense surge rushed past beneath us, foamine' and curling its formidable crest. Then an incessant creaking ; a jarring and rubbing to gether of timbers, as if some storm-tossed vessel were below. In the intervals between the exacerbations of the gale could be heard, moreover, voices, gruff, masculine and harsh, sometimes dying away, sometimes rising to high terms of anger and expostulation.

Occasionally too, bursts of rough song would mingle themselves with the tempest, and be carried away by the whirls of wind ; but at other times only a sinister muttering was distinguishable. B Lastly, a singular bowl, a long low shuddering wail would rise out of the turmoil of waters, chilling the blood. Supposing ourselves to have been suspended only fifty yards above the point whence emanated these strange noises, we yet could have seen nothing, so utter was the darkness, so rank the air with rain and fog. Continuing to attend, we should soon have heard a tumult of cries arising suddenly through the night, and dominated by a single voice ; then a pistol shot ; then a silence, followed by tbe same voice speaking slowly ; lastly again the long, low wail, unutterably dolorous. In another moment, however, there was a voice of thunder. ' Silence ! ' it cried.

CHAPTEE II the apparition It was Bully Hayes. Invisible in the darkness, and known only by bis voice, be cried again, ' Silence ! ' The faint gleam of moonlight to windward had been drawing nearer to the vessel, whose dark form perhaps might now have been distinguishable, but a deluge of rain still fell continuously ; though from the sudden lulls of tbe wind it was plain that tbe tempest, which bad lasted a whole week, was beginning to pass off. From the creaking everywhere audible it was evident, too, that the brig was rolling and pitching fearfully, and the long intervals be tween the hissing heads of brine, which continually swept under her keel, denoted the magnitude of the surges. After a short interval of silence tbe voices had recom menced, and one, particularly, in a thin, nasal tone re marked, ' I believe the admiral is nose-up on a scent.' At the same time a clamour arose from the main-deck. ' Silence, yew dogs of h — I ' roared Bully Hayes, leaping to his feet. ' Down with your helm there ! starboard, yew fools ! bring her to !

Steady ! Steady ! Silence fore and aft there — keep her so, yew bung-eared rascals. Squirt, send a thief to the fore-top. Now then, to it, to it. Let her fall away again; keep her in irons, caun't yew? yew spittle drops of Satan — so ! ' In an instant all on board the brig was confusion. The sails commenced to flap loudly, and the crew, who had been lying about in the waist, arose hastily. The darkness now began to clear a little, and four men could be distinguished standing at the wheel. The red glow of tbe galley fire, seen under the forecastle, shed a dim light upon some rugged faces, whose owners appeared to be engaged in an anxious conversation. A lantern placed upon the deck, close to tbe corpse of a negro, a little aft the foremast, disclosed the hideous lineaments of the dead. Occasionally a torrent of foam poured over the bows of the brig, but there seemed to be in the sea something more than ordinarily dangerous, for every now and then the vessel was felt to stop, to tremble violently, receiving at the same time the impact of a dull, soft, but heavy blow.

To every hand on board the meaning of the master's orders was obvious, and all remained silent and listening, until there should be another pause in the wind. The reader must understand that for seven days no observations had been possible ; and hence, that the position of the vessel was undetermined. At last the wisbed-for lull arrived ; but, instead of the expected sound, the long, low wail of utter anguish filled the air. Hayes, drawing a pistol from his belt and walking up to the mainmast, which was stepped at the fore-part of the poop, addressed a person who seemed to hang somewhere aloft. ' Now then, you mongrel idiot, I just guess as you had better belay that whine o' yours, or I will blow the butter out o' your numskull, so help me Nicodemus. I believe I am tbe man to do it.' Drawing in a line with one hand and putting out the other, Hayes, acting up to bis nickname, pinched some thing, and there was a howl of pain.

Again a pause in the storm occurred. A faint, distant roar was audible. The cry of ' Breakers ! ' burst from the crew in every tone of rage and despair ; and a single voice called out — ' Heaven help us, boys, for we are murderers at the best.' The rest of the men took up the burden in a chorus of terror — B ' Heaven help us, we are murderers ! ' 'Look ye now, Jap,' continued Hayes, again pinching the being who seemed to hang so mysteriously aloft, and who uttered again the expected howl, 'Look ye now, Jap, so soon as we strike I will put a bullet in your thinking-machine, so help me. You air the cause o' this combustibus, I believe, and you shall be the first to die of all of us.' The loud groans and curses which had been issuing from the waist of the ship gave place to ironical laughter, and somebody cried — ' Who stole the bacon, and said 'twas the cat 1 ' Hayes strode to tbe poop-rails, and shouted to the crew with the voice of an enraged bull, 'Look ye, men, so help me God, but I guess I hev stood this long enough.

So long as we were in the open I cared ne'er a cent for the grunt ing o' the likes of yew. But now thet we air in the eye o' danger, yew had better keep your tongues inside o' your tongue-boxes, or I guess yew will smell powder, some more of yew. This is not the ship for a mutiny, I believe ; no, I believe not.' Another lull in the wind succeeded, and the roar of the breakers could be heard distinctly at the same time the man who was sounding in the shrouds gave ' No bottom ' ; and the thin voice of Squirt called out from the wheel with a sound like that of a tin trumpet, ' I guess tbe breakers air astern, admiral.' It was singular, but undoubtedly the roar of surf came from astern. At this instant the gleam of moonlight, which had been coming up from windward, burst upon the brig. The enormous surges, with their gleaming crests, were illuminated by a sickly light, as one after tbe other they swept below the keel of the vessel, lying to in the storm.

There was little or no spray, for the wind was rapidly dying off ; but overhead the clouds, evidently beginning to break, raced along quickly. The sea, however, presented an unusual appearance, being covered with great patches or rather islands of floating sea-weed, which heaved in dense brown masses upon the swell ; it was these which, striking the ship, had caused her to shudder so strangely. The brig was a singular spectacle. From bowsprit to stern she was covered with immense festoons of sea-weed, hanging from the jib-boom, the shrouds and the davits, from which dangled the remains only of the boats. Every now and then a wave foaming over the bows would leave them tangled with the long gelatinous tendrils. The vessel itself, as she sueaked along in the storm, a very lazar of the sea, had a most woe-begone and weather-beaten appearance.

Four men stood at the wheel (which had to be unlashed), and the rest of the crew lay amidships, some of them sprawling on the deck, utterly oblivious of the rain and the wet ; others sitting here and there with their heads in their hands; and so great was their demoralization that one man reposed, smoking his cutty, actually with his head on tie corpse of the negro. Hanging from one of the main-stays, which passed between the mainmast and foremast by a block and line by which he could be hoisted up or let down, depended tbe most singular creature, like a spider on one of its threads. A broad canvas belt, to which the rope was attached, supported him by tbe middle, and he sprawled with his legs and arms like a turtle turned upon its back. Seen by the pale light, his great head seemed to be furnished with eyes so protuberant, a mouth so immense, as to suggest the owner's likeness to a frog, rather than to a man; and his face wore an almost comical look of dolor, not to be won dered at, since the poor wretch was banged up against the mainmast and swung out to sea every moment by tbe lurches of the vessel.

Hayes himself, a huge man armed to tbe teeth, stood upon the poop glowering at the crew ; and his glittering eyes, and long beard, moustache, and hair, which last was beat about his bare head by the tempest, gave him the most ferocious appearance. In a few minutes the gleam of moonlight vanished. Utter darkness came down again upon the ship as the light fled away upon the storm. Suddenly a cry, absolutely blood-curdling, arose. A sea-story was current at that time, concerning a Phantom Beef which was said to appear sometimes at night to doomed ships. So terrible was tbe aspect of these rocks, so immense their altitude, so monstrous their masses, that it was supposed all beholding them went mad upon tbe spot with terror, and the vessel was lost through want of further management. Now, close to leeward, and illuminated by the same moonbeam as had just forsaken the brig, appeared in that mysterious light, like a veritable phantom, a line of the most gigantic cliffs ever conceived of or seen, mountains upon mountains, the jags touched by wan gleams, the base slavered by the countless foam of the thundering sea.

Chapter III The Land Of Ruffians

Even at the present day, when the footsteps of civilization have so covered the world, some of the greater Australasian isles are but scarcely explored ; the interiors of Borneo and New Guinea remain unknown, full of strangeness both human and natural. But at the beginning of tbe century they were to us almost as Peru once to Pizarro, and under stood by England but little better than three hundred years previously by Spain. For between the Iberian domination of the sea and the Britannic a kind of dark age intervenes, during which the remoter parts of the earth, left for the time by the retreating tide of amenity, were given up to barbarians, pirates, slavers, and hardly less ruffianly traders ; and scarcely had ceased the golden galleons of Portugal and of Spain to haunt the glassed and spicy isles of the Pacific, when these were subjected to the raids of terrible hordes of every nationality, Malayan, Chinese, Dutch, French, English, and American, who pillaged, burnt, slaughtered, kidnapped, devastated ashore, and at sea tore out one another's throats.

The bunted abo rigines, amazed, saw from their forests the infuriated corsairs, who had persecuted them, leap next upon each other, and make to echo the calm lagoons of those seas with the thunder of battle. The armed merchant and the laded buccaneer were identical ; and those who to one littoral brought a peaceful barter, from another dragged shrieking slaves and a blood-won booty. It was an incessant war between a dozen opposites. The greatest rogues amono men, thieves, murderers, fugitives, disbanded soldiers, relics of Germanic, Gallic, British wars, excretions of society, flung themselves there like vultures. Disallowed in other THE LAND OF RUFFIANS 7 communities, they made in these latitudes a hell for them selves, trooping together as pirates, or, singly, becoming beach-combers, those singular persons, who, by virtue of the superiority of their race, imposed themselves as tyrants over herds of trembling aborigines, possessed scores of wives, and begot colonies of children.

But, as elsewhere, the Cross brought peace upon these distressed lands. At the commencement of the century companies of missionaries poured in ; chapels arose among the tropical palms ; hymns were heard across the placid bays ; sbips-of-war peered about among the isles for the quaking buccaneers. It was not, however, until the invention of steamers that piracy was quite uprooted here ; for the rich trade of the vast archipelago which stretches from Sumatra and the Andamans to the uttermost Polynesian isles tempted its continuance, as the facilities of escape afforded by the numberless harbours aided it. The Malay free-booters, indeed, flourished until Bajab Brooke of Sarawak broke their power about the middle of the century. In Polynesia, side by side with piracy, there existed the sister arts of ship-stealing and of man-stealing.

Tbe former species of theft was achieved generally by a body of men suddenly boarding a vessel lying in port, and whose crew were ashore ; the latter kind was called the labour trade in order to distinguish it from the slave trade. The names only differ. The labour trade consisted in persuading a number of tbe inhabitants of some little isle to come aboard ship in order to view the wonders kept therein, and in sailing away with tbe unsuspecting natives. The men made excellent labourers in the many plantations, and the women excellent wives for the crew and the planters. Each person so abducted was of course legally apprenticed by note of agreement, and tbe masters were bound to return tbe slaves to their own homes at the expiration of a term of years. Fiat Justitia ; the law holds everywhere ! unfortunately no records were kept of whence the poor captives had been brought, and as they knew not the name of their own home, it was difficult to return them thither.

The Polynesian Islanders are a guileless, mirth-loving raee, and the labour dealers were very fond of providing them with entertainment gratis. Many labour ships had on board a professional funny-man, or antic-maker, whose business it was to go ashore ludicrously dressed, and to dance break-downs and sing patter-songs on the beach, until he had gathered about himself a large crowd of aborigines ; these he would next persuade to accompany him to the ship ; and the sequel may be imagined. Decoy ducks of this kind were in much favour at the time of which we write. The labour trade did not, however, reach its height until after the American Civil War, and at the beginning of the century existed only sporadically side by side with the sandal-wood trade. In the course of the latter business many cruelties were practised upon the natives ; as will readily be understood when we consider the lawless character of the traders, who, indeed, hardly hesitated about seizing by force that which they could not obtain by honest barter.

Though at first ships-of-war easily succeeded in putting down the more nefarious ruffians, yet at the close of the first quarter of the century, a new set of persons, taking advantage of a remission of vigilance on the part of the authorities, attempted with something of good fortune to revive the old pursuits.

Chapter IV Bully Hayes And His Merry Men

One of the most notorious and inveterate of these rascals was a man named Bully Hayes. The son of a Mississipi bargeman, he had spent liis youth in the practices which we have described ; and it is necessary for us to give, but as cursorily as possible, some events in the life of this individual. In 1827 he, with a dozen chosen companions, succeeded in stealing from Batavia a large brig called tbe Black Eagle. About a year afterwards he appeared in her among the Polynesian Islands, with the intention of continuing tbe labour trade, and a little amateur piracy, as in the good old days. His vessel was powerfully armed, and contained a crew BULLY HAYES AND HIS MERRY MEN 9 of some fifty hands ; and Hayes exulted in the near prospect of his obtaining both the excitement which he loved, and the wealth which he coveted.

Himself a man of huge stature, dark, hairy, and with a tiger-like appearance, he easily imposed his authority on others ; and did not doubt but that in six or seven years he should return home with a competence for life, forgetting that to persons of his stamp, achievement sickens soon at itself. A singular point in bis character was that, more than very superstitious, he -was even religious. Like so many Americans, he was master of several knowledges, had tried medicine, had tried law, had tried trade ; and, though he found finally villany to be the best of professions, yet the crusts of his old experiences clung to him. He believed in a sort of astrology of his own concoction ; for noting the positions of the planets at the luckiest periods of his life, be discovered thus tbe phases of heaven most fortunate to him ; and, like Wallenstein, never undertook an adven ture without consulting his charts.

When much in the humour he could be heard within his cabin groaning and wrestling in spirit, and praying fervently. It was a favourite romance of his never to molest missionaries, and at times even he instructed his crew in piety. No man to himself is a rascal, and Hayes believed himself to be less so than most. He was now forty years of age, and had a son with him of the age of fifteen. His mate was an American called Silas Squirt, a singular being, long, thin, cruel ; and wounded in the left cheek so oddly, that his mouth was drawn towards his left ear. The crew consisted of nearly fifty men, mostly English, Americans, and Swedes, but also Malays and Polynesians. They were great rascals generally, but it must not be supposed that when Hayes first got them together they were prepared to become pirates.

On the contrary, they had articled for the sandal-wood and labour trades. But a dozen men amongst them, who were his first associates, knew something of his schemes, and were prepared to follow him to any lengths. He himself, so flattering are we to our own souls, dreamed not of calling himself pirate, but only blackmailer. Eor it was not at all his intention to shed blood. He wished simply to extort money by intimidations. The most singular creature on board his vessel was a being named Goggy Jap, Jap, Jippy, or Jippy Joe. This man was partly of European, partly of negro, and partly of Japanese blood, and filled the office of funny-man in the Black Eagle. He was little over five feet in height, but enormously thick-set, and with a great head. His com plexion was very dark, his eyes and cheek-bones like those of a Japanese, his lips like those of a negro ■ but, strange to say, his eyes were gray, and his short stubbly hair of a dusky red ; and a thick red moustache grew above the corners of his mouth, being deficient in the middle.

His mouth was enormous, bis gullet like that of a cod-fish, and his tongue, with which he continually licked his lips, as large almost as that of an ox. Goggle eyes, a broad nose with continually quivering nostrils, and a hair here and there for a beard, completed a countenance, from which it was impossible to divine the owner's age. Jippy was next door to an idiot, but a most ludicrous one. He would walk along the deck in a stealthy manner, putting the heels before the toes to the ground, as if he were going to surprise some one. His body would be bent, his head to the fore, his rudder well in his wake, and all the while his open hands appeared to wish to do something which they were not wanted to do, like those of a circus zany ; and his face, looking over his shoulder with a sur prised and somewhat frightened air, would wear a ridiculous natural laugh, showing two rows of perfect and even teeth.

Poor Jippy, as may be imagined, was the butt of the crew, and also the favourite ; for he seemed ignorant of his great strength, and the folly of his countenance could not disguise its inoffensiveness. Every one bullied him, and his large red ears, standing out from his head like the handles of an amphora, seemed intended to be pulled. So often indeed was torture applied to them, that whenever he passed any one, the near shoulder would rise upward instinctively in protection of the threatened lug. His life would have been a burden to him, but that the content of custom helped him. Practical jokes of the roughest kind were played upon him all day, and a punishment the most ordinary for him was to be drawn up by means of block and line arranged upon one of the main-stays, and so buno dangling by the waist in mid-air like a spider; and the absurd spectacle he there presented often helped Hayes in mollifying the crew when these were in an ill-humour.

When in suffering, Jippy's face assumed the expression BULLY HAYES AND HIS MERRY MEN n of a gargoyle, dolorous but tearless ; but as soon as his pains were removed he began to walk about among the crew, laughing, rolling his goggle eyes, licking his chops. His spirits instantly reasserted themselves. Of anger, rage, he seemed incapable, and bore no malice for even the greatest cruelties. His body was perfectly inured to all usages, his mind to all misfortunes. The very impossibility of raising his ire excited ill-treatment of him by others, who would bully him with a sort of itching desire to make him show fight. On the top of all this the little man was positively vain ; he even affected gallantry, and when in port loved to walk about in company with some buxom young female, grinning with gratified pride.

His other remarkable qualities, for which indeed Hayes kept him, were a wonderful power of mimicry, great agility in dancing break-downs, walking on his hands, and playing absurd antics, some knowledge of conjuring tricks, and chiefly a remarkable skill with tbe banjo. Jippy was allowed to touch his banjo only at certain hours, when the cook produced it for him out of an oilskin bag. As the time arrived he would become melancholy and abstracted, and his fingers would drum on articles near him. When the instrument was brought out, he would seize it, trembling with avidity, and would open his huge throat and utter such a guffaw of delight as set off all near him in laughter. His playing was indeed so marvellous that had he ever appealed before a civilized audience, his fortune would have been made at once.

His ordinary costume was that of a sailor, with the addition of an enormous frill round the neck; but for occasions when his mirth-producing powers were required he had other dresses, such as a long-tailed coat and high hat, and several old suits of the period, in which he looked very comical. Bully Hayes kept him, as may be guessed by what we have explained before, for gathering together the natives, in order to persuade them to his ship, where they might be the more easily kidnapped, or for propitiating them to barter.

Chapter V Crime Or Innocence

It was some time before Hayes had an opportunity of piracy. Tbe reader must not think that this man ever intended to become a bloody corsair of the old school, murdering crews, and sacking and burning ships. Such conduct would have speedily brought upon him British cruisers, and the vengeance of the entire continent ; and to destroy vessels was to kill the geese that lay for him the golden eggs. No, a deeper game lay in bis hand. He gave himself out as a simple trader, as at first he was ; but at the same time sedulously and secretly spread reports of the existence of a ruffianly pirate whom be called by the terrible name of Blood. On one occasion, when a vessel lay becalmed in the offing aptly to his purpose, he at night boarded himself, and claimed from himself black mail ; then, rushing into port with a thousand lamentations, complained of the robbery he had suffered.

He intended, in fact, to rob under an alias ; and, to deceive scrutiny further, constituted himself the friend of missionaries and the ally of God. At last he discovered, while in Fiji, that a vessel called the Auk was going to put from that port with a large amount of cash on board for Calcutta ; and, discovering that her course would be through the St. George's Straits, between New Ireland and New Britain, determined to way lay her on the journey. Without more ado he set sail, ostensibly for the New Hebrides, some days before the departure of the A v.k ; but unfortunately left behind a man called Piers, who had been somewhat in bis confidence. Lying-to a hundred miles from port, he waited for his victim ; but in a few days was enraged to discover that she had given him the slip. Going back to some of the outer islands, he learned from his accomplices ashore that the Auk had sailed on the appointed date ; and accordingly he started at once in pursuit of her, knowing that as his vessel was the faster, he should be at all events able to intercept her at the Strait, if he did not come across her on the way.

In the meantime he had whitewashed his vessel, painted CRIME OR INNOCENCE 13 in false ports, run up different sails and even spars, and entirely altered her appearance. Coming up with his quarry, some five hundred miles from the south-east point of New Guinea, he immediately flew tbe signal of distress, and asked for water. The Auk continued on her way and even crowded sail. Hayes, cursing with rage, spelt out the message — ' For God's sake, water ! ' Both vessels were running free before the trade wind, so that he knew that he could come up with the chase in eight or nine hours ; but pursuit of this kind would necessi tate a fight at the end of it, a thing which he wished to avoid. His signal, however, had not flown for five minutes w-hen the Auk suddenly shortened sail. Hayes banged up his telescope with exultation.